What is MRSA?

Caution - not for the squeamish.

B has been fighting what we thought were infected bug bites for about the last 2 weeks.  We didn't think a lot about it at first since I too had my own case of chiggers to contend with.  Mine got better, his did not.

He has 5 areas that are infected, one being on the inside of his elbow close to the crease.  He had been to an urgent care three times but their treatments didn't seem to help a lot.  Finally B decided he was going to go to our own physician; the pain was more then he could take, stuff was oozing and what once looked like an infected bug bit now looked a lot worse.

The doctor took a culture and found out it is MRSA - What is MRSA?

MRSA is a bacteria which is often found on the skin. Viruses will die if they can’t get inside you. Bacteria may live quietly on your skin until it finds a cut, wound or graze to infect. MRSA is a highly drug resistant type of the bacteria staphylococcus aureus. It is thought to be found on the  skin of 1-2% of people. Ordinary staph is on the skin of up to 35% of people. Both MRSA and staph can cause infections on your skin or in wounds but MRSA is harder to treat as less drugs can combat it.

Wednesday the doctor was considering putting B in the hospital due to the amount of infection in the 5 different areas (2 on his arm, 1 on his leg, and 2 on his stomach).  Today there has been an improvement and a hospital stay is not necessary - praise the Lord.

The doctor warned B that even after this is cleared up he could get it again.  It is a possibility he could be a carrier of the bacteria.  I'm not thinking so -  you would have thought if he was a carrier he would have had problems before.

I am so thankful we now know what we're fighting - ok B's fighting and he is now getting the correct medicine.  

 

Lasts and Firsts

Little K's last first day of high school & L's first day of high school in America.

Have a great day girls. 

Just do it now

Over all my house is pretty clean, I do have some major hot spots (ok, hot rooms).  With the arrival of our exchange student, L, I needed to take care of one of those hot rooms - the room that would be her bedroom.  This room had served as an office and catch all; now what do I do with all of this stuff.

We sold the desk, moved the book shelf down to the familyroom and then there I stood, not sure of what to do with the rest.  I am what the Flylady calls a born organizer (BO) but over the past year or so I have run-a-muck.

This is what it looks like now:

It feels so good to actually have that room cleaned out and able to leave the door open once again.

I am learning a lot about myself, as much as I want "A place for everything and everything in it's place" I am just not there as often as I would like to be.  Maybe I'm just being too hard on myself, maybe I've over committed myself (those of you who know me know that is perfectly out of character...ha ha) maybe I've just turned lazy.  What ever the reason I don't like the results. 

By now I'm sure you're asking where all of that junk went, some of it went to the basement simply because I was running out of time and  I didn't know what to do with it just didn't want' to deal with it; other stuff actually got organized and put where it belonged.  I did have to come up with a new office system which included putting my 2-drawer file cabinet and another 3-drawer container to store office supplies in my bedroom closet.  I am blessed with a big walk in closest and this arrangement is only temporary.  On the Flylady website they talk about and sell The Office In A Bag, I loved the system and have adapted it to the supplies I had on hand.  Now I am using a Trapper Keeper to manage my bills and other papers that need to be kept close.  Since I have changed things around I am losing my options for places to stash papers and junk.  I guess that means I will have to apply the Do It Now theory.

The bedroom closet is full but for the most part in pretty good shape, the basement on the other hand looks like I should audition for the show "Hoarders" and I am not comfortable with that at all.  I will work on that project a little at a time.

This up coming year will be a challenge, busy, hectic, and I'm sure very rewarding but I am SO looking forward to it.

It’s a girl…she arrived at 10:28 a.m.

Four weeks ago I received a phone call asking if we would consider hosting an exchange student. I said "sure send the profile", knowing darn well we wouldn't really do anything with it. We looked at the profile, talked about it as a family and prayed. 


Today she arrived:

L is from Muelheim An Der Ruhr, Germany. She flew into New York on Thursday and then caught a 6:00 a.m. flight to Lincoln. We found out later she really hadn't slept all night, since she had to catch a bus at 2:30 a.m. to go to the airport. We're still not sure where she was staying that caused her to leave so early.













L's birthday is on Monday, since we couldn't find a Welcome balloon we settled for birthday balloons.

 













Once she was settled in we took L to Red Robin for lunch. 

While decided what she wanted on her sandwich she asked what a pickle was. We take so much for granted, I had no idea how to describe a pickle. In the end I think she figured it out and decided she didn't want it.




L is a wonderful, sweet young lady and we can't wait to get to know her more. I don't have a hard time understanding her English at all but I feel bad because she doesn't always understand me. 


We had to make a trip to the store after dinner so L could get an adapter for her computer so she could plug it in. When we came home she went straight to her room and crashed. The poor thing – it was only 4:00 a.m. in Germany, no wonder she was so tired. 


So that's a quick recap of L's first day in Lincoln and as a part of our family. She will be staying with us for the upcoming school year. 

I will update more later.  This is going to be a great year.

The Results Are In

    It has been 10 weeks since I joined Family Life Fitness and started Boot Camp classes and it has been just as much a challenge mentally as it has been physically. When it comes to exercising my body my mind is just as weak. I did the easiest levels for the longest time; I realized I was there physically not mentally. I was there because I need to get in shape, because that's where I thought I should be.  If Big K didn't go – I considered it a vacation – she was gone for a week at a time – twice….yeah for me, right?


No, not yeah for me, I was only hurting myself. As time has gone by I am finding I don't mind sweating so much (I've gotten smarter now and bring a small towel with me). I am finding that I am starting to push myself further and enjoying the burn…..what's up with that? I've discovered a class called N-ferno; it's a step aerobics class – I Love It. I'm not very coordinated at it right now but I Love It. 


This gym is a fairly new gym. They are remodeling and still working on getting the equipment. Some of the cardio equipment arrived this last weekend. I am so excited to get on the treadmill, elliptical, and start working out more on the weights. Gee maybe I can make this a life style change. 


Family Lift Fitness isn't just about exercise they are full circle and also include nutrition classes (personal one-on-one if needed). I wouldn't consider myself real faithful to the work outs in the last 10 weeks even though it definitely more then I would have been doing by oh say 100%, but I have been even worse on the nutrition side. I know what I need and should eat vs. what I need to leave alone but I just don't seem to do it. I love food. I am currently working more on "Eating to Live instead of Living to Eat" vs. strict nutrition guidelines. I'm noticing that as I am working on this philosophy some of my food choices are getting better without much thought from me. 


So with a half heartedness attempt at working out and a quarter heartedness (don't know if that's a true term but it is now) attempt at nutrition, the results are in:


-1.0# in body weight
-3.4% body fat
-1.25" in my arm
-3" in my chest
-3.5" in my waist
-2.5" in my hips
-1.25" in my thighs
-8.3# total body fat
+7.3# muscle
Total inches lost -11.50

I am so excited; I even joined the 30 day challenge for the month of August. So is it working yes….consistency and baby steps. 

Slow and steady wins the race.