lilviv's Xanga

The Hospital: The Sequel

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 00:43:59 GMT

Well, turns out my discharge may have been premature . . . I was discharged shortly after I wrote the last blog entry on Thursday afternoon. I felt pretty good. I stopped by my parents' place to shower & get ready (our hot water was out), and I went to the office to see what I missed out on, to make Friday a bit easier.

Friday was a normal day at work with no issues, nothing too stressful, etc. But, early Saturday morning, everything fell apart, again . . . but far worse. I woke up a bit after 5 am with extreme headaches and vomitting. I knew immediately that I'd be going back to the hospital, so I started getting ready and getting stuff together to go to the E.R. I didn't want to wake Novie up, since she's pregnant and needs some sleep.

But, some peculiar things happened this morning. I was getting confused and forgetful. I had my normal shower routine, but afterwards . . . I started washing my face with toothpaste. Instead of putting on deodorant afterwards, I put on Cologne. Instead of grabbing underwear, I grabbed hankerchiefs. But, that wasn't the scary part. The scary part was when I got to the E.R., I couldn't write my address . . . I kept writing jumbled letters. This scared me to death. I couldn't write a word I wrote all the time. Even worse, I couldn't say it when asked of me! At this point, I think I broke down in tears, since I couldn't even tell people my address. My parents and wife were really scared seeing me like this, too.

Of course, I checked into the E.R., and they were trying to control my pain . . . which was outrageous. Later on that night, we got the pain controlled. We also did another MRI, this time with contrast. I've been here at the hospital since that Saturday, getting another MRA test, giving various samples, getting an E.E.G. test, and much more. We are not quite sure what is going on this time . . . but hopefully we'll figure it out. My wife and parents have been here with me a lot of the time, and so many of my wonderful friends have visited, dropped off food, etc. And especially Z, also, for taking care of the homefront, my dog, etc. Christina even dropped off a care kit that had car magazines, some tasty foods, and more. Very thoughtful! Thanks to all of you!

Again, I hope to get out tomorrow . . . but I'm not pushing and lobbying for it. I feel pretty good right now, although I have a couple minor chest pains. I will need to slow down and maybe do very short days at work once I get back for a little while. I don't think there are any more scheduled tests . . . this visit to the hospital has certainly been very scary; brain stuff is very scary. :(

I just wanted to keep everyone updated here with what's going on, and I think the blog's a good tool for that. Talk to you guys soon!

Yeap, I'm Sick . . .

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 18:16:09 GMT

Hi Everyone!
               I am writing you from Plano Presbyterian Hospital of Plano. I’ve been here for a few days, and I thought I’d put up this post so I can give you the general story of how I wound up here. It will save me some typing time, or at least some copy/paste time. First, I just wanted to thank everyone for their phone calls, E-Mails, messages, visits, and all their support. It was very appreciated and welcome.
               So, back to how I wound up here. On Friday Night, May 29^th, I felt fine. No issues or anything. Continuing to Saturday morning & afternoon, I still felt great. Then, all hell broke loose. Starting Saturday night . . . I developed a fever, (pardon the graphic terminology), I was vomiting every 3 to 5 minutes, having cold sweats, and having tremendously strong headaches. The worst was that every gag, cough, or action preceding vomiting caused immense pain in focused spots in my head. Since the flu is going around, I figured that was what I had. I took some Advil for the fever & headaches. Needless to say, I didn’t sleep much that night. I slept through the entire day on Sunday, too weak to eat or walk around, and I woke up around 11 pm for an hour and a half. I immediately went back to sleep again, now showered and on clean sheets. I woke up early for work, and I had a very productive day at work. I thought, at this point, I was cured and must have had a 24 hour bug or something.
               That night, things got worse, and it was certainly not a 24 hour bug. The very severe headaches continued, all around the surfaces of my head in varying order. The vomiting started up, again, every few minutes like I had before. I got the Cold Sweats back. I woke Novie up and asked her to take me to the Emergency Room. So, on this Tuesday morning, we drove right past Trinity Medical Center and proceeded to Presbyterian Hospital of Plano because of their reputation. I made it pretty close before we had to pull over so I could vomit. We then went straight into the E.R. They saw me almost immediately, where I was still vomiting and having severe pains. My parents joined Novie & I not too much later. All three of them were pretty much with me off and on each day.
               They started by giving me Anti-Nausea medication, crazy pain medication, and they took me in for a C.T. Scan of my head. They were looking for aneurysms and the like, and they fortunately did not find anything. Next, they performed a Spinal Tap on me. This was lengthy and painful, and talking about it was even scary. I had to lie on my back for a few hours afterwards, have more caffeine, etc. in order to properly heal the “hole” they pricked my spine with. There were other precautions, like getting up slowly to avoid related headaches, etc. It was scary, and I think Novie watching that convinced her to have a natural birth without an epidural in the fall!
               Unfortunately, the Spinal Tap revealed that I had Meningitis. Because of some cell count or something, they were able to confirm that it wasn’t the nasty bacterial Meningitis that infests college campuses about a decade ago, but it was a viral type. Now, they were trying to find out what type of viral meningitis I had. There are only treatments for a couple of them. Meningitis is the infection of the lining of the brain; scary stuff, for me at least.
               They then transferred me from the Emergency Room to the rooms upstairs. Room #C-697 was my new home for a few days. It was very nice. It had a full private room, nice hardwood paneling, countertops, excellent meal service, fold-out sofa for visitors, wireless internet, direct phone number, and more. I slept most of the day because of the medications they gave me. Zach came by and visited, and he even snapped a picture of me in the hospital bed for his FaceBook.
               Wednesday was a very challenging day. I woke up, used the restroom, like normal. It was early, and I came back to my bed to sit down. I then felt my foot fall asleep . . . not a big deal. Then, I felt my leg also fall asleep. Then my left arm fell numb, to the point that I couldn’t control my fingers and such. I then had some numbness on my face and in my mouth. This episode lasted over 40 minutes. I was terrified, and a million thoughts were running through my head? Did something happen with the spinal tap? Is something pressing somewhere weird on my brain? They were paging my doctor. In the meantime, I was having *tremendous* headaches, and they gave me strong pain medication and some anti-nausea medicine to keep me from throwing up. The doctor ordered that I get a Brain MRI, and that showed no major concerns. So, we’re still unsure what caused this little episode. But, I proceeded through the rest of the day just fine. Ronnie spent the better part of the afternoon with us, while Blake spent the better part of this evening with us.
               Thursday is going a bit better: Milder Headaches, No Nausea, etc. Eric Scher dropped by for a couple hours to visit, and I am actively lobbying for my release from the hospital (although it makes me a bit nervous leaving a place with all the medical care). But hey, worst case . . . if things get much worse, I can always come back, right? Strangely enough, during the entire hospital stay . . . I didn't have a fever.

Anyways, back to trying to get out of here, but after I finish my Chef’s Salad, Cake, Fruit, and Tea. J Can’t wait to shower many times a day at my own house, sleep in my own bed with no I.V. to tread carefully over, etc. Thanks again to everyone for the support!

New Addiction . . . FaceBook Texas Hold 'Em

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 21:48:22 GMT

As many of you already know . . . FaceBook started allowing applications a while back, and a sleu of good ones popped up.

I must credit my friend Charles with introducing me and getting me addicted to Texas Hold 'Em on FaceBook. It's on FaceBook, and it's not real money . . . just a play game on FaceBook, but it's so addicting! They have "Sit and Go" tournaments, Weekly Tournaments, regular Points games, etc. You can play with your friends or random people around the world.

In addition to sharing my new addiction to this virtual game, I share with you the best hand I've ever had . . . the pinnacle of Texas Hold 'Em Poker, the Royal Flush.

Awesome. :) This was followed by everyone in the room cheering "vnh" and "wow, nh" and other shorthand equivalents in the FaceBook world of "Nice Hand."

I have had my ups and downs in this game . . . you get 500 chips a day, and I have been all the way up to $3.4 Million, and now I am back down to $275K. I'll certainly have to stay off the "big boy tables" for a while. While I was "up top," I even passed $50K a time to my friends just getting started in the application.

It's not only this application that has me logging in relatively often, it's this oddly addicting one called "Speed Racing" where you race against your friends, earn points, and modify/upgrade/trade-in your car. In that world, I just stepped into an Enzo Ferrari. =P But, this one has the potential of losing my interest and everyone else's relatively soon since the novelty is starting to wear off.

Anywho, hope to see some of you on FaceBook. :)

More Wildlife . . . Pests in the Garden

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 18:08:25 GMT

Well, as you guys have seen from a prior post, it appears that my place has become somewhat of a wildlife preserve.

But, now that we recently got into gardening and the yard (more on that later), we have discovered a new set of animals . . . but these are becoming increasingly unwelcome.

First, as anyone in the North Carollton area can attest to, rabbits are out of control. I guess we had a coyote problem a while back, and then the city fixed that . . . so now we have a rabbit problem. =P If you plant anything nice . . . flowers, vegetables, etc., rest assured that you are spurring on the rabbit population. The fearless rabbits don't even leave when you walk up to them. I didn't take any cute/fuzzy pictures of rabbits, because I generally am armed with Toby instead of a camera when I see rabbits.

Now, recently around the Spiral Juniper we planted, we started to see a huge hole dug right into the roots. While I have no idea what this is, we initially feared it was a snake.

I don't know what this is, but after some Googling . . . we suspect that it is how rabbits breed. Yes, another way, besides eating and destroying my garden, rabbits are getting at us. Anyone in my Xanga viewing public have any idea what is going on here?

We filled that up with soil, mulched it back up, and then it happened again on the other side of the same plant. We repeated the process, and we hope this will stop occurring, or undoubtedly the Spiral Juniper will begin to suffer.

Next, we started to notice our Tomato plant was having trouble. A closer eye revealed that what at first glance appears to be part of the plant . . . was in fact a plant predator, a giant creepy caterpillar.

This was, by no means, the largest one we found . . . but it was super thick, full of green plant juice, and stuck on that plant like crazy. The plant is doing much better now. :)

It's a jungle out there . . . ;)

The Dentist . . .

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 02:44:00 GMT

I wonder if the 10th dentist who does not recommend Sensodyne is also the 5th dentist who does not recommend Trident?

DUN Dun dun.

Must be my dentist . . . I'll ask him at my appointment tomorrow.

Narrowly Avoided $4.00 Per Gallon . . .

Fri, 30 May 2008 02:29:45 GMT

As everyone has become extremely aware, especially as of recent, gas prices are on the rise. This, of course, is a bad thing for our economy. But, when searching for a silver lining . . . it has stemmed a lot of green technology development and finally spurred a change in habits amongst Americans. More people are utilizing mass transit, carpooling, etc.

Now, even though I carpool to work everyday . . . all of my cars suck down premium fuel.

Fortunately, one of the cheapest filling stations in the metroplex is right by my house. The Kroger at Old Denton & Hebron, when coupled with coupons they hand out and preferred customer discounts, has fair gas prices (well, as fair as gas prices can be). However, on Wednesday . . . when filling up, the sticker price of premium was $4.059 per gallon. Wow! That's not much more than it was a few days earlier, but it was psychologically significant to see a pricetag over $4.00 per gallon.

But, I dodged a bullet (psychologically, anyways). My wife had spent over $100 on groceries during the month, thus earning us a $0.10 per gallon discount . . . so my price for that fillup was $3.959 per gallon. :) Without that grocery run, I would've paid the $4.00+ per gallon.

I realize this was not a super exciting story, but this is my blog . . . and it's for my random thoughts I'd like to share. :)

My House Has Become a Wildlife Preserve . . .

Tue, 20 May 2008 02:27:30 GMT

So, not sure when or how . . . but my house has become a wildlife preserve. Yesterday, on the way to work . . . my wife and I were greeted by the following:

Then, when letting my dog out back . . . I was watched closely by a potential parent, ensuring I wasn't going to bother the nest:

And, even all of this was fine . . . but the worst is all the bunny rabbits. The adult rabbits aren't even scared of us anymore. We get home and go up close to 'em, and they slowly walk away . . . and sometimes just carry on eating our flowers and grass. The baby ones still get scared and bolt. However, all the rabbits run with fear when Toby runs out into the yard. But seriously, no matter when you look . . . there are at least 3 to 5 rabbits in my yard. It's a bit crazy.

All these little critters keep Toby quite excited as he peers behind the blinds through the windows during the day . . .

Marketing Worked . . .

Fri, 16 May 2008 00:03:55 GMT

Well, I thought I'd take a moment to share another random happening on this lovely, but cloudy, Thursday.

Today was May 15th, and McDonald's was running a special . . . free Southern Chicken Sandwiches until 7 pm when you purchase a medium drink or larger. At 6:40 pm, when we randomly decided we didn't want to eat at home . . . we stormed out to beat the 7 pm deadline.

4 Diet Cokes (came with the territory) and 4 Sandwiches later (no fries or anything else), Novie and I had only spent $6.66 after taxes (the sandwiches retail for $2.75 ea., too). And, marketing worked . . . we are now aware of the Southern Style Chicken sandwich, which is remarkably like the Chik-Fil-A Chicken Sandwich (double pickles we hand pick off and all). It was a bit juicier, but not quite the same.

Oh, and a sidebar, there was a BEAUTIFUL Maserati Quattroporte in the parking lot next to me . . . man, I love those!

Anywho, random happenings . . . and that's what blogs are for. :)

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Tue, 06 May 2008 19:31:05 GMT

I don't know who put a mini-box of Lucky Charms on my desk at work this afternoon, but Wow . . . that hit the spot. :) Simple things can be so wonderful sometimes. :)

The Horror of Singapore Airlines, Flight #SQ2 . . .

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 17:17:25 GMT

Well, I am staying true to the resurgence of my blog with yet another post! <Pats Self on Back.>

The purpose of this post is to tell you about the scariest flight ever. I am not scared of flying, nor have I ever been. I've been through stormy flights, extreme turbulence, scary maintenance comments by the pilot, and more . . . but this flight had be petrified, convinced it was more likely we would crash than not.

This was for the second leg of a log international flight . . . this leg was from Singapore to Hong Kong.

Minor Blip: Our flight was on the ground for about 20 minutes after our scheduled takeoff time before the pilot came on and politely told us that they were having trouble getting Engine #1 started, and they were going to try to have an engineer come out and attempt a manual start so we could get on our way. Seeing the ground crew in Asia out there screwing with the engine was not reassuring, but I guess we got it going and took off. I slightly missed the FAA and was envious of all those grounded MD-80's back home.

The Fear:
     As we got closer to Hong Kong, we started to have extreme turbulence. And, I don't mean just "bumpy." I mean, the plane making altitude drops and going side to side aggressively type of turbulence. Other than the spilled food & drink, the suspension of food service, etc. . . . I was able to just keep watching my movie and deal.
     Then, you can't help but to notice the huge, picturesque lightning out the window . . . which illuminated the dense preciptation (which appears horizontal at air travel speeds). The turbulence got worse and people were dead silent, except for kids screaming things like "Tummy Hurts" as your stomach drops like it does on the scary part of a rollercoaster.
     My wife and I are separated by an aisle, but at a glance . . . everyone around me was gripping their seat so tight, the person next to them's hands (even people who didn't seem to know each other), and the scary part . . . ?
     The scary part was seeing people all around me praying. When everyone around you is on a flight that is shaking around so much you think you're falling out of the sky is praying . . . man, that's not a good sign, and this scared the hell out of me.
     During all this, the pilot informed us that we were circling nearby to avoid a typhoon that grounded all flights in and out of Hong Kong's airport. But, he finally told us that we had to land . . . they didn't seem to sugar coat anything for us. =P
     We begin our descent . . . and we still can't see anything but lightning, sideways rain, and people praying or trying to hold in vomit.
     All of a sudden . . . we can see the airport out the window, but here's where things got *really* scary. It was visible and obvious now that the plane was tipping left and right . . . violently. The wing would be level one moment, and then appear to almost slam the ground the next. I can only imagine what this looked like outside; surprised I didn't find this on YouTube. The pilot, trying to manage this and extreme winds . . . touches down, but perhaps with the combination of wind and rough landing angle . . . we're turning at really high speed. And then we turn the opposite way and equally high speed jerking us violently the other way . . . also causing food service trays to break off their latches and luggage to fall from the overhead bins.

But, alas . . . we were on the ground and now at stable speed. I started clapping, and a few others joined in nervously and then rapidly stopped. People still continued to pray, but I was relieved at this point.

My wife and I resisted the desire to vomit, and we then had to get on the SAME PLANE for a 12 hour leg from Hong Kong to San Francisco. This flight had literally 10 hours of turbulence (no exaggeration) . . . which caused passengers to throw up, for which the smell made others throw up. We'd smell throw up, then look at the clock and realize we had 10 more hours to go. It was horrible. And, since I can only assume there was not a 6,500+ mile long storm . . . I bet something was wrong with the plane that caused all that turbulence. We still had to hop on an AA flight from San Francisco back to Dallas, but I was happy to have the safety & support of the FAA and U.S. Airlines behind me after all that. :)

Needless to say, when I got back at 6 am on Sunday . . . we slept 'til 11 pm. So much for avoiding jetlag. =P