It's not all drudgery...

at the Olympian. Here is Matt our systems tech showing us how to balance 5 boxes of hard drives and how to ensure that you have connectivity...test it out on your brain.

Benign

Words that sounded like music to my ears. The biopsy from some polyps in my stomach came back negative. So, now I'm in line to see a surgeon about doing something surgically to help repair some things. I'll keep ya'll posted.

Saga of the egg timer...

When we were living in Tennesse (mom and dad were living there, too), mom got a gift certificate to Williams & Sonoma for Christmas. So we go down to the Green Hills Mall (Coby & Tucker come along for fun) and just had a blast in the store. Instead of 1 or 2 big things, mom bought several little things...sponges, little spoons, etc. Of these items were some of her favorite pink colored peppercorns and and egg timer. After leaving the mall, we go over to Wild Oats and have lunch and buy food that's healthy :-) We come back to the car and Tucker looks a little suspcious. Similiar to this picture above.

Upon further observation, Tucker had some pink stuff on his nose - evidence of peppercorn. Only my dog would eat pink peppercorn. The more mom looked through her bags, the more things had been rifled through and a little Tucky reminder left on the corner of most items (meaning little teeth marks). He didn't destroy anything, but he did ruin several things including the egg timer. I bought an egg timer at Bed, Bath & Beyond and instantly had a flash back. I'm not sure if mom is laughing about it yet...but I felt TERRIBLE and offered to replace them. Mom said it's what gives them character. That crazy Tucker!

Here's a pic of my unblemished egg timer...

The dogs don't care for earthquakes....

Port Townsend (80 miles or so north of us) experienced a 3.5 earthquake about an hour ago. I didn't feel a thing, but the dogs were going total ape bongo right around that time. I thought maybe they saw a raccoon or kitty cat or something. They were running around in circles kind of whining...making a noise I'd never heard before. Bizarre...

The red dot is the epicenter.

The Mini Motel

How cool is this contraption?

Check out the website: http://www.minimotel.net/.

I'm going to buy 2 of them to add to our disaster preparedness kits. I stumbled across it when I saw an article on how airlines aren't springing for hotels when planes are delayed, etc.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/15/business/airsleep.php

This article in turn, led me to a web-site I know my mom will LOVE! Mostly because she's been to every international airport there is practically :-) I need to write a review on the Naha Airport. That was a wonderful airport! Mom, Russia has some bad ones...

Check it out here: http://www.sleepinginairports.com/ and vote for your favorite airport to sleep in...or visit!

Drugged Up

I saw that Greg had taken this picture of me (I love my iPhone!) waiting for my discharge papers. I don't remember anything. But I'm sure I begged him to take it. I thought it was funny that I was using my shoe as a cup holder!

You can see how bloated my stomach is...they pump you full of air so the scope can see more! OR it could be fat. I prefer to think it is the air :-) I'm airy!

Greg dropped me off after my appointment with promises to call often. Which to my annoyance, he did...just wanted to make sure I was okay. The doc said I would just sleep. Which I did. Apparently I took this picture in my amnesia post-procedure haze and I was sleeping on my side and Tucker was laying up on top of me. Both dogs were so gentle and they have a sense when you don't feel well or whatever...they are very intuitive.

Endo Results

Unfortunately, I cannot remember anything about the procedure...total amnesia, even though I'm conscious??? Okay, whatever. Anyway, the doctor was AWESOME and the GI clinic @ Madigan is 5 stars! Here is what we know. My stoma was very narrow, so he dialated it .3mm. The VBG is completely in tact. In fact, my doctor said it was one of the best he had seen...however, the surgery is a failure, in the fact that I have gained almost all my weight back and have such terrible reflux and having so many incidents of food getting stuck. I will still take responsibility for poor food choices, but I am relieved to know it wasn't 100% my fault. I have several polyps that need to be biopsied, but the doc said those were common and most likely benign. Once the biopsy is back, then I'll meet with general surgery to find out when I can get my stomach fixed. I'll probably go with the gastric bypass. This will stop the reflux. Yeah!!! I hate taking that liquid Prilosec!

Anyway, I'll update in 2 weeks! I feel relieved.