Bleah, pollen, asthma... bleah. (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

I am staying home today because my asthma is still not better. I may ask for higher meds if this does not improve, like go on Advair or something. An annoying side effect of asthma, for those who have never had it, is belching. It's because you strain so hard to breathe over a long period of time, you swallow lots of air. I have been burping so much, my throat hurts. I still don't think I am sick, per se, because I don't feel achy or feverish or anything other than a standard asthma attack. Maybe it's being sneaky.

I am also missing-a da Pope Mass. Posted in: asthma , health , medical , pope

My back, my lungs... (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

My asthma was really bad last night. I ended up taking some meds that made me all jittery and wired, which didn't help my back much although my back feels a HELL of a lot better today than it did yesterday.

Stupid pollen.

I decided to work from home. CR got takayla's flu, and now he's sick, so he's at home with me. I, still, have managed not to get that kind of sick. No fever, no chest rattling, no flu-like symptoms. Posted in: asthma , back , health , lungs

punkwalrus @ 2007-11-27T15:56:00 (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

CR finally got his hair cut. It had been very long, and I think it was starting to bother him. He got it cut short like mine, and he looks very nice. While I didn't like him having long hair, he always kept it clean. The way I saw it is that this was the time he could have long hair and not worry about the stigma you get as a male adult.

He's still sick, however. Well, I am not sure it qualifies as "sick" anymore, because now it's more of long-lasting thing with his asthma. He sees the pulmonary specialist again on Thursday.

The progression to move my den to his room and vice versa still goes on. It's slow going because I am the only one who can move anything, and I am down to furniture and boxes. Actually, part of the problem is I am out of boxes. But the last 4 day weekend gave me enough time to move myself to his old room, so I am hoping that the rest of the move will go quicker. Posted in: asthma , cr , den , medical , move , room

Massive ... fall cleaning? (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

There is a pile of trash by my stairs about 4 feet tall. It's about 11 bags, I figure. It represents about a day's worth of cleaning of my son's old room, my old den, and the bedroom. To be fair, some of it is a bunch of crushed and damaged empty boxes.

I moved a majority of my critical items from my old den to my son's old room. The swap is mutual: my son wanted a smaller room closer to his bathroom, and I wanted a larger room with windows. Also, my old den has no carpeting, so it should better for his asthma (so they say).

Part of the house's "computer operations" originated from my den, which meant a lot of yesterday was not only cleaning up my son's room, but moving all the computers and networking stuff to the closet up in the bigger room. Luckily I had a lot of boring meetings recently, and planned it all out on paper while my boss and some of the other admins took 20 minutes to discuss a minute's worth of material.

My son's old room still has no working door. I need a circular saw to cut the new door to the size of the old one, plus a little smaller since the old door didn't quite fit. But using a power screwdriver and a rigged spade bit, I was able to make some holes in the old door that make it friction-fit to keep the pets out.

My cats love computers. They want to sit by the hot fans and clog them with cat hair. They also love chewing on cable ties, Velcro wraps, and then fight over who gets to be near a window. Sometimes, they hide so I won't see them to shoo them out, and they get locked in, and poop on the floor.

Yeah, my den has to be a cat-free zone. Posted in: asthma , cats , computers , den , pets

CR so far (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

CR is doing worse slightly, so they have upped the steroids and the doctor approved him for 6 months homebound schooling. They have some theories as to what it is, and think it might be a medicine they need to put him on (and forgot), or it might be a severe mold issue. They took a lot of blood out of him for testing allergen counts as well as deep allergy testing purposes (they can't do a skin reaction on him because of the steroids). He is going to have a CT scan for his lungs instead of just his head. Now we just have to convince the school to agree to home schooling, and we're set as far as that goes. I suspect CR will lose his job which he only had for a few weeks, but oh well. :(

He is going to move into my den. The cleaning of my den is going very badly. I had so much packed in here, that it's unfolding in mess like unwadding a tight ball of paper in the fact it covers more space with the same amount of stuff. I have generated 5 bags of trash, packed several storage bins, and it still looks like I have done very little. It's really depressing.

Lastly, an apology might be in order. Sorry, patches023, but I was late getting home and I abruptly left you while rushing for the train. It sounded like you ran into someone saying goodbye to me, and a nasty exchange ensued between him and you. I hope that wasn't your voice, and it was some other woman's, but if I caused you to run into that guy, I deeply apologize. I also apologize for sort of ending our conversation in mid sentence when I realized that I needed to be on that train. I am scatterbrained on the Metro, ask mysticpaws. It was nice seeing you, though! Posted in: asthma , cr , hospital , medical , mess , metro , room

CR is home (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

First thing CR did was take a shower. He had been showering in the hospital, but they didn't have anything but baby shampoo and a mild soap. He's on many meds, has a huge list of instructions, and we visit the pulmonologist again later this week.

His breathing was much improved, then took a downturn when we came outside, but it recovered. He still gets dizzy and out of breath rapidly. He demanded we go to the Olive Garden, where he snarfed a lot of food because the hospital left him starving. The diabetes thing has been reduced to Metformin while he's on steroids, but apparently they had some nutritionist come in and discuss things with him.

While he showered and settled in back home, I followed takayla around and helped her find some of the elements to her "Lady Luck" costume. She's going to a costume party after we hand out candy on Wednesday. I can't go, I am on call starting Monday until the Monday before my birthday (standard 2 weeks). I shopped for the rest of what I am putting in the goodie bags: full sized Milky Ways, Reeces Cups (2 pair packaged), and Charms Blow pops. I wanted Tootsie Pops, but they were out. Sadly, they also reduced the number of bars per box from 48 to 36. We usually get about 50 kids, and I try and have two things per bag, so I am doing a mix, getting rid of the chocolate first before I eat them all. If I plan this right, I should end up with just Blow Pops left.

I also got some stuff to fix a lot of my... necklaces. I have collected a lot of them over the years, and one large one had been a lump of various objects that I need to separate. I got some satin string and a few pretty beads to space things. Now 4 necklaces can become 7! Wait...

Two friends volunteered to help move CR from his room to my den, which will put him in a smaller room (which he asked for) and put me in a bigger one with carpeting (yay). But they are coming next weekend at 3, so I have to rush like mad to sort through my shit in my den, and clean up his room more so I can put it in.

Oh, last night we celebrated Samhain a little early with some friends. It was great; we spoke of many people who had passed, celebrated our pal Kenny's birthday with some cake, and generally raised a lot of good energy. I really hope the New Year will be good to me because this year sucked something horrible. Posted in: asthma , cr , hospital , medical , room , samhain

CR Update (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

He's well enough to be released on Sunday, they think. He's now been reduced to "diabetic tendencies," and will be on Metformin. No idea what happened or why he got sick. No assurance they cured anything that won't just come back next week. Another lecture on weight and we should get rid of cats and move to another house "just to be sure." While the conversation started out pleasant, the doctor because rather sarcastic and alarmist rather quickly after I asked her more detailed questions about what went wrong with his breathing in the first place. I was having issues with an answer like, "These things sometimes happen." It was apparent she was taking my questions personally, and not as queries, and I had to repeat in a calm voice I was just asking because nobody seemed to have a plan except "keep taking medications." What should we look for, are there breathing exercises, should he wear a mask, what long term strategies do you have besides "watch his diet" and "get exercise" do you have?

The whole thing seemed rather "take two pills and call me in the morning" to me.

She then switched tactics and made some assumptions about how we raise him, and kept telling me, "He has to keep taking his medication!" I know! I never said he didn't; I watch him do it every day. He knows too! And yes, my wife IS aware, *she's* the one who handles the prescriptions in this house. Stop saying that, you are answering a question I didn't ask. I asked only once, "How do we reduce his dependencies on medication and replace it with diet, exercise, and so on?" and she just assumed after that I wanted him off his meds like I was some herbal loonie or Christian Scientist or something.

"JAY-suz shall HAIL mah sun... and no med-dee-CAY-shuns shall the devil bring..."

Very frustrating. Posted in: asthma , cr , hospital , medical

CR Update (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

Well, they are waffling on the diabetes thing. First they said he had it with a blood sugar in like 400 or so. Then the next test he was 90. Then they said it was the steroids. Then he was at 330. Then they said steroids would only increase the count to maybe 50, not 300. So they have cut all salt, sugar, and carbs from his diet. So when I got home from work to visit him, he was on steroids, starving, getting insulin shots, and got the whole, "So you're fat..." set of videos (but no VCR to play them). He was all sorts of pissed off; both chemically and emotionally.

They still don't know why he has trouble breathing, but he's breathing more normally now. He's on a steady set of nebulizer treatment, steroids, antibiotics, insulin, and getting his blood drawn every 12 hours. The current consensus is that they will adjust his medicine a little, but not much. Our biggest fear is that he'll be let go without any plan beyond the hospital stay and be right back to where he started. We fear he's been defined as "fat" and they may just stop diagnosing anything else.

I managed to cheer him up a little, explaining why he was fat, how the world sees fat people, and what we should do about it. I have a huge speech that goes with this, but it's almost 2am as I write this, so I am not going into it. But he was in better spirits when our friend Gay dropped by to chat. We stayed until about 10, and then Gay gave me a lift home. Posted in: asthma , cr , hospital , medical

Sad news (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

CR is in the hospital. We took him to the pulmonary specialist, and he was doing much worse, so she wanted to hospitalize him for the next 48-72 hours. She put him on some super-steroids and other meds, and he's under 24x7 watch. His oxygen is good, but he is still having a lot of trouble drawing breath.

I really don't have much else to say besides that. We won't know anything until tomorrow. Posted in: asthma , cr , hospital , medical

What's wrong with CR (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

The current theory by the pulmonologist , based on symptoms and scans, is that he is violently allergic to formaldehyde. I told him not to drink the stuff, but kids these days... and pressure treated lumber is very resistant to bugs, too. Okay, seriously, he was exposed to it at school in his new anatomy and physiology class. It was necessary for his vet tech certification, and now we're at a loss because, well, you can't be in any medical profession without formaldehyde.

CR has decided through all this he wants to be a chef. I think there was always this narrowing down of what he would be capable of in the veterinary field with his asthma. I mean, at our vet's office, two people have asthma, and one of them has like 10 cats and 5 dogs in her house (one of the "calamities" one usually faces working in a vet's office is ending up with a lot of spare animals, ask anyarm). While CR excelled at his chosen profession, it looked like he would never get higher than a vet tech, which depressed him a little. This was sort of the final blow.

On top of all this, they think he got a raging sinus infection during his downtime, which may have led to sleep apnea, and possible acid reflux (which is a genetic issue on his mother's side). So he's on more meds, and will get a cat scan or MRI (I forget which) to check his sinuses because if he has the kind that they think he has, it requires a 45-90 day treatment of various stages of antibiotics. Makes me wonder if he needs a neti pot.

Anyway, that's the story so far. He went back to school again today, after being absent about 17 days out of 20. His school is trying to get him accommodated, and I want to thank Chantilly High for not being bastards about this whole thing. There are some people working there who have really been helpful, and while there are still some bureaucratic snags, we hope to have them resolved by the end of the second quarter so he can graduate in 2008. Posted in: asthma , cr , medicine , school , sick

Weekend Wrapup: Thisby, Katsu, power, CR (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

Well, I was on call this weekend, so I didn’t do much exciting. Oh, wait, I got cat food!

My cats are sooooooooooooooo friendly to me when they are out of food. Oh, even Thisby becomes friendly. She lets me pick her up and everything without goring me in the process. Thisby also attacked a cat for the first time: she jumped on Cosmo! It’s funny, that poor cat has spent so much of her life under the bed, that now she’s more out and about, she’s learning how to be a cat for the first time at age 8. She’s more and more curious about things than she used to be, although she’s still easily spooked. For instance, cat “fights” have been her new curiosity. Some of my cats fight, but not really. Most of it is wrestling, swatting, and dominance games; no yowling or fur flying. Cosmo and Taboo were hashing it out over a small clump of yarn, and Thisby, for reasons we can only speculate, jumped on Cosmo. But not like a swat, more like a leap of a flying squirrel that landed on Cosmo as awkwardly as a sack of rice. It scared the SHIT out of Cosmo, who was a surprised as the rest of us that Thisby had done anything. Thisby, who also surprised at the action, immediately ran off. It sure ended that fight. We think Thisby is sweet on Taboo, and was defending him.

Saturday, we went to the Katsu meeting in Baltimore (they have network access, so I was allowed to go). Some very important discussions and announcements were made, but I don’t know what can be public, so I won’t say anything. I was glad I went. There was some discussion about the Opening Ceremonies Movie: it can’t be done in the form we wanted due to time and personnel constraints. I had discussion with Alex who wanted a small five minute film “What We Do” sort of thing, and he’s going to see if he can budget some software for me to edit it. At the con, I am going to do Opening Ceremonies and AMV again (if asked), but to fill out some time to earn my way, I am also going to be working the staff suite.

After that, takayla and I had sushi. The Sakura (which, I have to point this out, is pronounced SAH-koo-ra, not “Sah-KYER-ah” or “Sah-kyur-a”, it’s Japanese for “Cherry blossom”) is a favorite place of ours ever since the Hama Sushi shipped all their good chefs to their newer DC restaurant. There is a waitress there named Eunice who sometimes has a Hello Kitty-themed obi. She’s almost always there. Like, she’s the hardest working girl I have ever seen. In the years that we ate there, she made her first mistake she has made with us, ever. I wanted to order “Blue Crab” Nigiri, but I got the “Giant Clam” (mirugai) instead. Ew. I mean, I’ll try anything at least once, but giant clams are safe from me for a very long time. It was rubbery and tasteless, just like tako (octopus) which I have tried in several different forms and it still tastes like I’m eating a pencil eraser. Eunice corrected the mistake without question, although I feel guilty having wasted mirugai (which is expensive) but... blecch.

I got Lego gummies at BJ’s. They did not stack. I am very disappointed.

Sunday I had some plans to clean and do laundry, but then we lost power. So we made plans to go to Starbucks, because CR’s nebulizer requires power. Then we got our power back. Crisis averted, although we still went to Starbucks.

But, CR is not doing too well. Last week, he went to the doctor, and while they can see his asthma problems in X-rays (like windpipe restrictions) they can’t find the cause (no pneumonia so far). He’s been on steroids, and then more powerful steroids, but he hasn’t been able to stay off his nebulizer (a machine that pumps medicine vapors via face mask) of more than a few hours. And the specialist is always busy. We had to fight like mad to get him to get an “emergency” appointment on Tuesday (from Thursday); usually they have a one-month waiting list. The general prediction is that it’s a bad cold on top of a severe ragweed alert for the area. The worst has been he’s been out of school for two weeks now, and I fear shortly they may have him repeat his senior year. And then there’s the concern, “How will he deal in real life?” Posted in: asthma , cats , cr , katsucon , legos , sushi , thisby

New Orleans - Days 3 & 4 (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

I did have time to summarize day #3 as we had a bit of an incident. Sadly, not the fun kind where your old Uncle Punkie ended up drunk and face down in the gutter in front of "Larry Flint's Barely Legal" (I swear, that really is the name of a strip joint here), but while checking up back home, we found out CR was not doing better.

See, he's been sick for about a week. He was getting better when we left, but sometime Saturday his health took a downturn and, well, long story short, he ended up in the emergency room. It's really hard to manage your child's health and well being from over 1100 miles away, but I would like to deeply thank our friend Gay, anyarm, and Brian for making sure he was taken care of and got his medication. He's better now, but the long of the short is that his asthma kicked his ass with a huge burst of ragweed pollen in the area coupled with a severe drop in temperature. Because this drama played out Saturday night, we did not go to Bourbon Street, which was just as well, because I ended up with some sinus headache from hell.

Both of us are better now. And, due to a side effect of the steroids, CR is no longer a vegetarian. He had a nearly 4 year run doing this, but the stress on his body due to lack of protein and options anywhere he wanted to eat outside of the house being limited, he has officially ended his vegetarian lifestyle, beating most college students, and only falling short of long term reigns behind people who grew up vegetarian and those who have no choice based on their living conditions. I am really proud of him for keeping it up this long, and to my friends who are still vegetarian, I have deep respect for your chosen struggle.

Sunday takayla and I went around the French Quarter, and then went to a spa and got massages. My massage was okay, but it wasn't spectacular. We spent some time down in that area, which seemed to be a college town area, where shops were closed on Sunday. We ended up going to CC's, which is their coffee chain here, a little like Starbucks, only not. It's like a Taco Bell Express of coffee houses, manned by the kind of people one expects from minimum wage.

We got back to the hotel, got some rest, and then spent the evening on Bourbon Street. For those not in the know, Bourbon Street is their main party central. During Mardi Gras, it's a shitty packed mess of drunken college kids, alcohol in plastic cups, puddles of vomit, and lots ands lots of young and perky titties. Off season, it's only slightly less subdued. The night we went, you could actually walk the street, and the vomit smell mixed with the smell of fryer grease to make an unpleasant melange that masked the "stripper smell" that wafted from the various establishments. Bourbon street is like 90% strip joints and booze. The other 10% is actually quite pleasant, and we spent the night listening to a group named "Steamboat Willie" play in a courtyard called "Cafe Beigniet." Admittedly, I am curious as to what I might experience at a place called "Big Daddies Bottomless/Topless," but the thought of obnoxious cover charges and skanks with skinny butts wanting me to slide some Jacksons down their crack was a bit too daunting.

After that, we took our tired asses to bed.

Monday morning, we had some business to take care of before we headed back out. We spent the last remaining hours before we had to return our car rental in the French Quarter. As I type this paragraph, we're back in the terminal at Louis Armstrong Airport in New Orleans, waiting for our plane. There's a HUGE HD TV with a giant windows ntoskernel GPF on the screen where flight info should be. Hahahahahaa.... I discretely took a picture with my cell phone, and sent it to my Flickr account.

The mission to New Orleans was successful, especially on such a short notice, thanks mostly to takayla who handled where we needed to be with tact and precision. This trip would not have been possible without her. Posted in: asthma , cr , new orleans , vegetarianism