As it turns out, the problem with the car started last winter but I didn't know it. You might remember me talking about how my heater had stopped working last year. That isn't usually a big deal, but my hands get so cold that it is painful, so those few months were not fun. It never stays cold here for long so I didn't bother having it looked at. Apparently that was just a symptom of my car's thermostat starting to fail. The smoke coming out from under the hood was also a symptom of the thermostat not working and the housing being cracked, but it was just more dramatic! We had to replace the thermostat and we also found out my back brakes were worn through and the front brakes were close to being the same. So yay, lots of expensive repairs on a car I'm planning to get rid of, but at least I'll be safe for a while longer. Also, it'll give me more time to save for the new car, so I'm not going to complain about that!
2) I had my holter test done last week, and that was a pain in the butt. OK, that's not exactly fair. As far as a test goes, it was fairly straightforward and painless, but having to lug around the holter was both embarrassing and annoying.
If you are unfamiliar with this kind of test, basically you go into your friendly neighborhood cardiologist's office and a nurse will tell you to lift up your shirt. He/she will proceed to stick five lead connectors on various parts of your chestial and stomachial (those are the scientific terms, BTW) areas and snap on lead wires onto each sticker.
This is the only one I could show you without adding a "Are You 18 or Older" tag on this entry.
Then you hang the lanyard around your neck and wear a recorder that is roughly the size and shape of a closed flip phone.
Like so.
One of the things you have to do while wearing the holter is keep a diary of times when things feel weird. Actually, the diary (actually a pamphlet with spaces to write) says to keep an all day dairy, but the nurse told me to only record when my heart felt weird. I thought I was going to get away without writing anything in it, but I had to make a few entries. Some were totally explainable, such as when I got startled at work and when I helped to move a mattress out of the house. There were a couple of times I didn't know what was going on, but my heart would just pound really hard for no reason at all.
One thing that I thought was funny about the little pamphlet was the "Activity" part of the directions:
Look, I'm all about gettin' while the gettin' is good, if you know what I mean, but I can't imagine anyone who might be wearing one of these electronic heart octopuses feeling sexy enough to get up to shenanigans. Maybe that's just me, though. Good on anyone who feels differently, but that made me laugh!
I had to wear the holter for 24 hours, and I couldn't take a shower while I was wearing it, so I had to wait until the 24 hours were up before I could unhook myself and take the thing back to the doctor. Medical grade adhesive is no joke, either. I had to pull the leads off, and now, almost a week later, I still have sticker hickeys on my body! I'm just glad it is over, and I hope they don't find anything! I'm tired of doctor stuff. I don't want to go back for anything more than a cold or a checkup for a while, if you don't mind.
3) Speaking of mattresses (which I did. Go back up and find the reference) Steve and I finally got a new one! We've been sleeping on the old, Big Lots mattress for years and years, and as it was cheap, it was never particularly comfortable. Steve bought a Casper mattress and it was delivered to our house in a fairly small box. It was stupid heavy, though. I know this because I had to bring it in off of the walkway by myself because it was raining. Thanks, delivery guy! When we opened the box, I had the knee-jerk reaction that we had gotten cheated. It was all rolled up, and looked nothing like a mattress. In fact, it looked like a rolled up duvet, and I thought I was about to go get indignant with one of the operators who were standing by. We pulled the roll out of the box and saw that it was wrapped in a Tyvek compression sleeve (Tyvek being the virtually unbreakable pressed fiber material that concert bracelets are made of). It also came with a letter opener thing to cut the Tyvek sleeve off of the roll. We struggled with that for a minute or so before the sleeve and plastic came off and the mattress started...weirdly...swelling up. You've seen those emergency rafts that inflate themselves? It was doing that in slow motion. Sorry for being crude, but I was so surprised that I yelled "OH MY GOODNESS IT'S GETTING BIGGER!!" which was loud enough for the neighbors, who's driveway and basketball goal is right outside of our bedroom window, to hear. Oy.
Anyway, it sort of swelled up until it was a real mattress sized thing! It was weird, but I can deal with weird! :) It's miles away more comfortable than our old mattress and it stays cooler than our old one. It's a bit firmer than I'm used to, but I can sleep on it and that is the important thing. I'm not necessarily saying you should buy one, but you should totally buy one, even if it's just to watch it expand!
4) I accidentally stabbed myself in the stomach with a dull box cutter. Just a little stab, so nothing major. I didn't even bleed that much, so except for maybe bruising my pancreas, I'm ok. I was wrapping a wedding gift and had to cut down a box to make it more size appropriate. I made a rookie mistake of cutting towards myself and the blade skipped and hit me in the stomach! I was scared at first, because it hurt, but it wasn't bad. The really odd thing was that I had on a shirt and a camisole, and somehow neither of them were cut, but my stomach got cut! I even went back later to make sure I was right about that, and I was. How does that even happen?
I really do hurt myself a lot, don't I?
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