Pneumonia – Round Two
Posted on April 17, 2016 by Ching under Health, Life.
You may or may not have known this but I spent last Sunday at the ER because of pneumonia. This is my second brush with it. The first time was in December 2014. I was so glad when I managed to get through this last holiday season without pneumonia because I’d heard that after you get it you become predisposed to it. Now that I’ve had pneumonia a second time, I see what they mean.
I hadn’t been feeling well for a while but I didn’t realize how sick I really was. The problem with me is I’m such a workaholic that I tend to overestimate my health and underestimate how sick I am because I hate missing work. I’d been traveling a lot for work the last few weeks and so I thought I was just exhausted from all of the traveling but I did think it was really weird that I was running out of breath really quickly.
For instance, just getting on and off the plane was making me out of breath. And, when we were at Laclede in St. Louis and we had to walk across the street to their other building, I also felt out of breath. It seemed really strange to me that I was constantly running out of breath.
Because I’m a crazy person who doesn’t like missing work, I pretty much continued on like normal. We arrived back from St. Louis late on Wednesday night, and then I worked for about an hour before bed, and I got up early the next morning to be in Topeka by 8:30 AM the next day. I could have taken the meetings via video conference but (a) it’s better to attend in person and (b) the customer relations and key accounts group had a very important quarterly meeting (it was a celebration of Coleen’s retirement and Terry’s final one). I wanted to pop in for that even for just a few minutes.
Here’s a selfie of Coleen and me. Don’t mind the raccoon eyes. It was kind of an emotional meeting. I don’t think I was the only teary-eyed person there.
Anyway, I wanted to be back in Wichita by 5:30 PM to make the PowerGEN mixer but I didn’t end up leaving Topeka until after 3:30 PM. We still had to take care of the dogs and return the company car back to the office so Brian and I didn’t make the mixer until 6:30 PM or so. I’m so glad we went though because it was a great turnout.
I went to work on Friday but it was a blur, probably because I was so out of it. Fast forward to Saturday… After teaching my Zumba Fitness class on Saturday morning, Brian and I had lunch at Asian Bistro because I felt like pho would make me feel better. The broth usually helps to open up my chest and soothe the congestion.
I really didn’t feel well so I went to bed in the “sick room” immediately after we got home from lunch. Slept in the “sick room” instead of our bedroom because Brian had stripped the bed to wash the sheets.
BTW, the “sick room” is the guest bedroom next to our office which is the room that grandma stays in whenever she’s with us. Jenni also stays in this room on occasion. It’s the room with the most comfortable bed in the house. I’m calling it the “sick room” because it’s usually the room I end up in whenever I’m sick. The last time I had pneumonia, I stayed in the “sick room” for a few days. Brian put one of our cameras in the room and just kept a watchful eye over me.
But I digress… We had it on the calendar to clean the living room, dining room, and kitchen this weekend because our neighbors Jim and Karen would be staying with us on Monday night. Since I was sick, I was completely worthless and of no help to Brian. Brian did all the cleaning himself. He even did the laundry, which is my job. He did all of this while I slept in the “sick room.”
He did check on me a few times and determined that I wasn’t running a fever. After doing housework, he spent the rest of the evening playing video games downstairs (I can’t complain; he earned his video game time that weekend) until I got up to move to our bedroom and was finally ready for bed.
I pretty much spent the entire day on Sunday in bed while Brian did errands and mowed the lawn. I did get up briefly to eat lunch (Brian made us ham sandwiches) but then wen’t back to bed. Later in the afternoon Brian took a shower and was getting ready for bowling. I really wasn’t feeling well and so I just slept the entire time without showering even after my Zumba class on Saturday. That’s gross, I know. I smelled bad and was feeling gross so I decided to get up and shower also. I ended coughing violently while in the shower and vomitted my lunch (in addition to the ham sandwich, I had BBQ flavored potato chips, chocolate cake, and ice cream) so you can imagine how putrid and brown the shower floor was. It kind of looked like I pooped a diarrhea poop in the shower. But I was grateful it was just in the shower because I was able to wash all of that gross stuff down the drain. The violent puking shook me so much that my head hurt. I really didn’t want to go to the ER but I didn’t want to miss work this week so I finally caved and asked Brian to take me.
When we got to the ER, they found I wasn’t getting enough oxygen and gave me a breathing treatment which helped tremendously. They also checked my temperature and got 100.4 which was a surprise to me because Brian told me that I didn’t have a fever.
When the nurse left, Brian was like, “You should ask them to take your temperature again because you could be hot from just getting out of the shower.”
They got 100.7 the second time around. I had a fever after all. I guess no one is perfect. LOL. As wonderful as Brian is, he isn’t a doctor.
Anyway, I got the same ER doc this time that I had the last time when I had pneumonia but he didn’t remember me. I suppose enough time has passed and he does see a lot of people (or I’m simply not that memorable). The crappiest part about the whole ER visit was that they had to stick me seven times to draw blood and attach my IV.
The whole getting blood drawn bit is always so traumatic because my veins never want to cooperate. It doesn’t matter how many times I’ve been through it, I will never get used to its unpleasantness.
Brian figured that I would have some massive bruising as a result. He was right. These are what my arms looked like after five days. Even today the bruises are still there. I know that the bruises will eventually go away but it’s taking a while.
The crappiest part about getting pneumonia over the weekend is that we missed Rune’s birthday celebration on Saturday and Jay’s birthday celebration on Sunday. I didn’t get to teach my Sunday Zumba class (huge thanks to Charis for subbing) and we missed Tulip Time at Bartlett Arboretum and the season opening of Old Cowtown Museum. We obviously missed bowling because we were at the ER instead. And, I also missed spending time with my little sister. I hate being sick because I always end up missing out on so much stuff.
The ER doctor prescribed some good stuff. Besides the breathing treatment, they gave me some steroids through my IV. I also got some strong antibiotics. It sucked that I’ve been on medication all week (just finished my last one yesterday) but I think it really did help because I’m feeling tons better. I could tell I was feeling better because I actually managed to have a great time while I was away on business this past week.
Check back in a few days for a recap of my most recent work trip, which I consider to be my best work trip ever.
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First Time in St. Louis
Posted on April 16, 2016 by Ching under Food and Drink, Reviews, Travel.
I can finally say I’ve been to St. Louis, Mo even though it was just for a few hours. Ginger and I traveled there a couple of weeks ago to meet some folks at Laclede Gas Company (now Spire) and learn from them.
Been spending a lot of time at airport with Ginger of late. She is the best person to travel with. I’ve never had TSA Pre Check privileges until I these last few trips with her. I love not having to take off my shoes, take out my laptop and toiletries, and going through the short (or non-existent line) at airports. Now that I’ve had a taste of it, I’m almost tempted to pay for it even though I don’t even travel that much usually. I’d say it’s definitely a must for frequent travelers. If I traveled all the time, I would pay the extra for TSA Pre Check every time.
Ginger and I were supposed to have dinner with the rest of our team and the Laclede team at Brew House the night before our meeting but, as luck would have it (or my bad travel truck), our plane was delayed in Dallas. First they just had to change the tire. Then they discovered some kind of mechanical issue that needed to be fixed.
We actually boarded the plane and then were all told we had to get off so the repairs could be completed but were asked not to go too far away from the gate in case we were ready to board again. We were originally scheduled to arrive in St. Louis at 3:00 PM but didn’t land until 5:30 PM. We missed dinner with group obviously, which is the same thing that happened on our last trip together. Ginger and I joked that the rest of team is probably thinking that we’re trying to avoid the dinners on purpose.
We still had to eat dinner so we just opted to eat at the steakhouse next to the hotel instead. We didn’t want to wander too far away in case it started raining, which was in the forecast.
Neither of us wanted anything too heavy so we decided to just split an appetizer and an entree and then Ginger had a wedge salad. I probably should have ordered steak but I was quite happy with what I had. The food was pretty good. I really enjoyed the crab meat starter with hunks of jumbo lump crab over a horseradish cream cheese mouse and sweet chili sauce. The picture below doesn’t do the dish justice.
Here’s a picture of Ginger’s yummy-looking salad.
Then for dinner we split the jumbo shrimp scampi, which was also delicious. You can never go wrong with shrimp stuffed with crab meat. LOL.
The best part about dinner is the restaurant is connected to our hotel so you didn’t even have to walk outside. My room was pretty basic but I think it might have been an accessible room because I had tons of space.
It was an interior room so I didn’t have an outside view.
I didn’t really mind not having a city view but, being an interior room, made my room tricky to find at first. I didn’t realize that my room (625) was next to the elevator so, when I walked to the end of the hall where the signs were and followed the hallway around and then got down the hall, I was super confused when it jumped from 623 to 627. I almost called the front desk to ask someone to help me find my room but I couldn’t get signal and I eventually found it.
The Drury at the Arch was okay as hotels go. The location was great because of its proximity to the Laclede office. They also provide daily breakfast and happy hour which was nice. Ginger and I got to enjoy a couple of drinks on the day of our arrival.
The conference room we spent our day in is located in the corner of the Laclede building facing Busch Stadium. The walls were completely made of of class and the view was fantastic. It was good that it was kind of gloomy outside the day, otherwise it would have been way harder to concentrate.
We pretty much arrived the night before and then flew home immediately after the meeting. Ginger and I landed in Wichita about 10:30 PM that day. No issues on the trip home, thank heavens!
It was a super short trip. I wish we could have had more time to spend in St. Louis. I would have loved to have had pictures of the Arch and stuff. It seems like a beautiful city. I may just have to return and bring Brian. Perhaps we can plan a nice holiday weekend road trip with the girls.
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Fun Saturday Afternoon with Nickira
Posted on April 13, 2016 by Ching under Things to Do.
Fun pictures from a fun Saturday afternoon with my little sister Nickira… Incidentally, these were taken a couple of weeks ago. The blog is a few weeks behind and I’m just now getting around to catching you guys up.
First stop, the ICT Pop-Up Urban Park for some ping pong.
And then we were off to Botanica.
I love the colorful shadows that this archway casts.
It was a beautiful day and we got some great photos.
Last stop, Churn & Burn.
I have a sinking feeling that I’m going to regret introducing Nickira to my all-time favorite ice cream joint. She’s probably going to want to go there all the time now. Wait, that can’t be bad because then I’ll have a reason to go all the time now too!
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New Pet ID Tags
Posted on April 13, 2016 by Ching under Babies.
We got the coolest pet ID tags for Molly and Saki from Tags for Hope recently. They’re made to look like Kansas driver’s licenses and are super cute.
Here’s how Molly’s looks on her.
No live action pic of Saki’s because she chewed hers up already. I was so bummed. I couldn’t believe it. Well, I should have known it wouldn’t last but a day.
At least the nice people at Tags for Hope are sending us a replacement. Will need to spray bitters on it so that she doesn’t chew up the second one.
If you need tags for your babies, I highly recommend getting some from Tags for Hope. The tags are high quality and look great, and every tag purchased provides an animal in need with food, treatment, and shelter. It’s a win-win for everyone!
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One Crazy, Busy Week
Posted on April 12, 2016 by Ching under Community, Events.
After spending most of the week in Madison, I came home to a private shopping party at Chic Street Boutique. It wasn’t well-attended but I was out of town the three days leading up to the event so I couldn’t really hound people to come. It was a combination of poor planning and just being super duper busy.
For those of you who are not familiar with Chic Street Boutique, they’re located at Central and Rock next to the most awesome tailor ever – Quickstitch. Chic Street has unique clothing and accessories that you can’t really find anywhere else.
They had some great clearance items the day of the party. I found a few things. I really wanted these pants but they were only available in XS. I was so bummed I couldn’t fit in them. And, then there was this one sheath dress I wanted but, again, it was not available in my size. I really wanted to buy it with the hope of eventually shrinking into it, but my friend Tammie talked sense into me and talked me out of it. Had it not been for her, I would have bought that dress and it would have been hanging in my closet, never being worn, for eternity. It’s important to have friends who will honestly tell you how it is and keep you from doing stupid stuff. Seriously.
The very next day was the Whine About Wichita YPW event at Union Station. I made Brian go with me. He was a tad overdressed because we came straight after work. Well, kind of. We had to take care of the dogs first and then had a quick bite to eat at TSK.
I had the chocolate bread pudding for dessert. It was amazing! It was probably the best bread pudding I have ever had. Hands down.
Ebony was at the Whine About as well. It should come as no surprise because she is on the YPW Board of Trustees and Advisory Council so she is at just about every YPW event. Ebony is not just involved YPW, she’s heavily involved in the community. Everywhere we go, she meets someone she knows.
She’s like a younger, prettier version of Don Sherman. LOL.
We got a really cool tour of Union Station.
Here are a few pictures that we took during the tour.
Obligatory selfie!
Brian looked really good. He looked like he was part of Mayor Longwell’s entourage.
I love that Brian humors me and goes to these events with me. I’m not sure if I would go by myself even though I did see quite a few familiar faces including our friend Cindy (@WichitaCindy). It’s crazy how we don’t see each other for years and we got to catch up and visit two days in a row!
I was looking pretty yuck because it had been a long day (more like a long week, actually). I’m glad that we went, though. We got to participate in the “whining” and “toasting” and met some cool people and we got these neat Wichita flag buttons. It was one crazy, busy week but totally worth it.
I love YPW events. YPW is definitely part of what makes Wichita great in book. Looking forward to the 2016 YPW Summit next week!
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