Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Day in the ER

So an interesting few days have gone on.

Monday night (late) my daughter came in my room saying she didn't feel so good - pretty much as she slid down the wall and passed out - I carried her downstairs and fed her - she was okay after that.

Yesterday I ate lunch, a huge greek salad with chicken, got back to my desk and an hour later felt like I was having a heart attack (well, the symptoms of) and asked a nurse to check my blood sugar (I've been hypoglycemic since I was in the 8th grade) so it was a whopping 56...that's not good! After about 3 hours - some orange juice and a ham sandwich on multigrain bread I began to feel a bit better.

This morning my daughter tells me she feels a bit crummy as she's getting ready to leave - I told her to make sure she ate plenty of food and off she went - before 8 a.m. the school nurse calls asking permission to take her blood sugar - sure thing! - it's in the 70's even though she had eaten not too long before...

shortly after this - around 10 a.m. my son's school calls, Brendon is in the nurses office saying it feels like his heart is starting and stopping (sounded like heart palpitations to both the nurse and I). We decide maybe if he lays there for a little bit he will feel better - a bit after that she calls me back and asks me to come and get him or they are calling the ambulance because he's still complaining of it plus he's having a hard time keeping his eyes open, breathing is shallow -etc....I rush over - get him to the ER. That's where we sat for the day....all the while I was getting phone calls from the nurse at the high school updating me on the almost hourly blood sugar tests she was doing on my daughter - who after chowing down again at lunch managed to hit a blood sugar of 82! Hurray!

At the ER they did an EKG, blood work and a chest x-ray - yeah - nothing too off kilter - so they call the cardiologist - ours isn't in the office but his partner is - and decides that Brendon should certainly see our cardiologist ASAP - but for us to call and schedule the appointment - GGgrrrrr . I was also informed that they are going to put him on a heart monitor for a month to see what's happening. Good deal!

Cassy also has an appointment to get her blood sugar checked and a total exam by the doctor to try to figure out if it's simple hypoglycemia that she needs to manage better or something else.

That's the state of my week thus far - no ride tonight - things were a bit nutso! Very stressed about the kids health but also stressed about money, missing hours etc. Rent due this week - Lord help me!

So that's about it - opening night of the musical Cassy is in is tomorrow night. See link - my daughter is not mentioned but she is one of the prostitutes...makes a mother proud :) http://www.midweeknews.com/articles/2009/04/28/95339131/index.xml

Going to get off now and go do something useful with myself until Cassy gets home from the last rehearsal.

Safe and Happy Riding.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

So proud of the boys

we rode to school today - it's 3 miles. Not a single complaint and we had to ride up that nasty hill on 1st street - not an easy feat on one of those 20 inch kids bikes. Even under the threat of rain they were happy to be riding.

On the way home they rode as well luckily on both trips managed to not get wet even though the weather men said we'd have rain and thunderstorms all day (Liars!).

They have requested that we ride again tomorrow...fun times!

I've got to call Tobie in the morning - I need new tires for the Trek ...these are 3 years old with atleast 4500 miles on them lol!
Happy riding!

Saturday, April 25, 2009

26 mph winds?

Last night Brett (a friend of mine) and I decided to go biking - we've been talking about it for a while and he's been interested in doing it. So, we managed to pick the windiest spring day thus far (or it felt like it anyway).

The wind was blowing steady at 26 mph but was gusting up to 32 mph. Are you kidding me?

What a lousy kind of day to ride with someone new to cycling. I promised it wasn't always so tough and after about 3 miles of getting almost blown down we turned around and rode home...the ride home was nice as we had the wind behind us!

We've agreed to try this again on a calmer day!

Happy Riding!

Sunday, April 19, 2009

A lovely lazy Saturday

This is how we spent our Saturday...so far a good weekend for me! This is my girl Vivian - she's gonna be three on July 4. She was catchin' some air.



Cassy found her spot and stuck to it.


The boys all getting ready to fish.




Gaven just had to pick up a snake. He spent more time chasing them around than actually fishing.



Cody picked the snake up by the tail...





Brendon trying to be a snake charmer.





Brendon's catch of the day...where my husband is from they call that bait...here we call it a catch!









How to eat Fried (and raw) worms.







Seeing as how he was obviously a snake charmer he thought he'd speak in tongues...





Brownie, our 7 year old German Shorthaired Pointer...very tired after his day of chasing snakes in the bushes and running around with the kids.


Friday, April 17, 2009

Vaction day spent on the bike

So here is my day in pictures - I rode out at 8 a.m. on my Trek road bike, stopping to take a few pics here and there. I got home in the late morning and took a quick shower before jumping on my Gary Fisher Wingra and pedaling around town. I stopped at the bike shop, which is a must if you have a day off, talked to Tobie about equipment for a self supported multi-day ride...

Without further ado...here is my day in pictures. I'll work on getting better at this. The I-88 Overpass on my way out of town.


Something I found on the side of the road, which I thought was picture worthy.


I had intended to ride down this road...



Until I saw the bridge was out...didn't feel like crossing the creek.





Folks, this is what DeKalb County looks like - no matter what direction you go...granted it gets prettier as the summer goes on - very green etc.




The duck was sunbathing...







Boarded up house on Gurler Road - which gave me the idea to try to take pictures of all the boarded up houses I come across in DeKalb County this riding season.






The waterworks at Rivermist subdivision (I ride through here because I love the wooden covered bridges, I'll take a pic of that next time, and the water ponds).








I thought the water shooting up made a good backdrop for my bike picture.










After getting on the Wingra I jumped on the bike path.









Some people canooing along the Mighty Kishwaukee River this afternoon. I've never canooed the Kish...so that's on my to do list for this summer.











Sunday, April 12, 2009

Easter Vigil



Last night was the Easter Vigil. The class I've been teaching received all their sacraments.


Gaven received his confirmation and First Communion. I won't post the pics with the kids from my class on here since it's a public blog that anyone can see and I don't have that kind of permission from their parents, but I will add a pic of Gaven with his Godparents (my brother and his fiance) and one of how great my hair looked (thanks to my fabulous hairdresser...my mom!).




I was very nervous about having to get up in front of the entire church but I quickly got over my nerves when 5 minutes into the service I look over to see my daughter literally fall forward, hitting the girl in front of her and then smacking her head on the pew...my husband caught her before she hit the floor but then she wouldn't come to for a few minutes - we got her outside into the fresh air and everyone wanted to call the ambulance etc...so I asked her when the last time she had eaten was...other than a few sunflower seeds she hadn't eaten since early morning when I made a big breakfast for the family...after eating she had a double header softball game, went to the grocery store for me, helped me with the name tags for the kids for the vigil, then got herself ready to go...so needless to say I'm pretty certain her blood sugar dropped (considering I'm hypoglycemic I'm going to have the dr. check her blood sugar - I'm almost willing to bet she sits a little lower than normal as I do)...Anyway once she scared me half to death I wasn't nervous about getting up in front of the church anymore. LOL!




Okay, here are the pics!

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Poor Brownie...

We took Brownie, our 7 year old German Shorthaired Pointer into the vet today for his rabies shot. She checked him out and found a hernia which supported what I had suspected and voiced to her as a concern. So, she's pushing on this hernia but all in all says that he looks good, maybe a few pounds under where his ideal weight is but he's gained a good deal of weight since we've had him so she said he looked good. We discussed his hips and what we could do about it and then left...sort of.

As we were standing out in the lobby by the desk waiting to pay - one of the techs walks up and says "Ma'am, he just peed blood"...I look down and indeed, he had peed and it was almost all blood! She asked if I'd like them to do a urine screen - well of course I do! So, they took him and did the screen, apparently he has a raging UTI, which I had not been aware of! They said the blood was probably because of pushing on his hernia, but it was a good thing it happened the way it did otherwise the poor ole guy wouldn't have gotten his UTI treated!

Needless to say, his yearly exam wasn't quite routine but I'm happy to say my dear brownie is being treated and is on the road to recovery!

Happy and Safe Riding.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Catholic Guilt and all that...

Tonight was the First Reconciliation service for the group of RCIA and RCIC candidates. It was interesting - Larry made me go up to the podium and read the psalm...he really doesn't appreciate how much I dislike being in front of a group of people. I am certain my face remained bright red for about 20 minutes after I had gone back to my pew and sat down. Oh well...I guess since I'll have to do this more often in the future that I will just have to get used to it.

The kids all lined up for reconciliation, along with the adult candidates...some of the other people who had come got in line as well, I didn't...which was fine and dandy until it was all over and Father walked up to the group I was standing around talking with and said "next time we will have to get Patty to come to confession.." OUCH! And bing, bang, boom...Catholic Guilt set in - and has been rearing it's head at me ever since.

I probably should have gone into the confessional - Lord knows I should have - but since it was supposed to be first reconciliation I felt like I shouldn't take up all the time that Father had to give...you know me...thus confession is time consuming :)

So, now that the guilt has set in, I suppose I will now need to go to confession tomorrow!
I have to admit I like Joan's idea of emailing the priest our list of sins for confession and they could email us our penance...(Sarcasm...sort of)...while the idea of not having to go sit there and bear my soul sounds good, I know it wouldn't have the same effect...but a girl can dream can't she?

That's about it. I suppose I will also have to go to this particular priest since he 'busted' me out so publically.

Safe and Happy riding! Here's hoping the weather improves soon!