I have a love/hate relationship with February. I love the month for Valentine's because Kyle and I put a little more time into planning our favorite activity–drinks and lengthy dinner at a nice restaurant, which means we spend a little more $$ than normal, too. I also love that February includes carnival season and lots of celebrating, but what I don't love is how short the month is. Yes, I know it's only 2–3 days shorter than the other months, but I swear those extra couple of days make a month feel
much longer.
This February will be memorable for me for a few reasons... the first, because I was incredibly sick (I'll explain in a minute), second, because I got to see two of my closest friends after spending more than six months a part, and three, because I've channeled my talents toward a new business venture.
Life lesson 1: Don't ignore your gut (literally, your gut
and your instincts) Anyone ever heard of
H-Pylori? Basically it's an aggressive intestinal bacteria infection that you get through unsanitary food or water. How, you ask, did I find out I had it, how did I get it, how long have I had it??!! I can't be certain, but I think I got it over 10 years ago, yes you read that right. 10 YEARS AGO.
In 2003 I went on a mission trip to Costa Rica and despite my best efforts to avoid drinking any water I haphazardly ordered an iced tea at dinner. And when I got back to Kansas was sick, so I went to the doc and explained the situation, was given an antibiotic (I think just good ole' amoxicillin) and the symptoms subsided. In 2009 I started having more/different issues that I thought could be IBS, so I went to a GI specialist who told me I probably had "bad gut flora", gave me a prescription probiotic and told me to eat more yogurt. Again, the symptoms went away and I didn't think any more of it. Toward the end of this January I was on and off again sick with stomach flu like symptoms, but no fever or vomiting so I waited about two weeks before I thought I better just go to a minute clinic and get checked out.
I was really hesitant to go to one of these places, but since I hadn't established a reg doc in Biloxi yet it was the best option. I saw a nurse practitioner, explained my symptoms and that they reminded me of when I came back sick from a mission trip. She immediately suggested we take a blood sample for H-Pylori (me at the time "What the F is H pi-ora–what?"), and within 5 minutes she came back that I tested positive. I just about freaked out right there in the office because I was mostly terrified about how expensive the medicine was going to be, instead of worrying/wondering that it's just been hanging out, manifesting through symptoms for 10 flippin' years that most people would shrug off as either upset stomach from a meal that didn't settle well with them or IBS. After the doc visit and picking up a trio of very strong antibiotics specific for this infection, that I had to take for 14 days, and gave me stomach cramps that I swear if are anything like child birth I'm doomed, I will hopefully be cleared of the bacteria the middle of March when I go back for another test. Wish me luck!
Life lesson 2: Friends make seemingly unbearable times bearable. I got to see two of my good friends during the month, Mia who moved to New-
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| Kristin on the right and Mia on the left. |
Jersey and then Kate just after Valentines, who moved to Massachusetts in August. I thought Kate needed a little Mardi Gras in her life since she was going to miss all the festivities so I brought her the essentials.
The older I get the more I realize that good friends are hard to come by, but when you've found someone that's a keeper, it really doesn't matter how long you go without talking, you feel like you picked up easily right where you left off.
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| HAPPY MARDI GRAS! |
Life lesson 3: You're never too old to learn something new. Since finding a job in Biloxi has been a challenge, I've turned my focus toward developing the branding and marketing for our small business that Kyle, his brother Mike, and myself have been working on for a couple of years.
I'm no web designer by any means, but I've definitely learned quite a bit on my own from reading and watching tutorials and after three months, I've built a fully-functioning ecommerce site. Check it out here
www.LoftinOysters.com. It's a work in progress, and while I try to give myself kudos for how great it looks for not having any html code writing experience prior to starting, I am a perfectionist and so I'm already thinking of ideas for a "2.0 version" if you will. Now I'm on to scheduling the festivals we'll be attending along the Gulf Coast (mostly in Louisiana for 2014) and reaching out to other ostreaphiles (oyster lovers) for publicity and endorsement.
Ok, I know this is a long post, but I felt like I needed to make up for not posting anything in February (gimme a break, I basically had an alien in my stomach-sheesh!)
I'll let ya'll know the results of my test around mid March. Ciao!
