Okay, so technically I could have posted an update yesterday, but I damn well didnÂ’t feel like it. Yesterday was about as productive as a blind man sorting crayons by color. Everything started off all right. I get to the doctorÂ’s office, did the check in thing, answered their questions and went to wait. I figured IÂ’d have to wait a good hour before getting in, thatÂ’s how it usually works, doesnÂ’t it? Not here, I was in talking to the nurse 20 minutes ahead of my scheduled time. That, however, is where my day starts to break down.

The nurse is asking me more questions. Well, actually she is getting clarification of my answer on the background form. This actually led to some mirth for me. The nurse says, “On the form it says you drink alcohol 2-3 times a week, how much do you drink?” Being as honest as possible I answer with, “I’ve been known to drink a case or two.” Nurse, “Over the weekend?” Me, “To be honest I’ve been known to do that in one night. Of late I’ve been drinking about a bottle of Jack Daniels over a two day span.” The nurse looked at me like I had issues.

Then she asks me if I have any medication allergies. I’m not aware of any, so I told her I didn’t. She then asked me if I was allergic to Novocain. I started off telling her no, but then I remembered an incident that happened 3 years ago at the dentist. He was doing some work on my teeth and gave me some Novocain. My bottom lip swelled up to three times its normal size. After four hours it returned to normal. It was a one time thing and I don’t know if it is an allergy or not, so I told her that. This is when I received the shock of the day. She says to me, “Do you want me to mark that as an allergy? Because we can use something else when we do the procedure or we can attempt it again if you prefer.” Me, “Why would I need Novocain?” Nurse,” They numb your sphincter before inserting the camera in your rectum.” Me, “WHAT?!?!?!?!?! I’m here for stomach problems. I know of a much shorter route to get a camera into my stomach that up my butt!” As I’m saying it I’m making a hand gesture of a camera going through my colon. (Think of someone tracing the entire large and small colon with their hand.) If I did have a Novocain allergy, I would hate to have my sphincter swell up to three times it’s normal size. I’m not thinking that would be pleasant.

The nurse looks at the file she has, “Mr., Contagion, what’s your date of birth.” I give it to her and at that point the nurse has a small chuckle and says she grabbed the file for another patient of theirs that has the same name as me but is having problems in the opposite end of the digestive tract then I do. Unfortunately this is not the first time this has happened to me in Rockford, so I get how the mistake happens. I’m just glad it’s not me that’s going to have a camera going where no man has gone, nor wants to, before. I do feel sorry for that other poor bastard.

We get that all straightened out, she gets the new file comes in and takes my blood pressure. She tells me itÂ’s up from when I saw my doctor last a couple of weeks ago. I tell her of course it is, IÂ’m in a gastroenterologists office and you just told me you wanted to stick a camera up my butt. ThatÂ’s not a soothing situation.

The doctor comes in and asks more questions, does a physical, but not a COMPLETE physical. I even made sure to remind him, stomach problems, not colon problems. Then they end up just having me do the barium test. They didnÂ’t even do the complete procedure; they just did a bunch of pre-procedure procedures to make sure they know what they are looking for. Now I have to go back in two weeks to finish.
Thus I was off my meds for 3 days, my stomach was a wreck, I feel like I swallowed a chunk of granite and I still have to go through all really rough stuff in 2 weeks. Two more weeks of wondering and speculation at what is wrong. How annoying.

At least they arenÂ’t going to stick a camera up my arse!

Posted by: Contagion at 03:03 PM | Comments (12) | Add Comment
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Last Saturday Tammi of Tammi’s world asked the question. “What’s your favorite thing about rain?” In the comments I made the statement of how relaxing a good cool fall rain is. There was nothing more relaxing than that. Then Saturday night after midnight I was out on the front porch smoking a cigarette. Ktreva had gone to bed already, and the boys were sleeping. There I stood, leaning against the railing enjoying the quiet evening air. And it was quiet. Quiet for living in the middle of a city of 150,000 people. No sirens, no planes, no yelling and even the motor vehicle traffic was almost non-existent.

The only sounds were the wind blowing through the leaves on the trees and crickets. The gentle breeze would pull the smoke off the end of the cigarette and make it dance. The thin wisps of smoke licking up into the air, twisting and twirling, dissipating until the human eye could no longer see it. The crickets played a gentle symphony to which the smoke danced. They drew their legs across each other like bows across a violin. The percussion of the leaves in the breeze complimented the crickets. Like natures orchestra, they played a haunting song. A song that cut to the heart of oneÂ’s soul and touches a person in ways they donÂ’t expect.

Their tune brought back memories. Of good times long gone and friends lost. My mind filled with images that had been forgotten. Faces and places that I hadnÂ’t thought of in at least 10 years. Times that when I reminisce with my friends, we have forgotten. All good memories that made me smile.

Â…And I was relaxed. Calmness spread over me that many people spend years and thousands of dollars trying to achieve. All my concerns and worries had vanished from me. The muscles in my neck and back had loosened from the tension that was in them earlier in the day. Clarity came to me and everything fell into place. I was relaxed more then any other time in my life.

All due to crickets.

Posted by: Contagion at 06:19 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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My damn nerves are finally kicking in. This Wednesday I’m supposed to have my little exploratory procedure done. I’m not nervous about the procedure itself, I’ve been though worse, it’s what they might find out that has me bothered. I’ve had blood work and bunch of other tests done and so far all I’m getting is, “We’d rather not speculate until we get confirmation.” Even after a thorough arse chewing they still felt, “It would be a mistake to discuss possibilities until we know more.” Gar!!!! Bastards!

I donÂ’t know whatÂ’s worse not knowing, suspecting the doctors know something and my speculating as to what it is or actually knowing.

Posted by: Contagion at 05:32 PM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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1 Y'all are in my prayers, as always.

Posted by: og at September 18, 2006 06:57 PM (N99bh)

2 You're right, it's far worse when they won't tell you what they think it might be. Unfortunately with the possibility of lawsuits always in mind - I understand why they don't say anything. I don't like it, but I understand. *sigh*

Posted by: Teresa at September 18, 2006 07:36 PM (o4pJS)

3 Thinking of the 4 of you....

Posted by: Armywifetoddlermom at September 18, 2006 09:41 PM (p5nKV)

4 Not knowing's got to be the worst - you don't know what to prepare for, and your mind fills in all the empty spots with the worst that you think can possibly happen.

You're in my thoughts and prayers, and if there's *anything at all* ya'll need, just holler. I'll hear you.

Posted by: Wes at September 18, 2006 10:25 PM (hPkn9)

5 Maybe they don't want to speculate because it's really some sort of alien parasite that lives off of
Jack Daniels.

You may scoff, but at least my theory fits the available data....

All joking aside, I'm not the praying type, so I'll worry for the next few days for you.

Posted by: Graumagus at September 19, 2006 12:56 AM (50gt2)

6 **hugs** and hope all goes well.

Posted by: vw bug at September 19, 2006 09:23 AM (HVeEK)

7 I'm thinkin' of y'all.

And the not knowing is the worst part. You can't plan, you can't anything. And I know this is just stupid advice, but don't try and second guess it. You'll only work yourself up.

Posted by: Tammi at September 19, 2006 07:23 PM (Mwghf)

8 Gah.

It's Wednesday now. Hope you have lots of fun with the appointment -- I know I would, whether they wanted me to or not.

Posted by: Ogre at September 20, 2006 06:39 AM (oifEm)

9 I'll be sending positive thoughts your way today. Hang in there!

Posted by: Richmond at September 20, 2006 11:12 AM (e8QFP)

10 Prayers on the way!

Posted by: jimmyb at September 21, 2006 08:19 PM (B9vto)

11 Thoughts headed your way!

Posted by: Laughing Wolf at September 22, 2006 05:35 AM (OnWUu)

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Yesterday after the grilling fun we had an interesting development. Ktreva needed to take Boopie to the store to buy some new school clothes. She wasnÂ’t gone 5 minutes when she called the house to say that the intersection of Charles and 20th (In Rockford) was underwater. There was a car stalled out in the middle of the intersection the water was running so high. It looked like a river flowing over the road, it was pushing stalled around. Cars in parking lots were being pushed into the street. HereÂ’s a photo from her camera phone.

Charles St and 20th.
Click to enlarge.

We then found out that all the major roads around us where flooded and we couldnÂ’t go anywhere. She came home as to not risk getting caught in one of the flash floods. We noticed a huge increase of traffic on our street. We figured people were using our street as a throughway to get past all the flooded main roads. Then one after another rescue vehicles with lights and sirens kept passing the house. At first we thought there was a house fire or they where going to the hospital. One of the hospitals is on Charles Street.

Ktreva went out onto the front porch and saw that one of the trucks was just half a block away. I went running down to see what was going on. When I came to the corner I saw that they where just there doing traffic control for a bigger emergency 2 blocks north. I headed down to see what was happening. That was when I received a shock. The Fire Department Emergency Rescue Squad was unloading a boat in the street. The water had rose enough that people where trapped inside houses. It was chest deep on the firefighters. They where evacuating the neighborhood just north of my house.

To make matters worse, the water was still rising. Trying not to stay out of the way, I asked one of the firefighters in a truck if I needed to evacuate my family. He told me that the water would have to rise 5 more feet before it even got to my house, let alone blocked us in. Just to be safe I ran, literally, home and told Ktreva, “This is NOT a panic situation, this is just being prepared. I want you to go pack some clothes for yourself and the boys. There’s flooding two blocks north of us and they are evacuating that part of the neighborhood. We are currently safe, and they officials do not feel we are in any immediate threat.” Next I called Wes of Bodhran (Drum) roll, please who lives two houses down from me. I spoke with his lovely wife and advised her of the situations. Again, I told her this is not a panic situation, just be prepared.

Grabbing a camera I went to check out the street on the other side of our house. The water here was only about a block away. I quickly snapped a picture, then the camera died. Unfortunately the picture didnÂ’t turn out to well, but here is what the view was just a block from my house. If you look closely you can see cars floating. (Yes, they where floating).

Click to Enlarge

I offered my assistance to the firefighters, but the declined my help. I guess I can understand, itÂ’s been ten years since I was certified last in water rescue. Not that they knew that, I think they where more concerned about me getting in their way. The water never did reach us, in fact it wasn't long after the above picture was taken that the rain stopped and the flood starting subsiding.

I will say one thing about Mayor Morrissey, The Rockford Fire Department, The Rockford Police Department, the Winnebago County SheriffÂ’s Department and all the surrounding agencies (We saw a Loves Park water rescue vehicle in the neighbor hood as well). They did an excellent job responding. They had the situation well in hand and even though numerous families where rendered homeless, they had emergency shelters set up and ready for them.

Depending on what report you hear, some areas received between 5-12 inches of rain in under 4 hours. Of course the weathermen and newscasters played this up as “Katrina style rains” (roll eyes), but it was nasty. The officials had no forewarning the weather would be like this, or that anything of this magnitude was going to happen. And since they want to compare this gully washer to Katrina, we had better emergency response then New Orleans.

Posted by: Contagion at 06:21 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Okay, maybe I have issues. Heavy rain, still grilling. Hail, still grilling. Severe thunderstorm warning has been issued for my area; IÂ’m still outside grilling.
Then the sirens and the TV is interrupted. “The national weather service has issued a tornado warning for your area. Law Enforcement officials have spotted a tornado and radar has confirmed rotation. What do I do? Do I head to the basement? No. Do I watch the radar to see where it’s going? No. Maybe I sat out on the front porch to see if I could spot the tornado, not this guy. No, I head out the backdoor to the grill to pull the brisket off.

I spent 6 hours cooking that chunk of meat; I am NOT letting the storm get it.

BTW, it was delicious.

Posted by: Contagion at 04:03 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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