Helpful Websites For Living Overseas: Places That Will Ship to FPO!

We may not have been here (Bahrain) very long but it did not take me long to figure out I could not get everything I wanted on the local market and especially at a reasonable price! Yes, some stuff is insanely cheap, which I love, but there are some things that just are not worth the price on them!  Over the last few months I have found a few very helpful websites which will ship to FPO addresses and some are even free or free with a minimum order. I am sure the list will continue to grow as we live here but so here is what I have so far:

Walmart.com
You can get most of your dry good needs taken care of here! The best part is that you can typically get free shipping for spending just $50.00, which, believe me, is not hard to do! If you don't qualify for the free shipping it is still extremely cheap and so worth it! I have found that there are a few very random items that cannot be shipped here (Bahrain) for either size restrictions on FPO boxes or other unknown reasons. Typically your estimate delivery time will be anywhere from 1 week to 1 month away but my stuff has almost always gotten here within a week! Crazy fast!

Amazon.com
How did we ever live before Amazon? I mean really...You can seriously buy anything there! I have, so far, ordered some crafty stuff, stuff for our wedding invites, books, movies, and even an external hard drive since being here and not only does stuff get here fast, but my Amazon Prime membership has already paid for itself at least twice over because of the free shipping! It is almost always worth it to pay the few extra dollars for something that qualifies for Prime instead of ordering something that does not even thought it might be cheaper. I actually just ordered 10 different TV seasons today with my husband so we shall see how soon they get here!

Usgrocer.com
For those things you cannot get from Walmart that you just HAVE to have. The prices are a little higher, but you do get free shipping with no minimum order. They have daily specials as well. I found a few things I wanted that walmart was out or just simply did not offer online. Certainly will not be using it for my regular grocery shopping but only the items I cannot find elsewhere and cannot live without.

OldNavy.com
Oh how I love Old Navy. They have such cute stuff and always have great sales going on!

HobbyLobby.com
I cannot tell you how thrilled I was when I figured this out! I could get all my acrylic paint shipped to me and didn't have to pay the crazy out-in-town prices!

Autozone.com
For all of your car part needs when you can't find what you need locally or it is some kind of ridiculous price! They had fast shipping and their customer service was relatively helpful when we had an issue. Also, they were very quick to resolve mistakes with our order.


I know there are other wonderful websites that will ship to FPO as well but these were the ones I used most often! 99% of the time I could get what I wanted from Amazon and that made the Prime membership pay for itself in only a few orders. It was wonderful!

DIY Gifts: Artsy Love

In another post I went into one of the gifts I gave my husband while he was attending flight school in Pensacola, Florida. Honestly, I am always giving him DIY items (usually that I have found on Pinterest!) and he always loves them. There is nothing better than the thought which goes into a gift you make yourself. Not only is there the thought that goes into making it, but also what goes into first choosing to make it and why you think the other person would like it. Obviously, you choose something because you think it will have meaning. I always try to give my hubs something that tells him how much I absolutely love and adore him and how much I love spending time with him!

Artsy Love
 This is another thing I gave my husband while he was down in Pensacola, a little 6x6 hardcover sketchbook filled with little cutesy, lovey dovey, pictures and quotes. Pretty simple if you are the kind of person that likes to draw. Honestly, you do not even have to be good at it: The person you are giving it to will mostly likely not even care if you draw like a kindergartener. It is the thought that counts and they will love it no matter what! At the very end of the book, probably the last 10 pages or so, I wrote him another love letter telling him how much he means to me and how much I absolutely love him! You can never tell someone how much they mean to you too much or too often!! Anyway, I do not have process shots but I do have completed shots!

Pelvic Pain and All Which It Entails

It all originally started when I was on a family vacation in 2008. We were in myrtle beach for spring break and having a great time! One day I start having this terrible, lower-left pelvic pain when I try to go to the bathroom. It's like sharp stabbing pains when I strain at all but other then that, nothing. It went away completely within the same day.

Over the next few years I had intermittent abdominal pain but never exactly the same as the first time. Was it because of the same cause? I do not know and probably never will. However, I have been admitted to the ER twice for abdominal pain for which they could never find the cause. Gave me meds and sent me on my way. For over a year, no problems, until we get to March 2014. 

In March, the sharp stabbing pains come back. This time, however, they are accompanied by dull aching pain that almost never goes away. At the end of March, I go to my doctor for what I think is food poisoning but ends up being diagnosed as 'bubbly guts,' which is a bacterial intestinal issue common to our location, Bahrian. We were new here at the time and my doctor was confident that was my problem. She gave me medicine and my problem slowly went away. Within the next few weeks, I started feeling nauseous every single day. Never quite the run-to-the-bathroom-I'm-gonna-puke nausea, but still pretty bad. I thought that I could be pregnant so I had to wait until a time when I could test and see. Turns out, that was not the case but the nausea stuck around. 

In tandem with my every daily nausea, my pelvic pain continued to get worse and more frequent. The stabbing pain, at it's worst, was a 9/10. It literally brought me to tears. The dull achey pain was consistently a 2/10, but typically a 3/10. With the dull achey pain being almost every day, the nausea, and the stabbing pain happening more, I decided it was time I finally go talk to my doctor about my problems. 

I called and scheduled my appointment and they got me in within the same week, the first week of June. I go in and tell my doctor all of the problems I have been experiencing and she listens and then does an exam. Then she says,"ok, now let me put on my magic glasses that let me see the exact issue...." Shes clearly contemplating what to tell me. Then she says she is kind of torn 50/50 on where to send me. She days it is most likely 1 of 2 things with the location: my left ovary or my bowel. Oh great. To be honest, I'm not really sure which one I was hoping for but I proceeded to tell her that in the past they had found a cyst on my left ovary but nothing had really come of it. That gives her the nudge in the direction of sending me to the gynecologist first and if she couldn't find anything, the my doctor would refer me to a gastroenterologist next. Just what I need, a bad ovary. Lovely. 

I go and talk to the insurance reps when my referral is ready and they give me all the paperwork that I need to give the doctor at the hospital. They even call and schedule my appointment for me! So then I'm all set and ready to see the gynecologist.

Turns out, all is good in the baby-making organs! Great news to hear but now I'm wondering what the heck is going on! Since I have the all-clear from the Gyno, I return to my PCM doctor on base and she says our next step is to send me to a gastroenterologist. Ok. So I get my referral and head there next.

Their first step is to do an ultrasound  of my stomach and intestines. They see fluid filled illeal loops which means they now want to do a colonoscopy and endoscopy to get a better picture of what is doing on. Sounds good to me. I did not know what exactly a colonoscopy entailed and the suffering that would ensue!

They hand me these little powder-filled packets and give me directions for taking them mixed with water to prepare my gastrointestinal tract for the colonoscopy. A.ka --Get rid of all the poop in my body. What they don't tell you is that it is the most foul-tasting liquid ever devised and you will be in hell. It is horrible.

I start off with my first packet mixed in the water and I take the first drink.....I have to run to the bathroom to puke. It's warm, salty, thick, and horrid.  I know I have to get it down so I start taking small sips and drinking as much as I can. I am not getting nearly enough of it in. It's so bad that I haven't even finished the first packet when i am supposed to start the second one. Ugh.

Finally, either my husband or I read somewhere that drinking it cold really helps and it was a life-saver! If you ever have to drink this horrible fluid, MAKE IT AS COLD AS POSSIBLE! I was then able to chug it down without gagging too much. I don't remember exactly how many packets I had to drink total but it was like torture once the first starts to take effect. You will be pooping like you have never pooped before (unless you've had food poisoning....I would liken it to that...) So you end up drinking that horrible salty drink while dying on the toilet. It's SO fun. It was all to figure out the pain though....it had to be good....right?!

We show up nice and early to Bahrain Specialist Hospital for my colonoscopy and they get me checked in and take me into my room. My husband and I just sit there as he's reading a book to me while waiting for me to be taken back. I'd say we had a good hour before they came to get me. I had to show them my body had been completely flushed out by having a "bowel movement" for them to see that it was basically clear liquid. Passed that test so off I went!

I'm just laying there on my bed as they wheel me around to the procedure room. We get there and they make me use an inhaler, since I have asthma, as a "just in case" and then start to administer the  anesthetic. I'm under before I realize it and the next memory I have is them freaking out because I WOKE UP in the middle of the procedure. I remember them holding me down and the anesthesiologist trying to get more anesthetic into me and then I was back out. I'm positive they were hoping I didn't remember because not once did anyone mention it to me. Needless to say, I never wanted to go back to that hospital again. They decided not to do the endoscopy since they had apparently seen what the issue was with the colonoscopy and, for whatever reason, I didn't yet have approval from Tricare anyway.

After I was waking up (at the correct time) after the procedure, they wheeled me back to my room where my husband was waiting. It took about 2 hours for them to finally get me discharged. I've starving at this point since I haven't eaten in what seems like forever so they bring me a fiber cookie and some juice. Not quite what I was hoping for but it held me over until I could leave and get some real food. When they finally come to let me leave, they give me all the paperwork that I have to take to my PCM. They didn't tell me anything and I had to wait for my PCM to give me an actual diagnosis.

After all of this, my PCM tells me that I have Irritable Bowel Syndrome. She's says  that the first thing to do is start with upping the fiber in my diet and gives me a fiber supplement to add to my daily regime. Not too hard. If that didn't work, we could then look at other options. It seemed to do the trick though.

Sine all of this happened, I got pregnant with my daughter a few months later and the whole time I was pregnant, my symptoms completely disappeared. Why? I have no idea. Even after I had her, in the past 2ish years  of being pregnant and then after, I have only experienced a mild version of the pain once. I'm not sure if IBS can go away, but mine sure seems to have done so. Here is to hoping it never comes back!