Merry Christmas!

It's hard to believe our third and final Christmas in Japan is over. It's hard to believe the year is pretty much over too. It's crazy! For those that may have missed it, here's a look at our year plus some more recent things that have happened since I last updated.
The year started with Ben switching jobs in early February. He now works for the Commanding General and all the important people up there, setting up their transportation when they have places to go and when special visitors come here. The end of March we made another trip down to Okinawa to see the specialists again. We finally found the cause of the pain that Ben started having while deployed to Kuwait last year. It was a super rare thing called Epiploic Appendagitis. It's basically a fatty tumor that wasn't cancerous, just painful. The next few months were pretty quiet. The mid/end of July he started having pain again, in the same place. We went to one of the surgeons at the air base up here (instead of going down to Okinawa again), and they did surgery in mid August and found adhesions that had formed at the previous surgical site. So those were removed and we started the recovery process again. During that same time my brother came and stayed with us for about a month. That was wonderful! I had been feeling pretty home sick and having him here had helped ease that. Smokey and Misty loved having someone else here to give them attention too. I wish we could have done more while he was here, but it really was just nice having him visit. Not much happened the next couple months. About mid October Ben started having pain AGAIN. Now here's the part that I haven't updated everyone with: We've been back to the surgeon, and while he's pretty sure it's adhesions again, he won't do surgery again. While I can understand his reasoning not to (the adhesions will more than likely just form again), I hate seeing my husband in so much pain all the time. He was given a tens unit (an electo-shocker device) that helps take the edge off a little bit, but doesn't really help over all. The surgeon also put in a referral for him to go to the pain clinic at Tripler in Hawaii. He said there's basically nothing we can do about the adhesions except learn to live with the pain. He does not recommend surgery again or the use of narcotics for the pain. Honestly I think he's a retard and don't really agree. As much as I hate sending my husband off to the operating room, I think we need to try the surgery one more time. There are things that can be done during surgery to help deter the adhesions from developing the wrong way. We just need to find a surgeon who agrees. We've also got a referral to go see the specialized orthopedic surgeon in Hawaii. Apparently after his last shoulder surgery (the one in Sept '09), it didn't heal properly or something. So we're looking at another surgery for that too. That one was completely unexpected though. His shoulder still bothers him, but we weren't expecting to have to go to Hawaii for it. We're still waiting for dates as to when he'll (but hopefully we'll) be going. The referrals were put in over 3 weeks ago and we still haven't heard anything. Hopefully this next week we'll know, but I'm not holding my breath since it's the Holiday season. The sooner we know the better though. We are supposed to move the beginning of March, but we're not sure that will happen, or if it does where we'll be going. As of right now, we have orders to go to Fort Drum, New York, but those are to a brigade combat team set to deploy next year so he has to be deployment ready. And with all the medical problems he's having he's not. So we more than likely won't be going to Drum. In all honesty, it's looking more like we're headed for a med board and we'll be getting a medical discharge/retirement. I won't lie, I wouldn't be upset about that. As good as the army has been for us, things lately have just been ridiculous and I'm ready to be done with it. Not sure what we'll do when we get out, but I am ready to be out. So that's where we are with all of that right now. We really won't know more until we get to Hawaii and talk to the doctors there. I will try and be better about keeping this updated with everything that's going on though.
Now I guess I should add a few updates about myself. I forgot to add up above that I had surgery in July for endometriosis. Recovery was quick and easy. Probably could have used a little more recovery time, but that was about the same time that Ben started hurting bad again. So ready or not, it was time for me to feel better. I'm starting to feel some of the same pain again (which is expected because there really isn't a cure for endometriosis), but it's not nearly as bad as it was before the surgery. Hopefully it doesn't get that bad again. There's really not much else going on with me. I haven't been subbing at the school this year. Not because I don't want to, they just haven't called. Not that I mind. I stay home and try to be a good house wife. I've been in to some crafting lately. Particularly card making and a quilt I've been putting together. Every other week I have a day where I get together with a couple friends and we spend the day making cards and paper craft type things. One of these days I'll get around to posting some pictures of things I've made. So if anyone needs some cards for anything, let me know. I love making them, but then don't know what to do with them. I give some away, but not nearly as many as I make. I've also been kind of busy with my church calling. I was the primary music leader/secretary most of the year, but the end of October I was called to be the second counselor in the primary presidency. It's my first time in a primary presidency, and although it will be short it hasn't been too bad. It's pretty easy when you have a small primary like we do.
Anyway, it's time for bed. I'm going to try and be better about posting. I kind of got out of the habit there for a while. Hope every one has a happy and safe holiday season. Love and miss you all and we'll be home soon! :)

Kamakura

I said I would post this pictures a while ago, and just never got around to it. So here's a few of our trip to Kamakura. There are more posted on Facebook if you haven't seen them already.

The Hasadera Temple

One of the big Koi on the temple grounds saying hello

Daibutsu- aka The Big Buddha. He really is huge. And for 10 yen we got to go look inside him.

One might think they were actually brothers and not just brother-in-laws...

I love my brother! So glad he came to stay with us!

And a picture of us down on the beach.

It was a really neat place to visit. We stopped in some of the little shops, including a music box store and a little candy shop. As expensive as it can be, it's always fun to get out and experience a little bit of Japan.

And We're Headed To...

NEW YORK!!! We finally found out where we'll be headed once we leave Japan! We're headed to Fort Drum, NY. For those that don't know, it's more Northern NY up towards the Canadian border. My first thought was "COLD!!!" but I think it will be a nice change. We always talk about how much we miss the snow, and I don't think there will be a shortage of it here. One website I looked at said the average snowfall is 81" each year. That's a lot of snow! I can just see the dogs going out to go potty and just falling through the snow because it's so deep. Haha! Anyway, that's not the only thing we look forward to. There's lots we want to go see while there. The Church History Sites in Palmyra are only about 2-3 hours away, NYC is about 6 hrs or so, DC is about 8 hrs. Plus all the other National historical sites and stuff to go see. They're all close enough that we can make weekend trips out of them, so that will be fun. The town right outside post (Watertown) has pretty much everything we need too- Walmart, Old Navy, Sonic, Dairy Queen, a decent mall... And if it's not there, it's probably in Syracuse which is about an hour and a half away. I can't wait! I'm ready to be back in the states. Japan is nice and it's been a good experience, but I'm ready to be back home. Granted New York isn't the closest place to Idaho, but we'll be back in the states. And that's what matters! :)

Still Here

I know, it's only been a few weeks since my last post, but it feels much longer. I've got lots to blog about, but don't feel like doing it right this moment. I'll try to get it done by the end of the week though. My brother heads home Wednesday (he ended up staying an extra 2 weeks) and Ben will be back to work this week, so I'll have the house to myself again by the end of the week. :) We're doing alright here though. Ben is mostly recovered from his surgery. He ended up getting a hematoma under one of his incisions, and that's been a bit painful but there really isn't much we can do for it. So it's just a matter of waiting for it to go away on it's own (or so we're told). We've been able to go out and do a few things with my brother, but not nearly as much as I would have liked. Between Ben recovering from his surgery, the house repair guys coming over every other day, and the horrible yen rate, things haven't exactly worked out as planned. That's life though, right?! But anyway those are all stories for another day. Let's see, what else is new... We still don't know where we'll be moving to in about 6 months. We're having issues with Branch (the ones who give the assignments out), but I think we're going to push for Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. The biggest reason for there is because of the hospital. With all the problems Ben's had, it would be nice to be somewhere with a decent hospital that has all the specialists we need. We'll keep you updated on that though. We're trying to find some time to sneak home for a couple weeks too. It may end up just being me, but we'll see. Ben could use a break from this place just as much as I can. Just gotta wait and see how things pan out first though. One last thought... I just started a new blog. Don't worry, I'm keeping this one too. The new one is strictly for my photography. My goal is to post a new photo every day. We'll see if it turns out how I want it to. The web address is: http://hulsephotography.blogspot.com. Feel free to check it out! :)

Not EA

Ben's surgery went great yesterday. The results are: it was adhesions in the same place as his last surgery and there was no sign of the epiploic appendagitis. So that is great news! He cleaned up the adhesions and did a thorough look around. Everything else looked normal. He said if this didn't fix the pain there was nothing else we could do, but Ben can already tell a difference in the pain. The pain he had before the surgery is gone and now it's just the normal after surgery pain. They kept him in the hospital last night just to make sure the pain was under control. My brother was awesome enough to stay home with the dogs so I was able to stay with Ben at the hospital. And it's a good thing I did. We are not impressed with the in-patient care there. By the time he left recovery and got to his room it was about 430 or so. We got him settled and everything and they went to call in his dinner order but the cafeteria people had already left. They knew Ben was staying the night, you would have thought they would have had something ordered for him. They didn't. So I ran to the commissary to grab some snacks and Burger King to grab some dinner. I was gone for like half an hour, and in that time no one came to check on him. He had been trying to get ahold of the nurses, but the call button on his bed wasn't working (and they hadn't bothered giving him the one that did), he tried waving to the camera but apparently no one was looking, and he tried yelling but after having the anesthesia tube down his throat for the surgery that didn't work too well. He was close to tears by the time I got back. So I grabbed the nurse and got him taken care of. The rest of the night wasn't much better. The only times they really came in was shift change and to do vitals every 4 hours. It was a bit frustrating. Not that it wasn't anything I couldn't handle, but I'm sure you get the idea. We couldn't have been happier to get out of there. Their discharge procedures aren't very good either. They basically told him what meds he's supposed to take, that his activity level should be as tolerated, his diet is as tolerated, and his follow up appt is in two weeks but they didn't give us a day or time. Then they had him just walk out. Seriously?! I was down at the pharmacy getting his meds and they tell him to just walk out?! No wheel chair, no escort, no nothing. He came out of the elevator just as I was getting ready to go up. So we were happy to get out of there. We left about 945 and were home about 11. But we're home now, he's resting, and things are alright. He's on convalescent leave for 2 weeks, we go back on Sept 2nd to get his staples out (he's got 15), and he probably won't have to go back to work until the Tuesday after Labor Day. So we're going to make sure he's all healed up this time. But yeah, that's the latest news from here. Surgery went well, and it wasn't nearly as bad as we thought it was. I'm still very glad it's over though. It's so much easier to be the patient than the one sitting in the waiting room. :)

Here We Go Again

Just a heads up, Ben's having surgery again next week. After talking to his doc down in Oki, we were able to get it worked out to just see a surgeon here. We were going to go down to Yokosuka, but only one of the docs there was comfortable with taking the case and she's still in processing. Luckily there is a doc up at Yokota willing to take care of it. So Ben went up and talked to him today, and they decided on surgery for next Tuesday. With how much he's hurting and the narcotics he's on, the sooner we can get it done the better. We don't want to go another year without it being taken care of. It's not exactly the best time for another surgery, but oh well. My brother just flew in today and will be here for the next couple weeks. So I guess on the plus side, Ben will be off pretty much the whole time he's here. Granted I don't know that he'll feel like doing much, but he'll be off. Ok, I need a second to just rant... Seriously, this is all stressing me out. This will be his 3rd surgery in less than a year (one for his shoulder, two for his stomach). I love my husband, and I'm gonna stand by him no matter what, but is it really too much to ask for him to just be healthy for a while?! I really feel like the reason I haven't been able to get pregnant yet is because God knows I would go crazy trying to take care of a baby and my husband. Life just doesn't seem very fair sometimes. Anyway, I'm done now. On a happier note, we've got some fun stuff planned for while my brother is here. We're hoping to be able to go to Disneyland or Disneysea, to Kamakura to see the big Buddha, have to hit up the 100 yen store for sure, and of course we'll head to the sushi-go-round. I'm sure we can come up with some other things too. I made him dive head first into the culture when he got here and we took the train back from the airport instead of sitting around waiting for the bus. It was a long train ride, but still got back earlier than we would have on the bus. The dogs are excited to have another friend here too. I'm excited too! Our first (and probably only) guest while in Japan. YAY! I'll be sure to make updates with all our fun adventures. It's going to be a fun couple weeks. :)

It's Baaaaack!

Ben's abdominal pain that is. Silly me for thinking it would be taken care of the first time. He started having some discomfort about a month ago. Nothing too serious, just kinda annoying. It got a bit worse over the past week, and then over the weekend it got pretty bad. He was back to the point this morning that he couldn't stand up straight. We spent the afternoon in the ER down at Yokosuka. (People are probably starting to think we really like hanging out at that hospital....) We explained the whole diagnosis and surgery for his Epiploic Appendagitis back in April, and everyone looked at us like we were crazy. Like I said before, it's not a common diagnosis. The ER doc reminded us several times it wasn't something he'd heard of since med school back in '98. So they did blood and lab work and a CT Scan with contrast dye. Guess what they found... NOTHING! Were we surprised? Not really. After 5 1/2 hours in the ER they finally sent us home. They drugged Ben up, gave us enough pills to fill the medicine cabinet, directions to start a pain management program for chronic abdominal pain, and told us to follow up with our PCM here at Zama and the surgeon in Okinawa. Oh and quarters for 48 hours (ie a doctor's note saying he doesn't have to go to work for 2 days). I had already set up an appointment for him for Wednesday (because that was the next available one they had) before we decided to go down, so I guess it's a good thing I didn't cancel it. I'm sure we'll have to get another referral to go back down to Okinawa, but I already emailed his doc down there to let him know what's going on and see if he has any ideas as to what to do. But I guess until then, it's just a bit of a waiting game. As for me, I'm doing pretty good. Tummy is still a bit sore and tender, but I'm sure that's to be expected only a week after surgery. We went shopping and to a friend's house Friday and that wore me out. Tried going to church yesterday, but that was a bit much. I'm pretty exhausted tonight, but it was a long day. I know, I'm probably crazy for trying to do so much so soon afterwards. But I'm kinda feeling like "ready or not" it's time to be healthy again. Don't worry too much though. Ben still lets me know if he thinks I'm doing too much. It's just a matter of if I listen to him or not. :)

Diagnosis: Endometriosis

For those that don't know, I had surgery this past Monday. Yes, it was actually me this time, not Ben. It was kinda weird having switched places, but we both survived. Just a little background as to why this came about... A little over two years ago I started noticing some pain during certain activities. I went to the doctor here on Zama, and he said it was probably just because I hadn't had a period in a couple months. I think "Ummm, ok..." It wasn't the first time I'd missed a couple periods, but it was a first time for the pain. We wait a few months, still have the pain, go back in and have them put a referral in to go see the OB/GYN at Yokosuka. Takes a few months to get in, but I finally do. In the meantime I've done my own research to find possible reasons for the pain. Over the next year or so, I go in every few months for whatever reasons, but always bring up the fact that I'm still having pain. We talk about the possibility of it being endometriosis, but we can't treat that and still try to get pregnant. We opt to keep trying to get pregnant. Now fast forward to about a month ago. I'm still having pain, and it seems to be getting worse. Not only does it hurt during these certain activities, I have pain during ovulation, I have extreme pain during my period (so bad that the first day or two I can't do anything I hurt so bad), and even pain just at random times. So I set up an appointment with my doctor to talk specifically about this. We talk and we have a "clinical" diagnosis of endometriosis, but it can't be confirmed without surgery. We could treat it with medications and such, but we opt for the surgery. With how much I've been hurting, we were willing to take the risks that go along with surgery. She was open to that option (which really surprised me, as I had one doctor tell me they don't like to do surgery for endometriosis because they don't usually find anything), and she went to see when the next available OR date was. It was July 19th, which we agreed to, and started getting stuff set up. That date was later changed to the 26th, due to a shortage of OR staff. So now it's Monday morning. We get up bright and early (4am to be exact) and get ready to head down to Yokosuka. Surprisingly it only took 45 minutes to get there (it took me 2 hours a couple days earlier). I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous. I've never had surgery before. I've been through plenty with Ben, but never any for myself. So there were lots of firsts for me. Like my first IV. The gal who did it was great, even though my veins didn't want to come out and play. She got it the first time, no problems. We did the whole answer the same questions a hundred times. Talked to the doctor, talked to the nurse, talked to the anesthesiologist. The anesthesiologist was great and explained everything step by step. He didn't give me the versaid as early as Ben would have liked. It's fun talking to him when he gets it and is all loopy, so we wanted to do the same with me. But I didn't get it until right before they took me back. I could feel it working as they wheeled me down the hall though. I don't remember much after that. I remember being in the OR, with my doctor and everyone getting stuff ready, but that only lasted maybe a minute. The next thing I remember is the nurse asking me to open my eyes in the recovery room. That took some effort. I was starting to wake up enough to say I was hurting, what Ben's cell phone number was, and that my feet were cold. After a few more minutes, Dr. Stoker came and told me about the surgery. I remember her saying they had to make a bigger incision in my belly button than they had planned, there were three incisions all together, most of the endometriosis was on the right side, but there was quite a bit of scarring from old adhesions on the left, and I think that's about it. I remember hearing her call and talk to Ben, but I don't remember much of what she told him. And I remember her talking to the recovery room nurse or someone. I also remember asking at one point what time it was. It was about 1040, and I had been in there for about an hour and 20 minutes, which is about how long the surgery took too. They kept me there until a little after 11 because every time I started to fall back asleep my O2 levels dropped real quick. Not that I was having trouble breathing on my own, I just wasn't breathing very deep. So she had to keep reminding me to take deep breaths too. Ben was waiting up in my room when they took me back up. We got me situated in the other bed, Ben went to the pharmacy to get all my meds, and I laid there trying to wake up the rest of the way. I didn't have much pain at that point. I was feeling more lightheaded and dizzy at that point. So we had to wait for that to get better before I could leave, plus the usual go to the bathroom, get up and walk around, and eat/drink without being nauseous. We finally left just before 2. Needless to say, I haven't done much the rest of the week. I spend most my time either in bed or on the couch. The pain hasn't been nearly as bad as I expected it to be. It really only hurts when I get up off the couch or bed and if I spend too much time standing. It's been pretty tolerable without taking the pain meds for the most part. It's going to be a couple months before we can get back to trying to get pregnant. That's mostly to give me time to heal, but I think also because she wasn't able to remove all the endometriosis, we're going to use medication to take the rest down. She was able to remove most of the scars, the stuff on my ovaries and the stuff on my tubes, but there was some on the veins that would have been too risky to burn down. My post-op appointment isn't until the 17th, and we'll talk more about it then. Hopefully this surgery will have helped though and it won't take us much longer to get pregnant. That's what we've got our fingers crossed and are praying for anyway. :)

Smokey Vs. The Laser

Ben got out the laser pointer the other night and was playin' with Smokey. He's so funny to watch. He'll sit there and act like he's ignoring it, but then suddenly snap at it. Kinda like he's trying to sneak up on it. Silly puppy!

Taiko Drummers

Here's the video of the Taiko drummers from the Army Ball. These drummers are one of my most favorite things in Japan. So much fun watching them! Wish I could do it! :)

Army Ball 2010

The Army Ball was last weekend. It was great having a handsome soldier to take me this year, even if he was working while there. It wasn't much different than last year. I did have a better seat so I could actually see what was going on without having to watch the projector screen, so that was great. The toast they did with Sake instead of wine. Not that we drank it, but it was kinda cool.

We had the tuna carvers again.

It's amazing how big those fish can get. I did actually try the sashimi (raw fish) this year. The taste was alright, didn't taste too fishy. The texture... yeah, not so much. But hey, at least I can say I tried it.

Of course the night wouldn't be complete with out pictures of us.

I am so lucky to be married to such a great man!

I was feeling pretty cute that night. :)

We do make one pretty cute couple. The pictures turned out kinda dark, but you can still get the idea. It was a fun night. As soon as I figure out where my videos are I'll post them. They must still be on the camera... :)

Time Flies

Hmmm, guess it's time to update the blog.... So here's a quick glance at what happened in May.

We worked on the flower bed in the front yard.

(I've got more flower pictures posted on Facebook.)

And we got a couple turtles.

Ben has been busy with work. He still loves his job, which is great. I still love his job too. :) He's still recovering from his surgery. It's taken a bit longer due to the fact that they really didn't give him any time off afterwards to recover. That's a whole other issue though. But he is doing better. We ended up going to the Urgent Care clinic down at Yokota because he was having chest pain and his heart rate has been pretty high. Turns out his heart is alright, it's his lungs. What happened was during the surgery when they inflated his belly with the gas, his lung separated from the chest wall and caused his lung to partially collapse. Nothing super serious, it will just take time to heal. And yes we did talk to his surgeon about it. It is starting to feel better, but just like everything else takes time. His shoulder is doing pretty great though. As soon as his chest is better he can really start working on getting the muscle strength back. So that is a plus.

I've been busy being a housewife. I haven't worked at the school for a while now. Which I'm ok with. I've gotten myself into a nice little routine of getting up and making breakfast before Ben goes to work, heading to the gym after he leaves, come home and try to get a couple chores done before he gets home for lunch, make lunch, spend the afternoon doing chores and/or running errands, then try to have dinner ready by the time he gets home (or shortly there after anyway). Honestly, it's been working out pretty well for me. People ask what I do all day since I don't work and I don't have kids. Well that's what I do. I keep myself busy. There's always dishes to do, laundry to be done, floors to be vacuumed. It's enough. :)

Other than that, not much else happened in May. Hard to believe we're already half way through June. We are counting down until we leave Japan, which will be Mid-February. We're not sure where we are headed yet. We were hoping for Ft Lewis, but were informed there are no openings there right now. They did offer Ft Sill, but I've never had a desire to go to Oklahoma. When I think of Oklahoma I think of how we beat the Sooners in the Fiesta Bowl a few years back. Anyway, so we're thinking maybe Georgia or Virginia. But we'll have to see what's available. Don't worry, we'll keep you posted. :)

I KNOW My Savior Lives

Since we were in Okinawa for Easter, we had a late Easter dinner last Sunday. It turned out more or less like I wanted.

But that's not the point of my post though. The food anyway. I did want to post my testimony of Christ though. It's not often I flat out say "this is my testimony," but I try to show it in the way I live. I do know that my Savior lives. I know that He loves me. I know He died for me, and that He lives again. One of my most favorite parts of my calling is listening to those young kids sing about Christ. You can tell in the way they sing, that they believe what they are saying. Our song for this year is "I Know That My Savior Loves Me." I love when we get to the chorus and they all belt out "I know He lives! I will follow faithfully. My heart I give to Him. I know that my Savior Loves me." My eyes tend to get a little wet every time I hear that. Their testimonies help mine. But like them, I know He lives. I am grateful every day for Him and what he did/does for me.

I Ate What?!?!

Friday night we went out to dinner with some friends. We ended up going to one of those restaurants where you order whatever kind of meat you want, they bring it out, and you cook it right there in the middle of your table. It's actually a lot of fun. Since it was a Japanese place, the menus were all in Japanese. It's a good thing one of our friends grew up here in Japan, so she was able to translate and order for us. Not sure the ordering part was such a good idea though... :)

It all looks decent, right? And for the most part it was. She only ordered a couple questionable things. Most of it was different pieces of beef, chicken, and veggies. Look at that picture above though. In the upper left hand corner. Can you guess what that is? It's tongue. Cow tongue. As disgusting as that sounds, it was alright. Not saying I would eat it again, but it wasn't horrid.

This one on the other hand I will NEVER eat again. It's beef hormone. Yeah, hormones. Like those things that make women all crazy for that one week a month. Apparently it's supposed to help with collagen or something. It's disgusting though. It's all chewy and slimy and yuck! It's one of those things you try chewing but you can't really so you just end up swallowing it whole. Makes me gag a bit just thinking about it.

Dessert on the other hand was fantastic! The smaller little ice creams came with the meal, and I ordered the sundae separately. It was pretty good. It's a place I like eating and the prices are decent. And it wasn't nearly as crowded as I thought it would be for a Friday night. All in all it was a fun night. :)

And The Winner Is...

Last weekend we had the first annual Zama Branch Chili Cook off. I decided that morning that we would go, and found a random chili recipe on line that looked good and easy. It was called "Aloha Chili." It's sweet, has pineapple in it, and was pretty much the best thing ever!

Everyone was saying how great it was, but it wasn't until the awards were given out that I claimed it. I won the "Best Sweet Chili" award. I got a certificate and bottle of maraschino cherries. :)

The small print (for those that can't read it) says: Know all ye by these presents" That the most excellent chef in possession of this coveted award, somehow displayed the cunning and prowess to present a sweet chili and pass it off as unanimously excellent. Truly a culinary wizard, this chef has proven that even an abomination like a sweet chili can appeal to the masses when done correctly.

The brother in the branch who put it together is from Texas and takes pride in his chili (he won two of the categories, plus the overall chili), hence why he doesn't think a "sweet" chili is really a chili. The judging was done by the missionaries and a few others in the branch and no one knew who's was who's, but they did mention afterwards, if they had known that the best overall chili was this particular brother's they would have picked mine. So technically I got 2nd place overall, but there's no prize for that. Naturally I had to give him a hard time that my "totally random- 20 minute- sweet chili" recipe almost beat his "award winning-takes all day" recipes. It was all fun though. The winning was great, but I have fun just cooking for people anyway. :)

Under The Sea

I tried posting these a couple days ago, but it was having issues. But anyway, these are videos I took while snorkeling out at Torii Beach. I didn't see any cool fish or anything this time, but it was still fun trying out the underwater feature of my new camcorder. :)

Ok, so only one video wants to post. I've got the second one on my Facebook page if you are really interested though. :)

Sea Creatures

Sea creatures out at Torii Station, Okinawa.

Japanese Style Driving

A little taste of driving in Japan for those of you who have never been here. Taken while down in Okinawa.

Post-Op Report

I'm sorry this has taken so long.  Things have been pretty crazy since the surgery.  Because we had to extend our stay in Oki, we had to extend our hotel room, but weren't able to stay in the same room the rest of the time.  So the morning after Ben's surgery I had to go back and move all our stuff over to the next room.  Then we had issues with the internet in the new room, and for some reason I couldn't get it on my computer so we were just using Ben's.  But anyway, here's the post-op report:

Like I said in the last post, they ended up keeping Ben overnight just for observation.  Not a huge deal.  It was just because of the location of the thing they wanted to make sure they hadn't damaged the bowel or anything.  We spent the day at the hospital, and when the dr came back that evening he gave us the ok to head back to the hotel.  He was still hurting, but could already kind of tell it was not the same pain as before, so that was a good sign.  We got all the discharge stuff taken care of and headed back to the hotel. 

That was his belly Wednesday night after leaving the hospital.  It really wasn't as bad as it looked.  We were able to take the coverings off the next morning and the steri-strips eventually fell off on their own.  Needless to say we didn't do much the next few days.  It was Saturday evening before he left the room again, and that was just down to the car to go with me to get dinner from the drive-thru at Popeye's.  Sunday he did a little more.  We went and walked around the PX and the bazaar a little bit.  Wore him out pretty good, but he was getting bored in the hotel room.  Monday afternoon we went back for his post-op appointment with the dr.  Everything looked great.  He's still sore from the surgery but it is definitely not the same pain as before.  So the doctor gave us the ok to head home.  He said if anything was going to happen it would have happened by then, seeing how it was a week since his surgery.  So he gave us some more percocet for the trip and we were able to leave.  Granted it took us a while to get back, but that will be another post. 

This is one of the surgery pictures.  It's not the best copy (I'll try to get them scanned and post them that way), but that is what has caused my husband so much pain for the past year.  This epiploic appendagitis.  Basically everyone has hundreds of these little fatty nodule type things around the colon area.  And what happened was for some reason or another the blood supply gets cut off and it's not able to drain the blood that goes in.  So it gets all irritated and inflamed and whatnot, and it's really painful.  And because this thing is so angry it starts messing with every thing else around it.  Most of the time it can just be taken care of with anti-inflammatories.  But we had been doing that and it just really wasn't working.  That's when they go in and cut them out.  The dr sent it to pathology and it came back benign (which we figured it would) so there's nothing to worry about there.  I asked if it was possible for this to happen again, and he said it is.  It's extremely rare for it to happen in the first place, but it's possible.  But if it does happen again, we'll know what to look for.

Ben is doing a somewhat better now that we're home.  Back on our couch where he can recline, our bed that isn't like sleeping on a rock slab, and just being home in general.

I took this pic of his belly tonight.  He's healing up nicely.  He'll have a good scar on his right side and his belly button (but he already had one there), but the one on his left side looks great.  He's had the past couple days off and will go back to work Monday.  We stopped in his office Wednesday for a little bit and while everyone has happy to see him, they all kept saying how he should be home resting.  So we'll see how next week goes. 

Thank you again for all the prayers, thoughts, notes, etc.  They are much appreciated.  We are so happy and relieved to finally have an answer for this.  It's been a long time waiting.  We are so impressed with the doctors down in Okinawa who were finally able to get it figured out and fixed.  Now it's just the waiting game until he's feeling fully better and back to his old self.  Hopefully it's not much longer.  :)

Surgery

Sorry, no fun title for this one.  This is just a quick note before I go to bed.  Ben's surgery went well.  It took just under 2 hours.  I talked to the dr afterwards and again tonight.  He showed me the pics and what exactly he did.  Everything looked pretty much normal, other than this epiplocy thing and his spleen is kinda enlarged (we don't know why).  But he removed the epiplocy, but because of the location of it, which was litteraly right next to the bowl, he decided to admit him for the night just for observation.  He's doing alright.  Hurting, but that's to be expected.  It's still kinda early to tell if this is going to fix everything.  Hopefully it does.  The thing was right where the pain has been, so we're crossing our fingers.  We have our post-op appt next week, after the biopsy results get back from path.  The dr said it's benign, but just to make sure.  But that's where we are right now.  I'm sorry if it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.  It's after midnight, I'm tired, my emotions have been on the fritz all day, and I really just need a hug.  So I'm gonna go to bed now and hopefully feel better in the morning.  I'll keep you guys updated as he improves and if we find out anything new.  Thanks for all the prayers and thoughs.  They are appreciated.  :)

One More Thing

I forgot to mention we got the biopsy results back... No infection.  So the gastritis was probably just some irritation from something he ate or all the pills he's been on (even though he hadn't taken them for about 2 weeks prior).  So nothing to worry about there.  :)

An Answer?

I think we may have found the source of Ben's pain...
We met with the General Surgeon this morning.  After talking, examing, and talking some more he said he would do an exploratory surgery.  He didn't think he would find anything, but if that's what we really wanted he would do it.  The only thing was he wanted to have a CT Scan done first.  We agreed, he called radiology and got it set up to have it done later that afternoon.  Radiology brought up the contrast dye and we sat in the waiting room while Ben drank the nasty stuff.  Couple hours later we head down to have the scan done.  They did the IV dye, and took the CT.  Guess what, they found something!  At that point we didn't know what it was, but there was definitly something there.  We go get some lunch and head back up to talk to the surgeon again.  After waiting a while in the waiting room (I think that's where we spent most of the day), we head back to his office and look at the Scan results.  He goes through them, and as we get towards the end, we see something that's not supposed to be there.  It's called Epiploic Appendagitis.  Basically what it is, is a fatty tumor that causes all his innards to get tangled up and pushed around and therefore can be pretty painful.  I don't think it's cancerous, but I'm sure they'll send it to the lab and have it checked out when they remove it tomorrow.  Yup, he's having surgery tomorrow.  He would have done it today, but we had just finished lunch right before going up so they couldn't.  They were able to fit him in tomorrow though.  It will just be a laproscopic procedure, real quick.  Should only take a half hour, an hour at most.  But he's going to go in, remove this thing, look around and make sure nothing else is going on that shouldn't be, and we should be good to go.  Just a quick little out patient procedure.  Hopefully this fixes everything too.  It's been almost a year and we're just finally now getting answers.  It's kinda pathetic and frustrating really.  This is the fourth CT Scan he's had done, and we're just now finding it?!?!  It's nice to have finally seen a doctor who actually found something.  I mean it's somewhat understandable that we're just now getting an answer, because it's not a very common thing.  As we were doing the pre-op paperwork, all the nurses were like "it's what?" and "how do you spell that?"  So it's not dealt with very often, as least not here.  So Epiploic Appendagitis.  The cause of so much misery and pain.  Hopefully this cures it!

What We Know So Far

 Here's a quick summary of our trip to Okinawa so far.  I flew down on my birthday on the Space-A flight because we were told I was not needed down here.  I'll get to that in a minute though.  Ben flew down on the 28th.  We met with the dr on the 29th and just kinda talked about what's been working, what hasn't, and what procedures he was going to have done.  On the 31st, we went in for him to have a colonoscopy and endoscopy done.  Everything went fine with the colonoscopy.  The dr did find some inflamation and swelling in the lower part of the small intestine, but everything in the colon looked fine.  He did some biopsies of the small intestine and we're still waiting on those to come back.  They went to do the endoscopy and that didn't go so well.  They didn't numb his throat very well (if at all), and his body didn't like that so much.  His heart rate shot up over 200, so they didn't finish.  We rescheduled the endoscopy to have it done in the OR at a later time.  We had a few days between procedures, so we went to the beach a couple times (pics and videos to come), but mostly just spent a lot of time in the hotel room.  Between him not feeling well and the rain, we didn't get out much.  Which is kind of what I expected anyway, so it hasn't been too bad.  Easter was quiet.  We had Dunkin Donuts and strawberry milk for breakfast, and went to Chili's for dinner.  I'll make a nice late Easter dinner when we get back, since there's only so much I can do in a microwave.  Anyway, Tuesday the 6th we went in and had his endoscopy done, this time in the OR where they could give him the good drugs.  And that is what they did.  He was out of it the whole procedure, which is a good thing.  I didn't get a chance to talk to the dr after this one, and they kept him in the OR recovery room before bringing him back to the APU recovery.  I'll admit, I was freaking out a little bit because I knew the procedure didn't take an hour and a half.  And it didn't.  Just took him a while to wake up before they moved him.  We did get to look at the pictures and report from the dr before we left, and he wrote that he had found Gastritis (inflamation) in the stomach.  He took biopsies of those, and it will take about a week to get back the results.  Needless to say, we didn't do much the rest of the day yesterday.  So today we had our follow up appointment with the dr.  We went over the findings of the procedure yesterday and he thinks it's an infection caused by a parasite or something like that.  Don't ask me what it's called because it was long, hard to pronounce, and one I hadn't heard of before.  We won't know for sure until we get the biopsy results back though.  We also talked about what our other options are and where we go from here.  We decided we're going to talk to a general surgeon about doing an exploratory surgery.  The next available appointment isn't until Monday, so our stay here in Okinawa has been extended for another week.  Not that that is a bad thing.  It's kinda been a nice little vacation, for me anyway.  While at the dr today, we also got him to sign the form saying it was required I be here as a non medical attendant.  We were told no, I wasn't needed, so the military would not pay for a plane ticket or anything for me.  Hence why I came down early.  Well guess what, I was needed.  He wasn't allowed to drive after his procedures and there is no way the hospital would release him to a taxi like the case manager said they would.  DUH!  So we got the signed form from the dr saying I was needed, and the people in Ben's office and command are involved too.  His boss told the General what happened and he wasn't too happy.  It's always a good feeling knowing the Post Commander is on your side.  So for all of those who were wondering if his new job would be beneficial in getting us some help, yes it has.  :) 
So that's where we are right now.  I'll try to post some more in the next day or so, although the rain is supposed to let up so I may head to the beach.  You'll get some pics and videos soon though.  :) 

All About Time

I went back down to Yokosuka this past Thursday to see my OB/GYN to see if we could come up with a reason for me not being able to get pregnant. The answer... we just need to get the timing right. From all the blood work and few various tests I've had done, everything is pretty much normal. I'm ovulating on my own (well kinda, with the help of the Metformin I'm on for my PCOS), and because I'm tracking my BBT every morning I can usually judge when that time of month is. So there is no reason for me to take the Clomid, which I'm ok with. It's really just about getting the timing right. I'm sure I don't have to explain this for most of you out there, but this is how it was explained to me... There is a very small time window each month in which it can happen. A 12-24 hour period to be exact, which is partly why it's so difficult. And granted a guy's little swimmers can last up to 3 days inside, that doesn't always guarantee anything. So with such a small time frame, a woman only has about an 80% chance of getting pregnant in a whole year. Meaning out of 100 women that try, only about 80 will succeed. That doesn't sound too promising. But anyway, so there's not really anything else we can do right now except keep trying. I mentioned to my dr how frustrating it is, seeing how we've been trying for 4 years, and every time I turn around I see another pregnant lady or brand new baby. They make it look so easy! But she reminded me that in those 4 years, I wasn't ovulating regularly which didn't help. And then you have to think of the year that Ben was deployed. So really we've only been "trying" since August. But it's still frustrating nonetheless. I guess now the plan is to just keep doing what we're doing. The ideas of further fertility treatments and adoption have kind of been put on the back burner for now. At least in my mind. We'll keep trying on our own for a little while longer and if it still doesn't happen we'll go from there. I'm crossing my fingers it just happens though.

Hey Good Lookin'! Whatcha Got Cookin'?

Every now and then I get in what I call a "cooking mood." Meaning I want to try new recipes and make something special. Saturday was one of those days. So what did I make? I made a homemade lasagna and cheesecake.

I thought it turned out pretty good. It was missing a little something, and I'm not quite sure what that was, but it was still good.

I served a Caesar Salad, garlic bread, berry blue jello with fruit, and sparkling cider. Ben asked what the special occasion was. Can't I just make a nice dinner every now and then?

I made a New York style cheesecake for dessert. This was my first time making this kind. I've made the no bake kind before, but was a little nervous about this one. I was really happy with how it turned out though. There were a few small cracks in the top, but it didn't stick to the sides of the pan, the color was great, and it set up really well. Didn't care for the crust, as it was a little soggy, but over all it was fantastic!

Doesn't that just look yummy?! I'm very pleased and proud of how it turned out. Speaking of which I think I may have some here in a minute...

Just a few other things that I've been cooking up lately... homemade chicken noodle soup. It's so much better than the store bought canned stuff. It's usually just the chicken, noodles, and carrots. Once in a while I'll add some celery, but Ben doesn't care for that really, so I don't add it very often. Also sloppy joes. I have a fantastic recipe from my grandma that we love! It's super easy and so good. I made it the last time we had some friends over and they loved it too. We like to change it up a little bit though. Instead of putting it on hamburger buns, we put it over mashed potatoes and top it with cheese. YUM! I love cooking!

Rash = Neglect???

This has been bothering me all weekend. We have some friends that we've become pretty close to over the past couple months. He and Ben were in the 623rd and deployed together. They've got a 5 month old little boy. Sweetest little thing ever! He's the one I usually get my baby fix from. That's another story though.

So Ben gets a call Friday evening from our friend. Someone had called the Commander and said that our friend was neglecting his son. How was he being neglected? He has a rash. He's had this rash pretty much since he was born. It's a combination of allergies and dry skin. Yeah sometimes it flares up, but it's gotten a whole lot better lately. They've got creams and everything for it, but it's really not something that just magically goes away. Anyone with kids knows that. The sad thing is we know this other couple that made this false report. I used to consider them fairly good friends. I really wish I knew their reasoning behind all this. Anyone who knows this couple, or even just meets them for 30 seconds, can tell how much they love this little boy. I mean really, is that the face of a daddy who neglects his son? It is quite the opposite. He loves that boy more than anything. Same with his momma. That boy is far from neglected. It is quite the opposite. He's more on the spoiled side. I wish there was more I could do to make all this go away for them. I guess they had someone show up at 1:30 am Sunday morning to check on the baby. Someone made an "anonymous" call to I guess it would be the equivalent of social services or child protective services. So they had to let this inspector person in to check out their house, check on the baby, and whatever else in the middle of the night. He's having so many problems out at work too. For example, they don't have a car right now and so he has to bike to and from work everyday. And mind you it's takes about 45 minutes to get there in the car. The 1st Sgt has said that the NCO's can't give the soldiers rides to work, even if they live next door to each other. Which in my mind is ridiculous. There's so much more going on out there too, it's just a mess. Makes me so glad Ben doesn't work there anymore, but at the same time makes me hurt for our friends who are having so many problems.

But anyway, my point is these guys are great. They love their son and are truly wonderful parents. We love hanging out with them. We have them over for dinner at least every other weekend, if not every weekend. They are fabulous. :)

Options and Possibilities

Lately we've been considering ways to start our family. There has still been no luck getting pregnant. I've taken four cycles of Clomid with no results, and we've gone a couple months with out it, and again no results. So it's time we start looking at other options, which include further fertility treatments and adoption. I've already set up another appt with my dr to see what the next step(s) is. It will probably be tests to see if we can figure out any reasons for me not being able to get pregnant. That appt isn't until March 11th though, so I can't really say what will be done there. Just thinking about options though, there isn't much more we can do that the military will pay for. They will pay for tests to diagnosis the problem, and any treatments/surgeries to try and correct it, but they won't pay for any procedures like IVF and such. There are four military hospitals that will do IVF, but we still have to pay for it out of our pocket. And while it can be considerably cheaper than having it done at a civilian clinic, it still starts out costing about $4000. And that doesn't include any travel, lodging, or other expenses that may occur if we are not stationed close by. All these hospitals have waiting lists too. And depending on the place, it can be from 6 months to a year, if not longer. And from what I understand, if it doesn't work the first time you have to go back on the list and wait to try again. I may be wrong about that though. It would take talking to the actual clinic to find out how all that works. That's where our other option comes in - adoption. We know this isn't a quick fix. It can take just as long and be just as trying. But if we can't get pregnant, and we know we're supposed to have kids, that doesn't leave us with much choice. We went and talked to someone at the legal office this past week, but he didn't really tell us anything I hadn't already learned online. (Believe me, I've done a lot of research on both options. I love google!) I've also already contacted the LDS Family Services to see what we can do while we are still here in Japan. We will go through them, if we do decide to go through with adoption. We will do a stateside adoption. The process to adopt a Japanese baby is very long and time consuming, and with only having a year left over here, we would really be pushing it. It's really expensive to adopt a Japanese baby/child too. With the LDS Family services, their fees are based on your income. We figured it out the other night, and it would actually cost about the same to adopt a baby as it would to do one IVF treatment. And personally, I think I would rather go through the adoption process than IVF. It is so emotionally exhausting for me to do treatments month after month and not see any results. Which is kinda why we've stopped really trying for the time being. I've heard it all from "it will happen when you stop trying" to "it will happen when you least expect it" and all the stories of people who found out they were pregnant after finishing and turning in all their adoption paperwork. So who knows, maybe I will be one of those people. All I know is that I'm meant to be a mom, and it's just a matter of making it happen. I guess until then I just have to settle with getting my baby time from friends' babies. :)

Update On The New Job

Ben's been at his new job for a couple weeks now. And honestly, he is loving it! His is the only military guy in his office. The rest are all civilians. Overall it's a pretty easy job. Just requires a lot of attention to detail, which is not a problem for him. It's nice having him home for lunch every day, and it's great having him home at a decent hour every night. He's home before 5 almost every day. And he's usually happy when he gets home! Unlike when he was in the 623rd and wouldn't get home until around 6pm and he was always grumpy and stressed. So this has been a good change. Ok, more than good. It's been a great change. Plus, they gave him a new set of orders so he no longer has any thing to do with the 623rd. YAY!!! He is officially a part of USAR-J, which makes us happier than words can describe. They didn't change our PCS date, so it's still 5 April 2011. Which means we have right about a year left, if that. We'll get to take our 30 days "moving leave" before that, which means we'll be leaving Japan probably early to mid March. Yes, I'm already starting to count down the days. :)
Just on a side note, for those that are curious.... still not a whole lot of progress with a diagnosis for his pain. We FINALLY convinced the drs here to put him on the meds that work. And what do you know, he's feeling better. Well other than the cold or flu or something he's got now. But the pain in his side isn't as bad. And we FINALLY got another appt with the specialist down in Okinawa. We'll be headed back down there the end of March. Yeah, we have to wait another month. Apparently the dr will be on leave (again) for another month. You would think they would have more specialists down there, or at least not send their one away all the time. Ugh, it's ridiculous. Who knows, maybe someday we'll have an answer.

Ben's New Job

We were informed this morning, that Ben had an interview with the Post Command Sargent Major, CSM Franklin. They need someone who has about a year left for a protocol. Basically that means he works for the CSM and the Post Commander (General). They "volun-told" Ben and one other guy that they were interviewing for this job, and basically that one of them would be taking it. So Ben met with the CSM Franklin this afternoon. After talking for a little bit CSM Franklin asked his current First Sargent really who could they do with out. The 1st SGT said they didn't need Ben, which honestly I don't really understand. He's in charge of making all the training schedules, just went to this class in Hawaii for that job, and so much more. But whatever. Now we're not entirely sure what all he's going to have to do. Just that he will work for the CSM and General, schedule all their meetings and such, he will actually work here on Zama instead of having to drive an hour out to Depot (YAY!), he won't have to deal with all the retards that he currently works with, and this guarantees he won't deploy from here again. He also has to start taking some college classes, but they are online so it shouldn't be too bad. Overall I think it's going to be a good thing. He's still kinda unsure about it, but I think it will all work out. Definitely be a new experience!

Can I Scream Now?!?!

Have I told you how frustrated I am that we still don't have a diagnosis for my husband and we're having problems with the doctors here in Japan? Let's rewind about a month. After our trip to the Urgent Care at Yokota, we had to follow up with the doc here at Zama. He said (in not so many words) that he doesn't know what else to do for us and that we should think about getting out of the Army. He gave us a new medication to try, and low and behold, it worked really well. It was a super strong anti-inflamatory. They only gave him enough for a week though, and the doc was really surprised that it worked as well as it did. I mean, that was the best Ben has felt since this all started. But when he ran out they wouldn't give him more (because of the potential side effects). They gave him a different prescription that didn't work nearly as well. So once again, he was hurting pretty bad. And by now it's pretty obvious that we aren't going to get much help. His doctor here said he needed to go back down to Okinawa to see the specialist, but the specialist was out of town and wouldn't be back for a week or so. Fast forward a couple weeks... He's still hurting. He goes in for a post deployment follow up appointment, the doctor looks through his records, and says yes he needs to go back down to Okinawa. So we talk to the case manager so we can start getting everything set up to head back down. She's looking through his files and although two different doctors said he needs to go back to Okinawa, neither one of them put in a referral. Even though we've been down there before, we have to have a referral to go back. She says she's going to work on it and will get back to us. A week passes by and we still haven't heard from her. In the meantime, Ben has another really bad flare up but there's nothing we can do 1) because it was the weekend and 2) because the doctors here are retards and wouldn't do anything even if we did go in. A few days later Ben has to go to Hawaii for a class. (Oh darn right?!) It's a two day class, so he's only there for like three days. He flew in Wednesday, and left Saturday. While he was gone, I went back in to talk to the case manager to see what's going on with this appointment in Okinawa. She told me one of the doctors here at Zama had called down and talked to Dr. Plott (the GI doctor in Okinawa) and he basically said don't bother setting up an appointment, there's nothing else I can do diagnostically. That's when I got upset and kinda blew up at her. I told her "he's been in pain for 7 months and they don't know why and you're telling me there is nothing else they can do?" There are more things they can do because they don't have a diagnosis yet. Then the case manager told me that he should just go into the ER at Tripler since he was in Hawaii. So he did. Friday after his class he went into the ER. He had to wait a few hours before being seen because they were busy, but he was seen. He explained to the doctors what was going, what the doctors here were doing (or more like not doing), and they weren't very happy. There are plenty of more things that can be done to diagnose this problem. For example, no one has tested for parasites, done a stool analysis (which should have been one of the first things done when they decided this was a digestive problem), they haven't sent him to an allergist to see if it's a food allergy or something, among other things. So you can't sit there and tell me there are no other tests you can do, when there are. Apparently because his blood work, CT Scans, and Colonoscopies all came back clear, that means there's nothing wrong. Those are the only tests they've done. One of the last CT Scans he had done, his spleen and some of his glands were swollen. But no one did anything about it. They did another scan when he went into the ER and everything was back to it's normal size. So it's possible that he just had an infection before. Or it could be the anti-inflamatories he's on are just masking the problem. We don't know, because no one bothered to check after that first scan. There wasn't much else they could do test wise for him, due to the fact that he was flying out the next morning. So they gave him a shot of Dulodin, gave him a prescription for Vicodin, and told him to come back to Zama and get a referral to go back over there to see the specialist there. He didn't get to see the specialist because it was Friday night and they were already done for the week. Typically they would have hospitalized him until they had a diagnosis, but they decided they just want him to come back. In the meantime, I'm freaking out all day because I have no idea what's going on. Just when I finally decide I'm not going to hear from him that night, he gets back to his hotel and we talk and I start feeling a little bit better. He flies back to Japan the next day, getting back Sunday (yesterday). So now today. We go into Sick Call to get this referral back to Hawaii this morning. She looks through his records, but there's no notes or anything from his trip to the ER over the weekend. That's partly due to the fact that most of the doctors at Tripler are civilian, so they have a little leeway putting them into the military system. Plus being a day ahead doesn't help much. But all the test results that they did are in there, so she looks at those. She then tells us there is nothing else they can do and that we should just go to the Med Board and get out of the Army. That's the second doctor here to tell us we just need to get out of the Army! That's not what we want. We want a diagnosis. So I kinda went off on her, and was like well the doctors in Hawaii said they could do this and this and this. Her response was "I'll be right back" and left the room. She came back five minutes later and said we needed to go talk to the case manager. Didn't even give us a chance to get a refill on the vicodin since he'll be out tomorrow. So we go back and talk to the case manager. And we explain again the events of the weekend. She tries calling the doctor in Okinawa, but he's with a patient and will get back to us. We tell her what the two doctors had said about sending him to the Med Board and we look up the regulations about it. Yeah, it's not even possible to start a Med Board without a diagnosis. So they can't Med Board him out of the Army without knowing the cause of the pain. Which means these doctors have to get off their lazy behinds and find out what's wrong. We ended up leaving with out an appointment in Okinawa or Hawaii. We're waiting for Dr. Plott to call us back and find out what he wants to do. When we talked to him while we were down there in September he said the next step (after trying all these different medications) would be an exploratory surgery. But now he's saying there's nothing he can do... Something's not right here. So yeah. Until we hear back from him, we're kinda stuck. We can't put in to get a second opinion, until he definitely says yeah there's nothing else I can do. After that, we can say we want the second opinion and they'll send us to Tripler. So once we get there, I think we'll finally get an answer. The doctors there were much more friendly, optimistic, and willing to help. So it's just a matter of the doctors here in Japan doing there job and putting in the referral to send us there. It's such a headache. It's extremely frustrating and stressful. Is it really that hard to just give us an answer or send us to someone who wants to give us one and wants to help?!?!

Adventures at Costco

I went to the Costco that is not far from here for the first time today. And amazingly enough, it was very similar to the stores in the states. I went in search of a cake for our FRG meeting later this week and some new pillows for the dogs. I found a cake. It has pink and purple hearts on it because all the other ones said "Happy Birthday". I didn't find a dog pillow though. They had some beds, but they were kinda small and I don't think the dogs would lay in them anyway. They had some blankets too, but we decided we're just going to make our own. So all I got was the cake and a bag of dinner rolls just because they looked good. Overall, the prices were alright. A little more expensive than the states. For example, a dozen muffins cost about $9. But some stuff seemed to be priced alright. It was nice to see so many "American" things too. Even the check out lines were short. I did have a slight problem when trying to use my card. I had to fill out an "International Card" form, but was still able to purchase my items so it all worked out. We got lunch as we left (Chicken bakes and mango smoothies) which were pretty good. I think I may have a new favorite drink. :) My only complaint is that they don't take credit cards. Ok, they take American Express, but not Visa or MasterCard. Doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, but oh well. It was a fun trip though. Can't say I'll do a whole lot of shopping there, but I'm sure we'll be back.

Italian Food Japanese Style

The past couple weeks I've been going to water aerobics with my friend Izzy, and then we usually go out for dinner afterwards. Last week we went out for Mongolian BBQ, and tonight we went for Italian. There is a little Italian place down the street from her apartment, and I have to say I was pretty impressed. The menu wasn't big, but it was fairly cheap. We ended up getting a pizza and some spaghetti to share. They were the perfect serving sizes.

The pizza was pretty plain. It had sauce, cheese, tomatoes, and basil. And it was on like a flat bread. It was really quite good.
The spaghetti was pretty good too. It had a garlic sauce, mushrooms, and uncured ham. I like my pasta cooked a bit longer, but it was still good.
Overall I give the restaurant an "A". It's some where I think I'll go back to. The service was great, the prices were decent, and overall it was just a nice little place.
We stopped at the little supermarket at the train station on the way home to grab some dessert. It's just about strawberry season, which I love! I love Japanese strawberries!

We also got some Hi-Chew candies (because they are the best candy ever!), a little cheesecake type thing, and some banana/whip creamed filled crepe type treats.
Everything was pretty yummy! I think it's been a successful dining night. :)

Dinner with the Lt

Ben's unit has gotten quite a few new people in the past couple months, including a new Lt (lieutenant). I have to say, she is pretty cool. We drove her around to help with in processing before Christmas, and last night we took her out to look for a car. Afterwards she took us out for dinner. We ended up going to a little Japanese restaurant just outside post. It was actually really good.

We ended up ordering pretty much everything that looked "safe."

Lt acting all excited for the food.

Overall, the food was pretty good. We had chicken, steak cubes, dumplings, fried potatoes (ie french fries), oysters and mushrooms, calamari, spring rolls, teriyaki pork, and rice. I think that's all. The table was full. Each time the waitress brought more out we had to rearrange to make it all fit.

It was a great night. We got there about 9 pm and didn't leave until almost midnight. It's nice to have someone that Ben works with that we can actually sit down and have a good time with. There's not many in his unit that we can do that with.

The receipt a the end of the night. It was great of Lt to pay for it. We'll definitely have to do it again. It was so nice to get out and socialize for a while. :)

New Niece

As of last Wednesday, we have our second niece! Ben's younger sister, Rosea, had an 8 lb little girl. I don't know all the details. Just that she was in labor for 6 hours, everything went smoothly, and she weighs 8 lbs. They named her Lunetta, Luna for short. And I'll be honest, I really don't care for that name, but she's not my child so it's all good.

That puts us at 2 nieces and 2 nephews right now, with another one on the way. Ben's older sister, Savannah, is due in July. I wish we lived closer so we could see them more often. I was amazed at how much the boys had grown when we saw them while we were home. We still love 'em though. :)