For those of you who were keeping up with the cleaning challenge, you probably realized that I gave up after a very short time. It just wasn't working for me with my life and the way I live.
With that being said, I did come up with a weekly cleaning guideline that has helped a lot. Here it is:
Monday: Clean the kitchen from top to bottom. This includes counters, floors, tables, chairs, stove, fan, microwave, etc. Do a regular cleaning of the rest of the house. Laundry: clothes
Tuesday: Clean the bathrooms from top to bottom. This includes counters, floors, tub, shower, toilets, sinks, mirrors, etc. Organize the vanity quickly and throw out anything that looks old. Also, fold the towels in the closet if they have gotten messed up. Do a regular cleaning of the rest of the house. Laundry: towels
Wednesday: Clean the master bedroom & dining room from top to bottom. This includes dusting, cleaning the table, vacuuming under the bed, tidying up the closets and clearing off the bureaus. Do a regular cleaning of the rest of the house. Laundry: bedding.
Thursday: Clean the kids' rooms top to bottom. This includes picking up toys, putting things away, vacuuming, cleaning under the beds, and dusting where necessary. I also pick a few large toys to clean with sanitizer. Do a regular cleaning of the rest of the house. Laundry: none
Friday: Clean the living room from top to bottom. This includes vacuuming, picking up toys and putting them back in the kids' rooms (we have a toy basket in the living room, which I empty every Friday). Also, dust the furniture and vacuum the crevices on the couch. Clean the sliding glass door and wipe down the TV. Do a regular cleaning of the rest of the house. Laundry: clothes
Saturday and Sunday I just do basic cleaning and there isn't any more laundry to do until Monday. This way I kind of have the weekends off. If there is an event happening or I am hosting something, then obviously I do more cleaning. If things are slow or I am bored, I pick a big task off my list to accomplish. I keep a pen and pad handy for when I'm doing something else and think of/see another item that needs to be tackled at some point.
That's it. Basically I pick one area/room each day to tackle and then just do a quick clean up of the rest of the house. I clean the windows every other week on the inside, and save the outside cleanings for the "spring cleaning/fall cleaning" marathons.
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Friday, November 9, 2012
Lyme disease
I've decided to write a blog post about my recent experience with ticks in New England in hopes that others recognize the symptoms of Lyme and get tested before they feel like I have been.
My story begins the weekend before Halloween. I woke up Saturday morning feeling off. By the time I had breakfast made I was so nauseous that I didn't want to eat it. I also had a strange pressure in my head, like before you get a migraine headache. Wonderful.
As the day progressed, so did the nausea. My stomach started to bloat a little as well. By Saturday night, I was unable to keep food down. I thought I had a 24 hour stomach bug. We had friends over and the timing couldn't have been worse. After losing my dinner, I decided to take a shower to try to feel a little better.
That's when I saw the speck. Right in my belly button. A little black dot. It was a tick. I called my husband in and he was able to get it out, whole and alive. It was hands down one of the smallest ticks I've ever seen. I continued on and by Saturday night at midnight my stomach was so bad that I had my husband run to the gas station for Pepto.
I rode out the illness through Sunday and through Hurricane Sandy on Monday. At this point we were getting concerned. My back was hurting, my knees were hurting and my all-day nausea was making it impossible to eat. Of course we thought I could be pregnant, so we quickly ruled that out.
By Tuesday I still wasn't any better. My husband told me to call the doctor. I agreed and was able to get an appointment for that Friday. As the week went on, my symptoms worsened. Friday couldn't get here soon enough. I was tired and sick and couldn't take care of the kids or the house.
My doctor immediately suggested pregnancy. Why is it that whenever a woman in her child bearing years goes to the doctor for an illness, they assume you're pregnant? Do you really think that thought didn't already cross my mind? Wow, I'm so glad I waited all week for an appointment and then paid my $25 co-pay for my Dr. to play the role of captain obvious. No. I am not pregnant. Lets get serious.
So then she did her usual exam consisting of blood pressure, listening to my lungs, my heart, etc. She took my temperature and had my lie down on the table so she could poke at me. Pretty much everywhere in my abdomen hurt along with most of my lower back, knees, etc.. I told her about the tick and she decided to do a bunch of urine work and have a Lyme test done, though she admitted that she thought Lyme was unlikely given that the tick wasn't engorged so it probably hadn't been on for any length of time.
I waited through the weekend, with increasingly bad symptoms. On Monday, I called for my test results. They had come in that morning, but the doctor hadn't reviewed them so I wasn't allowed to know yet. I called again in the late afternoon before they closed. Still nothing. That night at 6:30 my doctor called me. She was surprised, it was Lyme. She prescribed some antibiotics and had it sent over to my pharmacy.
I got the email from the pharmacy letting me know my prescription was done 4 minutes before they closed. I'd have to wait another night. What a long night it was! At this point my back pain and nausea made it impossible to sleep for more than 10 minutes at a time. Standing was a no-go. Sitting was a no-go. It was awful.
I picked up my prescription first thing on Tuesday and began taking the pills immediately. It took until Thursday to notice an improvement and I woke up again this morning (Friday morning) feeling terrible. I hope it will get better after my next dose. The doctor is supposed to call today or Monday to let me know the results of the more detailed test to determine whether it's a new infection or if I've had it for a while. I'm not sure why that matters, all I know is that I'm glad I insisted on the test.
My story begins the weekend before Halloween. I woke up Saturday morning feeling off. By the time I had breakfast made I was so nauseous that I didn't want to eat it. I also had a strange pressure in my head, like before you get a migraine headache. Wonderful.
As the day progressed, so did the nausea. My stomach started to bloat a little as well. By Saturday night, I was unable to keep food down. I thought I had a 24 hour stomach bug. We had friends over and the timing couldn't have been worse. After losing my dinner, I decided to take a shower to try to feel a little better.
That's when I saw the speck. Right in my belly button. A little black dot. It was a tick. I called my husband in and he was able to get it out, whole and alive. It was hands down one of the smallest ticks I've ever seen. I continued on and by Saturday night at midnight my stomach was so bad that I had my husband run to the gas station for Pepto.
I rode out the illness through Sunday and through Hurricane Sandy on Monday. At this point we were getting concerned. My back was hurting, my knees were hurting and my all-day nausea was making it impossible to eat. Of course we thought I could be pregnant, so we quickly ruled that out.
By Tuesday I still wasn't any better. My husband told me to call the doctor. I agreed and was able to get an appointment for that Friday. As the week went on, my symptoms worsened. Friday couldn't get here soon enough. I was tired and sick and couldn't take care of the kids or the house.
My doctor immediately suggested pregnancy. Why is it that whenever a woman in her child bearing years goes to the doctor for an illness, they assume you're pregnant? Do you really think that thought didn't already cross my mind? Wow, I'm so glad I waited all week for an appointment and then paid my $25 co-pay for my Dr. to play the role of captain obvious. No. I am not pregnant. Lets get serious.
So then she did her usual exam consisting of blood pressure, listening to my lungs, my heart, etc. She took my temperature and had my lie down on the table so she could poke at me. Pretty much everywhere in my abdomen hurt along with most of my lower back, knees, etc.. I told her about the tick and she decided to do a bunch of urine work and have a Lyme test done, though she admitted that she thought Lyme was unlikely given that the tick wasn't engorged so it probably hadn't been on for any length of time.
I waited through the weekend, with increasingly bad symptoms. On Monday, I called for my test results. They had come in that morning, but the doctor hadn't reviewed them so I wasn't allowed to know yet. I called again in the late afternoon before they closed. Still nothing. That night at 6:30 my doctor called me. She was surprised, it was Lyme. She prescribed some antibiotics and had it sent over to my pharmacy.
I got the email from the pharmacy letting me know my prescription was done 4 minutes before they closed. I'd have to wait another night. What a long night it was! At this point my back pain and nausea made it impossible to sleep for more than 10 minutes at a time. Standing was a no-go. Sitting was a no-go. It was awful.
I picked up my prescription first thing on Tuesday and began taking the pills immediately. It took until Thursday to notice an improvement and I woke up again this morning (Friday morning) feeling terrible. I hope it will get better after my next dose. The doctor is supposed to call today or Monday to let me know the results of the more detailed test to determine whether it's a new infection or if I've had it for a while. I'm not sure why that matters, all I know is that I'm glad I insisted on the test.
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