Gggooooooooodddd ddrrruuuuuugggsss . . .

Okay, so I was going to wait a couple of days to update - I have a couple more tests to undergo on Wednesday and was going to update after that - but I still feel kind of giddy with the drugs still in my system so I will update; with drugs in my system; maybe not the best idea I've ever had . . .
Oh well!
My last updates were at the end of August so I will try to bring you up to speed on where I'm at now.
A couple of weeks after my initial bout of illness I went back to the doctor as I wasn't getting any permanant relief. So I was refered to a GI specialist. I went to see him and got scheduled to have and Endoscopy, and abdominal ultrasound, and a HIDA scan (a contrast study done on my gallbladder - I'm still wondering why they call it that. I mean was it mean to someone or something, do something hateful or spiteful? Why gall?)
The endoscopy happened today. Background story:
I was told I needed to get the endoscopy and such, found out about my insurance deductible (EEEEKKK!!!!), and so began taking steps. At the specialists office I was informed that I was to pay $417 to them and that would be applied to my deductible - it had to be paid to them in order for him (the specialist) to get his stuff covered. Okay. I called the hospital billing/accounting department and spoke with a women there about what was going on. I asked her what I was going to be responsible for at the time of the procedures and she told me that all I was responsible for the day of was the co-pay and that they would send everything else to the insurance company to find out what they covered and what would be going toward my deductible. Cool! I called the insurance company just to verify all of this and they concured with what the lady at the hospital told me. Very cool!
Today:
Patty and I get there at about 10:45 (my appointment was at 11:00), we park, we go to admissions and start getting checked in (please note that I paid the specialist last Friday, so all the paperwork probably hasn't gone through yet). In the process of getting checked in, the lady informs me that I have so much left on my insurance deductible (aka the original amount) and do I have that to pay today? Uhhhh, no. So I explained to the lady that I had called the billing department and what they had said. She explained back that there was no co-pay, just the deductible. But she also said that they could give me a "three day leeway" for me to contact the billing department and pay - okay, whatever. Not something that had to be dealt with immediately, so no longer needed to thought about at the moment.
They took us over the the endoscopy department and got me checked in over there. And we waited.
And we waited.
And we waited.
And we waited some more.
We also occasionally twidled our thumbs.
A few people got called in in front of me - but thankfully I had read the sign on the wall that said "There are multiple doctors working in this department, so do not be concerned if others are being called back before you. If you have any questions, please ask at the check in desk." I like to call this the "Please don't freak out" sign.
It worked for me.
One poor patient that was called back in front of me was informed that he would have to wait 4-5 hours before his procedure even started.
Sign no longer working so well . . .
Will not panic . . .
Will not panic . . .
Patty patted me on the leg and said "I'm sorry."
*Please note: one of the things that helps my poor, sad, upset stomach is food. Unfortunately, with an endoscopy, food and drink are strictly prohibited.
At this time of the morning (now after noon) my stomach was growling and hurting. I could hear it grumbling quite loudly "FEED ME! NOW!"
But then, a glorious event occured:
They called me back -
and informed me very quickly that I was the first person for the specialist to see and that he was going to be in in just a few minutes. This was at about 12:35pm.
I would like you to know that the nursing staff and I had lots of fun.
I was informed that the procedure would only take about 10 minutes and that they would be inducing me with a drug called Propofol aka "the Micheal Jackson drug". I had to tell them that I was familiar with Propofol, being a Veterinary Technician, and that that was fine. They gave me the speil anyways. Then it was time for the IV.
I will always dread IVs, because I had such a bad experience the first time - thirteen sticks to get a good vein, and as someone who dislikes being poked with needles and all pain in general, this was very distressing and something that causes great concern.
The wonderful nurse got me on the first try - granted it was only a 24gauge catheter (please note that in Vet medicine, we use 24gauge catheters on chihuahua's) as my veins were too small to even try a 20 or 22 gauge.
They covered me with warm blankets (I really do love these people!) and wheeled me back to the procedure room, hooked me up to the oxygen, and re-went over my medical history (this was about the fourth time). They explained the need for a mouth gaurd, so that the endoscopy tube and my teeth did not get into any fights (my teeth would have won!). And - this is one of my favorite parts - they got me another warm blanket!
I would also like to note that all hospitals/places where anesthesia is induced in humans is very cold. Covenant was no different. It was freezing in there and I get cold easily anyways. So warm blankets make me smile - goofily.
The specialist showed up, joked with the staff while getting his stuff ready, and they had me roll over onto my left side and put the mouth gaurd in. One of the staff fluffed my pillow for me to make it more supportive under my neck, I stared at one of the monitoring machines and my eyelids got heavy. Knowing that it was anesthesia, I closed my eyes and drifted off . . . .
Beep. Beep.
Beep. Beep.
I opened my eyes and looked for the clock. 1:28pm. Sweet!
I started giggling.
I would like to inform everyone that when I wake up from anesthesia, I am a very, very happy person. Everything is funny. Nothing is hilarious. It's wonderful!
I tried to move my arms - they worked; sort of. I looked around trying to catch the nurses attention so that she would know that I was awake. No luck.
So I tried to sit up. Still no luck.
I tried again.
Nope.
Finally, I used my sort of working arms to latch onto the side railings, and was thankfully able to lift myself into a sitting position.
I was also giggling the entire time, and trying to be quiet about it - not very successfully.
The nurse saw me and asked me what I would like to drink and rattled off a list of possibilities.
"Orange juice," I requested and she brought it to me. A minute or two later she brought Patty back.
I am still giggling.
I reminded Patty that this was normal for me. She told me a little about the findings of the endoscopy while I sipped my orange juice and smiled blissfully.
The nurse took out my IV catheter - very ouch! - and put my clothes on the bed and lowered the rail, letting me know that I could get dressed now. I told her I didn't think my legs were working yet. She smiled and had Patty come stand next to me on that side of the bed, just in case, and closed the curtain. I requested to Patty to please not let me fall on face. She had to help me untangle my gown from under me at which time she discovered that they let me keep my pants and socks on. I told her that was a good thing as otherwise I would have been a "0" on Allie's inadequate pain scale (zero stands for "Haha! I'm not wearing any pants!" and as I'm already vastly amused by all things at this point . . .). She laughed with me and we figured out how to get me redressed.
We then made our way across the room to a set of chairs that the nurse told us to go to and she went over some discharge instructions, told Patty to go get the car and that they would wheel me out to her.
She went, I waited and shivered (no more warm blankets - very sad face), and then they wheeled me out to the car where my very loving and wonderful sister had the heater turned on!
Bless her!
Patty was definitely hungry, and I kind of was too. I wanted bisquits - bread - and she wanted chick-fil-a so we stopped by KFC on the way. I also wanted orange juice and again my wonderful sister stopped by Walmart and grabbed a jug.
Then we went home and put in a movie.
I am still kind of giggly.

Completely unrelated to all of this is that I currently have to foster animals - a cat named Pepper who will be leaving me on Thursday, and a small black lab named Clara (the dog is through the greyhound rescue through Lollipop rescue as a favor for letting the greyhounds board at Lollipop kennels FYI). But I'll go into more detail on that later. As of now, I wish to get ready for bed.

So, as most of you know, I like to write.

Yeah, its true - hold the applause.

Well, I recently came up with a new idea for a series - they would probably be children/young adult books (on the off chance I ever get that far, with Emal holding me back the way it is). The series would be entitled: The Adventures of Alice

And no, Tyson, they would not be scary/horror stories, thankyouverymuch!

Anyways, just an idea. . .

Update - finally!

So . . .
Yeah, I know - its been awhile.
Okay, a long while.
A lot has happened since last I was here. Let's see, where to begin?
Holly went back to the kennel but was quickly adopted - a couple in California wanted her, astoundingly enough. Linda and her husband drove her out there and made a vacation of coming back into town.
Mom and Tyson came to town for a visit - yay! Plainview was having their meeting so they were there most of the time, but stayed at my place for a couple of nights and then we drove to Texarkana to pick up Aunt Deb and then on to Rogers. And of course - I got pulled over for speeding. But the nice, wonderful officer only gave me a warning, not a ticket - another yay!
Mom and Tyson flew back home - sad face - and I cleaned my apartment and went back to work the next day. Work that week went very well, even though I was exhausted after it. Strangely, I have had every Monday off since my vacation - interesting side note.
I got a new foster dog that weekend after I got home - his name is Buddy and he's a Saluki mix and a very well-behaved dog. He had been picked up by the animal shelter as a stray and no one claimed him. He had been at the kennel for a few days when he started showing symptoms of kennel cough. Me being the only foster mom without another dog for it to spread to, was of course the top pick for fostering. Buddy already had a family interested in him and this past Thursday Linda too him to his new home and he is apparently doing very well there so far.
This past week I have been pretty sick - I won't go into all of the gory details, because yuck! - so I went to the docotor's office on Friday and she diagnosed me with Reflux Disease (but one of her nurses said that a stomach bug was going around so maybe I had that on top of it) so now I am on meds to help with that - lets see if they help, but then again its only been two days, so we'll see. And I have got to find a way to relieve my stress so hopefully this won't flare up so much, as the doctor said that stress was a factor. I'm trying to find the time to work some more on my book but so far I haven't had any luck, especially because I have a blanket that I am working on.
Sigh.
Back to life.

The Dratted Dog

So, the new dog is a bit of an idiot.

She refuses to go to the bathroom while on a leash - and I'm not going to just let her off as I have no way of getting her back if she takes off. So she has had multiple accidents in the apartment. Thankfully she seems to have picked a spot so there are now puppy pads in that area (which she hasn't used so far, the little brat). However, so far the most accidents have been in her crate - unfortunately on whatever bed is in there. Which brings us to today.

Today has been one of those days. I did laundry last night in which I washed all of the dog beds. So Holly (the dog), peed on her nice, clean bed over night. So I had to deal with that this morning. I took her out to see if she would go and of course she didn't. I took Alice to work this morning, as I had scheduled her for a dental (which was the one good thing that happened today, as I did it - my first dental!). Today was just supposed to be two doctors on -D and Kemp- but no, my boss had to show up and yell at everyone for every little thing and then go yell at someone else about what he had told us to do (taking us away from whatever we were doing before), and then yell about whatever we had been doing not being done. It was a vicious hour-long cycle until he finally left (taking the cat food that he had just come to pick up in the first place). It was ridiculous! Everything was going smooth before he showed up, and was smooth after he left (except that now Dr. D was all frustrated, and she will occasionally take that out on others). But once that man (myboss) sticks his thumb into into every single pie and messes it up he leaves, and leaves us to pick up the mess. I was supposed to be off for lunch at noon, but didn't get to leave until about 12:40pm. And then when I pulled into the parking space in front of my apartment - I saw my blinds . . .

My ruined, broken blinds.

Holly, the nimrod/idiot/stupid/mangy mutt, had figured out how to break out of her kennel, pooped in the apartment, dragged my $60 jeans (which she thankfully didn't ruin!) into the front room, and tore up/broke the bottom half of my blinds in the front room. . .

Of course, my main thought was: Wicket?!

Who was smart enough to be hiding under the bed and meowed as soon as she heard my voice. And as soon as I knew she was ok - the absolute lividness set in. And frustration.

So I started cleaning my apartment and called Linda (the adoption coordinator) and told her what had happened, and she assured me she would be getting replacements for me -btw, Mom, I have a few questions about window treatments now . . . - Good news though is that I made time to order the part for my vacuum (it was the floor brush that broke). I've also decided that I'm going to be purchasing some "D" rings and bungee cord for the crate because, well, never again.

In other news, my allergies and pleurisy have both been acting up leading to a general feeling of all around "Blah-ness" (medical term!) which doesn't help as the insomnia has also jumped into high gear over the past 3-4 weeks . . .

And life goes on.

Old and New

So, a couple applied for adopting a greyhound and they have four cats so Khaki of course came up. Well, they decided to give it a try and so I took her over there this past Friday and so far she is doing well over there. They haven't officially signed the adoption papers - the rescue group likes to give potential adopters a good amount of time to make a final decision. But given that this couple have already purchased a brand new wire crate for her (a spendy venture if you are not going to keep the dog), well, the adoption coordinator and I are very hopeful. And I only cried for about 30 seconds after I dropped her off!
Saw Eclipse with Patty on Friday - loved it! Wish that there hadn't been a 40minute intermission due to technical difficulties, but, well. Then, on Saturday I went and saw "The Last Airbender" which was slightly painful; maybe more than slightly. I was highly disappointed in M. Night Shamalayn. He messed with the story line in ways that it didn't need to be messed with, there were name mispronunciations (which is what really made me cringe), and the movie was too short (lending to the unnecessary story line changes). I mean, I didn't expect the acting to be great as the main characters are child actors (except for Rathborne, whose acting was fine). But there were just major story flaws that I just can't get past.
Now it wasn't the worst movie ever (as I gave that award to "Eragon" a few years back - talk about painful!), but it wasn't good.
Well, I got a new foster dog today. She is a long-haired whippet that was found as a stray about a month ago - suprisingly she is getting along well with the cats. And she already has a potential adoptive home. She is very cute and doing good so far (she's only been here for about 3 hours). However, I found a couple of the dreaded fleas on her. So she, Wicket, and Alice all got Advantage applied and tomorrow I will go and pick up a flea collar to put in my vaccum (which I will hopefully fix tomorrow . . .)

No more Khaki?

Well today Khaki had another accident in her crate this morning while I was at work - so I emailed the adoption coordinater and she basically hypothesized everything that I was already thinking. A) she is too smart for her own good (give me my Motley back! I like my stupid dog!) B) she has a mild form of seperation anxiety, and C) she's a brat. Basically, she has figured out that certain walks are done right before I leave for work and so she doesn't pay attention to what she is supposed to be doing and pays too much attention to what I'm doing. And thus: we have accidents.
She also decided that eating the rest of a half-eaten thing of a crunch bar was a good idea - I think I may have decided her otherwise, as induced vomiting via Hydrogen Peroxide is a wretched business; but I digress.
The adoption coordinater also informed me that there was a family interested in Khaki - and so far they sound pretty ideal. Which is great, except that I'm going to miss her when she goes. I can't believe how attached I am to her already - I know, all of you are just sitting there shaking your heads, saying how much you can believe it. I know. But I can't believe it, so there :P
I hope this family works out for her - I think she has been to enough homes.
And now she has just drank some of my milk from my glass - gross! There goes that!

Flowers and Skirts

So this past week has been hectic. Dog issues, money issues, plant issues, all of that. Khaki has mostly gotten over being sick - yes, she had a mild GI illness. And when that was finally resolved she decided having a couple of accidents in her crate (on her bed) was the thing to do yesterday. Let me just inform you in case you were wondering - that smell and 656 sq feet do NOT go well. So I spent Sunday airing out my apartment and cleaning the entire place - I think I broke my vaccum too! I'm kinda afraid to really go look at it. And I have a confession to make - I already told my big sister so she knows - I did it. My poor bed, who has been with me these past 9 years, whom I have laid on and loved - now wears a skirt. A bedskirt - after I practically took an oath to never own one or put one on my bed. But oh well.
Money issues has to do with a single unknown charge to my checking account - I'm sure that I will figure it out once my statement comes in the mail.
Wicket killed my Morning Glories, so I had to replant them and the new ones have already started sprouting. The boquet of lilies that I bought have scented my apartment very nicely and the rest of the plants are doing okay - except my orchid that I am constantly at war with.
But all in all things are good.
Can't wait for this weekend - Eclipse and The Last Airbender out in Theater's!

First

So I decided that I would give blogging a try. I figure - hey both of my sisters are doing it and while I don't have kids (hurray for me!) I do have things that I want to write about and put out there ( we will not discuss my novel, we will not discuss my novel . . . ). Also, I just don't feel like posting this stuff in the "Notes" section of Facebook. So here goes. Let's see how long this lasts.

Today: work. Yeah, I know, that's pretty anticlimactic. But work today was pretty good. It wasn't insane for once and I didn't have to deal with any stupid clients. Everything was straight forward and pretty smooth. We even finished early - we don't get to leave early, but everything was done before 6pm. And on my way home: no one tried to kill me with their cars! It was a great day!

The only damper on the entire day was that my foster dog, Khaki (I'll have had her for a week tomorrow) decided to investigate my countertops and found the Kit Kat bars I had up there. It was one of those giant ones that you can get at Walmart. Thankfully I had already eaten about half of it, so she didn't get as much as she could have. Plus she had already some of her breakfast to coat her stomach so it wasn't too much of a disaster. So I gave her more breakfast to help "move things along." I took her to work with me just to make sure she didn't do anything in the apartment, if you get my drift. Which was a good thing, since it did have fun with her GI tract. But thankfully I had put her outside into one of our outdoor runs so that went well.

Khaki and Wicket are getting along well, as long as Khaki stays calm. When she gets excited and runs around Wicket gets up on her toes and puffs her hair out. Alice is just unamused, as always, and has already informed Khaki that she is the Queen and Khaki is lucky to be allowed to even exsist inside of her domain.

But life goes on . . .

Let's see, what else? My Morning Glory's are growing well so far, as is my miniature Rosebush. My orchid is still struggling along - one of the one's that I brought with me from California. Poor thing has been through a lot!