Thursday, February 28, 2008

Well I'm sure glad I made that appointment on Monday!!
I woke up and my face was all rashy again and my eyes were really swollen!
I had difficulty breathing and my heart had a few palpitations. I saw the nurse at the diabetes specialist and she told me to quit taking metformin immediately! She gave me a prescription for gliburide and I am to go back to see them in June. So I have a few months to see if I can keep off insulin, but at this point I will do whatever they tell me to do.
I went to pick my brother up at his chemo appointment and when I walked in there I was panting, and the nurse looked at me and asked me if I am like that all the time and I told her no, that I was having a reaction to metformin. She said I was going into anaphylaxis!! I live two blocks from the hospital so I wasn't worried about going home, but I think I better listen more closely to my body for now on.
puffy face,
itchy rashy face, (hives)
constricting throat,
difficulty breathing,
fast heart rate,
palpitations,
Sounds like a severe allergic reaction to me, YA THINK??!! And I teach first aid and was an EMT on an ambulance. DOH! I should've known.

I was out from work for two days and was busy today and tomorrow, but next week I will get back to the Fitness Center! I really liked the feeling after I did an hours workout!

I won't be able to go to my AA meeting tomorrow because my Church is having a "Seder Feast". A Jewish man is coming to give us a teaching on what the Jewish celebrate during the Passover. (I know it isn't Passover yet but this is a teaching). I am bringing the salad. I was going to bring a Greek Salad but it has Feta cheese, and I was told NO DAIRY. Well there goes that idea. Maybe a salad with walnuts and apples in it.

Hope everyone has a great weekend! Spring is sneaking in on us s-l-o-w-l-y.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

OW

Well I went to the Fitness Center 4 times this week!!
I am gradually working up to a good routine. I was sick on Wednesday, so I stayed home that day. I went to the doctor and he is sending me to a Diabetic specialist in Bellingham. It seems I have an allergic reaction to Metformin. It began last January a month after I started it. I tried to blame it on the fire I had and the Chlorine in the pool but it is also the medicine. I might have to go back on insulin. I'll find out Monday when I go to the specialist.
Meanwhile, I am really trying to keep the right foods going into this body and EXERCISE!!
It's never too late.
I put myself in God's hands and trust in Him. What will be, will be. He gave me a three year reprieve from insulin, and for that I am grateful.
On to the next phase in my wild & whacky life. It is quite the adventure.

Last night the subject at AA was FEAR.
I shared what I went through for years.
I used to be paralyzed with fear of death. I was afraid of thunder storms, driving, (yes, at one time around 1984 I was petrified of driving a car on the highway)!! I used to come home at night and check all the closets, and under the bed for monsters, then re-check in case someone snuck in behind me. I would lay in bed at night crying and afraid to fall asleep in case I died in the night.
After I was working on my step three "Gave my will and my life over to the care of God as I understood him" Well that little step actually got me thinking of God and what life really is about. When I finally got on my knees and really prayed to God and really gave my life to Him, I finally felt Him inside. I feel loved and protected. I don't feel alone anymore.
I can live my life now.
Since I gave my life to God and the fear left me, I was hired on as an EMT and actually drove an ambulance on the FREEWAY with lights and sirens in rush hour to Seattle Harborview Hospital, I drove a Fire Engine, and then a 40' bus! I now train people to drive 40' buses. I have gone camping alone in the mountains, sleeping in a tent in a lonely campground.
Thank you Alcoholics Anonymous for giving me back my life and bringing me back to God!!
Oh, and by the way, ignore that idiot from my last post. I have no idea who or what it is.

P.S. Go check this out.
I like to read simple little murder mysteries, and Jonne Fluke an author, has an orange cat that is in all her books. She has a site with pictures of kitties. My character Elliott made the list. Go check it out and scroll down. He is about the tenth one down.
http://www.murdershebaked.com/moishe.htm
Have a marvelous week!!

Monday, February 18, 2008

Yep, I did it!!


I joined a fitness center!! Thrive Fitness Center just opened this month and I have a few friends that have joined. I loved the swimming classes, but have a big sensitivity to the chlorine in it so had to quit that. I used to walk three miles after work, but have fallen too many times and caused painful permanent injuries, so I had to quit that too. I LOVE getting the high from exercise, so here I am, trying again!!
I was in Oak Harbor today at quitting time so I stopped at the fitness center to try out the machines for the first time. I put 3 minutes on the elliptical machine, (OUCH) it tightened up my calves into almost a charlie horse, so I went over to the bicycle and put on 5 minutes there. I could feel my legs getting wobbly so I went over to the treadmill and put on 5 minutes there. I don't want to hurt myself the first day, I want to work up to a good work out. I thought that was enough so I was wobbling out the door when my friend Merrily walked in and got all excited to see me! She took me upstairs (I had to pull myself up each step) and she showed me the weight machines. I did 10 cycles on each machine, then noticed I had been there over an hour!! I had to leave to get back to work.
I felt so much better after the workout!! I didn't overdo it, but I did work up a sweat and my legs got wobbly. Tomorrow I will do it again!!
That picture of me gave me the incentive to try and get some of this blubber off this body!!
Whew!! Now to get in my Jetta tub and relax!!

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Annual birthday Dinner



My two best friends and I treated ourselves to a birthday dinner Friday night. We have been friends for over 20 years, and get together at least once a year. we all live close (within 2 miles) of each other but we are so busy that we just can't find the right times to get together. I gave up my night af AA for this. The waitress heard it was a birthday celebration so brought us some to die for desserts! The Tiramisu had a great taste, and we realized it had booze soaked in it. Don't worry folks, I will NOT change my AA anniversary date because of that! It's not like I DRANK it for goodness sakes!! Ok, well maybe I did pick up the plate and licked it clean, but I did NOT get drunk on it! Well ok, we did act like teenagers while eating it and giggled our heads off then peed our pants a bit then giggled even louder and more hysterical because we are now OLD and pee our pants every time we get the hysterical giggles!! I told them they make Poise "pull-ups" and maybe we should consider getting some next time we get together!! NOT!!
It is fun having friends to share great times with. Alana is a Paramedic and works odd hours, and Debbie is a housewife that stays busier than any of us! She does alot with the Church and goes to alot of different meetings, then there's me.

I took over some Gatorade to my brother. He is sick again. It seems to hit him a week after his chemo treatment. Gatorade replenishes the electrolytes you lose when you get dehydrated from throwing up. Bananas are good for the stomach and has potassium, so I told Sherry to make sure he eats a banana once in awhile. Bless his heart.

We finally had a sunny day today and what did I do? SLEPT!! I came home from Church and laid down to read and woke up two hours later. It's a good thing I did, because Elliott came in from outside and jumped up on my pillow and proceeded to throw up all over my pillow and bottom sheet. (He always seems to run to me when he is getting sick, and cries, too like a little kid)! So I am now washing the sheets again!
Cats like to eat grass to loosen up the innards and get rid of hairballs in their tummies. They usually pick the weirdest places to do it too. Like your pillow, a pair of shoes, even my purse once. (or was it Mary Lou's)? Ahh, but we love our cats!!
Well time to get ready for another week of work.
Hi Ho!!!

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Been busy

Well there really isn't any big excuse for not blogging, but I have been rather busy lately. I have been training 5 new Operators and in a few more weeks will train more. This seems to be a full time job lately plus my other duties. We are growing faster than we can keep up with! I love it though. No complaints here.

My brother seems to be holding his own. Nothing new to report.

The weather has been WET!! Cold and WET!! Brrr, WINDY and WET!! Typical fer here.

That's it, folks. Nothing exciting to report. I did have to change out my hot water heater elemant AGAIN!! Twice in a year. Sheesh, the water around here eats up elements!
I went to the caucus yesterday. We found out by watching the news that we need to go to the caucus in order for our vote to count. WHAT??? They mailed out absentee ballots to everyone in the State then they tell us the vote doesn't count? The Democrat party decided to go by way of caucus only, and the Republicans are taking a percentage of both the causcus and votes. That doesn't sound legal to me, but what the heck, I'm just a dumb ole country folk who's opinion doesn't matter!! Crap, I feel like we are losing our voting privileges!! Why vote?
Anyone else frustrated out there?

Monday, February 04, 2008

Happy Birthday to Me!!

Thanks for the Birthday Greetings everyone!!
I had a busy day at work. About 9:00 my sister called me and told me Mike was sick again and she was going to go "brother sit" him. I called her back about an hour later and asked her how many times he was sick. She said he got sick about every hour since 1:00am. I told her he needed to get some electrolytes in him and some Pottasium. She took him into the ER and spent most of the day there and he got home about 2:30. Dangit, I hate this! I wish they could send some I.V. solution home and I can go hang it for him when he gets that sick instead of wearing him out taking him to the hospital! I'll check into that.

I got off work at 4:30 and had to go to a meeting tonight for a new group. I call them the "granolas". You know the type...half the cars had bumper stickers "Liberal and proud of it", I think I was the only gal there that had make-up on. They were probably all thinking "She is wearing lipstick and they kill whales to make lipstick"! I also had groceries in my car in plastic bags and the subject tonight was making plastic bags illegal in Washington State! Well okay, then lets kill all them trees for paper bags!! No, they want all of us to carry our own canvas bags.
They also passed around a paper about making it illegal to sell water in plastic 8 ounce bottles. Oh fer craps sakes you guys, so let's all drink beer in aluminum cans and toss them out our car windows!! I came home after the meeting and flushed my toilet about 10 times just to make up for all the water they saved today!!
I worked with a Paramedic that is a vegetarian and he conserved everything! He would not flush the toilet! "If it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down". So everytime I saw the yellow toilet water I'd flush it three times and really piss him off!! We called him the "Veg-o-medic".

Okay, I vented. I really didn't want to go to that meeting tonight but I did. They are people that are really concerned about the world and I respect that. I'm concerned too. In fact we all should be concerned....BUT NOT ON MY BIRTHDAY!!!!
Hehehe I feel better now. If this post disappears then you'll know it got read by the wrong person and I needed to get rid of the evidence!