May 9 - The thrush came back full force this past weekend. Sunday morning I was on a picnic and ate a handful of potato chips without too much difficulty. They were so yummy that Sunday night I decided to eat another handful while I was lying in bed watching TV. Ouch! The salt stung my tongue like crazy! And I was suddenly super sensitive to all the little sharp edges while chewing! WTH? I didn't realize things could get so bad that quickly. So, I sent a message to Doctor K through the health portal asking for yet another prescription. I also filled her in on what Dr. C had said about this probably being chronic. She responded super fast as usual. Have I mentioned that I love her?? Here's what she said:

Hi Ms. Quinn,
I sent in the 2 dose fluconazole with 5 refills. An alternative-- after you've treated any current outbreak of thrush is to take one pill weekly to prevent thrush.The only potential risk of this is that you develop thrush that is resistant to fluconazole (a possibility anyway, but more likely if you are taking fluconazole continually). Let me know if you'd like to do the weekly med and I will send in that prescription or we can discuss further at your next appointment.
PEBBLE KRANZ, MD

So, I was really torn. I would love to take a weekly pill and not have to constantly battle with this stuff but what happens if I DO develop a thrush that's resistant? What then? It's not like there's an alternative medicine out there (that works, anyway) that I can take. Also, the upside to battling each instance of thrush is that I'm still holding out hope that one of these times it simply won't come back (despite Dr. C's negativity!). If I'm taking a pill weekly, I won't know if the thrush is truly chronic or not. <sigh> I'm due for my girly appointment next month anyway so I went ahead and set that up and will take my questions and concerns with me to discuss with Dr. K.

And on a side note, I DID look at my tongue in the mirror on Monday and yes, there were groupings of white spots on my tongue. I'll have to let Dr. C's PA know that the next time I'm in.

Another 5k to run this Saturday. I haven't done much running in the past 2 weeks though so this might be just as painful as the last one. On the bright side, all of the edging in my yard is complete and I've done about 75% of the mulching. Not quite the same as running, I know, but at least I haven't been sitting on my couch slacking either! :-)

Improvements:
- Thrush still sucks.
- Spit production probably around 50% at this point.
- Bullfrog effect still happening.
- Garbled talking.
- Partial taste buds - Sweet is around 15% right now.

FUN stuff!

Golf league last week was a blast! Turns out the ladies I'm playing with suck just as badly as I do! LOL! They're just out there to have some fun, they don't take the game seriously at all. I believe I'm really going to enjoy this league. :-)

The bruising on my backbone has disappeared. It may very well have been the mattress! I'm loving the new mattress. It doesn't creak when I get up. Heck, it doesn't even move when I get up. The only downside to it so far is that it's really tall. I have to hop up a little just to sit on it. Freedom usually just sleeps in his dog bed in the corner because his arthritis doesn't allow him to jump on the bed but every once in a while, he'll stand at the bottom of the bed and whine because he wants to be up with me and Jack. On the old mattress, I could put his front paws up on the bed and then just give his butt a little shove to get him up. On this mattress I have to bodily lift his fat ass up and onto the bed. We're talking 80 pounds people! I might herniate something. Stay tuned.

The neighborhood sale last week was awesome! I bought a French press ($5), a movie ($1) and a clothing rack ($1). The clothing rack was supposed to break down so that I could put it in the canvas bag I brought but it seemed to be stuck. Scott offered to carry it for me instead. The number of comments he received while carting that thing around was crazy! He was totally loving the attention though. ;-)

The picnic at Highland Park on Sunday was a good time. There were 12 of us that hiked around looking at all the flowers, touring the green house, checking out the reservoir, the castle, and the sunken gardens. It was a beautiful day with beautiful people.

This weekend Scott actually gets his house back for the week while his wife and daughter are in Florida on vacation. He's taking full advantage of it and I will finally get to taste his self proclaimed famous sauce on Sunday. He's inviting his mother in law over too so I get to meet her, as well as his 22 year old son and girlfriend. A weekend of getting to know my sweetie just a little bit better. Good stuff!

Carnival Cruise Lines has been going ballistic with their marketing. Every single day I'm getting e-mails or phone calls for deals that are going on. I finally couldn't take it any more yesterday. I'm now booked on a 5 day cruise to the Bahamas the first week of December. It was $200! Five days of 24 hour food, entertainment, lodging.....I could not say 'no'! So, now I'm trying to lure a girlfriend into sharing the king sized bed with me for the week but I might just end up going alone. Our HR Manager at work went on a cruise by herself last year and she said it's one of the best things she's ever done! We'll see.