We love Valentine's Day around here, even more so when it's extended throughout the weekend which gives us more time to celebrate our love in the cheesiest, over the top, tackiest ways we can come up with. Christian and I met on February 15th 2003 at a a Mormon Single Adults Valentine's dance. Because the dance was held a day after Valentine's day there was a big banner outside of the dance hall that read "Welcome to the Last Chance." Yup that's how we met, at the Last Chance Mormon Single Adults Valentine's Dance.
Keeping with tradition Christian and I continue to go to Valentine's dances, held at our church. I particularly enjoy it because every year I feel like it's a full immersion lesson on 80's American pop music, which apparently I really enjoy. I spend the 80's in Brazil listening to this and this, which is nothing like the electric slide.
On Saturday we went to our congregation's annual Valentine's dance. A nice surprise about Christian is that he really likes to dance, so we danced a lot. This whole past week I've been dealing with a UTI and self medicating through the ever so nasty 100% cranberry juice. On Friday I over extended myself on the dance floor and came home with my back achey right where my kidney's are. We ended our Date Night sitting on our bedroom floor watching episodes of Modern Family, while I drank big glasses of cranberry juice. I was hoping that I could laugh the back ache away since the cranberry juice was obviously not working.
However, the next morning I knew I had a kidney infection.
I've had two kidney infections in the past. Both times I ended up going and staying in the hospital. It's miserable. Kidney's are not meant to be infected. They're meant to do it's thing, tucked away in your body, where you simply take them for granted.
I needed to get antibiotics pronto or else the infection would quickly get out of control, and the lower back pain I was feeling would escalate into miserable-debilitating-pain. Now here is where you go to the doctor, show your insurance card, wait for at least an hour in the waiting room (because everyone waits), get your prescription, pop your meds, and climb in bed with the biggest water bottle you can find.
Or you can freak out because you don't have insurance.
I don't have insurance and yes I did freak out because paying for medical treatment out of pocket rhymes with nightmare.
All of the low income clinics (there's only actually 2 in my whole area, which is crazy to me) were closed on Saturdays so I went to Planned Parenthood where I was greeted by unfriendly protestors and had to be escorted in by Planned Parenthood volunteers. Now, as an open Mormon you may know my position on abortion but you know what, thank goodness for Planned Parenthood and the services they give to communities. And for the protestors who were screaming "you don't need this" at me, the truth is I do. I need a place where I can get affordable treatment, yes I do.
Planned Parenthood was gracious, but packed none the less. After waiting for 2 hours I got the thumbs down, I would have to come back on Monday.
On the way home I stopped by an Urgent Care in the hopes to get seen. Up front I would of had to pay $150 and then they would bill me the rest later. How much? They had no idea. So I went home defeated, angry, and in pain. Meanwhile life goes on right? The kids are restless, Christian has a huge event he needs to cook for as part of his RA job, and I need antibiotics. We check with the animal feed stores, who by the way sells over the counter antibiotics -- you just need to figure out the dosage, if I can come by and pick some up. As someone who's allergic to ampicilian and gentamician my options are limited. Plus, isn't it a little dehumanizing that if you don't have health care you need to resort to getting your meds from the pet store?
The story continues with a series of unfortunate events but in the end I did go to a doctor. I did pay out of pocket and I did get the antibiotics that I needed. I spend the rest of Saturday in bed and all day yesterday in bed. Today I'm feeling 50% better. I'm taking it as Valentine's gift.
Even though I now want to go scrub my bathtub and cook a huge meal, I promised Christian I would rest. I'm horrible at resting but my Valentine's gift to Christian this year is to listen to him at least on this one. I hope to return to blogging, cooking, and picture taking in full health very soon.
Bummer, I really wanted to share a frittata recipe I made using Kerrygold cheese and butter but I think I'll wait until next Monday to blog again. In the meantime if you want to participate in the Cook Off (that doesn't actually require cooking) for this month you have until the end of this week to do so. Right now we have one participant, which is one more than zero so I'm not complaining. I only want you to do it if it's something that's going to be fun for you, so no pressure.
As for Valentine's Day...
I'm going to rest and then I'm going to sit on a chair (because sitting is resting) and I'm going to cut hearts out of pepperoni and put it on a pizza that is store bought. I'm going for minimal effort today. The end result should look like this Valentine's Pizza from One Charming Party. I wish I could do more to show the fam I love them, good thing I have all the other days of the year to do that when I'm not debilitated by a kidney infection.
Can I just say how relieved I feel that I made the kids' Valentine's for school last week?
Today I only had the strength to make one Valentine.
If I could I would send then a box of homemade chocolates to go with it...
And to you my lovely readers,
Have a wonderful
healthy
fun
delicious
Valentine's Day!
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