Medicine is Icky

I'm still not completely better from my pneumonia several weeks ago and with lackluster test results from my blood work my doctor decided to put me on medication again (I apparently have a secondary infection).

Now, anyone who knows me knows that I cannot swallow pills. I'm physically incapable of it. My doctor is also aware of this and normally prescribes me a liquid based regimen. In the late 90's it was realized by drug manufacturers that the inability to swallow pills is actually pretty common. Thus everything began being created in two forms, pill and liquid. Whereas before liquid medications were only available in children's dosages. Very rarely do I wind up having to chew or crush pills these days.

This last week though I saw my doctor's associate, because my actual doctor was out of town. When she called in my prescription I ended up with pills. I've crushed and chewed pills before so I figured I'd just do the same again. Boy was I mistaken.

These pills are so disgusting I can't even think of another gross enough item to compare them to. I have never tasted anything this bad before, and I have chewed pills of all varieties! Up until this the worst tasting pill award belonged to Midol (which tastes suspiciously like acetone). This is at least 20x worse than that.

They are like little round spheres of icky death.

On top of that the side effects make me feel worse than I actually feel just being sick. Sick I'm fatigued and have some muscle aches and pains. When I take this medicine I have a headache, I am dizzy, my stomach hurts, I'm exhausted... What the hell, right? I'm usually pretty tolerant but this is pushing it.

Last night after I had taken the medication and it made me feel so bad that a friend took me -- at 1am -- to get a milk shake because it was the only thing anyone could think of that could possibly improve the situation.

I'll be talking to my doctor this afternoon and we're going to see if she can perscribe me something in a liquid. I mean, if I have to pony up and continue with these pills, I will, but I'd rather not have to. Either way, I'll just be happy when I'm not sick anymore!

Drive Safely

I see so many accidents here (in our shop) it's ridiculous. Driving is not that difficult. One peddle speeds you up, one peddle slows you down, and the giant wheel right in front of you steers the vehicle. It's not rocket science or brain surgery, guys. It's not the roads fault either. It's flat, the lines are well marked, there are working lights and turn lanes...

So why do you people keep trying to kill eachother?

Every day I see at least one accident or one near-accident, sometimes more than one a day. Is it too much to ask that you get off your cell phones and pay attention to what you're doing? Two of the more major accidents I've seen here were so easily avoidable it makes me wonder how in the hell they happened in the first place.

The first was some guy in a van trying to turn out of Big Boys. Without even looking he backs out of his parking spot and pulls right out of the driveway into oncoming traffic. Some poor older man in a small car plowed right into him, though it's not his fault -- he had the right of way. The guy in the van pulled out right into the guy in the car. There was less than 5 feet between them and traffic on this road travels at about 45-50 mph. There was no way that the guy in the van could accelerate fast enough to beat the speed of the car (or any other car on the road).

Impatient jackass. As if he couldn't have simply waited another 3 minutes for the light to turn red so that he could pull out safely. Now his van is half smashed and the innocent guy in the small car couldn't even get his vehicle to start up again. Thank whatever power that you believe in that no one was seriously injured.

The second accident was even worse than the first and twice as absurd.

There were two cars in the turn lane waiting for the light so that they could make their turns and a third guy slowed down to pull into the turn lane behind them -- the semi truck behind him however decided yielding to traffic was for sissies and smashed into him at 50 mph forcing the smaller car sideways into both of the other cars in the turn lane. Metal and glass went everywhere!

The guy who had been trying to merge lanes? His vehicle was smashed, what had been a small ford truck was now about the size of a pinto, having been smashed from behind, the side, and the front. The two cars in the turn lane, innocent by standers? Also smashed. The semi responsible? Not even a dent.

I had to call 911 due to the severity of the accident. 30 minutes later the rescue teams still could not get the merging guy safely out of his truck-pinto. Luckily everyone else walked away with minor injuries and only the guy in the totally demolished truck wound up in the ambulance. But why did the semi not break in the first place? What could that guy have possibly been doing that was more important than controlling his vehicle?

I should have gone out there and kicked him in the junk for being such an inconsiderate careless douchebag.

Every time I hear someone lay on their horn or breaks screech I think I'm about to witness yet another act of senseless negligence. I'm afraid one of these days we're going to be watching people sealed up in body bags. If you want to kill yourself do it at home, don't endanger others with your stupidity. The disregard is disgusting. Please, please drive safely.

New Addition to The Family

Hello, tiny Neelix.

As many of you know we have been looking since April for a new kitten. We've searched online ads, newspaper ads, the APL, local pet shops everyday and nothing. Strange right? I know.

What few ads we answered either never returned our calls, were trying to pass off 3+ year old cats as kittens, or had given/sold any kittens they may have at one point in time had.

We had just about given up looking and decided to just wait until next year. Then my friend Kristen forwarded me a link to an ad on Myspace for free kittens. I didn't even know Myspace had a classifieds section.

We went to visit them and fell in love with a small orange and white spotted one, whose mannerisms and personality I thought would get along well with Spock's. We brought him home and the two of them are getting along wonderfully. When we left for work this morning they were playing together in the living room.

Spock now has someone to keep her company while we're at work.

Happy 4th of July!

First mix the mango and the rum, then add a strawberry.

The strawberry sinks into the mango-rum slush.

The strawberry turns upside-down and shows you its heart.

Pneumonia Blues

I've been pretty sick for about 3 weeks now. It started with body aches and a fever at first then more flu-like symptoms followed, those passed and I was left with the fever and a cough. It's a weird cough, where every time I inhale it feels like my lungs are filled with cold air and constrict forcing all the air back out in 1 quick cough. I've been to the emergency room twice and to my physician twice. Apparently I've had Pneumonia all this time.

So I'm on bed rest and medication. Hopefully I'll start feeling a little better now, I'm so tired of being sick. Ugh.

Edit: Posted right at 6 PM, I win!

Hello, It's Good To Hear You

Answer to all life's problems. Or at least half of them, anyway.

So I got my hearing aid this afternoon. After an extensive session with my audiologist, including a hearing and perception test with and without the device in, I can now hear and understand all of you better!

It's not 100% better, as if I had never been deaf at all, but it is a whole lot better.

For the first time in several months I can clearly hear someone speaking at me without having to aimlessly guess what they're talking about. I can hear (to some degree) keys jingling, birds singing, music playing, all things I have not heard at all in a very, very long time. It's wonderful. It's essentially like hearing through a microphone. If I cup the device in my hands, it whistles and chirps.

Tonight I will watch Heroes for the very first time while able to fully understand what's going on at any given moment.

Soon...

I'll be able to hear again!

My insurance approved my hearing aid! Though they only approved 1 hearing aid, it should still help me considerably. I went last week and had an ear mold caste and sent out to the manufacturers. It was an interesting experience.

The first thing that is done is the audiologist inserts a small piece of foam attached to several small strings deep into the ear to prevent any possible inner ear damage. I had expected the material they insert into your ear to be icky like the slime you got out of a quarter machine as a kid but it was actually a lot more like silly puddy. It's warmed up so that it's more pliable and then put into a needle-less syringe type contraption and squirted slowly into your ear. It expands a little bit once it's inside and feels kind of like it does when you dive really deep into water and the pressure builds up in your ears.

You have to keep your jaw open while the mold sets so that the inner ear is really opened up. This apparently will make the hearing aid more comfortable to wear while eating or speaking.

When the mold had set she gently tugged on the strings attached to the foam underneath the mold and the whole thing slid out cleanly.

My audiologist said I have very unique and "artistic" curves to my inner ear which may be difficult for the people at Phonak to recreate, but that it should be possible for them to make me one of the more discreet pieces that rests inside the ear and not the more obtuse looking one which is actually composed of two separate pieces one of which goes in the ear and the other connected to it which rests behind the ear.

I was approved for this a couple of weeks before I had the procedure done but a change in my medical insurance made me have to resubmit for all on-going medical issues. Lucky for me the second application was processed much faster than the first.

All in all I'm pretty excited, I just got a call from the audiology department at the hospital and my hearing aid is ready! I need to go down there on Thursday to be taught how to properly use and care for it.

Hear ya Thursday!

Update: Got a call at like 8am Thursday morning from the hospital informing me that there had been a family emergency and my Audiologist wouldn't be in but they could fit me in on Monday. So looks like I'll be hearing you all Monday!