Friday morning thoughts

18 September 2009, 1:09 pm by Giggles
Categories: Education, Quilting/Sewing/Knitting/Crafting, Random

It’s so much easier to grade things when people get good grades. And it’s real depressing when they don’t.

Unsolicited wedding advice and unsolicited offers to help with something specific stress me out. One reason is that the thing people offer help on is often not something I am currently thinking about. It’s either on my list for later or it’s not on the list at all. And when they bring it up it gets thrown into the fray of what I am already trying to juggle. Let me put down a few of the balls I already have going and then I’ll see about that ball you want to throw at me. The best help someone can offer is to say if I need anything to let them know. And then when I think of something or need something, I’ll let them know.

:pansy: Someone suggested, upon finding out that I’m making all the flowers for our wedding, that we get the women in the ward together one evening and they can all sew them for me because I’m obviously overwhelmed with the task (especially since I’m sewing two dresses and a few other things). Except I’m not overwhelmed. What would be overwhelming would be trying to teach everyone else how to do it, supervising them while they did it, and then fixing all the ones they did wrong after.

:turtle: I was explaining that to Brett and he said that he figures (and rightly so) that I enjoy doing all of this stuff. And that’s why he has just stayed out of my way with it and has let me do my thing. See. He gets me. He understands. And that’s just one of the reasons I’m marrying him.42D

2 Shared thoughts

Overdoing it

17 September 2009, 11:11 am by Giggles
Categories: Health

Yes. I know I’ve been over doing it the last couple of days considering my Sunday (Tuesday and Wednesday in particular I did a bit too much, Monday I actually managed to take it easy). And I pay for it by the evening. I’m not particularly doing it on purpose. I just can’t wrap my head around why I should still be hurting. What could I have possibly done inside of me that would leave me hurting and tender still? It makes no sense. That particular stone is gone. So why am I still tender?

It does make me feel better that the medical manual actually says the pain of renal colic is “excruciating” (at least the doctors know to expect it to be bad). But having someone tell me that “at least it’s not the flu or something” really made my eyes cross. Do they even know what they are talking about?!?

3 Shared thoughts

Learned Behavior

16 September 2009, 2:24 pm by Giggles
Categories: Education, Musings

So my classes have forever changed me. I know have to analyze where and how we learn all kinds of things. Here are three recent examples.

I was watching an online conversation between moms about how they handle it when their kids have to get a shot. They were talking about shaking, crying, hiding in the corner, getting someone else to hold their kid. And these aren’t the people getting shots! Yes shots hurt. And yes a mom does not like seeing their child get hurt. But a child learns a lot about how to respond to a situation in large part by watching those around them. So these kids who are watching their mom cry in the corner while they get a shot are learning that shots are something to be feared with a great deal of dread. I wonder if there is something to that idea or if I’m just making things up. Of course after telling Brett about this he had to mention it to the paramedic starting my IV in the ER on Sunday and about how I used to scream murder at the idea of getting a shot. But he did hold my hand when she stuck me.

A side comment during class last week made me think about some behaviors I learned about as a child. They have done studies where they can show that part of what you find attractive as an adult has to do with the types of dolls you played with as a child. I played with my Cabbage Patch Kid a whole lot more than I ever played with a Barbie. And now that I’m grown, the super skinny model types just really aren’t attractive. I like real people with real shapes.

Another thought from class. Your best friend (“chum” in the research) likes you because of you. That relationship is affiliation motivated. Your acquaintances like you because of what you can do for them. Those relationships are achievement motivated. Thinking about it that way really made me think about my relationships with different people when I was in high school. But it continues now. There are those on Facebook who seem to be simply trying to collect as many “friends” as possible. They aren’t motivated by a need to affiliate with people. They are simply trying to achieve “friends” so they can appear more successful than others. “Friends” in that situation are a status symbol, they have no value for who they are, simply for what they represent. The coming generation has completely changed the definition of “friend” from someone you like, get along with, hang out with, confide in, etc., to simply someone whose name you clicked “add friend” next to. Kind of cheapens the word, don’t you think? I think I’ll bring back the word “chum”. My friends have value!

Wonder what tangents my thoughts will take in class tomorrow.

3 Shared thoughts

Brett is the best

13 September 2009, 5:55 pm by Giggles
Categories: Health

Or, how I spent my Sunday morning on morphine. (There will be talk of bodily functions, just a forewarning.)

At 6:00am this morning my body woke me up with what felt like the absolute worst back spasm I have ever had. I tried to put pressure on what I thought was the offending muscle, and that either didn’t help or it made it worse. I was so far on the pain scale by then that I couldn’t tell. I tried heat, and that didn’t work. I got up to get some water and pain medicine and got nauseous when I got up and had to pause and throw up while I was in the bathroom. :sick: I got my phone and hobbled, moaning, back in to bed and called Brett.42D

I woke him up, but oh I was glad that his phone was on. Through the pain I told him I was in pain. He asked what he could do and I asked him if he could come be with me. He said he’d be right there. I told him to bring his key because I didn’t want to have to get up to let him in. And then I found some pants and a shirt near me and figured out how to get them on while moaning in pain. About 6:40 the pain started to subside a bit and I was able to rest a bit. I also grabbed my netbook which was nearby and checked out WebMD and the Merck Manual to see what they said about what I was feeling.

Brett arrived at 7:00 and the pain was starting to go back up again. He came in, looked at me, and suggested maybe I should go to the hospital. I told him I’d thought that but I thought I still had my old insurance card in my wallet and wasn’t sure exactly where the new one was. I also told him I’d probably get nauseous with the movement. He grabbed my cleaning bucket from under the sink and I found my wallet. Holding on dearly to his arm we got to his car.

I did get nauseous on the way, but we had the bucket. He mentioned I looked like I was in labor as I tried to breathe through the pain. We got to the hospital and found the emergency room by about 7:30. Bent over and leaning on the counter to hold me up, I filled out the intake form while Brett washed out the bucket. They told us to wait. When they took me back to triage me they got me a wheel chair. One of the nurses asked me if I’d ever had kidney stones. I told her no, but that was what the internet said I might have.

While we waited to be taken to a room I threw up again, but the pain started to go down quite a bit. I wasn’t better, but I was able to be a bit more comfortable. I told Brett I was glad he’d already decided to marry me because I must look great then. He said I looked a bit like I was dying. ;-(

They took me back to a room by about 8:00. The doctor came in and said it seemed like it could be gall stones, kidney stones, or my appendix could’ve twisted a bit and I could have appendicitis. They said they wanted blood and urine samples to run tests on. I hobbled down to the bathroom and when I looked at what I got in the cup, I saw a speck of something and thought, “that’s not supposed to be there.” 😮

I hobbled back to my bed and they hooked me up to a heart rate monitor finger thingy, a blood pressure cuff, and got an IV going. Brett held my hand when they stuck my arm. And they gave me some morphine for the pain. The nurse told me it could give me a head rush or a headache. It actually gave me a leg rush, and that was weird. But the pain was getting much better. It felt more like I was sore after working out rather than like I was going to die. And comparably, that was much better. I was at a 4 instead of a 9.5.

Brett worked on his Elder’s Quorum lesson and we talked about it while we waited. The blood work showed no infection, but the urine tests showed a lot of blood there, so they figured it was kidney stones. They did a CT scan to find out.

And yup. I have kidney stones. Quite a few of them. In both kidneys. They said they couldn’t see the one that was causing me pain that morning (that’s because they were looking on the CT scan and needed to be looking in the cup), but I’d probably be passing the other ones eventually. None of them were big enough they’d need to break them up though. They gave me a prescription for pain medicine and sent me home. We left the hospital about 12:30 or so. The whole trip took about 5 hours, and that’s really not that bad.

How I spent my afternoon on percocet is a lot less interesting. It involves me sleeping on the couch and not a whole lot else. We’ll see what my kidneys decide to do next.

And one day when Brett is driving me to the hospital because I actually am in labor, we’ll have to see how the two compare.

13 Shared thoughts

At any given and every single moment

11 September 2009, 5:46 am by Giggles
Categories: Musings

At any given moment I am doing any number of things. In that moment I could be sleeping. I could be riding a bus. I could be studying for class. I could be in class. I could be sewing something. I could be looking something up on the internet. I could be reading a book. I could be running. I could be eating. I could be relaxing.

At any given moment.

Most of those moments aren’t big enough to notice. But at any given moment something could happen that could completely change the direction of everything, for good or for bad. Those are the moments we remember. Those are the moments we mark time by.

And when those moments come, the good and especially the bad, I take comfort in knowing that at every single moment, I am loved. At every single moment I am a daughter, a granddaughter, a sister, a friend. And most importantly, at every single moment, I am a daughter of an all knowing and all loving God. At any given moment and in every single moment, He is watching, His hand is stretched out to catch and to comfort, and He is there, in all of the moments.

And so I can, in all of my moments, be they large or small, choose how to live, and choose to have faith.

Please be happy. Please live your life. That’s an order.
– Brian Sweeney, to his wife on their answering machine before perishing on United Airlines Flight 175, the second hijacked plane to strike the World Trade Center, plowing into the south tower.

2 Shared thoughts

Because this is a good chunk of what I think about

9 September 2009, 11:21 am by Giggles
Categories: Relationships

Because Brett and I are getting married soon, weddings are a pretty good chunk of what I think about lately. Of course there are also chunks dedicated to school, work, and my calling at church. But there’s definitely a chunk that is focused on weddings.

I wanted to share with you some of the blogs I have seen elsewhere that say what I’d say if I could, or that I agree with, or that I’m glad I don’t have to worry about (the stories some of these people tell!). Here’s a nice sampling.

For me, the rest of the thousands of wedding blogs and sites out there only serve to make me either stressed or are trying to get us to spend ten times as much money, so I don’t look at them.

I’m trying not to be too mushy-mushy here on Miss Giggles. But it is a chunk of my thoughts, so it’s bound to spill over every now and then.

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Morning Thoughts

8 September 2009, 10:02 am by Giggles
Categories: Politics, Venting

Isn’t it interesting how the country thought Obama could walk on water one year ago, but now won’t let their children listen to him? Such an interesting turn of events.

It’s a good thing I’m not the violent type, because the complete and utter lack of following quiet hours by the management here is enough to drive me bonkers. Leaf blowers should NOT be outside my bedroom window that early in the morning.

And while I’m having an “interesting” morning can we throw in people who say they responded to an email but I never got their response and they don’t have a record of what they said in their response either, and they make the information they are handing out impossible to find on their website and the only way I would’ve known about it is in the email they “sent” but I never received? Because that just really takes the cake this morning. It shouldn’t surprise me though. I’ve yet to have a dealing with the graduate college that was handled in a timely and competent manner.

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