…and then I’ll be on vacation!  I wasn’t really sure I’d be able to take next week off, but I decided the hell with it, I’m off!  The past two weeks have been so stress-laden at work and I knew I would crash if I didn’t get a break.  If I only had to deal with the audit, it would be rough, but trying to do that as well as all my regular duties has been too much.

I’ll spend the week cleaning, organizing, working in the yard and painting.  Not having to set my alarm (or knowing I can go back to sleep once it goes off) will be the best part.  And getting things accomplished here at home will be very rewarding.  Pulling weeds and painting are both very therapeutic for me.

I don’t have a lot of yard work to do which is good since the temps are supposed to be in the 90’s all week.  What little I need to do can be accomplished in one morning before it gets too warm.  Indoor stuff won’t be bad even if it’s hot since I have a couple of window a/c units and fans.  And if it gets too warm, the pool awaits!

Soula met with the doctor/nurse yesterday and they decided to have her take the 3-hour glucose test since all her at home tests showed a low blood sugar level.  Haven’t heard what the results were yet, but I’m guessing she doesn’t have gestational diabetes.  I think they will still recommend she try to use the diabetic diet plan.  I just read an article today about gestational diabetes saying that doctors are urging all pregnant women to try to keep their blood sugar level between 90 and 100.  Soula’s highest reading at home was 123, so trying to lower it below 100 wouldn’t hurt even if she isn’t diagnosed with gestational diabetes.

Lots of other medical news as well:  1) My friend, Mata, had back surgery yesterday to correct disks in her lower back that had fused together.  Everything went better than the doctor expected.  While she is in a lot of pain, they have her on a rotation of morphine and vicodin right now.  The pain will be the worst part, and she knew that going in.  2) A woman that I work with donated one of her kidneys today to her brother who has been on dialysis for years.  The surgery went really well as of late this afternoon.  We’ll have to wait a few days/weeks for the final verdict.  3) Kelly found out today that she has bursitis in both hips.  This is actually good news in that the initial diagnosis had been a back problem that could have required surgery.  She’ll have another MRI next week and then they anticipate treating her with cortisone injections.

I feel pretty lucky when I hear about all these folks with their various medical problems.  While I am under severe stress right now, that will be easily controlled in a couple of days.  Updates will be forthcoming on all the sickies!