Pregnancy Update Monday 3-22

This is mostly for my records, of names and details, but there's enough info in here that the Moms would want to know that I posted it here too.



Been on the phone all morning with tricare related people.  Referral went through to Portsmouth Naval Hospital and no one I have talked to so far will reverse that. 

I spoke with the Health Benefits Advisor at the Chesapeake Tricare Clinic, Melinda King, but she said she didn't have the power to change a referral.  She instructed me to call the OB Nurse Supervisor at Portsmouth Naval Hospital.  I also asked her who I should direct a complaint about the clinic to and she referred me to HN1 Jenne. 

I called the Naval Hospital and finally got through to the Nurse Supervisor, Commander ___ (sp?).  She stated that she could not reverse a referral.  That the Portsmouth accepted me and I would be forced to go there, unless I switched to Standard.  I asked about an exception due to my medical history and my doctors recommendation and she said, "many years ago we did grant exceptions, but with the economy the way it is now...well, we lose money each time we refer someone out to a civilian practicioner."  I said, "Well I'm disapointed to hear that your money is more important to you than my health." She said, "no, no. That's not what I said."  She stated again that my health history didn't matter, my referring doctor's recommendation didn't matter, that there was no way she would change the referral, if I want to see a civilian ob, I must go Standard.

 I called HM1 Jenne to file a complaint about the Clinic telling me I was not pregnant.  I went through the whole thing with her, also mentioning the referral issue.  She said she would look into my complaint but  doesn't have the power to do anything about the referral herself, but she mentioned that she would speak with one person who might be able to reverse it.  The person she mentioned was HBA Melinda King.  She told me she would let me know by tomorrow at the latest, as I have to go Standard tomorrow if a referral doesn't work out, in order to get my bloodwork done at Dr. Kemp's on Wednesday.

Pregnancy Update Thursday 3-18

Dr. Kemp's office called back today and said my bloodwork came back and was positive and the HCG numbers were in the "normal to low" range but that really the ranges were so huge that specific number didn't matter much.  She said my # was 221.  I asked where that put me date wise, and she said, well it really doesn't do it, specifically, they can vary so much.

When I got home, I looked it up on the internet.  I am 5w3d today and for 5weeks it says that you can have a range from 18-7,084.  So, yup, I'm in that range.  I just have to go back next Wed and have it drawn again and make sure it has gone up. 

The tricare doc has put in my referral, recommending I see Dr. Kemp, but it hasn't gone through yet.  He had to send it to portsmouth so if they accept me there, instead of rejecting me (sending me to civilian) then I have to call this other lady and talk to her about it.  But the good news is that that lady is the one who finally let Lil out of Tricare and to see Dr. Stolz.

The trip to the dunes was awesome, had a bumpy windy ride out there and we had stops now n then to let the transmissions and engine cool off a bit. They were manual vehicles that they kept runnin in first and second gear. When we got out to the dunes the drivers let air out of the tires to do better in the sand. I t was a blast. We stopped also to watch the sunset over the dunes, hence the name of it ‘sunset safari’. After that we headed into this fort, village thing they have set up there that has a bar, a buffet place when they cook the food for you to get it, and also some shops where you can buy belly dancer outfits and also the robes n headpieces that the guys wear.

After awhile the belly dancer came out n it was very very cool. After her performance she grabbed some girls from the audience to have do some moves n then also some guys, was pretty funny n fun. After all of that then we rode back to the main road and back to the ship. The ride back was even more rough then the ride there which is funny n stupid because a ton of people just get drunk there because they can buy the alcohol n that’s about what 85% of the people out here do is get drunk. 2 of the 6 in my group got wasted n was annoying but thankfully the tour was at the end. The one person that threw up on the way back though was a guy who just couldn’t handle the food that was given to us. That part was ironic; I would’ve thought it was going to be one of the 2 drunkies. That was the first day; second day was pretty much just spent at the mall n was fun being out n about. Had to be back early because of duty on the third day. 

Duty wasn’t anything exciting; I had a watch from 3 till midnight. My watch was to ride with the bus driver who shuttled guys to dif places. There were only 2 places each day that the busses went and that changed up every day on where they were going, just to prevent the bad guys from tracking us, which is funny to me. But I went with them to make sure people behaved on the busses. There were 30 of us so we all rotated on who went on which bus. I ended up going on other people’s buses n never my own because of how screwy things got with the schedule n plan they had set up. The watch we are supposed to wear civilian clothes to blend in, but yet they give us, and beach patrol which are guys walking around certain areas to watch out for people misbehaving or being dumb or getting drunk, but w4e all had bright yellow shirts on, and all the same. So here we are wearing civies to blend in, with this bright yellow shirt saying target me. Yeah, brilliant. 

So the 4^th day I wanted to do laundry and just relax but I needed to get one thing out in town so I did my laundry in the morning and then tried finding people to go out in town with for just like 2 hours to grab a quick thing from the mall for Lillian. Well, found a group and it was 1 person I didn’t like at all from my last c-school in Oceana before going to Norfolk, and then 1 guy I didn’t know at all who was a bit odd and the third guy I just recognize from seeing him around the ship but can’t even remember his name at all. And I don’t really care either. Desperate times calls for desperate measures. Well, the 2 hour trip turned out to be like a 6 hour trip and there went my last night to relax. So now I’ll be heading to sleep here shortly ready to work a normal shift again. At least I had a break from the work. I’ll email some more on what’s going on out on the ship with my job n collateral duties n such when I have more time and am rested up. Love you all n hope everything is going well back home.

Richard's in port- Report of his tour

The tour was in a type of jeep vehicle but not rugged at all. There was a roll cage installed tho. We took a drive about 45 mins out there then deflated the tires a lil and went crazy in the sand dunes. Sand everywhere, like unreal amount of dunes in that area. Took a coupel stops to let the engine and transmission cool off because the whole time they are flying in first and second gear. They are all manuals, 6 passangers to a vehicle. 2 in back, 3 in the middle and 2 up front including driver. Took turns on who was sitting where, my fav spot is in the middle in the middle seat because you are dead center to watch everything coming. Its funny how they say sunset safari tour, we were hopin n sliding all over the place in the dunes. Certainly not for the motion sick person, which we happened to have one in there and was interesting half way through. Like it was a blast! Ellis is going to buy the tour the next time we pull back in here. Its worth far more the the $45 we had to pay for it. Then we stopped to actually watch the sun set on the dunes then headed to a lil fortress hut poalce where people could smoke hukas which are like giant peace pipes everyone can smoke out of at once, and there was a bar and buffet there. Half way through the meal belly dancers came out on the platform in the middle of us all. We ate at lil tables with pillows to sit on, was very cool, and the show was unreal. A lot of people were just in a daze lol After that then everyone started gathering back to the vehicles and had a trip back to the mqin road and back to the pier. The trip back was more rough then on the way there which I think is a mistake because people just got tanked there. Was annoying dealing with 2 of our 6 being drunk but not to bad odds, n then a sober one threw up because of the food lol But it was a rough ride in the dark only seeing parts of the hills from the headlights. I of course lovced it all lol

How to send Richard a phone card

First, check with me to see if there is a specific one he needs.

Go to this website https://shop.aafes.com/scs/product.aspx.

You have two options of cards to get him:
1. The ship-to-shore $20 card (1st option in 2nd row)
2. The ATT 550 min Global Prepaid Card $22 ( middle card in 4th row)

Be careful when choosing which to order because the cards also come in multi-packs and prices go into the thousands. Make sure you're choosing the option for only one card, placed like I described above.

Pick whichever one you want and click "Purchase Now".

Enter shipping information as below:
First Name: AT2 Richard
Middle Initial: B
Last Name: Brill
Address 1: AIMD IM3
Address 2: USS Dwight D. Eisenhower CVN 69
City/APO/FPO: FPO
State/AP/AE/AA: AE
Zip/APO/FPO: 095322830
Country: United States
Email: staceybrill@gmail.com
Phone: 810.423.0456

Click "view cart" or "continue shopping".

Double check your order and hit "Check Out".

Enter your billing information. Hit "Continue".

Enter your credit card information. Hit "continue".

Review your order and hit "purchase now".

Richard's Mailing Address

AT2 Richard Brill
AIMD IM3
USS Dwight D. Eisenhower
CVN 69
FPO AE 095322830


When ordering from places to direct ship to him:
First Name: AT2 Richard
Last Name: Brill
Address 1: AIMD IM3
Address 2: USS Dwight D. Eisenhower CVN 69
City: FPO
State: AE
Zip: 095322830

I THINK I have protected the blog.  I had to input email addresses that were "allowed" to read the blog.  Not sure what it will ask you when you come to read it.  Please leave comments and let me know what's happening when you visit the blog.

(This is for the people who go to the blog to read it only, not those of you who get updates in your email.)

Last chance folks, I'm password protecting the blog on Friday. Let me know if you want the password.

Tuesday update from R

I stayed up trying to shake hands with Neil Armstrong n a few other famous aerospace guys that were flown out here. I wasn’t able to shake hands unfortunately because of all the people but got a few crappy blurry pics. Some friends of mine were closer n said they got some better shots so I’ll be getting those from them

Richard update Monday

Just finished with drill. About 2 hours long. Was fun but am wore out now. There’s a lot more you have to do out here as ships company then All those games I got for out here I’m gonna be lucky to even finish one of them lol Learning a lto about the ship and damage control now, not just what programs are out here and whats available to us. Now its time to crack the books and study.

Drill, just the whole practice if something happened to the ship, constantly being ready for anything to come. I’m part of a damage control locker now to help out if something happened. There’s a lot of positions and a lot to learn about everything. Firefighting, desmoking teams, dewatering team, investigator teams, onseen leaders, pipe patching, hull technicians, and the list just goes on n on. I’ll be cycling through each position as I get my quals. I had fun with it yesterday but they can go on for a long time. They give us situations that we go through and get graded on how well and efficient we do. So that’s what all damage control is, controlling whatever might happen to the ship to keep it afloat and fighting

Richard update Sunday night

There’s like 4 or 5 that have CASS in it, but run different parts of the aircraft. This one runs a lot of odds n ends stuff. We run the most I think here. Theres 12 shops total from what I’m hearing so far. Might be more but shop 12 is the highest Ive heard so far. Things are set up differently on this ship then the other 2

I’m sleeping a little better, might try to get a bit more now at night. I’ve been waking up early to go to breakfast with some of the night check people which is their dinner, but I think I’m going to stop doing that to get a lil extra sleep now. I go to bed at 9:30ish and sleep until 4:30 now so my sleeping schedule is getting fixed now. I might just sleep until 5:30 now tho. I don’t start work until 7, but will need to be getting tools done by 6:30 when I take over.

Thursday's Update

Brandon and Lindsey kept Lillian for Monday night, all day tuesday, overnight and brought her back wed morning. Then at 10 on wed I took her to the other lindsey's, along with Kylie, and she kept them until 7pm bible study. I had both of them today but am feeling better. I had another dr. appt yesterday, because I was still in so much pain and doc said my cultures showed i had a "rare" form of strep. Imagine that. I told him i was sick of my lymph nodes being the size of golf balls and he said "honey, i'm not sure what golf ball you saw last but thats the size of a tennis ball." It really was. But today, they're back down, quite a bit. As Lindsey said when she came tonight, "I can see your ear lobes again." Brandon came over after work too and they ordered take out and we all ate here together. ANd I can eat again! HUGE improvement. Feel like a new woman. Dont' have a voice yet, and still a sore throat and tired, but much better.

The downside is, Lillian is really acting out after these few days away so that's extra taxing on me.

Also today on the bad side: My laptop crashed and died. Badly. Total Freak Out. Poop. I was able to start it in safe mode and get some information off, I think. But that was all, couldn't even get the System Mechanic to run. So a girlfriend who's husband is in IT picked it up on her way home from work. Please pray he can work a miracle. We do have the desktop here, but aside from not being set up the way I"m used to, it faces the corner, and has to, because of our desk, and that makes it super hard to keep an eye on the girls, or watch tv late at night. Super annoying.

On the good side, we got a Dyson. We needed a new vaccuum, ours smells like puke/poop/mold no matter what we do. We've been looking at the Dysons for awhile and decided to use the "house" portion of our tax refund on one. I LOVE IT.

Richard: Is not getting much sleep. His schedule is still off. He was going to see medical today about getting some pills for a couple days to see if he can get back on track. He also hurt his back somehow and that's been bothering him a bit.

I have decided that there is too much personal information on here and, for the duration of R's deployment, I will be password protecting the blog, so I can control who reads it (for example-no mailmen who write me letters telling me they're "thinking of me as Richard is gone"). If you want the password, just leave a comment on this post, or send me an email.

Sorry, I know its a pain, but there's too much info about the deployment on here and too much about us being here while he's gone.

So sick.

Yesterday, Sunday, about 3pm I started having a sore throat. It soon swelled up and I lost my voice. About 8 I started having severe joint pain, barely able to move. I had a fever of 102. I went to the dr. this afternoon and turns out I have strep, a double ear infection and mono. Yup, another case of when I do it, I do it good. THIS is when I really wish we lived near family. Lindsey and Brandon did come to the rescue today though and picked up Lillian when they picked up Kylie. Lindsey is taking leave tomorrow and is going to keep both girls until Wednesday morning. I'm already bored out of my mind. Its WAY too quiet here. And there's so much I want to do, especially with a whole kid free day, but I'm not feeling up to doing anything but lay on the couch. This brings back memories of being on bed rest, while R was working nights, and wishing we had a couch instead of a loveseat.