Friday through Tuesday - It's been busy!

Every day I think I'm going to have a nice, quiet, relaxing day at home turns into another bout of running around like a chicken with its head cut off!

I received a call from my vascular surgeon on Friday morning informing me that I was being added to the procedure schedule at the hospital on Tuesday morning. They decided to do an angiogram (they call it a fistulagram) to open up my dialysis access. The access flow number was less than half of what it should have been when the test was repeated last Wednesday.

Friday night after dialysis, all I did was apply for scholarships. The SallieMae search I used came up with 25 that matched some of my given information and I think I applied to about 10 of those. Some were for full-time students or had other criteria I didn't fit. It was very helpful and I recommend it to anyone heading off to college.

Friday through Monday I didn't even touch Ocean Star. Not a single stitch. I thought about it but it didn't happen.

I had a completely boring weekend. To pass the time on Saturday, Kasey and I went to Best Buy to look at laptops. My laptop is over three years old and weighs almost 7lbs. It's way too heavy for me to carry, not to mention the fact that it gets super-hot and I can't hold it in my lap. I also do not want to take two semesters of math without a 10-key pad on my laptop.

I know you can get one of the plug-in 10-key pads, but I've tried it and unless you have a big table for the laptop and keypad, it doesn't work. There are alot of laptops on the market that have them built in, just like a regular keyboard. Almost all Toshiba machines have them, but none of those were lighter than what I already have. There was an HP, which was the lightest, but I refuse to buy an HP machine. I'm not prejudiced, I just know their quality has gone downhill since joining with Compaq.

I found an Asus that would meet my needs and had my computer geek brother, Ben, look over the specs for me to double-check. He said that other than the video card being slow, which I knew about, he didn't see any reason it wouldn't do what I needed it to do. If I have enough grant/scholarship money, I'm going to get the laptop for school work and keep my current laptop to use for everything else.

I went to Sarah's later Saturday afternoon and stayed for about an hour before returning home. Caleb somehow got into the white-out and painted both himself and his sister with it. Anna sounded insulted when I asked her who put the stripes on her. She was so funny!

Sunday was acutally a little relaxing. I had alot of email to read and respond to, as well as some blog posts to write. At 2pm I went next door to go over the dog and cat's schedule of feedings and things. This opportunity came at just the right time because I'm always short of money towards the end of the month. The extra cash will be very useful. I spent the evening watching some shows from my DVR and that was about the extent of my day. I certainly needed the rest!

Tuesday morning, the procedure went fine and Sarah and the kids picked me up from the hospital at 9:15am. We went to McDonald's so the kids could get hot cakes. I got an Egg McMuffin (the only thing I can eat on the entire menu) and then we went to Wawa. I got two Italian Shorties since they generously extended Hogiefest til August 9th. That way, I didn't have to do any cooking while I'm in pain!

See? There's a method to my madness! It's not ALL about the addiction to Wawa Italian subs!

I slept from about 10am til 12:45pm and felt absolutely fine when I awoke. My arm ached a little so I took a pain pill. I couldn't sit around doing nothing. For some reason, those sedatives and anaesthesia meds make me edgy and fidgety. I had to go somewhere and decided the college campus was going to be the destination. I received an email Monday night saying that my FASFA was chosen for Independent Verification so there was an additional form to fill out. Only I don't have a printer that works with my laptop and Uncle Wes's printer needs ink.

I went to the college library's computer lab and printed the form, filled it out, and turned it in to the Financial Aid office in person. While there, my academic advisor, Lisa, saw Kasey and I so she came over to say hello. I told her what we were up to and that we were meeting with the nurse at 3pm. I also told her I needed to see her sometime because I wanted to verify that the courses I plan on taking will transfer to the University of Maryland after I get my AA degree. She told me she'd be back from lunch at 5pm and I agreed to meet her then.

I also double-checked with F.A. that they received my forms from DoRS and that would be taken care of shortly. Everything was in order so we headed to Health Services to meet the school's nurse, Beth.

Beth and I had a very nice talk. I explained my medical history and Kasey's role in my care. She assured me that they are very well-versed in the disability laws and cognizant of the rules regarding service dogs. I was worried that Kasey would be left at the school if I had to be ambulanced to the hospital but she told me they would not let that happen. She's aware that some crews don't like to take service dogs, but the school will not allow them to leave a SD without its handler. It's actually against the law. I felt alot better with her assurance.

We discussed scenarios and things that have happened in the past, so she is aware of some of the triggers of my syncope. She also knows that I can usually tell when I'm very dehydrated and those are the times, especially, when I stay home. We all hope there's never an episode on campus, but if there is, Health Services, Security Services, my professors, and anyone else Beth deems to need to be in the know will have my Plan of Care, which I will be working on soon. We talked for 90 minutes and then I went upstairs to wait for Lisa.

Since I had to wait, I pulled out Ocean Star and worked on filling in more of the diamonds. It's coming along, slowly but surely.

Lisa and I went over the courses I've decided to take for my AA degree and only found three that will not transfer to the University of MD. Lucky for me they were all electives. My digital photography and photojournalism courses are questionable. Lisa said I'll probably have to explain to an advisor at the U of MD what I'm planning with my degree and they won't have a problem accepting those credits.

When I got home, I was exhausted, but I still had to take care of Daisy. That's right! In the middle of arm surgery, I'm watching the neighbor's cat and dog for them. So Wes, Daisy, Kasey, and me went for a walk. We took the girls into the Nursery School playground to run around and then brought them back to the house. Wes put Daisy in her house and I went over to feed her and Sneakers and bring in the litterbox from the back stoop. Since the house is for sale, the cat and dog spend the daytime hours outside. As soon as I opened the door to grab the litterbox, Daisy came running from behind me and got out the door before I could even put a hand on her.

I went home to tell Wes that Daisy was loose and then started following her. Kasey was trying to help, but Daisy wouldn't follow her into the carport. I guess she's fallen for that trick too many times. She also wouldn't get into the back of my truck. She wouldn't get within arm's reach of anyone. Our neighbor on the other side, Tom, tried to grab her but he couldn't get her collar. She just kept running around the yards, back and forth. Then she decided to go down the private road to the other end of the neighborhood and wound up at the house furthest from ours.

Trina came out because she saw Daisy, with Kasey in tow, go across her deck. I told her what happened and she tried to grab Daisy, too. No luck! The kids next door pulled in and asked what was going on. By that time, Kasey was standing beside me panting heavily because she was worn out. Daisy, on the other hand, was still running around the houses. All I can say is Thank Goodness we live on a dead-end road!! At least we didn't have traffic to contend with!

Somehow, Daisy started milling around the kids and Sarah was able to grab her collar! Wes quickly put the chain collar and leash on Daisy and we headed back home, after profusely thanking everyone for their help. Kasey was hilarious, because she cut across Ms. Peggy's and Tom's yards in order to get home as fast as possible! There was no staying on the driveway for her; she was headed to the house in a straight line!

After all that walking and excitement, I was absolutely exhausted. I got back to the house and collapsed in my chair. I told Wessy to bring Daisy in with us. I figured she had to be tired after all that, but it took her 45 mintues to finally settle down. She even tried to get Kasey to play with her! Kasey looked at her as if to say, "Are you INSANE?! I'm tired!" She wouldn't even move.

I took Daisy home around 8:30 so that I could feed Kasey and Chet without worrying about her eating Kasey's food. I figured she'd just fall right asleep once she was home, which she pretty much did.

The rest of the evening was quiet and I worked on choosing classes to replace the ones that wouldn't transfer. I'm pretty sure I have everything worked out for my degree. Now I have to figure out when I'm going to take the courses and whether I'm going to register for the one 15-week Spring term and take three courses (10 credits), or if I'm going to take the two 8-week spring sessions and do two courses each sesssion.

If I do that, I can take four courses in the same amount of time and earn 14 credits. If I can get my lab sciences and another class in those 8-week sessions, I may just do it. I'm also hoping that the College Algebra is offered during the 2-week winter term. It would be really nice to get that out of the way! I'm hoping to take care of my Computer Technology requirement by taking the CLEP test. I just have to find study materials.

Since I can't do a full-time schedule, I'm trying to find ways to fit in classes here and there to earn more credits each term. It all depends on what classes are offered in the shorter sessions, though. I'd also like to take two classes next summer, one in each of the 6-week sessions that are offered. I'm impatiently waiting for the school to release the Winter, Spring, and Summer credit courses. I feel better when I can have everything planned out so there are no surprises.

Tomorrow is another dialysis day, but it's also Borders Stitching Night, so I'm looking forward to it!