Happy? Chappy House

So some have asked why there hasn't been a blog post in a while from the Happy Chappy House. The Reason: For a while there things weren't very Happy. The simple truth is that I have been dealing with a dangerously unhealthy amount of stress lately that has not only warranted visits with medical professionals but has (not surprisingly) put a significant amount of strain on our relationship. I won't go into detail about what's put me into a funk (job, school, weather, finances, uncertainties...) because what's really important is that I'm working my way through it and have plenty to look forward to.

And now on to the fun stuff -

Last week we had our friend Trey over for a night of Fringe and microscope fun. Trey had stopped by my office for some chit chat a few days prior and we got to talking about Astronomy Picture of the Day and photography. Then somehow we got to talking about microscopes and how fun it would be to try photographing through one. Well, as it happens, Trey has a microscope and I have a pretty badass camera. One thing led to another and Trey ended up buying a microscope adapter for my camera. It took us a while to figure out a good shutter speed but after several unsuccessful shots (some completely black, some completely white!) we got a handle on it.

A tiny piece of a feather we looked at in Trey's microscope -

We were actually able to look at it closer through the microscope (we think we even saw a mite!) but had to zoom out a bit to get a good focus with the camera. We're still working out the kinks but hopefully some time in the future we will be able to dazzle you with rotifers, insect wings, and other fun stuff. (More pics on Erica's facebook)

It's a good thing Trey brought the microscope for entertainment because we were all pretty disappointed with Friday's episode of Fringe! Later we had Chinese take-out while watching Flight of the Navigator. Pretty fun night.

Some things we are looking forward to -

Totally Psyched 5K in Denton (April). John and I are both going to participate in this 5K for my birthday. My sister is majoring in Psychology at UNT and this 5K is being put on by their Department of Psychology. It will be nice to see family and run in an event that is supposed to help support their education! We also might head to the Scarborough Renaissance Festival that weekend!

My Best Friend's Wedding.
I am going to be a bridesmaid in my amiga's wedding at the beginning of March. This is the bridesmaid's dress. It is SO her. I love it.

For those of you who know Jackie (YES! Jackie Smith is getting married!!!) she is registered at Macy's. The wedding is in Florida. I haven't been there since I was 2 years old, so this should be an adventure!

The New Kitchen!
After over a year of trying to do it ourselves, we have finally made the decision to just rip out the kitchen and let pros put in a new one. We feel good about it. Just having cabinets that we can put things in should make living sooo much easier. (Photos of the rip out on John's Facebook.)

The Concussion

So on Saturday, the 16th of this month, I fell backwards and smacked the back of my head against the wall. I laughed it off and went about my business. A little while later, though, I was finding it incredibly hard to focus on my homework. I felt slow. I had difficulty holding a pen, I couldn't type, and the front part of my head hurt like hell. I went to the bathroom and noticed some Halloween decorations I had hung in the window. I wondered if I should take them down and put them away - I couldn't remember if Halloween had already happened or not and I had to ask John. I went to bed to try and rest.
Soon I was nauseous. I couldn't stand up without getting a chill that would cause my teeth to chatter. The instructions on the box of a microwave meal were just too complicated. At some point I found myself attempting to articulate how to give a sheep walking lessons. (This involved a robotic arm-like contraption that the sheep had to slip its legs into before attempting to stand up.) Yeah. It was time to go to the hospital.

We got to the hospital at around noon and sat for a while in the parking lot while I debated whether or not I really wanted to go inside. My head was really hurting. We went in. When I was admitted, they couldn't tell us anything about costs. John asked if there was a standard fee for seeing the doctor and the receptionist couldn't tell us. We asked how much a CT would cost and the lady couldn't tell us. She said "it all depends, but believe me, you WILL receive a bill." But they couldn't even tell us when we would get a bill. "Could be as long as six months, could be next week." That frustrated me.
We spent most of our time waiting. I knew we would. In the triage station, the nurse asked me a whole bunch of questions. Answering was difficult. No I don't remember what time it happened (yesterday?), no I don't remember when my last menstrual cycle was, yes the light hurts my eyes. Huh? (It's a good thing John was there. I think he answered most of the questions.)

When we finally got to see the doctor, I was tired and hungry and my head hurt even worse. The doctor was a jerk. Some doctors have a way of doing things. That was his way. John got really upset and thought about taking us to the other hospital in town. The doctor bullied us into a CT. I started crying thinking about how much it was going to cost and John called my mom to update her on what was going on. She told him that we should do what we had to do to make sure everything was okay and to not freak out about the cost because if I couldn't handle it she was going to help.
I made myself feel a little better by convincing myself that this was a convenient course of action. After all, I'm 26 years old and have hit my head a LOT. Getting a CT now would catch any problems I might have already been living with...right? I could think of three instances in which I probably should have had a CT: one bad time when I was a kid and someone else made a hole in a wall by banging my head into it, another time when I was in a car accident and was knocked unconscious for a little bit, and another time when I was out with a friend of mine surfing at dusk. (Bad idea to begin with.) I didn't see him wipe out and I didn't see his board fly at me in time to avoid it. It hit me in the head HARD and I swear I went blind for a few seconds. I never 'hit the waves' ever again.

Because I was doing a brain scan they took an HCG test and I had to give them three vials of blood for it. When it finally came time for the scan, a nurse came in with a wheelchair to wheel me to the exam room. John asked, "I take this to mean she's not pregnant?" and the nurse rolled her eyes at him. It was nice not having to walk to the exam room. Everyone else seemed to be able to walk much faster than me.

When we got to the room, I had to stick my head into a giant doughnut. The tech asked where my head hurt and I told him. He asked if that meant it had already migrated. What does that mean? "Ummm...yes?" I was told to keep still. I had a hard time keeping myself from laughing for some reason. Probably because I was sticking my head into a giant powdered doughnut.I'm really jealous of John because he got to watch the scan while it was in progress. I bet my brain looked really cool. After the scan John wheeled me back to our room where we waited and waited and waited. We heard snippets of things the doctor was saying outside and couldn't figure out if he was talking about me. He said something about finding something else wrong and not knowing if "she" had ever been dialyzed. I thought it could be me because I've always been sort of borderline diabetic and I was convinced that I probably had a brain bleed, if not from this mishap then from another one of many in my life.

John got really worried when a nurse came in needing urine. John asked why they needed a urinalysis after the scan and the nurse said he didn't know - that the doctor just ordered one. So I peed into a cup without knowing why and we waited some more. (It would be easier for patients to ask questions if they ever actually got answers to any of them.) A long while later, the doctor poked his head in and said "Good news - just a minor concussion. Don't leave yet; they're gonna bring you in some paperwork in a few minutes." Half an hour later, a nurse brought some "Head Injury Follow Up" instructions and told us that we could go. We left after 6:30pm. John took me out to eat.

John spent the night waking me up every few hours and making sure I knew where I was. Once when he asked this I almost said "Grandma's house" but stopped myself because I knew that couldn't be the right answer. I spent the night having some of the most vivid dreams I've ever had. I remembered at least ten of them and told John about a few every time he woke me up. My head hurt all day the next day despite regularly medicating with Tylenol. I still have headaches every single day. Sometimes they're mild, sometimes they're more than that. I take at least one Tylenol per day. Yesterday I had four. This is the first time I've ever had headache problems in my life and I really hope this goes away soon!

In the mean time, I am trying my very best to be less accident-prone.

Taking Down the Tree

There was this dead hackberry in the back yard leaning precariously toward a house on the other side of the fence for a long time. We've been worried about it since moving in but thought that taking it down was a bigger project than it truly was... so naturally we put it off!

First we called Old Gappy Tree Services. (It was the first tree service we found online.) The owner came out the next day and gave us a HUGE estimate and promised that we'd be able to schedule something for that week. John called them repeatedly to try and schedule. Once the secretary said she'd leave a message for the owner and that he'd get back to us that afternoon. He didn't. John called again and somehow got cut off while talking to the secretary. John called again and the owner answered but curtly said, "Now's not a good time" and hung up. Then we found out that their truck might not be working. Well, clearly this wasn't working out! I told John that we should take all this as a sign that we should NOT go with this service.

We then called and left messages with every tree service in the phone book. Only one got back to us the same day. Another tree service called the next day. (We never heard from any of the others!) When Drewery Tree Services got back to us the same afternoon that we called, we were really, really excited because we had been starting to feel a little gloomy about the whole project. We got SUPER excited when Drewery said he'd come that very afternoon to give us an estimate. Then, we got SUPER DUPER excited when Drewery gave us the quote because it was WAY less than the quote we got from Old Gappy (about $300 less!). We went inside the house, drew up some paperwork, and chatted with Tim Drewery for a while. He's a really nice man. A pleasure to do business with, for sure.
The BEST part was that Drewery had his guys over here the VERY NEXT MORNING to take the tree down! The workers were prompt, friendly, and took care of business! All in all, once we got into contact with Drewery Tree Services, the entire process took less than 24 hours!

Take that, Tree!

The only thing we felt sorry about was depriving about a million geckos of their dark hollow abode.

Another plus is that Drewery cut all of the pieces into firewood. Bonfire, anyone? One rarely sends a Thank You card with a bill payment, but this time we did. This project was made sooo much easier by Drewery's efficiency and commitment to getting the job done. It was truly an example of a high degree of professionalism that we unfortunately rarely see in this community. Seriously - This totally made our day - scratch that - week!

So whatever happened to Old Gappy? Well, he called a week later at around 8am. When John answered Gappy said, "How about this morning?" John politely responded that we no longer needed his service, but thanks anyway; we got it taken care of last week. Old Gappy's response was "Well, thanks for wasting my time!" and then he hung up! Really?! Wasting his time?!!! Glad we didn't go with him!

Life Lesson: Don't ignore the signs that something isn't working out! Once you move on, you might find that life and its obstacles are much easier to handle!!!

What's making you itch?

My friend Jacob likes to call me while he's on long road trips to keep him company. In fact, that's about the only time he ever calls me (:-|) but still, like the better friend that I am, I listen. The last time he called he told me about some rash that he had developed on his arms, legs, and tummy. It itched like crazy and the doctors said it was some sort of contact dermatitis resulting from an allergy. They couldn't tell him what kind of allergy, but a cortisone shot seemed to help. The rash came back, however, and Jacob was tired of itching and feeling self-conscious about his blotchy appearance. I was appalled that the doctors hadn't suggested that Jacob look closer into what he's coming into contact with on his arms, legs, and tummy. If it's contact dermatitis, his arms, legs, and tummy are all coming into contact with something that he's allergic to.

"Jacob," I said, "What are you using on your clothes?"

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Sorry Bounce, but it's time to bounce!

We recently gave away a pretty full box of Bounce fabric softener. Not because we're especially generous or because we didn't particularly like the scent - This stuff made me itch like a mutha!

At first I had no idea what was going on. I was minimally itchy on my arms, back, and tummy. I was INCREDIBLY itchy in the crooks of my arms, the back of my neck, and along my waist and bra lines. It wasn't until I was folding three loads of laundry piled up on the bed that I figured it out-

I was organizing, separating towels from jeans and such, when I just started sneezing uncontrollably and my arms started to itch. And then I saw it. That single seemingly innocent sheet of biodegradable cationic fabric softener.

I eyed it for a few seconds before picking it up with the very tips of my fingers. I brought it to my nose and took the smallest of whiffs. An involuntary wrinkle of the nose and squinting of the eyes led to one massive, head-splitting sneeze. Ding, ding, DING!!! Enlightened, I dropped the dryer sheet and joyously exclaimed, "John! I think I'm allergic to the fabric softener!!!"

John actually wasn't surprised. We were really happy to figure out the source of the abominable itch but as it turns out, some of John's family have had similar reactions to this very fabric softener. But it shouldn't have taken me so long (weeks!) to figure out why I was itching. It should have been obvious that the itch was coming from my clothing. The obvious course of action should have been to examine what was on my clothing!

It's so easy to ignore what's right in front of you when you let yourself get bogged down with what you have to do, when you have to do it, how much time you have, how much it will cost, etc. The lesson here is that sometimes the priority should be to just stop for a second and pay attention to what your body is telling you, whether the message be in the form of an itch or a pang or even drier skin and hair. If I hadn't been so focused on "getting shit done" and if I had been more focused on solving the problem that was making everything I did more of a chore, I might have been able to perform my duties much more efficiently and comfortably- and I might have been a much happier person throughout the process.

John and I have had a very stressful summer. There's so much to do in so little time and with too few resources. Just thinking about it all is exhausting and much too counter-productive. From now on, our resolution is to think not about how much there is to do, but what we need to do to get it done and how we're going to do it, one step at a time. We'll keep you posted on how we bounce back!