Slip and Slide, TAKE TWO!

**Quick disclaimer... I ran out of time to read over this for edits, and the pictures were giving me fits, so hopefully I'll update it to a more readable and well-laid out version ASAP.

Unfortunately... my slip and slide adventures haven't ended since my last post.

Oh on, in fact, they have intensified, haha.

You can find all my bruise pictures on facebook if you hunt through to the end of one of my albums... but so start this lovely post, I'll just include the big kahuna for you here:
On that note... let me tell you about a few more slip and slides!



Naw, wait, how about a success story first! I climbed a couple of mountains while out at the campsite property this August... and the first one, while I acquired plenty of scrapes because of the thorny bushes on our "path," I actually didn't have any major falls or slips! And here was my rewarding view at the top! :)


And after climbing this... and sweating profusely... a few people crazily on a whim decided to run our "treacherous" rocky path (that took us an hour to get there on!) back to camp, and the others of us hopped in the boat. BUT.. then me and a friend couldn't ignore the calling of the cool water beneath us... soooo, we jumped out about here... and swam back for some... 15-20 minutes! :) I'm working on my triathlon skills. Where's my bike! Ha, how 'bout mountain biking down this next mountain?!?!... yeah right!





On this one, I wasn't quite so lucky with the slipping and sliding... It was SUPER steep, and although the path was more clearly defined, it was quite a challenge to avoid rock sliding! The hike up went quite well, I must say. We pushed ourselves too, and made it in less than 40 minutes! I'll admit there was plenty of huffing and puffing (and a bit of crawling) involved by the end... but I assure you, this was the easy part!

It took us just as long, if not slightly longer, to make our way down! I so wished there was snow on it... haha. A couple of the boys with us RAN on ahead, and oh my goodness, I had visions of them rolling all the way down into a pool of blood at the bottom. They were NUTS I thought! But nonethless, the rock slide surfing was going pretty good for me, and I was keeping a pretty good pace. Everyone "fell" (that is, slipped enough to pretty much just lean back and go from 90 degrees to 80 degrees with rocks on your back, ha) atleast a few times... and I'm proud to say I just fell once... but oh goodness.. that once gave me another big honker of a bruise, and another aching twist in my low back... shoot. I didn't know whether to laugh, cry, or throw up in that moment... but I just kept pressing on and finally made it down to level ground. Then we rode the boat over to the pick up point... and rather insanely, hopped out of the boat to let guests be taken over, and proceded to run the hiking path over to the property. It was one of those exhausting but incredibly good feeling runs... and at the end, jumping right into the sea was definitely a reward well worth it all! :)



The other slip and slide stories are less glamorous... but just as painful (or more!) unfortunately.

While deep cleaning the guys bathroom trailer... I slipped on the steps right outside the door. The steps and the bottom of my flip flops were slick and wet, and I had my hands full of cleaning supplies so I couldn't catch or steady myself. I looked just like a goofy cartoon whose feet sweeps out from underneath him and they land on their butts usually breaking through the stairs, a bucket of water on their head, and little birdies flying around... I didn't break the stairs, but they definitely left their colorful imprint on me (like I said, those bruise pictures can be found buried in my facebook albums if you're curious enough!)! I didn't have a bucket of water on my head, but I did have the little toilet cleaner brush basins fall over onto me. Thank the LORD we had just FINISHED cleaning them and filling them up with CLEAN BLEACH instead of ... well, yeah, you know, lol. AND, as far as I know, there were no stars or birdies around my head... now bees and flies - highly likely, LOL. Oh... and I still finished cleaning the bathrooms... and ate a chocolate bar as a reward for myself! :)

And... just like last time, with the slip and sliding down the streets or up the stairs stories... now I have to ashamedly add bus steps to that. Good grief, I didn't realize I was so clumsy. But sure enough, bout lost my flip flop underneath the bus the other day while I was trying to climb up onto it with my hands full of grocery bags and my big envelope of cat scan x-rays. Oh, wait a site I must have been. This time it was the old ladies looking at me with the look of concern trying to help me get up onto the bus!!

Which reminds me... old ladies slipping and falling... yeah, just the other day on my way to work, one fell down in front of me. I actually missed it because she was behind a car, but after hearing it and walking around it... and seeing her laying on her back on the ground, eyes clothes, hand up over her head... I was scared she had dropped dead! Thank goodness she saw and heard me when I stuck out my hand, asked if she was okay, and could help her up. It was fun to understand her Greek words of gratitude and thanks. :)

Okay, that's enough rambling on this slip and slide saga for today. I'm off to fly on a plane to Ireland, woohoo!! Hopefully I don't slip and slide there, ah!

An "inconvenient" adventure, TAKE TWO!

So... how about a quick update on my doctor situation? :)

Basically, if you'll skip down to my last post and analyze that diagram of random letters and numbers... you can pretty much just add 5 "C-11's" to the end, haha. + calls and texts to 09.

I did have to go back and have another CATscan... but thankfully I didn't have to pay for it. For fun, just to add even more extra adventure, on my way there I hopped on a different random bus going in the same direction to see if I could still find my way there... it went way past the road my other bus goes on, but I walked a few blocks in the RIGHT directions from the other bus stop, and still found the place. Boo-yah! I was so proud of myself!! :)

This time it went much quicker as well... haha, but almost too quick - I didn't feel like I had to pass out this time - maybe because they let me lay down the whole time instead of moving from room to room and sitting in different chairs after they inject me with medicine, hehe - BUT, they did squirt my blood all over the place and popped my blood vessel where they stuck the IV in... oops!

Anyhoo... the next day I went back again to pick up the results. I couldn't read them, of course... but it was a longer report than the last time, so I assumed they at least saw something this time! The secretaries in the office that night weren't the same ones that I'd started to become friends with, and they were a little less willing to help out a poor, dumb, English-speaking girl, haha. So I decided it really didn't bother me to wait another day to know what was wrong with me!

On the way home, however, I drove through an area where I'd been to another doctor a couple times before, so I got off the bus and walked to doc R5's to see if he could see anything in the results, or at least read them for me! Turns out the office was completely torn apart, ha - must be remodeling, and no one was around... *sigh. Abandoned... I just laughed, and bought some chocolate from the kiosk before walking back to the bus stop to go... not home, but to a friend's place for some fun, lol.

But then... my wonderful oral surgeon calls me that night. Now, back up just a second - I have to tell you about this last guy (O9 on the diagram, lol). He has been incredibly patient and helpful and concerned for me the entire time. He called up the CATscan place to make sure they'd let me go through another one for free, and to reiterate exactly the area and type of scan he had asked them to do in the first place. He has also been the best at explaining what could possibly be going on to me. And now... he listened to me as I stumbled through reading the Greek on the report to him over the phone. I sounded like a first-grader just learning to read, lol. He made me read it twice, ha.

It basically said that they can't see anything major wrong in my skull, but they do see the swelled area, and recommend getting an MRI next. My doc just said to wait until we both get back from our vacation times, and he'll have a look at everything and recommend what to do next. So, for now, I just keep living with this swollen bump in my lower right jaw... It hasn't been horribly painful as of late, just quite tender, so that's nice... but about every other week it puffs out my cheek bigger than normal, joy... cute, haha. :P There are worst things; I shall not complain. :)

Ah, in the meantime... I should be sending in all my x-ray/CATscan bills into my insurance company... whoops! Better get on that.

Until the next update... :) Keep praying the cause will be found so it can just all go away. Also pray that I'll think of some creative, good ways to stay in contact with all the doctors and nurses and secretaries... and to encourage them and thank them for helping me! :) Lord - let your light that's alive in me, shine on them. Help them ALL to know you!! :)