Lamentation (Ken Scholes) ...421
U is for Undertow (Sue Grafton) ...403
Black Ops (WEB Griffin) ...784
The Last Templar (Raymond Khoury) ...532
The Killing Hands (P.D. Martin) ...392
The Sanctuary (Raymond Khoury) ...629
The Breach (Patrick Lee) ...376
Innocent Mage (Karen Miller) ...652
Awakened Mage (Karen Miller) ...714
Monster Hunter International (Larry Correia) ...726
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (Stieg Larsson) ...600
The Sign (Raymond Khoury) ...565
The Apostle (Brad Thor) ...532
The Accidental Sorcerer (K.E. Mills) ...551
Witches Incorporated (K.E. Mills) ...562
The Girl Who Played With Fire (Steig Larsson) ...642
Marine One (James W. Huston) ...513
Book Of Souls (Glenn Cooper) ...372
Naamah's Kiss (Jacqueline Carey) ...784
The Ezekiel Option (Joel Rosenberg) ...415
The Sculptor (Gregory Funaro) ...385
When Boston Won The World Series (Bob Ryan) ...192
Shadow Magic (Jaida Jones & Danielle Bennett) ...440
Wizard Squared (K.E. Mills) ...549
Zero Minus Ten (Raymond Benson) ...272
The Facts of Death (Raymond Benson) ...290
High Time To Kill (Raymond Benson) ...304
Doubleshot (Raymond Benson) ...304
Never Dream Of Dying (Raymond Benson) ...320
The Man With The Red Tattoo (Raymond Benson) ...289
Devil May Care (Sebastian Faulks) ...278
Red Sox Rule (Michael Holley) ...207
Dynasty (Tony Massarotti) ...299
Pursuit Of Honor (Vince Flynn) ...517
The King's Bastard (Rowena Cory Daniels) ...640
The Uncrowned King (Rowena Cory Daniels) ...396
The Usurper (Rowena Cory Daniels) ...489
The Professional (Robert Parker) ...332
Early Warning (Michael Walsh) ...391
Monster Hunter Vendetta (Larry Correia) ...647
The Last Pope (Luis Miguel Rocha) ...310
City Of The Sun (David Levien) ...439
Where The Dead Lay (David Levien) ...402
The Amber Room (Steve Berry) ...390
The Romanov Prophecy (Steve Berry) ...387
The Third Secret (Steve Berry) ...376
Dead Or Alive (Tom Clancy) ...950
Total pages: 21,986
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Saturday, January 1, 2011
[Shrek] So where have we been? (part 2)
Part one can be found here.
So off the the cardiologist's office we go, and after a couple more tests I'm presented with three options.
The first was to do nothing and hope it goes away on its own (which is can and does often do). Despite this being mostly a non-issue most of the time doing nothing didn't seem to me to be the best option.
The second was to undergo a transesophageal echocardiogram, where they would put a tube down my throat to check for blood clots on the back side of my heart, and them if that turned up clear undergo an electrical cardioversion. If you've ever seen a TV medical drama you've seen them perform an electrical cardioversion when they shock someone with the paddles.
The third option was to take blood thinners for a few weeks, and then undergo the electrical cardioversion.
Tube down my throat? Pass. I took option three.
Back home we went, and I spent the weekend getting used to having A-fib in preparation of going back to work Monday. I figured fatigue was going to be my biggest issue, so I did what I could to see how far I could push it before I had to stop and rest. By Sunday night I figured I was good to go, and went off to bed. But my heart had other ideas, and I was up most of the night. Well, so much for being a chicken. Looked like the tube for me.
So back to Dr Maki's office Monday morning, and we schedule the procedure for later in the week that will be performed by a different member of their practice. It was at the University campus of UMass/Memorial, which was good for me because my mother works at the Memorial campus so that would be one less thing to worry about. I was told it would be early in the day, but they wouldn't know the exact time until they called the day before. well, a teenager must do the scheduling at UMass because I was told to be there for Noon, and only a teenager would call noon "early". I arrived at Noon as instructed, and not being a patient person when I was still waiting at 3pm I was a little less than thrilled. I told them they had until 3:30 and then I was out of there, and amazingly enough at exactly 3:30 they took me into the procedure room.
They prep me for the transesophageal echocardiogram, and explain to me that with the sedation I'll be getting everything will be easy and it will be over before I knew it. That's easy to say when you aren't the one having a tube shoved down your throat. Although when it was over they turned out to be right. The procedure was to be done by a "fellow", which is a doctor that's gone through all his training and is a full fledged "MD", but is now beginning additional training in a specialty. I don't recall his name, but I do remember he was a nice guy.
As I'm laying on the table, laying at sort of a 30 degree angle so my right side is higher than my left side they begin by giving me a sedative. "Give him 1 to 25" is what I think the doctor said, and we chatted for a short while about, of all thing, the Red Sox and WEEI (the sports talk radio station in Boston). All of the sudden he asks me "what were we just talking about?", and I reply what we were talking about. He looked at the nurse and said "give him another 1 to 25"...
...and that's the last thing I remember until about two hours later when I suddenly realized I was back in my room talking to Fiona.
It turns out the sedation I was under is refereed to as "conscious sedation", which apparently numbs my brain so I have no memory of the transesophageal echocardiogram because they need me conscious and able to follow instructions while the procedure is going on. When they do the electrical cardioversion the patient is given enough regular anesthesia to knock them out for a couple of minutes. From there I was good to go.
Except (and isn't there always an "except"?) once you have had A-fib it can return, and mine has a couple of times. Each time it's gone away with 10-12 hours...except (there's that word again) for the this time, which is at about 36 hours and counting. Knock on wood so far everything is OK, so if it doesn't clear by Monday I guess I'm calling the doctor again.
Now that that long story is over, hopefully there will be more frequent posting, even if it's just quick posts containing some interesting links we've come across.
So off the the cardiologist's office we go, and after a couple more tests I'm presented with three options.
The first was to do nothing and hope it goes away on its own (which is can and does often do). Despite this being mostly a non-issue most of the time doing nothing didn't seem to me to be the best option.
The second was to undergo a transesophageal echocardiogram, where they would put a tube down my throat to check for blood clots on the back side of my heart, and them if that turned up clear undergo an electrical cardioversion. If you've ever seen a TV medical drama you've seen them perform an electrical cardioversion when they shock someone with the paddles.
The third option was to take blood thinners for a few weeks, and then undergo the electrical cardioversion.
Tube down my throat? Pass. I took option three.
Back home we went, and I spent the weekend getting used to having A-fib in preparation of going back to work Monday. I figured fatigue was going to be my biggest issue, so I did what I could to see how far I could push it before I had to stop and rest. By Sunday night I figured I was good to go, and went off to bed. But my heart had other ideas, and I was up most of the night. Well, so much for being a chicken. Looked like the tube for me.
So back to Dr Maki's office Monday morning, and we schedule the procedure for later in the week that will be performed by a different member of their practice. It was at the University campus of UMass/Memorial, which was good for me because my mother works at the Memorial campus so that would be one less thing to worry about. I was told it would be early in the day, but they wouldn't know the exact time until they called the day before. well, a teenager must do the scheduling at UMass because I was told to be there for Noon, and only a teenager would call noon "early". I arrived at Noon as instructed, and not being a patient person when I was still waiting at 3pm I was a little less than thrilled. I told them they had until 3:30 and then I was out of there, and amazingly enough at exactly 3:30 they took me into the procedure room.
They prep me for the transesophageal echocardiogram, and explain to me that with the sedation I'll be getting everything will be easy and it will be over before I knew it. That's easy to say when you aren't the one having a tube shoved down your throat. Although when it was over they turned out to be right. The procedure was to be done by a "fellow", which is a doctor that's gone through all his training and is a full fledged "MD", but is now beginning additional training in a specialty. I don't recall his name, but I do remember he was a nice guy.
As I'm laying on the table, laying at sort of a 30 degree angle so my right side is higher than my left side they begin by giving me a sedative. "Give him 1 to 25" is what I think the doctor said, and we chatted for a short while about, of all thing, the Red Sox and WEEI (the sports talk radio station in Boston). All of the sudden he asks me "what were we just talking about?", and I reply what we were talking about. He looked at the nurse and said "give him another 1 to 25"...
...and that's the last thing I remember until about two hours later when I suddenly realized I was back in my room talking to Fiona.
It turns out the sedation I was under is refereed to as "conscious sedation", which apparently numbs my brain so I have no memory of the transesophageal echocardiogram because they need me conscious and able to follow instructions while the procedure is going on. When they do the electrical cardioversion the patient is given enough regular anesthesia to knock them out for a couple of minutes. From there I was good to go.
Except (and isn't there always an "except"?) once you have had A-fib it can return, and mine has a couple of times. Each time it's gone away with 10-12 hours...except (there's that word again) for the this time, which is at about 36 hours and counting. Knock on wood so far everything is OK, so if it doesn't clear by Monday I guess I'm calling the doctor again.
Now that that long story is over, hopefully there will be more frequent posting, even if it's just quick posts containing some interesting links we've come across.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
[Shrek] So, where have we been? (part 1)
So, now that the holiday season is over and the Blizzard of 2010 (which technically wasn't a blizzard so we'll have to see what name they end up call it) is over I have a few minutes to explain why the blog has been dead and what is hopefully up in the future.
OK, the past few months...and it's kind of a long story so I'm breaking it up into smaller parts.
Over the summer I developed a heart condition called atrial fibrillation, or "A-fib" for short. In itself it's not a particularly dangerous condition other than it increased the risk of blood clots forming because my heart doesn't beat as efficiently as normal, so blood thinners were prescribed and I'm good to go. Of course, getting to that point is a journey of its own.
Not so surprisingly Fiona knows all the exact dates, but I've never been good at them so I'm going to just give a general feel of when what happened. It started in the middle of July (I do remember it was a Thursday) when I woke up in the middle of the night needing to use the bathroom and I could tell my heart wasn't beating "normally". I use the quotation marks because my normal heartbeat is abnormal to begin with as I have premature atrial contractions (PACs) that are controlled about 99% of the time by medication. So I didn't give it much thought and went back to bed.
The next morning I get up and it's still going on, but I'm still not concerned about it because it feels pretty close to what my normal arrhythmia feels like when it's happening, so I take my morning pills and go off to work...where it starts getting worse. After having a cup of coffee about 9am and it's still happening I begin to start worrying about it, beginning a text book stress cycle: my hearts beating irregularly so I begin to stress about it, which causes my heart to race in an irregular rhythm, which raises my stress level...and, well, you get the picture.
So to make a very long story a little shorter Fiona and I head off to the emergency room after consulting with my doctor's office. Now I'm not as huge fan of crowds so heading to an ER in the middle of the morning isn't exactly high on my list of things I want to be doing, but luckily when I got there the waiting room was empty. Of course when I mentioned to the triage nurse at the window that my heart was beating irregularly I doubt a large crowd would have been an issue for me as she immediately opened the door and had me sit down taking my blood pressure. I don't recall what it was, but as soon as she was done she told me they were going to hook me up to an EKG just to see what was going on.
What happened next was one of those moments that looking back you see stuff that was happening that you didn't notice was going on until you think about it. There were four wheelchairs in the triage room and the one the nurse put me in was the only one that had an IV poll attached to it. It meant nothing to me at the time, but looking back that is obviously the signal to the ER folks that I'm a cardiac patient. As they put me in a room and hooked me up to an EKG there were a handful of folks standing around at the desk. I hardly noticed them, of course, but looking back I now realize they were standing there in case I was having a heart attack.
I wasn't. What I was in was A-fib, and the nurse saw that right away. Suddenly the tension level dropped as she said to me it wasn't serious, gave me a 20 second run down of what was happening, and that we'd be able to fill out some forms while the cardiac staff drew some blood.
It was at this point Fiona asked if she should call my mother, who works at the hospital in the surgical wing. I gave her the "Are you f---ing nuts?" look as we both laughed knowing she would only worry, race down to the ER, and make stuff worse.
After the blood draw results came back a heart attack was totally ruled out (I had thought they'd already done that, but hey, it's nice to be sure) they decide to give me an echo-cardiogram, and Fiona and I have to wait about an hour for the tech to show up to give me one. During this time the nurse and doctor check in several times to check on me and report nothing has changed and that this isn't a serious condition that can be treated with medication the vast majority of times. Another thing that was helpful was I knew one of the guys I bowl with has A-fib and once they got his medication levels right he's virtually unaffected by it.
Once the echo-cardiogram was done the ER doctor came in and told Fiona and I that I needed to see a cardiologist, and that there were two available in the ER to see.
{SIGH}, now I have to talk to my Mom because I don't want to pick a guy with a bad reputation. My Mom, of course, took the news like any Irish Catholic Mom would--that the end of the world was upon us--and raced down to the ER. She wasn't there 2 minutes when all my numbers on the monitors I was attached to started going up. The ER doctor came in, looked at me, then the monitor, and then at my mother. And then he threw me under the bus with an ear to ear grin, telling me he'd come back later as he walked away stifling a laugh. As my luck would have it my Mom didn't know anything about either cardiologist, so I took the one that was going to be available first, Dr Maki.
Because the wait for test results and stuff was pretty long I was still in the ER when my Mom went off work, so she came back down to sit with Fiona and me. I had been moved into an observation room in the meantime because as the doctor laughingly said, the ER is for people who need urgent care, not for folks that need a nap. When my Mom came back she said all of the nurses said Dr Maki was the right choice, and that I'd really like him. After a short while he came in with test results and started talking about what was going on and how we planned to treat it. He also wanted me to spend the night in the hospital under observation, but the look on my face gave him the answer that wasn't going to happen.
After telling me to take it easy that night--like there was a chance I was planning on running a marathon--he told us to make an appointment at his office for the next day and to come right back to the ER if I experienced any pain, dizziness, etc. The ER doctor discharged me soon after, and home we went.
Next time, my visit to Dr Maki's office and the repercussions of being a chicken.
OK, the past few months...and it's kind of a long story so I'm breaking it up into smaller parts.
Over the summer I developed a heart condition called atrial fibrillation, or "A-fib" for short. In itself it's not a particularly dangerous condition other than it increased the risk of blood clots forming because my heart doesn't beat as efficiently as normal, so blood thinners were prescribed and I'm good to go. Of course, getting to that point is a journey of its own.
Not so surprisingly Fiona knows all the exact dates, but I've never been good at them so I'm going to just give a general feel of when what happened. It started in the middle of July (I do remember it was a Thursday) when I woke up in the middle of the night needing to use the bathroom and I could tell my heart wasn't beating "normally". I use the quotation marks because my normal heartbeat is abnormal to begin with as I have premature atrial contractions (PACs) that are controlled about 99% of the time by medication. So I didn't give it much thought and went back to bed.
The next morning I get up and it's still going on, but I'm still not concerned about it because it feels pretty close to what my normal arrhythmia feels like when it's happening, so I take my morning pills and go off to work...where it starts getting worse. After having a cup of coffee about 9am and it's still happening I begin to start worrying about it, beginning a text book stress cycle: my hearts beating irregularly so I begin to stress about it, which causes my heart to race in an irregular rhythm, which raises my stress level...and, well, you get the picture.
So to make a very long story a little shorter Fiona and I head off to the emergency room after consulting with my doctor's office. Now I'm not as huge fan of crowds so heading to an ER in the middle of the morning isn't exactly high on my list of things I want to be doing, but luckily when I got there the waiting room was empty. Of course when I mentioned to the triage nurse at the window that my heart was beating irregularly I doubt a large crowd would have been an issue for me as she immediately opened the door and had me sit down taking my blood pressure. I don't recall what it was, but as soon as she was done she told me they were going to hook me up to an EKG just to see what was going on.
What happened next was one of those moments that looking back you see stuff that was happening that you didn't notice was going on until you think about it. There were four wheelchairs in the triage room and the one the nurse put me in was the only one that had an IV poll attached to it. It meant nothing to me at the time, but looking back that is obviously the signal to the ER folks that I'm a cardiac patient. As they put me in a room and hooked me up to an EKG there were a handful of folks standing around at the desk. I hardly noticed them, of course, but looking back I now realize they were standing there in case I was having a heart attack.
I wasn't. What I was in was A-fib, and the nurse saw that right away. Suddenly the tension level dropped as she said to me it wasn't serious, gave me a 20 second run down of what was happening, and that we'd be able to fill out some forms while the cardiac staff drew some blood.
It was at this point Fiona asked if she should call my mother, who works at the hospital in the surgical wing. I gave her the "Are you f---ing nuts?" look as we both laughed knowing she would only worry, race down to the ER, and make stuff worse.
After the blood draw results came back a heart attack was totally ruled out (I had thought they'd already done that, but hey, it's nice to be sure) they decide to give me an echo-cardiogram, and Fiona and I have to wait about an hour for the tech to show up to give me one. During this time the nurse and doctor check in several times to check on me and report nothing has changed and that this isn't a serious condition that can be treated with medication the vast majority of times. Another thing that was helpful was I knew one of the guys I bowl with has A-fib and once they got his medication levels right he's virtually unaffected by it.
Once the echo-cardiogram was done the ER doctor came in and told Fiona and I that I needed to see a cardiologist, and that there were two available in the ER to see.
{SIGH}, now I have to talk to my Mom because I don't want to pick a guy with a bad reputation. My Mom, of course, took the news like any Irish Catholic Mom would--that the end of the world was upon us--and raced down to the ER. She wasn't there 2 minutes when all my numbers on the monitors I was attached to started going up. The ER doctor came in, looked at me, then the monitor, and then at my mother. And then he threw me under the bus with an ear to ear grin, telling me he'd come back later as he walked away stifling a laugh. As my luck would have it my Mom didn't know anything about either cardiologist, so I took the one that was going to be available first, Dr Maki.
Because the wait for test results and stuff was pretty long I was still in the ER when my Mom went off work, so she came back down to sit with Fiona and me. I had been moved into an observation room in the meantime because as the doctor laughingly said, the ER is for people who need urgent care, not for folks that need a nap. When my Mom came back she said all of the nurses said Dr Maki was the right choice, and that I'd really like him. After a short while he came in with test results and started talking about what was going on and how we planned to treat it. He also wanted me to spend the night in the hospital under observation, but the look on my face gave him the answer that wasn't going to happen.
After telling me to take it easy that night--like there was a chance I was planning on running a marathon--he told us to make an appointment at his office for the next day and to come right back to the ER if I experienced any pain, dizziness, etc. The ER doctor discharged me soon after, and home we went.
Next time, my visit to Dr Maki's office and the repercussions of being a chicken.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
[Shrek] We're still here
I know it doesn't look it, but we're still here.
Details to follow. Not sure when, but soon.
Details to follow. Not sure when, but soon.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
[Fiona] ERGH !!!
Ok just a few rants before I go out of my skin. So hubby and I purchased a new laptop for me awhile back. I love it; however, I hate that it has a web cam. I have never been a known narcissus. I can not tell you the number of times in one session at the keyboard I accidentally turn the flickin' thing on and catch a glimpse of myself typing away. It freaks me out every time. Thank God it is not hooked up to anyone or site where I might be seen in my semi clad glory. I do my best think typing at the crack of dawn or the deepest darkest part of the day like-ish 8 pm or so. Sometimes I am dressed sometimes, well use that talented imagination of yours. ;)
Onto my next rant. I am a collector. I like giraffes and dragons and cute stuffed crap. I am a chick and I like shit that sparkles, OK? Deal. I recently bought a penguin at the Disney store dressed in a dragon costume. Mad cool except to join their little club online cost a body almost $60/year. Oh you can join for $6/mo and play as you go. Mind you this is supposed to be a kid site but it is rife with grownups, me being on of them :) So I am Peter Pan incarnate, again Deal. What makes me angry? You can get an account for free but all the cool things that you want access to costs $$ and not small change either.
Not very family friendly if you ask me, just do the math. If a family has 4 kiddles times $60/yr for each kid = a whole lotta beans! I like Webkinz better. Easier to use, more things to do. Better assortment of animals and games to play. I also like the fact that you can own a lot of webbies and interchange them at will. Not so at Club Penguin. If you own more than one penguin you need a membership for each one at $6/mo for each= broke in no time flat. Long live Webkinz :)
Onto my next rant. I am a collector. I like giraffes and dragons and cute stuffed crap. I am a chick and I like shit that sparkles, OK? Deal. I recently bought a penguin at the Disney store dressed in a dragon costume. Mad cool except to join their little club online cost a body almost $60/year. Oh you can join for $6/mo and play as you go. Mind you this is supposed to be a kid site but it is rife with grownups, me being on of them :) So I am Peter Pan incarnate, again Deal. What makes me angry? You can get an account for free but all the cool things that you want access to costs $$ and not small change either.
Not very family friendly if you ask me, just do the math. If a family has 4 kiddles times $60/yr for each kid = a whole lotta beans! I like Webkinz better. Easier to use, more things to do. Better assortment of animals and games to play. I also like the fact that you can own a lot of webbies and interchange them at will. Not so at Club Penguin. If you own more than one penguin you need a membership for each one at $6/mo for each= broke in no time flat. Long live Webkinz :)
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