Utah Arts Festival

This weekend was the annual Utah Arts Festival. I LOVE Art Festivals. I enjoy seeing the creativity that people have and enjoy picking up pieces of art directly from the artist. I find the artists are often quirky, interesting, entertaining people. The festival this year had a great mix of visual and performing arts and today was a perfect hot and sunny day to enjoy it. First up, was checking out all of the artist booths. I find myself drawn to the the glass artists (enough so that I didn't take pictures of any of them as I was too busy looking at their wares). I also find the metal working to be fascinating. After that it was lunch while enjoying some of the performers on the nearby stage. There's really nothing quite like festival food! After that it was another pass through the booths as I was trying to find a particular vase I had seen that I wanted to check out again but for the life of me could not remember where I had seen it (it took three passes and going back to the entrance and starting over before I found it!). After that it was more gawking, gazing, listening, relaxing and enjoying. It was a great way to spend the day.

Testing Round 2

Round two of testing went well. They used more radioactive crap than the last time hoping to get better images. The tech was very chatty and full of information so I learned a lot more about what happened with the original test. My stress portion of the test showed my heart as healthier than the at rest portion of the test. This pretty much never happens which means that something else was causing the test to be misread. In this case, my intestines. Apparently before the intestine angles down, it climbs slightly. This climb is higher in some people than in others. I would be one of those people. This caused a shadow over the lower part of the heart. It's also apparently known as a normalization artifact. It does make it harder to see that part of the heart, so it was reading as a blockage of the heart - thus the retest with the extra radiation. After the tests, the tech had me sit with her while she sliced the pictures of my heart three different ways and explained to me what she was doing and what they were looking for. This picture is a sample of what she was doing.
As I understand it, what they are looking for is the solid doughnut (like at the bottom of the picture) and a well defined horse shoe. This shows that blood is pumping through without any blockage. Although the computer was still reading my test as an abnormality because of the artifact, she believes that the radiologist will declare the test normal, as I had a very solid doughnut and a well defined horse shoe. I could also see my liver and gall bladder all aglow. It was really trippy. Once that happens, and I am really hoping that it does, next up will be the gall bladder to see if that is the cause of the pain and various other symptoms that I have.

On a side note, while the technician and I were reviewing the slides, both our eyes started to sting and water. Something was clearly in the air (which is a little scary). So there we are, all teary eyed over the x-rays when someone comes in, looks at us, and quickly leaves. She must have thought it was really bad news!

Test Results - Not!

I have anxiously been awaiting my test results to no avail. I called a couple days ago and they said they didn't have the results. I called again yesterday. Same answer. I called again today, she promised to track down what was going on and have the Dr. call me. Well, he just called. Apparently the first half of my test had a problem. To quote him "they said it could have been a normalization artifact and I have never heard of that or a poor dosage". Since the second part of the test is a comparison to the first part of the test, they are willing to repeat the test free of charge (what do you want to bet me I get charged twice and have to deal with the insurance company on this?). So back I go to the hospital this afternoon after I fast the next four hours to get more radioactive crap injected. When I called to make the appointment, the tech that answered said this was really strange cause usually they get notified immediately of any issues so they can bring the person back as quickly as possible because if they know within a couple days they only have to repeat the one portion of the test. She pulled my record up and said all the information is in there and she has no idea why the weren't notified - they have never seen this before. Seriously, this is the way my life works so I really shouldn't be surprised.

POP...BANG...

A few days ago I was sitting on the couch watching TV when I heard a giant POP, followed by a BANG (it made me think of a gun shot) and it sounded like it was coming from my kitchen. I jumped up and rushed to the kitchen and found...nothing. No pictures had fallen off the wall, no can of food had fallen off a shelf. There was nothing out of place anywhere. I searched high and low and then did a walk through of the rest of the house looking for anything that might have caused the explosive sound that I heard. I checked all of the rooms, all of the pictures, all of the closets. I checked the furnace, the water softener and all other appliances in the house. There was nothing anywhere that would explain the noise so I decided it must have come from outside. Then today, I went to grab some soup for lunch and look what I found:

It would appear that the last time I went grocery shopping I bought soup and a can of biscuits and without realizing it, I put the can of biscuits in the soup bin instead of in the fridge. I know it's been a week or two since I went shopping so I can only assume it took this long to heat the biscuits enough to explode the can. Note to self "Pay attention when unloading groceries!"

Radioactive Girl

The search to find out what is going on with me continues. Today I had a Nuclear Medicine Stress Test. This test really began at midnight when I was cut off from all food and drink. Of course, after the fact, I discover that although they tell people midnight, 4 hours is really all the need. Anyway, being the curious sort that I am, I finally googled the test before going to bed last night. Bad idea as I totally freaked myself out.

Here's what I learned: "A nuclear medicine stress test is done for the doctor to take pictures of your heart while you are stressed (exercising) as well as during rest. This test involves the injection of a radioactive 'tracer' that allows the heart muscle to be seen on special x-rays. This is especially useful in diagnosing coronary heart disease, the presence of blockages in the coronary arteries that supply oxygen-rich blood to the heart muscle". Nuclear Medicine. Radioactive. Of course - not sure why I didn't put that together sooner.

Upon arrival the hospital, the first step was getting an IV inserted. My second one this week and really not my favorite thing to do. They then injected me with the first dose of what I have chosen to call radioactive crap. They then had me rest for 30 minutes after which they took a whole bunch of X-Rays which took about 20 minutes. From there it was back to resting. Next up was the treadmill portion of the exam. They strap me up to all sorts of machines with wires going everywhere and then the tech says "I'll be right back". I learned today that that is code for, "If you are lucky you will see me again in this lifetime." 30 some odd minutes later the tech returns and I start the treadmill test. The goal is to get my heart rate to 90% of the maximum recommendation for someone my age and weight. I start walking and the Dr. walks in. He looks at the monitor and then looks at me and says "You look familiar." My first thought "Seriously? We're going to have a Facts of Life moment now???" and sure enough, after establishing I didn't go to school with him, live near him, etc. he came to the bright conclusion that I look like the girl from Facts of Life. I could have gotten him there faster but my heart beat wasn't where it needed to be yet and we needed something to talk about.

Once I finally hit my stride they injected the second set of radioactive crap and then had me walk a few more minutes. After that more waiting and then another set of pictures. All in all, it took about three hours to complete the process. At the end of it, they gave me a Dr.'s note to give to the people at the airport as apparently I will set off all their machines if I go through security in the next few days. Next up, the Dr. will analyze the pictures and determine if there is anything wrong with my heart. The technician told me that if they don't find anything with the heart, they generally move on to the gall bladder. In the 7 hours I spent in the ER and the 3 hours I spent in testing today, couldn't they have checked this out already?

I ended the test by breaking my fast with Gail at Cafe Rio. Nothing like a Pork Barbacoa Salad and good company to make the day better (thanks Gail!). Anyway, should know tomorrow or Monday if they have ruled out the heart as the problem.

The Way My World Works...

As many of you know, I am a HUGE fan of The West Wing - possibly the best written show to grace TV (at least the first four seasons anyway). Last Christmas they had a great sale on The West Wing Complete Series collection so I bought myself a gift. Normally, I would have opened it immediately because I know what happens when I put these things off but for reasons surpassing understanding, I didn't get around to opening it until now. I know better than this! Sure enough, upon opening it, now that the return period has long since passed, I discover that my complete series has two season fours and no season one. Of course it does. This is the way that my world works...

A Night in the ER

Chest pain, arm pain, shortness of breath. Uh oh. It's 11:30 at night. I live alone. What now? Call 911? Call Gail? Call Shannon? Oh, I know. Why don't I drive myself to the ER. Genius (not)! And away I went for my first visit to the Emergency department at Lakeview Hospital. Of course, as I am driving to the hospital, I am thinking "am I having a heart attack?", "what if I suddenly get a chest clutching pain and wreck my car?", "whose bright idea was it to drive myself to the hospital?" This really gave my heart the extra punch it needed to race out of control.


I got to the ER in what I can only assume was record time and there was one person checking in ahead of me. I rubbed my chest and without missing a beat the receptionist says to the man she is registering "hold on" turns to me and says "what's going on?" All it took was "I have chest pains" and suddenly I was through the doors, strapped to all sorts of machines, and having an IV inserted. It was without a doubt the fastest I have every been processed at the ER. My nurse Sue became my new best friend. She drew blood, got an IV started, took my blood pressure and other vitals, asked a ton of questions and then introduced me to Dr. Adorable who asked me all the same questions that Sue had already asked. I felt like I was taking a truth test. After a quick exam, Dr. Adorable ordered chest x-rays and an EKG. It's possible he was actually called Dr. Weber, but if I was going to be stuck in an episode of Grey's Anatomy, I was calling him what I wanted. He looked to be in his twenties but then I heard the nurses gossiping about him and learned that he was actually 37. Let the fantasies begin.


Anyway, I spent the next 7 hours with these wonderful and entertaining people. Fortunately for my entertainment value, the ER was a lively spot last night. There was the man with "back pain" who kept causing trouble, then he wet the bed, and finally he got a couple of doses of pain meds at which point he declared his patient rights had been violated and walked out causing Nurse Sue and Nurse Dave to run down the street after him and for the remaining nurses to call security. The police eventually caught up with him and when they called to return him they were told that the ER didn't need the patient back, they just wanted his IV removed so feel free to yank it out. I then overheard the security guy and the nurses talking and they said he had been picked up behind the post office in Centerville. Hold on there - I live behind the post office in Centerville. This was not comforting news.


Following that guy, there was an attempted suicide victim, a person suffering from a stroke, a couple of elderly people who had fallen, a sick baby, etc. There was a steady stream of humanity into the ER last night. As my curtained off cubicle was located right next to the nurses station I got to hear all the gossip and the conversation including the lively debate on who was going to administer a suppository to one of the unfortunate patients. I am pretty sure they did some version of rocks, paper, scissors to decide this!


But enough about others, this is really all about me. Once the X-Rays and EKG were out of the way, they administered a GI cocktail. A nasty combination of some numbing gel stuff and chalky Maalox to see if the pain was being caused by acid reflux. I was kind of hoping this was it but since downing the cocktail did nothing for me, they ruled that out. Next it was baby aspirin followed by nitroglycerin administered every 5 minutes. This pretty much just caused a headache and did nothing for the pain and very little for my way too high blood pressure. When these treatments failed, they decided to try pain killers and administered an IV of Morphine.



At this point Sue informed me that I was not going to be able to drive myself home and I was going to need to contact someone. All I could think was "great, instead of calling someone at 11:30 to drive me over, I need to call someone at 3:00 in the morning!!! to drive me home". Gosh, who would I grace with this lucky phone call. I decided to wait until they were actually releasing me so that I could give people a chance to get as much sleep as possible. It's a good thing that I waited as the morphine dropped the pain down a level which was good and brought my blood pressure down but not nearly to what they wanted it to be. This then launched the do we admit her, what do we try next debate. They went for the heavy duty anti-inflammatory next which had no noticeable results. At this point we had reached the 4 hour point and they drew more blood so they could check the enzymes again for any heart damage. After this, the pulled out the big guns and administered the pain killer Dilauded which is a pretty heavy duty pain killer. This did the trick. I could either no longer feel the pain or I just no longer cared about the pain. Either way this was a big step up.
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After a conversation with a cardiologist and one more shot of Dilauded, they decided that they had done all they could for me, my blood pressure was finally normal, my other vitals had stabilized and they had neutralized the pain so they were comfortable releasing me with the promise that I do a stress test in the next couple of days and follow up with the cardiologist. It was now 6:00 in the morning. 6 1/2 hours after arriving, it was time to go home. The winner of the early morning wake up call was Craig. I am pretty sure that all I coherently got out was I had spent the night in the ER and I needed a ride home. Big Brother to the rescue! He came and got me safely home where I immediately passed out and slept until noon at which point Gail took me back to the ER to pick up my car with barely a lecture on not having called her in the first place to take me to the ER (and I promise never to drive myself again...I hope). Thanks Craig and Gail. What a great family I have!
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So, basically, at this point the exact cause of the symptoms is unknown. They have ruled out acid reflux. They aren't sure if the pain was coming from the heart or not as the EKG's and blood work showed nothing out of the ordinary. It could be as simple as a pulled muscle or something more complicated with the heart. I am having a stress test on Thursday which I am guessing will be followed by the Dr.'s instruction to lose weight. I will keep you all posted!

Charlie Wilson's War

I just finished the Audio book Charlie Wilson's War. It was a very, very, very long book but an interesting one. It was about the war in Afghanistan and Texas Congressman Charlie Wilson's role in what would become the defeat of the Russians and their withdrawal from Afghanistan. I grew up during this era and it happened at a time in life when I was much more politically minded than I am now so I remember many of the events. At the end of the book, in the epilogue, it talks about unintended consequences. Charlie Wilson's war became the catalyst for the fall of communism. It also, in an unintended consequence, became the mobilizer of a generation that is now steeped in anti-Americanism. I think it's a vivid illustration that doing what you know is right doesn't mean that everything that results from it is going to be good or right. It is also a vivid illustration of the difference one person with a passionate focus can make. Just a point for all of us to ponder in our deeper moments.

On a separate and lighter note, the end of every audio section ended the same way. After listening for hours and hours to blunt dialogue, sometimes racy, often crude, with no language being edited out and enough language to earn it an R rating within the first couple of chapters, it would end "brought to you by Audible Kids". Seriously!?! Clearly no one at Audible Kids actually read or listened to this book.