Monday I had a nuclear (chemical) stress test on my heart. All I can say is that I don't want to have to do that again any time soon. First they inserted an IV in my arm and shot some saline into the vein. I could taste it and smell it as well to which the technician said only a small amount of people are able to to that which means I have great taste buds. Hooray for me! Next they took my blood pressure but put the BP cuff on my forearm instead of my upper arm. The technician said you actually get a better reading in that location. After that the technician attached the little electrodes all over my chest, the nurse's assistant came in the room and the test began.
Have you ever had your life flash before your eyes? That is what it felt like, very heavy, hard to breath, dizzy. The test only lasted 30 seconds after they shot the chemical into my vein, but felt like a lifetime before they shot me with the recovery drug twice. Then they introduced the isotopes into my system. After that I had to wait for 15 minutes before they took me to another room and put me on a very skinny table that was attached to a special camera that took pictures of the heart under stress from all sides being still for 17 minutes. Have you ever had an itch you needed to scratch? You get the drift.
After it was over I left the office walking like a drunken sailor, my legs were like rubber. Needless to say I did not feel like going back to work so I went home. I didn't even have the "want to" to make dinner. So we went out to Taco Mayo and I had 4 of their tacos. Normally I only get three but that night I got 4. They tasted wonderful!
The next morning and most of the day I felt like someone had taken a baseball bat to my upper torso. Now keep in mind not everyone reacts like this. Some people are not affected at all by all the chemicals. By mid afternoon I was back to normal. I had to go back on Wednesday to finish rest of the test. What now? Actually nothing as drastic as Monday. They inserted the IV and flushed the vein with the saline again, then injected the isotopes and had me wait 15 minutes. Then I laid on the skinny table and was to be still for 20 minutes this time while the camera circled my torso shooting pictures of my resting heart. Then I was done, none worse for the wear.
I went to work and after work went to my health class then worked out with my personal trainer. A very long day and boy was I glad it was over.
I get the news on Monday. All of this because I had a muscle cramp in my back. But being a diabetic I can understand the reason for wanting a benchmark as to where my heart is. So we wait.
I've been busy getting ready for the concert on Monday. Spooky music with the OU Symphony and 3 different choirs. There is 151 people in the choir and boy does the sound, sound wonderful. It should be a great concert. Just finished working with the orchestra, rehearsal Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m., dress rehearsal Sunday evening and the concert on Monday. I know...everyone has asked me "why Monday?", It's Halloween! Well after all it is Spooky music.
Tomorrow is casual Friday, to which I will be wearing my thermal shirt and jeans. It gets cold in my office as my windows face the North. Monday the employees in the office are dressing up in costume. I'm going as a vampire opera singer. I already have my make-up planned out. The only thing is I will have to take it all off and re-apply fresh make-up for the concert. Oh well...
Have a great weekend everyone and Happy Halloween...
Happy trails...
Thursday
Sunday
A Lazy Sunday...
Yesterday was Homecoming for the University of Oklahoma. The day was filled with lots of activities and a parade with the Pride of Oklahoma Marching Band, floats and lots of other stuff I did not see. Last night after an hour and a half rain delay the game started. I was in bed by the second quarter trying to keep my eyes open but faded by half time. The Sooners had a rough time of it with Texas Tech and eventually lost the game. Oh Drats! As you can see I am not a big football fan any more. Use to love it but have other priorities now, like figuring out a way to get out on the open road sooner that expected. This Sunday morning found me making the coffee instead of Dave making the coffee. I guess that after 9 hours sleep and when the peepers pop open before sunrise, you might as well get up and at'tem. After making coffee and turning on the TV to finish watching a program I got out the DVD of exercises and did my workout and then had some 5 grain oatmeal. After breakfast I did a Spybot, Malware check and a Clean-up on my computer. It had be 40 days since my last run. Everything checks out but for a new computer it sure runs slow. I'm going through my office today and working on taxes...UGH! Hate those things but it has to be done. Later Dave and I are going to work on one of our closets, got to get it cleared out and get the junk removed. Not looking forward to that but it has to be done. Dave came across a new site yesterday and I have attached the links here as I find it interesting. It's about making changes in your lifestyle and how to accomplish what you want...hence full-timing. I know I will certainly look at things with a different perspective now. Great stuff our younger generation is coming up with. I go to the Dr. tomorrow for a Nuclear Exercise Clinically induced heart stress test. Should be interesting. With my diabetes the Dr's want to have a benchmark of where my heart is. So no caffeine, chocolate, tea, decaff tea, cokes (I don't drink them anyways), decaff coffee or decaff coffee 24 hours before the test. Water is pretty much what I drink now with a cup of coffee in the mornings. By the time the test rolls around I should have a great headache...oh fun! After a gloomy foggy morning the sun has finally broken through and it's beautiful day outside. If it's sunny where you are...get out and enjoy the day. Sunshine is good for you. Great source of Vitamin D. Happy trails... |
Monday
Oh Blessed Rain...
Saturday was a grand day in that OU beat Texas. But we best watch our P's and Q's as the Texas players are very young and in a few years will trounce on us when we have a young team. But the win was sweet anyways. After the game Dave and I noticed some wet stuff falling from the heavens. Could that...is it possible...is it rain??? Sure enough it was the wet stuff we had been praying for. Some areas of the state got up to 5 inches. Here in Norman we got over 3 inches. For now the short term drought is over but the long term drought is still with us. The weatherman said the state still needed 15 inches of moisture in order to help alleviate the problem. So we pray some more and hope more moisture falls from the sky.
Yesterday Dave and I went to see "Real Steel" with Hugh Jackman up at the Warren Theatre in Moore, OK. We had to make a mad dash from the parking lot to the building as it was still raining and it didn't look like it was going to end anytime soon. I can tell you this, Disney sure does know how to tell a story. It was good and growing up in a boxing family, I could really appreciate the movie. My dad was a corner man for a boxer by the name of Shorty who fought for the Navy out in San Diego, CA during WWII. It's a shame I did not keep the golden gloves boxing gloves that dad had. He had two sets of them. I can remember when I was around three years old, my dad would watch the Friday night fights on TV (very small screen), they would sing the National Anthem before the match. I would stand in the middle of the living room and belt out the song right along with the singer on TV. Dad would always tell me that I did a better job than the person on TV. Oh what memories, what fun.
Other than the "usual" stuff, not much is going on. My blood sugar is slowly coming down, I still have a ways to go with it but it gets better each day. I meet with my personal trainer on Wednesday and do my fitness assessment. That should be interesting. Tomorrow night is choir rehearsal for the program the University is putting on, on Halloween. Personally I think it should be on a different day but I did not make the schedule nor was I asked, hmmmm! Come on folks, it's H A L L O W E E N, ghouls, goblins, little kids in costumes, candy, jack-o-lanterns...seriously a concert about the Druids and the coming of Spring?????? Ok...the music sounds a little ghoulish.
In looking at my stats on my blog I was so surprised to see people from different countries from all over the world who have visited at my blog. I wish they would leave a message and say hi. I wonder who they are, what they're like. Today I had a visitor from Canada and I bet I know who that was...Al from The Bayfield Bunch. Thanks Al for stopping in and taking the time to read my blog. I rarely miss yours. Just love that Phebmonster and Motormouse.
Well that's my report and I'm sticking to it...now where have I heard that before?
Happy trails...
Yesterday Dave and I went to see "Real Steel" with Hugh Jackman up at the Warren Theatre in Moore, OK. We had to make a mad dash from the parking lot to the building as it was still raining and it didn't look like it was going to end anytime soon. I can tell you this, Disney sure does know how to tell a story. It was good and growing up in a boxing family, I could really appreciate the movie. My dad was a corner man for a boxer by the name of Shorty who fought for the Navy out in San Diego, CA during WWII. It's a shame I did not keep the golden gloves boxing gloves that dad had. He had two sets of them. I can remember when I was around three years old, my dad would watch the Friday night fights on TV (very small screen), they would sing the National Anthem before the match. I would stand in the middle of the living room and belt out the song right along with the singer on TV. Dad would always tell me that I did a better job than the person on TV. Oh what memories, what fun.
Other than the "usual" stuff, not much is going on. My blood sugar is slowly coming down, I still have a ways to go with it but it gets better each day. I meet with my personal trainer on Wednesday and do my fitness assessment. That should be interesting. Tomorrow night is choir rehearsal for the program the University is putting on, on Halloween. Personally I think it should be on a different day but I did not make the schedule nor was I asked, hmmmm! Come on folks, it's H A L L O W E E N, ghouls, goblins, little kids in costumes, candy, jack-o-lanterns...seriously a concert about the Druids and the coming of Spring?????? Ok...the music sounds a little ghoulish.
In looking at my stats on my blog I was so surprised to see people from different countries from all over the world who have visited at my blog. I wish they would leave a message and say hi. I wonder who they are, what they're like. Today I had a visitor from Canada and I bet I know who that was...Al from The Bayfield Bunch. Thanks Al for stopping in and taking the time to read my blog. I rarely miss yours. Just love that Phebmonster and Motormouse.
Well that's my report and I'm sticking to it...now where have I heard that before?
Happy trails...
Wednesday
First Fire of the Season...
I had been outside playing with the dogs and it just hit me that I needed to have a fire, to sit back and let my mind go blank. The weekend before, I talked Dave into moving the fire tub from the patio to a cleared space in the yard where the dogs had worn away the grass and was quickly becoming a barren patch of fine sifted dirt (we need rain desperately). He set the legs of the fire tub on cement blocks so as to not become mired in mud when it does rain (sometime in the near future hopefully, the outlook does not look good).
I gathered wood from our wood pile, built a square of wood, it looked like a tic-tac-toe puzzle, put crumpled up newspaper in the center of that, then put a couple of logs across the top with more newspaper in-between those two logs and put the fire stick to the paper. The wood was so dry that it took a total of 45 seconds for the whole thing to catch on fire. I put the protective screen on the top, pulled up a chair, and called Dave to come out and join me. We watched the sun set and the fire go out. It was loverly!
I enjoy building a fire on a Sunday morning, taking my coffee, paper or a book out to read in the peace and quiet of the surroundings in my backyard. I get to hear the neighborhood wake up and the Canadian Geese take off from the retention pond that is not far from the house to fly over to the larger duck pond located just east of the university, where children and parents bring tasty morsels of bread and cracked corn to feed the hoards of geese and ducks milling about.
In the mountains, it's heaven to get to hear the birds start their morning song at about 5:30 a.m. just as the first blush of light breaks through the dark of night and the stars start to disappear in the dawn of morning. The air is so clear and crisp, the sky so blue, the scent of the mountains,water and fauna is overwhelming. The sounds of a waterfall, chipmunks playing among the pine needles, deer softly treading into your campsite, the weasel rushing to hide himself with his treasure, marmots whistling to each other, and the spider web with the morning dew covering it like diamonds glistening in the first rays of light make you wonder if it is a dream or reality. Last but not least, let's not forget the abundance of wild flowers and grand vistas. No wonder people want to get away from the cities, smog and noise. Now if they would just leave their noisy boom boxes and arguments at home, the campgrounds in the mountains would be perfect.
Happy trails...
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