March + April 2021 | Recap

It is most definitely spring here in Michigan (FINALLY) which means it’s time for another monthly recap. I’m sharing some big medical news, plus some updates on my plans for the rest of the year. Grab a coffee or tea, sit down, and let’s recap!

Where was I in March + April?

• Countries: 1 (USA)
• Cities: Lansing and Grand Rapids, Michigan
• Flights: 0
• Days on the road: 0

March + April on the blog…

Blogging was pretty sporadic throughout March and April. When I wasn’t overwhelmed with work then I was overwhelmed with health appointments. This didn’t leave a lot of time for blogging, until I got some energy back at the end of April and bashed out three blog posts!

• January + February 2021 Recap
• 1 Week in Sri Lanka Itinerary (this marked my LAST blog post in my Sri Lanka series! You can check out my Sri Lanka page to see all the blog posts I wrote about this trip/how to plan your own trip to Sri Lanka)
• 20 Long Distance Relationship Games
• 17 Endometriosis Awareness Shirts and Sweatshirts

March + April adventured like…

• COVID vaccine progress: I have been fully vaccinated since early January thanks to my job, but basically nothing in my life changed due to that as not many people were vaccinated at that point. However as of mid-April, both my parents are now fully vaccinated! This means I am a lot less anxious at work because my main worry this whole pandemic has been bringing COVID home to my mom, who is in a high risk category. In addition to my parents, it has just been so great seeing so many of their friends, and some of my friends too, get their vaccines.
• I got a haircut…finally: Surprise, surprise, but going 14 months without a hair cut is not a good look. I love my new haircut and yes, I have even been influenced by Gen Z to switch to a middle part.
• Endometriosis surgery update: I haven’t announced this yet on Instagram or anywhere else, but I got some huge news regarding my endometriosis surgery. If you read my January/February recap, you know that my specialist surgeon (who I was on a waiting list for 7+ months for) retired. Well, after a *lot* of stress that I won’t go into in this post, I recently learned that my case was accepted at the Center for Endometriosis Care in Atlanta, Georgia. Which means that probably my first trip of 2021 will be flying down to Georgia for a life changing surgery. (I will definitely be writing a separate post about this whole saga, so stay tuned).
• B12 deficiency (AKA shots, shots, shots, shots, shots!): If you’ve been following along on Instagram (there’s now a stories highlight), in March I randomly learned I was vitamin B12 deficient through a routine yearly blood test. Well, after further investigations it seems that my digestive system is no longer absorbing B12, and the only way I can receive it is through injections. This is likely due to an autoimmune disease called pernicious anemia, which used to be fatal until the treatment of B12 injections was discovered (scientists won the Nobel Prize for this!). I’ll have further tests this summer to determine the cause. For the time being, I’m having “loading doses” (daily injections for two weeks, then weekly injections for a month) to get my B12 levels up to normal. I have to say… I feel really good. It is crazy to think that a lot of terrible symptoms I put down to endometriosis, or “aging,” were actually a sign of me slowly dying from B12 deficiency for the past few years. And it is SO easily treatable with these shots. It has definitely been a lot to process but I’m really happy with how things are progressing.
• Swimming: One happy thing in the midst of a LOT of medical appointments that pretty much consumed my March and April, is that I have been swimming! Due to my flexible work schedule, I’ve been swimming twice a week in the afternoons and it has been so great to get back in the pool.
• Coffee shop: Last week I finished seeing patients early but had a ton of notes to write. I was nearby my favorite coffee shop that I used to study and write at all the time, so I decided to drop in. Well, I ordered a hot chocolate and sat inside to finish up my notes for an hour. They just recently reopened for indoor dining, and had a really great set up with open windows and tables spaced very far apart. It is the first time I have “dined” indoors in Michigan in 14 months! And it felt so great to be back, safely, doing something I used to do (and enjoy) a lot.

Upcoming in May…

I don’t have a lot of plans for May, June, or summer. My main goal that I am laser focused on is finally, finally, finally having excision surgery for endometriosis. Right now I am just waiting for a call back from the Center for Endometriosis Care to schedule it. Additionally, this surgery will be “out of network” for my insurance so I am a bit worried about the financials, but I will deal with that when the time comes.

It is hard to schedule anything or even make aspirational plans while I have this surgery looming over my head. One fun thing I do have coming up, though, is a trip to Ohio to see one of my best friends from college! She is a teacher so also fully vaccinated, and the CDC gave their stamp of approval on fully vaccinated people meeting. Not going to lie, I have been pretty isolated from IRL friends throughout the pandemic so I am very excited.

As for planning a trip to see Dan, my long distance boyfriend who regular readers know very well, that is also completely up in the air and dependent on my surgery date. My surgery could be as soon as a month from now, so we are going to wait until after my recovery to see each other. But he is still not allowed in the United States (as I incessantly remind people, the USA has closed borders to people from the UK and many other countries since March 2020). So, I will likely have to travel to the UK again like I did last August. It is wild to think that by the time I’m recovered from surgery, it could be an entire year of us being apart. Very hard to wrap our minds around! For the time being, we are just taking things as they come and trying to remain flexible (and sign tons of petitions to add family and parter reunification as an essential reason for travel).

Phew! How are you all doing? Anyone have fun plans for the late spring and summer? Tell me in the comments and let me live vicariously through you!