Funny Meeting You Here

Some of the stuff that goes on in a hospital you don't want to blog about, necessarily.  It's either TMI, or simply gross, or a repeat of the same thing day after day.  Sometimes it's just the crazy things that go on in hospitals, like meds that have to be taken very early in the morning on an empty stomach and that require you to not eat for one hour after, either, and that the pharmacy won't send up until 9am and you don't want to think about it any more.

Sometimes, too, inspiration just doesn't hit.

The x-ray was fine, but the swelling is not down enough for the doctor's liking, so she ordered an MRI.

Now, i've had one before, and it was grueling.  It was a multiple hour ordeal.  This one was about 20 minutes, but i had to lie on my stomach and hold my hand out over my head.  It's so cold in there, too, with a continual cold breeze.  It's a good thing i insisted on bringing my blanket.

Me and my temperature that's taken every few hours and never goes above 97°F no matter how active i am.

My little escape from the ward for a test today resulted in a most delightful encounter, though.  The person conducting the MRI came out and, as everyone does, asked me what happened.  As i described the cat fight i'd been in and lost, he looked at me and asked if i worked with the cat rescue.  When i said yes, he asked, "Didn't we adopt a cat from you a few years ago?  Named Blanca?"

That's when i recognized him, remembering that he had said at the time he worked here, and his wife was a hospice nurse.  Indeed, he and his wife had wanted a white kitten, and they came to our house when we had a litter that had two white kittens to pick one before they were even weaned.  Blanca was white with blue eyes and deaf and hilarious, with a great, wildly playful, friendly personality.  The couple visited our house about half a dozen times to see and play with their cat before she was weaned and spayed and they were able to take her home, and they love her, she's been a marvelous cat.

He told me the whole neighborhood loves the cat, neighbors come to visit to play with her!  It's the great stories like that which make Kittyville worth maintaining.

Now we await MRI results.  If there is no tendon involvement, and the rest of the swelling is just soft tissue damage, i should go home very soon with instructions to take my oral antibiotics for the full course of ten days and follow up with my own doctor later.  If there is, well, then we deal with that.


Today is

Anti-Fascist Struggle Day -- Croatia

Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Great Patriotic War -- Belarus

Dragon Boat Festival Holidays begin -- China (through the 24th)

Elfin Music Festival -- Fairy Calendar

Festival of 1 Lithe -- Hobbit Calendar

Heidi Festival -- New Glarus, Wisconsin (through the 24th; celebrations of the town's Swiss heritage)

Louisiana Peach Festival -- Ruston, LA, US (through tomorrow; Ruston grows some peaches worth celebrating!)

Morat Commemoration Day -- Switzerland

National Chocolate Eclair Day

National Onion Rings Day

Soap Microphone Day -- grab your soap in the shower and pretend you are on stage! (promise i won't tell)

Sternwheeler Days -- Port Marina Park, Cascade Locks, OR, US (through the 24th; reliving the days of the mountain men)

St. Acacius' Day (Patron against headaches)

St. Nicetas' Day (Patron of Romania)

St. Thomas More's Day (Patron of adopted children, civil servants, difficult marriages, large families, lawyers, politicians/politicos/statesmen, step-parents, widowers; Arlington, VA; Ateneo de Manila Law School; Pensacola-Tallahassee, FL; University of Malta; University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Arts and Letters)

Stupid Guy Thing Day -- included under protest; "guy things" aren't necessarily stupid, it should just be Guy Thing Day; sponsored by Wellcat Holidays

Take Your Dog to Work Day -- www.takeyourdog.com (depending on where you work, what did your dog do to deserve this?)

Teacher's Day -- El Salvador

World's Ugliest Dog Contest -- Sonoma-Marin Fair, Petaluma, CA, US



Birthdays Today:

Eric Stretch, 1980
Donald Faison, 1974
Carson Daly, 1973
Mary Lynn Rajskub, 1971
Kurt Warner, 1971
Amy Brennenman, 1964
Dan Brown, 1964
Freddie Prinze, 1954
Cyndi Lauper, 1953
Meryl Streep, 1949
Lindsay Wagner, 1949
Todd Rundgren, 1948
Pete Maravich, 1947
Ed Bradley, 1941
Kris Kristofferson, 1936
Joseph Papp, 1921
Billy Wilder, 1906
Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1906
John Dillinger, 1903


Today in History:

Ptolemy IV of Egypt defeats Antiochus III the Great of the Seleucid kingdom, BC217
Bilbo Baggins returns to his home at Bag End, (Shire Reconning), 1342
The  Jewish quarter of Prague is burned and looted, 1559
Galileo Galilei is forced by Inquisition to "abjure, curse, & detest" his Copernican heliocentric views, 1633
A poisonous cloud from Laki volcanic eruption in Iceland reaches Le Havre in France, 1783
The British Parliament abolishes feudalism  and the seigneurial system in British North America, 1825
Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee procession in London, 1897
The Flag of Sweden is adopted, 1906
The Flag of the Faroe Islands is raised for the first time, 1919
Erwin Rommel is promoted to Field Marshal after the capture of Tobruk, 1942
The Cuyahoga River catches fire, which triggers a crack-down on pollution in the river, 1969
The Canadian  House of Commons  abolishes capital punishment, 1976
Charon, a satellite of the dwarf planet Pluto, is discovered, 1978
The largest hailstone ever recorded falls in Aurora, Nebraska (7inch diameter, 18.75 inch circumfrence), 2003
Eastman Kodak Company announces that it will discontinue sales of the Kodachrome Color Film, concluding its 74-year run as a photography icon, 2009