And Let Summer Begin!

My summer goal is to blog more often, and hopefully it will be mostly about horses. Lots have happened since my last post. To start off, I have completed my junior year of college. Though it's weird to say that I'll be a senior next year, because I won't be graduating in the spring but instead the fall of the year after. This doesn't upset me by any means, if I could make a living out of going to school I would do it in a heartbeat (as long as there were still interesting classes to take). I am not an A student, but I do love learning new things.

Healthwise things are starting to look up. Since warmer weather is now upon us my aches and pains are a lot less. About a month ago I ended up in the Er with pericarditis (inflammation of the sac around your heart). Actually it was 2 ER visits, and one was via ambulance. I had gone to express care (which is like the ER but without the crazy bills) and saw a nurse who asked me what was going on. I told her that I believed I had pulled a muscle in my back (which can affect your diaphragm) and was having trouble breathing and I just wanted to make sure it was a pulled muscle and nothing more. The nurse then looked at me and said "it doesn't look like you are short of breath". I was appalled! I almost told her it was because I had to take a pain med so I would stop gasping for breath, but she seemed like she was in a bad mood so I let it go. They proceeded to do an EKG and the doctor then listened to my heart. She then walks out of the room and someone else comes in and listens to my heart. A total of TEN PEOPLE (no exaggeration) listened to my heart while I was there. One nurse then said "Wow you only read about this in textbooks". I'm no sissy but I finally spoke up and asked what the heck was going on. The original doctor came back in and said I had a rub, which means that the heart was rubbing against the sac which was causing the pain. From what I understood is that you can only hear the rub in a small window of opportunity. I asked if I could listen and even to my untrained ear I could hear it, IT WAS SO COOL! It was then they said that they had to call an ambulance to bring me to the ER. I insisted that my Grandfather would drive me (the ER is only 2 miles away) but nooooo I needed an ambulance ride. Got to the ER, confirmed it was pericarditis, was sent home on enough pain meds for a horse (800mg ibuprophen 3 times a day, and .6 mg of a drug they use to treat gout 2 times a day). Went home, and about 6 hours later the pain meds they gave me wore off and was on the kitchen floor gasping for air when Mom took me back to the ER. Long story short, I'm all better now! My regular doctor thinks it was caused by the mysterious auto immune disease that I have. Can I please be on "Mystery Diagnosis"?!

Okay so I'm healthier, and I now have a new job at McDonalds. I had to stop my old job because my body was rejecting the whole working in the cold for 8 hours deal. Which stinks, I loved my job, I have always loved working outdoors. I would rather do labor intensive work than mental work any day. 

On the horses note, I have found a new eventing barn to ride at which I am super excited! If things work out they do half leases for $175 a month, or you can lease a horse a day for $20. Group lessons are $20 and private lessons are $30. This is great, although I have loved all the dressage training I have received my ultimate goal is to event and you aren't going to get that kind of training at a dressage barn.

Well that's all folks! Thanks for reading :)