What can I say?

I went home to visit my parents and my daughter who is there for the summer break a couple weeks ago - nice flight, horrible layovers. It was a wonderful visit and I got to see one of my best friends - going all the way to 5th grade.

2 days after I got home, my mother ended up in the hospital. Mom has COPD and congestive heart failure. So any illness hits her hard...this is what they found when they got her to the hospital:

Severe pneumonia in both lungs
Heart enzymes were elevated
EKG showed chronic changes to heart
Anemic
Low Blood Pressure
Blood Oxygen level was 65 (should be 95-100)
Dehydrated
Changes to kidney functions
Urinary infection (they think from the dehydration)

She finally came home from the hospital yesterday - and she sounds much better than she did. She gave us a really big scare and we all know this may be the beginning of a lot of scares. As the Dr. told me - a lot depends on how she does over the next few weeks. I wanted to try and arrange to go up there and work remotely for a few months just to be there to help with things.

So I talked to my boss and she talked to her boss and he turned her down. I didn’t get a reason – but needless to say I’m more than a little upset – I’ve completely revamped the way billing is done here by moving all the processes into sharepoint speeding the process up measurably – am currently working the integration of our latest acquisition and moving their processes in to our system – and also utilized my purchasing / IT knowledge for the upgrade of the departments computers. All of this in 6 months and for crap money. What I’m supposed to be happy for – is that they will let me take an unpaid leave AFTER I train a temp to do my job of course. UNPAID! So they would rather pay a temp to do the job than set a precedence or whatever the reasoning. What can you say though about a company that makes their money from outsourcing...?

So needless to say I am weighing my options – as quickly as possible.

Iowa visit and my mom...

I went home to Iowa to visit for a couple of days last week. I really wanted to see my parents (it's been over a year since I've seen them) and as a bonus my daughter was there from college.

It was a great visit even though it was short - I was able to see one of my eternal best friends, we go back as far as elementary school. But I could tell my mom wasn't feeling well. Mom has COPD and is on oxygen 24/7, a couple days into the visit we discovered that she wasn't getting much airflow from the machine - they changed out something and she was feeling better.

HOWEVER - yesterday they put her in the hospital...pneumonia in both lungs, along with a host of other ailments. How did I find out this news? I found out because my sister saw an update on my daughter's FaceBook page... FACEBOOK!!!

How do you explain that if you live 1200 miles away you feel helpless enough without things like this? And I don't buy the "we didn't want to worry you" argument...it's not fair and not right.

Sigh...I can't yell at her - she's sick...

I have one of these....

So I got called into my bosses office the other day...I've been working on our departments SharePoint site to streamline and revamp our billing process. Making it simpler and quicker for all involved. My company recently acquired it's largest competitor so the two billing managers were meeting. So my boss calls me into her office to meet him and get initial requirements for moving them into our site for billing.

After about 15 minutes of what back and forth - what information is already there...what information he would like to see, etc. He looks at my boss and tells her "I have one of these too - her name is Linda". ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I am now "one of these" property? What year is it...? It's like saying " I have a girl who does that for me. " OMG so pissed off about it. If I never see him again it will be too soon - but I'm sure I'll be meeting with him more to finalize this process. SIGH.

On the positive side - I got some really good news from my Sprinkly friend. And it makes up for anything bad this whole month.

:)

Gee Y N?

Reposted from WTF Now?

Some people reading this may know that I've been having a lot of issues...I have "female" issues (see how I travel back to the '50s to talk about this) that are contributing to my anemia problems. At least that is that they believe is causing the problems. So I got an injection last week that is to stop my cycles for 3 months in order to help me prolong the time between now and when I will need surgery. I also had to have a biopsy in order to rule out any cancer or else the surgery could not be postponed. The biggest reason I need to postpone surgery is that after being laid off for over a year I am finally working but do not have any sick time or FMLA to protect my job or my income. Nice catch-22 for me.

Okay so here is the breakdown of how my Dr. visit went on Monday:

I tried to tell dr that i was still VERY BAD (things I don't want to spell out - pretty sure you can figure this out on your own) and they may want to rethink doing the exam and was told that it's no problem...just a day in the life at the GYN...

"we have these little pads to put beneath you" hahahahahaha

then when she saw how bad it was - "oh your life isn't fun is it?" NO SH!T “Lindsay can you get me some more pads?” and once more “Lindsay can you get me about 4 more pads?”

"how long has it been this way?" - since april 12th - "really - for 30 days?" - yes thats what I said - "for 30 DAYS?" - yes - "don't you feel weak" - HELL YES I FEEL WEAK but what are you gonna do?

so now she isn't sure she got enough material (i can't say tissue - it's yucky) MATERIAL to actually do the biopsy

After the exam the Dr wanted to run some more blood tests - thyroid and iron count - when her PA was taking blood the conversation went like this... "wow that's some crazy amount your bleeding, I don't know how you do it" so I asked her what was my alternative? things have to be done I can't just curl up in a ball and stay in bed all day no matter how much I want to



So just waiting to get the results of all the tests



- THEN IEZZI'S (my GP) OFFICE CALLED

I went for blood tests about 2 weeks ago and i have been trying to get the results of that test - well now they want me to go for more blood tests - one of the tests ordered wasn't done - and THEN we'll make an office appointment for you to come in and go over them. UHHMMM no I think I'll deal with my GYN for now thank you very much....

worries...

Worried today about someone special to me. They are going through a rough time and there is nothing I can do to make it better. Crossing fingers, knocking wood, praying, none of these will change what has happened. I'm here if you need me.

There but for the Grace of God...

Reposted from WTF Now?

I was greated on Facebook yesterday by a link from my cousin to a newspaper article about a guy I knew in high school. Bob Zellmer was a little older than me - but then a lot of my friends were older than me back then. (Funny that they are mostly all younger than me now.) Bob left this world earlier this month at the age of 50. In high school I remember him as always smiling...him and his brothers always had a little bit of a reputation then, but when you live in small town middle America all teenage kids have a reputation. He always had friends around him and everyone talked about what a great singer he was.

I haven't seen him in years, probably since I moved away from that small town. But like everything in you childhood things from then aren't supposed to change. A happy go lucky guy from high school is not supposed to die addicted and homeless. These are not things that should happen.

Even though Bob was homeless himself and dealing with addictions - he spent his time trying to help other homeless people have shelter - a place to get out of the weather. I guess that's what living in my small town did for all of us - everyone I know from there would give you the shirt off of their back...something that is sadly lacking these days. I don't know what happened in Bob's life but I do know that it only takes one small thing and you're on a path that is hard to change. I also know that I appreciate everything and everyone I have in my life. I have a roof over my head - friends and family that love me - and that's enough...no matter how much I bitch that it's not.

Rest in Peace Builder Bob - You will be missed more than you know.

Monday again

Back at work on a very rainy Monday...this will probably be a short post, but trying to keep a promise to myself to actually spend some time writing.

Saturday night we went to see Cameron play at the Brass Mug. The guys just get better and better every time they play out. They are heading into the studio next month to record a demo CD. Cross your fingers!



Sunday was spent relaxing and catching up on the Gene Simmons Family Jewels marathon. I stopped watching it a year ago when they did the whole facelift thing - didn't want to spend my time watching people in pain. But caught up with them now and still find I really like them as people. I know it's a reality show and what you see isn't necessarily "REAL" but still it's nice to see them.

Woke up this morning about 2AM with my back complaining...the rain moving in just does not agree with me. Oh well what can you do?

And now back to work...