Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Silence woke me up
As ridiculous as this sounds, it's true.
I was asleep, and quite happy to be so. I have that whole "one nostril stuffed up" thing going on so I roll over it takes a while to be able to breathe- you know the drill. So when I was asleep it was wonderful.
And then I woke up. Why? Because the power went out. I am a huge fan of white noise while sleeping. I have both a fan going and a white noise machine that makes rain sounds. I need this noise to lull me to sleep. When the power went off and the room was plunged into silence- THIS woke me up.
I know Im not normal, I fully acknowledge this. But it still sucks. So here it is, after midnight, I have a snotty nose and a crying headache (I got some crappy news earlier, I have some stress over kitty health, and I think I may be somewhat hormonal too). You know those headaches? After a good cry one would expect a feeling of relief. I just get exhausted and headache-y. And now Im awake. And I have to be up in less than 5 hours.
So I thought Id get up, write a quick entry, and try and desnottify my nose. I hope it works.
And lets hope the power doesnt go out again. It apparently was out at some point this afternoon (ok so it was at 2:07 but dont ask me how I know this because Ill deny it!). I already had to reset clocks and alarms then. Now I just had to do it again. Im over that.
Oh and I guess my smoke detector needs a new battery because it was chirping while I was sans power. I owe my cats bigtime for that one.
I think I have a bunch of batteries, but I dont want to look now. When I lived in Vermont my landlord was a total dickhead (and that's being kind). I had to buy all of my own smoke detector batteries there, so when I moved out I took em all with me. Im pretty sure they are in that box of random crap that I dont know where else to put, but Im not up for dealing with that now.
Remind me though, k? Thanks!
Off to attempt sleep again, wish me luck!!
Monday, September 25, 2006
I hate being sick
and not for the obvious reasons. Yeah it's not fun feeling yucky yaddah yaddah.
But I hate trying to decide if I should go to work or not. There's nothing that irks me more than when sick people come in to work anyway and share their germs with everyone else. I work in healthcare, often with immunocomprimised patients. It should be a no brainer that if youre sick, you stay home. These people are undergoing chemo which wipes out their natural defenses, and the last thing they need is to catch some snotty crud on top of that.
Currently Im in mammo though, and while that makes you think Im around breast cancer patients, Im really not. It's more of a before they know it, or after theyve finished treatment kind of place. So I dont feel as strongly this time as usual.
Yesterday I was feeling much better too. I think I have one of those illnesses that gets bad at night and then youre fine all day. What's up with that? Ive never understood that.
I just moved from a snotty nose and feeling like I was swallowing glass to coughing up some not pretty stuff. This always happens to me. It starts in my head and moves to my chest. Ill also probably have laryngitis by the end of today.
I dont have alot of sick time though thanks to being screwed over with that at work with that in the spring. And I have doc visit o rama this week and need to take time for those.
But I dont wanna share this with everyone.
And this is what I hate.
I guess Ill go take my temp and if I dont have a fever Ill go, and if I do Ill stay.
Bleh.
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Purple Undies
Her name was Alisha, but she became to be known as Gidget. I confess when I first met her I had a little hostility for the most stupid reason. When I was 15 I wanted to BE Gidget- the character played by Sally Fields. When Alisha was given that name I was jealous and held it against her at first. But as I got to know her a bit better, I forgave her. :)
We were in the same chapter of our sorority. She pledged the semester after me. There were 4 of them, they lived in the same suite in the dorms and all joined up together. I clicked better with 2 of her suitemates than her, but once I got past the gidget thing, I learned to care about her too. I transferred the following semester so I never had an opportunity to get to know her better. I selfishly say that Im happy about that.
That's because her death hit me pretty hard and we werent even that close. I cant imagine how Id be affected if we were tighter. Yesterday was the 5 year anniversary of the date her death. Today was the 5 year anniversary of the day.
Everyone remembers that beautiful Tuesday morning way too well. The day started out as one of the most perfect days weatherwise. Then the world changed.
Alisha worked on the 82nd floor. After the tower was hit she called home to say she was ok. That was the last she was heard from. They never actually found her, just her library card. She was 33 years old.
In honor of her I have worn purple undies the last 2 days (not the same pair!). It was a tradition in the sorority that it was one of the first gifts your big sis bought you. I also wore my pearl earrings- today, our sorority jewel. Yesterday I wore a pair of earrings that Alisha had once admired of mine. It's little stuff, but I'd like to think she would appreciate it.
I couldnt post yesterday about this, I still get teary whenever I think of it. I was in NYC on the one year anniversary by coincidence- I was there for another event and that just happened to be the date. The friends I was with wanted to go down to Ground Zero but I didnt think I could handle it so I went to the church that was right nearby. I think that was even tougher, but one of the most moving experiences Ive ever had. I got there right before they were about to have a special memorial mass for the families of the port authority police lost that day. There were 37 who lost their lives, but the families seemed to number way higher than that. And I was standing there watching their faces as they entered the church. The pure unabashed pain and grief was overwhelming. I just pray that they, and all the other families of loved ones have found some peace somehow.
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Whooohooo! Haiku Thursday!
new memory foam
excited for matress pad
sweet dreams soon for me!
medicine last day
ringo stu kitty is done
no more yuckies! rah!
antibiotics
for poor little boy o' mine
2 more days of pills!
MRI last day
tomorrow Ill say goodbye
back to breast center
season 2 of lost
got new dvd's today
yay! watch all weekend!
i now have 4 friends
sherry picks me up next time
single chicks arent alone
one more appointment
need to find friend number five
who is free at 3?
good night, sleep tight all
i'm off to float on my cloud
memory foam rocks!
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
I love House...even if it's ridiculous
Im so excited that the new season started, and I thought last night's episode was great.
I am truly surprised thought how inaccurate some of the stuff is. I wonder who they have for a medical consultant because they really have no clue about imaging stuff.
First of all, there's no way the docs themselves would be performing the scans. They *might* be in the control area watching the monitor, but they wouldnt be actually putting the patient on, or touching the computer.
Second of all, they have no clue about some of the tests they are ordering- they are just ordering stuff that sounds good. For example, there was an episode where they ordered a Gallium Scan for infection and then did a lymph node biopsy to rule out lymphoma. Um, Gallium Scans are for chronic infections, not acute ones (like that patient may have had); for acute infections you'd do a WBC scan. Gallium Scans ARE for Lymphoma. They had no need to cut open the kid to get those nodes if the Gallium was clean, which it was.
Thirdly, they're WAY clueless about MRI. There was an episode where they did surgery to remove a titanium rod from a woman before doing her MR. FYI, Titanium is MRI safe. LL Cool J's tattoo's would not have pulled out of his body, they may have heated up and burned him, but they would not pull out. And I doubt that every piece of equipment in that OR was MRI compatible for their little portable MRI scan they did.
Id love to call up the producers and offer to be their radiology scan consultant. I could recommend the correct tests to order for stuff. (Like an Octreoscan for neuroendocrine disorders, and they dont utilize PET nearly enough!) If they are being stupid about how something is done (like having results from a Cisternogram in a few hours instead of 24-96 like it really takes to have a result, or having the docs actually do stuff they'd never do) I could give them the heads up.
Whaddayathink? Would they hire me? Or do they just go on being stupid because most people dont realize it, and those of us in the imaging fields like to make fun of it the next day and watch the show just to see what stupid things they do each week?
I still love the show. Im sad it didnt win the Emmy. Hugh Laurie is a phenomenal actor, and the actor who plays Chase is quite easy on the eyes!! (I do think that Cameron's new haircut makes her look 12 though, I hope it doesnt last)
I hate waiting a week for the next one!!!
Monday, September 04, 2006
Sorry! Wrong number!
So my little boy was licking his blown IV site raw and the vet gave me a paper collar for him. Poor guy :( He did great with it though and looked quite cute I thought!
I took these pics with my cell phone. When I first got this new phone I still had my old one with the old number for a few weeks transition time. I had been playing around with the picture mail option and sending myself pics to the other phone to check it all out. Since then I have added myself as my email address in case I wanted to send myself pics. Well yesterday I thought that Little Boy looked so damn cute in his collar that I wanted to email his Gramma and aunt as well as send them to my email so I could post them here.
Apparently I screwed up somehow and accidentally sent them to my old phone number--that someone else now has!
I got a text message back... "What the fuck is this????"
I still laugh out loud when I think about the look on their face when they get some random person in NC sending photo messages to them of a cat with an e collar!
Whoops!
Saturday, September 02, 2006
Kitty dental visits complete!
So back from the kitty dentist visit. The doc called me 4 times total, how cool is that? When she had the xrays done on the boys to tell me waht she was going to do, then after they were done to tell me how they did.Ringo now has a big giant orange sticker on his chart that says "CAUTION WILL BITE" He's so not friendly to the vet. The tooth he had with the lesion had fallen out, and the roots had already turned to bone, so all they had to do was basically drill off the little bit of tooth that was left and sew over a flap on the gum. He had a big giant scaling cleaning then because he had some hefty plaque. She did some extra special goo squirtage up into the gums that should prevent any further decay and keep him orally healthy for years and years.
Seamus on the other hand had a tougher time. His one tooth had broken off, but not completley, and the root didnt turn to bone, so he had to have a big ass extraction of that one, and then one of his fangs was bad under the gum line so that had to come out. the freaky thing is she gave me the teeth back, and the snaggletooth is so freaking big!
Anyway, other than a blown IV Seamus did great- because of the blown IV though they had to start two.
They monitored his BP the whole time and it was totally normal. It actually dropped slightly dangerously low during the surgery, but they got it back up. So I guess that's good news regarding the possibility of pulmonary htn they were concered he was developping. They also said he was great and friendly to everyone and they all love him so so much! It's wonderful to hear how adored he is there. Makes me feel safer bringing him there. Oh and his weight was down 2lbs since the cardiology appt so I think that the big gain there was just a differencce in scales. So now he's only 21.6l bs!
Ringo only had one shaved leg but he's still stoned a day later 
Regarding him socially- the vet said "he's bad!" He had to be dropped into a sedation gas box while still in the carrier because he was attacking anyone who tried to get him out. SO the love bug social whore at home is not quite the same if mommy's not around... Good thing he's damn cute though because they said they still love him though!So they are both doing great, it's just my bank account that isnt. All of it ended up being a whopping $1312.80We're going to just have a relaxing long weekend at home and heal. My only stress now is antibiotics for another week, and trying to decide if they need pain meds or not.