2-II-2007, or, I'm fine, thanks!
by Aaron Shurtleff on February 2, 2007
A quick message to those concerned (and apparently slightly confused about Florida locations):
I am fine. I was not in the path of tornados. My place of employment was not in the path of tornados. That all happened further northeast of here. My house and cats are fine. My wife is in Tennessee, so she is definately fine! I got some nasty thunderstorms, and other than having four cats with poofy tails, we all weathered the storm (so to speak) very well indeed.
Please continue your regular business! :)
[Added at 3:40 pm EST (1540)]
Golly! What a day! My mom tends towards the worries-too-goshdarn-much (which is where I get it from! Yay!), so she needed to be called and assured that I was fine. My wife also called to check on us. I guess I'm more loved than I thought. Awwwwwwwwww! Actually, I think my wife was more concerned about the cats, but I'm good with that.
Well, as of yesterday, I officially watched the entire anime series "Angelic Layer", which is totally not girly in any way, and I have no reason to be embarrassed. So there! :P It was really good, and I think the ending was sweet, without being too unrealistic. If you watch it, the basic premise (a fighting game where the combatants are dolls (called Angels) which are controlled by people using only their minds (and a special sort of helmet, of course...this isn't telekinesis!)) is sort of unrealistic, but there you are! I would definately recommend it, and it will get the coveted 4 stars out of 5 on the "Shh! Don't tell anyone I watch school girl anime!" scale.
And, no, Lori, I still haven't gotten to The Irresponsible Captain Tylor, yet. :)
Song of the day is "Leper Messiah" by Metallica. I accidentally watched 10 minutes of that Metallica movie (I think it's called Some Kind of Monster, but don't me to that!), so I had to pump the old school Metallica to remind of how things used to be when I was younger. And it's the better than "Send Me Your Money" by Suicidal Tendencies! (There's a link between the two songs...duh!)
Well, I was at the doctor's on Wednesday, and I had to get a CT scan (the glorious CAT scan! Yippie!) So I go a-rolling into the imaging center to drink my banana smoothie flavored barium...[Let me interrupt myself to mention that whoever came up with the "flavor" known as artificial banana deserves a death so vile and putrid that I haven't come up with it yet...but it hurts and it lingers for a long long time!), and then I wait about an hour and a half to get into the lovely CT scanning machine (hereafter referred to as Hades). So, I'm a-walking in there, naively expecting this to be a nice, routine, in-and-out affair (like sex...ha ha), and I see the technician pull out some needles. I don't like needles, you see, and I didn't know that there would be needles. But, OK, whatever! I guess you need an IV drip of iodine solution to stain your blood vessels in your major organs...who knew? Anyhow, I lie back and they put me in and out of Hades, back and forth, hold your breath, now breathe normally, etc. Then, she comes out to start up the IV (that as in eye vee, not as in four) with the iodine. The technician tells me that some people feel a slight hot feeling as the dye goes in...what she didn't tell me is that this hot feeling, when it hits your lower abdominal area, feels much like some kind of warm fluid is running down your leg. So, here I am going in and out of Hades, wondering if I peed myself, or if it just felt that way (and praying most mightily that it was just a feeling!), hold your breath, breathe normally, done. The technician comes and takes the IV out, gives me water (must stay hydrated to flush out the dye, you see!), and gets ready to escort me out. While she's talking to me, I notice that she's looking at me funny (I am so used to it! Really!). Finally she asks me, "Do you feel itchy right now?" Not the kind of question you expect to hear, but I said, "Umm..no." (Yeah, I am talkative! Sue me!) She grabs my arm and leads me towards the bathroom, puts me in front of the mirror, points to a couple of big white bumps on the side of my face, and says, "Were those there when you came in, or are they new?" And, yes, they were certainly new! About this time, I do start to feel itchy, and these same big, white bumps start showing up on my arms and chest. And of course, I start to feel a little tickle in the back of my throat. Guess who's allergic to the dye that was placed into their circulatory system, which takes 36-48 hours to flush itself out? (The answer is me, and if you guessed that, a winner is you!) Long story short, my quick day at the doctor's turned into a long miserable day of observations and making sure I can still breathe (and, no, I never actually got so bad that I couldn't breathe, thank God/Goddess/Gods/Goddesses/Flying Spaghetti Monster/Charles Darwin!)
And, no, they still don't know what's wrong with me. But they're starting to discuss using a camera to find out what my tummy trouble might be. If anyone can think of an acceptable way to get a camera into me to see my stomach and intestines, please let me know. I can think of two ways that don't involve surgery, and I don't know which is the worst option...
So, remember, no matter how bad it is, it could be worse!
I don't believe that, but I'm trying to be optimistic. Stupid stomach pain!
[Edited at 4:15 PM EST (1615)]
No, I didn't pee myself, just felt that way! Yay!!
Five Replies to 2-II-2007, or, I'm fine, thanks!
Lori Lancaster | February 4, 2007
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Aaron Shurtleff | February 5, 2007
Scott's even further south than I am, so I'd say he's safe too. I don't know that he might know someone from that area.
Apparently, iodine allergy is fairly uncommon, and I never knew I had it, so no one really expected it.
And demons come in many sizes, but I'll assume you mean the big mamma-jamma demons!
Aaron Shurtleff | February 6, 2007
Apparently, thanks to the glut of information on the web, I was absolutely wrong. Even though I was told by the technician (AND the doctor that was called in for observation) that I was allergic to iodine, that was not right. Apparently, there is no such thing as iodine allergy, and it was an allergy to the other parts of the dye. My bad.
Scott Hardie | February 7, 2007
Yikes, Aaron. You were spared the tornadoes and wound up spinning around feeling wet anyway. Best wishes and hopes you get better.
All fine here. My recent absence from the site is due to work and woman, not weather.
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