Followup Dr. Appointment

After not having dressed up for 2 weeks, wearing nothing but hospital gowns, stretchy pants, sweat shirt and going braless, today for my doctor's appointment I decided to wear a little makeup and wear some normal clothes. He said everything was looking good and things are healing as they should. He went over what he had done during surgery and said, "Your lungs are darker than they should be for your age. I ADVISE you to quit smoking." I told him I haven't smoked since going to the ER and I will never smoke again. All in all I'm doing very well and hoping to work some time this week either one day or two. I need to keep myself somewhat busy because sitting around doing nothing brings on wanting to smoke. Changing my routine has started, but mornings are still tough.
As I was talking to my sister Rainy today she said, "You've motivated me to try to stop smoking." Hey, that's all I can ask for. I hope I can keep her motivated and me at the same time. Me and my friend Cindy are going to join a nonsmoking group that will last 6 weeks. I'm kind of excited.
I'm excited for a fresh start to my life. I was pretty down in the dumps for the past few months and was in a downward spiral, so this gallbladder thing and stay at the hospital saved me literally. I'm also excited to have a new perspective on my life and health. So cheers to me for the upcoming battles I'm faced with, but the triumphs I will accomplish!

Resident at the St. Luke's Downtown

Six months ago I knew I was having pain in my gallbladder area, but I just kept putting it off and putting it off and trying to monitor the pain with ibuprofen, which usually worked, until October 21st, Thursday, at 2:00 in the morning. I started throwing up and throwing up. I had even tried to take ibuprofen, but it just came up, too. I knew something was wrong this time. I was in so much pain, but not in the gallbladder area, it was in the middle of my chest area. Finally after having no sleep, I called Jody at her work at 9:30 and said, "I need to go to the ER and I can't drive myself." She was up here in a hop-skip-and-a-jump and we went to St. Luke's Downtown. After running several tests, yup, my gallbladder needed to come out, that was no surprise, but what was the surprise was the pancreatitis. They said that a stone was stuck in the bile duct between the gallbladder and the pancreas and that it could be life threatening and they said, "You're being admitted." Since I had put Jody off on calling mom to tell her that I was in the ER until tests were done when we knew I was being admitted I started crying. She rubbed my arm said it will be all right and said, I'd better call mom. Now, not ever being admitted to the hospital before or having surgery, here I was being admitted to the hospital and surgery couldn't be done until Monday? Really? Is this necessary?
Well, to make a long story short, the surgery was Monday and I was released Tuesday. The stone was not there in the duct when they went in so no additional surgery was needed, they just took out the gallbladder. It's Thursday and I'm feeling okay. Getting around better and better every day.

Heimlich

Last night after coming home from my job, which was in the top 3 worst jobs ever, I had sat down to eat some dinner, watch Grey's and poured me a glass of milk so I could have a Pepperidge Farm milk chocolate macadamia nut cookie to treat myself for such torture I went through. I took a bite after dunking it in the cold milk and then had another this time without the milk, that's when it happened, the nut got stuck in my throat. I jumped off the sofa trying to breathe and instantly had my head down hoping it would get unstuck. I ran into the wall with my head, then ran myself into my bar-high stool. The first time hurt bad enough, but I knew I had to do it again. I ran myself again into the bar stool thinking the whole time, help me someone. That nut flew out as I rammed myself once again. I fell to my knees in complete exhaustion and then immediately started to cry. My chest hurt, my knee hurt and the top of my head was bleeding. I didn't know whether I had a concussion or not. I called Jody, "I ALMOST DIED," and then tried to explain the rest as I'm sobbing. Needless to say I packed up the boys at 9:30 and headed out to stay the night. I did not want to be alone. Well, this morning, my body aches. My head is crusted with blood spots, I have paint remnants in my hair, a big goose egg on my forehead, my chest hasn't shown any bruising yet, but I feel it coming and my knee is scabbed. The Heimlich remover maneuver worked, but only probably with a little help from someone up there.

Nah, I don't wanna

One morning this week at 7:30 I had to drive to Nampa for a job. It was pretty chilly in my house, down to 64, and I decided to turn on the heater for a few minutes to get warm. Well, right before I am to leave, Gus hadn't gotten up from bed yet. I said, "Gus, I have to go to work today, you need to go outside and go potty." He edges his nose out to the end of the blanket sniffs around, feels how cold it is -- and if he could talk, he woulda said, "Nah, I don't wanna; it's too cold out there." And he nestled back down under the blankets. I pulled a Dallas (here comes the tractor moment) and pull back the blankets and expose his body, which he is now on his
back -- having the look on his face of "Rub me, love me. I don't wanna go outside." Dogs, you gotta love 'em.

BoBo's Belly

This week as I went to a job and was gone for a few hours, I came home to once again BoBo barking in the backyard, which means he's gotten into something in the house. I walk in and find my cold medicine on the floor. I don't know how much he had eaten because I'm sure he didn't have time to peel the foil wrappers, take with an 8-ounce glass of water or use every 4-6 hours as needed. What I did find was BoBo's eyes glossy, him acting loopy, and his tail was straight.
It was like the time when he swallowed the sock, I tried to give him the Heimlich remover maneuver, tried to get him to throw up and finally went into the vet at 12:00 at night. Him coming out of the vet's office glazed eyes and a straight tail. I started crying when I saw Bo coming out and the vet's like, "Oh, he's going to be fine, he's just drugged up." I said, that's not why I'm crying. I'm crying because his tail is straight.
Well, since that experience at the vet's office, I already knew the medicine had kicked in so it's not like he could throw up anything. So I just monitored him and made sure he was breathing. He was fine that night, but it sure was scary. All I have to say is that BoBo's belly must be partly made up of a cow's and a pig's because he just eats EVERYTHING!

Bronco Nation!

As the season of BSU football is upon us, I thought I would blog about how much I love the Broncos! Every Friday, even if the game is on Saturday, you will see "casual Fridays" in attorneys' offices where everyone is wearing a Bronco shirt. When game day arrives, you see an array of flags on cars, people riding bikes, walking their dog, to everyone at the grocery store all wearing a Bronco shirt proud. When you're not wearing a Bronco shirt, they figure you're a Vandal -- and this town can't have that. I will be posting some pictures soon of this Bronco Nation lil family! Me, BoBo and Gussie -- yes, we all have shirts!

Hmm...... Interesting

It's been an interesting month since I last blogged. Been having some weird and some hard jobs lately. There was the stuttering veterinarian whom I felt sorry for because after every answer he would look at me with this "Did-you-get-my-answer" look. I'd wink at him, smile, nod my head to calm him down because the attorney was making him upset and he'd stutter more. The lisp man who was on 14 different drugs, smoked for 30 years and was an alcoholic who'd had a heart attack on the job and he's saying it was a workers' compensation case. The attorney who asked me if "I had a hearing problem" because I couldn't hear the witness who would talk normal before the deposition started and normal during breaks, but when questioned by counsel would lower his head and mumble. The witness who was engaged to a man whom she'd known for 3 years, but didn't know anything about him -- like the fact he was living in California, about to go to prison, had nine children and was living with another woman who had just had a little baby less than 3 months old. The biggest Dallas Cowboy's fan who had a theft in his storage unit that had approximately $65,000 worth of memorabilia -- he was 48, had 6 children himself, his wife was unemployed and he was unemployed....hmm, interesting....Why don't you sell some of that stuff if it's worth $65,000?