For Mom, Dad, Jules, and Kim....

I forgot to cook these potatoes...

Do you think they're still any good?

Exterior View

Anaheim, CA

I'm in Anaheim this week for a nursing convention. The weather is nice, and I'm having a good time so far. But when I checked in to the hotel last night after SEVENTEEN HOURS OF TRAVEL (yes, seventeen hours to get from NYC to Orange County Airport), they said they had no rooms, despite the fact that I had a reservation. They were oversold, apparently. The agent then said he could offer me a suite on the top floor. I waited for the "BUT," part. I expected him to say he'd have to charge me an extra $100 a night, or something like that. And then it came...

Desk Clerk - "But, there's no bed in it."
Me - "No bed?"
Desk Clerk - "That's right, no bed. There is a couch, but it's really uncomfortable."
Me - "okay....ahhh..."
Desk Clerk - "We can send up a rollaway bed."
Me - "okay...ahh..."
Desk Clerk - "The rollup bed is much more comfortable than the couch."
Me - "okay...ahh...well...I guess I have no choice, right."

So, somewhat confused and kind of concerned, to the top floor I went, unprepared for what my room would look like. Here are some pictures. This is the strangest experience I've ever had in a hotel. You can see why, for yourself. What you don't see in these photos is my tiny little rollaway bed that I place in the middle of the room. It's quite bizarre. I think it's used for receptions, bridal parties, meetings, things like that. I really feel like I should be conducting interviews or something while I'm here.





A morning view:


A view from my window...the convention center where the conference is:


Another view from my window...part of DisneyLand in the background:

Alaska Cruise: July 19-28

My grandmother and I have been talking about doing this for like fifteen years, with no exaggeration. She finally committed to it over the weekend, and in within 30 minutes, I got online, did research, found the best rated ships, searched for available cruise dates, found what seemed like a good deal, and booked it. Done. No more talking about it. I'm actually getting pretty excited. She is too. She called me six times today. Just to talk about it and tell me how excited she is. That makes me happy.

Anyway, we arrive in Vancouver the morning of 7/19, spend the day and night there, as well as the following whole day. The ship (Celebrity Summit) departs at 5:;45 pm on 7/20. The intinerary is as follows.

At the end of the cruise, we get shuttled from Seward to Anchorage. We will spend the day in Anchorage, and fly out late that night. We'll fly overnight and get home in the morning on the 28th.

Cholesteral, The Sequel

Through the roof, once again.

Here's the breakdown:

Category/Recommended/Me
Total/less than 100/290
LDL/less than 130/209
HDL/higher than 45/44
Triglycerides/less than 150/186

I fail every category.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Taken several years ago at The Dublin Zoo...

I don't even look like I had surgery at all, right?

Just kidding. This poor guy. He's pretty jacked up. It was so funny, when I walked into the office today for my visit, the entire staff couldn't get over how "non-post-op" I looked. The administrator asked me if i went for my surgery. There was no significant brusing, no swelling, NOTHING. I got pretty lucky, I guess. I'm actually starting to develop some bruising on the right side, where the worst of the trouble was, but thank God, nothing like this poor schmuck, whoever he is.

1st Day Post-Op

I went for a follow up with my doctor this morning. She told me how nasty things were up there. When she created an opening for the maxillary sinus, all kinds of nasty stuff came pouring out. No wonder I've been sick on and off for years. And as far as the tissue mass/growth she had to remove, I won't get the biopsy results on that until a week from today.

I feel really dizzy, but the pain is pretty much under control because of the med. I can't move my head too quickly, or it bleeds. I guess things are pretty fragile up there right now.

Although it's too early for me to get the full benefit of this surgery (that might not happen for months), I feel like I can breathe a little better already. I'm pretty happy about that.

This s*$t ROCKS

Surgery

I had surgery today. I had complete obstruction of my right maxillary and right ethmoid sinuses, as well as abnormal tissue growth. The same ENT that did my septal deviation surgery a few years ago did this surgery as well. (She's a very special doctor and person, but that's another story in itself.)

So, the surgery went pretty well, I think. I don't get a chance to actually speak with the doctor until my follow-up appointment in the morning. I know that I lost a lot of blood, so there was a lot of IV fluid replacements. My heart rate and blood pressure were off the charts post-op. I began to try to figure out why and started thumbing through my chart while nobody was around. It turns out that to help stem the bleeding and to "vasoconstrict" me, the gave me cocaine, lidocaine, and epinephrine (locally at the sites of the bleeding), all of which are helpful with slowing down blood loss. I thought that was pretty interesting.

The nursing care I received today was terrific, from start to finish. I met some wonderful nurses, and did a LOT of spying and listening. It's amazing how much of what I've been taught over these last two years IS actually relevant and IS said and done by nurses in practice.

I was in the PACU (recovery) for quite a while, but by the time Ceci arrived to escort me home (they wouldn't let me leave without an escort), I was really ready to go. (I almost vomited in a Ziploc bag in the cab on the way home.) She took such good care of me tonight until Farrell got home. And now nobody is taking care of me. (That was joke. Farrell has been EXTRAORDINARY tonight. Thank you, both.)

As far as recovery is concerned, the pain is pretty outrageous, a lot more than I was expecting. I've got a pain med that seems to be effective (it's freakin' awesome, actually), but the other concerns are bleeding, inflammation, risk for infection, and the sinuses actually "adhering" to themselves. (I'll spare you the details, but adhesions would be bad.) So, in a nutshell, I have to follow the teaching I received today from the surgeon and the nurses really carefully. I basically can't do shit. No lying flat, no standing quickly, can't bend down, can't lift ANYTHING, can't tie my own shoes, I have to move very slowly, not speak loudly, etc., all so that I don't pop whatever fragile clots have formed. Of course they should have mentioned not to scratch my nose: I had a really bad itch before, and was distracted by something on TV at the same time, and kind of forgot I had surgery. I rubbed my nose really hard like I always do when I have an itch. (Jules, are you with me on that?) Needless to say, it hurt and it bled.

Martina Update

Hingis won her first title of the year last night...The Tokyo Toray Pan Pacific Open. It was a Tier I event during which she didn't drop a single set and took out some really heavy hitters, including Ana Ivanovic in the final. She has moved up to #6 in the rankings and is closing in on being a top five player pretty soon.

This win should silence a lot of the critics who contend that while she has great court craft, movement, and plays some of the most intelligent tennis out there, she will never be able to contend with the 6'2' power hitters who stand behind the baseline and fire away. Well, on the contrary, she did EXACTLY that, all week.

Update

My patient who I wrote about in December with the rare neuromuscular disorder has passed away. I will be forever grateful to him and to his partner for allowing me in to their home in December to spend some time caring for him and talking with them. It was an experience I will never forget for the rest of my life. I hope his loving partner and his family find peace and comfort very soon.

Martina 2007

The 2007 season has begun. My girl is having mixed success so far. She has played in two tournaments already this month as warm ups to the Australian Open which starts next week. The first one she made it to the final, and lost in a heartbreaking loss. She should have won that match. There really was no excuse. It was really close, but she should have won. To make it to the final, having barely dropped a set throughout the tournament, and then to lose the title?? I was sick. And then in the next tournament in Sydney (this week), she was ousted in the first round. This was another heartbreaking match...she lost the first set, and was about to lose the second, but fiercely clawed her way back to win the second set. And then in the third set, it was as if she wasn't even there. She had MANY opportunities to win, but squandered them. (She only converted like 3 of 16 break points, or something like that.) Her form is good, but she is getting nervous on big points, and seems to lose focus. It's going to be a long 10 months.

Spring Semester

The spring semester has started already. It's pediatrics and labor/delivery. To say I have very little interest in it would be to overstate my interest in it. I am bored to tears already. Hours and hours of lecture already on child abuse. It made me want to find a random child to abuse. And sadly, we're being spoken to like 18 month olds by the instructor. She is nice enough, but I think she only knows how to speak to people like she's speaking to a child she's about to vaccinate.

So, I'm not too happy. In other news, well, I'll make a separate post about that when I have time.

And with regard to the claymation story, it seems to have stalled. What a shame. I think it had potential. And yes, in response to several inquiries, Bridget did actually make those out of this Crayola clay-like stuff (it's not clay, it's not Play-Doh, it's something very similar but also very different) on New Year's Eve in the time span of like 20 minutes.

Estoy cansado. Me voy a la cama. (I am learning Spanish. Figure it out on your own.)

Bridget's Clay Creations

Merry Christmas

Nuala

Radio City Christmas Show

We have been wanting to go to see this show as a family for many years now. Tonight was the night. My mother, my father, Julie, Tom, Kim, Michael, Ryan, Ceci, and I all went. Alexis couldn't join us because she had to work, and unfortunately, Grandma got delayed returning from a trip upstate. Here are some pictures of the show and the tree in Rockefeller Center.

Christmas Cactus

This is my first Christmas cactus. It bloomed today.