Heading Out....

I'm heading out to Caseville for a week. I'm taking Keno and Mini Sue and Junior, the pigeon we have adopted! He's slowly learning to fly. I'm hoping that shortly after I get back, he'll be ready to be released....and he'll be on his own. I hope!! Right now, he has the run of the house. He totally HATES being in his cage. Except at night. Then he doesn't mind cause he just wants to sleep. And I put a blanket over the cage and he's fine til morning. But once we're up, he's ready to be let OUT! Then he just hangs around the house....walks around...picks at stuff he finds on the floors and hangs out with the dogs. The dogs are fine with him. All three of them will sit on the couch together. It's so funny...

Hoping hubby will drive up in a few days....my son and fiance will be up. Hoping for a decent Memorial weekend!!

Hope everyone has a safe holiday....

Ciao....

Feeling Groooooovy!

I'm finally feeling like my old self after a week of recuperation. Last Monday I went to my regular doctor. I was getting concerned because of the way i was feeling. I just felt real sluggish and tired all the time. He said that is normal. He did some blood tests. I bought myself a bottle of potassium pills and have been taking one or two a day and by Thursday I was feeling much better.

Friday I even went to the gym and worked out.....didn't do a whole workout....tried to take it easy a bit, but I felt good.

Friday night hubby and I went to Applebee's for dinner. The restaurant we went to is going to start a major remodeling next week, so all the great stuff and memorabilia that they had on their walls was all on the auction block. We put a bid in on a few items and ended up winning a couple items. I won a framed picture of Peter Fonda from "Easy Rider"....and a really nice picture of a Coupe DeVille that I think our son will like. Real authentic Applebee's decor!

Tonight I met a friend for dinner and drinks. Got home early. Think I'll watch a movie. Last night I watched "Passion of Mind" with Demi Moore.

I personally like Ashton Kutcher (her husband), but I think he's being a real scumbag for taking over Charlie Sheen's role on Two and a Half Men. I think he should have supported Sheen and stayed out of it. But Money Talks!!...and Money always wins in this world of greed we live in. Friendship and loyalty goes out the window for a buck.

My Non-Colonoscopy Experience...

I just went through a harrowing experience while prepping for that dreaded colonoscopy. First let me say, that I ended up NOT having the colonoscopy done. Complications occured during the preparation. It was the worst and longest night of my life.

Wednesday I was drinking lots of water and eating jello and popsicles as instructed but in the evening I just started to not feel very well. I drank the last concoction at 10:00. BTW, the stuff I had to drink was fine. Unlike what everybody else was telling me how you have to drink this whole gallon of terrible tasting stuff, all I had to do was pour this small package of stuff into an 8 oz glass of water and drink it.....and it was tasteless. Easy as hell to drink like in 5 seconds. That part was no big deal.

Anyway, I drank the last pack of 3 at 10:00 and shortly after that the nausea started. I was to then drink 3 more 8 oz glasses of water before midnight. It was getting harder to drink them. I think by midnight I only drank about 16-20 oz by slowly sipping it down. I was feeling sicker and sicker. And then the vomiting started. But after midnight I couldn't drink any water at all. I couldn't sleep. I suffer from insomnia anyway and was afraid to take my usual sleep aid, so I was awake most of the night suffering. The more I got sick, the more dehydrated I was getting and the thirst was getting unbearable. By 2:00-3:00 I was so miserable. I almost wanted to just drink something and say to hell with it and cancel the whole thing, but I didn't. I was getting such a headache and kept putting a cold washcloth on my head.

At some point, I finally dozed off and woke up at 5:00. The headache was still there and there was this roaring in my ears and I was getting unsteady on my feet and feeling really dizzy and shaky. The nausea was still bad and I was still getting sick. After 6:00 I knew I had to go downstairs and start getting dressed to go. We had to leave by 7:00. My husband was up and when he saw me, he became alarmed and said that there is no way they are going to do the procedure in my condition. I was stumbling around. I had trouble walking. I had trouble even talking. My hands felt tingly and weak. I could barely get dressed. My mind was in a very confused state.

By 7:00 we left the house and my body was shaking uncontrollably by then. I was having trouble forming words to even tell my husband where to drive. Luckily, he knew the way. When we got to the Surgery Center, I was stumbling in the building making no sense at all to the receptionist and shaking so bad. She ran and got the doctor. I don't remember a whole lot after that. I know there seem to be alot of people around me. Someone gave me a juice box. I heard someone say "Call 911". Then paramedics were there asking me questions. I tried to get words out to answer but the shaking and trembling was bad. At some point, they put me in an ambulance and took me to the hospital. They connected me to an IV, I'm assuming. I don't remember much at that point.

I was basically crashing bad....

At the hospital ER, they determined quickly that I was suffering from Hyponatremia....my electrolytes were down; my sodium level had dropped to a dangerous level of only 115! Normal is between 135-145....anything below 125 is not good. At that point, I could have easily went into a coma and died. They hooked me up to another IV with sodium and potassium. They put about 5 blankets on me and one of the nurses kept telling me to breathe slowly. The shaking started to subside and I started to be able to talk better. They eventually gave me ice chips, then water and juice.

I was admitted to the hospital. They needed to slowly bring my sodium levels back up to a normal range. By evening, I was feeling so much better.

I was there for the night and they released me yesterday. I'm still not feeling 100%. I still seem to have a slight headache. With all the sodium, my blood pressure seems to be on the high side, so I'm working on getting that back down with my pills. I'm drinking Gatorade which is what I should have been drinking during the prep instead of just water and 7-Up.

I have nobody to blame but myself for what happened. Prior to prepping for this colonoscopy, I have been on a crazy diet and not eating much and using laxatives on almost a daily basis to help with weight loss. I guess using a bunch of laxatives prior to a prep involving alot of laxatives is NOT a good idea! They said at the hospital that with my personal overuse of laxatives my sodium level was probably already on the low side and when I did the prep, it pushed it to a danger level.

And there were other issues like not drinking Gatorade....but also one of my prescriptions with my blood pressure pills is a water pill. They knew at the Surgery Center what my prescriptions were. They should have instructed me to NOT take the water pill prior to the prep, but nobody told me that. So with the water pills in me, that also contributed to the dehydration problem.

So that was my experience....

I still have to reschedule the colonoscopy at some point. But I will be doing things different. I'm not using laxatives anymore...period. I won't take the water pills. I'll drink lots of Gatorade. Plus, I'll know the signs and symptoms. If I start to feel nausea or shaky or headachy....I'll simply quit the prep and drink water and eat and just call and cancel in the morning. But I'm sure, it'll be fine next time. I just screwed up. But God....I still hate the thought of going through that prep again with the fasting....UGH!!

Catching Up....

I haven't posted anything since I got back from Caseville, so I'm just going to quickly update on a few things.

Tomorrow I'm having a colonoscopy done, so I'm prepping for that...and I'm so HUNGRY!! I can't even think straight....I'll be glad when it's done and over with and I can EAT!!

I stayed a few days longer in Caseville than I had intended. Some of the condo owners had scheduled an association meeting on Saturday and I didn't want to miss it. The main association member who owns about 75% of everything had decided to add an addition to the Florida Room that he doesn't even own. It is attached to his bar/lounge and he only leases it from the Association. In front of the Florida Room there was a patio and he decided to enclose it in. Nobody knew about this until owners started going up there and saw it. I am FURIOUS to say the least. My unit is right next to the Florida Room and I had a decent view of the water from my place, but with the patio enclosed, my view has been somewhat restricted. Basically, there is nothing we can do....it's done. What he did was clearly against the Michigan By-laws. We could probably get a lawyer but everybody else seems to be satisfied with his apology and 'he won't do it again'. Whatever! My son is the main one who is using the place now. I stay at my cottage and only use the condo for the beach and pool. So guess the view doesn't matter. It's just that I also feel that my place has been somewhat devalued because of the lack of view now. Anyway, so I went to the meeting and drove home the same day.

When I got home, I found that my son had rescued 'another' pigeon for us to take care of!! Back in October, 2007 he had rescued a pigeon that had flown into a windshield and brought her to us. I blogged quite a bit about my adventures with rehabilitating "Brinks" as we called the pigeon. We had her from October, 2007 until April, 2008 when we were finally able to release her. I had fallen in love with that little pigeon and it was so hard on me when I had to let her go. She basically lived in our upstairs and had total freedom to fly around. She had been ready to be released by November, but because of the hawks in the area and the weather I didn't want to. So she ended up staying with us all winter. Please go back in my archives during that time and read about her, and see her many pictures.

So anyway, apparently when my son was driving down Telegraph Rd, he saw this young pigeon fall out of it's nest under the overpass and hit the concrete below...and cars were whizzing bar and he was toppling around. So my son did a turnaround and went and rescued him and brought it to our house. He is a young pigeon without all his feathers and even still has some of that yellow fuzzy feathers that young birds have. We have a dog crate we keep him in and he is learning to eat and drink water and growing his feathers. Right now, he still needs to grow his tail feathers before we can release him. I'm going to have to take him back to where my son found him and hope he reconnects with his family. He won't be ready until after Memorial weekend, so I'll be taking him with me to Caseville. That's what I had to do with Brinks a few times.

I'm STARVING!! I'm trying not to think about my hunger pains...but it ain't working. I go in tomorrow morning at 7:30. Hoping everything is normal. It should be.