RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1) So, I have a new update on my brother! 

He was moved to a bigger, more well equipped hospital in Huntsville to get treatment, and so far he's doing better than he was. That's good news and we'll take that!  When I wrote before, he was very sick and weak from not being able to eat, but in the new hospital they have given him a feeding tube (?) which has helped him a lot.  He's still not doing great, but he's much more stable and a little bit stronger, or at least he seems to be.  I have gone to see him a couple of times and he seems to be in a better mood, but of course, if you know my brother, he's usually in a good mood. 

He will have to have another, fairly complex, surgery this Friday morning, and as long as he pulls through that with few complications, the doctor seems convinced that he will get back to the way he was before he got so sick, which would be a huge improvement.  Once again, keep some good vibes out there for him and my mom, who has been by his side this whole time.  She is a superwoman for sure!  I'm sure everyone would just like to go home and be able to get some normalcy back in their lives.

Thanks to everyone who's checked up on them and sent hugs!

2) Last Friday I had a bit of minor surgery, myself. I hate to even call it surgery, because it took all of two hours from start to me being back home, but it did involve actually going to the hospital and being sedated and all of that.  It was nothing serious, just one of those things that I knew I needed to do, and then kept putting it off until I just bit the bullet to get it over with. It's been a looong while since I've had anything more serious than a root canal, so a lot has changed since I was in the hospital last. 

First thing they did was tell me to take off all of my clothes and put on thigh high stockings.  Heh...yeah, I've head that before! It was like college all over again! :)  Actually, along with my blood-clot-fighting stockings, they also gave me some sexy, barf-colored non-skid socks, and a hospital gown that afforded me zero dignity.  Being a hospital patient is decidedly non-glamorous, no matter what ER and Grey's Anatomy might say to the contrary!  Everything seemed to go really quickly once my IV was in place, and then some very lovely gentleman gave me a shot that made me not care about anyone or anything, and they took me into the OR.  I remember saying "WOW, there's a lot of stuff in here!  I didn't think you needed all this kind of stuff!"  Stuff being lights and medical equipment, which in retrospect, makes a lot of sense.

I woke up in recovery, not really sure of what was going on.  I had been fitted with an oxygen mask and remember saying "Oh, good, I like oxygen." after asking why I had it on. They scratched my vocal cord with a breathing tube, and my voice is still a little scratchy from that, but not terribly. I also remember singing a little and then bursting out crying for no good reason, but I think it was just a reaction to everything.  The very sweet nurse talked me through it, so there's no telling what I said to her.  I probably confessed many private sins to that nurse, who now has to live with the terrible knowledge. I have no idea how long that went on, but it seems like in a flash I was back in one of the recovery rooms with Steve getting redressed and wheeled out to the car.  I wasn't completely lucid, though, because there are big chunks of the next couple of days I don't remember, but apparently I survived.  By Sunday night I was almost back to normal and trusted myself enough to send an email.  I still tend to burst out crying from time to time (stuff like, oh, God, I've been abandoned by everyone and every little thing sets me off so don't hurt my feelings, yo) but it is getting much better.  You'll also be happy to know I only had to take 3 of the heavy pain pills, and I behaved myself each time. Mostly. I wanted badly to get out of the house at one point, and so I hobbled into Publix to get some juice.  I had taken one of the pills before we left, and about halfway through our trip I kind of fazed out and found myself giggling and petting a carton of drinks.  I also got into a weird smiling fit, because the more Steve told me not to make "that face," the less control I had over making "that face."  He managed to pay for the juice and get me back home before I did anything embarrassing.  He was a good nurse, all told.  Anyway, I'm healing and hopefully very soon will be back to fighting shape!

3) I'm sure you've been waiting with baited breath about what I ended up naming my car.  I took a poll on Facebook and it was close.  I had an equal number of votes for "Joan Jetta" and "Other" and I had a couple of great suggestions from the "Other" camp.  My cousin Amy's suggestion was perfect.  Now my car has been christened "Brunhilde Farfegnugen" but I'll just call her Brunhilde for short.  I also liked the suggestion "Dave" but the car is clearly female, so what can I do?

So far I like the Volkswagen, with one exception.  When you connect the sound system to Bluetooth and listen to music from the phone, the sound will get louder and softer depending on your speed.  That doesn't happen with the radio, but I've almost deafened myself  when listening to my playlist because when you slow down, the music gets quieter, and not realizing it was a feature, I turned it up to hear what was playing, but then when I started driving again, the sound blasts out at you without any warning.  I hate that and haven't figured out how to disable it.  Don't tell me how loud I can listen to my crappy playlist, Brunhilde!  All in all, though, it's a nice car and I'm glad to finally have something reliable.

Now I get to take all of those road trips I've been talking about!  Imma visit everyone!