So yesterday Barry & I went to the city for my second lithotripsy procedure. My app’t was scheduled for 10am this time instead of 7:15am which was a whole lot better, but I ended up waiting until about 1:30 to actually get it done! They didn’t put the IV in until I was on the table so I didn’t faint this time. I was sedated but not unconscious like I was last time. Felt pain in my left side very soon after the procedure and it just got worse. Like on a scale of 1-10 it was an 8 or 9. They said I wouldn’t (or shouldn’t) need anything more than Tylenol #1?s, but even though I took a Tylenol #3, it didn’t take away any of the pain. When I got home at 4:30pm I went straight to bed and waited for the pain to subside. I was able to get up around 7pm and eat some yogurt. Haven’t passed a single stone yet, which is kind of troublesome as the stones in my ureter were supposed to be blasted to sand which would mean easy to pass.

Next week when I go again (hopefully for the last time) I am going to insist on a shot of pain meds before I leave because I do NOT want to deal with the pain again! It’s during Labour Day weekend too which means I won’t feel well enough to sell my jewelry at the Stanley Fly-In like I was going to…no extra $$ for me.

For those who don’t know, I have been dealing with kidney stones since 2 days before my wedding, almost 11 years ago. In April I had a CT scan done on my kidneys where I found that there were 2 good sized kidney stones in my kidney (9mm & 5mm) so I was sent to a urologist to get a lithotripsy procedure done last Friday, the 19th.

I had to get up at 4:45 so I’d have time to take a shower and stuff then drive to the city and find out where to go. That was bad enough, but then I couldn’t get to sleep until about 3:30!

So we get there and give her my info then go into another room and she weighs me (ugh), takes my vitals, asks questions about the meds I take and tells me about the procedure, then I wait for about an hour and a half. We (Barry & I) then go into yet another room where the guy puts in an IV. Normally it’s really hard to find a vein to put the IV in and I get stuck a bunch of times but this time he only had to do it once….yet I fainted afterward. Ugh! I HATE that I’m a fainter!

So after I’m feeling better and can sign the consent form, they wheel me in and put me under the machine and the anesthetist gives me some “rum & coke” in my IV (that’s what he called it) LOL. I must’ve went to sleep right after that because next thing I know I’m in the recovery room where a woman is giving me juice and cookies. I wasn’t supposed to fall asleep, just be relaxed and pain free…must’ve been pretty tired!

When I woke up I was already having kidney pain but it wasn’t horrible. We drove to Stanley to pick up the girls who were with my ILs and I rested on the bed in their trailer until we were ready to go (my MIL was out with the girls so we had to wait until they got back). I peed before we left and it was almost straight blood, with some little clots and a few little stones. Scary! As we drove home my pain started getting worse and worse and by the time we were about 10 minutes outside of town, the pain was so bad I fainted & threw up a little in my mouth. Barry rubbed my arm and kept asking if I was okay. I could hear him but didn’t have the energy to speak. He asked if I wanted to go to the hospital and I said no, knowing that they’d just give me a pain shot and a Rx for some pain meds which I already had. So when we got home I went straight to bed and he brought me a Toradol since I’d already taken a Tylenol 3 two hours before. He gave me a cold Magic Bag and I got under the covers and slept for about 3 hours.

The first day I was passing stones every time I used the bathroom, but haven’t passed anything significant since Saturday morning. I have a follow up appointment on Friday with an x-ray and if the doctor thinks I need it done again, I will have to do so that day I think. Ugh! I just don’t want to be in pain anymore…seriously. 11 years of having them more than 3 times a year is enough!

On May 9th we got 2 little bobtailed kittens to foster for a month…they were so sweet! We got to name them so we chose Trixie and Pixie. The day I had to take them back to the SPCA was a hard one. I cried a lot that day! It only took a few days to get over it but I do still think of them and hope they get adopted into their forever home soon! We will be fostering some more kittens in the future too.

We are having a pretty lucky year here in the Layden household…Kristen won a contest through Family Channel and won a Liv doll, I won a Mother’s Day basket for charity that was worth well over $100, and Kaylee just won a $250 gift certificate last week towards the purchase of a bike & helmet! The local pharmacy has a contest at the end of every school year where you bring in your report card and then get a ballot to win one of 2 gift certificates (1 for a boy, 1 for a girl) and this year Kaylee was one of the winners! We went out right that afternoon and purchased the bike and helmet then my mom had to pick up the bike the next day because Barry was away overnight that night and I didn’t think it’d fit in the car. Here are some pictures of Kristen’s and Kaylee’s prizes!

On June 28th Kristen got a retainer for her mouth. She has a crossbite and when one of her top teeth came in, it came in too far back and wasn’t able to move forward because her bottom teeth were in the way. So, she got a retainer that has plastic below the teeth so the top teeth and bottom teeth aren’t touching so the tooth can move over top of the bottom one that’s in the way. It also has a little spring behind that tooth to help assist it to move.

The girls just finished up their Fun in the Sun Day Camp last Friday and they got to tie dye t-shirts. They wanted tank tops though so I went and bought some for them. I think they turned out pretty nice and the girls love them!

I haven’t done much jewelry to sell lately, just some pieces for gifts and myself. I have done some layouts though!

We are off to Ottawa for a week soon so I’ll be posting more pics after we get home!

I haven’t been doing a whole lot lately, making a bit of jewelry and scrapped a page today using a kit from Misty that will be out on Saturday! I really like it! The colors are great and there are lots of embellishments. Those birds, butterfly and bee are sweet!

Here are some pieces of jewelry I’ve done lately!

oh, and I made this for my mom for Mother’s Day. Shhh…don’t tell her!

You can find the top 2 and a whole lot more in my Etsy store!

Now onto something more serious…Lauren Grier is a fun, edgy, talented designer that I have known since my first designing gig at Elemental Scraps back in 2006. A few weeks ago she fell severely ill and was hospitalized with 3 life-threatening blood clots. La works so hard, and struggles each day to be an amazing single mom and designs her heart out as the sole provider for her awesome son Connor. So the designers at SSD, and friends from all over the community have come together to stand behind La. All proceeds of this beautiful kit go to Lauren, but it’s only available until the end of the month so PLEASE help this wonderful woman out by purchasing this kit and/or the awesome templates made by the SSD Sugarbabes!

Thank you and have a wonderful Easter weekend!!

Now onto the freebie…I got a wallpaper from Smashing Magazine for March and I love it so much, I wanted to try and duplicate the look for an April one. I made 2 sizes, 1280×800 & 1024×768, and both are with calendar or without.

I hope you guys are all doing better than we are here…my 5 year old Kaylee started with the stomach flu on Saturday and then my 8 year old Kristen got it on Sunday. Neither of them went to school today but Kaylee is now feeling better (I can tell because she’s playing with her jewelry on the floor) but Kristen is still feverish and throwing up, poor girl.   I just hope that it doesn’t last long and that neither myself or my husband get it!

And here are some samples of the jewelry I’ve been making!

There is plenty more in my shop as I make at least one piece to sell every day!

Store: www.bit.ly/JLDatFPD

If you haven’t been following my Facebook page, I have started designing beaded jewelry and accessories and have opened an Etsy store. I can’t say it’s because of this that I am retiring from designing but it did give me a push towards doing so. I hope you will all take a minute to check out my shop to see what I have to offer and I will continue to put new things in my shop at least a few times a week. So far I am making a few new pieces every single day! Good thing my hubby doesn’t do the banking. LOL

Etsy: www.etsy.com/shop/JennilynDesigns

I have kept my same name so at the end of the month, my Facebook page will become a page about my beading. If you are a “fan” of my page you are definitely welcome to stay on and keep up with my Etsy shop. As always, you can get to any part of my designs whether it be my shop, blog, Facebook page or Twitter through my main site www.jennilyndesigns.com.

I thank you all for being great customers and I’m sure I’ll still be around digi-land as I haven’t given up hope that my scrapping mojo will be back soon!