Stephany Writes

Categories: Life

Sliced

If I believed in it, I would think my family has been cursed. How so? About a week before my mom’s accident, my 14-year-old cousin was in the hospital with road rash. Then my mom got hit by a car. Then my uncle (my cousin’s dad, by the way) was admitted to the hospital with chest pains and a high pulse rate (they diagnosed him with stress, and put him on blood pressure medication). On Sunday night, my nephew was taken to the emergency room with a fever of 104. (He’s fine, just has a bad virus.) And yesterday, it was my turn.

It all happened a little after 2pm. I was washing the dishes and while rinsing off a glass, it slipped and broke another glass in the sink. No biggie. I took all the pieces and just put it on the counter, to clean up later. Once I finished with the dishes, I took a kitchen towel, picked up the glass, and on my way to the garbage, it slipped and sliced me on the inside of my thumb. Ouch.
The cut was pretty deep and was bleeding pretty steadily. I grabbed a towel and started applying as much pressure as possible. I called my mom and was pretty calm about the whole thing. Just your average, “Hi, Mom. I’m at home. Everything is OK, but I cut my finger pretty bad. It’s bleeding a lot and OH, MY GOD, I CAN’T GET IT TO STOP. ARE YOU THERE? MO-OOOM?!”
I’m pretty much a pro at panicking and thinking of the worst case scenario very quickly. I knew I would have to go to the ER. I was fairly sure I would be getting my first stitches I’ve ever had. The fact that I have no health insurance weighed on my mind a lot.
My mom had a friend drop her off at our apartment, and then my grandpa arrived. It was no less than 10 minutes after the initial call, but felt more like 30. My grandpa drove us to the hospital, since my mom is still in a sling and I’m, you know, still gushing blood from my thumb. On the ride there, I was thinking I probably burst a vein or a blood vessel and would require surgery. And that’s why it was still bleeding. Yes. I jump to the worst conclusions rather quickly.
I didn’t have to wait too long to be seen, 15 minutes tops. The doctor, we can call him Dr. McDreamy, although I would say he was 10x cuter than Patrick Dempsey, saw me and calmed me down. He said all it would take was a few stitches and that’s it. Oh. Just a few stitches? I can handle stitches.
They did have to give an an x-ray to make sure I didn’t have any remaining glass in my cut, which I didn’t. And then he stitched me up. He numbed me up pretty good, which didn’t hurt all too bad, and then stitching part was easy breezy. I didn’t feel a thing.
So there you have it. My first ER visit since 1999, my first x-rays in a billion years, and my first stitches. I only got 3 stitches so, in essence, my mom wins. (She got 17.) I would show you my stitches but I have them wrapped up and really, it’s not all that exciting. I would rather show you a picture of Dr. McDreamy and I, but alas, I did not take one.
I don’t know what is going on with my family. We are not accident-prone at all. I’ve been in the hospital 3 times total: when I was born, to get my tonsils removed at 4, and to get a tetanus shot after I had been bit by a dog. I can only remember my mom being in the hospital twice: once for hurting her arm when I was in middle school and then for her thyroid surgery 2 years ago.
I’m very nervous to see how much the hospital bill is going to be, especially with the 3 x-rays. And I have to find a place to get my stitches out. We have no student health center at my campus, and the cheapest we’ve found is $150. So if you ever want to have a debate on why I think a country-wide health insurance plan is a good idea, I will win.
Tell me, have you ever had to get stitches? And/or, when was your last ER visit?
Categories: Life

The Night Before I Begin a New Semester

I’m writing this post as a stream of consciousness the night before I start Fall semester. I have so many emotions rolling around in my head that the only proper way to get them out is to just let them flow naturally, with no thought to grammar or focus.

I’ve been rotating between feelings of excitement and feelings of anxiousness about starting a new semester. Last semester took everything out of me and having a break for 4 months (aside from my 6-week class) has been amazing. It’s been nice to work, then come home and either take a nap or just chill out around the house. No responsibilities, no pressing assignments. It was nice.

I don’t even know how much I’ll be blogging once school starts. Right now, I’m also doing all the housework and cleaning. Who knew such a small apartment could get so dirty so fast?! I have a few blog posts already written, but I know this semester is going to be pretty crazy. I don’t think it’ll be as crazy as last semester but I am taking two courses heavy on the writing, one course heavy on the studying, and another course heavy on the research.

I enter every semester with big plans to stretch myself, really research for good stories, and put all my effort into my classes. And within 3 weeks, I’m back to just doing enough to get by with an A or B, but not doing much to stretch myself as a writer. I have big plans this year. I’m taking some exciting classes, like Magazine Feature Writing and Social Media, that make me anxious to get started with this semester. I feel like I’m going to learn so much more about journalism and media, and also about myself through this semester.

I don’t think I’m going to be as stressed as I was last semester. For one thing, I’ll only be interning one day a week (still toying with Mondays or Wednesdays). For another, I have long breaks between my classes on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I won’t be jumping from work mode to school mode to internship mode.

In other great news, my brother and I did our fantasy draft on Saturday. I managed to score Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, AND Drew Brees as my QBs. I also got Adrian Peterson, Larry Fitzgerald, and Randy Moss. My brother got some all-stars as well, so I think it’s going to be an amazing season for us! I about killed him last season so I need some competition. Hehehe.

I feel so behind on blog stuff. Saturday night, I had to do the dreaded “Mark All As Read” in Google Reader because I had 162 unread blog posts to get to and knew I would never get to them by the time Monday rolled around. My “blogiversary” was yesterday and months ago, I had big plans on how I was going to celebrate – have my own domain, giveaways, etc. – but I did nothing. I just let it pass.

I have nothing else to say, other than I’m nervous about this semester. I’m nervous about how I’ll do, how I’ll handle the course load, and what kind of assignments will be thrown at me. I know I can handle it. I just have to prove it to myself again. Hopefully, I won’t have too many whiny blog posts this time around.

Categories: Life

She’s a Warrior – And Has the Battle Scars To Prove It

I’m not even sure how to write this blog post. I’ve started and deleted it multiple times. This weekend was a tough one for me, but an even tougher one for my mom. It was filled with ups and downs, pain and a few doses of laughter. I guess I should start off where it all began, which was Friday morning.

My mom was hit by a car on Friday morning. It was around 6:00am and she was doing her morning run, as she usually does. As she was running across the sidewalk of a shopping center, she was hit. She was able to walk home* on her own and let me tell you, seeing your mother with blood all over her face, arms, legs, and clothes is one of the scariest sights in the world. But she was walking, talking, and completely coherent so I knew her injuries couldn’t be all that bad.

We got to the emergency room around 6:30 and were there for 5 hours where she had multiple x-rays and a CAT scan done. Her biggest problems were a fractured elbow and laceration above her eye, requiring two rows of stitches. She also cut herself up good on her knees, elbows, and hands, as well as bruising up her thumb.

As a side note, I just want to say what an awesome staff the hospital we went to had. We went to Bardmoor Emergency Center which was just built a few years ago and is pretty top of the line. The staff was amazing there, as well. The doctor who stitched up my mom was pretty spectacular, even stopping halfway through the process to get my mom a Diet Pepsi and blueberry muffin! And they were so thorough in their x-ray process and making sure she didn’t have any gravel/debris in her skin. They actually were out of our way, but I’m so happy we went there. (Plus, we had zero wait time!)

We left the hospital around 11:30, armed with information on her injuries and a prescription for a painkiller and an antibiotic. I went to Walgreens to fill those and then got my mom home. If seeing my mom with blood all over her was a horrible sight, getting her from the car to the apartment was even worse. After sitting for a good 6 hours and then having to walk in the 90-degree heat to the apartment made my mom extremely dizzy. It’s about 30 steps from our car to our apartment and twice she fell down she was so dizzy. The second time, her eyes blanked for a second and that, my friends, is the scariest sight in the world. My mom’s CAT scan came back clean, but they did send me home with a paper talking about the minor head trauma she experienced and if she got dizzy, she needed to go to the ER. To say I was scared is an extreme understatement. She hasn’t had any dizzy spells since then and we think it was just the heat getting to her because she’s been fine since then.

The rest of the weekend consisted of me playing nursemaid, making sure her glass was always filled with Diet Coke and that she took her pain medication. (Although she’s only had 1 painkiller and has been taking ibuprofen for the pain instead.) 10,000mg cbd creams may also help relieve pain from these injuries.

We’ve been catching up on our DVR (and I’m getting hooked on Days of our Lives), watching movies, reading, and just celebrating the fact that my mom is alive and well, and I’m not sitting in a hospital room while I figure out how to live with a paraplegic, or making funeral plans.

This experience does make me a little frightened to run outside. I run in a suburban area, but there is a lot of traffic and a lot of stores. There are many times I have to watch out for cars as I cross streets and places where cars will be coming in. I’m usually very cautious about this, but now I’m even more so. I won’t be wearing dark clothing, no matter what time of day it is. And my mom and I will be heading to Sports Authority to buy her more reflective clothing to wear. (And maybe a headlamp!) It’s also made me more cautious of pedestrians and whenever I turn into a shopping center or onto a street, I’m doing it much more slowly and with more awareness to my surroundings.

The bottom line is, my mom is OK. Her injuries are very minor, in comparison to what could have happened. She’s feeling pretty rough right now, and keeps saying how stupid she was, but she is alive. Her spirits are high, most of the time. And she will still be running that marathon in January. I’m making sure of it.

Categories: Life

Thursday Tidbits

  • Can I just say how amazing the comments on yesterday’s post were? I was so nervous about the response I would receive, but every single comment made me smile – and some even made me tear up a little! I love you guys.
  • I still have a week to go before my next hair appointment and my hair is driving me crazy! While it’s still maintaining a semblance of blonde (thankfully, my natural color is closer to blonde than brown!), the length is driving me nuts. It’s hitting about half an inch above my shoulders which makes it flip out. I’m definitely going to have to keep my appointments 7-8 weeks apart.
  • Every time I hear about someone working on a freelance article, my heart sinks. A big part of me really wants to start trying to score some work this way, but a bigger part is too nervous about failing.
  • My ankle is pretty much completely healed. It’s still a little tender after work and standing on it all day, but I can run on it with no problem! This makes me so happy!
  • Speaking of running, is it weird that I find motivation in how I’m going to tweet about my run? Sometimes, it keeps me running if I tell myself, “Think about what an awesome Twitter status you could write!” (OK, don’t answer that. It’s definitely on the crazy side.)
  • I’ve been sick all week, which has really messed with my healthy eating/exercise. I only managed to get in 2 runs on Saturday and Sunday, but have been way too exhausted during the week to do more than work, come home, take a long nap, and sit on the couch. Plus, being sick like me makes me super hungry and feel nauseous when I don’t eat. It hasn’t been good.
  • I’ve been looking around at where to buy my domain and I found that you can do it through WordPress, which costs $5 more than if you were to buy it from a place like GoDaddy and use WordPress. Is this the best option, or should I still use GoDaddy? This domain-buying stuff is very confusing!
  • After reading BlogHer tweets/recaps from the past two years, I’m making it a priority to get to BlogHer ’11 in San Diego. I just need a roommate and someone who’s not afraid to be tied to a socially awkward girl who finds it hard to talk to people in big groups. (Oh, I know. I sound like a CATCH!)
Categories: Life

Vacation Odds & Ends

  • I’m writing this on Tuesday night, right before I begin my first real vacation in over two years. To say I’m excited is putting it mildly.
  • To some, this vacation might not be exciting. We’re not going on a cruise or spending a week in NYC. We’re spending 4 days in Orlando, which is about a 2-hour drive from where we live. We’re leaving today around lunchtime to drive up there and then will be hitting up 3 parks: Aquatica on Thursday, Disney World on Friday, and Sea World on Saturday.
  • I’ve never been to Aquatica. It’s the newest water park in Florida (this is a total guess, but it’s pretty new) and looks like a lot of fun. Plus, the park is open year-round, unlike Adventure Island which is only open seasonally. (Adventure Island is about 20 minutes from me.)
  • The last time I went to Disney World I was about 11 or 12. I think I grew out of it, after going every year since I was a kid. I wanted more fun, less “childish” theme parks like Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, and Busch Gardens. But I am so excited to go back and see how much it’s changed and stayed the same.
  • Sea World is by far my favorite theme park. I’m a total animal lover so this fulfills all my needs. The shows are amazing and being so up close to the animals is great. You can pet dolphins and stingrays and feed sea lions and seals. It’s a blast.
  • Sadly, I have to wake up early to get my run in. I’m scheduled to run 2 miles and I can’t say I’m looking forward to it. I ran on Monday so I wouldn’t have to run on Saturday and it was pretty rough. I’m hoping this run will go much better.
  • In any event, it’s going to be such a fun vacation! See ya on the flip side, yo.