stuff

I should really post more often. I need the therapy. Also, a lot of shit happens in my life and I need to keep up here.

Sproing was sprung from kiddie jail today. He has a scheduled appearance before the judge on March 11th, which happens to be my baby brother's birthday, to confuse you with unrelated details. Back to Sproing; he's doing pretty well. He is most definitely glad to be back home. He is showing respect for his parents, at least. Let's do the work to keep this up, Java and Superman!

I feel that I'm a neglectful parent. I really am to some extent. My excuse is that I get easily overwhelmed. Is that just a flimsy excuse or a valid reason? I'm not sure. Maybe a bit of both.

My keyboard "m" is wonky. Stingy. I try to use it and it doesn't give me the m. Sometimes. There must be tiny gremlins under the key keeping it from fully depressing. How depressing. My space bar isn't giving me space, either. Hmm. First world problems.

So I was released from the hospital today. Only stayed one day. I had some odd chest pain yesterday (Tuesday) so Superman took me to the emergency department. The EKG in the ER looked good, but they admitted me for observation and testing. I passed the tests. I had a stress test this morning and everything looked good, according to the doctor. The official diagnosis (I think) is PVC, Premature Ventricular Contraction. Because my heart otherwise looks fine, these PVCs are benign. Probably. I am currently wearing a Holter monitor, also known as an ambulatory electrocardiography device (isn't that a fun phrase!) that will check these things. I get to wear it for 24 hours (until 2:30 Thursday afternoon) and can't get it wet. No shower, in other words. Also, I didn't bathe yesterday while in hospital. I had a monitor on then, too, with sticky tabs stuck to my chest. Doesn't mix well with water. So I'm a little bit funky. My scalp bothers me the most, but I will wash my hair in the sink tomorrow (too tired tonight) and everything will be fine.

Reading the above linked website, I learned that some possible causes of PVCs are caffeine (I drink decaf coffee and not much other caffeinated stuff) and electrolyte imbalance. The doctor showed me the blood test results indicating that my magnesium level is slightly low, so that might be something. Alcohol may also be a cause, and indeed I notice the heart palpitations, or flutters, more often after I've had a couple of beers. Stress and insufficient sleep can make them worse. Well, by golly, I've got the stress thing in the bag, don't I? I talked to the day shift nurse this morning. We had a lovely chat. I told her some of the stuff going on in our household, the challenges with Sproing and Diva, etc. Her unofficial diagnosis for the cause of my chest pain is stress. She was kinda funny. "Honey, it's stress that brought you in here!" It was quite an exclamation the way she said it. Maybe you had to be there.

Anyway, I have Trigemini. That's a PVC every third beat. Not all the time, but when it's doing its PVC thing it'll go every third beat. I have actually listened to it and noticed the every third thing. I have a stethoscope and sometimes listen to my heart when it feels fluttery. This often happens at night when I lie down to sleep. The fluttering keeps me awake (how does that help?). In summation, my heart dances the waltz.

Updates on news from the last post:
Twitch needs to get his ass in gear. He's being a lazy SOB. Time for Mama to kick some lazy butt. He needs to be making money, working, getting life experience outside of my house.

Light's art show was fabulous, and it's good that her Daddy was there. She was kinda emotional before the opening reception and he helped diffuse that. He's good for her that way, probably better than I am. The show is actually up until the third week in March, and Superman and I are hoping to 'swing by' when we go to the Bloggerpalooza in Delaware next month. Yeah, western PA is not exactly on the way to Lewes, Delaware. There's a wrench in the works I discovered today. Sproing's court date is the Tuesday before the Bloggerpalooza and we hoped to arrive in Indiana, PA that day. We will see what we will see.
Here are some pictures from Light's art show.

Light herself

 Light's artwork

Not Tuesday, but here with more of the story

Sorry about the not Tuesday thing. I got distracted. Again. So it's Saturday and I will continue the story about the car crash.

When we left our heroine, the folks with flashy lights on their vehicles had arrived on the scene. The sheriff's representative was tall, kind of broad but not thick, with a blonde crew cut. And was in uniform, which always helps, right? He was very friendly. He was handsome but not Hollywood drop dead gorgeous. Two EMTs arrived in the ambulance. One was a woman (Shirley?) who is even larger than I am. Very nice, too. She drove the ambulance. The other fella, and I can't now remember his name, looked a bit like a Bubba, though clean and professional. He wore a Bubba cap a lot like this one. It may have been camo.  The guy's teeth looked somewhat like Mater's, but more crooked. And he was missing one just right of the front tooth.   
In other words, he looked like what I expected from West Virginia. He was probably 5'10" at the most, and had a nice spare tire around the middle. He was super nice, though, and very professional. He was obviously a lot smarter than my image of a Bubba. We had a lovely chat on the way to the hospital.

Let's see... I had two nurses and a nurse practitioner at the hospital. One of the nurses was a middle aged lady, brunette, who was very friendly (they all were, you know) and looked a lot like a nurse, but with a bright flowery scrub top, not a white uniform. The other nurse was a silver bear of a man with a brush mustache. His hair was white! The nurse practitioner was a very handsome middle aged gent, most distinguished. He had a mustache, too, and his hair was a graying light brown. I didn't see him for very long, and he was standing close to me, poking at my head. I didn't get a really good look at him, though I noticed he was a tall bear.

Finally after all the x-rays and more cups of water and more trips to the bathroom, the doctor showed up. He stood in the doorway, looked at my chart, asked a few questions, and said something like "It's all good." Not exactly like that, of course, but that's the message in a nutshell. This fella, whose name, according to the name on my wrist band as attending physician, was John Johnson, and was smokin' hot! He wore plain green scrubs and was small in stature with slightly curly deep black hair. Are you familiar with Dr. McDreamy? This guy looked similar, but smaller.

So I'd been inspected and declared OK. I could leave the hospital, but go where? Well, I thought, "What would an adult do in this situation?" Time for a rental car. There were a few ladies at the check-in window of the emergency department who were extremely kind and helpful. They informed me of the rental car places at the airport, and called a cab for me. Get this: the name of the cab company is "Cosmic Cab." Duuude! The cab was a minivan, looked pretty normal despite the Cosmic name. So out to the airport, which was tiny! Real airplanes fly in and out! Both United and Delta have service there. The check-in area had maybe three desk thingies, and was separated from the baggage claim area by a set of doors leading out to the tarmac. Quite simple. Quaint, even. But I was there for a car, not a plane ride. I had called ahead to make sure an agent was there and had a car available. Didn't want to pay for a ride to the airport for nothing. Wasn't that responsible adult of me?

So I did the rental car thing, got a Toyota Camry. It's a much nicer car than the Chevrolet Aveo, let me tell ya. The trunk is almost big enough for the Aveo to fit in, and the Camry is not a large car. I drove out to the middle of nowhere to the tow truck guy's place and he helped me move my junk into the Camry. Then we stood in his driveway for an hour and chatted. He's an interesting character, and lots of fun to talk to. Not a particularly handsome guy. He looks like a tow truck driver. But super friendly.

I drove back into Lewisburg to get a motel room. Went into the cheap-but-not-desperate place and asked "Do you have a room?" and he said "Nope." Oops. Really? Really. There is one exit off the interstate for Lewisburg and of course all the hotel/motel chains are right there. If he's full, probably every other hotel is full, too. He confirmed this. Then I told him my sad tale of being in a car crash earlier that day, being stranded in town and not knowing anyone, etc. He ended up giving me a room that was reserved for someone who didn't come in. Or something. I don't know how these things work, but I suspect he had a couple of rooms available that he was holding back for, what? A better offer? Anyway, I got a room. And then I finally went to supper. I hadn't eaten since breakfast, when I fixed myself scrambled egg with tomato, mushroom, and onion and a few pieces of toast with apple butter before I checked out of the cabin. Remember how this day started at the rustic one-room cabin in the state park? It was a really long day. And I needed food.

The room key card was also a 10% off coupon for the Applebee's down the road. Boo-yah! Shrimp fettuccine here I come! I changed clothes before going to dinner, and made such a mess of my shirt with the fettuccine that I couldn't wear it again before washing it. Oy.

Then I went back to the room and finally went to bed. It was a very long day.

But wait, how did I get back home to South Carolina? The rental car was not a one-way rental, and I wasn't supposed to leave the state. Stay tuned for the next exciting episode in Java's dramatic vacation!

P.S. Ur-Spo, I didn't think about this as a blog post until I was in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. "My first view of Lewisburg was from the back of an ambulance."

This or that

I want to go into more detail about what was said at Sproing's therapy session on Friday. But I won't do that right now.

Because it has been a busy weekend. Well, really, I think it's only today that was busy. A lot happened today. Let me tell you a little bit about it. (By "today" I mean Sunday. Technically it's now Monday, but I haven't been to sleep yet, so I consider it still Sunday.)

Light moved back into the dorm today. She packed up her stuff over the last week or so. She and her dad got it all crammed in the back of the van yesterday. We left home this morning, Superman, Light, and I, at about 8:15 to head up to her college town. It takes about an hour and 15, maybe 25 minutes to get up there. This morning we stopped at the big Krispy Kreme place to meet one of her roommates before going over to the college. I only mention this because, Oh. My. God. Are you familiar with the phrase Hot Fresh Now? Wow! Warm delicate doughnutty goodness with a sugar glaze. There are no other words.
But that's not what I came to tell you about. I just got distracted. I mean, aren't they gorgeously shiny?

We went to the college, found a tactical unloading position, and began to empty the van of everything Light-related. I stayed with the van and unloaded stuff to the lawn near the sidewalk. Light and Superman were the runners. It took a long time but not long at all (depending on one's perspective and the angle of the sun) to get everything up to her room. I sweated. It was horrible.

Finally got up into the air conditioned goodness of her room. She is in a triple this year. She and her roommate from last year (Monkey, you may recall) are joined by a third girl and are in an entirely different dorm on the other side of the campus. Much farther from most of her classes in the art department (boo) but situated between the student center and the dining hall (yay).

There we all were, Light and her two parents, Monkey and her two parents, and the third roommate. (I'll not name her, rather give Light the opportunity to find a moniker to fit the young lady) And one or another of various friends who dropped by added to the population of a rather small area. There was much discussion about proper arrangement of the furniture, mostly between the two mothers. Though I told the girls I realized that whatever wonderfully efficient arrangement of this furniture, I know they will move things to fit their purposes after we leave. Light, the darling, has learned to humor her mother for a time, and make changes when I'm not there. It's like a game we play.

In the midst of all this, as I'm sitting on one of the beds trying to stay out of the way, my phone rang. It was S, telling me he was concerned about Sproing. This surprised me because S usually tires to avoid Sproing as much as possible. It is better for S's blood pressure that way. I moved to a quieter area so I could hear this.

I learned that Sproing had hit his head pretty hard and was showing a sizable knot on his forehead. I prescribed ice, 15 minutes at a time, every half hour or so. But wait, says S, he's acting kind of strange. Like he's in a stupor. He's acting tired, and wants to go to sleep. Oh oh. Red flag. "Don't let him go to sleep!" I had S check the boy's pupils. Are they the same size, or is one more dilated than the other? Uneven pupil dilation. Oh, boy. I told S to wait by the phone, I'd call him back. I informed Superman of the events unfolding at home. Major change of plans afoot. We quickly said our goodbyes to Light and the other girls, ran out to the van, and I tried to get the doctor on the phone.

He finally answered his page, and I told him the symptoms I'd been told. He said to get the boy to the ER right away. Well, here at home we have my wonderful truck Manny, and the only two people who know how to drive him are in the van on their way back from college town. Also in our driveway is the Escort station wagon (old model year) that C and S own. It's down for the count. Inoperable. Oops. I had Twitch go next door to ask the sweet little old widow woman if she would be kind enough to drive Sproing and Twitch to the hospital. Blessed lady, she agreed.

By then we were away from the city and almost on the interstate. It's amazing how long the drive is from there to here when one is in a hurry and we catch every damned red light between the college up there and the hospital in Greenwood!!!

We got to the hospital and into the treatment room where my darling sons were playing together so well! They played rock/paper/scissors in between visits from the medical people. The doctor came in to talk to me, said that Sproing is OK. The concussion is mild. He can go to school tomorrow. Tylenol for the headache is a good idea. Ice on the noggin knot for 15 mintues every few hours will help reduce the swelling. Relief :)

I got to fill out the registration information and sign those papers right before the nurse came with the discharge papers and instructions for follow up care. Sproing was pretty much finished by the time we got there. So we all went out to lunch, as none of us had eaten since mid morning and it was now 3:00 in the afternoon. (1500 hrs)

The original plan had been for Superman and me to spend a little time alone, like kinda on a date sort of thing, then stop by to visit our new friend TC (who we met on our camping trip a couple of weeks ago) on the way home. We got home from our after-hospital lunch about the time we were supposed to meet TC. I called her and explained, then turned on my computer. I've been here reading blogs ever since. And did you look at the time? I have to get to sleep!! Why do you keep me up so late?