t&l,

The reason I knew this?

Your H, although too young to be my father has sounded EXACTLY like my very own father.

I have thought so from the moment you began describing him to us.

My father is 79 years old....he's not changing!

She's reading this over my shoulder and said, "Isn't that the way to spell it? I always just thought the 't' was silent."

Yes, the "t" in vasectomy is silent BECAUSE IT ISN'T THERE! <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

t&l

And we really don't need to know if it's vast either!

You guys are killing me tonight! Glad it's just me and the dog, or I would have some explaining to do!

Oh, goody! <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" /> And the women in my family tend to live till they're very old, too! <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" />

t&l

I am pleased to be an honorary daughter!!! But don't know a thing about 7th Day Adventists (spl?)

Maybe Neak's news will inspire Pep to change the topic title since Neak won't be using certain products for awhile!

4 biological, 3 adopted, and 3 or 4 unfortunately lost to Flard and Gell through miscarriages.


I spent 4 hrs. this morning in the emergency room with blood pressures as high as 193/115. Somebody on this thread told me that vacations involve lying around doing nothing while people bring you stuff. This morning I lay around and didn't do anything! <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> And people kept bring me things...needles for blood tests, medication, an EKG, exams and probings. Who could ask for more? <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" /> Does that mean I just had a vacation? Yee-hah.

I have no idea why my pressure shot up, since I've never had BP problems before, but at least I know now what that month-long headache has meant! <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> Hey, I do vaginas. Not skulls! <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/pfft.gif" alt="" />

Well, I smell eggs and fresh potato salad. Gotta go build up my cholesterol to match my pressure.

t&l

Thank you. Welcome to the family.


See, their problem is that instead of using the PROphylactics they needed, they relied on amateur phylactics instead, which apparently weren't quite, um, up for the job. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

t&l

Saw your other post about a SE MB get-together suggesting Chattanooga, and figured out that Southern Adventist must be the university you were talking about. MS lives in Collegedale. If you do business there, you've probably seen him, since he has a job that puts him somewhat in the public eye. I saw him a few years back when I visited a cousin who lives there, although that was her fault and not my own choice. That story is a little deeper into the Pool of Introspection than we've waded yet. Tell you more about it later.

t&l

I'm not sure I'm brave enough to turn this into "thndrnltng's deeply introspective, shark-infested, angst to zingers multitasking, shopping list, feminine hygiene products, and personal evangelism thread." It IS possible to spread oneself too thin! I will say this, in our defense: Seventh-day Adventists are not as odd as you might think. Consider our family as sterling representations of the mundane, normal-ness of our church members. Hmm-m-m-m-m. That might not actually be the best example that could be given. I'll get back to you. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

t&l

I went to the ER because I complained so much all night about my intractable headache that one of the nurses nagged me into checking my blood pressure (which I refused to do for quite awhile, since I've NEVER HAD A BLOOD PRESSURE PROBLEM!), which pressures were so high when I saw them up in L&D my first thought was, "There is something wrong with this stupid machine!" <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" /> I took the medicine they gave me in ER and my BP went down so they sent me home, headacheless at last. By evening the headache was back, and the BP was back up, although not as high as in the morning. Since the dose I got earlier was 1/2 a regular dose and I couldn't get ahold of a doctor to ask if it was OK to repeat it, I talked to another nurse at work to discuss the logic of repeating the med without an order, and then I took another tablet (1/2 dose again) and went to bed. (I'm a nurse. We do stuff like that, OK? It made sense at the time.) Woke up this morning with BPs higher than last night, and the devil's own headache. Repeated the ordered morning dose and had a Dr. Pepper. When the headache didn't go away I googled the med and found out that one of the possible side effects is--you guessed it--HEADACHE! And my BP is still high, too, so at least so far, we're batting 1000 in the success department here. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />

I want better drugs!!!!!!!! Without side effects. I also want to be 25 years old, but 57 years old smart. Who would want to be THAT nincompoop again? But the cute, unwrinkled, bouncy, dark-haired, 111#, all-body-parts-working, optimistic aspects of that age would be great to repeat. I'd SETTLE, however, for getting rid of the headache. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" /> I'm going to go out and mow the law before it gets any hotter. If I have a heat stroke, girls, all the insurance policy stuff is somewhere upstairs here. All you have to do is find it! Might as well make you work a little bit for all that money! <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/pfft.gif" alt="" />

If it's Q at work tonight, I'll answer the question about vacations, and then we might try spraying a little Shark Ban on our feet and wading back into the Pool of Introspection later this wk.

t&l

There is no greater denial than a NURSE with health issues!!

Sheesh t&l, you thought the BP machine was broken!!! I hope your fellow nurses kick your butt!

Neak & Neaksis - just make sure the "right" nurse friends know about your mom's BP...the really mean ones, you know!!

BTW, my mother was a nurse, who denied 3 years worth of obvious heart attack warnings....she insisted it was her gallbladder instead! We her family didn't have a clue, which unfortunately for my older NURSE sister caused her great guilt because she felt she should have forseen the symptoms.

Ain't it the truth?! <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> And a reformed, former-childhood-hypochondriac nurse pretty much spends her entire adult life in Egypt...boating. Down Denial. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />


I really, truly DID think something was wrong with the machine. Only for a few seconds, true, but still... <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />


Nobody has to tell them anything, since I had to leave the shift early to go to ER. I waited until everybody had their breaks, and watched their pts. while people took turns to be off the floor. But I have to confess their pts. weren't watched with any degree of enthusiasm, and I wasn't in the pt. rooms looking for anything extra to do!



My mother did the same, and it was only discovered some time later about the time Neak was born, when a pre-op cancer surgery EKG revealed old scarring on her heart. She had cancer twice, about 10 years apart. Both tumors were lymphatic; both were encapsulated and hadn't spread. She still managed to survive all that, and about 10 years of mini-strokes before she finally died. Sturdy farm stock, that's what we are, minus the cows.

I'm sorry about your mother, and that your sister feels guilty for not recognizing things in time. There's nobody that can hide stuff, if she puts her mind to it, like a nurse. Nor can you make a parent do something if they don't want to. And I'm not the only Egyptian nurse out there, either! I don't want to say "blame" towards your mother, but certainly the responsibility for her own health was her own, and I hope that with time your sister can release a little of her own unjustified feelings of guilt by acknowledging that your mother not only should have, but she COULD have, gotten a diagnosis and treatment instead of sweeping it out of sight and pretending like nothing was really wrong.

t&l

Boy, it was hot out there! After mowing the lawn, my blood pressure actually dropped from 150/100 to 140/90. Maybe beets just naturally have lower blood pressure than people? <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> Two Tylenol #3 have almost wiped out my headache, so I'm feeling pretty good at this very moment--in a baked/charred/broiled sort of way.

Now all I have left to do is eat breakfast, take a shower, wash the dishes (a week's worth--I've been busy!), change the sheets on the beds, do a couple loads of clothes, edit a chapter of Neak's book, and try and balance that stupid checkbook so I can pay bills, and be ready to leave for work by 5PM. Maybe when I get there, if it's busy, I'll try and look pathetic so I can get somebody easy! <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

Where's a good place to buy an orthopedic (?) pillow? You know, the kind that gives good neck support to side sleepers? I need one of those BAD, but have no time to window shop! Even without the high BP headache I have bad neck pain from that accident with the stupid drunk driver, and I was told that there are pillows that will help get rid of neck muscle tension and pain. Any store or brand recommendations? Multitask with me here!

Sage Medical Advice for Today: When you have a headache that lasts for a month, find out why! <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> Really, it's the SENSIBLE thing to do!! <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" /> I'm a nurse. I'm trained to know these things. Trust me!! <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />

t&l

You've all heard that old saw about keeping women barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen. Well, FWH has gone that philosophy one better. Poor Neak is not only barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen, but she's locked in as well. FWH took the only key to the gate and went on an errand. When Neaksis needed some extra sugar for jam, Neak had to pass the bag over the top of the 6-foot chain link fence because she couldn't open it up and pass it through. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Poor Neak. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

I'VE got a key to the gate in MY pocket, for all the good it does her! <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" /> There's nothing like providing impetus to clean your house, by making it impossible for you to leave it. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />

t&l

t&l,

Glad you survived mowing the lawn! What terrible luck you have that your blood pressure went down afterwards of doing all that hot hard work........instead of after sitting with your feet propped up, sitting poolside with an umbrella drink!

Glad, you're close enough to the ER to walk there and get care.

My sisters and I are happily still angry with my mother for being an Egyptian nurse! Even after all these years, we're still pleased to remind her how much she is missing!!!

When my sister was a PICU nurse, she was walding down the hall when she was overcome by serious pain. She walked down to the ER and came to find out that the eptopic pregnancy she didn't know she had ruptured!

So being a nurse that day saved her life! And fortunately it wasn't a day-off either!

Regarding a pillow.....I think this is the right name "Tempur-Pedic". It's one of those specially formed "foam" type pillows. I've been looking at them myself. I saw them at Costco - very best price there...but I may have seen them in the Penny's catalog.

We have the mattress, and I want the pillow too!

Sheesh, you must have a high tolerance for meds...2 Tylenol #3 would kick my butt!

Neak - barefoot, pregnant & locked in....but happy!!

T&L,
I hope you find reasons. Also hope they are something that can be fixed. Many would miss you here if something happened to you, and I know it would be much, much worse for those who know you well.

Prayers for you continue - for your family too.

Still thinking about you. Who you are, and why. Also who you will be in time............

Life is interesting, isn't it. Overwhelming some days, but interesting.


SS

<img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" /> WHY did I become a nurse? I'm sure there was once a reason but it currently eludes me! This was definitely a hydrant night. In fact, not only was I Queen of the hydrants, but I was stuck in the town of Dogville (state of Urinetopia), surrounded by well-watered hounds in town for the Convention of Calamitous Canines! <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" /> Thank goodness for 7AM. I am now home, thrilled to be here yet still scowling, and have removed the royal golden pee-ara from my hapless head so I can go to sleep. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

On the way home this morning, I was contemplating the annoyances of the previous 12 hrs., and the joy <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/pfft.gif" alt="" /> of being the hydrant instead of the dog, when an interesting perspective occurred to me. Visualize this little dog peeing on a hydrant, proudly, securely marking his territory as dogs are wont to do, when suddenly--without warning--the hydrant pees back!!!! <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> How paranoid would THAT doggy be for the rest of his little doggy days?! Ps-s-s-s-s-s. Ah-h-h-h-h... "Huh?" <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> WHOO-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-OS-S-S-S-S-SH!<img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" /> Now that would be funny. I'd PAY to see that! <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

t&l

In time, I will be older, that's who I'll be! <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />

I've been wondering when you were going to get back from vacation. Hope you had a good time.

t&l

In time, I will be older, that's who I'll be!

Ah, but being older describes WHAT you will be, not WHO you will be. "Who" is somethign else, and it is what I wonder about.

Just because I wonder about things, doesn't mean you have to discuss them. It is, after all, your thread.

No, all of us will die........some of us will get old before that happens, some will not. But as for who we will become.....that is really up to us, is it not?

I wonder if your dreams will yet come true. The ones you still have hidden away.

I wonder if in that future, you will have regrets the way most of us have in the here and now.

I want to believe, from the little I know about you that your future will be glorious and bright, but I wondered what you thought about it. All kidding aside.

Humor has it's place, and I love both laughing, and making others laugh, but this wondering I am doing is serious wondering. (But it makes me smile to write it down.)

It's easy to fill our lives so full that we don't have time to think about these things. After all, family, work, and all the things we do are important. They are, I am not being sarcastic. It's just that sometimes thinking can be good for the soul.

I've been wondering when you were going to get back from vacation. Hope you had a good time.

We had a wonderful time, and I may even tell about it since I have been asked on other threads. We took kids, so it was a working vacation, but a very rewarding, and somewhat restful one even with children. I highly recommend it.

Have been back for a few days, and reading, but DEADLINES AT WORK have prevented me from reading in depth, and responding much.

This is a very interresting thread, and I enjoy reading, and even writing, but not having time to do what I want with the words keeps me from saying very much some days.

Thanks for being willing to share your self with us. It is a blessing to get to know you (and everyone here) by what you write.

I leave tomorrow afternoon on a business trip. Will be away
again until next week. Not that it's important, but I hate to make comments, ask questions, and then leave like the answers/replies are not important. They are, but it's hard to keep a discussion going when I don't have net access.

T&L, thanks for letting me come by and visit.

SS

<img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> Happy, queasy, dizzy... The worst part of that was that Neaksis actually had a key with her, too, BUT WOULDN'T OPEN THE GATE AND LET ME OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She claims she thought AJ had removed the gate key, and that she had left her own gate key on her kitchen table. I was not about to scale the 6' fence to verify her story.