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So Tyler’s defective… (I promise he called himself that)

I know, I know. I promised to finally post those backlogged posts from summer – I promise I want to but Term 4 is being mean to me already. But I at least got the pictures on my computer and have sorted through them. Okay, this week/weekend I will totally get on that.

But on other notes, I figure some updates on the Paulson life would suffice for now. Tyler first. We have postulated that he might be gluten intolerant. He has been feeling pretty bad the last month or so, and as he has told me over the last week he feels like he has been feeling off for the last year and half or so. So as with any and all persistent, non-illness related GI things the first thing any good doctor (or med student) thinks is gluten. Okay, that last part is a lie mostly because gluten intolerance/sensitivity/Celiacs is like REALLY hard to diagnose and many people get really frustrated by that. But I am new to the game so I can be on the lookout. But anyways, my first guess is gluten. It is a secret destroyer of people’s intestines. So poor Tyler has been put on a temporary gluten-free diet while we try and determine if that helps. I feel like if he suddenly decides in a couple weeks he feels better, we can feel pretty sure we found the culprit. If not, well, we will move on to theory B.

So that means for now we are on a strict diet. That also means I have to cook like every meal. Grenada is not going to be GFree friendly like back home could be. Restaurants are too risky, especially since he needs to be extra strict so we can feel confident on deciding if there is an association or not. So I have been reading food labels, buying ridiculously priced pasta made of rice, and feeding Tyler tons of veggies! I even made him gluten free chocolate chip pancakes – because I am nice like that. It is way too early to tell if it is working. He thinks he feels better, but I am wary of placebo effects and the like.

Me on the other hand, just life moving in to high-speed mode. And for whatever reason my neck/shoulder area that I have had troubles with forever has come back into being really annoying. I got the problem mostly better with my strict use of bookstands and appropriate posture/reading angles. But alas, pain has returned. Today I even got a massage after class because it was so bad and I was hoping that something would give me some relief for the week. We will hope this is a temporary thing.

So I guess prayers are appreciated for us both. Me for pain relief and Tyler for, well, relief in general. I personally feel like if gluten is it, at least we will have solved the problem. Tyler’s love for bread and pasta and all things gluten-y-goodness might hope otherwise. But I think we can make do. I do love to learn how to bake new things.

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Past 6 weeks in Review

Wow – I can’t believe how bad I have gotten about blogging. You would think considering I had way more free time during the last term I would have blogged more, but I guess our life just felt too boring. Or I took too many naps – I am choosing not to say which one.

The last 6 weeks have been a whirlwind of stuff really. Another term at SGU completed. Another class passed, another step closer to my M.D. Today was the start of Term 4, arguably the hardest term and I have been in a way looking forward to it and in a way dreading it. I mean the workload and that looming 13 credit class are terrifying, but there is always this “right of passage” feeling to hard things. Plus this is supposed to be the real start of learning all of the really cool stuff that you use all the time as a doctor. Sure I have learned a lot, but now we get all of the stuff we need to know to diagnose people and treat people – real medicine stuff.

The last 6 weeks have mainly consisted of one very rushed trip back to Cali for a friends wedding. While the wedding was a blast, it was quite stressful and exhausting and left me really behind in school. But I will say worth it. Then it seemed like midterms came and went and then Tyler’s whole family came to visit. We spent so much time hanging out with them, having them over for dinner, lounging on the beach with them, and of course trying to watch the Olympic games but failing (long story). We were sad to see them leave as we always are. We love when people come visit, gives us an excuse like we are on vacation but we still get to sleep in our own bed. Plus, I wanted to steal the fridge from their hotel room so bad I might have to organize a night heist at some point. They apparently make a whole line of retro appliances that I now definitely want for our future home. I will totally make it work with our modern, eclectic, indie chic style vibes. I may have to smash our fridge with a bat so it “breaks” so I can buy one.

Anyways, enough about that. Pretty much after Ty’s family left it was time for us both to get back to work and catch up and then finals came and the term was over. I swear, 6 weeks have never gone by so fast!

I also got older. A whole year older. My birthday fell sadly on the day before our final, so I studied most of the day. So I declared Friday my birthday Part 2 and did all the requisite celebrating. Massage, made cookies, and went out with friends. Tyler and my dear friend Kelsie put it all together and we had a great night with some of out closest friends here in Grenada. Not a bad night!

The gang.

The whole group at my birthday dinner!

With Kelsie and Tyler - two of my favorite people on earth!

With Kelsie and Tyler - two of my favorite people on earth!

That basically sums up most of the last 6 weeks. Stay tuned for some “belated posts” that were left half-written on our blog for too long but include photos and stories from too many fun adventures to pass on posting.