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It’s Official!
March 08th, 2010 | Author: Eric Hays-Strom

Most of my regular readers will actually know this already, due to a flurry of emails I sent out earlier (but not MUCH earlier!)

As of today, I am no longer unemployed!  At about 3:30 p.m. today local time, I accepted an job offer from a local governmental agency.  Once things are really secured, I’ll post an update on what I’ll be doing and the agency name.

It’s been a LONG drought for me!  And the really good part is, they want me to start the Monday AFTER Scott and I were expecting to return from our vacation, and so the vacation is still on!

I’m as giddy as… I don’t know what!

Category: Eric's Life  | 2 Comments
Planning a Road Trip
March 06th, 2010 | Author: Eric Hays-Strom

I collect minutiae.  I don’t recall it, but I do collect  t!  Well, at least when I travel.

When I was growing up, we took lots of road trips.  We drove to the east coast, and to Canada.  We drove once to Mexico City.  Days were filled with traditions.  We always started early.  Very early.  Dad liked being on the road by 6 a.m.  We’d stop about 8 for breakfast.  When they came along, the tradition changed ever so slightly in that breakfast would be Egg McMuffins at the first McDonalds we came to.  Dad loved those Egg McMuffins!  We’d drive through the day, long drives, til nearly 8 at night.

Mom always liked stopping at places of interest.  Dad not so much.  You get in the car, and you drive until you get to your destination.  Interesting sites along the way do not constitute “your destination”, so you do not stop at them.  In the ongoing battle between turning trips in to something somewhat educational by stopping at historical markers and the like, and driving without stopping until the destination is reached was not a hard fought battle.  Mom won.  Almost all the time, Mom won.  But she learned to temper her requests.  Dad got long stretches of driving, Mom got to stop and see things.

As I grew older, I helped with the driving somewhat.  I learned that one drives until one gets to the destination.  It’s the way I am.  I’m not big on sight seeing all the little roadside museums along the way.  And with the interstate system, driving to the destination without stopping at those little museums is so much easier.  I suspect I’ve missed lots of interesting stuff along the countless miles I’ve driven.

One other thing I learned at the seasoned hands of my father on those long road trips is the collecting of minutiae.  Driving minutiae, to be precise.  Dad and I kept simple logs of our trips.  Mileage of each segment of the road.  Cost of gas.  Gallons of gas.  Time on the road.  All these little tid-bits of data were carefully collected, written down, surveyed and then forgotten once the destination was reached.  The FINAL destination, that is… HOME.

Dad was also very inclined to detailed planning.  He knew what time we’d depart, precisely the roads we would take, which towns we’d stop in along the way for gas and for eating.  He never quite caught on to planning for those sightseeing forays of Mom’s.  And yet… and yet, even with those unplanned stops, we always made our planned stops.  And almost always on time!  It just dawned on me.  Just now.  You don’t suppose he was smarter than I thought, do you?  Maybe he didn’t bother planning the stops, but he must have taken them in to account.  Those detailed planning sessions began a day or two before the trip began.  And the detailed plan for the return trip began almost the very moment we arrived at our goal!

Today, we have so many more tools at our disposal.  In those days, planning involved stacks of maps.  Dad was not opposed to going to AAA for their Triptiks.  He loved Triptiks.

I no longer begin my roadtrip planning with stacks of maps. Or with Triptiks from AAA, though I DO love those tools.  No, I might not ever even look at a paper road map during my planning.

Google maps, and MapQuest, and RandMcNally online provide my mapping needs.  But, like Dad, each leg is carefully planned.  And there’s no room for sightseeing!

Planning for our currently planned California trip began 3 weeks ago.  All potential permutations of the drive were considered. Some of these didn’t include driving.  I looked in to driving the car and staying in hotels.  I looked in to flying out and renting a car and staying in hotels.  I looked in to taking the trailer along.  The trailer won.  Of course.

I looked in to driving I80 to Sacramento, then south to Orange County, stopping at Yosemite along the way.  I looked at the possibility of driving via Denver, St. George, UT, and then through Las Vegas on to Orange County.  And I looked at the “southern route”.  South won out (the weather, of course!)

Next I planned each leg of the journey, taking in to consideration hours of daylight, speed and expected miles per gallon.  Finally, I set about making arrangements with campgrounds along the way.

Next, I assembled my own version of a Triptik.  This is a one inch binder with tabs for each day of the trip.  In to each tab, I inserted the appropriate form of camper checklist (Departure list, Arrival list), a printout of the email from the campground confirming the reservation.  And (drum roll please) my Minutiae Form.

This is a printout from a corresponding Excel spreadsheet.  Each page has places for the starting location for the day, the name, address, phone,  website and cost of the day’s destination campground, a place to enter the starting time and the ending time.  There’s a section for recording data about each fill up along the way (place, miles drive, gallons purchased, cost per gallon, total cost & time of stop).  There’s a segment for entering other, non-planned purchases.  All this goes into the binder.  At the end of each day, this information will be typed in to the Excel Spreadsheet, and the mpg for each leg of the day’s trip as well as the overall mpg for the day will be automatically calculated, along with the cost of the day.

And finally, the GPS is pulled out, and each leg of the journey is input so that each days journey is at our fingertips.

And when the trip is over, I’ll never look at the data again (except to enter the pertinent data in the trailer’s log book.)

Category: Eric's Life, Our Travels  | 2 Comments
More on Our New Puppy
February 11th, 2010 | Author: Eric Hays-Strom

Okay, as I’ve said before, he’s not a puppy.  But it’s hard not to think of him as a puppy.  He’s got the most charming personality, and loves to give doggy kisses!

As I mentioned before, Gary wasn’t sure he liked the puppy’s name, and was considering changing it.  Monday, Gary says “I really don’t like calling him Buddy.  I can’t remember that!  Besides, it’s a dumb name for a dog.”

“Well, Gary, what do you want to call him?”  I’m thinking ‘Buddy’s a dumb name?  It’s one of the big 10 for dogs!’

“I’m thinking Pookie.”

I give Gary a stunned stare.  Surely he’s kidding!  Pookie?  POOKIE???? All I can think of is ‘talk about stupid dog names!’ (My apologies to anyone reading who may have named their dog Pookie.  It’s just stupid for US.  Really.)

“Uh, no.  We will NOT name this poor dog Pookie.”

“Okay, I guess you’re right.  We’ll keep it Buddy.”

And so it was done, I thought.  No name change for Buddy.  Tuesday, I tell one of my best friends “We have decided not to rename him.”  The chapter is closed.  The End has been posted to final page of the book.  It’s decided.

Tuesday afternoon, Gary says “I just can never remember Buddy’s name.  I want to change it.”

“Don’t EVEN mention the name Pookie.  It is NOT going to happen.”

“How about Buster?”

I like Buster.  It’s a good name, and it REALLY fits this puppy.  So, Buster it is.  Name change is now a fait accompli.  So, as promised consider this your Puppy Name Change Notification.  Pictures still pending!  In about 5 years when his dynamo runs down, and he’s calm, I’ll see if I can get one!

Oh, and poor Nikki. She just doesn’t know what to make of this interloper in her life.  I’ve been getting lots more cozy cuddly time from her.  She’ll come around!

Category: Eric's Life, Pets, Ramblings  | 2 Comments
Ophidiophobia
February 04th, 2010 | Author: Eric Hays-Strom

My last post briefly referred to the “snakicidal tendencies” of my earlier years.  I really was quite surprised at the number of people who have commented on that portion of my post, a post primarily about a new dog!

Those snakicidal tendencies… probably better referred to as herpetocidal tendencies… stem from the fact that I really have a problem with ophidiophobia.  Ophidiophobia is a variety of herpetophobia, a generalized fear of reptiles.  Wikipedia says “an ophidiophobic would not only fear them [snakes] when in live contact but also dreads to think about them or even see them on TV or in pictures.”  That pretty well describes me.

I have held snakes.  That didn’t gross me out or anything.  But the reality is I fear them at a very basic level.  Like the definition, I have problems watching them on TV… my hands sweat, my heart rate increases, my breathing gets fast and thready.  I get jumpy, having a hard time sitting still.  My body tenses like rock.  I used to hate thumbing through the “S” volume of our encyclopedia as a kid.  When I would push myself and come to the snakes, if I turned a page and discovered that my finger was on a picture of a snake, I’d darn near wet myself!  Scott loves going to the herpetology displays in zoos.  I tag along.  I hate it.  When we finally finish, I have to go to the bathroom, then drink huge quantities of water.  Then go to the bathroom again.

Where does it come from, this ophidiophobia?  I suspect it came from my mother.  I think she genetically implanted it in my DNA before I was even born.  Mom was terrified of snakes too.  She came by her fear a little more naturally.  She often told me a story about how that fear developed.  It seems that back in the 30s, the lake she lived by with her family (Lake Manawa, south of Council Bluffs, Iowa) came very close to drying out.  Of course, being the 30s, it was the pit of the depression.  Mom tells that she was out playing on the dried lake floor.  Maybe she was with her sister, my Aunt Jeanie, I don’t know.  As I recall the story, she stayed out later than she was supposed to, then went running home.  On the way, her foot caught in a deep fissure in the dried mud (you know how mud dries… in a jig-saw design?) and her shoe came off.  Arriving home, my grandfather, her dad, was extremely upset with her over losing that shoe, so he made her go out with him to find and retrieve the shoe (remember, this was the Great Depression; I’m sure the expense of having to buy a new pair of shoes would not have been greeted warmly by Grandpa.)  Anyhow, at some point they stepped over a log and there was a snake.  As I recall the story, the snake was large, and grandfather grabbed mom and jerked her away from it, thus implanting her fear of snakes.  Also, as I recall the story, the snake was a rattlesnake.  But I am not sure of that part.

And so, from my earliest memories, snakes were very much NOT liked by mom.  I remember Dad taking snakes caught in our yard, little garden variety snakes, never longer than a foot, foot and a half, down to the sewer grating where he killed it then dumped it down the sewer.

Years later, while working at a Boy Scout Summer Camp as a young man (21) I had two more experiences (in about 3 days) with snakes.  The first one was while out hiking.  I startled a snake, and the sound of it slithering off made me jump.  I followed the snake, getting relatively close to it, fascinated, and trying to overcome my fear.  Later, I had the Camp instructor who was teaching about snakes and reptiles help me to hold a snake.  It was ok.  Even managed to keep my terror under control.  But, then, the next morning, any progress I made was erased.

It was my habit, as the person in charge of the aquatics program, to get up before my staff, go down to the pool, do a walk around making sure everything was okay.  Then, against all safety rules, regulations, and common sense, I’d go for a swim.  The morning following my snake handling break-through, I decided to forego my walk around, and just dove in to the pool and started swimming.  I was about half way across the pool when I heard a shout.  It was the camp ranger, a big burly man, standing on the edge of the pool off to the side waving and motioning for me to swim towards him. “HURRY! HURRY! Swim like you’re in a race for your life!”  So, I swam toward him as fast as I could.  As I neared the edge of the pool he reached down, caught me by one wrist and yanked me out of the water.

I was sure I was in big trouble!  He just set me down and pointed.  There, in the pool, not far behind me was a rattler.

“We’re having a bit of a dry season up here.  They sometimes come to the pool, drawn by the water and the mice that come around here.  They sometimes fall in.  You should look before you leap.”  He scooped the snake out, killed it, then left, taking the corpse with him.  Nothing more was said about my irresponsible swim.  And I never swam alone there again… much to the chagrin of my staff, as I thenceforth made one of them wake up early with me and watch while I swam.  And I ALWAYS looked for snakes!

But that didn’t end my experiences with snakes.  When I moved back to Council Bluffs in 1998, we lived about 6 houses from a big creek that runs through town, under the 16th Street Viaduct.  One day, coming home from work, I tromped up the stairs to our apartment on the 2nd floor.  As I entered the room, I thought I sensed movement, and reached to turn on the light.  There in the middle of the floor was a garden snake, about 18 inches long.

I screamed.

I turned, and ran down the stairs to the living room, and sat with my friends until Scott could come home and go get the snake out of our apartment for me.  A few days later, there was another smaller snake.  Again, I screamed, and ran downstairs, and waited for Scott.  This soon became a pattern.  I finally got smart, and waited for Scott to come home before going upstairs.  It wasn’t long before we discovered the walls of the house were infested with snakes.  And can you believe it?  I lived there for 10 months knowing that!

One night, I awoke in the middle of the night, feeling the call of nature.  Not thinking I trudged through the apartment, and in to the bathroom.  I stepped on one of them.

I screamed.

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Forecast be Danged!
January 24th, 2010 | Author: Eric Hays-Strom

This morning, Scott and I dutifully watched Channel 6 weather so we would know how to plan our day.  That dreaded four letter word was used.  Snow.  But, the good news was we were told we could expected a few flurries, and a light dusting.

It’s been snowing steadily, and heavily, for the past 4 hours.  We have two inches of snow, the roads are a nightmare to drive on (as I discovered) and getting in to my driveway took 4 attempts.  The tracks my car left on the driveway resemble the tracks a sidewinder leaves on the desert sand… I kid you not!

Now, 2 inches of snow really is not a lot, I know that.  I know of one city in our neighbor to the north that would LOVE to receive this snow.  I know of another up thar that would sneer at our measly pittance of precipitation.  It’s not really the 2 inches… it’s the fact we were promised flurries and a dusting!  But, my oh my, it is sure pretty to watch!

Scott has spent the afternoon working on homework.  His first 2 semesters, Scott took 2 classes a semester.  This semester he got motivated, and is taking 3 classes.  He’s finding it a bit much, I think.  Three classes aren’t in and of themselves that heavy of a load.  But, Scott is also working full time, and remains heavily involved at church, working 5 hours every Sunday, 3 hours every Thursday, and generally has a meeting or two every week.  So I toughed up and cooked a gourmet dinner for the family tonight so Scott could get his assignment in by midnight!

There’s nothing like chili-cheese dogs and Doritos for a gourmet dinner!

Things have not changed much for me.  Still no job, and still no job in sight.  No one is hiring, and my friend who indicated that he would probably have something after the 1st of the year has now told me that they had another hiring freeze in place.  I’ve made it a habit at night to not go to sleep until I’ve reviewed all the good things I have in my life.  It’s not a hard challenge at all!  Life is good.  I can look at all I have, all the wonderful friends in my life, all the things I’ve accomplished in my life and know how truly blessed I am.

You know, this snow is gorgeous!  The temperature out there isn’t really all that bad.

But I’d love to move somewhere warm and sunny.  Is there such a place?

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Princess Nikki
January 04th, 2010 | Author: Eric Hays-Strom

Scott and I share our lives with Princess Nikki.  Or is it Princess Nicky?  Or Princess Nicki? Or… well, we never have, really settled on a spelling for her name – but that’s neither here nor there.  For information how this little darlin’ came in to our lives, you can read about it here.

Perhaps I’ll just settle for Nikki.  That spelling is as good as any.

Nikki loves the three of us.  She dotes on me; she’ll bypass everyone else to greet me when we come home.  I like that.

Nikki has her challenges in life.  She’s a dear, sweet, timid little girl.  Scott and I and Gary are her little family.  But when anyone else comes in to our home, Nikki becomes very fearful.  She barks ferociously, but prefers to do so from her hiding spot behind my legs!  If Scott or I aren’t around to protect her, she will run and hide wherever she can, though preferably beneath our bed.

In addition to her fear, Nikki has some other little issues.  Nikki does not like to be watched while she… does her business.  We must turn our backs on her… but not too far… so that she can peacefully do her thing.

Nikki also does not like water, in any form.  When it rains, it is very difficult for her to relax enough to… do her business.  And, because of this, she really hates bath time.  It used to be that we literally had to tranquilize her in order to bath her.  We’ve overcome that, but bathtime is still a very stressful time for our little princess.

In my previous post, I told about the nearly 30 inches of snow we have on the ground (and are expecting another 7 in the next 72 hours.)  Snow makes it very hard for our princess to go out to do her business.  After the last big snow, it took her nearly 3 full days before she just could not contain herself longer.  Fortunately, she found a relatively private location on our driveway on the other side of our car.   When fresh snow arrived, we made sure to go and clear a path to the “dark side of the car” for her.

She has another issue.  Her paws are ticklish.  Because of this, she doesn’t like getting her nails trimmed.  But yesterday, we finally had to do get her claws taken care of.  We grind them with one of those “Peticure” devices.  She doesn’t like this, either, but she does tolerate it.

Unfortunately we put it off so long (we could hear her anywhere in the house because of her clicking, clicking, clicking claws) that we discovered her dew claws had grown so long as to curl back on themselves.  It even appeared that they had pierced in to her paw.

Nikki also is losing hair on her sides.

So, this morning, Nikki and I braved the –17 degree cold and visited another of her great fears… the veterinarian!

The visit was good and bad.  The dewclaws weren’t as bad as we feared, easily trimmed, no surgery needed.

But, the hair loss has a rather nasty treatment.  Our poor Princess Nikki must have her semi-annual bath tonight.  And Thursday… and next Monday… and next Thursday… for a total of four weeks!

I’m not sure who dreads the baths more… Princess Nikki or her Daddy!

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Out of Touch
December 23rd, 2009 | Author: Eric Hays-Strom

Hi all,

I’ve been a little out of touch.  My laptop has developed some issues with connectivity, and for a while I couldn’t stay connected for more than a few minutes at a time.  In the end, I had to completely reformat my hard-drive and reinstall Windows.

I’m still in the process of loading software, and some of the more important stuff has gone missing at some point (Microsoft Office 2003 & Outlook – my email package).

So, in case you’re wondering where I am, that is it.  Of course, this doesn’t explain the long periods of time between blog posts.  That’s a different issue!

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All Rolling Pins are not Created Equal
December 17th, 2009 | Author: Eric Hays-Strom

Scott and I have lived in our home for over 10 years now.  We’ve done a lot of remodeling in that time.  Floors, kitchen, walls.  We never had a house-warming, and we’ve really done very little entertaining.  Just once about 5 years ago, we invited a few friends over.  In the interim, we’ve hosted dinner a few times for people that one or the other of us were working with.  But nothing either of us really consider entertaining.

This is the year that changes.  We have decided to host a Christmas Party for some friends from church.  I decided that I would like to do some baking for this party.  On the menu would be my favorite, rum balls, and Russian tea cakes, and frosted cookies in the shape of stars and trees and bells and the like.

The rum balls were easy to make.  I made the dough on Thanksgiving morning, and that night, Scott and I stood shoulder to shoulder and rolled out the balls, dipped them in powdered sugar and hid them well.

The Russian tea cakes were a little more difficult.  I didn’t let the butter soften at room temperature, so it was a bit of a chore to mix it.  But, eventually that succeeded, and we have 3 dozen delicious cakes… I know: I’ve sampled them!

The cookies proved to be a bit more of a challenge!  Now, those who know me well, know I do not like to cook.  The concepts involved are just far too complex for me!  I can make a main course.  I can prepare a vegetable.  I can heat up biscuits and rolls.  But getting them all to be done at or about the same time is just rocket science when it comes to my abilities!

One of the problems I have with cooking… and it really becomes obvious when I try to make cookies from scratch… is the meanings of terms.  Lightly floured.  Roll until thin.  What’s thin?  Is paper thin too thin?  Is a quarter inch of cookie dough thin?  Or is it too thick?  And what should cookie dough look like to know if I’ve too much flour or too little in it?

Then there’s the preparation.

When we remodeled the kitchen, we put down tiled counter tops.  They’re very nice… but it’s difficult to roll out cookies on tile!  So, we hunted down a sheet of Plexiglas at our local Home Depot.  We wanted one of those old Tupperware pie thingies (that’s the technical term, I think) but can’t find them in the shops we visited.

We have a rolling pin.  So, we didn’t need to buy one of those.  It’s a nice one.  It’s set on an exposed shelf in our kitchen for nearly 10 years looking nice.  It’s never been used until I ground up the vanilla wafers for the rum balls.

Tuesday, the day came.  I gathered all my ingredients together, and started mixing them.  I sifted flour (did you know 3 cups of sifted flour is about the same as 1 and a half cups unsifted?)  Finally, I had a peanut butter consistency dough and put it in to the fridge to chill “for a few hours or overnight”.  By the time Scott got home from work, several hours would pass.  I wanted Scott to supervise the next stage… he knows what he’s doing!  But “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” was on TV and we watched that, first.  Then we watched a saved episode of CSI:Miami.  And then, it was time for bed!

Wednesday, I was gone from before 7 a.m. until nearly 8 p.m.  And I was totally exhausted.  So, no cookie rolling Wednesday.

This morning, I finally squared my shoulders, looked at the dough, and thought “Oh, how hard could this be, for cryin’ out loud!?”  I dusted the Plexiglas with a half cup unsifted flour.  Slick Plexiglas does not dust well!  I grabbed about half of the dough, plopped it down on the mound of flour, grabbed my marble rolling pin and rolled.

And that’s when I discovered that not all rolling pins are equal!  The dough stuck to the pin like peanut butter to the roof of a dog’s mouth!  And it clung there for dear life.  After peeling off the dough in great gooey gobs, I washed the pin, and looked at the dough.  I put my hands in to pull out a mass to try again, but it was like trying to get a handful of peanut butter.  It stuck to my fingers.  But just enough flour had adhered to the dough from the first attempt, I got the idea “Hey, maybe I didn’t put enough flour in the dough!  So I mixed some… a lot of some… flour in to the dough and kneaded it like a 2 year old with his play dough!

Then, I saw the parchment paper for the other item I intend to make, so I tried covering the dough with that and then rolling!  Success!  From there, I pulled out my new cookie cutters, and cut some santas (they came out looking like oh who knows? How does one describe those shapes?) and candy canes… another disaster shape.  I finally  discovered that stars, bells and trees were the easiest to make.  Each batch I rolled out got easier than the last, as each batch had more and more flour added to it.  I think I REALLY under-measured the flour when I made the dough.

Nikki got quite a bit of dough… my disasters ended up in her mouth.  Or mine.

But, I now have sugar cookies.

As I worked, images came to me of making cookies with Mom oh so long ago.  The wooden rolling pin.  The wooden surface she brought out for cookie making.  The consistency of the dough.  The next batch, should I decide to make them, should go so much more easily!

Now.  A question for my gentle reader.  Should I attempt that Buche de Noel?

Category: Eric's Life, Stayings at home  | 2 Comments
Rambling
November 04th, 2009 | Author: Eric Hays-Strom

An Idea, an idea… my kingdom for an idea!

That’s what these past two months of silence have been like.  I mean, sure I’ve been doing lots of stuff… but none of it has seemed to be something I want to write about.  This past week, I’ve opened my “Live Writer” every day.  And every night I close it, nothing written.

It just seems that nothing has been weighing on me, or inspiring me to write about it. 

Over the past two months, since I blogged last, I’ve been on the run.  Of course, I’ve been to interviews… no luck.  I’ve been to Scottsdale for a wonderful family reunion.  I’ve developed a system for actually keeping the Hays-Strom household clean… something rather remarkable in and of itself!

But none of that says to me “Sit down and write about this.”  In deed, what’s being written right now is an attempt to jump-start my creative juices.  And I’m going to be NEEDING those creative juices! 

After a recent email to my family filling them in on my life, my job search, and Dad’s health, my aunt wrote me to tell me that she felt I wrote the most wonderful letters.  And she suggested I take a writing course.  And I jumped at the idea.  I start next Wednesday.  (And here’s a public THANK YOU Aunt Jeanie, for not only complimenting my writing, but making the suggestion AND then, topping it all off by paying for it!  You’re a very special lady, and I really really hope you know that.)

“A Writer’s Guide to Descriptive Settings” is the class I’ll be taking.  If it goes well, I may very well invest in another class.

My writing has taken me in some rather exciting directions.  Elsewhere out there in the “blogosphere”, a wonderful lady, a published author, whom I met online through conversations with a mutual friend, picked up an article I wrote some months ago and published it.  Another blogger in England picked up the piece from her and posted it with commentary.  A very lively conversation ensued between the 3 of us and several  other people.  One of those has even suggested I write a book!  Right now, that seems a bit unlikely to me.  But who knows?

I’m reticent to post that article here, or even tell my readers (all those thousands and thousands of you out there) where to find it elsewhere.  I’ll have to think about that.

Category: Eric's Life, Ramblings  | One Comment
health
July 18th, 2009 | Author: Eric Hays-Strom

Hello all.  This has been a pretty lousy weekend, so far.  It started yesterday.

Actually yesterday started out pretty good.  It was unseasonably cool yesterday.  I made a run to the CB Recycling center to dump a load of tree branches that I’d picked up at church, then to Home Depot, Best Buy and Bed, Bath and Beyond.  As I was driving home, I became aware that I was experiencing some discomfort.

Now, time for an aside.  Beginning back in 1999, I’ve had a bunch of experiences where I’ve experienced chest pains.  I’ve gone to the ER a few times, spent the night in the hospital on one or two occasions.  Generally speaking the end result is, nothing was wrong, at least with regards my heart.  I spent several years seeing an electro-cardiologist.  And there IS a slight issue with my heart, but nothing that was considered threatening.  About every two years or so, I end up in the ER, and each time, nothing.

So, when I experience discomfort like I did yesterday afternoon, I tend not to react very quickly to it.  I got home, spent some time doing odds and ends.  Then I cleaned out the refrigerator.  By the time I was done, my chest was really beginning to hurt.  “Some discomfort” no longer described what I was feeling.  So I went upstairs and lay down.  That was a bad idea.  As soon as I was prone, I really, really began to hurt.  I spent about 10 minutes in bed, but during that time, my jaw began to ache, my left shoulder began to hurt.  My left hand began to lose sensation… not numbness, just less sensitive.  And the fingers tingled slightly.

So, I called Scott, told him I was going to the ER.  Then got dressed and drove up to Jennie Edmundson, our local hospital.  The staff there responded very quickly.  They did x-rays and drew blood.  Finally they gave me a breathing treatment with Albuterol and then a nitro glycerin tablet.  Scott arrived about an hour after I did.

This time, the pains were different.  And they were far, far worse than I’ve ever experienced before.  Through most of the time I was there, I felt like my heart was in a vice.  I estimated my pain level at between 7 & 8, sometimes receding to a 6.  But, periodically throughout, I’d also get sharp jabbing pains in my chest that approached a 9… some of the worst pain I’ve experienced.  We did finally begin to notice that the pain was worse when I was prone or near prone, and receded when I sat up.  During these jabbing pains, I’d either not be able to breathe at all, or only in short ragged gasps.

After about 3 and a half hours they sent me home.  And once again, no real diagnosis.  The discharge papers say: “Musculo-Skeletal Pain” and “Chest Pain (Non Specific)”.  They did give me a codeine/tylenol medication, and a prescription for more of them.  Scott had to drive me home, then walk back to the hospital to get the truck.

The rest of the evening I sat in front of the TV, dosing off now and then, thanks to the codeine.  At 10 we went to bed, and I took another codeine to help sleep.  During all this time, the pain really had not receded very much, though the “vice-like” pain was now in the 6 – 7 range.  At 3 I woke up, fighting for breath, and in extreme pain.  So I got up, took another codeine, then slept on the recliner so I could be sitting up a little.  Sleep from here on was fitful.  I spent some time awake on the computer, and some just resting.  I dozed fitfully.

When Scott got up at 8, I was just coming to from a nap.  Pain this morning was bad.  I’ve been experiencing cold sweats, and a little nausea.  But now, as the afternoon progresses, the pain is almost completely gone.  I think now I’m just coping with the after effects of the narcotics.  I took the last codeine at about 8 a.m.  At 11 I took Advil.  So, I’m hoping I’m on the mend now.

These “episodes” have never lasted this long before, been this painful, or been accompanied by such a range of symptoms.  And we still don’t have any real idea what is happening!

Category: Eric's Life  | 2 Comments
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