A Very Unexpected Week

I have had quite a week. I don’t get real sick too often, so when I think something is really wrong I usually get it checked out. That is what I was doing last week at the ENT doctor. I went from thinking last week that I may be in for some more surgery to being on the brink of death with a sinus infection. I know that sounds a little dramatic, but that is how I felt Tuesday around noon while waiting for my medication at Walgreens.

To back up to Friday’s appointment at the ENT doctor. She looked at the CT scan and said that all my sinuses were clear except for my right side below my eye had a little infection in it. So with much discomfort to me, she irrigated out that side. I believe she really angered it instead of flush it out. I picked up the prescriptions she gave me on Saturday morning from Walgreens. After taking my first dose of medication Saturday afternoon, I started with a cough that lasted until about Monday afternoon and then it went down hill from there. I stayed home from work on Monday because my lungs hurt so much from coughing for the last day and a half. Monday night I went to my second job and ended up agitating the infection even more and left there with a fever, headache, and a lot of congestion. Tuesday morning I got up and went to work because that is where I keep the phone numbers to my doctors. All morning I was cold, congested, every muscle ached including my teeth, had a headache, dizzy, my face hurt, only had about 25% functional mental capacity, and the congestion had moved from my nose to my lungs. These symptoms were every single side effect the medication gave and said to call the prescribing doctor immediately. I called the ENT doctor to see what they would say, but all I got was the nurse’s voicemail. I left a message and waited an hour to get a return phone call. After that hour passed, I called my regular doctor and he got me in at 11:00am. After I made that appointment, I called my supervisor at my second job and told her I wouldn’t be in. By 11:00am on Tuesday I was knocking on death’s door and so he gave me shot in the hip to jump start my recovery. This time I went to Walgreens and waited for my prescriptions because I didn’t think I really should have been out driving around town. Once I got the prescriptions and got home, I ate a quick lunch and fell right to sleep. I didn’t even wake up to watch my new favorite show, which I only get to watch when I get to go home early, the Doctors at 4:00pm. When I woke up at 5:30pm, it was like a brand new day. I could breathe out of my nose again, wasn’t achy and I didn’t have such a headache anymore. I felt like a new woman. Yesterday, I went to work with a horrible cough, but I felt about 90% better. Today is about the same. I should be back to 100% by this weekend. To end the story, my regular doctor thinks I am allergic to something; which is why I keep getting sinus infections even though having the sinus surgery was supposed to prevent that. So finding out what I’m allergic to requires eliminating things. He told me to take out my ear rings, clean my house really well, and even said I should temporarily remove Pepper from the house. Hopefully my Aunt & Uncle in town will be willing to take him for a week or so. He doesn’t really believe my allergist that says I am not allergic to almost everything that grows anymore. He really thinks I am still allergic to cats. As sad as I would be, I think I could get rid of him if it means I don’t get killer sinus infections anymore. It would be even better if my Aunt & Uncle could take him. My Aunt already has said that if I bring him to their house he is no longer my cat, she will claim him as hers.

Happy Groundhog's Day!

I know I’m a day late. One of my favorite holidays is Groundhog's Day. I love it despite I can never remember the date or what the prediction is if Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow or not. I think this day gives me hope that winter is almost over and we have started on the decent back to spring. For the first time I can officially say that I have suffered from Seasonal Affective Disorder. The weather here the couple months or so has been so gloomy, rainy, cloudy, and cold (for Alabama) 21-39 degrees. I was feeling so gloomy and extra indecisive until this past weekend when the sun came out, no wind in sight and the temperature was 62 and 66. I felt so energized by the sun that I went out on Saturday and bought a new bed frame that I got for 75% off the MSRP, then stopped at the grocery store and while shopping I felt a little crazy and picked up a head of purple cauliflower (which tastes like white cauliflower). Then on Sunday, at church, I was in charge of the nursery and had tons of fun with the kids; then once I got home, ate lunch and went directly outside to rake the stray leaves that fell off my neighbor’s tree that has been laying in my yard for about a month now. I still feel some residual energy today. I was so excited to find the caramel Bugles back in the vending machine; I had to buy a bag.

Back to reality, winter is not over yet. There is a new cold front coming in tonight and I definitely feel the affects in the form of a headache, ear ache, drippy eye, and more than full sinuses. All are psychologically extra amplified by my trip to the ENT (ear, nose, and throat) doctor yesterday afternoon. I’m having trouble with my sinuses again and I’m going for another CT scan of them on Thursday to see why they are so clogged. I am having flash backs from when I had sinus surgery on February 13th, 2 years ago. I don’t know if I have to have surgery again, I’ll find out on Friday. I hope this is a better experience than before. I have better health insurance this time and I know what to expect.

Happy Groundhog's Day!!!

Snow in Alabama!

You don’t hear of it snowing in Alabama too much, but yesterday it snowed all afternoon from about 12:30pm – 4:00pm. At my house it didn’t stick to the ground, but it was really pretty coming down. It was supposed to snow this morning, but there were no clouds and the sun shone all morning long. We are going to end our cold streak today and by Friday we will be almost 60. As much as I enjoy the cold weather, I don’t enjoy the panic that sweeps over everyone here. So in my opinion, it should never get below 35 here to have at least a season without panic. At least in MN people don’t panic over 6 degrees as a low and last week they probably would have welcomed that temperature.

In other news, as some of you know, I am the Assistant Sunday School Superintendent at my church. We over the last couple months I have been forced to do everything except for anything that has to do with the Youth Group (we have a leader for that). Keep in mind that I don’t really know how this church does Sunday school because 1) I don’t have any kids to put in the Sunday school, and 2) I just haven’t paid any attention up until I got this position. In the month of December alone I had to figure out what was going on with the Children’s Christmas program, figure out what the Sunday school attendance was when I didn’t I needed to keep track of it, and take down the Christmas decorations in the social hall that the youth group put up. So far in January, I’ve had to create the 2009 calendar for the Christian Ed board even though I didn’t know what events they are responsible for because only 1 person showed up for the board meeting before the calendar meeting, and holding a Christian Ed board meeting this past Sunday because the chair person, and Sunday School Superintendent, has been MIA pretty much since the first part of November. Running that meeting was like agony for me because I was furious that no one on the board came to help with the calendar meeting, and I’m not even the board chair and has not been to a Christian Ed board meeting since I joined the board. It was like pulling teeth to get them to agree or volunteer to take the lead on anything. In the end we ended up with a new board chair and a date for Vacation Bible School (the dates needed to be changed). I went away from that meeting with a huge weight off my shoulders. I no longer have to be responsible for the entire board, just Sunday School.

We got 2 excused hours of work to watch the inauguration this morning. I wouldn’t have wanted to be in DC today. I enjoyed watching the whole ceremony from the comfort of the conference room here at work. I got to see up close and there was no microphone echo or jumbotron to deal with. My day is extremely slow, so I might try to sneak away again to watch the parade. Happy Inauguration Day!

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a great and fairly uneventful Christmas and New Year’s day. Mine was fairly quiet. I decided to take the afternoon of Dec 22nd through Jan 2nd off. The last couple years were so slow at work that instead of being bored to tears at work I would relax at home the week after Christmas. I started going stir crazy around New Year’s Eve. I probably could have gone into work, but I still would not have anything to do.

Here is a quick snapshot of how the last week and a half was for me.

Week of Christmas
I was given a nice Christmas gift from my second job (Surgery Center) – an early day on Christmas Eve, Christmas day and the day after off. On Christmas Eve, since I was already off from NASA I was able to go there early and get my work done from 1:00pm – 3:30pm. I was then free to attend the 5 o’clock Mass with my Aunt, Uncle and the rest of the family. I would have rather gone to my church’s service, but it was at the same time as dinner. It was good to see my cousins - Matt, Cindy, Karen w/boyfriend Jonathan, and David. All of them were only in town for a couple days, they decided to spend most of their time at home with the family instead of with friends. We watched tons of movies – Burn After Read, The Dark Night, Death Race, Juno, Narnia-Prince Caspian and Ironman to name a few. Friday and Saturday I spent in Nashville with my Dad, his fiancé Mel, her kids and parents. We again watched movies and I helped Dad and Mel’s Dad pick out a new computer desk for the bonus room. I forgot to bring the Christmas gifts, so Dad decided that he would bring the kids down next Friday to get out of the house for a little while.

Week of New Years
Starting on Monday, I had my days off and worked only at night. New Year’s Eve: I started off the day with going to church and helped take down the decorations in the social hall. When I got home I noticed the neighbor’s dog on my back deck. Wondering how he got into my closed backyard, I put my stuff down and went to go see where she went. I couldn’t find the dog, then all of a sudden from below I heard banging. I’ve been having trouble with my crawl space door not closing and it wasn’t closed this day. Not really knowing the temperament of the dog, I called the Huntsville Animal Control. Unfortunately for me they don’t go under houses to retrieve animals. So I had to try to remember what house the dog belonged to so I can go and hopefully find someone home to retrieve the dog. Thankfully there was someone home and by the time they got to my house their dog had come out from under my house, jumped my fence and was waiting patiently in the neighbors yard. I opened the gate and just as they were about to click the leash on the dog she ran under the neighbor’s deck. Now that crisis is over, I need to figure out how to make or buy a better crawl space door. Mine is made of 2x4 and plywood and I would like to find a plastic one. That evening the surgery center didn’t close early, but we all helped each other to get everything done by 9:00pm (instead of the usual 10:30pm) so everyone could enjoy the evening. I didn’t have any parties or anything to go to, so I just stopped and got something to eat as a way to ring in the New Year. The New Year’s Eve shows on TV were not as entertaining as I hoped it would have been. Robbie Knievel’s jump over the volcano at the Mirage hotel in Los Vegas was not as amazing as I hoped and Dick Clark probably shouldn’t have made an appearance on his show. I was off from both jobs on New Year’s Day so lounging in my PJs all day was in order. Friday, the surgery center decided they were going to have another half day so that everyone would have plenty of time to prepare for the Univ. of Alabama vs. Utah game in the Sugar Bowl. I had no intentions of watching the game, but I was going to my Aunt Kandy & Uncle John’s house to meet up with my Dad and the kids for dinner and John is huge Alabama football fan. I was forced to be tortured with watching the game and to add insult to injury, Alabama lost the game. Dad and the kids stayed at my house Friday night. Saturday morning we went out for breakfast and decided to go international – as in IHOP. Their caramel pecan coffee cake pancakes are very good and very sugary. Yum! After breakfast, we did a little shopping and they left to go back home around 3:00pm.

Fun in the Sun, Warmth and NASA

Group Shot - Can you find me?

Space shuttle returning to Kennedy Space Center after Mission to ISS

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Not much has been new with me for a while. I've just been working both jobs and keeping busy on Sunday's being the Asst. Sunday School Superintendent (acting as Superintendent for the month of November and half of December & January 09) at my church.

Not too many of you knew that I went to Florida the week of December 8-13 for a meeting at Kennedy Space Center (KSC). It was 65-85 degrees everyday and very humid/windy. Palm trees everywhere. Alligators and armadillos everywhere. I didn’t really enjoy the weather. It was way too humid and windy for my liking. I was happy to get back to Huntsville on Saturday the 13th, where the temperature was 43 degrees and rainy.

This was our once a year meeting of the Aerospace Education Services Project (AESP); which is the project I work for. I was happy to go to FL since I have never been there before, but I didn’t like that it was in December and that I was flying back on my 30th Birthday.

While in FL, we got to go on tours of KSC. We got to be up close and personal with one of space shuttles (I don’t know which one). There is a building that is the “shop” for the space shuttle. It is where they do routine maintenance and repairs. They were repairing the landing gear at the time we were touring and we got to walk under the shuttle. It was very neat to finally understand what they mean when talking about tiles on the space shuttle. I never had a clue where the tiles were, but they are the black part you see on the bottom of the shuttle. They are about 8x6 tiles, placed in a staggered brick pattern, that are serial numbered and once they have been through one trip they get a small sprayer place inside to spray the liquid heat shield. It was very cool! We also got to get very close to the launch pad, go on the Air Force side and see where they launched the Gemini rockets and capsules, and go to the “warehouse” where they construct and store the pieces that still need to be attached the International Space Station (ISS).

It was great to get out of the office, but I glad to be home. I now have to scramble to get my Christmas shopping done and cards in the mail. I hope I can shop and write fast enough to get everything where they need to go before the 24th.

I forgot to take the digital camera, so I will post pictures as I get them from my co-workers. I’m sure they will be good ones once I get them.

Have a merry Christmas and a great New Year’s day.