Home again.

Also titled: An insanely long post in which I frequently use parentheses.

Sadly, the stupid condo did not have internet, which means my blog posts for the month are going to be way down. But what can ya do? (Yes, I'm sure you all think it's weird that I care about how many posts I make in one month.)

Anyway, I know most of you will be thoroughly disappointed, but I forgot to bring a camera with me this week, so no pictures. (Sorry Jordan!) Then again, we didn't really do anything that warranted pictures, in my opinion. But I will give you a play-by-play of everything I remember from this week. (You'll just LOVE Tuesday.)

Sunday - I got up at 7:40 am and started doing laundry because I felt crappy Saturday and calculated that I could get all four loads done before my grandma came to pick me up. So yes, laundry, laundry, lunch, and more laundry. My grandma called early afternoon and said she wouldn't be by till about 4 because she still had to pack since she didn't want to do it while her sister was still at her house. So 4:00 comes, my grandma arrives, we get some food packed up, and we leave. We go to the grocery store and pick up some stuff that we didn't have at our house. Then we drive to our condo. It was less than 40 minutes, which was nice, and then we unpacked. We were on the top floor (the 3rd floor, so it's not like it was a long way up, haha) with an amazing view of the ocean.

Monday - We ate breakfast, played cards, watched The Price is Right, ate lunch, and played more cards. I had woken up feeling like my right shoulder and right ribs were breaking, which freaked me out because they were the things that hurt the worst when my lungs collapsed. (More on this later...) Then we put on our bathing suits, covered up in clothes, went for a short walk on the beach, and then went to the pool. I only swam a few laps before my shoulder pain got so bad I couldn't take it. So I got in the hot tub, thinking the jets would be good for both my shoulder and ribs. 15 minutes later, I got out and the pain was ten times as bad. So we didn't really do anything else that day except play more cards (California Rummy and Pay Me!, if you must know) and go to Michelangelo's Pizza for dinner. Also, I ended up taking a breathing treatment because my chest felt so tight, even though I wasn't wheezing.

Tuesday - We had to get up super early because my grandma wanted to leave by 8:00 for my 12:00 appointment at Duke. I woke up with chest pain and neck pain, along with my shoulder and ribs. So we ate breakfast, and left, and I read about the first half of The Last Song (which I loved so much that I now want to see the movie when it comes out, despite the fact that Miley Cyrus is playing the main character). Went to my neuro CT scan, and when I laid (lay? I never know the right tense to use) down on the CT table, it felt like my chest was collapsing in. then headed up to the 3rd floor to wait for my clinic appointment with Dr. Fuchs. We were so early that I had plenty of time to do lots more reading before I went back. Dr. Fuchs showed me the scan from today and the one from last month when I was still in the ER, and he told me that my shunt was working great and showed me that the ventricles were visibly smaller. (Yay!!!) Then, I told him about the pains and trouble breathing, so he told me to go to the ER and get a chest x-ray. So that's what we did and I was admitted quickly. Then, things slowed down. First, I had to wait for the doctor to come examine me. Then, I had to wait for pain meds (a long time!). Then, I had to wait for the chest x-ray results. I rejoiced that my lung was not collapsing again. That was normal, so the doc said he wanted to get bloodwork because since the x-ray was normal, they wanted to search for the reason for this pain. He said that if the test they were doing on the bloodwork came back negative, they'd give me some pain meds and let me go, but if it was positive, then that might indicate a blood clot in my lungs, so they would have to run another scan. Those results took an hour and a half, which we expected. All along, I'm texting back and forth with my mom trying to keep her calm enough not to drive all the way up to Duke until we know that something's wrong. The scan took half an hour, and the results took half an hour, but they were clean. (Another Hallelujah!) So basically 7 hours in the ER to find out I have pleurisy, inflammed lungs due to a germ infection that clears up on its own, and Ibuprofen will do the trick. Go figure, right? We got back to the condo just before 1 am and crashed.

Wednesday - My grandma got up at 9 and headed back to our town to get her hair done. I slept till noon when she got back. Then took a nap from 2 to 3:45. We played a game of cards, then I got a shower. For dinner, we went to Tsunami, a Japanese buffet restaurant. It is SO delicious. We played more cards and watched Law & Order: SVU. My grandma likes to watch certain TV shows every night, so it was great that she actually let me pick one for once. :)

Thursday - We relaxed in the morning and were planning on going to a place called The White Swan for lunch, but I got distracted by Law & Order: CI while my grandma was in the shower, so we didn't leave till 2:00, and the place closes at 2. (My grandma was not happy about this.) We ended up going to Bojangles for lunch, then to the Dollar Tree for candy and new decks of cards, and I sat in the car while my grandma snooped in some random store. Playing cards, a shower, and dinner were about all that happened after that. (The usual, you know?)

Friday - We basically did nothing up until 4:00 when we went to Belk. My grandma searched for sweatshirts (and nearly bought this hideous black shirt that had glittery Christmas presents on it), but was unsuccessful. Then we went to El Zarape for dinner. It was amazing. I've been to an El Zarape closer to my house, but this place was soooo much nicer. And just as delicious and same great prices (even better that night since my grandma had a coupon). Best meal of the week, that's for sure.

Today we did nothing but eat breakfast, clean up the condo (the stuff that everyone has to do the day they leave), and leave. SO good to be home.

Yes, I know this post was incredibly long, but I know you all are just so fascinated with my life that you want to know every detail about my vacation week. ;) I'll be back to normal posting tomorrow.

Two posts I have in mind: The Duggars and my plans for a family in the future.

For now, I plan on relaxing with my mommy. :) Laundry catch-up begins tomorrow.