I've been tagged!

Thanks to Erica, who tagged me, we have this fun post today. I'm still alive over here...just recovering slowly and getting used to meds. Not much fun, but I am MUCH better than last week. YAY! So, while I recover, a few things about me you didn't know!


ARE YOU:
1. A Cuddler? Sometimes.
2. A morning person? Only if morning starts at 10 am ha ha ha
3. Are you a perfectionist? About a lot of things yes. But not about everything.
4. An only child? Nope...I have a younger sister
5. Catholic: Yes
6. In your pajamas? yep
7. Currently suffering from a broken heart? No.
8. Okay styling other people’s hair? I can't even style my own.
9. Left handed? sometimes. I use a left handed mouse because my right wrist is icky. This throws most people off. I also putt putt left handed. (weird, but true)
10. Addicted to MySpace? ah no. I think I've looked at myspace like once.
11. Shy around the opposite gender? No. Actually I'm more shy around women. Women can be catty. And in the south, they have this nasty tendency to be sweet sweet sweet to your face and really cruel when you aren't around. I usually am more comfortable around men. Most of the time they are more upfront. If they don't like you they don't pretend. They just don't like you. Period.
12. Loud? YES!!!

DO YOU:
12. Bite your nails? no
13. Get paranoid at times? Very rarely. Usually if I'm paranoid, I have a pretty good reason to feel that way. If you have a reason, is it still called paranoia?? hmmmm
14. Currently regret something that you have said/done? Yes
15. Curse frequently when you get mad? Unfortunately, yes. I'm trying to stop, but it's not easy!
16. Enjoy country music? Some of it. I went through a "phase" in college. So if I hear one of those songs, ok. Otherwise, NO!
17. Enjoy jazz music? yes
18. Enjoy smoothies? Yes
19. Enjoy talking on the phone? I loathe talking on the phone Mostly because all i do at work is talk on the phone.
20. Have a lot to learn? Yes
21. Have a pet? one lab mix, Rascal
22. Have a tendency to fall for the “wrong” person? yep (but not now. Now i have a RIGHT person!)
23. Have all your grandparents died? yes
24. Have at least one sibling? Yes.
25. Have been told that you are smart? Yes I've actually been told that I'm TOO smart for my own good. Whatever that means.
26. Have had a broken bone? yes. I've broken most of my toes and a few fingers. (i'm very clumsy and I walk like a duck with my feet sticking out. It equates to broken toes all over the place)
27. Have Caller I.D. on your phone? No.

HAVE YOU:
28. Changed a diaper? Yes.
29. Changed a lot over the past year? Yes.
30. Had friends who have never seen your natural hair color? ha ha...i'm not sure that I'VE seen my natural hair color. HA HA HA
31. Had surgery? Yes.
32. Killed anyone? If I had, would I admit to it in a blog? :-) I definitely been angry enough to WANT to kill someone. does that count?
33. Had your haircut within the last week? No.

LAST PERSON WHO:
1. Saw you cry? i'm not sure...probably Mom. I got teary eyed at Flicka last week. ( i know, I know, i'm such a girl!)
3. Went to the movies with you? Mom
4. You went to the mall with? I honestly cant remember the last time I went to the mall. (Erica doesn't that make you cry? We used to live at the mall!!)
5. You went to dinner with? T
6. You talked to on the phone? T
7. Said 'I Love You" and meant it T
8. Made you laugh? Colin, my little 14 month nephew. If you ask him what noise does a piggy make, he SNORTS. It's hysterical. and then He laughs and its all over for me. I just roar laughing with the little guy.

WOULD YOU RATHER?
1. Pierce your nose or tongue? My nose
2. Be serious or be funny? Funny.
3. Drink whole or skim milk? Skim. (actually I'd rather drink Soy)
4. Die in a fire or drown? Do i have to choose? They're both horrible sounding. I guess fire. Hopefully a beam would crash on me or the smoke would get me before I knew I was barbequing.
5. Spend time with your parents or enemies? Parents.

ABOUT YOU!
1. What time is it? 11:43pm (man i'm up late!...waiting for referral news!)
2 Name? Shannon
3. Nickname(s)? Shannie.
4. Where were you born? upstate NY
5. What is your birthdate? Dec 22 (yes, it stinks)
6 What do you want? Right now, I really want to feel normal and healthy like the old me again. Then I'd like Em to come home already!!
7. Where do you want to live? I really like it here where i am. Except for 2 weeks in August when it is hotter than the sun, I love it here.
8. How many kids do you want? I don't know. Let's get Emily home and see how that goes! once upon a time, long before I understood about how painful childbirth could be, I wanted 5 or 6 kids. Now I realize that clearly I was crazy. :-)

So that is it from me. I tag hmmm the Tierra Girls! mu ha ha ha

Neurocardiogenic Syncope

Neurocardiogenic syncope is big fat word that means fainting. It is also the official medical reason why I keep fainting, feeling light headed and dizzy and get winded after going up one flight of stairs. The good news is that now that we have a name for it, we can probably control most of my symptoms, most of the time. YAY!!!

So here is the sum up of what is going on. My heart and my brain aren't communicating very well with each other. It is an autonomic nervous system dysfunction. They don't know much about your autonomic nervous system, and in particular they don't know why people get this fainting kind of thing. But that's ok. Basically, when I stand up, or remain standing for any length of time, all my blood heads to my feet thanks to gravity. Your brain and your heart are supposed to work together to get that blood pumping a little stronger so that it heads back up to your brain where you need it. Except for me, my brain is sending/receiving the wrong singal, and my blood isn't moving back up. It just stays there at my feet, and then I get dizzy, light headed and eventually pass out. My blood pressure is very VERY low during these times, so low in fact, that the nurse can't hear it using a blood pressure cuff. (i'm talking about the bottom number of your blood pressure ratio here)

Here is what we are going to do to fix it. First, I have to get rested up. Stress makes this problem a lot worse, and well lets face it, we all have stress. But maybe I could chill out a little bit more, and stress out a little bit less!!! So that is first. Second, I have to drink a TON more water. I was hitting the required 64 oz a day no problem before hand, but now I need to drink about twice that. So if you are hanging out with me, and I say, hey, let's stop and get a drink, for the love of God, stop and get me a drink. Otherwise, you could very well be picking my butt up off the floor!!! I also have to increase my salt intake. That's right, INCREASE my salt. Since I don't add salt to anything now, this is going to be tough. But they did give me some medication which will help me retain salt better. I also see a lot more popcorn in my future!! Which is fine with me, I like popcorn and I would actually put salt on that! They are also putting me on several medications which will help my blood pressure sort of level out and in theory stop the cycle of blood rushing to my feet. So if we can get all that under control, then in theory, I won't be passing out any more. YAY!!!!!

I also will be seeing a physical therapist, so I can learn some exercises that will help me get my blood flowing for those occassions where I HAVE to stand up (like waiting in line) and exercises in general I can do over the next few weeks while we get all my medication worked out. Exercising helps, but right now, I would be very afraid to get on a treadmill or lift weights or anything. I'd be afraid I'd fall out and bonk myself on the head.

So that's it from me. Now that we know what is wrong with me, I'm so relieved! My mom has been awesome, coming in to take me to appointments and taking care of me. YAY for Mom!!

Madonna and International Adoption

Can I just tell you how irritating it is to me that Madonna was able to waltz into a country in Africa, pick out the baby she wanted, pay 3 million and leave? And then have her child escorted back home to her in England? WHAT THE HECK PEOPLE?!?!  Here I am, busting my butt, doing all the required paperwork, and home visits and medical check ups and yadda yadda, and she can just do whatever the heck she wants because she is Madonna?  That so is not fair!  I don’t mind that she wants to adopt at all. I don’t mind that she has an extra 3 million laying around that she could donate to build an orphanage in Africa. I DO mind that none of the rules apply to her, and that the whole country of Malawi just bypasses its own laws for a celebrity. Give me a break!  How is that the right thing to do? Would they give a baby to Michael Jackson? He’s rich and famous, right?

 

And now the whole freaking country is talking about weather or not it is right for celebrities to adopt children of different races. Are you kidding me? We have nothing else to talk about? We have no REAL news to discuss? What about North Korea and the whole they now have nuclear bombs thing? Or I don’t know, the major election coming up (y’all better be registered to vote by now!) Or the war in Iraq or the price of gas or well..you get my drift. There are about a million things more important then weather white people adopt white babies are not.  It just makes me sick.  If one more person asks me “why don’t you get an American baby” I think I will punch them. MY baby is in China. Deal with it or get out of my face. I’m so over stupid people.  

 

Dumb Madonna ruining my day. While I wait yet another month for my referral she gets her baby today. Hate her!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not Much

Not much going on with me lately. Here are some highlights.

 

• I’ve recovered nicely from the sinus surgery. The doc says everything looks good, and I’m now taking some allergy meds, which should work now that my nose works the way it is supposed to. For those of you into the gross details, they still stuck the metal thingy up my nose again this past Wed. I’m PAYING to have my nose picked.  Life is weird.  (and it still hurt like heck!)
• I’m still dizzy. They don’t know why, and I am still seeing a variety of doctors. Since I don’t really know what is going on, there isn’t much to say about it.
• Work is still kicking my butt. But I’m dealing.
• I’m finally going to get my hair done tonight. I had to reschedule twice to accommodate doctor appointments, so I’m thrilled that I will go back to looking like a superstar, versus the ragamuffin I look like right now.  (thanks to Shannon 2 for recommending Faith! She rocks!)
• Adoption feels like it is at a standstill. I suppose technically every month it gets closer, but every month I also push back my expected referral month, so, I don’t feel like I’m going anywhere here.

 

 

I guess that is it from me. Told you it wasn’t much. Hope everyone has a good weekend. J

 

7 Songs

Thanks to Erica,  I have been tagged to list 7 songs that I’m really digging right now.  Since I don’t have much else to blog about, here goes.

 

Here are the rules: List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether or not they have words, or even if they're not any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying now. Post these instructions in your blog along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they're listening to.

 

 

My Songs:

“Too Little, Too Late”  Jo Jo

“ Far Away“     Nickleback

“Lips of an Angel” Hinder

“Sexy Back”  Justin Timberlake (as embarrassing as THAT is)

“wonderful world”  Louis Armstrong

“Wally”  Aslyn

“Chasing Cars”   Snow Patrol

 

Music is such a great thing. My music choices are all over the place!!

  I don’t really want to tag 7 people. But if you want to play along, then go ahead and share!

 

 

 

 

 

 

So after the last post, I decided I need something to cheer up this blog. So for your entertainment, me right before the wheeled me off for the sinus surgery. Nice hair net, right?

Feeling Better

So every day I'm feeling a bit better, which is a good thing. I even managed to work 6 WHOLE hours today. Big Girl!! I also went in for my post op visit with the ENT and after sticking a "telescope" up my nose (they really called it that!) said everything looked fine. He then used an 8 inch mettle thingymerbob to suck out all the blood clots. It was the single most disgusting thing I've ever had done to me. And it hurt like hell. They numbed my nose first but it didn't help all that much and I still can't feel the roof of my mouth. Go figure. Anyways, its healing nicely according to the doc, and I don't have to have that thing shoved up my nose again until next Wed. I know you all are jealous!!

Other than that, not much to report. I've been sleeping a lot, and not a lot of fun to be with. But I'm starting to feel a lot more normal and I'm hoping by the weekend to be a fully functional member of society once again!

Tonight is the big Lost premeire, so I'm going to keep this short Jack & sawyer are waiting for me to drool over them!! Oh and tomorrow I go talk to the neurologist about the MRIs they took. I'm still way dizzy, and I'm really hoping that I can get some answers tomorrow. Then again, they are looking at my brain, and frankly, I'm a little nervous. I mean, there is a LOT of stuff up there! I know, I saw the pictures! My brain has those wrinkles and everything!! But really at this point, an answer of any kind would be good. This not knowing what is going on is for the birds. So I'll try and post tomorrow, let you know what she says. And have I mentioned how cool it is to have a female neurologist? I am woman, hear me roar!! OK, OK. I'm done. really. Lost in 5 minutes. Must prep. Nighty night!!

I'm Alive

So I survived the surgery. I hurt but I'm fine. Mostly I feel like I have a very VERY bad cold. And I'm really tired. But I'll live. I didn't bruise up or get all swollen or anything, so that is great news. My nose looks exactly the same. I'm still too congested to tell if it has made a difference or not, but I have high hopes.

That's it from me. The bed is calling, time for a nap! More tomorrow hopefully!

Thanks for all your well wishes and prayers. It's nice to be loved. :-)