Mommin' It Up!

February 12, 2013

Can’t win for losing.

Oh yay, another “what’s wrong with Emily today?” post. I’m sure you’re all excited to read this! Now might be the time to click away from here and google “cute kitten pictures” or something, because this is bound to be a bunch of nonsense.

Anyway. I am so frustrated and need to get this out!

Last week I wrote about how I’d been diagnosed with adrenal fatigue, and how glad I was to finally know what’s been going on with me for the past eight months.

I am glad and I am feeling better, but I am incredibly frustrated because it seems like everything I’ve been doing to try to make myself feel better has actually contributed to the problem.

For example – training for a 60 mile walk. Sounds like an awesome way to get in shape, right??

Wrong.

“Most people think of exercise as jogging or muscle building. While these are beneficial to general good health and promotes circulation and muscle strength, it is not the best solution when it comes to Adrenal Fatigue. In fact, wrong exercises may make Adrenal Fatigue worse and can trigger adrenal crashes easily.” From Dr. Lam Adrenal Fatigue Center

I wanted to stop using hormonal birth control, so I got a copper IUD in October (three days after walking 60 miles, I might add). Awesome!

Not so much.

First, I had a vasovagal response to the procedure itself. Here’s my favorite quote from the Wikipedia definition – Taber’s Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary[3] describes this as the “feeling of impending death.” Two weeks later I had my first migraine ever, and for about two months I had extremely horrible digestive issues.

As it turns out…

There’s a possibility copper IUDs can cause elevated copper levels (or copper toxicity) in some people. What does copper toxicity do? I’m so glad you asked.

“Elevated copper and low zinc related to adrenal burnout impair the immune system… Often secondary to adrenal exhaustion are other glandular imbalances such as hypothyroidism… Several researchers postulate an association between migraine headaches and excessive tissue copper… One may also feel nausea, impaired appetite, and possibly some other digestive disturbances.”
From DrLWilson.com

FISH!!!!

And finally – Jenny’s going to love this one – you know what else contributes to high levels of copper in the blood?

LEAFY GREENS.

Shoot me.

February 11, 2013February 10, 2013

The Rapson House…Where Together Counts!

If you’ve read this blog for awhile you know that I’m an “everything in moderation” kind of girl. I begrudgingly exercise in a way I can tolerate (Pilates! You will never find me doing anything called “Insanity” or that involves dancing, mmkay?) because I need to, and because well…I want to have a little wiggle room to give myself a treat (read: nice sugary soda!) once in awhile. That’s why the few things I’ve done so far in 2013 to clean up some of my favorite treats (coffee creamer and chocolate syrup) with make-at-home recipes has been so beneficial. It’s helping me with my energy balance – calories in, calories out. Being active and applying moderation is really working for me in 2013 – and that’s why I was so excited when Together Counts asked me to be an ambassador for their organization this year! Because this year, Bobby and I are trying harder than ever to be active with our kiddos so that energy balance will be a natural part of our lives. And as you can see, we love being active together!

snowfight — We even got active in the winter this year!

I first heard of Together Countswhen Emily and I went to the Mom 2.0 Summit conference last year. We got our rear ends out of bed EARLY to do beach side yoga with Together Counts and it was awesome!

Bonus points if you can correctly identify Emily and me in this picture!

So, what exactly IS Together Counts? It’s an initiative of the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation that encourages families to eat meals together and be active together, while providing corresponding tools and resources to teachers and school nurses to help teach kiddos how to have a healthy, active lifestyle. I’m SUPER-EXCITED to be working with them! i really encourage you to check out their website for great resources, including activity sheets, and also to follow them on Facebook and Twitter.

In the coming months I’ll be posting on the Together Counts blog about a variety of subjects and I’m really looking forward to it! (I’ll be sure to let you know when to heard over there and check out my posts.) Now that three out of five of us in the family are eating gluten-free, (not to mention Jonah’s oat allergy) and I’m working with my big kids on eating what I cook instead of their own special little “I’m a picky eater” meal – I’m going to have a lot of family meal material! And who knows what new ways we’ll come up with to stay active together? It’s going to be a great year in our house that’s for sure. I can’t wait to see what 2013 has in store for the five of us.

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I am being compensated for my role as a Together Counts Ambassador. All opinions about the program are my own.

February 8, 2013

Don’t trip on your lip

We have had kind of a rough week this week. Sophie was sick and missed school Monday and Tuesday (after being off Thursday and Friday last week for teacher in-service, of course), and by yesterday Jonah had caught her cold and is now coughing his head off in full-force. Sads. :/ But the real trauma came on Wednesday afternoon, Sophie’s first day back to school in a week. I had just arrived home from a doctor’s appointment for my variety of unsettling aches and pains (a CAT scan reveals I’m not dying – yay!) when my phone rang at 2:10.

“Mrs. Rapson? This is the school nurse. I’ve got Sophie in the clinic here. She tripped and fell on the way in from recess and has a pretty bad fat lip. I wanted to warn you so you won’t be alarmed.”

Sophie gets out of school at 2:45, so at that point there was no way I could’ve gotten to her before the carpool mom did, so after the nurse reassured me that she was fine and a “trooper”, I waited for her to get home. I expected a girl with a dramatic story and a puffy lip. I did NOT expect THIS:

OhmahGOSH!!! My poor baby! I couldn’t believe how bad it was. I couldn’t believe it didn’t need stitches (the nurse assured me it did not.) I couldn’t believe all her teeth were intact. Praise the Lord, her teeth and gums were fine.

So. We iced it as much as she could stand Wednesday night, and put her to bed confident it would look much better in the morning.

Except it did NOT look better in the morning. I was pretty freaked! I decided to keep her home from school…again…so we could ice it, disinfect it, and just keep an eye on it. I checked her gums and teeth again just to be sure everything was still intact. I couldn’t believe how bad it still looked!

Fortunately, after lots of ice, cold drinks, and food cut up into tiny bits, it did improve. This morning she was all ready for school, looking like this:

sophielip2 — No, she’s not a hipster. That’s a bruise, not a mustache.

She was really excited to get back to her friends! And to be wearing this season’s hot new shade of lip gloss, “Neosporin Spring”.

I guess maybe this injury was well-timed…I’ve been blazing through season 4 of “Toddlers and Tiaras” on Netflix and the idea of a full-glitz Sophie was starting to get appealing. Oh well, I guess the fake teeth, hair piece, and spray tan will have to wait until her lip heals!