Sweet Yet Sour

I hate doctors

Friday, February 22nd, 2008 | Seriously? | 2 Comments

I have started to hate doctors.  Not all of them, mind you, I’m not saying they’re all sadistic assholes.  Just the ones that are in charge of my mom.  Mom is still in the hospital and really, she’s there because she went in for some elective surgery and the doctors made her sick.

Let’s review here: Mom goes in for a simple gall bladder removal surgery on Feb. 6th.  Her arrogant surgeon with a God complex sent her home the same day.  Then two days later when she is throwing up black stuff, and the surgeon won’t call her back, her primary care doctor tells her to go to the emergency room.  Not until my mom’s blood pressure drops to nothing does the surgeon make an appearance and decide to check and see if there’s something wrong her.  He perfoms another surgery and fixes some stuff but in the process gives her septic shock.  This is a man I can truly begin to hate at this point.

Over the past two weeks my mom has deteriorated to the point of being barely able to walk, breathe and she hasn’t eaten solid food for two weeks.  Her white blood cell count has gone up and down and her lungs and abdomen have filled with fluid, all without a single explanation from her doctors as to why.  They’ve done so many tests it’s mind boggling and still they have no clue at this point what is really wrong with her.   She’s in a lot of pain and she’s frustrated. 

I need my mom to get better.  I need her around when the baby comes to help me and give me advice.  I need her around now to talk to on a daily basis like I used to before.   Prior to the surgery my mom walked the dog twice a day, swam several times a week, did long hikes on the weekends, cooked every day, handled her CASA cases, quilted, visited with her friends, read at a nursing home, and visited her grandson on a frequent basis.  Now, she lays in a bed in pain, and can barely talk for more than 5 minutes. 

Nice going Mr. Surgeon.  If I were a stronger person and less mindful of Colorado statutes, I’d punch the crap out of you.  Instead, I’ll cry some more about what you’ve done to my lovely mom.   

Blog of Complaint

Thursday, February 14th, 2008 | The Daily Special | 3 Comments

I realized the other day when I was posting about Mike’s birthday that it has been almost a month since I posted anything.  How sad and irresponsible of me!  And yet, I have a whole plethora of excuses.  Let’s review:

1. I have been really sick with a nasty cold for going on three weeks now.  At this point, I’m much better with only a few coughing spurts each day.  For a while I was really sick, and unable to take much of anything to alleviate the symptoms, due to my pregnancy.  Mentholatum and Puffs with Lotion are my friends.  Oh, and I could take Tylenol for the fever.  Mike was very nice during the full bore of the illness, making me soup, running to the store for Puffs, etc., but I think he used my weakened state to his advantage.  He posted a cameraphone 365 picture of me with Puffs in my nose. The thought that out there in the internet world there is a picture of me at my worst is pretty embarrassing.  And then when he didn’t have anything to post for cameraphone on a another day, I allowed him to take and post a picture of my pregnant belly.  It’s not pretty, it’s giant and white, and if you look closely you will see the scratch marks from me trying to alleviate the itching caused by my stretching skin.  Another stellar moment in Dorrie history now captured and available for humor on the internet.  It’s really testimony to how much I love my husband and how sick I really was that he’s allowed to live after these incidents.

2.   While I was dealing with being really sick, at work we were dealing with the deadlines for a software release.  As karma would have it I was responsible for testing and qualifying a large piece of the release.  But I’m a good worker, despite my employer’s absolute crap treatment of me and all my fellow employees, so I worked from home while sick.  I coughed through conference calls about the progress of my testing, worked many hours of overtime, and got kudos from my managers, but you know there won’t be anything extra in my paycheck…

3. Last week, my mom was supposed to have a simple gall bladder removal surgery.  I was still dealing with the cold and the software release deadline, so I was unable to make the trip home to help her out.  And besides, Dr. SurgeonMcLiar told her it would be a quick and easy recovery.  They did the surgery and sent her home the same day.  For the next two days she didn’t feel well, couldn’t drink or eat anything and then starts puking black gook.  Eventually my sister and her normal doctor’s office convince her to go to the emergency room, especially after she waits more than 4 hours with no call back from Dr. SurgeonMcLiar.  Anyway, long story short, she’s still in the hospital, she has/had septic shock, needed a second surgery, still isn’t breathing very well and is heavily drugged on narcotics.  It’s awful to see her like this, she’s ill and not herself and it’s pretty stressful.

Due to the stress of all this I fear I may have overloaded on chocolate and other crap.  Hopefully, the baby can survive on the nutrition gleened from milk chocolate (it’s dairy, right?) and 10 glazed donut holes per day. I also watched way too much cable while I was sick ending with the conclusion that I may need to go to re-hab for being addicted to medical shows and the Dog Whisperer.    

Anyway, I’m out of the funk for the most part, work is less stressful and hopefully soon mom will start to feel better and I can start blogging more regularly.  Thanks for listening to the complaints in the meantime!

Happy Birthday Mike!

Tuesday, February 12th, 2008 | The Daily Special | 3 Comments

Today, February 12th, is the birthday of the legendary Mike Munhall! Okay, so he’s not legendary, but he and his photography will be someday, I just know it. 

I’m not sure if he would like it if I said how old he is, but he’s a guy, so he can’t mind as much as we women do.  Mike is 35 today. He wrote “Old Fart” on this day on the calendar on our fridge, but I just don’t think so Mike! You’ve got thirty – forty more years before you can say that!

Some things that Mike should be proud of on his birthday:

1. Mike is an EXCELLENT photographer.  Not only does he have a great eye for photography, his talents cross from nature, architecture and macro photography; he’s not just stuck in one genre.

2. Mike is an artful developer.  His code is well done and he’s careful to write his code so that it lasts, unlike many “slap-it-together” developers.

3. Mike is a wonderful husband.  He is caring and thoughtful, while keeping me laughing.

4. Mike is a great athelete.   He can master any sport he puts his mind to take on, whether it be hockey, tennis, soccer or football.  He is adept at learning new sports and works hard to be the best.

5. Mike is a dedicated and smart student when he’s in school (which is not right now).  He works hard to always get the best grade and really learn the subjects he is studying.  

6.  Mike is a great uncle.  At least Brendan would say so, and he can only mutter a few sentences, but I know he thinks that Mike is fun and is always asking for Uncle Mike to come over to his house.

7. Mike is a good dog owner as well.  Cash adores him and Mike is doing really well for owning his first dog.  If you’ve never had a dog before the tendency is to spoil them rotten (which he does a little), but Mike is good at keeping the discipline up so that Cash knows to be well behaved.

There’s so much more that Mike has to be proud of, but I think I should save some for next birthday… Suffice to say “Happy Birthday Mike!”