Post Punk Kitchen Forum

I definitely have a crush on Boober. Hopefully that isn't creepy!

forking jet lag. I got home yesterday around 10am. I went to bed around 11 (no later) and got up around 5pm, then went back to bed from about 8pm - 12am, then went back to bed again from about 2am - 11.30am, and I'm still tired. I could easily sleep right now. I need to do stuff but I really don't feel like it.

I'm a little annoyed because I got an evite this morning to the Christmas party that my future mother in law is throwing on the 22nd. We usually see her for New Years, but we had another family event on the 23rd in the same city so we decided to celebrate with her the couple of days before Christmas instead. Well, she's throwing a Mexican-themed Christmas fiesta with a contest for who decorates themselves the best and a $20 gift exchange, which I'm not sure if it's supposed to be a white elephant game and we'll do regular gifts at some other point or what. My partner and I have already been working really hard on making large gift baskets for his family with homemade jams and pickles and we'll look really silly if we show up with this huge gift that we put lots of time and thought into and then we end up only getting some goofy socks from Aunt Hilda in an anonymous gift game. Not that there's anything wrong with socks, it's just that some more information or advance notice would have been nice so that we can be appropriately prepared.

I guess I'm a big party pooper, because unfamiliar social things like this make me really uncomfortable. Also, pictures. If I were thin, I'd be all up for dressing up ridiculously and hanging garland on myself, but since I've gained so much weight over the past couple of years, I don't want to put myself out there like that. I know I don't HAVE to and could just wear some Christmas ornament earrings and a red sweater or something, but... ughhh... I just wanted the normal, quiet, traditional Christmas family get-together.

Need some positive thoughts here. Last night my mom fell and hurt her arm. This morning, it still hurt really bad, so she went to the hospital to get it x-rayed. It's not broken, but they found her white blood cell count was super high and they don't know why. She has to stay overnight on IV antibiotics. It really scares me whenever anyone I know is in the hospital, especially if the doctors don't know what's wrong with them. I tried to get more info from my mom, but she was on pain meds for her arm and was just totally drugged. I am going to be worrying about her all day, hoping it's nothing serious.

all of the ppk action, none of the real-life action: the booberthefraggle story.

(but hey, thank dudes!)

Oh gosh, RC! That must be scary! Good thoughts!!

I went to a gym class this morning, I haven't been to that class in about a month. It was a different teacher (a temp from the sounds of it). She annoyed the crepe out of me. I was going to stay and do half an hour of the following class but then the fire alarm went off and it didn't seem to be a drill. Hopefully my gym doesn't burn down.

RC, I sure hope she's ok. People being in hospital for unknown reasons is far too scary. Hopefully you guys get good news

Thanks. I wish I had more info, but my mom doesn't function well at all on painkillers. The conversation we had would have been funny if I wasn't so worried. I kept trying to get her to elaborate, and she just kept saying "I have a blood infection!" I asked her why she didn't tell me she had gone to the hospital (when she called and said "I have to stay overnight and have an IV," I was like "wait, what?" because I had no idea where she was!) and she said "Oh, I called earlier, but no one answered." I said, "Yeah, but I live with you!" and there was this long confused pause, so I said "You could have come into my room and told me you were going to the ER!" and she just said "Oh... yeah... I'm going to sleep now. Good night!" and hung up on me. I don't even know if she'll remember the conversation when she wakes up.

LOL, she could very well not. We have a lot of experience with blood infections (my youngest brother in law is medically complex and unfortunately gets them somewhat regularly), they can be scary but mostly can be kicked. My mother in law had one when her cat bit her finger, he hit the knuckle and everything went downhill after that. It meant some heavy duty antibiotics for a while but she bounced back.

Has she had any sort of moderate injury that would have caused an infection lately? Something that maybe topical cleansers wouldn't have been enough to deal with? Hopefully she's more lucid the next time you talk to her and you can get some better information.

RC, lots of healing thoughts for you mom!

I am annoyed that I am waiting for someone to come pick up the stuff they have stored in my garage for three years. She is late. I am irked. I get it... I am compulsive about being on time. I just feel like I spend time helping people and then waiting when I need the help.

She used to get blood infections a lot from cat bites (I don't know why, but she seems to just have no resistance to whatever bacteria cats carry). She would have to go in and get the intravenous antibiotics every time she got bitten. She even had cat scratch fever once (that was really scary because it took the docs a while to diagnose it, and for a while they thought she might have leukemia). She always has cuts and scratches from working with animals and from being super clumsy (must be genetic!). She did fall a couple of weeks ago and got all bruised and scraped up. So maybe she has had an infection for a while and didn't know it.

I'm waiting for her to call back, but she'll probably sleep for a while. She was on percocet a few years back after an injury, and it made her sleep about 23 hours a day. I'm hoping the antibiotics will knock out the infection and she'll be able to come home tomorrow.

i hope your mom's o.k., rc. i get so anxious when someone's sick or hurt and i can't get proper information about it.

this installment of this american life that i'm listening to is tearing my heart to bits. nobody else listen to it! it's terrible!

Cats must have some super nasty stuff in their mouths because you're not the first person I've heard say that about a family member. It's a shame the vile beasts are so cute.

My to do list for today:

1) stop eating the delicious chipotle hummus. Save some amazing spicey goodness for later and don't die of chickpea overdose!

2) get off yer arse and do something! The kitchen is a mess, the floors are a mess, there are gifts to be wrapped. Eating hummus no longer counts as "doing something"

My mom just called back, and she has to stay in the hospital all weekend. :( They think she probably had a blood infection already and then when she fell and hit her arm last night, it made it flare up. And now her arm is all swelled up. She's told them about every bump and bruise she's had over the past month, and how she had to get a seagull out of a dirty pond the other day. And I guess they decided she is exposed to so much bacteria as an animal control officer that they are going to change to a stronger antibiotic to try to cover all possibilities. I'm going to see if I can get my dad to drive me there today to visit. She went in expecting to just get x-rays and get out, so she didn't bring anything with her. She told the staff she was vegetarian, and apparently the only option they had for her was a fruit plate made up of canned peaches and pears. So I'll see if I can bring some food to her.

I just got back from the hospital. My mom looks terrible (sorry, mom!). Both her arms are all swollen, although she says the swelling has gone down since she got there. She said the hand surgeon keeps coming in and checking her hands. At first her hands were tingly, which they said wasn't good, but after a while on the antibiotics, the tingling stopped. They had her on some super strong narcotic which they said was 10x stronger than morphine, and it made her so sick. She doesn't tolerate painkillers well. The doctor said they could "knock it down to morphine" and my mom was like "Um, I was thinking more along the lines of tylenol..." We couldn't stay long because my dad had to get ready for work, plus my mom felt so nauseated and tired that she just wanted to sleep. She has to stay there all of tomorrow and overnight till Monday morning, and then if things are better, she can go home.

It's so scary to see her in a hospital bed looking so sick! I appreciate all your good thoughts.

Oh gosh, RC, that sucks. Here's hoping for a speedy recovery!

I hope she gets better soon, RC. That really does suck.

I failed on both parts of my to do list. Did nothing, ate all the tasty hummus. Now I feel gross and angry at myself. :P

I hope your mom recovers quickly and is feeling better soon raspberycomplaint!

Thank you. I just don't know what to do with myself. I feel like I should do something productive so I'm not just sitting here worrying my head off. Maybe decorate for christmas like I was planning on doing today.

Also, I didn't know that hospitals charged for tv now! My mom has a tv in her room, but there is a sign saying that if she uses it, there will be a charge of $9.95 for the first day, and $6 for every additional day added to her bill. That seems pretty ridiculous for a shitty tv with 20 channels.

Decorate the house, RC - it will be lovely for your mum to come home to. Maybe make some cookies you can take in to her over the weekend?

I thought about cooking her something, but she is so sick from her meds that she can't even look at food. My dad and I brought her some crackers, but she just feels like she is going to puke constantly. So she's REALLY hoping they can cut back on the meds soon.

I think I will at least get the xmas lights up in the windows, and do some cleaning so she can come home to a nice clean house.

What the fork?

Hope she is better soon! Everybody looks way sicker than they really are in hospitals though! It's a rule of some kind. The bad surroundings share the gloom around.

Aren't they giving her phenergan or whatever that stuff is called? Stuff to counteract the nausea? I always have to have it when I'm on high doses of other meds. Considering they charge for tv, maybe you/she better look into this!

Eta: they can add it to the IV, but it does cause drowsiness, so they won't give it unless someone is complaining of bad nausea.

RC, that sucks. I'm so sorry for your mum. Do you (or a friend) have a lap top you could loan her? We loaded up movies for my boyfriend's dad on my laptop when he had a lengthy hospital stay, because they charged for TV and he hated commercials. I hope she improves soon.

This is my life...especially the bottom three frames. I love it.

I'm going to make bitters today!