Monday, April 30, 2007

A Great Gift Idea Or CoffeTable Book

I was made aware of this book recently and thought it would be a great gift for any of my brothers as they all have male children or my parents who are top heavy with male grandchildren. Here is a video advert for it. I must say this book is not limited to just the male gender as I remember my childhood days when my father helped us build go-karts, and took us to an open field to fly remote control airplanes. I remember being taught how to skim a stone across the lake.......all the good things that keep us young at heart.

Saturday, April 28, 2007

Sinus Surgery Was A Great Success

My sinus surgery is over and I made it through to celebrate the joy of another tomorrow. I am feeling well and knew that it was a success the moment I awoke in recovery. The pressure in my head was gone for the first time since July. Halleujiah!!!
My hospital stay was quite the adventure. I was to report to day surgery at 1030 to get prepared and my surgery was scheduled for 12:20. When we arrrived they mentioned that they had quite a few admissions come in through the night and all of their beds were full therefore there may be chance my surgery would be delayed or cancelled. Supposedly the people who held my fate were in a meeting negotiating and working out strategies. After a long delay I made it into OR at 2:30. Prior to being anethetised my surgeon told me how I was very close to being cancelled and that he had to pull some strings to get the go ahead. I never quite got the chance to ask him exactly what he meant by that before I was in the land of slumber.

I awoke in recovery and my first thoughts were........"I made it.......I feel good."

The surgeon came in to quickly tell me everything was great and he'll see me tomorrow. Everything after that was a Morphine induced blur. I arrived in my room by stretcher and was greeted by Garth. I knew I was going to just sleep and so I sent him home and asked him to come back by 10 tomorrow morning. I dozed off and awoke to the sound of a male voice beside me past the pulled curtain where my co patient should be laying. I listened to the conversation and learned that my bunkmate is male and is in his 80's with some dementia. Great..........I'm in a co-ed dorm.

That is what my doctor negotiated for me?

In all honesty, I really didn't care. My goal was to be in a medicated coma until time of discharge tomorrow. Throughout the remainder of my evening I was sedated with Gravol and Morphine and had yet to make visual contact with my roomie. I awoke at 2:00 in the morning to the sound of shuffling gait coming down the hallway towards my room. I turn my head to see an elderly gent buck naked with an open Johnny Gown offering frontal exposure heading my way. I began to think in my disoriented state,"That must be my roommate and he must have gotten confused and wandered out of his room. I will close my eyes so he won't know I saw him and I don't embarass him."
The next thing I know this gentleman in his birthday suit is climbing into bed with me. I catch him before he gets to far in and gently tell him he is in the wrong bed and tell him his bed is there as I turn and gesture to the bed beside me. Through the curtain I hear and see my roomate is in bed and this is someone completely unknown to me. I quickly push the call bell and the nurses come in to retrive this lost soul.

By this time I am wide awake and I am chatting with the nurses and sharing stories and they learn that I am a nurse. We talk a bit more until there is a code red and the fire bell is ringing continually. It turns out there is a broken sprinkler system in the next wing. Somehow I manage to nod off until the wee hours of morn. My doctor arrives early, removes the packing, makes a post op appointment and prescription and says I am ready for discharge. As I am freshening up and preparing myself to wait for Garths arrival I hear my roommate ask if I can help him onto the commode. I tell him he needs to use the call bell to call a nurse and he says, "You're a nurse.....I heard you talking." My post op morning then went from bad to worse. My roomie became quite cantankerous and ill temperered. The nurse assigned to our room was very busy with her other patients as well and would dart in and out of our room to check on "Mr. Buzzkill" and his progress. In his confused state he somehow believed I was his nurse and began yelling at me that he could get better care at home and why won't I help him. The nurse and I tried to clear his confusion to no avail as she assisted him with his morning routine. He kept opening the curtains separating us and making angry remarks at me, "Why are you playing this game with me? Why am I out to get him?" Enough was enough. I felt like I was spending my hospitalization at work. I called Garth and begged him to come get me now. I was home by 10. All in all I feel great! Thanks to everyone for their thoughtful gestures, flowers and cards.....and thankyou Garth for getting me this to enjoy.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Sinus Surgery- Best Wishes

Over the last few days I’ve received several emails and phonecalls wishing me “Best of luck”, “You are in our prayers”, “I’m sure you’ll do great”, etc. Each and every one is greatly appreciated. I am very fortunate for having such thoughtful family and friends.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Happy 10th Birthday, Brooke























































She’s gotten to this age where she’s fun to hang out with. We watch American Idol together and paint our nails and talk about clothes and make jokes about Daddy’s burps and farts. She’s convinced she’s going to be a wrestler or a boxer, a firefighter, a cop ,a paramedic or a model when she grows up and shows off her moves to anyone who will watch (and if no one will, the mirror will suffice)
In ten or eleven more years she'll be going off to college. Ten years is not that long of a time. We're given only but a dozen years with our kids before they become teens, and start to pull away, and it's so easy to take those years for granted. I do not. I love you baby!!!

Monday, April 16, 2007

Worst Campus Shooting In U.S. History

This afternoon I watched the coverage of the horrific Virginia Tech shootings in which 33 people lost their lives. Students bitterly complained that there were no public-address announcements on campus after the first burst of gunfire. Many said the first word they received from the university was an e-mail more than two hours into the rampage — around the time the gunman struck again.
Virginia Tech President Charles Steger said authorities believed that the shooting at the dorm was a domestic dispute and mistakenly thought the gunman had fled the campus. "We had no reason to suspect any other incident was going to occur," he said.
Why were such assumptions made.....are we becoming immune to such horrorific acts of violence?
As always, we will learn more in the days following tragedies such as these.

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Brookes Turns 10 This Wednesday

Today friends and family celebrated the day you started becoming you.
The day you began your journey. Your beautiful blue eyes now tell a story.
Of how you are,
a loving daughter,
a playful cousin,
a loyal friend and an enthusiastic student.
You are respected and loved
You are far from perfect, but closer than most.
Day in and day out, you touch lives and warm hearts.
With every new year you out do your last.
This one will be no exception.











Friday, April 13, 2007

An Afternoon Conversation With Alley

I always look foward to picking up my girls from school to hear them share the highlights of their day. This is what Alley had to say today on the drive home.

Alley : Mom, today we played a game. It was fun.

Mom : Oh yeah, what was it?

Alley: Some people hid and we had to build swords and all the good people got tied up.

Mom: Were you one of the good people?

Alley : Of course and Matthew B cameand told me while we were hiding that he loved me.

Mom : What did you say?

Alley: Cool.

Sunday, April 01, 2007

Scams Of Carnival Games

If you go to the carnival or fair you can always get taken for a ride......whether it is the rollarcoaster or merry go round or the games along the midway.
The cans are stacked against you.

I worked for Conklin one summer and the dart booth is where I worked and let me confirm........no one won.

Look What I Made Today

Strawberry Swirl Cake.......Not too shabby if I say so myself.