About a year after John returned from Iraq we started making preparations to move to Fort Lee, Virginia to attend the Captain's Career Course. I guess I should back up just a bit first though...
In February 2006 John was promoted to the rank of Captain. Along with his promotion, John decided to "stay in" the Army for a little bit longer than the 4 year commitment he signed when he commissioned in (Dec '02). According to his commission, John is eligible to get out of the Army as of December 2006, but by choosing to attend the CCC in Virginia, John will add an additional year to his original commitment.
So, back to the summer of 2006. What a busy summer it was! At the beginning of May we loaded up the car and drove to Alabama. We spent a few days traveling to visit friends in Florence and Birmingham, and then left Charli with my parents and flew to Jamaica (sounds like a repeat from last summer doesn't it). This time, the trip to Jamaica was to see John's sister, Rachel get married to Khasha! The entire Nichol's Clan met up in Jamaica and (compliments of Josh and his connections) we were able to stay in a villa for the duration of the wedding.
The "No Problem Villa" was very different from the resort atmosphere we experience on our previous trip to Jamaica, but it had a lot of perks as well! The villa was lived in and run by a family of Jamaicans. They usually opened up their home to groups such as youth groups and had several rooms on the second floor for guests. It was basically a large, (older) Jamaican mansion! The bottom floor had a large living and dining area, as well as a small TV room, but we didn't spend too much time there. There was a large deck with a pool and a huge porch with a table that could easily seat 20 people. The house had an open floor plan, which was necessary for the air to circulate through the house. They didn't use air conditioning at all. They had large wrought iron gates that they would close at night (where french doors would typically be in a house here in the states). The gates kept intruders and pests out, but let the air flow through the house to keep things cool. They did have window units in the bedrooms, but we were only in there to sleep at night. It was a pretty cool experience to stay there.
During the days, we would all go over the The Ritz Carlton and use the pools and facilities as wedding guests of Khasha and Rachel. Pam and I even participated in water aerobics one morning. After the beautiful wedding, John and I had made arrangements to spend our final three days in Jamaica using our hurricane voucher we received from Sandal's last summer. So we caught a bus over to Sandal's Grande Ocho Rios and spent three nights there. It wasn't as nice of a resort as the newer Whitehouse we stayed at last summer, but we still enjoyed the food and the other resort amenities. We did decide, however, that if we ever take a trip like that again, it would be so much more fun to have another couple to hang out at the pool with and have dinner with, etc.
After the trip to Jamaica we stayed in Huntsville for a few more days and had a giant BBQ at my parents house for all of John's friends. Then we flew back to Kansas (leaving our car and puppy in HSV for the time being).
In Kansas we met up with the movers and they worked very quickly to pack and load all of our household goods that were heading to Virginia.
After the house was all packed up, we flew back to Huntsville/Muscle Shoals and then drove to Birmingham for Philip and Melanie's wedding. After their wedding we took the car and drove back to Kansas, leaving Charli with my parents until we were finished moving. We spent the night in downtown St. Louis on the trip back out to Kansas and visited the Gateway Arch! John still had another week or so to finish clearing post and we worked on getting the house cleaned up and ready to clear. We spent our 2nd anniversary getting ready for a housing inspection the next day. I drove through Burger King for dinner while John worked back at the house. I got him a "cotton" shirt from Gap and he got me the Clay Aiken CD.
We finally headed out for Virginia. What a long drive! We took three days to do the trip, which I think totaled around 22 hours if I remember correctly. When we got to Fort Lee, the first thing we did was check in with housing and put our name on the waiting list. Unfortunately, it would be a 4-6 week wait until a house was available. So we decided to look for a place off-post, but everything was very expensive and small. Although the on-post housing was old and ugly, it had the most space, so we decided to wait it out. We lived in the Quality Inn of Hopewell, VA for a little over 3 weeks. Finally, a house became available and we started the process of moving in, but that didn't happen until the last few days of June. My parents drove over to Virginia and returned Charli to us and helped us unpack all of the boxes. They spent a few days with us and we traveled over to Williamsburg, Virginia Beach, and a few of the historical sights in the Petersburg area as well.
Whew... what a busy summer!
Calendar of Events for May-June 2006
May 6- Garage Sale
May 7 and 8- drive to Huntsville
May 9- Fly to Jamaica
May 12- Khasha and Rachel's Wedding
May 13- leave Montego Bay for Sandals
May 16- check-out; return to HSV
May 20- Fly to Kansas from HSV
May 22- movers pack house
May 23- movers load goods
May 26- Fly Kansas to Muscle Shoals
- B'ham Rehearsal/Dinner that night
May 27- Philip and Melanie's Wedding
May 28- Return to HSV from B'ham- started trip back to Kansas
May 29- Drive back to Kansas
May 30- initial clearing appointment
May 31- Inspection/Clear Housing
- check in to Army Lodging
June 2 - Final out of Fort Riley
- Stay at Quality Inn St. Louis (Caseyville)
June 3 - Meet Nahstolls for lunch in Louisville
- Stay at Marriot West Virginia
June 4- Arrive Fort Lee
- Stay Quality Inn Hopewell, VA
June 5- signed for onpost housing 217B
June 13- computer hard drive crashed
June 15- John went to Dr for allergy refill, ordered blood work
June 16- Had B/W done and got results of TSH +250
June 19- John began class
June 20- John dropped class until July session
June 23- FINALLY moved in to unit 217B
June 24- Mom and Dad and Charli arrive
June 25- Pamplin Park Civil War
June 26- Household goods arrive
Monday, June 26, 2006
Friday, June 16, 2006
Thyroid
After John returned from Iraq I nagged him until he gave in and went to the doctor. He was always stuffy and sneezy, which I assumed was from allergies, and he snored loudly all the time. They put him on allergy medicine. It helped a little.
A few months after that John went back to be tested for sleep apnea. It came back that he needed a CPAP machine to sleep with because he was having more episodes during the night than the typical person would.
Before long, we began to notice that the list of things "wrong" with John was rapidly growing, but we thought we had an explanation for each of them:
-He was working out 2 times a day, and was getting worse. He even failed a PT test.
-His skin was dry and cracking.
-His skin was yellow in color and he couldn't get a tan. He was so pale and sick looking.
-He was unable to concentrate on anything anymore.
-Work became a huge source of stress due to the inability to concentrate.
-Because he couldn't focus, a simple task would take him hours (sometimes) to do.
-His face was fatter, swollen and puffy.
-He wasn't sleeping well at night.
-He had been diagnosed with sleep apnea.
-He put on a few pounds and couldn't get rid of them. No amount of dieting and exercise helped.
-He had leg cramps and sore muscles all the time.
-The hair on his legs was patchy and falling out.
Everything was a chore to him. Because work left him so tired and irritable, he wasn't the most pleasant person to be around in the evenings. Even on weekends he would be stressed and worrying over the next work week. We started talking and figured two things: he probably had ADD and he was getting older (hence the weight gain and inability to stay in shape).
We even went as far as seeing a counselor and having tests run to see if he was ADD (the tests said he was). John was dreading the move to Virginia and starting all the classes for the Captain's Career Course. He knew it would be a huge challenge to him to do all the reading, projects, and studying.
Once arriving in Virginia, John made a routine visit to the doctor to get a refill on his allergy medicine. He mentioned in passing to the doctor how much trouble he was having getting back in shape and how sore his muscles were all the time. The doctor oddly asked John if he could look at the palms of his hands. Apparently the doctor saw a warning sign there (puffy hands and yellow palms) and decided to order up some blood work on John. (Picture: John's face at it's "fattest")
Later that day while we were out running errands together, John's cell phone rang and it was the clinic telling him they need him to come back immediately. We were scared. We didn't know what was so urgent that they needed to see him so soon. We pulled over on the side of the road and prayed, and then headed to the clinic. It turns out that John has been suffering from the side effects of an under active thyroid. Thyroid disease usually affects women more commonly than men, so it's understandable how this could have gone unnoticed for so long. A normal thyroid level should be between 0.5 and 4.0- John's TSH (thyroid levels) was +250!!!! The doctors and nurses at the clinic were astounded. They treated him as if he were the walking dead and even went as far as to say that he could have easily gone in to cardiac arrest at any time due to the amount of exercise he was doing with levels that high.
With strict orders from the doctor to do limited physical activity (absolutely no exercise), John was sent home with a prescription for synthroid. Within two weeks of taking the new medicine (and doing NO physical exercise) John dropped 20 pounds. As the weeks went by we started to notice one symptom after another disappear. After three months, John was given the go ahead to start running and working out again. It didn't take long before he was back in shape and finally feeling good.
When we found out about his thyroid condition, the doctors decided to postpone him until the next class that started in July. They said that no one could expect him to concentrate with thyroid levels that high. So we enjoyed the rest of June and part of July together! We did a good bit of sight seeing and went up to DC and Virginia Beach. We found some cool malls in Richmond and familiarized ourselves with the community we would call home for the next 7 months.
John was a different person.
A few months after that John went back to be tested for sleep apnea. It came back that he needed a CPAP machine to sleep with because he was having more episodes during the night than the typical person would.
Before long, we began to notice that the list of things "wrong" with John was rapidly growing, but we thought we had an explanation for each of them:
-He was working out 2 times a day, and was getting worse. He even failed a PT test.
-His skin was dry and cracking.
-His skin was yellow in color and he couldn't get a tan. He was so pale and sick looking.
-He was unable to concentrate on anything anymore.
-Work became a huge source of stress due to the inability to concentrate.
-Because he couldn't focus, a simple task would take him hours (sometimes) to do.
-His face was fatter, swollen and puffy.
-He wasn't sleeping well at night.
-He had been diagnosed with sleep apnea.
-He put on a few pounds and couldn't get rid of them. No amount of dieting and exercise helped.
-He had leg cramps and sore muscles all the time.
-The hair on his legs was patchy and falling out.
Everything was a chore to him. Because work left him so tired and irritable, he wasn't the most pleasant person to be around in the evenings. Even on weekends he would be stressed and worrying over the next work week. We started talking and figured two things: he probably had ADD and he was getting older (hence the weight gain and inability to stay in shape).
We even went as far as seeing a counselor and having tests run to see if he was ADD (the tests said he was). John was dreading the move to Virginia and starting all the classes for the Captain's Career Course. He knew it would be a huge challenge to him to do all the reading, projects, and studying.
Once arriving in Virginia, John made a routine visit to the doctor to get a refill on his allergy medicine. He mentioned in passing to the doctor how much trouble he was having getting back in shape and how sore his muscles were all the time. The doctor oddly asked John if he could look at the palms of his hands. Apparently the doctor saw a warning sign there (puffy hands and yellow palms) and decided to order up some blood work on John. (Picture: John's face at it's "fattest")
Later that day while we were out running errands together, John's cell phone rang and it was the clinic telling him they need him to come back immediately. We were scared. We didn't know what was so urgent that they needed to see him so soon. We pulled over on the side of the road and prayed, and then headed to the clinic. It turns out that John has been suffering from the side effects of an under active thyroid. Thyroid disease usually affects women more commonly than men, so it's understandable how this could have gone unnoticed for so long. A normal thyroid level should be between 0.5 and 4.0- John's TSH (thyroid levels) was +250!!!! The doctors and nurses at the clinic were astounded. They treated him as if he were the walking dead and even went as far as to say that he could have easily gone in to cardiac arrest at any time due to the amount of exercise he was doing with levels that high.
With strict orders from the doctor to do limited physical activity (absolutely no exercise), John was sent home with a prescription for synthroid. Within two weeks of taking the new medicine (and doing NO physical exercise) John dropped 20 pounds. As the weeks went by we started to notice one symptom after another disappear. After three months, John was given the go ahead to start running and working out again. It didn't take long before he was back in shape and finally feeling good.
When we found out about his thyroid condition, the doctors decided to postpone him until the next class that started in July. They said that no one could expect him to concentrate with thyroid levels that high. So we enjoyed the rest of June and part of July together! We did a good bit of sight seeing and went up to DC and Virginia Beach. We found some cool malls in Richmond and familiarized ourselves with the community we would call home for the next 7 months.
John was a different person.
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