Hospital, homework, and home

Happy Thorin

You'll have to forgive me, I don't have any photos of the house yet, it's not put together much less completely unpacked. We've been a bit tired and run down, everything is catching up to us and we've slowed down a good deal. Things are coming in from the garage to be unpacked pretty much one box at a time. It is what I can manage. But even that has been pretty slow because we haven't figured out where to put everything or don't have certain things set up just yet. It will happen when it happens. I'm hoping I'll get a little more pep in my step after a couple of days, but we will see. 

Homework is going well, so far. My text book just arrived so I have a bit of reading to do today and tomorrow. I need to do an assignment in grounding today and then write about my experience. The tech we use for school is interesting. We use Skype for business, Second Life, Moodle (which is just like Blackboard), and Office 365. I really didn't know if I was going to like Second Life, but its actually kind fun and a brilliant way for the school to bring all the students and teachers together- give us faces and voices to names. Well, we all have avatars and I am sure not all of us look like them- I certainly don't, but still. 

Anyway, aside from that I've asked a couple of friends who are going to the school as well, if we wanted to do a study group. At the moment, it's set for Friday mornings and I am excited to see how all of us approach our lessons. One of the ladies coming is a year ahead of the other girl and I but she's taking a World Religion class and I'm looking forward to seeing what she says about it. 

Okay, on to the hospital. I drove myself to a smaller emergency room in my local area yesterday while Amanda was at work. My right leg has been bothering me lately. At first I thought it was because of how I have been sitting, or maybe even that I aggravated my old shin splints, but when I rubbed my shin, I found a warm spot and under it what felt like a knot and that hurt to touch. I gave it a little time to see if it would go away but it didn't. Since one of my Grandma's died of a blood clot and I'm not taking blood pressure meds, I thought I better be safe than sorry, and get it checked out. My ultra sound looked great, no blood clots, and they checked both legs. As far as the lump in the leg, well the doctor isn't quite sure what it is, could be a nasty knot in the muscle or a cyst. He sent me home with instructions to ice it frequently and get in touch with my primary doctor to let her know what's going on.  

Other than that, we've explored our new area a little bit, discovered a store called Hobby Town USA that looks to have a ton of games inside, and went out last night for a friend's birthday. We met up at a place downtown called Sushi Sakai. The sushi was delicious! I had Inari, Miso soup, and a Avocado, beet, and daikon radish roll.  I keep forgetting how filling sushi is. After that, we walked down the street to the Piano Bar where they had a 'Dueling Pianos" event going on. Two guys were taking requests and playing pianos opposite each other. It was a lot of fun and once again I was reminded why the hell we don't go out to bars. Drinks were crazy expensive! Amanda and I had a shot, got one for a friend, and then we split a disappointingly small martini concoction. We spent 40 dollars. That's nuts! But we did have fun and I certainly hope our friend had a nice birthday. It was also the birthday of an older Asian lady. She reminded me a bit of my Mom when my Mom has had a bit to drink. Her birthday request was an Elton John song and she danced and played a cow bell. She was so adorable and fun! 

Well, I've put homework off long enough. I'm still playing catch up on everyone's blogs, but I am getting there. Oh, and Amanda got a cell phone ordered for me. It is on the way!    

 

ER- Night and Day.

While some of you follow me on facebook, some of do not. Count yourselves lucky, while I vent on my blog, I sort of had two freak outs on facebook. I don't normally, but it happened. I have also been doing a few updates on my situation there. Anyway, I thought I should do an update here as well.

I did go to the Emergency Room, finally. It took a lot of pain, tons of bleeding, pure exhaustion, and Amanda calling my Mom, and having my mother order me to go. I was hesitant to go for three reasons. 

1. I don't like medical people touching me don there. I have mistrust from an event in my childhood. I was 5 or 6 and the tube between my bladder and kidneys was not closing and causing back was of urine and making me sick. A tech was doing a probe/ catheter sort of thing and got it stuck in my urethra and basically yanked it out. I remember my mother chewing her out. I remember the pain and sobbing over it. Later when I had surgery to correct the problem, the doctors wouldn't let my mom come with me or let me wear my underwear. It was terrifying, uncomfortable, has never left my mind.

2. I was afraid of how I would be treated. the last time I went for this, the hospital I went to was simply awful to me. 

3. Sometimes, I think, unconsciously, I need permission to do big things. I don't understand why and it is something that I am trying to work on.

Okay, so here is what happened. I went. The doctor who saw me was at first, a little skeptical. He explained what I already knew and I told him as much, and then explained that this was much worse than it should be. He decided to monitor my vitals every 30 minutes and run some blood work. He got a copy of my previous blood work as well, and had a little chat with an OBGYN at the OBGYN office I go to.  After a bit he returned to tell me that a normal persons hemoglobin is stupposed to be between 12 and 16 points. My intial blood work states that I was at 9 and anemic. My doctor had prescribed iron supplements to help. My blood work at the hospital revealed that I am not at 7.5 and that's really not good. The doctor was saying without saying "you're bleeding to death." He prescribed a different hormone regimen to slow down or stop my bleeding. Next he prescribed anti-nausea medication and some pain medication. I expressed that I have been taking Advil and it wasn't cutting it, but that I wasn't trolling for drugs, just something to make this tolerable. 

(you should have seen how my blood pressure went from high back to a normal level when the pain began to ease, it was fascinating to watch)

Now this doctor did some other things too. He insisted to the OBGYN he spoke to my OBGYN needs to see me this week, as soon as possible. He also told me that if the bleeding does not stop, if it gets worse, or if I feel woozy, dizzy, or unsafe, to get my butt back into the ER and he would hospitalize me to get the bleeding to stop and to stabilize me. 

This experience was so positive it really puts my previous experience that much more to shame. I was telling my Dad about both and he told me that the previous hospital I went to was used to junkies coming in and trolling for drugs. That shouldn't matter, I hadn't been. I just wanted to pain and bleeding to stop, and they treated me horribly. I am so much happier with the hospital I went to yesterday, you have no idea. Amanda and I both want to write "thank you" letters to the doctor and staff who saw me. 

As of right now, I do have an appointment with my OBGYN on Thursday. hopefully the ER visit will be the push to get my hysterectomy sooner rather than later. As for my bleeding- since beginning the new hormone regimen, the bleeding is down, I feel more awake and alive. I actually think I might be able to sleep in my bed tonight instead of sitting up on the sofa with towels beneath me. 

I do have a confession to make. When all of this is said and done, and my hysterectomy has taken place, I am getting cute underwear and cute pajamas! It will be so heavenly to have things won't have blood all over them!       

Day blown, waiting on Amanda, something good might finally be happening....

Well since I have managed to blow the majority of my day, why not blow some more of it with some photos and some news while I wait on Amanda to figure out what we are doing for our date night at home. 

This is my desk. The place I write, do homework (most of the time), put on make up and do my hair, and look for inspiration (in crafts, writing, make up and hair ect...) or play on the internet. Sometimes I get some crafting done here as well. As you can see, I like Asian things but I also love Gothic things too. Seriously, our room is a clash of random things! There is no set theme or design scheme. That will have to wait until we have a place of our own.

Awhile back I went to community pot luck hosted by the IEPG wherein we made manifestation boards. Well, the one I made there did not turn out the way I wanted so it sat in a craft bag for a couple of months. About a week or so ago, before the New Year, I pulled it out, tore it apart, and reconstructed it. Yes, I know the beige Kanji paper is upside down. I like this version much better. 

This is what I call my "work wall". The sign is one that Amanda made me out of paint, cardboard, paper and vellum paper and a few other things. Below it is a DIY dry erase board that has a list of homework, tasks I need to get done (yes, I am a list maker and you have no idea how tickled I get wen I get to wipe that board clean), and other reminders. Beside that are smaller notes for myself and a fan. The Owl ornaments a friend in Colorado made for Amanda and I one Christmas. And the map is one I drew for a story I am working on. It needs some work, but it is up so I remember that I need to finish it and the actual story. It is there for reference and because it makes me happy.

This is our DIY Necklace/bracelet board. (I will post the construction of it later) We actually made this last year, I think, and its held up very well. We have to go through our stuff as you can see. Above it is a plaster geisha Amanda painted for me when she went to one of those "you pick and paint it" plaster places, on one of her Boston visits. To the left is a DIY cell phone charger holder that I made out of shampoo bottle. Below all of that are some blank canvases I have yet to open and put paint to. 

This is just one of our bookshelves and it's double shelved on the second shelf. The little crocheted pouch on the first shelf with the Rune (looks like an arrow) is a bag of crocheted runes I got at the IEPG Yule celebration. We have some magical books, writing books, some of my paranormal romance novels, some candles and other things on the shelf too. Psst, I'll tell you a secret, that's not all of our books. We have more in the garage and some back in my parents' basement in Kansas. 

The shame shot! Something awful happened in our room. Last term of school really took a lot of my focus and whenever I could get out of the room for IEPG stuff, I went! Then the holidays happened and Amanda got sick, so our room fell by the wayside. Not that we are really messy people but when you live in one room and have Amanda for a fiance... yeah... things get cluttered and fall into disarray fast. Amanda's one of those people who comes home from work and pretty much throws their clothes off everywhere, dumps her stuff, and runs around in a t-shirt and underwear. Unless we have company, lol. So, yes, we have a basket of random stuff, a big comforter that needs washed, and I am in the process of taking down my Yule altar and setting up for Spring. I will probably move that sword to another wall. It just doesn't feel right, right there. Yes, that is another bookshelf behind the fan and the blue thing is a build a bear Trixie Luna Moon pony that Amanda got for her birthday. I have part of my collection of plush toy raccoon's. I painted peacock scenes on a wooden screen thingy I found at a thrift store for Amanda. The brown thing is a jewelry thingy I painted but I don't think I am done with it. I kind of want to redo it. Oh and the dresser is an antique that once belonged to my Great Grandma Richardson. It has a mirror that attaches to it, but we took it off and put it safely in the closet. It will go back on later. I actually thought someone in my family made the dresser because I'd seen other pieces of furniture made by members of my family with the same dark finish. But my Dad says it wasn't. 

Last picture I swear! Just a few of my little things I keep above my desk. 

So, there are several pieces of news and I will try to make them quick. 

First. Amanda doesn't have MRSA, which is a great relief. What she did have was cellulitis and no I can't spell that word. It just means she had an infection in the skin. After many trips to the ER to get intravenous antibiotics (every 12 hours), she finally started to heal. The IV port in her arm came out last night and she is able to return to work this Sunday. We had a scare with the antibiotics which a doctor took "a calculated risk" in giving her a cephalosporin. Amanda is allergic to cephalosporins, had a horrible reaction when she was in high school. But we couldn't get anyone to listen to us when we told them that. They just kept saying that if she was going to have a reaction, she would have already had it. But some people don't have reactions right away. So I am not happy about that nor am I happy about the first ER visit. We will be talking to the billing department to get some of the bill written off because there's no way we can pay for it all and the first ER visit was utter bullshit. 

Secondly, Galen never made it to the vet because we were dealing with Amanda's stuff and I was far to exhausted to take him. I feel awful but the good news is that he seems to be getting better on his own, which leads me to believe it was just a kitty cold. If his health doesn't continue to improve, I will take him to the vet for certain. And we are still planning to take him for an elderly cat exam.

The third bit of news, this term is startling to look a lot like last term, as far as me playing catch up and having butt loads of homework. That's okay, as long as there are no more big health issues.

Fourth, my Dad did not get the job with Wal-Mart. However, they apparently liked him well enough to look for other stores where he might be able to get on. I don't know if that is helpful or hopeful or not. 

And lastly, a place Amanda applied for called her back this week. We'd kind of forgotten about them. Anyway, she has a second step interview next week and if she gets this job, we might finally be able to move out of her parents house and into an apartment of our own! You have no idea how much the both of us need that. It would be a life saver, at least in my case. 

So this year got off to a very rocky start but maybe it will prove to be a year where things finally get moving in the right direction? I certainly hope so. I don't know if I can handle another bad year. 

What is it, the ER doesn't know and taking the kitty to the vet pre-adventure

I'm probably going to make this short because I've got lots to do today and I don't know how much longer I can stand sitting at my desk. I'm at the "I can just barely stand it" pain level today. Onward.

For the last couple of days Amanda's parents, our friend Bethy, and I have been after Amanda to go to the damn ER or Urgent Care to get a spot on her shoulder looked at. She didn't know if it was a zit, an ingrown hair, or a spider bite and given that every once in a while she gets big bad zit that typically goes away within a day or two, she pretty much ignored us. Except that this one didn't go away, we couldn't get anything out of it, there was no head, and she ended up being in so much pain that she was sobbing and couldn't really move her arm. So we got her into the doctor who sent her to the ER. They cut into her and got nothing out of it, the infection has spread, so they put her on pain medication and gave her some high powered antibiotics and sent her on her way with instructions that if it didn't get better in 48 hours to come back. Meanwhile the doctors are tossing around the MRSA word, the Staph word, and saying they don't know for sure what this is. They also didn't let her mother or me go back to their  "fast track" room that they put her in so she was alone while someone was cutting into her. And, I am pissed at the billing department for zeroing in on her right away instead of giving her a minute. It's like, can you let a doctor see her at least before you start talking about money for fucks sake?!

Galen is still sick and we think it's upper respiratory infection. He seems better, but that might just be him trying to be perky since we were gone all day yesterday and he missed us. As grumpy as he is, he likes his humans to be home with him. Anyway, I have to take him to the vet but I have a problem. Every time he gets in a car or taken outside, he pees. So I thought about wrapping him up in a towel, a small grocery bag around his back end over the towel, and then another towel. But then I would have to give him a bath when we got home and I just don't want to put him through that on top of the vet. So, I'm really not sure what to do. I know I need to dig the cat carrier out of the garage today or have Amanda's Dad go do it.

I'm not too happy with Amanda's mom right now. She gambled away the grocery money and we had to use our very limited food stamp money up yesterday to get some things to try and make ends meet. It;s going to be another horrible month of trying to make things last, not eating like I should, eating what I can, and oh yeah, guess I won't be seeing if I a gluten intolerant this month either. So that sucks.

One bit of good news came my way. My Dad might actually get a decent job. He applied for a security position at Wal-Mart and they seem to like him. He's had two interviews and I really hope the fucktard assholes back in corrections don't fuck him over like they have in the past. Basically my Dad and the director didn't see eye to eye and the director destroyed the program my Dad spent 30 years building- that actually worked- got rid of his job and moved him from adult to juvenile. Then the people in juvenile made things impossible for my Dad so they could force him into a forced early retirement. Yes this shit actually goes on. And for shits and giggles the director and my Dad's old boss in Juvenile and even the one in adult residential corrections are all buddies and to this day still gang up on him. I don't understand it. Oh and they recently realized that they did need someone doing my Dad's old job in adult residential so they opened that up but wouldn't let him have it back. So, yeah, my Dad worked his way from the bottom to Facility manager and 2nd to the boss in corrections and after 30+ years was thrown out because the director didn't like that my Dad was effective at his job and was right about how things should be done. Did I mention that they didn't like each other in college either? Oh yeah, they happened to have had classes together. And did I mention that it's a good thing that I don't know what this man looks like else I might run over his foot with my car!

Anyway, I hope my Dad gets the job because that will certainly help him and my Mom out and get their heads above water again.

I start school again in two days and I don't know if I am okay with this. I didn't get a lot done that I wanted to get done. I hate that.