I don’t think I’ve shared very much about why 2017 was a pretty awful year for me. December of 2016 I started having extreme chest pain that resulted in a lot of ER visits, dozens of Dr appointments trying to diagnose me, and a lot of pain medication. It got so bad that we ended up needing to put Brielle in daycare spring of 2017 because I was either knocked out from all the drugs they had me on to manage the pain, at a Dr appointment, getting blood work/bone scans/XRAYS/cardio workups done, or trying to survive when a particularly bad bout of breakthrough pain came through. 12 months after I had my 1st Dr appointment for the pain (and my first of many minsdiagnosises) an amazing Dr finally figured it out, I had a severe case of erosive esophagitis with a lot of acid etching and ulcers all over. On top of that I was having nearly daily esophageal spasms that would last for hours and start to twist in on itself. When that happened it’d push even more stomach acid up, and since I had all this exposed tissue from the etching, when the acid would touch it the pain was excruciating. I’ve had several Drs say that the pain is on the same level as a heart attack. So long story short, I’ve been on a plan of medications, diet changes, and reducing stress (unfortunately, all this was stress triggered and I still get flare ups when my stress levels get a bit too high) to ease the symptoms for all of 2018. I’ve been off all pain medications since earlier this year and I feel part of the world again. Especially since I don’t really remember much of 2017, it’s so bizarre and scary that these drugs can be so powerful to basically erase your memories!

I finally got the go ahead from my Dr to take Brielle out of daycare the beginning of summer and I was absolutely ecstatic! I’ve missed her so much but it was a bit of a bittersweet moment. Our whole family has come to love her daycare teachers and the friends she’s made there so we were all sad to have her leave. I wanted to come up with something that she could give out as goodbye gifts, but they’d work for end of school year gifts as well! For her friends she gave out crazy straws and they were a huge hit with all. Attached was this tag I created. You can download it below

For her daycare teachers we got them each a jar of honey that is locally made as well as another tag I made. You can also download this one as well below. Overall, I’m so thankful that she had such amazing people in her life while things were so unpleasant at home but I’m also so thankful to be healthier and get to see her so much more! Enjoy the tags!

Just click to download