Southern In Law: January Recap and a Health Update

Hi sweet peas. I am feeling totally wiped today so I wanted to do a quick little recap post as it's the end of January. Seriously, where has the month gone?!

Low Iron Levels - Blood Tests and Iron Infusions

Low Iron Levels - Blood Tests and Iron Infusions - Haematology

But first, a health update - because I know lots of you have been wondering what's going on and lots of you have been checking up on me (which is so so sweet and I cannot thank you enough).

Today I am feeling super wiped. I slept in until 7:30am (totally unheard of for this early bird) and hardly managed to drag myself out of bed, but my goal

I headed to the haematologist yesterday in the hopes of getting iron (booking a date for an iron infusion) but instead he took more iron out. Even though I did have a blood test just last week to check on my iron levels (which were very low), they still need to check and make sure there aren't any other underlying issues so they can decide whether or not the iron infusion is worth the risks for me.

At this stage, the haematologist thinks that I will be having an iron infusion next month, but they just need to make sure. I had a chest x-ray (to check on my heart and lungs) and then we headed to the top floor to get all of the blood tests done - eight vials later and my blood was off to be tested for a million and one things.

For the medically types who are interested in what he tested for, the tests included: Full Blood Count, Electrolytes/Urea/Creatinine, Iron Studies, Liver Function, Comprehensive Metabolic Panel, Anti-Transglutaminase Antibodies (which I always thought you could only have if eating gluten as it's the test they use to check reactions to gluten as well), Total Immunoglobin A, B12/Red Cell Folate, Thyroid Function, Anti Nuclear Antibody Test, Extractable Nuclear Antigens, Erthyrocyte Sedimentation Rate, C-Reactive Protein, Intrinsic Factor Antibody Measurement, Hepatitis A/B and HIV. Also known as a helluvalot.

I head back to the haematologist in one months time to hopefully get an infusion date booked - but for now, I just have to rock the zombieness (so please do excuse me if I take ages to reply to emails or have really lame posts :P).

But enough about the bad things - I want to talk about the good things that happened this month!

Healthy Apple and Cinnamon Crepes Recipe

The First Recipe of 2014!
And the recipe that made me fall in love with crepes! These Healthy Apple and Cinnamon Crepes with Creamy Mascarpone Topping.

We laughed off the fact that our bed broke - but luckily, all it took was a $20 IKEA bar to fix it!

I received a set of Flavor Stone pans and I have been madly putting them to the test all month. I've made the stickiest, messiest of foods and I'm going to be sharing our review very very soon. We want to make sure that they last much longer than the first couple of uses so we've been putting them to the test!

We've been having date day/nights galore with picnic style meals (the perfect solution when you can't go out for a meal!). This Wednesday we headed out on a date night to the Sunset Cinemas, but I'm going to be sharing more about that soon!

I've been an organisation queen and started reorganising our whole house. I've slacked off a bit lately as I've been so exhausted - but I need to keep working on it!

This month, we also launched our Recent Things Series which we've been having lots of fun with.

Molly Moccasins - Colourful Moccasin Shoes

I've also developed a bit of an issue with these Moccasins from Cotton On. I am the bargain queen and I picked up my first pair for just $5 after Christmas - and this past weekend I managed to make a $50 Cotton On order which included the four pairs of shoes above, a cute tshirt, pants, two notebooks and two cute cupcake stands from Typo. That, my friends, is how you shop ;)

Then we had Australia Week! Where we created seven healthier versions of Aussie Classics and had so much fun doing it. I seriously wish every week had a theme ;P

In case you missed all of the recipes, here's a quick recap!