Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Oh, ps.

I forgot to mention.

I'm starting an intense entrepreneurial workshop (the fewer times I have to type entrepreneurial the better.. whew) to help me run my business. It's one night a week for 3 hours.. starts in the beginning of February and goes until beginning of May. They say that you spend 7-10 hours outside of class per week doing reading/market research/business plan work.

I'm kind of nervous because that's way more effort than I put into regular classes... and about the same or a little less than photography classes even!

However, I think that the program will give me a very good understanding of how to handle not only the day-to-day operations, but also setting goals for the business and learning how to reach them successfully. I'll also be writing a kick-butt business plan. :)

Anyway, so you might not see much of me for the next few months as I'm kicking Baseman Studios Photography, LLC into top gear with this entrepreneurial class (there it is again) and other things I'll be starting up.

Wish me luck!

Another medical update.

Joel's surgery went well. They used two screws to put the bone back in place, and that's all they really were able to tell me.... when I called them the next day! Who's ever heard of not briefing the family of the surgery patient? Wow. The doctor was nowhere to be found after the surgery.

Anyway, I got the results of my echocardiogram back, and it's normal I guess. I wore a Holter monitor for a day, but I suppose I need to drop that back off at the hospital before they can give me results from that. haha

Joel's recovering well.. back at work today, much to my dismay. I don't think he'll work a full day, but we'll see.

He has a post op next week on the same day as my cardio appointment. Hopefully we'll have good news from both!

Friday, January 22, 2010

Medical news.. blegh

First, Joel:

His wrist ct revealed a little more information and we were referred over to a hand specialist. Joel's fracture is right on the joint of the thumb. Therefore, since a little fragment of the bone is displaced, they want to make sure it heals correctly otherwise he could be stuck with premature arthritis, limited mobility of his thumb, etc.

So he's set for surgery Monday early afternoon. They're going to use pins or screws and hopefully get the bone back where it needs to go and hold it there. The surgery isn't always 100% successful, but we figure it's a better chance than doing nothing.

Now, me!

I fainted this morning, similar to a fainting spell I had a few years ago. I was swallowing a handful of pills this morning (vitamins, I'm not really a pill-popper.. :)) and felt a sharp pain right in my esophagus. Next thing I knew, I was on the floor, tired, freezing cold, and being annoyed by the sound of dripping water. A few years ago, something similar without the pain happened when I was eating yogurt.

Anyway, I went to the doctor because I was worried about my head. It hurt really bad and I threw up after my shower. Ugh. Turns out he was more worried about my heart after hearing about my little bout with tachycardia when I had my previous fainting spell.

He up and did an EKG right away today, and turns out I have some electrical problem. He said it's a possibility I have WPW (Wollf-Parkinson-White) Syndrome or some kind of pre-cursor to that. I'm going in for a echogram and having a 24-hour heart monitor put on Monday before Joel's surgery. Then I have an appointment with one of the main electrical cardio doctors at the hospital the week after that.

Sigh. 21 years old and we're both falling apart.

We'll keep you updated. :)

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Photos!

Just because I haven't been updating this regularly, doesn't mean I haven't been updating my photo blog.

It's been fun and challenging to work on some collages lately, as well as a little family project..


Check it out!

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Oh yes.

I forgot to mention before I left... we had our 2nd anniversary on Dec 21st last year.

Our present to each other was the dog earlier... so no big gifts to each other on the day of. :)

Hello, remember me?

[sound of enthusiastic applause and cheering]

Finally. This isn't everything, but the highlights! :) Hopefully I'll also get some pictures on here soon.

I think I left off right when I went to Missouri over Christmas to visit Cheree. (to read more about our experience with Cheree and her husband Brenton this summer, click here) I left on a Tuesday night after work at 6:30 and drove all the way down to St. Louis just into Missouri.. stopped at 2:30am at a somewhat seedy little hotel that I snuck our dog into. I didn't really sleep well because I was worried about the dog making noise and I also had a light on for that very same reason. I got up Wednesday about 7 and drove the rest of the 4 hours to her place near Springfield, MO.

Between pouring rain, stopping for me the dog to go to the bathroom, and windshield wipers flopping like dead fish down by your driver side mirror, it was a great last leg of the journey.

Our time together consisted of
-Some browsing around in Aurora.. the place with the cheapest gas in all of United States. $2.32, for those of you curious.. haha.

-Spending some time with the Hull family They're very musical and spent a few hours on assorted instruments and singing. It was great to listen in.

-Monopoly.. oh dear. She beat me.

-Cat/dog fights. Poor dog, she had no chance.

-Ice/snow storms... sliding action in the truck, and watching her brother-in-law pull out his blazer from the ditch

-Feeding the cattle with the tractor and frozen gates

-Fried oatmeal. Mmm hmm.

-A trip to Branson and dinner on the showboat. A very fun experience.. including a little Titanic re-inacting.

Much more, and of course lots of chatting, laughing, and other general girly necessities.


I came home, spent 12 hours with Joel and he was off to California on his Christmas vacation to the sand dunes in Ralley, California/Yuma, Arizona. Rory and Brennan Lewis, Brendan Foth, Tim Blakeman, and of course Joel, loaded up their four wheelers and dirt bike to head out west. They drove straight through... 35 hours.

In the middle of their good time, Joel drove into a "big hole" to simplify... at a high speed. He did some somersaults for awhile with and then without his four wheeler. He was unconscious for a bit, took a little helicopter ride to the tune of 100 miles to Palm Springs. Suffered a concussion, had some swelling/bleeding on the left side of his brain, and broke his left wrist.

Sparing you the details, he's back home now.. doing fine. We're doing follow up appointments as fast as we can... he sees another neurologist this afternoon, and meets with his orthopedic doctor for some follow up results of the wrist CT he had done yesterday. He broke his trapezium, which I guess is very rare. He'll have the cast on for awhile yet.

Hopefully we can find out he can drive from the neurologist today... I can tell you I'll be happy to relinquish the keys over to him again! He always drives everywhere. Funny how I'm sick of driving everywhere now. :)

Now we're just starting to work through the mess of pushy medical offices and obstinate insurance companies. Can you believe the little helicopter joyride cost nearly $27,000? Wow.

In other news, my business Baseman Studios Photography LLC, was official as of the first of the year. I'm contemplating going through an entrepeneurial workshop to learn how to run a business... but first order needs to be some official work in the form of accountants, etc.

Work at the bank is going well... I'm down to 20-25 hours a week, which has been wonderful.

The new year is off with a bang! Hope everyone's had a really nice holiday season!
Disclaimer: I am not a registered dietician, I do not have any type of medical training, and my workouts and training are only intended for my personal recollection and your curiosity. Anything documented on this blog is my personal opinion or a learned experience. All images are subject to a personal copyright unless otherwise noted and cannot be used without permission. If you read to the end of this, congratulations.