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Changed my banner
Oct. 27th, 2006 12:07 pmI changed my banner to reflect my handle and my favorite character from LOST.
Comments are welcome.
Comments are welcome.
Missing my Cinnamon
Aug. 30th, 2006 09:37 amYesterday, hubby and I celebrated our 36th wedding anniversary. It's amazing to think that aside from my mom and my two best friends (whom I talked about in my August 21 entry, "My friend is in surgery"), I don't know anybody for that long.
Today, however, is a sad day for me. Last year, on August 30th, my 16-year-old Heinz57, Cinnamon Amber, was euthanized. She lived with us 14 years. In fact, she entered our lives on August 29th, 1991, on our 21st anniversary. My dog Basil has his own blog, and he once wrote about Cinnamon. If you are interested in reading her story (and are interested to find out why part of my user name is spicedogs), just follow this link:
http://basil-speaks.livejournal.com/2606.html
I miss that beautiful dog. My heart is so sad today.
Today, however, is a sad day for me. Last year, on August 30th, my 16-year-old Heinz57, Cinnamon Amber, was euthanized. She lived with us 14 years. In fact, she entered our lives on August 29th, 1991, on our 21st anniversary. My dog Basil has his own blog, and he once wrote about Cinnamon. If you are interested in reading her story (and are interested to find out why part of my user name is spicedogs), just follow this link:
http://basil-speaks.livejournal.com/2606.html
I miss that beautiful dog. My heart is so sad today.
I'm soon fired
Aug. 11th, 2006 10:24 pmI work as a writer/editor for the federal government. About 2 months ago, I was told that my husband and I will be part of what the government calls “A-76.” What is A-76? I it s a federal policy mandated by the White House to proceed with a study that would compare the cost effectiveness of keeping me on the staff as an editor/writer or whether to hire outside contractors to do my job.
According to the studies that have been made on the financial effect of A-76, it takes 15 years for the government to recover financially from the required procedures, which by the way, will take at least 18 months.
During the next 18 months, I and 50 other employees from my agency, as well as 833 other employees from my department will have to compete for the rights to keep our job. Chances are, the federal government will win the bid, but winning is not really winning. If we win the bid, my position will be downgraded. My salary will be frozen for 2 years (no raises) and if I still don’t find another job, I will lose my pay to a lower grade.
Needless to say, I am looking for another job. My userpic is a small version of a figure I made for my union's newsletter:
What bothers me about the whole thing is that the government (hence, the tax payers) lose. First, there’s the
Where’s justice?
According to the studies that have been made on the financial effect of A-76, it takes 15 years for the government to recover financially from the required procedures, which by the way, will take at least 18 months.
During the next 18 months, I and 50 other employees from my agency, as well as 833 other employees from my department will have to compete for the rights to keep our job. Chances are, the federal government will win the bid, but winning is not really winning. If we win the bid, my position will be downgraded. My salary will be frozen for 2 years (no raises) and if I still don’t find another job, I will lose my pay to a lower grade.
Needless to say, I am looking for another job. My userpic is a small version of a figure I made for my union's newsletter:
What bothers me about the whole thing is that the government (hence, the tax payers) lose. First, there’s the
Where’s justice?
Like mother, like son
Jul. 18th, 2006 08:47 amThis past weekend, my son and his girlfriend went up to NJ (northwest corridor) to attend a wedding. They left on Friday, and on Saturday morning, we get a really worried-call from him: He had accidentally swallowed one of her pills. We called the poison control center right away. We were told not to worry because the pill he took was not harmful and did not have any interactions with his medications. As it was a pill to adjust low-thyroid levels, all it would do to him is give him more energy.
Well, like mother, like son. He, too, has pill-swallowing problems. Must run in the genes.
Well, like mother, like son. He, too, has pill-swallowing problems. Must run in the genes.
I take a lot of pills. Most of them are vitamins, calcium, and other types of over-the-counter medication, but in my mind, they are way too many. If I had my way, I would take nothing. However, one of the reasons I am on this Earth this long is because of the prescribed medications together with the prescribed over-the-counter medications. So, in order to be able to take the medicines, I take them all at one. I grab those pills, put them in the palm of my hand, toss them into my mouth, take a swig of liquid, and swallow. One day, in the beginning of June 2006, I did just that, EXCEPT that I forgot to remove my iron pill (SlowFe) from its wrapper. Here's what the pill inside the wrapper looks like:
As soon as I swallowed it all, I realized my boo boo. I started coughing, and since I was at work, I quickly ran to the Nurse's office. Unfortunately, our nurse is not the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree, and instead of applying the Heimlich maneuver, she made me eat bread: Rye bread. The pill descended lower on my esophagus, but not low enough. I was in pain, I became a choke candidate, and I needed to go to the emergency room.
Now, I work in Washington, DC, and the hospitals do not have a great reputation. I found out first hand why they do not have the great reputation. I was a choke (who could possibly die) patient, but nonetheless, it took the emergency staff 2 hours to get to me. I spent 45 minutes waiting in a hallway just to be triaged. Luckily, my husband works in the same office that I do. So he came on the ambulance to the hospital with me. Because he was with me, he filled out the paperwork for me, so my triage experience was only 45 minutes instead of 1 1/2 hours.
My paramedics should have been aware of my condition, but they were too busy visiting other paramedics in the hospital. At one point in the hospital, the wrapper slipped down to my epiglottis. I knew that any wrong move would make the wrapper slip into my windpipe and that would be the end of me. I stopped talking. My paramedics continually asked questions, which I would not answer. Now, I am not a quiet person, and throughout the ride in the ambulance I was talking and joking around. My silence should have alerted them. It didn't. It alerted my husband who tried to get a doctor to pay attention to me. It took more than 1/2 hour for one to come: He was a resident and unable to do anything without his attendant's OK, and the attendant was not available.
Anyway, I arrived at the hospital at 11 am, I was given an X-ray at 2 pm, and a barium test at 3 pm. At first, during the barium test, the technician told me that the pill and the wrapper were down in my stomach. However, I got to see the moving X-ray, and I saw it lodged in exactly where I felt it: On my left side, just below the collar bone area. The technician told me that the thing I was seeing, which by the way looked like this
was something that was part of my anatomy. "NO WAY," I said. They made me swallow some more barium. Suddenly the item dislodged and fell into my stomach. I was right: IT WAS NOT PART OF MY ANATOMY. Moreover, the pain that I was experiencing as the edges of the wrapper touched the walls of my esophagus, suddenly stopped. At 4 pm., I was discharged.
What a foolishly stupid thing to do. I now look three times before I swallow my pills.
As soon as I swallowed it all, I realized my boo boo. I started coughing, and since I was at work, I quickly ran to the Nurse's office. Unfortunately, our nurse is not the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree, and instead of applying the Heimlich maneuver, she made me eat bread: Rye bread. The pill descended lower on my esophagus, but not low enough. I was in pain, I became a choke candidate, and I needed to go to the emergency room.
Now, I work in Washington, DC, and the hospitals do not have a great reputation. I found out first hand why they do not have the great reputation. I was a choke (who could possibly die) patient, but nonetheless, it took the emergency staff 2 hours to get to me. I spent 45 minutes waiting in a hallway just to be triaged. Luckily, my husband works in the same office that I do. So he came on the ambulance to the hospital with me. Because he was with me, he filled out the paperwork for me, so my triage experience was only 45 minutes instead of 1 1/2 hours.
My paramedics should have been aware of my condition, but they were too busy visiting other paramedics in the hospital. At one point in the hospital, the wrapper slipped down to my epiglottis. I knew that any wrong move would make the wrapper slip into my windpipe and that would be the end of me. I stopped talking. My paramedics continually asked questions, which I would not answer. Now, I am not a quiet person, and throughout the ride in the ambulance I was talking and joking around. My silence should have alerted them. It didn't. It alerted my husband who tried to get a doctor to pay attention to me. It took more than 1/2 hour for one to come: He was a resident and unable to do anything without his attendant's OK, and the attendant was not available.
Anyway, I arrived at the hospital at 11 am, I was given an X-ray at 2 pm, and a barium test at 3 pm. At first, during the barium test, the technician told me that the pill and the wrapper were down in my stomach. However, I got to see the moving X-ray, and I saw it lodged in exactly where I felt it: On my left side, just below the collar bone area. The technician told me that the thing I was seeing, which by the way looked like this
was something that was part of my anatomy. "NO WAY," I said. They made me swallow some more barium. Suddenly the item dislodged and fell into my stomach. I was right: IT WAS NOT PART OF MY ANATOMY. Moreover, the pain that I was experiencing as the edges of the wrapper touched the walls of my esophagus, suddenly stopped. At 4 pm., I was discharged.
What a foolishly stupid thing to do. I now look three times before I swallow my pills.
I got staples on my head.
Jul. 14th, 2006 12:06 pmOn June 23, while I was cleaning out our rental home, my husband, my son, and I were filling our minivan (affectionately known as "the bassetmobile) with garbage that we were going to take to the dump the next day. My husband's hand was resting on the top of the hatch door. I called out, "Don't close it." He heard, "Close it." Before I knew what hit me, I had this great headache, I felt as if my teeth were falling out, and I felt just like those characters in the cartoons who are hit, we see their heads vibrating, with stars floating around their heads.
I was bleeding quite profusely. I went to a not-so-near hospital, as I didn't trust the hospital closer to the neighborhood we were at. After 2 hours of waiting, I was taken in and given six staples.
What an adventure.
This is how it felt at first:
And this is how it felt later:
I was bleeding quite profusely. I went to a not-so-near hospital, as I didn't trust the hospital closer to the neighborhood we were at. After 2 hours of waiting, I was taken in and given six staples.
What an adventure.
This is how it felt at first:
And this is how it felt later:
