Erratic Project Junkie: Summary Sunday - Mystery Diagnosis Edition

It's been kind of an odd week. I'll just throw that out there right away. It was a little rough to get back in the swing of things at work and it still doesn't feel like it should be January. Especially since there is NO SNOW on the ground. It's getting a little ridiculous.

It was a trying week for me. For those of you who don't know, I've been dealing with some joint and nerve pain since the summer. It got really bad just prior to Christmas and I've been feeling a lot of discomfort. By the end of my half day work day on Thursday, I was in tears. It doesn't help that my insurance has yet to approve the medication my doc wants to put me on.

I finally got into the rheumatologist this week (after a four month wait) only to find out that she's 99% sure that I don't have rheumatoid arthritis (the likely diagnosis my regular doc was working off of). She says there is definitely something wrong, but my symptoms don't point in a clear direction. Right now it's most likely leaning towards lupus or fibromyalgia. So...more tests for me.

I got Swiss cheesed on Friday and they drew out about a gallon of blood to run a crap load of panels. I go in for nerve testing next Thursday and start physical therapy on Friday. Whee! (FYI...I'm a horrible patient. I hate taking meds and I really hate exercise. I'm lazy like that.)

But...today the pain is down to a 3 with the help of some ibuprofen, so I'm more or less back in the swing of things. I'm giving you the background of the week as an excuse for why I've accomplished virtually nothing...other than about ten blog posts. :)

Posts I Posted : Okay. So I may have gone slightly overboard on posts this week, but things just lined up this way. I finished off the 2011 Book of the Year challenge with a crazy three posts on the 2nd in order to break down the bracket into the Sweet Sixteen, Quarterfinals and Finals. I have to say that I'm pretty happy with the results.

Books I Read : I managed to finish and review two books this week : Lift and Clockwork Angel. Dairan also did his very first review - of Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. He starts this week out with his review of the second book in the series, The Sea of Monsters. He says he's pretty excited to start his bracket next week. Thanks to those of you who have commented on his posts. He's really enjoying it.

Projects I Completed : I got started on my Smash and Project Life albums this week. I'll be posting some of that along with starting the Christmas Project posts this coming week. This week I gave you a sneak peek by showing you photos of the resulting projects. I've also started putting together my project and blog planner binder to plan out the things I hope to finish this year. I have some pretty neat stuff on the list so far.

Recipes I Used : Okay...I'm kind of cheating here, but I forgot to put it on last week so I'm sharing it now. For New Year's Eve I made Crockpot Buffalo Chicken using a recipe I found on Pinterest. It was crazy delicious and we've been eating off of it all week. Collin says it's great in a breakfast burrito with eggs and ham too. I just had sandwiches with Monterrey jack cheese. Yum. We're all big fans.

Favorite Post of the Week : Guess what?!?! I'm actually reading blog posts again. Crazy right? Anyway, I don't have particular posts to share, but I want to share three new sites courtesy of my Twitter friend and fellow blogger, Shalini. She's big on books and she reads blogs from three other crazy readers who do reviews as they read. They've been fantastic from what I've read so far. So go check out Shalini's Reading (and chickens) blog as well as Hilarity in Shoes, Princess Nebraska and Everyday Reading.

Favorite Thing on the Internet : Okay...I know I'm a little slow to the party, but I have recently become (overly) exposed to George Takei (you know, Sulu from Star Trek). The man is HILARIOUS! He has his own website, blog, YouTube channel, Facebook and Twitter. What started it all for me was this video...