March Madness, Part 1: The First ER Visit

March was not kind to me this year.  Several people have been asking if I’m okay, so I thought I’d relate the news in my blog.  If you already know the gory details, you may want to skip these lengthy postings :-).

On the last day of February, I began the day with a pretty bad headache.  As I was sitting in sacrament meeting, which started at 1p.m., the headache got worse and I could feel all of the muscles in the right side of my face tensing up.  This had happened twice before in the past year, so I kind of knew what was happening.  The right side of my face “spasms” and I can’t open my eye or use the right side of my mouth.  The first time I went to the ER and they misdiagnosed it as Bell’s Palsy and it went away in a couple of days.  Several months later it happened again.  I didn’t bother to do anything about it and it also went away in a day or two.  This time, however, I couldn’t open my mouth as well as my right eye at all, I was feeling light headed and the muscles on the left side of my face were beginning to twitch also. 

So, Mom and Dad took me to the ER again.   I had very high blood pressure (197/114) and heart rate (110) when I got there. They did CT scan, x-rays, and blood work then gave me pain meds and heart meds. CT scan came back clear and the facial symptoms started to resolve, so when my blood pressure came down enough, they were going to transfer me out of the "ICU" ER into the regular ER.  But then my headache came back, followed shortly by the paralysis again, and then my blood pressure and heart rate went up and I started to hyperventilate because of the pain, so my facial muscles all contracted and my hands started to contract into claws.  They gave me Ativan to relieve anxiety, which helped the hyperventilation symptoms and blood pressure, but not the right-sided facial paralysis, then sent me home around midnight with instructions to consult a neurologist. 

Nothing dramatic or terribly exciting, although there were several others they brought in which livened up my time there.  The room had space for seven beds, separated by curtains.  Although at one point they had a few of us less-interesting folks doubled up.  One guy came in cussing and yelling, high on something and accompanied by several officers.  They had him in handcuffs and then had to restrain him, which he vocally was not happy about, especially when it came time to urinate and he had to be assisted.  He had punched/kicked several walls and doors in  his house, ending up by punching through a window and cutting his hand to bits.  Unfortunately, he had also punched his wife, hence the reason for the police escort as he was under arrest.

Another guy had OD'd on something and quit breathing several times and another guy was brought in unconscious who had been in an "altered mental state" prior to his unconsciousness and when he woke up he started thrashing and kicking, knocking over all kinds of equipment and hitting several of the nurses.

It was like being on a live set for ER.  If you ever do have to spend nine or so hours in an ER, I'd highly recommend that one for the entertainment value alone.

Mellifluous Musings

I used to invest a bit of time and money into my very eclectic music habit.  But for the last several years, I’ve been stuck in a rut, not really liking much of what was being released.  Recently, however, thanks to Pandora, I’ve been exploring some of the options that are out there.  I’ve found a few songs that I really like.  I can’t vouch for the rest of the artists’ works because unlike the good ole days where I’d rush out and buy a CD, I usually just download one song at a time from Amazon.  It’s a marvelous improvement and they automatically load into both Zune and iTunes.  Anyhow, here’s a few songs you might want to take a gander at if you think your tastes are anything like mine. 

“Everybody” by Ingrid Michaelson

“Fact-Fiction” by Mads Langer (you can hear the entire song on this Danish artist’s website)

“Run” by Snow Patrol (Every time I hear this song I could swear it was written for the soundtrack of the movie version of the Hunger Games series—great reads, btw)

“Flowerparts” by Bob Schneider

"Where Does the Good Go" by Tegan and Sara

"Almost Lover" by A Fine Frenzy

"Breathe In Breathe Out" by Mat Kearney

Metaphorically Speaking

Rather than write the blog update that I should, I’m going to be lazy and post these excerpts from high school English students.

1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.
2. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.
3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.
4. She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli, and he was room temperature Texas beef.
5. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.
6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.
7. He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree.
8. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM machine.
9. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.
10. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.
11. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30
12. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.
13. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.
14. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.
15. They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled David Letterman's teeth.
16. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.
17. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant, and she was the East River .
18. Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.
19. Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.
20. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.
21. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.
22. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.
23. The ballerina rose gracefully en Pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.
24. It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.
25. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.

Single’s Ward meets Twilight

I found this on Facebook from my friend, Amy Springer, and thought it was hilarious.  Mormon pop culture at its best.

Twilight Years from Tom on Vimeo.

The Survey

A) Four places that I go to over and over:
School (work), Church (Sundays and YW activities), Wal-Mart, Families’ houses (parents, Wendy’s, Wendy’s in-laws)

B) Four people who e-mail me:
Church people (YW, RS, Visiting Teaching, etc), Mom, Camille Wengreen (editing boss), Jay people (work)

C) Four of my favorite places to eat:
Home (when I cook for others), Thai Taste, Yia Yia Mary’s Greek, Piccolo’s Italian

D) Four places you would love to be:
NYC, San Diego, UT, Spokane, England, Africa, Russia, Australia, DC area, Maine, Prince Edward Island, Hawaii, Colorado, China, Thailand, Greece, Italy, France…oops, did it say only four? 

E) Four people I'm almost sure will respond: 
Most of the Lawrence side has done it already—let’s get those Cowles cousins involved

F) Four of your favorite TV shows:
I’m ashamed to admit these—Castle, House, Bones, Lie to Me

Be Jealous

This is the time of year I LOVE in San Antonio. Highs in the mid-70s, lows in the 40s and 50s. It is one of the few times I can say how wonderful the weather is here.

Service for One

Not to brag or anything, but I’m a pretty good cook/baker. Not a perfect one—I’ve certainly had my share of flops (like the rolls at Standard’s Conference a week ago)—and not even a great one, but I know my way around a kitchen. So why is it that I cook/bake only two or three times a month? It’s that whole cooking for one thing. It’s just not worth the planning, the effort, the mess.

I know some people who cook and then eat the leftovers the rest of the week, but I can’t stomach most leftovers—not even for lunch the next day unless I can eat them cold. I just don’t like that burning-your-tongue-hot-spots-mixed-with-just-out-of-the-fridge-cold conglomeration you get when you warm things up in the microwave. Or that slightly-stale-and-too-crunchy-on-the-edges amalgam that comes out when you warm things in the oven. I don’t like freezer meals (either homemade or store bought) for the same reason.

So, what’s a girl to do? Cold cereal is a staple on my list. It’s a perfect dinner for the time and energy impaired. Pancakes from a mix (you can cut it down so you only make two and they’re ready in under ten minutes) are another great option. Vanilla Yogurt with fruit in it (blueberries and bananas are a favorite) make a tasty treat. Toast with strawberry jam is also an easy fix. So basically, I eat breakfast twice a day.

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And when that craving for something sweet hits, I’ve found these handy little single-serving delights (they come in flavors of chocolate too, I just happened to choose lemon at the store tonight):

They take less then five minutes to prepare and cook and are surprisingly “warm” and “delight[ful]” as promised on the packaging. And, there is no danger of eating an entire panful of brownies at the end :)

Well, all I really wanted to say is that these are a pretty good option for you people of low number out there. There rest was just a really long introduction.