gotta take the good with the bad

There's been a mish-mash of things lately, but overall, things are good.  The bad has been minimal, and solved fairly quickly, so it's not overpowering.

I spent yesterday from around 6pm until 2am at the ER for abdominal pain.  They never figured out what was actually going on, but they did rule out my appendix, my pancreas, and gal stones as possible causes - and those are the big-baddies.  They had me doped up on pain meds for most of the evening and I was still sitting at a solid 8 on the pain scale for about half that time (it did finally numb down to a 6, after the 3rd shot of pain meds), so I'd hate to think of how bad it would have been if I'd tried to stay home and ignore it like I'd been inclined to, at first.

The pain actually started yesterday morning around 10am, so I DID in fact, try to ignore it, from 10am until 6pm... which is probably longer than I should have, but at least I did eventually give in and go to the damn hospital.

But like I said - they never really figured out the cause.  They did eventually give me this malty-mouth-numbing concoction that was supposed to numb my stomach and relax the muscles or something.  It was after that, that I finally started to feel better.  They said it was some sort of gastritis? I think (I actually don't know what that is) - so... really really bad gas?  Yeah - craziness.  Because, seriously - it was a 9 before the pain meds.  And I've had pancreatitis before - I've experienced pain.  I have a pretty wide pain scale and I tolerate a lot of shit that sane people wouldn't sit through.

But that's done and over with now, and I've been considerably better today.

On the much-better-and-brighter side of things, next week is my birthday and my brother has surprised me with a trip to the coast!

We're going to this little touristy-coast town in Oregon called Newport.  It's a 3.5hr drive from where we live, and everyone we've told that we're going has been stunned that we'd never bothered to go there before.  Everyone else is like 'I go there every year' or whatever.  

It's kind of pathetic, really, considering that I now live in a costal state, and STILL have only been to the ocean like... 5 times, in my whole life.

I grew up in Nebraska, which is as landlocked as you can get, and didn't see the ocean at all until I was 18 or 19 years old.  Maybe even 20, now that I think about it...  I'd lived in the Seattle area for over a year before I finally took a trip to the coast.  And that was about as cold, dreary, and shabby a beach as one could imagine - lol.

Took a cruise for my honeymoon, so we literally sailed in the ocean for 6 days for that, so I can at least say I got to see loads of sea during that time. he.

But yeah - I'm psyched to get to go to Newport.   I've been wanting to do it for so damn long, but it's just never been the right time.  There's always been reasons not to go, so I'm glad that we're finally just going to do it.  The kids are going to freaking love it.  Apparently there's a section of beach by the docks that's just filled with seals, and you can go on boat charters for whale watching.  Neeeat

Our hotel is right on the beach and it's right down from the wharf and the docks where all the touristy stores and restaurants are.  And there's a really great aquarium, and a wax museum, and a Ripley's Believe it or Not, so lots of stuff for the kids to enjoy too.  Yay.


I've gotta tell you - when my gut started acting up yesterday, I was soooo worried that it would end up something bad that was going to fuck up my trip, and that sucked.  lol...

Five years ago I had pancreatitis caused by a gal stone that got stick in the duct to my pancreas, and ended up in the hospital for over a week, doped up on morphine, and undergoing surgery to make sure I didn't die.  So yeah - Not wanting a repeat of any week-long pain-fests anytime soon.

It was the main reason I said 'fuck it' and went into the ER.  With the Pancreas thing I sort of maybe tried to ignore it and suffer through it for two days before going to the hospital and having them tell me I nearly died, soooooo.... yeah.  I learned my lesson.

Anyway, this has gotten long enough that I'm sure no one has read it.