Blogging from the Hospital

My wife's been having some pain in her abdomen and back for the last few days, and she's thinking bladder infection. She's drinking a ton to cleanse her system, with water and cranberry juice, and even taken some OTC medication that her stupid stupid boss suggested, in lieu of actually going home early.

Well, today before she went to work and she was just miserable. And when she came home tonight, she had a fever to boot. After a bit of considering (since we have absolute crap insurance and no extra money coming in), we decided to go to the emergency room.

And here we are.

They don't think it's a bladder or kidney infection, and they are going to run some blood work and also start an IV. There's talk of a CAT scan for her abdomen also. And all we're thinking about is how we can't really afford all of it.

Don't really know how long it'll be, but I reckon it's going to be a longish night. Oh boy. They haven't even officially started yet and it's almost 2:30 in the morning.

House of Pain

Jump up, jump up and get down.

Actually, the title doesn't so much refer to cool Irish rappers, but rather the state of our house. Everyone is stricken with something, with severity ranging from phantom owies to plague like conditions that used to thin out civilizations. We're just cool like that.

Alex and Zoe, thankfully, are fine. Alex has a slight case of the crazies, but usually we just call that mornings. Nothing out of the ordinary. Zoe has a slight case of the melancholies, she was climbing up a different ladder type thing at the playground and when she got on top, we applauded her and cheered her on. She looked at us deadpan for a few moments, and then just sighed and went on her way.

My mother's had headaches on and off, but her neck/shoulder has been bothering her the most. She wakes up from the pain, with pain, and she's going to go for physical therapy soon. I probably will have to drive her despite her insistence that I take the bus - I don't mind doing that and killing an hour on the laptop, although I think it bothers my mom because she has to be in her bra during therapy. I actively stare at my laptop the last time that happened. I got enough mental problems.

My wife's got us all beat because she came home from the doctors yesterday and had a doctor's diagnosis of having pneumonia - so she's got the next few days off. She's not exactly having a ball having time off though, she's coughing pretty heavily and at times I expect some internals to fly out of her mouth, the way she's coughing so hard. She coughs like some protagonist with consumption in a tragic love story. I feel bad for her, and I ask her if she's okay while turning on the closed captioning to the TV.

As for me, the same old thing. They took the dressing out of my lower right tooth (but not the salad, the bastards), and now the hole in my mouth feels lonely and quite painful. So Vicodin's in my system and ibuprofen as well, chased with some whiskey and a handful of some pink pills I found behind the couch. I think it's cold medicine or birth control pills. I'll let you know in 9 months. But anyway, I'm supposed to irrigate my holey tooth with a syringe to make sure it's cleaned out. It tickles, but not as much as the rash on my hoohah.

Oh, Okay.

My wife had told me this earlier, but either because I was so hopped up on drugs or that I was dying of pain, it didn't register. But I guess the reason why there's been such a headache and the pain has been worse in one corner of my mouth is because the wisdom tooth in the lower right was actually so messed up it had grown into my jawline. So they essentially had to cut into the bone in my face to free up that tooth, and that's why the pain is causing the headaches.

Today it's doing better than the other mornings, still pain in minor touches, but I did go all night without any middle of the night doses of anything. Eating is still a pain - last night I had antibiotic pasta with antibiotic Diet coke, which all taste bitter and icky. Man, I want real food so bad. Like a big Subway sandwich.

Oh well, gotta do some serious work now. Fell behind all week.

Bond, Sleep, and Medication

I have this thing with medication. Usually I shun it, thinking that if I have a headache, I probably just need a nap. If I have a cold, I just have to drink more liquids. I don't usually veer toward any type of medication, though not because of some holistic philosophy or notion that my body is some sort of temple, because if you've seen my belly, there's no worshipping going on there. I think I just don't think I need it - that over-medicating can eventually break down your immune system, and soon all the drugs in the world wouldn't do a thing for me.

That said, when the pain really piles on, I usually over-medicate. Like the time I had two kinds of allergy medicines and a glass of wine. Boy, that was a power nap. My wife even called the doctor because I was unresponsive to words, burns, and my arm being amputated. (Don't worry, I grew it back.)

So yesterday, I had this killer headache, the second one I had this year, which just floors me. Can't think, can't do much except lie down on the bed with a pillow over my eyes. Usually I would sleep from the early afternoon until the late afternoon, when the sun dips behind the clouds and it gets slightly darker. So that threw my sleep off a lot, and I was pretty bright eyed and bushy assed at night.

I decided to take my wife to see Casino Royale last night, my first actual enjoyable James Bond venture. I usually watch Bond movies thinking, "Wow, that's a cool trick, but I still don't know what the hell is going on." Usually a Bond movie for me are just gadgets, stunts, and sometimes the girls. Not always the girls because sometimes the girls they pick are just wallpapers - they're not interesting characters that I care about. And the plot's usually about some global political technobabble designed to leave viewers impressed with odd foreign jargon which likely makes no sense to anyone else. But we all think that someone else understands what's going on.

Anyway, Daniel Craig is quite good - not quite Brosnan's look, but certainly a more functional, interesting Bond he makes. Brosnan's seems like the one who seduces the women and looks cool blowing stuff up, but Craig makes for a more believable Bond because you feel like he's out to get the job done, and he has a drive to get it done. The stunts are old school - my type of action movie whereby CG doesn't pee all over the picture. Honestly, when Brosnan was surfing and parachuting in some CG crap the last picture, I started to get really annoyed by it.

Bringing Casino Royale back to basics was the best thing they've done for the genre. If you haven't seen it, do so. Or wait for the DVD in march.

Back to the medication. So the movie got out at 1am, and when we went home my wisdom tooth was starting to hurt. And then I couldn't sleep. I'd lay down, start to drift off, and the tooth would just wake me up. This happened all night, and needless to say, I didn't get any sleep, even after various salt rinses, a Percocet, and 2 advils. This morning, everyone was concerned about my sour face and I took two Tylenol PMs my mom gave me, two Percocets, and guess what - I crashed on the couch and died.

Right now I'm feeling better - a little disoriented, but at least my tooth doesn't hurt.