Memorial Day

My wife's nephew came by for a bit. We went out for lunch and decided to see The Day After Tomorrow. It was playing at 2 theaters at the multiplex and both were sold out for the next 2 showings each. At $9.00 a ticket, that's alot of scratch.

We went back home and watched Scary Movie 3 on DVD. It had some really funny moments. As long as you don't expect Airplane or The Exorcist, the average movie viewer will enjoy it. Cool side note: Scary Movie 3 has an alternate ending on the DVD with a spoof on The Matrix and The Ring.

We dumped Blockbuster several months ago when we received a postcard advising us our monthly cost was going to rise to $30.00/month for the unlimited 3 disc rental plan. We went with Netflix, for $20.00/month (Sidebar: Netflix's rate went up to $22.00/month this month but it's still a bargain in comparison) for the same 3 disc plan and even better: there's no need to go to the video store.

Gathering

Today was the baby shower, quite a few people came by and showered the baby with gifts. We just have to get the big ticket items now: car seat and stroller. We also have a few small ticket items which we'll get online and have sent over to us.

I used to distrust online purchasing. Now that's my preferred choice of shopping. How times have changed.

The crib

The crib put together. 

The crib

The crib arrived on Thursday. It's a nice 5 in 1 crib that can convert to a bed for the child as he grows with a nice cherry wood finish. We put it together today. I expected it to be a real pain to do but it went pretty easy.

The hardest part was getting the gate put in place, that took me about 20 minutes or so. All in all it took me about one and a half hours.

I don't know if this is commonplace but the instructions are glued onto the baseboard for the crib, making it easy to find. Stroke of genius, i forget about things after 2 months pass.

Cost of gas today

Queens Blvd., Rego Park, Queens, NY 

Serendipity?

On my way home from work last night, I discovered I was able to drive and see without my glasses. I'm near-sighted and being able to read at a distance without the glasses is liberating. I think I still need to wear glasses but nowhere near the strength I currently have. I assume it's the Diabetes medication helping my eyesight.

But I am troubled in that I have been wearing glasses for about 12 years now, only to find out that I have been developing Diabetes all this time, albeit slowly. What is the long-term damage of higher than average blood sugar? It seems that organ damage is quite possible. Not sure about any other possible complications.

SWG

For anyone that may actually be reading this and plays Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided say hello in-game. Igby on Bria server.

Working on way to Master Weaponsmith.

Achieved:
Master Artisan
Master Medic

Working on: Master Weaponsmith, Master Merchant, Master Carbineer, Master Architect

Ya...I know. I'm gonna have to do some surrendering of skills to get there, but I'm only going for the Master Merchant then dumping them to continue with the others. I'm in the process of cutting up Medic.

Pic of sonogram.

3-D image sonogram taken at Monday's visit. 

Surgeon's follow-up

My wife had a follow-up visit with her gall bladder surgeon. He looked at the incisions and was satisfied that they were healing nicely.

He was worried that as the baby grew the incisions would not heal sufficiently.

We went out for lunch afterwards and I was surprised later since the One Touch Ultra indicated my blood sugar fell below 200 for the first time in about a week.

Noticable Difference

Even though things at work are the same, day in and day out I'm starting to feel a difference that maybe was the diabetes affecting me.

I was able to drive into the office without fighting sleep and I dont' have the constant sluggishness. I also can concentrate much better without the constant headaches.

This might actually make working bearable again...heh.

Check-up

My wife has an appointment today with her obstetrician, since her mom is here I figured I'd go to work today and let her mother see the baby since there's a sonogram on schedule for today as well.

Just my luck, today they do the 3-D sonogram. Maybe there will be another one in the coming weeks.

Time to educate

I picked up a couple of books on diabetes to try to educate myself on the variety of foods I can have and in what combination...

It looks somewhat like I should have a balance of protein, carbs and veggies.

On-line, I did most of my research at the American Diabetes Association. A lot of information at this site.

The results

My doctor has confirmed that I have diabetes. I have to watch my food intake now since I have elevated levels of blood sugar.

They took my blood and we'll have the results on Monday. I have to pick up a glucose meter and all the associated materials. I've also been prescribed medicine to reduce the blood sugar that my pancreas generates...hm..or is it liver? I forget which makes insulin and which releases the sugar.

So far the meter is clocking me at 300+ which looks bad so I'll have to find out what I have to do.

Taking care of myself.

For the last couple of weeks, I haven't felt altogether okay, but in the last week I've been experiencing standard symptoms of diabetes:

1. Continuous thirst
2. Constant urination (every 1/2 hour)
3. Blurred vision
4. Rapid Loss of weight (25 pounds in 8 days)

I made an appointment with my doctor and I'll find out sometime today.


My wife has been urging me to see my doctor. I haven't seen him in order 6 months. I had to cancel my last 3 appointments to take care of my wife.

I'm not complaining, i'm just saying that our circumstances in the last couple of months have forced me to prioritize our needs.

Back to the Hospital

Today was our 1st night of Lamazze (sp?) classes. Technically it's our 2nd but since the wife was in the hospital we couldn't attend the first night.

They went through what appears to be the basic practices on early stages of labor. With props as well, although the placenta prop looked like the Jellyfish alien in Star Trek (OS). Breathing exercises and short documentary clips were also on the bill.

Price of gas today

Rego Park, NY 

Additional help

My mother-in-law came in today to help out. She'll help my wife out at home during the day.

The added hands are welcome. We still have much to do before the baby comes.

Coming Home

My wife's obstetrician feels the baby and my wife are in great shape and a sending them home today. Only thing is painkillers and anti-biotics in case of infection.

Other than that we're ok now. Only time we'll go back to hospital is for birth. Whew...

Post-Op Day 1

The operating surgeon said he typically sends home patients a day after laporoscopic surgery to remove the gall bladder however his patients are typically not pregnant so her obstetrician makes the call.

Her obstetrician wants to hold her for one more day and make sure the baby and her are in good shape. So tentatively she goes home tomorrow and today she spends most of the time sleeping, receiving morphine for pain.

I go home at 6:00 p.m. to get some sleep while she sleeps.

Surgery

The surgical staff went forward with the surgery. It only took about and hour and a half. They performed a laporoscopical procedure to remove the gall bladder. The chief surgeon told me the gall bladder was full of stones. Anything that would cause the bladder to take on bile would cause her to have intense pain. I was allowed to see her after a few hours.

My wife was in a great deal of pain and she was still groggy from the anesthesia, plus the morphine shots they were giving her for the pain kept her slightly drugged. Nevertheless she felt the pain.

Once she fell asleep I went home to get some sleep myself. I've been up for about 35 hours without rest.

Follow up

After considerable discussion and detailed research the doctors have decided to proceed with surgery. They will remove the gall bladder since her attacks are coming on more frequenlty with a sharper level of pain.

They feel the danger to the baby and to my wife are very slight, making the relief from pain a priority at this point.

Surgery is scheduled for tomorrow.

Again.

My wife was released from the hospital last night. We thought we would just have to wait for the birth of the baby and then my wife will get her operation.

At 2:00 a.m. my wife wakes me up. She's experiencing the gall stone pain again worse than ever. We rush her to the hospital and she's admitted again.

We'll have to wait and see what will happen. Things are getting worse with her gall stones.

Oh no

My wife woke me up a 2:00 a.m. Tuesday morning telling me she has been experiencing a gall stone attack since 10:00 p.m. Monday night.

Her doctors told us to rush to the Labor and Delivery Room at our hospital for montioring and treatment. We got there by 4:00 a.m. and they went through the same battery of tests we've had before, the biggest difference this time was the pain did not subside after 3 hours or so. As of 7:00 a.m. when we got her into a hospital bed and she received medication she had been in pain for 9 hours.

She received Demerol for the pain, which helped with deadening the pain but not resolving the problem.

We are waiting to see what will happen since the doctors are reluctant to perform surgery. She's 31 weeks into the pregnancy. Surgery in the third trimester may trigger premature labor.

We are now in a wait and see mode.

Gas Prices

At Queens Blvd. Mobil near 108th Street entrance to L.I.E. - mid grade gas costs $2.199 per gallon. And they're talking about $3.00 per gallon by Summer. Something is definitely wrong here.

Luckily I have a compact car with a 6 gallon tank. I feel sorry for those folks with SUV's and their 20 gallon tanks.

Using Gmail

Is not as bad as using say Hotmail. You have a lot more disk space for whatever nonsense you have but the advertising that you are subjected to isn't as in-your-face as Hotmail is.

Google's Gmail ads are the same format you see when you use Google's search page, it's text only moderately sized and on the right hand side of the page. And most importantly NO animated GIFs.

Any gmail you send out does not have imbedded ads.

Not bad, overall.

We return

And although it was for a sad reason, my wife was glad we went to her Aunt's wake. She was able to see family she has not seen for over a decade. There was a general feeling of symmetry among the family members there. With the passing of my wife's aunt, they look forward to the addition of our son.

My wife was not stressed today. I thought she might be. Perhaps it was seeing family that made a difference. My family is not very close to each other and we don't spend much time speaking to each other either. My father and I have not spoken for over 20 years.

And the winner is

Not Action This Day. Lesson learned don't gamble.

Anyways my money will be tied up in kids stuff from this point on, so there's no need to wonder. I don't gamble much anyway, all I do is spend my money quickly and then sit around waiting to go home. Not much fun by my standards.

Today we attend the wake of my wife's aunt. She passed away earlier this week. This will stress her today.