T. G. I. Freaking F.
Damn, this week has not been fun.
Rather than go into another work rant, which I'm sure everyone's tired of seeing from me, I'll just say work continues to be crazy. It's getting a little better, but it still seems that anytime I start to think I see a light at the end of the tunnel, another train comes through and tries to mow me down.
That was a pretty lame metaphor right there. Oh well. You get the picture.
Anyway, the non-work portion of my week: Last weekend, the new carpeting we ordered a month ago (late Christmas present between my parents) was finally installed. It's all thick and squishy and I love walking on it. The color took some getting used to: after 18 years of pink, it was weird to see green on the floor. But it grew on me, and I think it looks pretty good now. Plus, it squishes under your toes. I wish we'd been able to extend it into my bedroom, but moving all my furniture (and draining/disassembling the waterbed) would have been too much trouble. So my carpet's still pink. :P
In less shallow/happy news, my grandmother's back in the hospital. I don't remember if I mentioned it the last time, so here's a quick history of what happened. Three weeks ago, she was at the doctor for a cortizone shot, and her blood pressure was all over the place, so the doctor told my aunt to take her to the ER and let them look at her and get it back under control. At that time, my uncle was already in the hospital recovering from knee surgery, so rather than take Grandma to her usual hospital, where her cardiologist works, my aunt took her to the hospital by her condo, where my uncle was. Which, apparently, sucks. But I'll get to that shortly. Anyway, she had some chest pains on the way there, but they got things back under control, changed one of her prescriptions, then sent her back home after a couple of nights saying she was okay. This was all right before her 90th birthday. A week after that, she had a cruise booked with a bunch of her friends, and even though we were all a little wary of her going so soon after being hospitalized, her doctor told her she was all right to go, as long as she took it easy. She was never planning to get off the ship anyway, so she went. We figured it was probably for the best, because with the way she frets over everything, she would have just stressed herself out all week, worrying about how she wasn't there, if she hadn't gone. So with that in mind, taking the cruise was probably her best choice.
She got back on Sunday, was tired, but otherwise said she'd enjoyed herself and was feeling fine. The thing about my grandmother though, is she lies. She doesn't want to be a bother to anyone, so she keeps it to herself when she's not feeling well. It turns out she really wasn't feeling very well at all. Her lower legs were really swollen (from poor circulation), and her pulse rate had dropped way below the 70 her doctor likes her to be at. As low as 40. She had no appetite, couldn't even put on her shoes because of the swollen legs, and was really weak. So after bringing her back home, my aunt called an ambulance to take her to the hospital. This time, to her regular one. At one point while she was in the ER, her pulse went all the way down to 20!
Long story short (if that's possible anymore), she actually had a small heart attack 3 weeks ago, when she was having those chest pains on the way to the other hospital. But the doctors there didn't bother to test her for that, despite being told about the pains. They just stabilized her blood pressure and upped one of her medications (nearly doubled the dosage, I think). As it turns out, changing that prescription at her age, and in her condition (she has a leaky valve in her heart and about 75% blockage in her arteries, so blood pressure and pulse are always a big issue for her), was BAD. They think everything that happened was due to that drug change. And because of the cruise, she didn't get looked at sooner. I don't know what this means in the long term yet. Mom is down there now, for the next couple of days, and hopefully she can get a better idea of what's going on. My aunt isn't the most reliable when it comes to the facts. She's a bit of a hypocondriac herself, so she tends to blow anything medical out of proportion, and she's been freaking out all week because my uncle isn't doing well, either, and between him and my grandma, she's been overly stressed out. Last thing I heard, they were going to have to decide between surgery to put stents in her arteries and unblock them (dangerous at her age), a pacemaker (simpler surgery, but with her blockage, probably won't do that much good other than regulating her pulse), or putting her on Coumadin, a serious blood thinner which is literally rat poison. Seriosly. I'ts rat poison. I Googled it to make sure it wasn't just a nasty nickname people threw around. Apparently when you're on it, there's a huge danger to bleeding to death, even from the smallest cut or bump. So really, none of those are good options for her. I don't know what they're going to do. Hopefully now that the tests came back and show that her organs are all fine (i guess something about the enzyme levels had them worried about pancreatic cancer and liver function for a little while there), they can adjust her meds back to where they should have been, and maybe that will be enough. She's going to have to go to rehab for a little while to get steady on her feet again before they'll release her, due to the Coumadin (she's been put on it for now), so I guess it's just a waiting game at the moment.
It's hard, because she's my last remaining grandparent, but she's also 90, so we have to expect this kind of thing is going to happen eventually. I'm kind of already preparing myself, just in case.
Well, enough of the doom and gloom. All in all, I'm glad the week is over, and hope next week is better. If I can finish the last project I have for work, and make the last few website changes, I might (*knock on wood*) be done with all this extra graphics work! For now, at least. Today, though, I'm going to go finish my last logo design assignment and get that class done with. Then I'll only have one left to do, which means 6 more assignments plus a portfolio review to finish by April. *sigh* That deadline is starting to stress me out. I hate to request an extension, but I may have to. Maybe I'll get lucky and the layout design assignments (that's my last class) won't be as tough as the logo ones were.
I might do my taxes this weekend, too. I still haven't gotten an interest statement from Bank of America (they're always late with those), but that account is so small, I don't think it will make much difference whether I include it or not. I probably made a whopping $5 interest on it all year. Whoop-de-do.
Dad's at the driving range right now (our weather is finally warming up - there was frost on the ground this morning, that's how cold it's been getting here!), so I've got the house to myself right now. Kind of seems a shame to just sit here on the computer and work, but I suppose that's the mature thing to do. :P It sucks being a grown up sometimes.
Oh! Here are a few pictures from that Celine Dion concert, if anyone's interested. ;)
This was before she took the stage, just to show how far up we really were. I wasn't kidding when I said nosebleed seats! It was a pretty full stadium, too. But her stage was in the center, so that helped.
Zoomed in on the big screen (that light hung down right in the middle of it - drove me crazy). Say what you will about her, but the woman has some pretty great legs.
Close-up of her on the screen. This is one of the only shots where she isn't either a) blurry, b) making a weird face mid-lyric or c) got that damn light or whatever it was right in the middle of her face.
It was a good show. Not having to pay for the tickets made it even better. ;)
Rather than go into another work rant, which I'm sure everyone's tired of seeing from me, I'll just say work continues to be crazy. It's getting a little better, but it still seems that anytime I start to think I see a light at the end of the tunnel, another train comes through and tries to mow me down.
That was a pretty lame metaphor right there. Oh well. You get the picture.
Anyway, the non-work portion of my week: Last weekend, the new carpeting we ordered a month ago (late Christmas present between my parents) was finally installed. It's all thick and squishy and I love walking on it. The color took some getting used to: after 18 years of pink, it was weird to see green on the floor. But it grew on me, and I think it looks pretty good now. Plus, it squishes under your toes. I wish we'd been able to extend it into my bedroom, but moving all my furniture (and draining/disassembling the waterbed) would have been too much trouble. So my carpet's still pink. :P
In less shallow/happy news, my grandmother's back in the hospital. I don't remember if I mentioned it the last time, so here's a quick history of what happened. Three weeks ago, she was at the doctor for a cortizone shot, and her blood pressure was all over the place, so the doctor told my aunt to take her to the ER and let them look at her and get it back under control. At that time, my uncle was already in the hospital recovering from knee surgery, so rather than take Grandma to her usual hospital, where her cardiologist works, my aunt took her to the hospital by her condo, where my uncle was. Which, apparently, sucks. But I'll get to that shortly. Anyway, she had some chest pains on the way there, but they got things back under control, changed one of her prescriptions, then sent her back home after a couple of nights saying she was okay. This was all right before her 90th birthday. A week after that, she had a cruise booked with a bunch of her friends, and even though we were all a little wary of her going so soon after being hospitalized, her doctor told her she was all right to go, as long as she took it easy. She was never planning to get off the ship anyway, so she went. We figured it was probably for the best, because with the way she frets over everything, she would have just stressed herself out all week, worrying about how she wasn't there, if she hadn't gone. So with that in mind, taking the cruise was probably her best choice.
She got back on Sunday, was tired, but otherwise said she'd enjoyed herself and was feeling fine. The thing about my grandmother though, is she lies. She doesn't want to be a bother to anyone, so she keeps it to herself when she's not feeling well. It turns out she really wasn't feeling very well at all. Her lower legs were really swollen (from poor circulation), and her pulse rate had dropped way below the 70 her doctor likes her to be at. As low as 40. She had no appetite, couldn't even put on her shoes because of the swollen legs, and was really weak. So after bringing her back home, my aunt called an ambulance to take her to the hospital. This time, to her regular one. At one point while she was in the ER, her pulse went all the way down to 20!
Long story short (if that's possible anymore), she actually had a small heart attack 3 weeks ago, when she was having those chest pains on the way to the other hospital. But the doctors there didn't bother to test her for that, despite being told about the pains. They just stabilized her blood pressure and upped one of her medications (nearly doubled the dosage, I think). As it turns out, changing that prescription at her age, and in her condition (she has a leaky valve in her heart and about 75% blockage in her arteries, so blood pressure and pulse are always a big issue for her), was BAD. They think everything that happened was due to that drug change. And because of the cruise, she didn't get looked at sooner. I don't know what this means in the long term yet. Mom is down there now, for the next couple of days, and hopefully she can get a better idea of what's going on. My aunt isn't the most reliable when it comes to the facts. She's a bit of a hypocondriac herself, so she tends to blow anything medical out of proportion, and she's been freaking out all week because my uncle isn't doing well, either, and between him and my grandma, she's been overly stressed out. Last thing I heard, they were going to have to decide between surgery to put stents in her arteries and unblock them (dangerous at her age), a pacemaker (simpler surgery, but with her blockage, probably won't do that much good other than regulating her pulse), or putting her on Coumadin, a serious blood thinner which is literally rat poison. Seriosly. I'ts rat poison. I Googled it to make sure it wasn't just a nasty nickname people threw around. Apparently when you're on it, there's a huge danger to bleeding to death, even from the smallest cut or bump. So really, none of those are good options for her. I don't know what they're going to do. Hopefully now that the tests came back and show that her organs are all fine (i guess something about the enzyme levels had them worried about pancreatic cancer and liver function for a little while there), they can adjust her meds back to where they should have been, and maybe that will be enough. She's going to have to go to rehab for a little while to get steady on her feet again before they'll release her, due to the Coumadin (she's been put on it for now), so I guess it's just a waiting game at the moment.
It's hard, because she's my last remaining grandparent, but she's also 90, so we have to expect this kind of thing is going to happen eventually. I'm kind of already preparing myself, just in case.
Well, enough of the doom and gloom. All in all, I'm glad the week is over, and hope next week is better. If I can finish the last project I have for work, and make the last few website changes, I might (*knock on wood*) be done with all this extra graphics work! For now, at least. Today, though, I'm going to go finish my last logo design assignment and get that class done with. Then I'll only have one left to do, which means 6 more assignments plus a portfolio review to finish by April. *sigh* That deadline is starting to stress me out. I hate to request an extension, but I may have to. Maybe I'll get lucky and the layout design assignments (that's my last class) won't be as tough as the logo ones were.
I might do my taxes this weekend, too. I still haven't gotten an interest statement from Bank of America (they're always late with those), but that account is so small, I don't think it will make much difference whether I include it or not. I probably made a whopping $5 interest on it all year. Whoop-de-do.
Dad's at the driving range right now (our weather is finally warming up - there was frost on the ground this morning, that's how cold it's been getting here!), so I've got the house to myself right now. Kind of seems a shame to just sit here on the computer and work, but I suppose that's the mature thing to do. :P It sucks being a grown up sometimes.
Oh! Here are a few pictures from that Celine Dion concert, if anyone's interested. ;)
This was before she took the stage, just to show how far up we really were. I wasn't kidding when I said nosebleed seats! It was a pretty full stadium, too. But her stage was in the center, so that helped.
Zoomed in on the big screen (that light hung down right in the middle of it - drove me crazy). Say what you will about her, but the woman has some pretty great legs.
Close-up of her on the screen. This is one of the only shots where she isn't either a) blurry, b) making a weird face mid-lyric or c) got that damn light or whatever it was right in the middle of her face.
It was a good show. Not having to pay for the tickets made it even better. ;)