If I'd only had a BIg Mac

Tuesday night, Misty and I decided to go on a healthy kick and have grilled chicken and corn for dinner. Looking back, having a Big Mac with fries would have been better for me.

Wednesday night I tried to go to bed around 10:00 p.m. (Very early for me) I was starting to have some stomach pains and hoped that getting a good nights sleep would do the trick.

Not so much... I tossed and turned all night and didn't get any sleep. Around 6 a.m. I "tossed my cookies" and hoped that'd be the end of it. I called Mom to see what I should do. I ended up talking with mom and dad for close to an hour. We decided that I should call my Doctor and see what he had to say. At this point, I was feeling much better.

I called the Doctor and they didn't open for another hour, the nurse said I could go to the E.R. or wait an hour and come in when they open at 8. Since I was feeling fine, I thought I'd catch an hour of sleep then go to the Doctor.

again... not so much.

I laid back down and the stomach pain came back, just as bad as before. I called Misty, she came and took me to the ER.

Before I could leave my house, I "tossed more cookies." We made it to the ER and I had to use a wheel chair to get inside. After checking in, we looked for a spot for me to lie down. But I felt that more "cookies" needed to be "tossed" so I directed misty to "Go that way... fast" and pointed to the bathroom. And thank God... because that was the last of my "cookie tossing"

They put me into a little room and two Nicholls State Student Nurses came to draw blood and hook me up to the IV.

I don't quite remember the specifics, but at one point, I had a nurse on one arm injecting drugs (for pain and nausea) and one nurse on the other arm trying to get take blood for tests. The drugs went in just fine... but the other nurse had quite a bit of trouble getting the needle in. So a nurse from "the lab" came to help. She had trouble too. Then another student nurse came in to watch, and some other lady came in to check on everybody. Then some other lady came in for me to sign some papers.

I think at one point there were five nurses a Doctor plus me plus Misty in this tiny ER room. I just started laughing.


Anyway, I started feeling much better, and I was able to take a couple naps on that uncomfortable bed. They did some X-rays and a CT Scan and determined that something had blocked my colon.

My doctor finally came down to the ER to check on me (he was waiting for the test results, it's not like he was just really late). And asked me what I had for dinner Tuesday night. I couldn't remember, but Misty did. "We had chicken and corn"

And the Doctor said... Corn doesn't digest very well, and therefore can get caught in the colon pretty easily. So that's probably what caused your blockage since you said the symptoms started After you ate that dinner. So see... if I'd only had a Big Mac and Fries.

So there you have it. A blocked colon plus some inflammation from my Chrones made for a pretty miserable 12 hours. The Doc said I could check into the hospital and stay there over night. I thought that might be kind of cool, but since I was feeling much better, I figured my own bed would be better for the night.

But I'm feeling much better now, still a little sore, but pretty much back to normal. I'm on a pretty specific diet for the next few days. NO FRESH FRUITS and NO FRESH VEGGIES the doctor said. No whole grains or any milk product. And best of all... No Pickles. That one won't be a problem.

A big thanks goes to Misty for spending the day with me in the ER. Our room was about 58 Degrees and the chair she had was like sitting on bricks. But a new Dodge hoodie and some bowling socks kept her warm and she pulled up a foot stool and was able to get comfortable.

Oh, and when I got home from the hospital, I got a call from my publisher (who has never called me) asking if knew about the fire. I had heard some sirens but hadn't heard about any fire. I looked out my bedroom window and saw a HUGE thing of black smoke about two blocks away. So I walked over there and grabbed a few pictures. Not sure what happened, but it was some old warehouse that caught fire.

1.21 Jiggawatts!

First, a quick story....

A while ago, I misplaced a couple items that I wish I hadn't. My money clip and my 2GB flash card.

I tend to lose these guys quite a bit because they're fairly small. But most of the time, I leave them in a shirt or pants pocket and I'll find them in a day or two.

Well, I went about a month with out my money clip and a good two weeks without my 2GB flash card. I was past the "oh, it'll turn up" point.

The flash card is worth about 40 bucks, so it's not a huge deal, but still... and the money clip was a college graduation gift, so I was a little more worried about that.

Last Saturday night, I get an email from Misty at 10:30 p.m. asking if I want to meet her in New Orleans (She's shooting a wedding and was going to be done around midnight)

So I take a quick shower and get dressed. I put my hands in my jean pockets and... MONEY CLIP!!! with about 12 bucks. I forgot that I wore those jeans a while back.

I was feeling lucky for having found my money clip so I started searching (some more) for my flash card. I look inside the little pockets of my backpack because I was using that bag the last time I used the card. And.... no flash card... but I did find 40 bucks!

I figured since the flash card is worth about 40 bucks, I'm about even.

Until I go to the casino... stupid penny slots.

Then yesterday, I notice that the lapel pin I got at the 2004 fiesta bowl is missing from my car. I had it pinned up between the visors. And in my search for that pin, I find my flash card.

SO... now, I've got my flash card, I've got my money clip. (still up about 10 bucks from that 40 I had not idea existed) But I'm out a free pin from the KSU vs Ohio State fiesta bowl.

eh... it'll turn up.

Now then, on Tuesday night, I was driving home after some BBQ at Val's house for her birthday (everybody say Happy Birthday Val!!). During the drive, I kept seeing a bunch of lightning.

For me, seeing lightning is like seeing a pretty snowfall, or an amazing sunset, or sweet light.... I just get this urge to photograph. It's a feeling like "I can't waste this chance to use what nature is giving me to make photographs." It's an anxious feeling.

I decided I wanted to go to the Downtown Marina and try to get some lightning pics from under the bridges. I couldn't get there fast enough. Each red light seemed to take twice as long and everybody went 5 mph under the speed limit.

I cross over the bridge to the West side (the side with the marina) and make the u-turn to get to the Marina.

But stupid me was in the wrong lane... so I was forced to cross back over the bridge to the east side.

At this point, I was so frustrated, I just knew all the lighting would be over by the time I got back to the West side, so I said "Screw it, I'll shoot the lightning from the East side."

Kind of glad it happened that way now...


And, if you get a chance... I've made a slight change to my website. With my very limited web design skills, I created a multimedia page. There's only one thing up there right now. But there will be more soon.

Oh... and I started back running again today. I felt like a million bucks during my 2-mile jog tonight. It's going to take a small miracle for me to reach my goal for this month... so if anybody has some KU gear they don't need, I'm taking donations. Will wearing a Paul Pierce Finals MVP shirt count as KU gear?

Something to fill the gap

Yea, I know, it's been a while.

I have to go find a feature right now, but I thought I'd fill this gap between posts with a little multimedia thing I made yesterday.

A group of dancers from New Zealand performed at the Library. It was pretty cool.

And using the built-in microphone on my camera (usually used to record notes when I don't want to write things down) I made this slideshow.