Looney Tooney

Okay - this is my dog. She's an italian greyhound. Nothing unusual about her except that she's my buddy. She sits near me, sleeps with me and gets excited when I get home...she's awesome!

She loves my husband and has finally (!!) accepted our son as a higher up in the pack organization of our family...for such a small dog, she sure does have a big attitude...by the way, the pillows she's leaning on are small throw pillows - she's all legs.

The PIC line is a pain in the butt. Nurse Ratchet was here last week (he came on Friday - late!!) and changed the bandage. My arm was really sore so I also got a lecture and a warning that if it got worse in any way I would then need to go to the ER as I may have needed to have my PIC line taken out and then reinstalled - EEEUUUWWW.

Basically, after the bandage was changed and the warning received, we determined that my arm hurt so badly because I was using it too much. Granted, I helped paint the weekend I had it installed, and continued to use it on a regular basis - sooooo - not a good thing. This week has seen much less use of the arm.

This past weekend was all about relaxation. Saturday I did nothing - I sat on my butt, read my smutty novels and watched HGTV. Sunday I took my child to see Wall-E. Very cute movie. It has a really great theme for adults - I'll not share so as to spoil anything for my readers, but nevertheless, it was just a really cute movie.

Saturday night I did my sleep study. The Doc believed that I was suffering from sleep apnea. It was a horrible experience. First, you are completely wired up - I mean on your legs, chest, scalp, face and in your NOSE! This was the most disturbing to me because I mean, where were these wires before they were in my nose? GROSS! Also - as the sleep center is located at the hospital - Shady Grove in Gaithersburg/Rockville, Maryland - everyone knows that sleep just does not happen in a hospital. Not for the usual reasons of being disturbed by a room mate, or having nurses coming in and out to take vitals - no this would be the fact that every 15 minutes there was either a Code Blue or a Code Red. Now, the hospital must make an announcement (it was a different voice every time) on a slight delay - and then it is played over and over and over again on a repetitive basis for 5 to 10 minute intervals. How do I know this? Because after the 3rd Code Blue (people dying everywhere!!!) I started to time how long the announcement was played.

The other bad thing about being in a sleep study in a hospital is that people die in hospitals. I know that I mentioned somewhere that I was a medium - this basically means that I see and can speak with dead people. Well, when you are in a hospital, and the spirit knows that someone is around who can hear them - they are drawn to you. All in all, this did not make for a restful night. There were three people who died unexpectedly that night. One was an older gentleman, he was one of the code blues - he was in the ICU for pneumonia and went into cardiac arrest. They were unable to revive him. A second person was a woman. She died on the operating table - she was brought in by helicopter (she remembered all of this) from a car accident way out and she was brought back or revived. She has a long way to go in regard to recovery, but she'll be back eventually. The third was the hardest. A child died due to complications from cancer. He was 9. The same age as my son. He was so assured that it was his time and he was ready to go - he said "I'm just so tired - and I'm ready to go into the Light." That is exactly where he went - into the Creator's arms. So much suffering from one so young. That one was really hard to deal with.

So - after not getting hardly any sleep at all - the technician comes in to wake you up at 5 a.m. She removed all the wires (leaving all the blobs of cream and stuff on my scalp to find later - can we say euuuuwwwww?) and electrodes and let me go home. I drove home to a beautiful sunrise - let myself into the house and promptly put myself back to bed.

Enough about sleep studies...

I do have a pending problem...Well - this is about my lyme disease - now I have a new challenge. Finding a doctor that has treated and is aware that chronic lyme disease does, in fact, exist. How do I know this? I have it! My insurance company and my current doctor determined that they didn't want to work together any longer, so since I'm not paying $40 more per visit than I was paying via co-pay, I've got to find another doctor. I'll see him tomorrow, get copies of all my records and move on. I've already got an appointment with a good doctor next Thursday. This is such a pain in the butt.

This weekend is the 4th of July and we have loads of plans. First, I'm taking the day off tomorrow - it's the 3rd. I've got loads of errands to run, as well as my last doctor's appointment with Dr. Jaller. His blog is linked below - lymemd. Anyways, while I've enjoyed his curiosity as well as his experiences in treating lyme, I have to admit the last two weeks I've felt quite like a guinea pig. Not a good experience for one to have.

Back to the 4th. We live in the suburbs of the Washington, D.C. Metro area. I found some interesting areas to watch the fireworks go off - so we have plans to do that. Not to mention, it may rain (it is always threatening rain on the 4th) - so instead of going to the Mall and sitting on the marble steps on the Lincoln Memorial (we have done this before - but it was pre-child), we've got another place we're going to try. I'll write more on this later - I don't want to give up my good spot.

We're also planning on taking our child to the movies to see "Kung Fu Panda". There are quite a few movies out that I'd like to see - Wanted, Hancock, Iron Man and the Hulk are just a few. Looks like a good movie summer.

Well that's all for now.

Blessed Be,

Amy