Wednesday, December 20, 2006

To Hell and Back

As some of you might know, I went to the doctor last week for lower abdominal pain. After a quick examinations for a hernia and testicular lumps I passed with flying colors. Yeah! Don’t want to be doing that again anytime soon. The Doc decided to send me in to have a CT scan of my abdomen and a x-ray of my back. The CT scan will be searching for a problem called Diverticulosis and I’m sure anything else that may be wrong. The x-ray he said would be for proper back alignment and tumor. TUMOR? I thought. Good God, I should have been in here a month ago if this turns out to be a tumor.

So, Sunday night I drink the nasty banana smoothie which to me is reminessant of thin spoiled yogert. Monday morning I get up and drink another yummy smoothie and drive in. I get to the hospital, sign in, and have a seat in the lobby. The check in lady calls my name and I give her all the important information and a check for $250.00. Yeah! I get a CT scan for Christmas! I was beginning to believe Santa didn’t exist. She also did this really strange tongue-rolling thing while she typed in the information. Not the most attractive thing I’ve seen a woman do. I’m not sure if she was conscious of the conduct of her tongue or not.

Tongue-roller leads me to the Radiology Department which makes me think I’m a rat in one of those maze tests because it seemed like a half-mile of turns and twists to get there. Finally we arrive and I walk into the Radiology Department where I’m caught off guard by the green drab décor and sterile waiting area. They should call this place the Death Department I think to myself. I pull out my new book Diablo (I never go anywhere without a book) and start reading. This nice lady comes up and hands me yet another bottle of bananna barf. I tell her she’s my favorite person and chug it like a Tecate.

A few minutes later I climb onto the CT scan bed and receive an IV, which I never felt. I tell the lady she should go to work for the blood doner place. They seem to never get my vein on the first try and always turn my arm purple.

Then the IV lady tells me when she starts IV I’ll probably get a strange taste in my mouth and feel like I’m peeing my pants, and have some hot flashes. I think to myself, this will be like that time I drank so much beer… She was right. First came the flavor of vodka, then my head felt like it was dunked in hot water, and sure enough here came the peeing my pants part. Weird, that’s all I’ve got to say about that.

On to x-ray. Why are these places so cold? After several x-rays the technician leaves to check and make sure they got everything they need. She comes back and repositions me and takes another one. This is where the Hell part of this story come in, remember the x-ray is for searching for a tumor. I think to myself, they must have seen something and want a better picture (heart starts to beat a bit faster). In the waiting area they ask me if I can come back on Wednesday for another x-ray (my chest is dropkicked like a punted football by my now pounding heart). They say the barrium from the bananna barf shake is interfering with the x-ray of my lower back they tell me. Likely excuse I think. Did they not know this before I went in? The tecnician says the doctor will call you by tomorrow afternoon.

Tomorrw afternoon comes after about 5 anxiety attacks and the drop kicked football, still no call from ole doc. At 3:00 PM I decide to give him a call. "we haven't got the results back yet but we'll call as soon as we get them," the secretary says.

Wednesday morning comes, I get out of bed, take the kids to school, and head for my x-ray. After the x-ray I ask if they held the results from the CT scan until this morning's x-ray. Nope, we sent these over yesterday. Football heart starts again. I start to think doc is putting off the inevitable poor prognosis. 2:00 PM comes and I decide to call again. The secretary tells me that doc has alot of CT scans to go through and they will let me know as soon as they get mine done. I think to myself, I have alot of bills to pay and maybe I should stop payment on his check until I can get to it. But I payed him with a debit card, darn the luck.

5:30 PM the call comes along with the football. You have a condition calle Vacuum Disc Phenominom. That's air inside your disc. Mine happens to be on the last disc between the lumbar vertebrate and the saccrum.
Whew! No tumor! I feel like i dodged a good sized bullet. I've stopped taking my suppliments last friday and would you know the pain has gradually went away. I still have some but on a scale of 1 to 10 my pain is probably 1/2 as I write this. He said for me to call when I was ready for an MRI of my back and discuss options. I think I'll wait awhile for now, I feel like I've been to Hell and Back.

God bless and Merry Christmas!,
Bill

Saturday, December 09, 2006

Storm Force offered by Silhouette Bombshell


Storm Force by Meredith Fletcher is a great story putting you on the edge of your seat from the start.

The pressure gets high when the main character, Kate Garrett who is a wilderness guide, is kidnapped by escaped convicts and forced to lead the clandestine gang through the swamp to retrieve hidden cash. To make matters worse her kids are in danger of the category 5 hurricane Genevieve headed for the coast of South Florida. When it comes to her kids though, look out nothing gets in her way.

What a great roller coaster ride from the first page to the last. I enjoyed the multi-layered character of Kate who can certainly think for herself and has strong character traits. She surly made an interesting heroine.

This is the third installment from Meredith Fletcher in Bombshell. I recommend putting aside some time to read this one straight through because you won’t want to put it down.

Oh yeah, who’s the hottie that modeled for the awesome cover? Just kidding honey…honey?