Our trip to North Carolina.....

So.....I have completely awesome news to share.... I'm well enough to go back to work!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!! and that is a huge YAY!!!! I have been out of work now since January of this year (except for three short weeks) due to surgery and complications and several hospitalizations for my psoriasis...But now...thanks to a wonderful dermatologist and confirmation from an even better dermatologist I now get to go back to work...I love my job and I have missed it dearly....Ok so now let me share a bit about our trip to North Carolina.....

Let me first start by saying....we made this appointment with this dermatologist because we had run out of hope...no one here was helping get my psoriasis under control or even helping me enough to make it comfortable to walk or sit or sleep or just live....I was miserable...I was totally covered and in the hospital when I made the appointment with a dermatologist 12 hours from my home....I would have driven 24 hours to see someone that could help me.....Even though I was in the hospital and put on Remicade and it was working Fred and I decided to go ahead and keep the appointment with this doctor....My psoriasis can go from being clear one day to being completely covered in less than a week...so we figured...go anyways....right...anyone of yall would do that right?.....

Well.....here goes our trips story...... We left out early in the morning on the 15th, my birthday.......Fred and I were sharing the drive time...since he had worked so much leading up to the trip, I took the first leg driving.....Fred took over as we came into the mountains....as we were coming off the mountains the car wasn't stopping very well and the whole front end was shaking like crazy.......I was scared to death....once off the mountain we pulled over to check the car out...after a day of calling people and Fred looking at the car we decided it needed new brakes and rooters....so that was a 200 dollar expense we didn't expect.... :-( Bright side...we made it over the mountain without crashing....lol....

The next day we headed out to the doctor.....The hospital was HUGE....took up a whole block...the wait wasn't too long at all....we met with a resident first who looked through the pictures from before I was put on Remicade...he was impressed on the progress....then the doctor comes in...says looks like everything is going great answers a few questions about pros and cons of methotrexate..and starts to walk out of the room when we mention we drove 12 hours to come see him and that we were told he was wonderful by Mike from cure now....he turns around and writes his personal cell number down so next time I get in a crazy flare up i don't have to drive 12 hours to see him...lol...so thank you Mike for that...but I was a little down on the fact that we had gotten that far and he didn't offer us much information.....but that was good in the same breath because that means I'm better... I'm not hard to figure out... I'm not in pain right now.....So I'm thankful for that and we knew that was probably going to happen anyways....

The next day we headed out to see Old-Salem.......if you are really interested in this you should set aside two days....they offer houses and information on the 18th and 19th century.....but they only have one century open per day.....but I do suggest if you are a history buff and you are every in Winston-Salem.....go....it is totally worth the money....we loved it!

On Saturday we drove over to the NC Zoo....wow...what an adventure...totally worth the 10 bucks a person....it is 5 miles of walking but wonderful...it was such a nice day outside...and best of all......yes I not only wore short sleeves...I wore no sleeves...and shorts....I haven't worn shorts in public in ten years (maybe longer)..... So needless to say...We took lots of pictures....lol...

Sunday was our last day in North Carolina so we decide to head out to Charlotte and see the Cure Now walk site for the October walk....BEAUTIFUL!!!!! Could not have picked a better place....We were greeted by the sound of children laughing and playing all around us...after walking into the actual park part of the site Fred and I were amazed at the beauty of this place......a nice pond with lots of ducks and geese....very tame...just a very beautiful...calm....tranquil place....We liked it so much that we will not be coming to the walk alone....we are signing our three kids up to walk with us....It is amazing!!!!! I’m going to try to load some pictures up tonight or tomorrow morning.... There is also a nature center that is connected to the park...I highly suggest if you are bringing kids to the walk that you visit that too....It was 12 bucks for Fred and I to get in....they have a dome you can go in and walk around with butterflies flying all around...they have a good amount of things for kids to do there as well....

So we are now back home and trying to get everyone back in the swing of things...we are going through a lot of changes as a family right now as well...Fred got transferred to a different store (closer to home, but still something new for him to adjust too)...I’m going back to work....the kids are fixing to be starting school....Just a lot going on around here...so my blogs will be sporadic but never the less...they will be here....and so will I.........I haven’t heard anything from some of yall in a while...wondering if yall are ok and if yall are still out there..........

Well that sums up our trip to North Carolina.......I cant wait to go back in October to the walk.....We are also busting our rears right now trying to get together the fundraiser we are doing to raise money and to education people in our community about psoriasis and the affect it has on our every day life...so wish us luck on that.... Well I must say goodnight as I have to head out to the doctor in the morning and hopefully get all the paperwork done so I can get my broke self back to work....


Goodnight!

Much Love
<3 Cindy