I went to the Emergency Room on Saturday. It’s not like I’ve never been there before–I’m quite accident prone. I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve been to the ER in my 22 years. This Saturday was different, though. I didn’t fall or hurt myself. I was sick. I felt a strong need to puke, but I just couldn’t, for some reason. Also, my abdomen HURT. The pain was very hard to describe, it wasn’t sharp or stabbing or throbbing, it just didn’t feel right. I just felt “sick” inside. This wasn’t an especially new occurrence, I’ve had “episodes” of this happening for months, but I’d just take some Rolaids and it would go away in an hour or so. It didn’t go away on Saturday–it started around 2 and I went to the ER at 6. The doctor asked me a few questions and determined that it was my gallbladder. They started an IV and gave me pain medicine and something for my stomach. After my pain was under control, they brought an ultrasound machine in and looked at my gallbladder–it was FULL of gall stones. I was admitted and was put in a room around 10. Too bad it was the weekend and I didn’t need emergency surgery. I was stuck in the hospital until they could do my surgery on Monday. Sundaycrawled by and I was terrified when they came with a gurney to take me to surgery on Monday morning. It was about an hour and a half sooner than the surgeon had said it would be, so I wasn’t mentally ready. I’d never even been admitted into a hospital before, and the biggest surgery I’d had up to now was having my tonsils removed when I was a junior in high school. I calmed down once I got down to pre-op. Since I have acid reflux they made me swallow some kind of medicine that tasted like grape flavored acid. It was truly disgusting and it was all I could do to keep it down. I was still awake when they rolled me into the operating room and I was surprised that it looks a lot like the OR rooms on Grey’s Anatomy–LOL! Usually they have you count down from 10 or 100, but if they did that this time, I don’t remember…I woke up in the recovery room a few hours later. I was in quite a bit of pain and I felt very nauseated. They gave me some drugs in my IV, but wouldn’t let me drink anything even though I was very thirsty. Since they were able to do the procedure laproscopically, I was able to go home around 5:30 that same day. My pain was pretty severe the first 2 days (I had to take 2 Percocet tablets every 4 hours instead of 1 every 6-8 hours). Twice I even took 3 pills at once. I was out of pills by Thursday morning, but I was still having pain, so I had to go back to the doctor to make sure everything was healing ok since I was still in so much pain. At the doctor, I learned that my surgery had been more involved than the standard procedure. My gallbladder was very infected (and probably only a day or 2 away from rupturing). I was very lucky that they didn’t have to do the traditional 8″ incision, but they did have to do more repair work inside of me than they thought they would. My surgeon said that even though the cuts were tiny on the outside, they went several inches deep and cut through muscle, so that’s why I was still having pain when friends of mine who have had the surgery said that I should be fine by now. Today I just feel like I did about a billion crunches. I’ve had 2 pain pills all day. Last night was the first time I’ve been able to sleep on my sides (I am a side/stomach sleeper), and I have slept most of the day today. My back has been killing me because I have had to sleep on it and I haven’t rested well all week. I have a feeling I’ll be sleeping like the dead for several days now that I can sleep on my side. It still hurts quite a bit to roll over, but it’s worth it to get some sleep. This next part might be TMI, but consider yourself warned–I’m going to talk about poop. I have always pooped a lot. Some days I go as much as 4-6 times. My primary doctor diagnosed me with IBS when I was in 7th grade and I take medicine on and off for it. Well, I am starting to think that all along that has just been my gallbladder not functioning properly. Since my surgery, I have had 3 bowel movements and they have been more “normal” than any I’ve had in years (and possibly ever). I was fully expecting months of diarrhea, but so far that isn’t happening. I’ve always thought that my digestive issues were more than just IBS (really, doctors just say you have IBSwhen they don’t know what else is wrong). I am thrilled with the prospects of being able to eat what I want and not have to run to the bathroom within 5 minutes of finishing my meal (and sometimes before I’m even finished). All in all, the surgery was well worth it, and I’m so glad I let my mom talk me into going to the ER–I wanted to go to minor med first to see if they thought I needed to go to the hospital. Since it’s past midnight now, today is my mom’s birthday, and I always make her cake. I’m glad that I feel well enough to do it (and I’m really glad that her birthday wasn’t last week). She did spend her Mother’s Day in the hospital taking care of me, though. I love my mommy, even though we don’t always get along very well. She has taken care of me all week (she only went back to work today because she had to–she took off Monday through Thursday). I’m not always the best patient, but she hasn’t complained once. She has gall stones too, so I’m sure I’ll get the chance to return the favor sometime this summer.
this blows my mind. March 9, 2009
Ok, I just had a rather maddening thought. You know how in church everyone tells you that when you sin you make God sad, you hurt His heart or whatever? Well, God’s in Heaven, right? And in Heaven no one is sad. So if God is in Heaven, then how is He saddened by the things we do? Is it all just a big scam to keep us doing the “right thing”? A way of guilting us into being blind followers? I don’t know why, but this makes me really angry to think about. I feel manipulated. And I don’t like being manipulated.
Anyway, just a random thought, not really a post with any deep purpose. The thought just hit me, and I felt like writing it down.
The Inauguration of Barack Obama: A Spectator’s Point of View (Part 1) January 31, 2009
There is really no excuse for how long it has taken me to post this. I had less than half of it written the day after the Inauguration, but somehow life got in the way, and I’m just finishing it tonight. I apologize.
Ok, let’s start at the very beginning (Julie Andrews says it’s a very good place to start).
January 19, 11 pm: I decide it’s time for bed since I have to be up at 3. After getting up about 6 times to set out things I will need for the big day, I am finally ready to go to sleep around 12.
January 20, 2:30 am: I wake up. And just like those kids in the Disney World commercials, “I’m too excited to sleep!!” And since the alarm is going to go off in half an hour, I decide to go ahead and get up and start getting ready. If I had gone back to sleep, the alarm would have just scared the crap out of me and put me in a really rotten mood. I start by putting on my 3 layers of pants: first some fuscia tights I found on sale at Target. Next, thermal pants (“Long Johns”) and my favorite black pants. I only put on 1 shirt layer so that I don’t get all hot and sweaty running around the house.
3:00 am: I eat some pop tarts and have a glass of water, brush my teeth, put on makeup (I have no idea why…), and grab all my things (other shirt layers, scarf, gloves, hat, hand warmers, water bottle, phone, camera, camera batteries, memory cards, chapstick, and snacks).
3:45 am: Hit the road. From my friend’s house to the Vienna Metro station is 2 hours with normal, everyday traffic. I have budgeted 5. There is almost no traffic until I get about 8 miles from the station, and then it starts to pick up a bit, really like normal rush hour traffic (only it’s 5am), but it’s still not bad. Then, once I’m only 2 miles from the exit to the station, WHAM. Not moving. It took me 2 hours to go those 2 miles. I parked in the parking garage and made my way to the line. It must have been my lucky day because a train was waiting–and it had SEATS! I quickly made my way onto the train and sat down. Within 2 minutes, all the seats were taken and there were a few people standing (keep in mind that Vienna is the FIRST stop on this route). After maybe 5 minutes, the doors close and the train starts moving. At the next station, maybe 10 more people crowd onto just the car I’m in (I can’t see the other cars, but I’m sure it was the same there). It’s a little more crowded, but there is still some room. We go 2 more stops and there is no standing room ANYWHERE. I have never seen a train so crowded. Everyone is jammed in so tight that nobody even has to hold on–there was no room to fall! We hear the driver tell us that there is a delay at Rosslyn station, so we will be sitting for a few minutes. I am sleepy, so I doze off. I’m not really sure how long we were stopped. Once we are close to our destination, the driver informs us that we won’t be stopping at Federal Center (the closest to the Mall, I think) due to crowding. He suggests getting off at McPherson Square and walking, so I do.
9:36 am: I make my way up the escalator (that is turned off because there are too many people) and out into DC. I have absolutely no idea where I’m going (somehow I missed the maps that some people had), so I just follow the crowd, hoping they’re going to the Mall and not the parade route….Normally, I would be complaining about the distance, but this time it was exhilarating (I think it ended up being around 18 blocks). The air was cold, but the wind wasn’t harsh. There were hundreds of people in every direction. People were singing, chanting, everyone was so kind and happy. The mood was just that of elation.
10:00 am (approximately): I can see the Washington Monument. It is beautiful! I’m standing at 18th and Virginia Avenue, texting with a friend who is also there. She wants to try to meet up. I figure the odds are very low that we’ll be able to find each other in the crowd, but we decide to try anyway. I make my way onto the Mall (there is a big open area, and I’m encouraged that the crowd won’t be quite so bad, but then the closer I get to the Monument, the denser the crowd becomes). I realize that there is NO way I will be able to get to where Jenny is (on the other side of the monument and up a few hundred feet from where I am). But, I am in view of a screen and I can hear the music, so I decide to find a spot and stay put–I am between the White House (on my left) and the Washington Monument (on my right)–the Capitol building is so far in the distance and there are so many people between me and it that I can only see the very tip of the spire on top of the rotunda. At first, my spot is great. I have plenty of room and no one is obstructing my view. Perfect, I think. But as time wears on, people start crossing in front of me, moving to my left (there was still a bit of a clearing over there). Probably somewhere around 70 people walk past me, and even more begin to crowd in where I am standing. It’s a very good thing that I like crowds and don’t get nervous or panicky in tight spaces. A person with claustrophobia would be on the ground, rocking back and forth in the fetal position. There was NO room to move (it was nearly as crowded as the train had been that morning), and even more people were trying to push their way through. My good mood (and patience) were gone. I didn’t attack anyone, but I stood stone still when people tried to push their way past me. That seemed to be the only way to keep a space big enough to stand in and not be pushed down on top of other people. At this point, I was ready for things to get started so that they could be over and the crowd would disperse. Little did I know, this was just the beginning of the mess.
10:45 (ish) am: Various important people are announced and seen entering. There is a lot of cheering, but I am surprised by the boos–there are nearly as many jeers as cheers.
A quick list of those receiving cheers: Those receiving jeers:
Bill and Hillary Clinton (of course) Joe Lieberman (I was a bit surprised!)
Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid George H W and Barbara Bush
Al and Tipper Gore Dick Cheney (even I couldn’t resist)
and eventually the First Family-to be George W and Laura Bush (including the ”Na na na na, hey
hey hey, goodbye” song)
I wasn’t really sure if the cheers and booing would be heard by those watching on TV or not (I thought the stations might turn down the sound on the crowd in an attempt to censor what was going on). Since I haven’t had a chance to watch the DVDs I made of the TV coverage I missed, I still don’t know the answer to that question. For the record, I did not join in on the “Na na hey hey” song–it was not noon yet, and no matter how much I dislike George W, he was at that time, still President, and I have respect for the office (if not for the man holding it).
Past this point, there isn’t a whole lot to tell about the ceremony, since you all probably saw it on TV. (and honestly, I need to go watch it myself to refresh my memories of what was happening in the crowd during everything.)
I’ll call this post Part 1 and I will continue the story soon (I am learning not to put a deadline on these things because then people get their hopes up and I get behind and feel guilty).
zune survey July 7, 2008
ok, so the last survery was everything I have on iTunes. I think this one will be more authentic because it’s only the stuff I put on my zune.
How does the world see you?
With a Little Help from My Friends – Bon Jovi (live Beatles cover)
Will I have a happy life?
Bad Medicine – Bon Jovi (live album)
What do my friends really think of me?
Gotta Have a Reason – Bon Jovi
How can I make myself happy?
It’s My Life – Bon Jovi (live album)
Will I ever have children?
Generations – Sara Groves (WHOA! this song is about how decisions you make will affect future generations)
What is some good advice for me?
Postcards from the Wasteland – Bon Jovi (bonus track from Bounce)
How will I be remembered?
Fallen from Graceland – Richie Sambora (well I DO live in Memphis!)
What is My Current Theme Song?
Holy Spirit, Come to Us – Taizé
What does everyone else think my current theme song is?
I’ll Be There for You – Bon Jovi (original version)
What song will play at my funeral?
Runaway – Bon Jovi (too bad it’s not the live version–I like it more than the original)
What type of men do I like?
The Answer – Richie Sambora
Who do I love?
Ballad of Youth – Richie Sambora
Am I going to get married?
Losing My Religion – REM
Who loves me?
Conversations – Sara Groves
Who will I marry?
Living in Sin – Bon Jovi (looks like I ain’t getting married!)
My summer love forecast:
Out of Bounds – Bon Jovi
What will tomorrow bring?
Get Back – Bon Jovi (Beatles cover)
so it seems that there is an inordinate amount of Bon Jovi showing up on this shuffle! I have 47 albums on my zune (haven’t gotten to individual songs yet), but 22 of them are Bon Jovi (ok, so that didn’t work….I was going to say “I only have _____ Bon Jovi albums on there!” but I guess I have more Bon Jovi than I thought…..ok.)
