August 28: My new doctor!

I know it's been a while (again) since I've blogged. Sorry Grandma. Sorry Mama.
These days have been exciting, exhausting, repetitive, and different. Things have been crazy; I don't even know where to start.

My mom just came in town! That was great and the girls loved seeing her. She's the bomb.
I bought (my mum and pop helped) a keyboard for my apartment to help me practice for my voice lessons, so that's good. It was a stupid, long, weird process, though. (one that I'm still dealing with)
I also went to a new doctor to follow up with my ER visit on the 7th. My new doctor, Josh, was THE BEST. Seriously.

So my mom came in to town for my doctor's appointment because she's my mama and it was a good excuse to come visit. She came up yesterday, spent the night in my apartment, and left this afternoon. I love seeing my mum. Obviously I know that I live in Chicago, but it is still kind of sinking in. But when my mom came to visit me..because I live here..anyway, that was weird.

If you hadn't read my blog about my ER trip (you should), I went to the ER on the 7th because I was having really intense pains in my stomach. They did a CT scan and found a kidney stone and "an innumerable amount of lymph nodes scattered throughout the abdominal mesentery" (which is what I had to follow up with my doctor about today). It was such a late night in the ER and all I heard was kidney stone so I figured that was the problem. Well, my doctor explained to me today that they didn't find the problem and they just kind of sent me on my way since the pain had stopped. Fabulous.

Let me tell you about this doctor. It's hard to find a doctor in Chicago who takes insurance from Kansas City, but I seriously lucked out. I called the insurance company, they gave me three doctors, and Josh (the one I went to) had the best reviews, so I scheduled an appointment with him. The building is in downtown Chicago (where I live), on Michigan.

The building was beautiful. Dr. Merok's office is on the 16th floor. Fabulous. As I'm working on paperwork and whatnot, I saw allergen-free granola bars available and crackers. Okay. Sweet. So then we go back and the nurse was so great. She was super fast and efficient. Then we waited less than ten minutes and my doctor came in. "Hi. My name is Josh. It's so good to meet you." So. Nice. We went through the papers and everything and he was super thorough and engaging. He told us what the next steps were and he left. (Oh, by the way, instead of a usual clip board, he was carrying around a tablet, no big deal.) So I had to get some blood drawn and I didn't even have to leave the room! The blood taking nurse lady (probably an official name for that somewhere) was really nice. I didn't even feel the needle go into my arm. My mom and I thought that it was maybe because that vein had been conditioned to getting blood drawn from it (because of my hashimotos, which requires a good amount of blood tests). Then she gave us both some refreshments. After my mom and I were super awkward and asked a lady if we were supposed to leave AND me fulfilling a life long dream of mine, rolling on a doctor's chair, another nurse brought us some papers and we headed out. My mumsy had to use the bathroom so I went to the waiting room for her.

They have TV screens that show different slides for the patients. One of them said "Have to wait a while?" and then it gave some ideas of what you could do. "Grab a complimentary snack. Play some sudoku. (They had sudoku pages for us) Or you can check out a laptop from the front desk and use our free wifi."

WAIT WHAT

I thought, "Surely not. There's no way."

And then a man with a Macbook Air walked up to the front desk and asked for the password. YOU CAN CHECK OUT MACS! ...

So, all of that to say that my new doctor just rocked my socks off.

Well, that's that story.

Have a good night, folks.

(Although I feel like my life is now a lie, I don't have any pictures for this blog..)

-Kristen

August 18th

It has been way too long. The ER thing happened and then I had a terrible cold and then life happened and here we are. Finally.

This last week or so has been great. Obviously I love my job and I still have yet to get tired of the girls.. (it's never going to happen). Even when they're screaming and throwing temper tantrums, I am simply happy to be holding them and happy to be near them. I love Chicago.

And I am thankful for FaceTime. Through FaceTime I have been able to see my mom and my friends' faces pretty regularly.

Since before I moved up here, I have been praying that I'd be able to find a community group of some sort that I could get connected with. I figured a small group through a church or something. Today I went to a new church, Church in the Loop, which is not too far from me (only four stops away on the L). This morning I decided to be adventurous and try it out on my own, while navigating the streets of Chicago and the oh-so-foriegn public transportation system. Yes, I was praying for protection on my way down to the train. Yes, I was fine. Yes, I did get lost. Yes, I did walk an extra mile. And yes, I was half an hour late. BUT! I made it. And it was awesome.

It's a brand new church-I was one of eight people there today. But the pastor (who went to William Jewel and calls KC his second home) has a huge heart for the city and has an amazing vision for his church...a vision that I am so excited to be a part of. I am going to start leading worship (!!!!). God has really answered my prayers by bringing me to this church. I have found Jesus-loving people who are down to earth and have a heart for seeing good things happen. I love my new community!

That's all for tonight. I start school tomorrow and have a full day with the girls!

Here's some photos!

someone stole my camera.

we love puppies and pictures

grace emery

eyes :)

favorite

it was so funny!

playing with benny the bull, of course

such a ham

yes the box is definitely a chair

mama, this is my taco salad! you asked me to take a picture for you :) 

-Kristen

August ?: What day is it?

These last few days have been crazy. I have been feeling really under the weather (head cold) and Wednesday night (?) had severe pains in my stomach for about an hour which ended up taking me to the ER. But, no worries. A CT scan showed a kidney stone, a test result came back with a UTI (which I hadn't had any symptoms of), and the CT scan also showed "an innumerable amount of scattered lymph nodes throughout the abdominal mesentery" (which is unrelated to anything I went to the ER for)... whatever that means. No worries, I'll be setting up an appointment with a doctor for that here soon. So, after a long night in the ER (9pm to 6am) which included 3 hours in the waiting room, 1 hour of me laying in a bed in a hallway waiting for someone to roll me back to my room, and an IV of contrast leaking all over my arm (around 3:45 am...during the middle of my CT scan..) me and my trooper of a sister made it out alive. I've been taking my prescription and am feeling better. My cold is going away too. Yay health!

Fortunately, during my hour waiting in my bed in the hallway, I got to hear some lady chanting about dandelions during her x-ray. Middle of the night ER entertainment at it's finest.

Anyway, I'm feeling so much better. (Really, Grandma, don't worry!)

I don't really remember what day these pictures are from, but nevertheless, here are some adorable pictures of the girls and the whole Hey family at the park! Enjoy!

PS I am absolutely loving being here and being Kate and Grace's nanny. It's my most favorite job I've ever had! Even when they're not happy and I'm lost somewhere in Chicago, I still love it. I love every second of it. Kate and Grace are the best. Sara and Austin are the best. And well, me.. you know about me.. :) To say the least, I fit right in. ;)

Photos!

"woah woah woah"

(favorite)

-Kristen

August 6th: Day Two.

Today was just a half day (12-5) with the girls. They woke up from their nap once I got to the apartment and then we ate, got ready, and went to the children's museum at Navy Pier. This sounded like a fabulous plan at first, and totally was. But I didn't really plan too well for the whole walking there and finding it part. I took the long way after completely forgetting the correct directions that my sister told me. Then, we went in, (we meaning me and the girls) had so much fun and then it was suddenly nap time and the girls hadn't had a snack. So, back home we went. But oh, adventerous Kristen decided to try a different way back and ended up walking an extra two miles with very unhappy babies in the hot Chicago sun. Anyways, we made it back and then it was 4:30 and it was way past nap time. But at least I got some great exercise!

Here are some pictures from our very fun day!

food is important!

those curls!

she was having fun, i promise.

really. so much fun.

curls curls curls

..it was a blast..

happy :)

water!!

and the comedy show/snack time

unnecessary walk down lake shore drive

smiles!

mama!

aaaaand my dinner. :)

-Kristen