Do's & Don'ts

Oh my word, all the things I need to share with you! It has been quite the adventure, my life. Don't act surprised.

My 18hr ride with Mom, Grandma, & Aunt to TX went surprisingly great! (I didn't doubt it would, but you never know.) It was the complete Adventures of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood! Fun, drinking, feuding, old ladies, ..haha. Seven long yrs have passed since my last road trip to the cowboy state, but I remembered everything like it was yesterday. The 25 mile bridge with swampy, alligator infested waters, the city of Houston with it's roller coaster of freeways, overpasses, & interstate, the outrageous #s of Whataburger's. As an 'adult', I'm still just as scared as I was as a tot of the architecture in Houston. Agoraphobic, that's me. Just another noun to add to my labels.

Scared and excited at the same time, I was anxious about joining in with the cousins, worrying about if I would fit in and such.My sister backed out at the last minute. Hey, what are they for? They took me in as if I were their own & as if we had hung out last wk. We surely missed out during our childhood/teenage yrs. We could have caused some damage! Rockport, TX is a gorgeous place! It's a small town like my own hometown, but there is so much to offer. The water & views are priceless. Tourism is a big hit, but they still keep their small town mentality. One grocery store & a Wal-Mart with lots of condos!!! Kind of peculiar.

You should recall how wonderful my Grandma is. She comes into town, and it's amazing just to see how much love she has for everyone. Cousins, neices, nephews, siblings all come together. Mind you Grandma is 74, kicking it like she's 34. I learned more about family history on the road. She worked in a burn unit for 7yrs! I just can't help but admire her more & more everyday. A burn unit? I'm afraid my Special Care Unit will be the highest acuity in which I'll attempt to work. It takes a certain personality to be able to work in a burn unit, especially in a huge hospital in Galveston. All of my life she has worked in the OR and L&D, which is also highly respectable. I feel like we have our special bond since I will, hopefully, follow in her footsteps with our careers. I've been aware of her humongous, extremely forgiving, family-bound heart for yrs, but her work on a burn unit just opened a whole new doorway. Seems silly, but since she is older (sorry!), it's easy to forget that she too once was young bouncing around a hospital, elbow deep in IVs, meds, poop. (hah, it's true.)

Off track, surprise. The wedding was absolutely stunning! Beautiful bride, handsome groom, great wedding party! I looked at my grandma in the food line, dancing already! The champagne effects didn't take too long to kick in. Of course, I don't think it took too long for any of us. We were all Dancing in the Moonlight before long. My cousin sang "Ava Maria" & "At Last" Yes, she's phenomenal. American Idol, can I get a vote?

Basically, my family is beautiful and always has the best time. Duh! If you couldn't tell that by now, you need not read any further! JK!

Time to depart came all too soon :( 18hrs away back to Alabama, we go. This was the turning point-where we all kind of stopped liking each other. Mom was being unpleasant. We got lost. My iPOD had low battery. Grandma wanted kid's meal from Krystals, after I proceeded to tell her they do not sell those, but that I would get exactly what she wanted. "Just get me a kid's meal", she would say. Finally, I said, "OKAY Grandma." We had to stop at every specialy meat place there was. Gurosss! I don't even like jerky, weird sausage, dried up meat products. Aggravated just a little, I say just take me to McDonald's, one of the biggest mistakes of my life. Not a fan. Never really have been, and DEFINITELY never will be. 24hrs later, somebody' got a case of freaking Shigella. Not really, but some severe food poisoning.

Very unpleasant. I couldn't even keep ice chips down. We made the wise decision to admit me into the hospital...ON THANKSGIVING! It's my favorite holiday! Are you kidding me? Please, say you're kidding. It's even worse being in nursing school because I'm watching everyone like a hawk, every move, every breath. Hah..stalker. I had to give every kind of 'sample' in the book. "OH, you are sick..I've never seen this before...I showed it to the other nurses...They've never seen it either...blah blah." Please, spare my dignity. A girl I graduated with had to wheel me down to XRay. I'm pretty stubborn too, so that was the last on my To-Do List. Mom & Dad saw each other. AWKWARD. My sister & ex-boyfriend had to be cordial. You could smell the awkwardness. The whole family visited, which was very nice!!..even though they had just stuffed their faces with turkey dinner while I forced jello down my throat. Bitterness? Nah. I shed a few lbs. over this, & that's enough to satisfy me.

Bed time. "I'll take the Phenergan, now." Knock, knock, the nurse enters, walks closer & closer, reaches for my IV. "Oh, I forgot to dilute it. I'll be right back." WHAT!!! Great, send me into a code and burn all my veins out; I don't need them. Then, of course, story of my life, I have an adverse reaction- dystonia movements. It's kind of like dyskinesia, uncontrolled moving of the muscles, especially in the limbs. Patients with Parkinson's experience this or it's caused by antipsychotics. For an hour, I looked like I was doing the Thriller dance. It was one of the most horrible times of my life. The phenergan was trying to knock me out, but the muscle contracting wouldn't let me. One of the nurses says it's probably your potassium. Had I been in my right mind, I would have said, no, you're wrong. I just took a medicine that causes extreme drowsiness, but all of a sudden, my muscles are contracting from low K+? Who are these people taking care of me? Eventually, I passed out. My doc said I should have asked for an order of Benadryl to immediately reverse those effects. Dang! I feel like the nurse should have used her critical thinking skills to solve the problem. 4 cans of chicken broth later, here I am, wondering how to make a pumpkin pie! Ha. I am grateful for the 5 bags of Lactated Ringer's within 24hrs, & the nurses really did do a good job in aiding with my recovery.

I must warn you: I've only had 2 cases of food poisoning, which were both severe enough to be hospitalized, and both were from MCDONALD's. Yeah, think twice about driving in for that $1 menu at Mickey D's. Two different states, two different items in two years. DONE! I'm done. No mas para mí. Nunca!

I hope I didn't overwhelm you all! I'll be back soon!
Love!