Personal

Monday, June 13, 2005

I need to start writing more… and when I’m not tired….

I need to start writing… I’ve got 3-4 books in my head that need to come out.  In addition, I think that just doing some journalling would be good for me.  Maybe I’ll set up a private blog and start doing that.  I should really spend some time every day writing or in some way exploring my imagination.

Watching ”Finding Neverland” reminded me of that.  I read “On Writing” by Steven King several years ago.  It also reminded me of that.

Wednesday, June 01, 2005

Trip to St. Joe

I got a 911 page today around 2:30 p.m.  I NEVER get 911 pages.  I did today.  My wife is having her infustion and her chest started hurting.  So, I got a call, I left work, got her and took her over to St. Joe’s.

They pulled blood from her PICC (nice to have that!), did an x-ray, and an ekg.

With the blood they tested to make sure she was not having nor had had a heart attack.  This came back negative. 

The x-ray was to make sure the PICC was where it was supposed to be.  The doctor said it was perfectly placed, which means that it isn’t inside her heart.  Also a good thing. 

EKG showed no abnormalities.  She has a heart.  It ticks. 

Got home around 7:15 p.m.heart attack

Friday, May 27, 2005

PICC line

I got a call at about 12:15 that I needed to go get my lovely and take her to UK to have a PICC line put in.  She was given the order by her docter in Louisville on Thursday. 

A PICC line is a line which is inserted into one of the large veins in the arm near the bend of the elbow from where it is threaded into the superior vena cava. 

It took the nurse three “sticks” to get it done.  This lady has been doing PICC’s since 1991.  She proclaimed this to be the most difficult one she has ever done.

In case you don’t know this, if I ever need medical work done, do NOT take me to UK.  If the choice is death or UK, call my priest.  My wife already knows this, and knows many of the reasons why.

Just to give an example, though, my wife was asked if she had any pains.  Of course she does, so she answered so.  She said her muscles ache.  The young lady asked how to spell ache.  Enough said.  Back to the PICC.

The initials PICC stand for peripherally inserted central catheter.  I watched the whole process with my little blue mask on.  This was done as outpatient. 

Some local anaesthetic was shot into her which usually ensures the insertion is painless.  But not in our case.  Dana wrenched and bore it.  I could tell she was in a lot of pain, but nothing I could do.  The procedure usually takes about 30 to 40 minutes.  Ours took about an hour this was after the two and a half hours we had to wait for someone to arrive.  We waited so long a nurse brought us drink and peanut butter crackers. 

Once the PICC line was in place it was taped firmly to the skin with a special transparent dressing to stop it coming out of the vein. A chest x-ray was done to make sure that it was only a few centimeters from the heart.

Apparently the home health nurse will come tomorrow to change her dressing.  Tuesday through Friday she will have her next treatment.  The dressing will have to be changed once a week.  The goal is that it will last a year, but no guarantees. 

I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before, but I hate sin, death and the devil!!

We got home around 7:00 p.m.

Thursday, May 26, 2005

ascii art

I’m regularly given crap at work either because of the skills I have or the lack there of.  The other day I was being given crap over my ascii art moose.  I love that moose, and I hope you do too…

Courier Font
tilde tilde tilde space tilde space space tilde space tilde tilde tilde return
space space space space at space space at return
space space space space space equals equals return
space space space space space equals equals return
space space space space backslash underscore underscore forwardslash space space dash equals space capital aych eye exclamation

~~~ ~  ~ ~~~
    @  @
     ==
     ==
    \__/  -= Hi!  

Specifications are now here…

Derivitives include but are not limited to:

Courier Font
tilde tilde tilde space tilde space space tilde space tilde tilde tilde return
space space space space at space space at return
space space space space space equals equals return
space space space space space equals equals return
space space space space backslash underscore underscore forwardslash

~~~ ~  ~ ~~~
    @  @
     ==
     ==
    \__/   

Courier Font
tilde tilde tilde space tilde space space tilde space tilde tilde tilde return
space space space space at space space at return
space space space space space equals equals return
space space space space backslash underscore underscore forwardslash

~~~ ~  ~ ~~~
    @  @
     ==
    \__/  

Courier Font
tilde tilde tilde space tilde space space tilde space tilde tilde tilde return
space space space space at space space at return
space space space space space equals equals return
space space space space space equals equals return
space space space space open peran oh close peran return

~~~ ~  ~ ~~~
    @  @
     ==
     ==
    (o) 

With all, adjust the spacings so that the ats line up under the middle tildes and the face lines up…

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

Not moving

Well, We looked at a few dozen houses… we even put in an offer on one.  However, we have decided that the deal of “sign up for a year and we will give you one month free” more than covers the monthly increase and, thus, is currently our best solution.  It also gives us time to get some other things out of the way.

So, here it is - you read it here first - contrary to my previous posting… we are not moving (this year).

--Moose