Two interviews in two days. Brutal. The first interview yesterday was very casual, very short, and (I think) went very well. It's a job I would like to have. I like the fact that it is part-time, 9-3, and that I don't have to get on the interstate to get there. It's right across the street from a Target and a Wendy's, so I'd really be all set. There's a good sized parking lot, so that shouldn't ever be a problem.
And I know what you're thinking, but yes, these are all things I consider when I look at a job. If I'm only going to work part-time, I don't want to fight interstate traffic to get there or to get home. If I need to stop and grab something for the kids for school, I don't want to go out of my way. And if I need to go out to get lunch, Wendy's is cheap and I like their food. And I hate to have to park far away from where I work. Because I'm lazy.
The other interview was a phone interview. Ugh. Nothing is worse in the world than a phone interview. It violates all the rules of an interview. Can't make eye contact. Can't smile and nod to show the interviewer you get where they are coming from. Can't wow them with my professional dress and super-cute red portfolio I got at Target yesterday before the first interview. Can't pull my letter of recommendation from my previous employer out of aforementioned red portfolio. I don't think it went well, but it wasn't a train wreck. I actually don't expect to hear from them about another interview.
Which, whatever.
I believe the right job will come along at the right time. Back to craigslist and online classifieds to see what else is out there in the meantime.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Ten on Tuesday
Ten Pets I Have Had
- Gracie - yellow lab/Golden Retriever mix
- Murphy - Border Collie mix
- Tiyo - Newfoundland
- Sophie - Newfoundland
- Abby - Newfoundland
- Sam - cat
- Kitty - cat
- Holly - German Shepherd
- Tiger - cat
- Red - cat
Friday, September 24, 2010
Fun Fact Friday
Percentage of American men who say they would marry the same woman if they had it to do all over again: 80%. Percentage of American women who say they'd marry the same man if they had it to do all over again: 50%.
Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history. Spades - King David, Clubs - Alexander the Great, Hearts - Charlemagne, and Diamonds - Julius Caesar.
Clans of long ago that wanted to get rid of their unwanted people without killing them would burn their houses down - hence the expression "to get fired."
The Eisenhower interstate system requires that one mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are usable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies.
Nutmeg is extremely poisonous if injected intravenously.
The wedding saying: "Something old, something new, something borrowed something blue": Old as a guarantee that the love and affection she enjoyed before her marriage will endure, New for success in her new life, Borrowed as a symbol that friends may always be helpful when needed, Blue to designate her loyalty and devotion to her groom. Note: in England the above saying had one more line: ‘a sixpense in your shoe." Brides put money in their shoe as a sign of good fortune. (I had a sixpense in my shoe at my wedding - I think Dana gave it to me. Like the shoes you wear at your wedding aren't uncomfortable enough, I had to go and put a coin in mine. No wonder my bar bill was so high.)
Soldier’s disease is a term for morphine addiction. The Civil War produced over 400,000 morphine addicts.
The parents of Albert Einstein were worried that he was mentally slow because it took him a long time to learn how to speak.
During World War II, condoms were used to cover rifle barrels from being damaged by salt water as the soldiers swam to shore.
Sweden has a ski-thru McDonalds!
Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history. Spades - King David, Clubs - Alexander the Great, Hearts - Charlemagne, and Diamonds - Julius Caesar.
Clans of long ago that wanted to get rid of their unwanted people without killing them would burn their houses down - hence the expression "to get fired."
The Eisenhower interstate system requires that one mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are usable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies.
Nutmeg is extremely poisonous if injected intravenously.
The wedding saying: "Something old, something new, something borrowed something blue": Old as a guarantee that the love and affection she enjoyed before her marriage will endure, New for success in her new life, Borrowed as a symbol that friends may always be helpful when needed, Blue to designate her loyalty and devotion to her groom. Note: in England the above saying had one more line: ‘a sixpense in your shoe." Brides put money in their shoe as a sign of good fortune. (I had a sixpense in my shoe at my wedding - I think Dana gave it to me. Like the shoes you wear at your wedding aren't uncomfortable enough, I had to go and put a coin in mine. No wonder my bar bill was so high.)
Soldier’s disease is a term for morphine addiction. The Civil War produced over 400,000 morphine addicts.
The parents of Albert Einstein were worried that he was mentally slow because it took him a long time to learn how to speak.
During World War II, condoms were used to cover rifle barrels from being damaged by salt water as the soldiers swam to shore.
Sweden has a ski-thru McDonalds!
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Friends Like These (Part 1 of ???)
I have no big plans for today, short of going to the grocery store, attending a band meeting at the middle school for Jacob and watching "Fringe" at 8.
Adjusting to this time zone means I have to really think about what time my shows are on. I've got them all set up to DVR just in case, but I do prefer to watch at the actual time. It used to be because Maryann and I would text each other during the commercials of "SVU" and "Fringe", mostly texts consisting of such deep thoughts as "OMG Did you see that?" or "Freaky!" or some such blather. The first time it happened, Mitch looked up horrified from whatever quiet activity he was partaking in, since talking or walking in front of the TV during either one of those shows is cause for divorce at the very least, but more likely a quick and painful death, and said "Who is dumb enough to text you during Fringe?"
I believe my response was "It's Maryann so we can talk about Fringe, and YOU MUST NOT SPEAK AGAIN UNTIL THIS PROGRAM IS OVER"
And then we would come to work the next day and spend the first hour of our day dissecting what had happened the night before. Or in the case of SVU, how very nice Eliot had looked, either with or without his shirt on.
Then we would spend the rest of the day remembering random things about the show and would blurt them out to each other. Sometimes, because our cubicles were next to each other and one or both of us would be facing the opposite direction for extended periods of time, we would talk about these things, only to turn around and find out the other one was not at her desk. This happened more times than is probably wise to admit.
It's funny how that it turned out that way between us, because when Maryann first started at the funeral home, I was a little concerned she wasn't going to be any fun. She was quiet and showed up on time, which irked me to no end because showing up on time was never one of my strong suits. I was already 6 or 7 years into my career there and had developed a, um shall we say, understanding with the guys. And by understanding, I mean they knew my philosophy of, "You give me the work in a timely fashion and I will do it and DO NOT COME OVER HERE EVERY 10 MINUTES ASKING ME THE STATUS OF YOUR DEATH CERTIFICATE OR BY GOD THERE WILL TRULY BE A NEED FOR YOUR DEATH CERTIFICATE". I was also very well versed in the number of ways a letter opener could be used to prove my point.
But eventually, she relaxed and let her personality come out, or I lured her over to the dark side, hard to tell which. And she became one of my most incredible friends. I showed her some good authors I enjoyed, and she showed me there's no shame in reading a large print book. Together we went to jewelry parties, candle parties, purse parties. She gave me Alisha's old clothes for Sara and I gave her Sara's old clothes for her niece. We rolled our eyes at the same director quirks (some say stupidity) and we would often find ourselves trying not to laugh out loud when certain office mates launched into stories we had heard no less than 3000 times. We stayed up way past our bedtimes to go to midnight movie releases of a certain vampire/werewolf series and made our friend Jen go with us to drive.
And we texted each other during our two favorite shows. Last night, after she had seen the 2 hour season premier of SVU, she texted me to say how good they both were, even though I was only 5 minutes into the beginning. Stupid time zone difference. But she was right - both episodes were really good. And I never saw the end coming. How about you, Maryann?
Adjusting to this time zone means I have to really think about what time my shows are on. I've got them all set up to DVR just in case, but I do prefer to watch at the actual time. It used to be because Maryann and I would text each other during the commercials of "SVU" and "Fringe", mostly texts consisting of such deep thoughts as "OMG Did you see that?" or "Freaky!" or some such blather. The first time it happened, Mitch looked up horrified from whatever quiet activity he was partaking in, since talking or walking in front of the TV during either one of those shows is cause for divorce at the very least, but more likely a quick and painful death, and said "Who is dumb enough to text you during Fringe?"
I believe my response was "It's Maryann so we can talk about Fringe, and YOU MUST NOT SPEAK AGAIN UNTIL THIS PROGRAM IS OVER"
And then we would come to work the next day and spend the first hour of our day dissecting what had happened the night before. Or in the case of SVU, how very nice Eliot had looked, either with or without his shirt on.
Then we would spend the rest of the day remembering random things about the show and would blurt them out to each other. Sometimes, because our cubicles were next to each other and one or both of us would be facing the opposite direction for extended periods of time, we would talk about these things, only to turn around and find out the other one was not at her desk. This happened more times than is probably wise to admit.
It's funny how that it turned out that way between us, because when Maryann first started at the funeral home, I was a little concerned she wasn't going to be any fun. She was quiet and showed up on time, which irked me to no end because showing up on time was never one of my strong suits. I was already 6 or 7 years into my career there and had developed a, um shall we say, understanding with the guys. And by understanding, I mean they knew my philosophy of, "You give me the work in a timely fashion and I will do it and DO NOT COME OVER HERE EVERY 10 MINUTES ASKING ME THE STATUS OF YOUR DEATH CERTIFICATE OR BY GOD THERE WILL TRULY BE A NEED FOR YOUR DEATH CERTIFICATE". I was also very well versed in the number of ways a letter opener could be used to prove my point.
But eventually, she relaxed and let her personality come out, or I lured her over to the dark side, hard to tell which. And she became one of my most incredible friends. I showed her some good authors I enjoyed, and she showed me there's no shame in reading a large print book. Together we went to jewelry parties, candle parties, purse parties. She gave me Alisha's old clothes for Sara and I gave her Sara's old clothes for her niece. We rolled our eyes at the same director quirks (some say stupidity) and we would often find ourselves trying not to laugh out loud when certain office mates launched into stories we had heard no less than 3000 times. We stayed up way past our bedtimes to go to midnight movie releases of a certain vampire/werewolf series and made our friend Jen go with us to drive.
And we texted each other during our two favorite shows. Last night, after she had seen the 2 hour season premier of SVU, she texted me to say how good they both were, even though I was only 5 minutes into the beginning. Stupid time zone difference. But she was right - both episodes were really good. And I never saw the end coming. How about you, Maryann?
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Physical
The water softener guy is here now, installing my water softener and generally being horrified by that bizarre plumbing work in this house. I don't care about the plumbing, except for I'd like the water turned back on and not have some guy in my basement.
Sara had her EEG yesterday and it went well. As well as having 22 sensors stuck to your head with glue and tape and then having to have them removed from your hair after you've only had 4 hours of sleep can go anyway. She was not a happy girl after that. We should have the results in a week, but I suspect it won't show any kind of tendency to seizures. Mitch and I believe, and the neurologist also believes, that first seizure was a side effect of the sedation medication they gave her for the MRI. She hasn't had another episode and in fact, is pretty much her old self again. No headaches, no seizures, no vision trouble that she complains about. She asked me today if she could jump rope at recess, because I had banned her from it before. I told her she could, but not for the entire recess. I just think jumping up and down repeatedly can't be helping her concussion recovery effort.
On the up side (read with sarcasm please), statements from the hospitals are coming in fast and furious. But they are just statements, and even say "Do not pay from this statement" while they wait for the insurance to come through. Today, we got 2 statements from the ambulance company, but they enclosed a separate form asking for our insurance information so they can try to submit it through that. We'll see what happens. I think they only visits I haven't seen statements for are the 2nd neurologist appointment, the eye doctor, and of course, the EEG from yesterday. But I'm sure those are coming.
Mitch and I had mini-physicals on Monday. Blood work, blood pressure check, just little stuff. His cholesterol is high - 230, no big surprise - and my thyroid is deemed "overactive". She wants to recheck it in 6 months. She wants Mitch on medication for the cholesterol, but he doesn't want to, so I'll let him battle that out with her. My cholesterol is 202, so haha. My apparent diet of McDonalds and Easy Mac appears to be not hurting me at all. And I've lost about 10 pounds, but I credit that to two weeks of Sara medical stress.
Still no luck on the job front. I applied for a bunch yesterday, but if something doesn't turn up soon, I'll have to go to a temp agency. I'm still surprised by the number of jobs listed on Craigslist every day in the admin/office section. That's the only section I look at. I don't even want to know all the other Craigslist stuff. The Internet is can be a scary, creepy place. Even in Utah. Best to keep your eyes shut.
Sara had her EEG yesterday and it went well. As well as having 22 sensors stuck to your head with glue and tape and then having to have them removed from your hair after you've only had 4 hours of sleep can go anyway. She was not a happy girl after that. We should have the results in a week, but I suspect it won't show any kind of tendency to seizures. Mitch and I believe, and the neurologist also believes, that first seizure was a side effect of the sedation medication they gave her for the MRI. She hasn't had another episode and in fact, is pretty much her old self again. No headaches, no seizures, no vision trouble that she complains about. She asked me today if she could jump rope at recess, because I had banned her from it before. I told her she could, but not for the entire recess. I just think jumping up and down repeatedly can't be helping her concussion recovery effort.
On the up side (read with sarcasm please), statements from the hospitals are coming in fast and furious. But they are just statements, and even say "Do not pay from this statement" while they wait for the insurance to come through. Today, we got 2 statements from the ambulance company, but they enclosed a separate form asking for our insurance information so they can try to submit it through that. We'll see what happens. I think they only visits I haven't seen statements for are the 2nd neurologist appointment, the eye doctor, and of course, the EEG from yesterday. But I'm sure those are coming.
Mitch and I had mini-physicals on Monday. Blood work, blood pressure check, just little stuff. His cholesterol is high - 230, no big surprise - and my thyroid is deemed "overactive". She wants to recheck it in 6 months. She wants Mitch on medication for the cholesterol, but he doesn't want to, so I'll let him battle that out with her. My cholesterol is 202, so haha. My apparent diet of McDonalds and Easy Mac appears to be not hurting me at all. And I've lost about 10 pounds, but I credit that to two weeks of Sara medical stress.
Still no luck on the job front. I applied for a bunch yesterday, but if something doesn't turn up soon, I'll have to go to a temp agency. I'm still surprised by the number of jobs listed on Craigslist every day in the admin/office section. That's the only section I look at. I don't even want to know all the other Craigslist stuff. The Internet is can be a scary, creepy place. Even in Utah. Best to keep your eyes shut.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Ten on Tuesday
Ten Favorite TV Shows - inspired by Mitch & Sara's TV viewing tonight
- Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
- Fringe
- Big Bang Theory
- Law & Order
- Little House on the Prairie
- Two and a Half Men
- Heroes
- M*A*S*H
- Roseanne
- The West Wing
Friday, September 17, 2010
High School Confidential
My friend Jen over at Last One in the Pool... wrote yesterday about high school. She went to a religious school and wrote about how only those who went there would remember certain things. (There was clearly a deeper concept in there as well, because Jen is a very deep thinker, which I LOVE about her, but I am a simple girl and that's what I got out of it.) That got me thinking about my high school years. It was a struggle to remember that far back, but I did it. I started thinking, what things would you only know if you went to McHenry Community High School? What things over the years have I told people about my high school that caused them to look at me funny and say "Wait, what? Seriously?"
Clearly, the one that stands out the most is prom. Oh sure, everyone that's gone to their prom in the school gym - or didn't have a prom at all - thinks it was very cool that we MCHS students got to go a hotel and have our prom there. But when you tell them you had to board SCHOOL BUSES in all your prom finery and weren't allowed to go in a limo or someone's dad's really nice car, you know the look of horror on their face. "You mean, you rode a school bus to PROM?" Oh yes, we did. And we hated it too. But we did it, because we had no other choice. I believe, and correct me if I'm wrong here MCHSers, you weren't allowed in if you hadn't ridden the bus. Even if you go to prom with one of the chaperone's sons and the chaperone was already at the prom location, YOU and YOUR DATE still had to ride the school bus to the prom. And back. All to prevent us from partaking in things we weren't supposed to partake of. Which we did anyway, we just got started later in the evening.
Another apparently uncommon thing we had was a smoking area. You had to have permission from your parents, but there was an area behind the school where students could go and smoke. But after the first few weeks of school, no one checked and anyone could go back there and smoke at lunch. (Not that I ever did, Mom.) I'm not sure how they justified it, but I never really gave it much thought. It was just something we had. Only a few years after graduation did it seem bizarre to me.
Then there's the fact that our high school was actually 2 campuses, cleverly called East Campus and West Campus. There's a whole history behind it, which I don't really know now if I even did hen, but I'll just explain that basically each school was 9-12, and most people spent their entire day at either one or other, depending on where you lived. But the school combined for things like sports, band, and the aforementioned prom and similar dances. I took Driver's Ed at West Campus (clearly the better of the two, if only because we were newer!) with Mr. Mihevc, but a handful of times, I had to ride the morning shuttle bus to East Campus to participate in Driving Simulator. Band was at West Campus, so I didn't have to travel for that, but half of the band did so I knew some of them. I played volleyball my junior and senior years, so I got to know a couple of girls from East that way. But otherwise, you might never have any interaction with kids from the other campus.
Until your 20 year high school reunion, when you're trying to remember who that person over there is and why don't they look familiar, until you realize they went to East and you're not crazy or have early onset Alzheimer's, it just that you PROBABLY NEVER KNEW THEM. (Always a relief for someone with my memory issues.)
It's obviously a flawed system.
There are other things I vaguely remember. The geometry teacher with the coin belt buckle and the cat he always talked about. The first year government teacher who told us he wasn't going to teach for long, just a year or two before he would go on to bigger and better things, that I saw teaching when I toured the school at my 20 year reunion. The dances at East after the home football games and the dances at West after the home basketball games. Having taken square dancing as my PE dance elective so many times I should have more seriously considered it as a career choice.
But what I most remember isn't the school and weird school policies. I remember the people, the moments, the events, that occurred during high school. The fact that friends I had then I still talk to regularly now. With Facebook, you connect with people from that time that you never kept up with. You find out what happened to all those people you always wondered about. You find out they have husbands, wives, kids, pets, jobs that don't involve french fries at all. But mostly, like Jen was saying in her post, they have memories of things that only a couple hundred other people do. Memories of things that happened at MCHS during the years of 1984-1988. But now the memories of those kids are mixed up with the current Facebook statuses and pictures of the adults we've become. It's like reading the sequel to a book you weren't sure you liked much. Maybe the sequel makes the first book better. Or at least, easier to remember fondly.
Clearly, the one that stands out the most is prom. Oh sure, everyone that's gone to their prom in the school gym - or didn't have a prom at all - thinks it was very cool that we MCHS students got to go a hotel and have our prom there. But when you tell them you had to board SCHOOL BUSES in all your prom finery and weren't allowed to go in a limo or someone's dad's really nice car, you know the look of horror on their face. "You mean, you rode a school bus to PROM?" Oh yes, we did. And we hated it too. But we did it, because we had no other choice. I believe, and correct me if I'm wrong here MCHSers, you weren't allowed in if you hadn't ridden the bus. Even if you go to prom with one of the chaperone's sons and the chaperone was already at the prom location, YOU and YOUR DATE still had to ride the school bus to the prom. And back. All to prevent us from partaking in things we weren't supposed to partake of. Which we did anyway, we just got started later in the evening.
Another apparently uncommon thing we had was a smoking area. You had to have permission from your parents, but there was an area behind the school where students could go and smoke. But after the first few weeks of school, no one checked and anyone could go back there and smoke at lunch. (Not that I ever did, Mom.) I'm not sure how they justified it, but I never really gave it much thought. It was just something we had. Only a few years after graduation did it seem bizarre to me.
Then there's the fact that our high school was actually 2 campuses, cleverly called East Campus and West Campus. There's a whole history behind it, which I don't really know now if I even did hen, but I'll just explain that basically each school was 9-12, and most people spent their entire day at either one or other, depending on where you lived. But the school combined for things like sports, band, and the aforementioned prom and similar dances. I took Driver's Ed at West Campus (clearly the better of the two, if only because we were newer!) with Mr. Mihevc, but a handful of times, I had to ride the morning shuttle bus to East Campus to participate in Driving Simulator. Band was at West Campus, so I didn't have to travel for that, but half of the band did so I knew some of them. I played volleyball my junior and senior years, so I got to know a couple of girls from East that way. But otherwise, you might never have any interaction with kids from the other campus.
Until your 20 year high school reunion, when you're trying to remember who that person over there is and why don't they look familiar, until you realize they went to East and you're not crazy or have early onset Alzheimer's, it just that you PROBABLY NEVER KNEW THEM. (Always a relief for someone with my memory issues.)
It's obviously a flawed system.
There are other things I vaguely remember. The geometry teacher with the coin belt buckle and the cat he always talked about. The first year government teacher who told us he wasn't going to teach for long, just a year or two before he would go on to bigger and better things, that I saw teaching when I toured the school at my 20 year reunion. The dances at East after the home football games and the dances at West after the home basketball games. Having taken square dancing as my PE dance elective so many times I should have more seriously considered it as a career choice.
But what I most remember isn't the school and weird school policies. I remember the people, the moments, the events, that occurred during high school. The fact that friends I had then I still talk to regularly now. With Facebook, you connect with people from that time that you never kept up with. You find out what happened to all those people you always wondered about. You find out they have husbands, wives, kids, pets, jobs that don't involve french fries at all. But mostly, like Jen was saying in her post, they have memories of things that only a couple hundred other people do. Memories of things that happened at MCHS during the years of 1984-1988. But now the memories of those kids are mixed up with the current Facebook statuses and pictures of the adults we've become. It's like reading the sequel to a book you weren't sure you liked much. Maybe the sequel makes the first book better. Or at least, easier to remember fondly.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Dust Bowl
Sara went to school today and so far, it seems like she'll make it all day. There's an hour to go, but I figure if she was going to come home, she would have done it already.
I got caught up on the housecleaning today - well, all but the dusting which I really dislike. That's what I should be doing right now. This house is always really dusty. There's a lot of dirt here naturally, and then all the road construction going on right outside our subdivision doesn't help. And the wind blows pretty good here a lot. So much so that some days we can't even see the mountains. I know now why most people keep their windows closed all the time, but I just can't do that. Too cheap to pay for air conditioning when it's 75 degrees out and too lazy to dust. No good answer I suppose. Maybe I should go back to work and then I can hire someone to dust my house. Yeah, right.
The dog, Gracie, got into my makeup basket yesterday. I know, I know, you're all surprised to find out that I even HAVE a makeup basket seeing as I almost never wear any. Anyway, she chewed up a tube of foundation and got it all over her paws, face and my bedroom carpet. I was not pleased. It wasn't even her shade, and then she goes and wastes and entire tube of Mary Kay foundation. That stuff isn't cheap, you know.
Now that the US Open is over, daytime TV is killing me. I don't sit down and watch TV during the day, mostly I just keep it on the for noise, but I like to have on something that doesn't make me crazy. Right now, Law & Order: Criminal Intent is on and I don't even have to turn around to know that Bobby Goren is tilting his head and thinking deeply about a clue no one else on the entire New York Police force considered.
Hopefully tonight, Mitch and Jacob are going to a Boy Scout meeting. I'm not having any luck finding him a troop. The first name and number the council office gave me went directly to a voice mail and no one ever called me back. So I went online and e-mailed the district commissioner. Nothing. Yesterday, I called again and the lady that answered gave me the name and meeting place of two troops in American Fork. One is at a Presbyterian church, and when I looked them up online, there was a link to the Boy Scout Troop right there on the church web page. They have a blog too so I found out they are meeting tonight at the church. I called the guy the council office gave me, but he hasn't yet called me back. Mitch is going to just take Jacob over there tonight and see what happens.
Sara's gotten three packages in the mail today. She'll be rolling in gifts when she gets home.
Her EEG is scheduled for next Tuesday. This should tell us whether or not she has seizure tendencies that we have to address. Then she goes back to the eye doctor at the end of October to re-evaluate her vision. He wants to see if her peripheral vision clears up once she is over the concussion. I think she has another MRI scheduled for the end of December. I am cautiously optimistic we have passed the worst of this ordeal. Her headaches are gone and she's holding up pretty well. She was up at 5:30 this morning, but that is something they said might happen, a disruption of her sleep patterns. Let's hope that doesn't continue, because I cannot deal with both her and Gracie at 6 AM. I don't like my sleep pattern disrupted at all.
I got caught up on the housecleaning today - well, all but the dusting which I really dislike. That's what I should be doing right now. This house is always really dusty. There's a lot of dirt here naturally, and then all the road construction going on right outside our subdivision doesn't help. And the wind blows pretty good here a lot. So much so that some days we can't even see the mountains. I know now why most people keep their windows closed all the time, but I just can't do that. Too cheap to pay for air conditioning when it's 75 degrees out and too lazy to dust. No good answer I suppose. Maybe I should go back to work and then I can hire someone to dust my house. Yeah, right.
The dog, Gracie, got into my makeup basket yesterday. I know, I know, you're all surprised to find out that I even HAVE a makeup basket seeing as I almost never wear any. Anyway, she chewed up a tube of foundation and got it all over her paws, face and my bedroom carpet. I was not pleased. It wasn't even her shade, and then she goes and wastes and entire tube of Mary Kay foundation. That stuff isn't cheap, you know.
Now that the US Open is over, daytime TV is killing me. I don't sit down and watch TV during the day, mostly I just keep it on the for noise, but I like to have on something that doesn't make me crazy. Right now, Law & Order: Criminal Intent is on and I don't even have to turn around to know that Bobby Goren is tilting his head and thinking deeply about a clue no one else on the entire New York Police force considered.
Hopefully tonight, Mitch and Jacob are going to a Boy Scout meeting. I'm not having any luck finding him a troop. The first name and number the council office gave me went directly to a voice mail and no one ever called me back. So I went online and e-mailed the district commissioner. Nothing. Yesterday, I called again and the lady that answered gave me the name and meeting place of two troops in American Fork. One is at a Presbyterian church, and when I looked them up online, there was a link to the Boy Scout Troop right there on the church web page. They have a blog too so I found out they are meeting tonight at the church. I called the guy the council office gave me, but he hasn't yet called me back. Mitch is going to just take Jacob over there tonight and see what happens.
Sara's gotten three packages in the mail today. She'll be rolling in gifts when she gets home.
Her EEG is scheduled for next Tuesday. This should tell us whether or not she has seizure tendencies that we have to address. Then she goes back to the eye doctor at the end of October to re-evaluate her vision. He wants to see if her peripheral vision clears up once she is over the concussion. I think she has another MRI scheduled for the end of December. I am cautiously optimistic we have passed the worst of this ordeal. Her headaches are gone and she's holding up pretty well. She was up at 5:30 this morning, but that is something they said might happen, a disruption of her sleep patterns. Let's hope that doesn't continue, because I cannot deal with both her and Gracie at 6 AM. I don't like my sleep pattern disrupted at all.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Ten On Tuesday
Because I'm tired of talking about Sara's medical stuff, as I'm sure you're tired of hearing it, here's a 10 on Tuesday.
10 Podcasts I Listen To:
There are more, but the point is to list 10. These are all on iTunes.
10 Podcasts I Listen To:
- Smart Mouths
- Imprint
- Mugglecast
- The Moth
- NPR: StoryCorps Podcast
- The Memory Palace
- Stuff You Should Know: How Stuff Works
- NPR: Story of the Day
- PRI: Selected Shorts Podcast
- Wily Writers Speculative Fiction Audio Stories
There are more, but the point is to list 10. These are all on iTunes.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Sara - The Latest
Our girl has kept us hopping that's for sure.
On Thursday, Sara had her MRI back up at Primary. She wanted to be sedated and she was seriously freaked out by the whole thing, but they were super with her. A Child Life Specialist came in and told her everything that would happen and even demonstrated putting the IV in on a doll that Sara got to keep. My sister-in-law Christine is also a Child Life Specialist and that was a great link for Sara to have with the girl that helped us.
She went in for the MRI a little later and Mitch and I waited in recovery. The neurologist she saw while she was admitted did come down and said he'd be back when she was done and he'd had a chance to talk to the radiologists.
After they brought her out, the radiologists came out and asked a bunch of questions about the accident and her history. The senior doctor said he was going back to talk to the neurologist and then the neurologist would come out to give us the story. We were a little concerned about that, but Sara was waking up and the nurse was getting her to eat and drink.
The neurologist came back after she was up and ready to go. Basically, he said "Yeah, we don't really know". They want to keep an eye on her, see her again in a few months and let them know if anything changes. He would have his office make the appointment with the ophthalmologist so they can get a baseline for her vision and see if it improves in time. It's not Sturge-Weber, which we all knew by this point, since she's missing so many of the telltale symptoms. It's just something that we know about now, should she ever have another head injury or develop more trouble with her vision.
We went home, where Sara was amazing. She didn't have a headache, she ate, she talked with Jacob. She even sat and watched football and told me how Brett Favre should just RETIRE ALREADY because really? How old was he? And then all these other quarterbacks who should retire when they get old - like Drew Brees - would say "Well Brett kept playing, so I can too" and then where would that leave the state of professional football?
Seriously. Don't ever say we haven't taught our kids to socialize well in sports bar situations.
She wanted me to sleep in her room again, just for one more night, so we went to bed about 11. She was wide awake. She chattered for a while and then finally quieted down. I thought we would finally get some sleep.
After a few minutes, she said "Do you see that?"
I looked, but it was dark. "See what?"
"My classroom. My classroom is right over there." She pointed to her closet.
I told her there was nothing there and she was imagining it and try to go to sleep. In a few seconds, she was grabbing her forehead above her right eye and yelling that her head hurt again. This was different than she had behaved before, where she was mostly quiet when her head hurt the most. I brought her some Ibuprofen and after she took it, she said she had to throw up. I took her to the bathroom, and sat her on the floor. She leaned over the toilet and kept saying "I can't handle this", "I'm going to barf", "You don't understand".
Her voice sounded off. I've never heard her say "barf" before. She kept smacking her lips and saying her throat tasted nasty. Everything she says, she ends with "Momma" or "Mommy".
She started snapping her fingers on her right hand over and over again. We took her to our room after about 15 minutes, gave her the pink tub from the hospital because she was still saying she had to barf. She drummed her fingers on the bottom of the tub. I gave her the prescription for nausea. By this time, it's shortly after midnight. I called the neurologist on call at Primary hospital and waited for 10 minutes. He didn't pick up, but we leave a message with the front desk that we are going to the ER.
Meanwhile, Sara is yelling that her head hurts, she can't handle it, she can't take it anymore.
About halfway to the ER, she calms down some. But she goes on and on about how she can't handle this, the doctors don't help, there's nothing they can do. She's argumentative, whenever I say "It's okay" she responds with "It's not okay". I'm worried and trying to say things that don't stir her up. She asks where we are going and we tell her.
We get to the hospital, where she is much calmer and almost herself. Her headache is a 4 now, and she keeps asking if we are at the hospital for kids or the regular hospital. Once she is taken back, the doctor comes in, pulls up her records - it's all one hospital system, so he even has her MRI results right there - and says he's going to contact the neurologist on call. Mitch takes Jacob home.
The doctor comes back later and says he suspects it was a temporal lobe seizure. Not what you think of when you hear seizure, a temporal lobe seizure is pretty much what Sara exhibited. Seeing "auras" (or in this case, her classroom) is a sign one is about to hit. They usually last about 30 seconds to 2 minutes. Sara's was longer. He was sending us home and told us to contact the neurologist's office the next day to schedule an EEG.
She falls asleep as we wait for Mitch to come back.
The next morning, I make the neurologist appointment for Monday and leave a message on the nurse line for her neurologist to call us. Sara gets up about 10. She comes to the living room where Mitch and I are and says "Why am I wearing this sweatshirt?"
"Daddy put that on you when we went to the hospital last night."
She looks at us blankly and then looks at the hospital bracelet. "I went to the hospital last night?"
She remembers nothing. We aren't telling her too much, because I don't want her to think she "remembers" things about that night that she doesn't, if the neurologist asks.
They says it was most likely a side effect of the sedation medication. It's unlikely to happen again. But that's what they will talk about tomorrow when we go back.
Then Tuesday is the ophthalmologist. I'm hoping she can go back to school Tuesday after that appointment. Barring anything else, she will. Keeping her home isn't medically necessary anymore, and I think it's just making all of us skittish. We need to get her back into a routine.
So that's where we stand. It's been a heck of a week. She's out playing with friends right now, while Mitch and Jacob went back to the fair to see the rodeo, which we had to skip last night when Sara started feeling bad again. I'm trying not to get up and go outside to look for her to make sure she's okay. It's hard to convince HER she's okay if I keep hovering. But it's hard not to.
On Thursday, Sara had her MRI back up at Primary. She wanted to be sedated and she was seriously freaked out by the whole thing, but they were super with her. A Child Life Specialist came in and told her everything that would happen and even demonstrated putting the IV in on a doll that Sara got to keep. My sister-in-law Christine is also a Child Life Specialist and that was a great link for Sara to have with the girl that helped us.
She went in for the MRI a little later and Mitch and I waited in recovery. The neurologist she saw while she was admitted did come down and said he'd be back when she was done and he'd had a chance to talk to the radiologists.
After they brought her out, the radiologists came out and asked a bunch of questions about the accident and her history. The senior doctor said he was going back to talk to the neurologist and then the neurologist would come out to give us the story. We were a little concerned about that, but Sara was waking up and the nurse was getting her to eat and drink.
The neurologist came back after she was up and ready to go. Basically, he said "Yeah, we don't really know". They want to keep an eye on her, see her again in a few months and let them know if anything changes. He would have his office make the appointment with the ophthalmologist so they can get a baseline for her vision and see if it improves in time. It's not Sturge-Weber, which we all knew by this point, since she's missing so many of the telltale symptoms. It's just something that we know about now, should she ever have another head injury or develop more trouble with her vision.
We went home, where Sara was amazing. She didn't have a headache, she ate, she talked with Jacob. She even sat and watched football and told me how Brett Favre should just RETIRE ALREADY because really? How old was he? And then all these other quarterbacks who should retire when they get old - like Drew Brees - would say "Well Brett kept playing, so I can too" and then where would that leave the state of professional football?
Seriously. Don't ever say we haven't taught our kids to socialize well in sports bar situations.
She wanted me to sleep in her room again, just for one more night, so we went to bed about 11. She was wide awake. She chattered for a while and then finally quieted down. I thought we would finally get some sleep.
After a few minutes, she said "Do you see that?"
I looked, but it was dark. "See what?"
"My classroom. My classroom is right over there." She pointed to her closet.
I told her there was nothing there and she was imagining it and try to go to sleep. In a few seconds, she was grabbing her forehead above her right eye and yelling that her head hurt again. This was different than she had behaved before, where she was mostly quiet when her head hurt the most. I brought her some Ibuprofen and after she took it, she said she had to throw up. I took her to the bathroom, and sat her on the floor. She leaned over the toilet and kept saying "I can't handle this", "I'm going to barf", "You don't understand".
Her voice sounded off. I've never heard her say "barf" before. She kept smacking her lips and saying her throat tasted nasty. Everything she says, she ends with "Momma" or "Mommy".
She started snapping her fingers on her right hand over and over again. We took her to our room after about 15 minutes, gave her the pink tub from the hospital because she was still saying she had to barf. She drummed her fingers on the bottom of the tub. I gave her the prescription for nausea. By this time, it's shortly after midnight. I called the neurologist on call at Primary hospital and waited for 10 minutes. He didn't pick up, but we leave a message with the front desk that we are going to the ER.
Meanwhile, Sara is yelling that her head hurts, she can't handle it, she can't take it anymore.
About halfway to the ER, she calms down some. But she goes on and on about how she can't handle this, the doctors don't help, there's nothing they can do. She's argumentative, whenever I say "It's okay" she responds with "It's not okay". I'm worried and trying to say things that don't stir her up. She asks where we are going and we tell her.
We get to the hospital, where she is much calmer and almost herself. Her headache is a 4 now, and she keeps asking if we are at the hospital for kids or the regular hospital. Once she is taken back, the doctor comes in, pulls up her records - it's all one hospital system, so he even has her MRI results right there - and says he's going to contact the neurologist on call. Mitch takes Jacob home.
The doctor comes back later and says he suspects it was a temporal lobe seizure. Not what you think of when you hear seizure, a temporal lobe seizure is pretty much what Sara exhibited. Seeing "auras" (or in this case, her classroom) is a sign one is about to hit. They usually last about 30 seconds to 2 minutes. Sara's was longer. He was sending us home and told us to contact the neurologist's office the next day to schedule an EEG.
She falls asleep as we wait for Mitch to come back.
The next morning, I make the neurologist appointment for Monday and leave a message on the nurse line for her neurologist to call us. Sara gets up about 10. She comes to the living room where Mitch and I are and says "Why am I wearing this sweatshirt?"
"Daddy put that on you when we went to the hospital last night."
She looks at us blankly and then looks at the hospital bracelet. "I went to the hospital last night?"
She remembers nothing. We aren't telling her too much, because I don't want her to think she "remembers" things about that night that she doesn't, if the neurologist asks.
They says it was most likely a side effect of the sedation medication. It's unlikely to happen again. But that's what they will talk about tomorrow when we go back.
Then Tuesday is the ophthalmologist. I'm hoping she can go back to school Tuesday after that appointment. Barring anything else, she will. Keeping her home isn't medically necessary anymore, and I think it's just making all of us skittish. We need to get her back into a routine.
So that's where we stand. It's been a heck of a week. She's out playing with friends right now, while Mitch and Jacob went back to the fair to see the rodeo, which we had to skip last night when Sara started feeling bad again. I'm trying not to get up and go outside to look for her to make sure she's okay. It's hard to convince HER she's okay if I keep hovering. But it's hard not to.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Sara
Everyone probably knows by now about Sara's fall and concussion. Here's a full rundown of everything that happened over Labor Day Weekend. This is really long - sorry!
On Sunday, Sara woke up with a headache. It wasn't debilitating or anything - we went for a picnic and then a hike and she was fine. She complained when we got back in the truck about 3:00, so I gave her a Tylenol and she fell asleep. When we got home, she went back to sleep on the couch and got up about 6:30. She said her head still hurt some, so Mitch gave her 2 children's chewable Tylenol. Her friend came over about 7:00 and she put her heelies on and left with her.
About 20 minutes later, her friend called and said that Sara had thrown up. Mitch and I got in the truck and drove the 3 blocks to her friend's house. When we got there, Sara was in the backyard. lying in the grass not moving. Her eyes were open and she was breathing, but she wouldn't talk and move. Mitch picked her up and carried her back to the truck. We got home and she said she had to throw up again. In the bathroom, she was confused. She couldn't seem to figure out how to sit down on the floor and when Mitch called her name, she looked in the opposite direction. She couldn't find us. I looked at Mitch and said "This is not right." He went outside to get the GPS to find the nearest hospital.
We left Jake at home, because I think at this point, we were convinced she was going to shake this off and be fine.
The nearest hospital is in American Fork, about 20 minutes away. I sat in the back of the truck with Sara and kept talking to her. She was fading fast. Her eyes kept closing and I would call her name about 3 times before she would look at me. I asked her questions and it took her a long time to answer and her speech was slurred. We were still less than halfway to the hospital and I was starting to panic. Being new to the area, my fear was that we couldn't find the hospital, or it was closed, or we'd get there to find out it wasn't a full hospital with an ER or something. We decided to call 911.
They instructed us to pull over and they sent an ambulance. Actually, they sent 2 police cars, an ambulance and a fire truck. We described what we knew, which wasn't much at this point, and there was a lot of discussion between the emergency personnel regarding which hospital she should go to - either the American Fork Hospital or Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City. They put a brace on her neck and moved her to a back board and loaded her into the ambulance. I got in front and Mitch went home to get Jacob. By now we knew this was going to be a long night.
The EMTs decided to take her to American Fork Hospital, mostly because she had had a fall and they were worried about back or neck injuries. I could hear the EMTs in the back and watched as they started an IV and put the oxygen things in her nose. She kept saying she was going to throw up, so they gave her something for that. It took another 15 minutes to get to the hospital.
Once there, she was even less responsive that she had been. I told them what we knew, that she had been at a friend's and fell and threw up. I noticed that the nurse kept taking her temperature in her ear. 3 times I think. Then she came back in and took it orally. She was given a pulse thing for her finger, which she kept taking off, and the IV was still going, along with the oxygen. After a moment, the nurse returned with a tech and they took her temperature the only remaining way, if you get my drift. Her body temperature was 93 degrees. Her blood oxygen was low too. A radiologist came in and took her for a CT scan.
Sara was following simple directions, like looking at you and was able to move herself over from her bed to the CT machine, although she reacted really slowly and seemed to struggle to answer any questions. She didn't move at all during the CT scan.
Back in her ER room, the ER doctor came in. He said he'd looked at the CT scan and it appeared she had a brain bleed in the back right side of her brain. He was going to talk to some other doctors and let us know what the plan was.
Mitch came back about then and I tried to tell him what they had said, but couldn't get much out. The doctor saw us and came over. He said, "Well, here's why I'm not a radiologist. It's not a brain bleed, it's calcium deposits. It's probably been there for a long time, most likely a traumatic birth or an old injury." We felt better, but just barely.
Sara was still in her bed, now with a warming blanket over her to try to get her temperature up. She was still unresponsive and we noticed that whenever we weren't actively getting her attention, her head would move over to the left and she would stare at the wall. They took some blood from her IV line and then said they needed arterial blood, which involves drawing blood from the artery inside her wrist. It appears to be a difficult and painful procedure. That was the most response we'd seen from Sara to that point. After the guy had poked her wrist for the 3rd time and was wiggling the needle around, she reared over to him and yelled "How many times are you going to keep stabbing me with that needle?!" But she just as quickly slipped back into her silent mode.
The doctor came in and said they wanted to transfer her to Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City, where they would be better equipped to find out what was going on with her as well as better evaluate the CT scan. Primarys, as they call it, is a pediatric teaching hospital, associated with the University of Utah.
An ambulance arrived and Sara and I left with them. Mitch and Jacob followed in the truck.
The EMTs in this ambulance were also great. I rode in the back with her. The EMT in the back also noted her propensity to slide her head to the left, but we both saw that not only did she move her head left, her eyes also drifted all the way to the left. He said that that activity could be a "focal seizure". Mitch later said the ER nurse told him the same thing after Sara and I had left.
This EMT told me Primarys was the best place for her. He said doctors come from all over to learn there. I felt a little better.
At Primary, we told what we knew again. She was a little more responsive and was able to walk to the bathroom with me just holding her arm. She knew who she was, where she was, her birthday and where she lived. The story now was that the calcium deposits were not a result of this injury, but probably from something more recent than traumatic birth. Our heads were spinning.
About this time, when it was just us in the room, Sara looked at us and said "Boy, that really hurt when I fell off (my friend's) deck." She remembers coming down the deck stairs, and there were like 5 stairs and a landing, and then 5 more stairs. She said she was on the landing and her one heelie caught her other one and she launched off the landing and landed on her back in the grass and then her head hit the ground. She kept saying she didn't fall down the stairs, because she didn't touch the stairs. She doesn't remember anything after that.
By now, her body temperature was back up and they disconnected the IV, but left the equipment in. She was off the oxygen. But her reactions were still slow and she wasn't herself at all. We waited. And waited some more.
Finally, they said they wanted to admit her so they could do an MRI the next morning to get a better look at the brain. Mitch and Jacob went home and Sara and I waited for a room. A doctor from the floor she was going to came in, and showed me the CT scan. I don't think any parent should have to look at pictures of their kid's brain. Just saying.
Calcium deposits on the brain are not uncommon. It's just that few people ever have a CT scan and have the opportunity to see them. So the fact that she has it is not a cause for concern. They want to make sure that it isn't a cause of what's happened to her today. For instance, did it cause her to have a seizure and fall down the stairs? Or is it completely unrelated?
About 2:30 AM, they came and took her by wheelchair upstairs to the 2nd floor, the Neuroscience Trauma Unit. The name about did me in. We're a little sensitive to head injuries in our family, due to Mitch's sister and all that. They got her settled into bed, with monitors on her chest and a pulse thing on her toe this time. After some time, they came in a hooked up an IV since they didn't want her to eat or drink anything in preparation for the MRI.
There's no sleep to be had in a hospital as it is, but I think when you're admitted in the middle of the night, it's worse. Two different doctors came in between 2:30 and 5:00 to check her out, which involved shining lights in her eyes and asking her questions.
Her head hurt pretty badly, and they alternated her between Tylenol and Ibuprofen. She was thirsty and wanted to go home. She did manage to get some sleep, but just barely.
At about 9 AM, they told us that Radiology was only working on call because of the holiday. The nurse didn't think anyone would come in to do the MRI, especially since they also wanted her sedated, which would require calling someone else in as well. She said to expect us to be sent home and have to come back to do the MRI as an outpatient.
A hospitalist doctor came in and I told the story again. He did all his doctor stuff and then just kind of stood there for a minute. He finally said, "You know, she has a whole lot of stuff going on - a lot of symptoms - and we're trying to make them all come together to mean something. But maybe, they won't ever do that. Maybe everything she's exhibited doesn't exactly add up to one thing."
It was the first thing I'd heard that made sense since we got the call from Sara's friend.
A neurologist came in about 10 AM. Again, I told the story. He did a whole bunch of stuff with Sara, having her follow his finger with her eyes, checking movement in her limbs, asking her questions and things like that. He tested her peripheral vision by holding his arms out and wiggling his fingers. He told her to point to which hand was moving.
She never pointed to his right hand - which would be the peripheral vision in her left eye. He assured me that these were not scientific tests, and he was going to have his boss come in and look her over. It was confirmed she wouldn't get an MRI that day (Monday), and we would have to come back.
Mitch showed up then and the doctor showed him the CT scan. For the 3rd time, I heard a doctor mention Sturge Weber Syndrome. You can google in, but basically it's a neurological disorder most commonly associated with people who have port wine stains on their face. The obvious problem here is that Sara not only doesn't have a port wine stain, she has no birthmarks at all, and it generally shows up in children much younger than Sara.
Another neurologist arrived. He looked like Max, one of the guys I used to work with at the funeral home, His tag said "Professor" on it. He did all the same tests, as well as had her do some spacial stuff. Everything checked out good, except for the left eye. During one test, he moved his arm over her face from her left and told her to tell him as soon as she saw his hand. She didn't say "Now" until his hand was over her nose. He pulled up the CT scan again and showed us that the brain calcifications were located in the part of the brain that processes vision. Is this why she was having trouble? How come this was never caught before? Is this vision thing a result of the fall or of the calcifications? This is why they want the MRI. The first neurologist told us to call him when we have it scheduled and he'll come down then. Then he can tell us to either make an appointment to come into the neurology office or that it's nothing to be concerned about.
She was released and we brought her home. She slept some, and when she woke up, she felt pretty good. We tried to get her to eat something, and Jacob read to her, but soon she was throwing up and her head hurt pretty bad. It was a long night.
Tuesday morning, I tried to get her to eat jello, but she threw it up within minutes. She couldn't keep down any Tylenol and the pain in her head was a 9 (on the scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the worst). I called to schedule the MRI, and then called a local pediatrician to see her.
They got us in that morning. He was really great. And Mitch summed it up perfectly, when he told this doctor, "You know, once they saw the CT scan and the calcium deposits, the concussion was kind of forgotten." We're not blaming or anything, but it is true. This doctors said "Let's get her over this concussion first." He prescribed something to help the nausea and take the edge off the headaches, something they used to give to migraine sufferers. It's worked well, and she's feeling a lot better.
We did hear that because there is a family history of migraines - my mom - that Sara's going to be more prone to that. And this injury may spur an earlier start to these migraines than she may have.
There's a lot of information on concussions out there, so you can look it up yourself for detailed stuff, but basically, she may experience this headache off and on for the next 6 weeks. Another head injury during this time would be terrible. She may not be able to tolerate a full day of school for a while, and her concentration may be off . There's a lot of "may bes" involved and I'll have to talk to her teacher and the school to make sure we don't push her too hard. Luckily, she seems to be ahead of the school system here, so I don't think it will be a big deal.
Now we just wait for the MRI tomorrow and what that tells us.
Thank you to everyone for your calls, notes and thoughts. It's been hard being so far away from everyone during all this, but knowing you're all pulling for Sara has really helped.
On Sunday, Sara woke up with a headache. It wasn't debilitating or anything - we went for a picnic and then a hike and she was fine. She complained when we got back in the truck about 3:00, so I gave her a Tylenol and she fell asleep. When we got home, she went back to sleep on the couch and got up about 6:30. She said her head still hurt some, so Mitch gave her 2 children's chewable Tylenol. Her friend came over about 7:00 and she put her heelies on and left with her.
About 20 minutes later, her friend called and said that Sara had thrown up. Mitch and I got in the truck and drove the 3 blocks to her friend's house. When we got there, Sara was in the backyard. lying in the grass not moving. Her eyes were open and she was breathing, but she wouldn't talk and move. Mitch picked her up and carried her back to the truck. We got home and she said she had to throw up again. In the bathroom, she was confused. She couldn't seem to figure out how to sit down on the floor and when Mitch called her name, she looked in the opposite direction. She couldn't find us. I looked at Mitch and said "This is not right." He went outside to get the GPS to find the nearest hospital.
We left Jake at home, because I think at this point, we were convinced she was going to shake this off and be fine.
The nearest hospital is in American Fork, about 20 minutes away. I sat in the back of the truck with Sara and kept talking to her. She was fading fast. Her eyes kept closing and I would call her name about 3 times before she would look at me. I asked her questions and it took her a long time to answer and her speech was slurred. We were still less than halfway to the hospital and I was starting to panic. Being new to the area, my fear was that we couldn't find the hospital, or it was closed, or we'd get there to find out it wasn't a full hospital with an ER or something. We decided to call 911.
They instructed us to pull over and they sent an ambulance. Actually, they sent 2 police cars, an ambulance and a fire truck. We described what we knew, which wasn't much at this point, and there was a lot of discussion between the emergency personnel regarding which hospital she should go to - either the American Fork Hospital or Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City. They put a brace on her neck and moved her to a back board and loaded her into the ambulance. I got in front and Mitch went home to get Jacob. By now we knew this was going to be a long night.
The EMTs decided to take her to American Fork Hospital, mostly because she had had a fall and they were worried about back or neck injuries. I could hear the EMTs in the back and watched as they started an IV and put the oxygen things in her nose. She kept saying she was going to throw up, so they gave her something for that. It took another 15 minutes to get to the hospital.
Once there, she was even less responsive that she had been. I told them what we knew, that she had been at a friend's and fell and threw up. I noticed that the nurse kept taking her temperature in her ear. 3 times I think. Then she came back in and took it orally. She was given a pulse thing for her finger, which she kept taking off, and the IV was still going, along with the oxygen. After a moment, the nurse returned with a tech and they took her temperature the only remaining way, if you get my drift. Her body temperature was 93 degrees. Her blood oxygen was low too. A radiologist came in and took her for a CT scan.
Sara was following simple directions, like looking at you and was able to move herself over from her bed to the CT machine, although she reacted really slowly and seemed to struggle to answer any questions. She didn't move at all during the CT scan.
Back in her ER room, the ER doctor came in. He said he'd looked at the CT scan and it appeared she had a brain bleed in the back right side of her brain. He was going to talk to some other doctors and let us know what the plan was.
Mitch came back about then and I tried to tell him what they had said, but couldn't get much out. The doctor saw us and came over. He said, "Well, here's why I'm not a radiologist. It's not a brain bleed, it's calcium deposits. It's probably been there for a long time, most likely a traumatic birth or an old injury." We felt better, but just barely.
Sara was still in her bed, now with a warming blanket over her to try to get her temperature up. She was still unresponsive and we noticed that whenever we weren't actively getting her attention, her head would move over to the left and she would stare at the wall. They took some blood from her IV line and then said they needed arterial blood, which involves drawing blood from the artery inside her wrist. It appears to be a difficult and painful procedure. That was the most response we'd seen from Sara to that point. After the guy had poked her wrist for the 3rd time and was wiggling the needle around, she reared over to him and yelled "How many times are you going to keep stabbing me with that needle?!" But she just as quickly slipped back into her silent mode.
The doctor came in and said they wanted to transfer her to Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City, where they would be better equipped to find out what was going on with her as well as better evaluate the CT scan. Primarys, as they call it, is a pediatric teaching hospital, associated with the University of Utah.
An ambulance arrived and Sara and I left with them. Mitch and Jacob followed in the truck.
The EMTs in this ambulance were also great. I rode in the back with her. The EMT in the back also noted her propensity to slide her head to the left, but we both saw that not only did she move her head left, her eyes also drifted all the way to the left. He said that that activity could be a "focal seizure". Mitch later said the ER nurse told him the same thing after Sara and I had left.
This EMT told me Primarys was the best place for her. He said doctors come from all over to learn there. I felt a little better.
At Primary, we told what we knew again. She was a little more responsive and was able to walk to the bathroom with me just holding her arm. She knew who she was, where she was, her birthday and where she lived. The story now was that the calcium deposits were not a result of this injury, but probably from something more recent than traumatic birth. Our heads were spinning.
About this time, when it was just us in the room, Sara looked at us and said "Boy, that really hurt when I fell off (my friend's) deck." She remembers coming down the deck stairs, and there were like 5 stairs and a landing, and then 5 more stairs. She said she was on the landing and her one heelie caught her other one and she launched off the landing and landed on her back in the grass and then her head hit the ground. She kept saying she didn't fall down the stairs, because she didn't touch the stairs. She doesn't remember anything after that.
By now, her body temperature was back up and they disconnected the IV, but left the equipment in. She was off the oxygen. But her reactions were still slow and she wasn't herself at all. We waited. And waited some more.
Finally, they said they wanted to admit her so they could do an MRI the next morning to get a better look at the brain. Mitch and Jacob went home and Sara and I waited for a room. A doctor from the floor she was going to came in, and showed me the CT scan. I don't think any parent should have to look at pictures of their kid's brain. Just saying.
Calcium deposits on the brain are not uncommon. It's just that few people ever have a CT scan and have the opportunity to see them. So the fact that she has it is not a cause for concern. They want to make sure that it isn't a cause of what's happened to her today. For instance, did it cause her to have a seizure and fall down the stairs? Or is it completely unrelated?
About 2:30 AM, they came and took her by wheelchair upstairs to the 2nd floor, the Neuroscience Trauma Unit. The name about did me in. We're a little sensitive to head injuries in our family, due to Mitch's sister and all that. They got her settled into bed, with monitors on her chest and a pulse thing on her toe this time. After some time, they came in a hooked up an IV since they didn't want her to eat or drink anything in preparation for the MRI.
There's no sleep to be had in a hospital as it is, but I think when you're admitted in the middle of the night, it's worse. Two different doctors came in between 2:30 and 5:00 to check her out, which involved shining lights in her eyes and asking her questions.
Her head hurt pretty badly, and they alternated her between Tylenol and Ibuprofen. She was thirsty and wanted to go home. She did manage to get some sleep, but just barely.
At about 9 AM, they told us that Radiology was only working on call because of the holiday. The nurse didn't think anyone would come in to do the MRI, especially since they also wanted her sedated, which would require calling someone else in as well. She said to expect us to be sent home and have to come back to do the MRI as an outpatient.
A hospitalist doctor came in and I told the story again. He did all his doctor stuff and then just kind of stood there for a minute. He finally said, "You know, she has a whole lot of stuff going on - a lot of symptoms - and we're trying to make them all come together to mean something. But maybe, they won't ever do that. Maybe everything she's exhibited doesn't exactly add up to one thing."
It was the first thing I'd heard that made sense since we got the call from Sara's friend.
A neurologist came in about 10 AM. Again, I told the story. He did a whole bunch of stuff with Sara, having her follow his finger with her eyes, checking movement in her limbs, asking her questions and things like that. He tested her peripheral vision by holding his arms out and wiggling his fingers. He told her to point to which hand was moving.
She never pointed to his right hand - which would be the peripheral vision in her left eye. He assured me that these were not scientific tests, and he was going to have his boss come in and look her over. It was confirmed she wouldn't get an MRI that day (Monday), and we would have to come back.
Mitch showed up then and the doctor showed him the CT scan. For the 3rd time, I heard a doctor mention Sturge Weber Syndrome. You can google in, but basically it's a neurological disorder most commonly associated with people who have port wine stains on their face. The obvious problem here is that Sara not only doesn't have a port wine stain, she has no birthmarks at all, and it generally shows up in children much younger than Sara.
Another neurologist arrived. He looked like Max, one of the guys I used to work with at the funeral home, His tag said "Professor" on it. He did all the same tests, as well as had her do some spacial stuff. Everything checked out good, except for the left eye. During one test, he moved his arm over her face from her left and told her to tell him as soon as she saw his hand. She didn't say "Now" until his hand was over her nose. He pulled up the CT scan again and showed us that the brain calcifications were located in the part of the brain that processes vision. Is this why she was having trouble? How come this was never caught before? Is this vision thing a result of the fall or of the calcifications? This is why they want the MRI. The first neurologist told us to call him when we have it scheduled and he'll come down then. Then he can tell us to either make an appointment to come into the neurology office or that it's nothing to be concerned about.
She was released and we brought her home. She slept some, and when she woke up, she felt pretty good. We tried to get her to eat something, and Jacob read to her, but soon she was throwing up and her head hurt pretty bad. It was a long night.
Tuesday morning, I tried to get her to eat jello, but she threw it up within minutes. She couldn't keep down any Tylenol and the pain in her head was a 9 (on the scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the worst). I called to schedule the MRI, and then called a local pediatrician to see her.
They got us in that morning. He was really great. And Mitch summed it up perfectly, when he told this doctor, "You know, once they saw the CT scan and the calcium deposits, the concussion was kind of forgotten." We're not blaming or anything, but it is true. This doctors said "Let's get her over this concussion first." He prescribed something to help the nausea and take the edge off the headaches, something they used to give to migraine sufferers. It's worked well, and she's feeling a lot better.
We did hear that because there is a family history of migraines - my mom - that Sara's going to be more prone to that. And this injury may spur an earlier start to these migraines than she may have.
There's a lot of information on concussions out there, so you can look it up yourself for detailed stuff, but basically, she may experience this headache off and on for the next 6 weeks. Another head injury during this time would be terrible. She may not be able to tolerate a full day of school for a while, and her concentration may be off . There's a lot of "may bes" involved and I'll have to talk to her teacher and the school to make sure we don't push her too hard. Luckily, she seems to be ahead of the school system here, so I don't think it will be a big deal.
Now we just wait for the MRI tomorrow and what that tells us.
Thank you to everyone for your calls, notes and thoughts. It's been hard being so far away from everyone during all this, but knowing you're all pulling for Sara has really helped.
Friday, September 3, 2010
Fun Fact Friday
Well, maybe not FUN, but it is Friday and these are Facts, and the title just goes together.
** I heard on a podcast I listened to yesterday (How Stuff Works) that breast implants must be removed before cremation. I am shocked that I worked in a funeral home for 9 YEARS and never heard this. Which leads me to believe one of two things is true: 1) This is a false statement; or 2) No one who ever died and was served by this particular funeral home had breast implants. Could go either way.
** It took me literally 45 minutes to write that paragraph above. I kept getting distracted by other things on the Internet. Pathetic.
** This house we rent has a huge front porch. Exhibit A:
** I heard on a podcast I listened to yesterday (How Stuff Works) that breast implants must be removed before cremation. I am shocked that I worked in a funeral home for 9 YEARS and never heard this. Which leads me to believe one of two things is true: 1) This is a false statement; or 2) No one who ever died and was served by this particular funeral home had breast implants. Could go either way.
** It took me literally 45 minutes to write that paragraph above. I kept getting distracted by other things on the Internet. Pathetic.
** This house we rent has a huge front porch. Exhibit A:
At the time we rented it, I had visions of me sitting blissfully on this porch in the morning after the kids go to school, sipping coffee and reading or writing in a journal. Which is of course ridiculous, because I don't even drink coffee. And I have Farmville crops to tend in the mornings.
** I am a huge tennis fan, but I absolutely cannot stand Andy Roddick. I believe the US was so desperate for an American tennis star that when Andy came along, they put him in this role, even though he is clearly not qualified to fill it. Unfortunately for him, he believes his own media hype, which tends to make him a bit of a pompous ass. You don't have to agree with me, but until the guy wins a 2nd major, I'll sit by happily while he loses. His behavior this week did nothing to win me over.
** I haven't gone anywhere in a car since Tuesday. Holy crap. I'm dangerously close to being afraid to go outside at all at this point.
** I don't care for pink, but I bought a pink shirt at Wal-Mart on Tuesday because it was marked down to $1. ONE DOLLAR. Besides, it's not like I go anywhere anyway, right? I'm wearing it today, which means I have pretty much sealed my fate on not going out again today.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Doctor! Doctor!
Today I accomplished a couple of things I've been putting off. Namely, cleaning out Sara's dresser, making both the top and the bottom bunk of Jacob's bunk bed and finding a doctor.
Sara has so many clothes that are either too small or I just can't stand. Truly, I don't know who buys this child these clothes, but there are some that quite literally if she comes out of her room wearing them, I just say "No, go change. I can't deal with that today." It's hard to explain why, I guess. Part of it is that she's so! damn! skinny! that a lot of stuff doesn't fit her right on top and it hangs off her which makes her look like she's wearing a potato sack. The other stuff is stuff that she wears all the time and quite honestly, enough. That shirt was cute the first 10,000 times you wore it, but now I'm sick of looking at it. Go find something I haven't seen in a while.
Jacob's dresser is also on my list, but that's just rotating the stock, so to speak. That boy will wear whatever's on top, and since I'm home all the time now, the laundry is kept up fairly well. So he's been wearing the same four shirts over and over again. He has other shirts and if I go in there and move them to the top, he'll wear them. Easy peasy.
Making Jacob's bunk bed is a job I hate. Especially the top bunk. What a nightmare! He's taken to sleeping on the bottom bunk - with the dog - though so that does make my life a little easier. But seeing as I'm constantly making his bed as it is, the top bunk just gets left with a pile of sheets dumped on it. It's made now though and once his quilt comes out of the dryer, it will be done. Of course, now he'll decide to sleep on the top bunk and I'll cry my eyes out. Note to tell myself to QUIT WHINING! It's a lot of easier to make now that there's no ceiling fan in his room trying to force me into a brutal game of Fan Hunter. Which I never liked.
Finding a doctor: ugh. Is there anything worse? I don't particularly like big practices - our last doctors office had 3 doctors, which I loved - so that makes it hard. I want a woman doctor for Sara and I, and a male doctor for Mitch and Jacob. I prefer Family Practice as opposed to Pediatrics. I know I'm picky. But I had to find someone because Mitch and I have to have physicals by October 1 to get a discount on his health insurance. And I knew the longer I put it off, the higher the chances one of my kids would get sick. Even though Jacob's doctor wrote us a new prescription for his meds that should take him through until spring and I switched it to Walgreens so I can refill it here, better to get it lined up before it becomes a necessity.
Dentists I leave to Mitch. He has some complex dentist choosing system, based on a logarithm of hotness, technological equipment requirements and free toothbrush quality. Me - if they have those scraper things and the paper bibs, I'm fine. I don't like to look directly at my dentist. I tend to keep my eyes shut.
Sara has so many clothes that are either too small or I just can't stand. Truly, I don't know who buys this child these clothes, but there are some that quite literally if she comes out of her room wearing them, I just say "No, go change. I can't deal with that today." It's hard to explain why, I guess. Part of it is that she's so! damn! skinny! that a lot of stuff doesn't fit her right on top and it hangs off her which makes her look like she's wearing a potato sack. The other stuff is stuff that she wears all the time and quite honestly, enough. That shirt was cute the first 10,000 times you wore it, but now I'm sick of looking at it. Go find something I haven't seen in a while.
Jacob's dresser is also on my list, but that's just rotating the stock, so to speak. That boy will wear whatever's on top, and since I'm home all the time now, the laundry is kept up fairly well. So he's been wearing the same four shirts over and over again. He has other shirts and if I go in there and move them to the top, he'll wear them. Easy peasy.
Making Jacob's bunk bed is a job I hate. Especially the top bunk. What a nightmare! He's taken to sleeping on the bottom bunk - with the dog - though so that does make my life a little easier. But seeing as I'm constantly making his bed as it is, the top bunk just gets left with a pile of sheets dumped on it. It's made now though and once his quilt comes out of the dryer, it will be done. Of course, now he'll decide to sleep on the top bunk and I'll cry my eyes out. Note to tell myself to QUIT WHINING! It's a lot of easier to make now that there's no ceiling fan in his room trying to force me into a brutal game of Fan Hunter. Which I never liked.
Finding a doctor: ugh. Is there anything worse? I don't particularly like big practices - our last doctors office had 3 doctors, which I loved - so that makes it hard. I want a woman doctor for Sara and I, and a male doctor for Mitch and Jacob. I prefer Family Practice as opposed to Pediatrics. I know I'm picky. But I had to find someone because Mitch and I have to have physicals by October 1 to get a discount on his health insurance. And I knew the longer I put it off, the higher the chances one of my kids would get sick. Even though Jacob's doctor wrote us a new prescription for his meds that should take him through until spring and I switched it to Walgreens so I can refill it here, better to get it lined up before it becomes a necessity.
Dentists I leave to Mitch. He has some complex dentist choosing system, based on a logarithm of hotness, technological equipment requirements and free toothbrush quality. Me - if they have those scraper things and the paper bibs, I'm fine. I don't like to look directly at my dentist. I tend to keep my eyes shut.
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