Blessings

What a crazy few weeks it has been!

I finally finished school and my graduation is this friday!! I am so happy to take the skills and knowledge I've gained and apply it to the real world. Now I just need to pass my state board exams and I'll be all set.

Tim and I were faced with a pretty tough choice after we got engaged. He accepted a job offer in Boston, MA that required him to leave for 5 weeks to go to Philadelphia, PA for training. This would mean we would be apart for that entire 5 weeks, see each other for a day or two, get married, and immediately move to Boston. Great news though...Tim declined the offer in Boston and decided to work in Utah instead. Because of this we were able to finally pick a day to get married (August 11th!!!) after being engaged for 4 months already. We're getting married in the Bountiful temple and are so excited!

We found a super sweet deal online and were able to get the "Pass of All Passes" for super cheap so we enjoyed most of the beautiful day going down water slides at 7 Peaks. Let's just hope we don't look like lobsters by the time we get married. 

Next week I am going with my cousins to visit my other cousins and relatives in North Carolina! I haven't been since I was little so this will be great to catch up with them. We're also going to head down to a beach house in South Carolina for some fun times and relaxation.

Things in my life are so great. I am truly blessed. 

Fashion Show

This year for Earth Month I celebrated a little bit differently. I took part in an earth month fashion show where we represented the different elements. (fire,earth,water,etc)

I only have photos of two of them but I think they turned out quite well!

Here is a little peek :)

Model - Cali Nelson Gonzalez

Stylists - Larken Bonham & Bekkah Rayborn

Make Up Artist - Kelsey Eakle 
Photography - Dan Amezcua

Model - Chelsea Olsen

Stylist - Stefani Johnson Sume

Make Up Artist - Kelsey Eakle

Photography - Dan Amezcua

Heart Ablation...Or Lack Of

Monday morning came very early...as in 4:00am early.

Our apartment had cleaning checks that day so I was up until about 1:30 deep cleaning my apartment, so 4:00 came before I knew it.

I checked into the hospital and by about 5:45 I had my IV in, was all dressed up in my hospital gown and was heading down an elevator to go into the operating room.

The nurses and doctors were really nice and cracked some jokes to lighten the mood, but I was way too tired to catch their humor. 

There were about 5 doctors and nurses in room when I got there. They were all men who looked way too young to be doing this crazy procedure but I guess I'm getting old. They told me to go lay on the operating table so I got up and tried to hold my hospital gown together as I walked over. 

They told me to untie it so they could attach some electrodes so I sat there in the freezing cold white room while they did so. 

They hooked some tubes to my IV and told me I would start to get sleepy. About 10 seconds later I felt like something was pressing me into the table and my chest started to get super warm and boom I was out. 

I woke up back in my little recovery room and the nurse told me they weren't able to do the procedure. 

Whaaaaaaat? I was so confused. I was so excited for this procedure because I would finally be able to start jogging again, to be able to walk up stairs without my heart feeling like its going to explode.

Dr. Hwang came in and told us that once they got the catheters inside my heart they found that the cells that they needed to kill were very close to my heart's natural pacemaker so if they even slightly messed up I would have to use a pace maker for the rest of my life. On a funny note the doctor kept bringing up babies. He said, it's hard to have babies when you have a pace maker so we won't do that, and the medication he prescribed me as somewhat of an alternative to the procedure he said would be fine to have babies with.

Ummm okay. Thank you...no babies anytime soon but thank you for the concern :)

They decided to put me on a couple different medications that would be an okay alternative to the ablation and had me stay overnight to see how I handled them. If they aren't effective they will consider   trying the operation later. 

My recovery has been a lot better than I anticipated. Besides my legs being pretty sore from the incisions and feeling pretty weak I really do feel pretty great. I'm suppose to stop even refined sugar until the end of time. I guess it makes my blood pressure drop too low. I have such a sweet tooth so that will be a challenge, but hey, here's to a healthier me. Oh and he said I cant ever fast again. That's going to be weird and I can already going to see the sass my future children will give me about that ;) I just cant seem to take enough naps though. I've been napping anywhere from 4-6 hours a day. Makes the days go by quickly. 

Well that's all for now lovely's. Here are a few pictures from my stay. 

 

Majority of what I did at my stay at Utah Valley

My lovely view

Thanks to all my friends and family who came and visited! Tim, Grandma, Grandpa, Sharla, Kenz, Hailee, Jim. Seriously, THANK YOU!

The food was...okay. The rolls were great, fruit was good, chicken I don't think you could call food and the pudding was good if you like pudding that has the consistency of cardboard ;)

My roommate Hailee stopped by with lots of fun goodies and even made me a balloon creature haha! 

School

I have about a month left of my esthetics program and I will be done! I can't tell you how excited for this I am. I love what I do but I am definitely ready to start getting paid for treatments rather than paying to give them ;) 

Today we took an aromology class. We took one a few months ago where we learned about the basic uses for many different essential oils, but this time we went further in depth with how to mix them and their different strengths. It's so crazy to think that a year ago I knew hardly anything about the skin and skin care and I feel like I have now learned so much. There is still so much left to learn though! I have a little over 100 hours left of my 1200 hour program. 

Sometimes I get a little down because I don't have a bachelors, and I'm not doing traditional schooling. When I think about it though I have actually accomplished quite a lot the last few years. 

I will have received my associates degree and master esthetician license by the age of 21. Not too shabby. I get asked a lot if I'm ever going to go back to school, and fact of the matter is...I did! At this point if I went back and finished my last 2 years and got my bachelors degree it would be for all the wrong reasons. It would be entirely because of pride. Just to say that I did. I figured out what I wanted to do and I want to help people with their skin, so that is what I'm going to do :) 

My heart ablation is in 6 days...I'm nervous! I'm not sure if I should be or not. From what I hear it is a pretty standard procedure but it still sounds pretty intense. 

"Catheter ablation is a procedure used to selectively destroy areas of the heart that are causing a heart rhythm problem. During this procedure, thin, flexible wires are inserted into a blood vessel in the thigh, groin, neck, or elbow and threaded up through the blood vessel and into the heart under X-ray guidance."

Bring it on!

Heart Update

This morning I went in for another test on my heart. I did a tilt table test. You can see the picture below to see more of how that works. Basically they strapped me to a table that stood me up vertically and then would lay me down flat. They monitored my heart while they did this for about an hour and a half. After that they pumped a chemical form of adrenaline into my IV to see how my body reacts. That was the weirdest feeling and I had a bit of a panic attack during that part. My heart rate got to about 190 bpm. It's the weirdest feeling to have your heart beating so hard and fast when you aren't even moving at all. 

They found out that there is definitely something wrong (obviously) but at least now they have a little better idea. The problem is in my atrium and they are going to have to do an electrophysiology study to find the exact root of the problem. My heart randomly starts racing and beats way faster than it normally should. The only thing that is different about my heart is that it has a pretty abnormal rhythm.  This is not too uncommon and a simple procedure. 

They are going to put me out and then the doctors go into the heart through a vein in either the thigh or neck with a catheter to gather information about how electrical signals travel through my heart. Next they stimulate the heart using a catheter. Once they find the part of the atrium that is firing the improper chemical messages they zap the area and hopefully that will make the heart start beating correctly. They stitch the catheter site up and I should be good to return to work within a week. Dr. Hwang said after this procedure I'll be able to walk up a flight of stairs and exercise without my heart pounding and racing. (So exciting!!) 

This is right as the test was starting. I definitely wasn't smiling for the rest of the test!

March Is Here!

I cannot believe that it is already March. Time is flying by!! Here is a little update on what has been going on in my life. 

• I've been feeling quite a bit better, but not back up to 100% quite yet. I still have a dull stomach ache almost constantly which isn't too fun. I've also been on my period for just about 23 days now which is miserable. TMI?? Sorry. 
• I got super out of shape the last month or two since I haven't been feeling well but I finally got off my butt and starting working out again and it feels so good! It's amazing how quickly you lose strength and endurance when you stop working out.
• I bought my wedding dress! I have been online window shopping for a few weeks now. I walked into a bridal store before work thursday and fell in love with the first dress I tried on. I went back the next day and bought it on my lunch break. I was even able to get it for almost 50% off the original price, woohoo!
• Tim turned 24! We both had school all day but afterwards we were able to go out to dinner, I gave him his gifts and then we relaxed the rest of the evening. 
• Tim is in Boston and will be there for almost a week. He is taking his final test (MTEL) for Teach for America as well as doing some interviews, career fairs, and hopefully scoping out some potential places for us to live when we move out there in August!

• I am super happy with my life. I love where I work, it is seriously perfect for me. It motivates me to eat healthier, and the people I work with/customers at the store are super friendly and sweet. School is so interesting.  I definitely know that I am going into the perfect profession for me. I have a blast learning new things everyday and can't wait until I get to practice what I've learned in the real world. 
• My mom is coming to visit at the end of the month! My mom and I are super close and I love getting to spend time with her. The last few years I have only been able to see her a few times a year so I definitely cherish our time together, I love her so much!
• I was able to chat with Tim's niece and nephews last night and it was the cutest thing! I am so excited to become the aunt of 7 when Tim and I get married! 

Our conversation went like this: 

Annie: Hello! I love you! Are you getting married? 

Brigham: My name starts with a B. I learned about St. Patrick's Day today! Hello.

Me: I love you guys already too! I can't wait to meet you. Maybe I'll see you guys soon on the computer screen! (skype)

Annie: Okay. Your letter was very funny. I can count to 100. I'm excited to have you in the family. That's all. I'm going to send you a banana chip.

Brigham: The banana chips are yummy. 

Life is good my friends. 

Valentines Day

What an action packed Valentines Day today was. 

At school today we had a pretty big test on all the massage movements of the 3 advanced facials that we learned recently. During my practical part I was feeling pretty nauseous and my stomach was cramping pretty bad. I was doing my last few movements and I just couldn't remember any of the movements. I guess I started acting kind of weird. I felt like I was going to pass out so I sat down and then could feel my eyes roll back into my head. I guess I started convulsing so they called an ambulance. Next thing I knew the EMT's were asking me a million questions, but I was happy to see that Tim had showed up. 

I was literally 2 blocks away from the hospital so I told them I wasn't going to go in the ambulance. Tim drove me over there and we sat in the ER for 4 hours while they ran tests. It looks like the ovarian cysts I was having ruptured and the pain made me pass out. 

I felt so bad for Tim. He was just about to eat lunch when my classmate called him and told him to come to the school to get me. He hadn't eaten all day. He had planned out a big dinner to make for Valentine's Day but we were both so hungry by the time we left the hospital that we grabbed a Little Caesar's pizza and ate it in the Walgreen's parking lot while we waited to fill my prescription. 

Nothing says I love you like an evening in the ER ;)

Trying to look happy, excuse the stupid face I'm making 

Our plans changed just a smidgen 

It was a very memorable Valentine's Day indeed! My life never seems to have a dull moment ;)


P.S

I woke up this morning (2-15) at 5 am in even worse pain than yesterday. I called Tim and asked him what I should do. I usually have a pretty high pain tolerance but I was just crying like a baby. After thinking and talking about it for a bit we decided to take me back to the ER to get checked. 

They had one of the BYU nursing students put my IV in and she missed and my arm started bubbling up. I got a little cranky at that point, I feel bad now. Anyways, they found some fluid in my lower abdomen and a little infection in my small intestine. They shot me up with some morphine and sent me home with percocet. I probably won't even remember writing this blog later, haha! I feel so weird. Poor Tim has been babysitting me since 5am this morning, making me breakfast and lunch and heating up my heating pad every 30 minutes. Poor guy. Hope he knows how much I love and appreciate him!