ellenspictures

Category: life stories

  • Who Nose?

    Who Nose?

    Not mine but somebody else’s sinuses…

    I always since fifth grade and probably before that have had “sinus trouble”. I remember the big green pills that looked kind of like M&M’s that I had to take to help with this when I was a kid. I think that if you live where we do, everyone pretty much deals with this eventually because we have the humidity + crap in the air + lots of pollen and basically, the human nose and our animals, too, eventually go “snotty” and get clogged up and damaged so something gives.

    In my case it was a torrential nose bleed. Holy shit! One box of Kleenex later and the bathroom looked like a crime scene! Couldn’t get it to stop no way no how. Didn’t have the right “spray” to stop it. Squeezed my nose as the “inter-google” told us. Hubby drove me to the 24-hour pharmacy to get some of the “right spray”. Bleeding so much that I couldn’t get the spray to the source of the bleed. By that time it was coming out both nostrils! Holy crap!

    Ended up in the ER, with my blood-pressure raised so much it was like somebody gave me a cortisol cocktail with a side-car of adrenaline! The nurse said, “honey, calm down”… Sure. All my blood is coming out of my nose and you want me to calm down… Right-o! Not.

    Eventually, the nurse gave me a nose plug device, and a cold pack to put across my nose, and the bleeding calmed down. The doc came in after an hour or so, and checked me out. He told the big nurse to jam the Dristan up my nose and with three squirts in each nostril, after a bit, the bleeding slowed to a trickle whereby at that point, I think I could have used a transfusion… They said, “you didn’t lose as much blood as you think.” I thought, “you didn’t see the bathroom!”

    And no, hubby had nothing to do with this other than to be so kind as to drive me to the all-night pharmacy, and then to the ER and sit and wait for hours with me until I was cleared to go home… He is a saint. That’s the plain truth of this story.

    Next chapter. After deeper examination, I ended up going to a specialist. At the second visit, a CT scan of my sinuses was performed. I have a long list of “issues” that come with long term damage – probably not the worst they’ve seen, but probably not the best either… So I am lined up for a “nose job” – to correct the deviated septum (warped), and open up the circuitous clogged passages that look like some sort of video game maze quest for treasure tunnels…

    Apparently, after about a week or so, I should be good to go after they open things up with these little balloons that they poke up in there and “push” these passages open, and tell them “stay”, which apparently they do. Not sure what the procedure is with straightening the crooked septum – some sort of electrical thingy they use, apparently…

    And there are these things that hang down that have gotten over-sized that they are going to “trim” somehow. I dunno, but I hope they know what they are doing! I’m sure they do thousands of these because everyone here suffers and the ones who just can’t stand it anymore go and get this done.

    Someone who had this done told me how it went for her, but that was five years ago and well… you know, things get “different” in medicine. It’s not like it used to be, that’s for sure. I’ll find out soon.

    I’m here to tell you that if I reach this point, I’m there, dude, and I have and I am. Hubby asked, “will there be bruising?”, and I said, “God, I hope not!” I think he is worried about appearances, LOL!

    Just tell them I had a “nose job”. It’s the truth.

  • Very cold and crazy. At the holidays. Is it a gift?

    Very cold and crazy. At the holidays. Is it a gift?

    “White Dog on Snow” – The 2021 Freezeageddon – we are missing this girl this year.

    This holiday season started off as normally as it could. But then. The super-winter-weather-bomb cyclone event named Elliot (like a winter Hurricane) – the swooping down of the Arctic Vortex like this has caused havoc for millions of people this holiday:

    That is where it is today – and let’s just say people in places along the yellow and above that are freezing their asses off or buried in snow today.

    So, as you might expect, this is doing a big number on the US power-grid. Thanks to the tracking by the good folks at United States Power Outage Map – you can see for yourself at any given moment. Today’s winners are North Carolina, Tennessee, and Maine, with South Carolina and New York as runner-ups. Our famous Texas ERCOT grid, which promised full capacity is apparently still not there yet – oops. To be fair, part of Texas is actually in the MISO grid, but you would never hear the “dear gubner of Texas” say that out loud.

    Today’s power outage winners – a high level view of who is in and who is out of power on the morning of Christmas Eve 2022. Yesterday it was awful as Elliot has moved eastward across the USA – leaving freezing cold temps and/or precipitation for some.

    An important bit of research was published in September of 2021 in Science Magazine Linking Arctic variability and change with extreme winter weather in the United States | Science – with an explanatory infographic that tells the historical story of the Arctic and the influence of the big melting that is causing the shifts.

    So, where is Santa in all this?

    Current 10:47 AM look at where Santa has been already and where he and his sleigh are headed next…according to the Google Santa Tracker https://santatracker.google.com/

    Again, Google’s Santa Tracker gives us the view of where Santa is at the given moment on Christmas Eve having already begun his journey over 24 hours ago… Looks like he is over Russia at this hour. We’re not going to explain why “Vladdie P” isn’t getting a visit. That’s just obvious. But all the good children will certainly have the magic of Christmas wherever possible. Let’s hope that Santa encounters no issues as he works his way west to complete his journey! He has lots of experience, so we would expect that he knows the ropes, despite the climate change woes.

    For us here, it is small gatherings with family and friends. Colder than usual. No precipitation. Just riding the waves of memories of Christmases past and per my usual I hope for Peace on Earth and for people to get along better than they have been of late (and I’m talking about the whole wide world, not that I’m doing anything but feeding my hopes into some sort of pleading prayer stream…).

    OK, I was excited about something, but not sure what Dad was thinking!

    I am moved to write when I get to this time of year. Lots of the flowing memories and anxieties that come with the celebration of what this is all about.

    Sweet Jesus

    I am thankful for the gifts of the people in my life. For those who have left us, I am grateful that at least I had them in my life for the period of time that was meant to be a part of my role in this ongoing theater of life on Planet Earth. I am missing my people who are not here. Every year I miss them all the time. Guess this is just part of living…

    Happy Holidays to All!

  • December 11th

    December 11th

    It was a little after the last bar that it happened.

    It was 2006 in London, just before the part where I took a right to cross The Strand, and they went left to get to Embankment Station to get over to Waterloo Station before the last train left for Walton-on-Thames. A birthday dinner and some chatter, a Scottish whiskey bar, and more conversation. It was after four years of friendship. Lives change. People change. Magic happens.

    We have indeed learned so much together in 16 years. Wow. 16 years. Where has the time gone?

    Nearly 3 of it spent in our first global disaster. Yes, folks, it has been a global disaster that we are still adapting to in trying to understand how these types of things impact us.

    What you want is someone who you can trust to walk with you through these types of things. He can. He does. I hope I can do the same for him. Have I filled the shoes? I worry that I am not doing that very well, at times. I am a good bit older and wiser now, and find that the more that I know, the more I discover I don’t know!

    It’s the right brain-left brain thing. Let’s be real. I am slightly more left brained than I am right brained, but that right brain is ferocious sometimes, when under stress, and I am a creative thinker! What was that the lady said to me when she was doing that test that time? “You never stop thinking, do you?” Funny, then not so much.

    Yes, I am hyper-analytical, but also, probably pretty much in the boat of being fearful and anxious when something totally unexpected and foreign comes up. I think I fall into the boat of those who study a new thing and get less anxious about it, the more I learn and know about its perils and dangers, and how to mitigate risk. Likely, I do also fall into the risk-averse camp, but as long as I know the risk, and what to do, I’m cool with it.

    Love and fun – it’s what we are all about (mostly)!

    Thank God for my soul mate, who thinks of most everything when there is some sort of threat to our survival. A graduate of Outward Bound in NZ, he learned how to survive in the wilderness.

    I am experience-taught, mostly. My hardening has been a combination of self-inflicted introductions to new environments, trial-and-error episodes, and being found, suddenly, in those situations that are often the topics of many movies, stories, documentaries, and so forth. What do you do?

    Understand that God gives us the gifts of people in our lives. No two are alike. My tapestry includes many relationships with people – friendships, romantic relationships, business relationships and friendships, neighbors, others who you meet, sometimes just conversations on an airplane, during a long haul flight – you may never see them again, or you may end up being married to them, which in this case, the December 11, 2006 magical moment led to that.

    He has the best kindest most thoughtful heart and soul. My thing is that I need to shut-up and listen to him, which I try to do. There is a lot of yin and yang that we have to do, to try to balance, at times. It gets gnarly, sometimes. I am an annoying questioner. Don’t get me wrong, please! I am not criticizing – I am just confused! The older I get, the more clarification I need!

    I’m always working on improving. I really am. Relationships are 50/50 and I need to remember that. He is the absolute love of my life and as we go through life together, there is always the unexpected we face, 100% of the time, we can’t kid ourselves. There is no normal, and I am grateful for him, that he has given me the balance I often need!

    So, every year, celebrating this particular day is important and the date is forever on our calendars.