Naughty Little Monster.....

Since the only child I have is of the 4-legged furry nature, I do my best to make sure that her Christmas is just as special as ours is. This year, I got Cookie a new shirt (which she actually doesn't mind wearing), a new ID tag, a couple bags of treats, some chewy bones, and a toy to put in her stocking. I think she did pretty well!

I finally got her new ID tag in the mail yesterday evening and it's really cute. This morning I put everything in a box, wrapped it, and put it under the tree with Steve's presents. After doing that, I got in the shower so that I could get cleaned up for the day. When I got out of the shower (about 15min. later) this is what I found...




... My rotten little Monster had pulled her present out from under the tree, unwrapped it, torn the box open, and had a great time!! The pink and black thing you see in the picture is her new shirt... The small brown box has her new ID tag in it... She's standing next to her package of chewy bones... And one whole package of treats is completely gone. SHE ATE THE WHOLE THING!!!

I really wanted to be mad at her, but all I could do was laugh and grab my camera. The best part was that she knew she was in trouble when I walked out there... She wouldn't even look at me!

It's a good thing I take care of Cookie's presents every year. She'd be on Santa's "Naughty" list this year for sure!!

Wow.... Just, WOW!!!

I know it's only December 1st, but I feel like I've just recieved the best Christmas present ever!!

As most of you know... I've been dealing with this stupid tumor again. I was on a fairly mild medication called Parlodel and seemed to be doing pretty well on it. However, at the beginning of the year, my Prolactin level started it's old familiar climb once again... At one point reaching 186 (the normal range is 19-24). My Endocrinologist tried upping the dose of medication a couple of times and didn't see any improvement. My body had built up a tolerance to it. So, she switched me over to a medication called Dostinex which is much stronger and comes with all the nasty side effects.

Although it made me feel crappy for a few weeks, the Dostinex seemed like it was going to do the trick. My Prolactin level dropped about 10 points after the first round of blood work, so my Dr. upped to dose again in hopes that it would drop even more. It dropped a few points the next round and then seemed to stabilize in the 150-160 area. I was beyond frustrated!! I felt like I had been doing everything I was told to do but was still not seeing the improvements I was hoping for.

A co-worker of mine brought me a bottle of a product called Monavie one day. He told me that he and his wife had gone to a couple of meetings and had done a lot of research on it. He gave me the bottle for free and begged me to just give it a try... No strings attached. I figured I had nothing to lose, so I started taking it.

The first thing I notice was that within a few days of starting the Monavie, I was sleeping so much better! I've never been a good sleeper... you can ask my mom. But I noticed I was falling asleep easily and I was STAYING asleep! The next thing I noticed was that my bottle of Excedrin was no longer my best friend. I hadn't taken any... NOT A SINGLE PILL... since starting the Monavie! I decided I would continue to take the product until I got the results from my next round of blood work which was scheduled to be done at my Dr.'s appointment on November 29th.

When my Dr. walked into the room at my appointment the other day, the first thing she said to me was, "Wow! Your hair looks so healthy... and you're skin looks great!" Now that kind of a comment wouldn't even have phased a lot of people. But I can tell you right now that I have NEVER had ANYONE tell me that my skin looked good. I was shocked! She checked a few other things, wrapped up the appointment and sent me to the lab for bloodwork. The lab told me it would be 3-4 days for the results, so all I could do at that point was wait for a phone call.

Well... It turns out it only took 1 day because the nurse practitioner called me yesterday afternoon to give me my lab results. My Prolactin leven has dropped to..... (drumroll, please)..... 43.4!!!

I was absolutely floored!! I was hoping to see a little improvement, but was definitely not expecting anything like that! 116 points in 6 weeks was unbelievable! My response to her (I'm a little embarassed to say) was, "NO SH*T!!". I haven't seen numbers that low since right after I had surgery... Almost 3 years ago!! I was, and still am, SOOOO excited!! Steve even took me to the Rusty Bucket last night for a celebratory cheeseburger... WOO HOO!!

If you want to read more about the product itself, visit http://www.monavie.com/ .

I'M STICKING WITH IT!!!