February Sucks This Year

I haven’t really felt like blogging lately. Wookie was sick at the beginning of the month (throwing up yellow bile repeatedly) but after a trip to the vet and some medication she’s fine now.

On Valentine’s Day Joe’s mom passed away. She had a stroke a few days prior and just never woke up. We found out that Monday; with the short notice we didn’t know what to do with Wookie so I ended up staying home and Joe flew out to Arizona to see his mom before she passed away. It was very sad and sudden. We knew her time was limited due to the inoperable cancer she had but we weren’t expecting her to have another stroke. She was quite the spitfire, but was always so nice and supportive. Needless to say, she will be missed.

As a result of the above we didn’t end up celebrating Fat Tuesday (I cancelled our paczki order from the local bakery since they would have been stale by the time Joe got back in town) or Valentine’s Day. We didn’t plan on doing anything special for the latter other than getting some Chinese food anyway so no big deal.

I’ve been dealing with some bad acid reflux ever since I stopped taking the Protonix prescribed by my doctor after my endoscopy revealed some irritation in my esophagus (although no pre-cancerous cells, thank goodness) in late November. I had to stop taking the pills because my kidneys started to swell. I’ve yet to find a natural solution to the reflux, however, which is worse than ever after being on those pills. I think they cause more issues than they solve to be honest. I have been avoiding chocolate (so sad) and iced coffee since they are common triggers. I’ve also tried taking magnesium and ginger and drinking apple cider vinegar (so gross) to help combat the burn. Some days it seems to help, although not entirely. On top of that, sometimes my midsection feels swollen and anything remotely tight-fitting feels very uncomfortable. Plus it triggers my health anxiety and I start worrying about ulcers or ovarian cancer.

So yea, it hasn’t been the greatest month overall. Looking forward to spring.