JustLaurie's blog: "My Thoughts"

If it ain't one thing, it's another! Early Sunday morning, Joey and I decided to take Andrew out to breakfast at Denny's after he got out of work. We all were starving and looking forward to feeding our bellies with not so healthy food. LOL As we pulled up to a stop sign at the end of the exit ramp (which is only about half a mile from Denny's) Joey made a comment about how heavy the traffic was for being 12:30am. All of the sudden, our Blazer got hit from behind by another Blazer! We all had our belts on, thank God!, but Joey and I got thrown forward. Andrew did also, but didn't seem to be affected by it. Joey and the other driver pulled up onto the overpass so as not to block the exit ramp, and he and Andrew got out of the car to check the damage and get the other driver's info. I was pretty shook up, and started having neck pain and pvc's. Andrew came back to me and took my pulse, checked my eyes, asked me questions to assess my alertness, and kept me as calm as he could. He was awesome! Joey would come over and ask me how I was doing in between dealing with the other driver. Andrew suggested I get checked out, so I called 911 and requested the police in the township we were in. When I talked to the twp police, they told me I had to talk to the State police. She said she would transfer me, and then hung up on me. So Andrew called 911 and requested state police. He calmly explained the situation and described my injuries. They said they would call an ambulance and be right out. It took the State police 10 minutes to get there. They told us to move down to the grocery store parking lot. We sat in the parking lot for another 15 minutes waiting for the ambulance. When it pulled up Joey said, "Hey! That looks like Shane." Shane is one of Andrew's good friends, a fireman in our department, an EMT, and he's on my friends list as The Beer Guy. I also consider him one of my "sons". Shane asked me how I was feeling, and suggested taking me in to get checked out. I agreed. Any time you have neck or back pain, you have to be put on a board with a neck brace. They strap your head, chest, waist and legs down to the board. VERY uncomfortable if you have a slipped disk like I do. Andrew got into the back seat and held c-spine, which is reaching around the seat to hold the patient's head. Shane put the neck brace on me and it got stuck in my dang hair! LOL He and Andrew fixed that, and then Shane helped me out of the car and onto the board. Ugh! Joey came around and stood next to the stretcher while they strapped me in. They had to tilt the board to put the straps through it, and I thought I was going to roll off. So I reached out to grab Joey's jacket, and aimed a little too low! Sorry, Joey! xoxoxo LOL I was put in the ambulance, and Shane let Andrew sit in the compression seat so he could assist. He helped Shane strap me in again, and helped to adjust the neck brace so I wouldn't gag. Then he helped Shane put the canula (sp?) in. That's the oxygen tube. Then the bp cuff, and blood/ox finger clip. Andrew helped to fill out the info sheet while Shane worked on me. Andrew held my hand the whole way to the hospital. :-) I spent an hour and a half on that damn board! I know it's procedure, but my back hurt so bad by the time they took me off of it. Then the nurse told me I could have been off of it an hour ago. Grrr! I got a little ahead of myself. When we arrived at the hospital, Joey told Shane his neck and head had started hurting on the drive up. Shane told him to sign himself in. I didn't see him or Andrew for 2 hours. I asked where they were, and the nurse told me Joey went into x-ray when I came out, and Andrew was in the waiting room. Ok, I'm making a novel out of this as usual! LOL After they took me off the board, and told me I have whiplash, like I couldn't figure that out on my own, They told me which room Joey was in, so I walked down there to see how he was doing. He was getting the same results. We have matching injuries. Isn't that cute? LOL I asked him where Andrew was, and he said he was sitting out in the waiting room with my mom. My mom! None of the nurses told me she was there, and they wouldn't let her or Andrew come back to see me. Grr! I asked Andrew if he was ok, and he said yes. I figured by that time (3am) something would have shown up if he wasn't. To make a long story short, we were still starving, so Joey and I picked up some food and brought it home. Andrew was asleep in the recliner, so I woke him up to check on him and give him his food. Then I called Shane to let him know we were ok. Andrew went back to sleep, Joey fell asleep around 5am, and I was up til 7am.....waiting for Advil time. LOL I want to thank Andrew for being so amazing in taking such good care of me. You are my hero! I still think you should become an EMT! Thank you Shane for doing what you do best, even though you told me you were "just doing your job". And I want to thank Joey for being my strength. Just having you there made it much more tolerable. I hope you're feeling better very soon! Ok, so that's my exciting news for the weekend. It's Advil and sleep time. I might throw in an ice pack just for sh*ts and giggles. LOL I love you all! Laurie

Hi All! I just wanted to let you know what's going on with my heart. I wrote a blog about what happened called, *Had A Little Scare Tonight*. You might want to read that one first. It's been about a month since the hard PVC's started. PVC's are premature ventricular contractions. Basically the bottom part of your heart throws in an extra heartbeat between the regular ones. Sometimes they are so strong that my chest hurts and my head aches. Last Thursday, I spent 24 hours wearing a Holter monitor. The little recorder is attached to your body by 5 leads that are similar to EKG leads. It records your heartbeat for 24 hours, and that information is uploaaded to a computer for a doctor to review. The results of that were that I have an occasional elevated heartbeat with pvc's and I don't need medication unless I'm uncomfortable. My doc is waiting on the other test results to make a decision on that. Today I had an echocardiogram. It's a sonogram that checks all the ventricles in your heart and watches the blood flow going through the ventricles. Very interesting to watch. I also had 2 chest x-rays. Next is fasting blood work. Fun fun. This is getting exhausting and expensive. Ugh. That's about it for now. I'll keep you updated when I hear anything from the tests. As always, I love you guys! *Hugs* Laurie

Tonight was work detail at the fire department. After all the work was done, we had a training class on the thermal imaging camera we are trying to get with a grant. It's used to find bodies in burning buildings, car accidents, etc. Also it can register transfered heat...meaning if a person was sitting in a car when it wrecked and got thrown out of the car or walked away, you will be able to see the heat left on the seat of the car with the camera. Anyway.....I was standing in the back of the room handing out refreshments as the class went on. Suddenly I felt a hard thump in my chest, right in the sternum area. It kind of felt like when you drink pop too fast and the fizz forms a lump before you burp. A mixture of pressure and a little bit of pain. I had a few more less severe ones and then it stopped. After the class was over, I went outside to have a smoke and it started again. Shane, who is in my family list as the Beer Guy, came out and asked me what was wrong. He took my pulse and could feel the pvc's as they were happening. PVC stands for premature ventricular contraction. He told me to stay as calm as I could and of course that set off a panic attack. Oy vey! I went inside with him and talked to two other FF's who are EMTs...Shane is an EMT too....and they suggested I get an evaluation. So the three of them and Andrew took me into the bay to get away from everyone else, and one of them called an ambulance. The other two took my pulse, wrote down my info for the ambulance drivers and generally helped to keep me calm. Ok, let me see if I can shorten this up. LOL I was put in the bus, had my bp and pulse checked, pulse 130 and bp atrocious, put on a heart monitor, and stuck with an IV. When I told the medic I was having one, he could see it on the monitor. He suggested I go to the ER. Who am I to argue? LOL I was given oxygen, which helped a lot. Andrew showed up at the side door to the bus and told me he was going home. My mom and dad followed the bus up to the hospital. I can't blame Andrew for not going. He's been through so many hospital runs with my dad that it really freaks him out. Two of his friends went with him to keep him company. I was given a twelve point ekg at the hospital and put on a bp cuff, blood ox, and heart monitor. My bp had come down a bit, my blood ox was 100 percent which is excellent, and the heart monitor showed a pvc every once in a while, but they were slowing down. The IV in my left arm had to be taken out because the vein collapsed, so I got stuck again in my right hand. After a while, the doc's assistant came in and explained to me what pvc's are. There are two components that control the functions of the heart...the electrical pulses and the "plumbing" which includes the arteries around the heart. The electric pulses send a message to the heart to beat. The top part of the heart beats first, followed by the bottom part. When the pulses are thrown out of whack, the bottom part of the heart contracts first, or prematurely, which causes the top part of the heart to be flooded with blood. When you feel the hard thunk, that is the top part of the heart pushing out the excess blood. It does not cause any damage to the heart unless you have more than 6 pvc's per minute and they happen on a constant basis. After all the explanations, a nurse came in and said, "There's a man here to see you. He says he's your boyfriend. Do you want to see him?" Finally, an easy question to answer! Yes! :-D Joey came up to sit with me even though he has to be up at 6am for work. He's such a sweet and wonderful guy! So what I've learned today is: pvc's can be caused by many different things but the most common are too much caffeine, stress, lack of sleep, and anxiety. 40 percent of people have them and most don't know it. They are scary as hell! I've also learned that Laurie is going to be a miserable b*tch when she quits smoking. LOL I also have to kiss my chocolate goodbye. *cries* And there will be no more burning the midnight oil. OMG what a nightmare! LOL I want to thank Shane, Sharky, John, and Andrew for being there for me when I needed them. You guys are great, and I'm proud to call you my brothers and son! As always, I love you guys! Laurie *Hugs*

Just to let everyone who cares know, this is where I have been the last two days. Long story, but the short of it is, I have been having some health problems that may need to be corrected with surgery. This condition is leaving me absolutely exhausted and sleeping a lot. I had it once before when Andrew was almost 2 years old, and had to go in for surgery then. I'm trying to get into the doctor now, but it's hard to get an appointment with him. I would really like to put this off til after Christmas, but I don't think I can now. It's been going on since the beginning of December. I will update everyone when I find out what's going on. In the meantime, please forgive me for not returning rates and comments, or responding to shouts and messages. I appreciate everything all of you do for me! My friends are the best! By the way, if my status says I'm online, I'm probably not. Please don't be offended if I don't answer you right away. *Hugs to All*!

After visiting a wonderful friend's page last night and realizing that a few important things in her life had changed and I didn't know it, I realized that I have been letting the seduction of leveling suck me in to the point where I couldn't keep up with anyone. And for that, I am so very sorry! I have created this account so that I can start all over again with the good REAL friends that I had before, if they'll accept my sincerest apologies. As soon as I can contact the people important to me, my other account will be deleted. Again, I am so sorry for my behavior and I hope you can forgive me!
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