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April 27, 2005
Mind-Reading Machine
Here is an article discussing a new machine out that, by remotely measuring brain activity and identifying visual patterns a person can see, can 'read your mind'.
I want this. I want it developed further, for my specific desires, and placed in my hands.
The theory that music affects a person's actual brain patterns has always fascinated me. The idea that a very specific pattern or series of sounds or harmony will produce the same image (a red square, for example) in every person's brain fascinates me. It's what I want my PhD in.
GIVE ME MY MACHINE, MONKEYS.
Posted by Kelli Little at 02:11 PM
April 26, 2005
Food Allergies
My doctor called me today at work. When I said I could not schedule yet for an appointment, she said it was very important to therefore list my food allergies, and proceeded to give me the entire run down of what I cannot be eating.
Garlic
Avacado
Asparagus
Kidney Beans
Pinto Beans
Banana
Carrots
Celery
Beets
Cherries
Chili Peppers
Cranberries
Egg
Lettuce
Peaches
Green Peppers
Pineapple
Plums
Sweet Potato
White Potato
Radishes
Sesame
Tomato
Walnut
Yam
Baker’s Yeast
Brewer’s Yeast
An extended post will be on LJ.
Posted by Kelli Little at 02:01 PM
April 20, 2005
Tuesday Doctor Antics
It is becoming annoying, dealing with the bullshit (that's right, I cursed) that doctors are handing my direction. Remember all of the drama surrounding the glucose and insulin tests I was to take, along with all of the other blood tests? You know, one fell swoop?
Well, so my doctor finally called in the script on Monday, which means I was set to go for my tests on Tuesday. I even started fasting Tuesday, having convinced myself it would be ok to try one last time, just as long as I double-checked before hand to make certain no one dropped the ball.
I call the hospital outpatient labratory services, who say that yes, in fact they had received the script via fax Monday. I ask them to read it to me. Not surprisingly, the glucose and insulin test that was supposed to be written there wasn't on it. I call my doctor's office, and talk to that ever 'helpful' girl. She says the script they sent over reads "blah blah blah." I tell her yes, I know, but the script should also include glucose and insulin testing, the fasting kind. She pulls my chart, and again not surprisingly it doesn't say anything in there about the tests. (The doctor has a habit of this.) And yet, I have an unsigned script in my hand that the doctor gave me at my last visit stating that I needed to get the glucose and insulin panels done along with everything else.
I tell her this. She says she'll give me a call back after she discusses it with the doctor.
I decide at this point to eat. I also decide that I am absolutely not getting this test done, because my body cannot take any more mistakes like the last one. And what do you know? I get a call at 1 p.m., a voice message saying to go ahead and get it done, that I was right, that they would fax the script over immediately, etc. Whatever.
I go to the hospital after work, am given my script and taken to check-in. (You have to have your script in order to check in.) I'll note here that the doctor's office never bothered to send the script over for the glucose and insulin test.
At check in, the guy notices that in fact my doctor did not write a diagnosis code on the script. A diagnosis code basically says why a patient is getting a test or series of tests done - and is necessary in order to have them. He tells me I have to have one before I get the tests done, and that the tests cannot be done without it. I tell him essentially that I am a desperate woman, have already been here for an hour waiting, was here previously for three hours, and have entered shock while trying to get these damn tests done. I also tell him I have rouleau, and she wants to find out why. He fills in the script's diagnosis code.
I get vials of blood drawn. I secretly curse the fact that once more I have to return to my doctor's office, and vow to write her a nasty, informative letter about how everyone in her office is an incompetant jerk.
I amend, mentally, to make it appear nicer, if still firm, than I really wish to make it.
I get the test results back next week.
Posted by Kelli Little at 02:24 PM
Monday Health Update
Monday
I went to the cardiovascular guy, Doctor Ibrihim. The amount of time spent waiting in his office rivaled the amount of time it took to complete the exams, and even then I saw the doctor himself for exactly four minutes. This means I was there for a very, very long time.
The first exam was the Dopler study of the leg. I undressed from the waist down, wrapped one of those dumb hospital gowns around my waist, and laid down while a woman put nasty, cold jelly all over and went to town with this little weird ultrasound stick. Essentially, the jelly is a sound conductor that helps transfer the sound of your heart beat to the machine. After that, they wrapped my legs in five different places each and took blood pressure while again listening to the sound.
Ultimately, I was covered in icky, cold goo and have healthy legs. No DVT, thankyouverymuch.
They weren't going to do the heart test Monday. I received a call on Friday last week telling me they rescheduled me. Without my consent or consult, I might add. So I called them back and told the lady that I was not coming in on the day and at the time they specified. (Hello, I work. My life doesn't and currently can't revolve around you.) I also told them I would not reschedule. (By this time, I had enough of doctors and their office staff behaving like brainless teenage girls. Outside of this, I honestly cannot ask my boss for another half day off because they can't get their act together.) Their reason for rescheduling me, btw, was because 'our equipment will not be in the office on Monday for that test.' She was pushy - wanted to reschedule - but I held my ground. Absolutely, under no circumstances, was I going to reschedule.
So spur of the moment they say, "Oh, why don't you take Kelli back and do the heart study too?" That's right folks. They had the equipment in the office. No please, lie to me more. I'm two. I can't tell the difference.
Off they took me to this little room, where I stripped again (fully this time) and again put on that damn hospital gown, now partially covered in goo. That's ok. They had more goo for me. This time, it was for my breasts and belly - can't bear to leave half a body in perfectly clean condition now! They also stuck those.. well, heart monitor circle things (I don't know the technical term for it) all over.
Which was kind of humorous the next day, when I went to get dressed for work and found red circles all over my chest. No, I couldn't wear half my clothes, but at least it was funny.
In the end, we discovered I have Mitral Valve Prolapse. Not a huge deal, really. Just can't aggrivate it, and have to be careful until the rouleau is taken care of. Avoid caffeine, very little alcohol, avoid certain foods that set it off. I'm not terribly worried. I work out, and work out hard sometimes.
Posted by Kelli Little at 02:12 PM
April 18, 2005
Leg Examination
I came into work early today so that I could leave early without being punished financially. The truth of the matter, however, is that my boss would have let me leave early for my doctor's appointment today without requiring me to submit an absence request. The idea doesn't sit well with me, though, so I came in early.
Why do I have to have simple ethics (or a conscience that won't shut up) in a matter like this when my boss is so generous? Sheesh. Anyhow.
Today I see a vascular specialist. Originally, I was to have both my heart and leg examined at this appointment, but as doctors' offices are prone to behave around me, the heart examination was cancelled. Well, actually they had the audacity to call me and tell me - without consulting me first - that they had rescheduled the heart part of the appointment on such-and-such a date at such-and-such a time. As if my life can easily revolve around theirs. So I cancelled that part. I don't know if I will ever reschedule it. I am to that point where I am so tired of being jerked around that I'm willing to forgo an examination that is -likely- going to reveal nothing I don't already know.
Anyhow. Today it's the Dopler test, basically to figure out why my right leg is in constant pain. It's vascular, we're pretty sure, and if so caused then by the rouleau I have, but beyond that we don't know. So.
Posted by Kelli Little at 11:06 AM
April 15, 2005
3-Day Breast Cancer Walk-A-Thon
My title today reflects what I am doing: the 3-Day Breast Cancer Walk this coming October in Phoenix, AZ. I have to raise $2100 by the week prior, or I cannot walk and I eat my $90 registration fee. I signed up for two reasons, the first being that my Grandma died from complications of breast cancer treatment. The second is that - for those of you who don't know me very well - I love doing things for great causes. I've always been active in fund raising and donating time and and and. In Fairbanks I worked hand in hand with the woman's shelter and soup kitchens there, as well as doing monthly drives for food, clothes, pet supplies, toys, etc. In Montana, I had the awesome opportunity to serenade several old folks homes with different musical groups every other weekend, and did a lot of fundraising for the music department there.
This is the reason for my post today. I would love it if anyone who wanted to donate - even $5, because that's still a big deal to me - to email me at majidakai at hotmail dot com with your address. I then can mail you a donation form and stamped and addressed envelop that will accompany your donation. The donation you then send to the address, and they eventually post on my little personal webpage how much left I have to raise. I've got a long way to go and only a few months to do it in. Credit cards and personal checks are accepted.
If you cannot donate, that's ok too. I've been in extremely tight situations (hell, I'm in one now) where even though your heart says 'yes, donate' your mind says 'you don't have enough, dummy'. Don't worry about it. I'll love you just the same. =) And thanks to everyone for reading this.
Now, back to work. =)
(** Crossposted)
Posted by Kelli Little at 07:13 AM
April 13, 2005
Non-Hyper Hypo
I missed half a day of work yesterday. My intent was to fast (which I did), get blood work done (which didn't occur), and return to work (fat chance).
Instead, I fasted and waited at the hospital for three hours, constantly informed that it would be 15 more minutes before my doc's office would fax over the form that would let the blood letting begin.
I became dizzy, disoriented, incoherent, and emotional (the reg. symptoms). I finally got the 'oh, we suck, you can't do it' speech from my doc's office, drank some juice. Called Joe. Puked. Drove home. Passed out. Ate some later that night, slowly got coherency back, passed out some more, and woke up with the ickiness attributed to coming out of this kind of an attack.
No tests. Hypoglycemic shock. Half a day of work missed because of some dumbshit in the front office lied to me/misinformed me for three hours. I could have, in fact, been told at 11 that the tests couldn't be done, returned to work, eaten, and finished my day out. I wouldn't have missed the survey runs I was supposed to do that afternoon, and therefore be called to account for it - these missed runs are going to fuck things up - and my boss would be happy instead of thinking I'm a complete tweaker.
I am STILL livid.
Posted by Kelli Little at 08:08 AM | Comments (3)
April 08, 2005
Like a Good Pale Ale - Emitting Tiny Bubbles of Frustration
It frustrates me how often little inconveniences pop up at work - seemingly on days that my boss is not around. Some of them are because of lack of communication between us, some because of half-assed work done by other associates, some honest mistakes, and some borne of outright negligence.
We have LAN forms that must be completed and submitted 5 days before an employee starts here in order for them to gain access to all of the appropriate screens, databases, etc. to do their work. For two new hires on Monday, these LAN forms were not completed. This means they have no USER ID, LOGIN ID, or access to any of the programs. It also means I cannot set them up with proper authorities, hoohahs, and whatnots because the information needed includes - you guessed it - the USER ID, LOGIN ID, and access permissions.
I'm not entirely sure if it was negligence or miscommunication in this instance. I have never done one of these forms prior to today, and coupled with the fact that she told me 'don't worry, I'll train you later on this' about three weeks ago, I would assume my boss would realize I had not done it for these two individuals. She also completed another form for another person who is starting on Monday, giving me the impression it should have been her task. And yet, in talking with my co-worker, it has been a shared task between my boss and the managers in my department. Which leads to mass miscommunication.
Ultimately? Irritating. Because, as in my experience, not being able to work and learn anything your first day sucks. The managers in question are likely going to come at my boss for this, but that won't happen until Tuesday when she returns, which means I will be dealing with the fall out. Not a big deal, again, just rather annoying when it could so easily have been avoided.
This is not a one-time occurence, although certainly for me, for this procedure it is. It happens all the time. People assume other people are going to do it, people assume we have all the information, people assume it's our job or we assume it's theirs. This is one of the Big Numbers in the 3-year initiative program I've written to present to the VP. This silly nonsense that causes so much strife and wastes time is just that - silly. Useless. It has to stop. There is no reason for it to continue like - from what I hear - it has been for years.
On a related side note, my boss handed me three projects to do before she gets back on Tuesday. One I can't do because there isn't accurate or thorough information and the other two I can't touch until my coworker sits down long enough to help me with it, since it's not in my field of experience. And to get him to sit down long enough (between ADHD and high demand in our department) is damn near impossible.
And then there's the fact that suddenly my access priviledges boggled up and stopped working today...
My Friday is a Monday. Hopefully my Monday will not also be a Monday, or at least be a Monday that is not stamped with 'Top Priority Nightmare Day'.
/squishiness
Posted by Kelli Little at 02:03 PM
April 06, 2005
Joe's To Do List
Because I am a giving, supportive girlfriend *coughcough*, I have gone through the trouble of creating a To Do list for Joe, to aid him in remembering the tasks he has put off for so long now (some of them more than a month.)
1. Photopage MT - make it so.
2. Print (2) photos previously discussed.
3. Update his webpage.
4. Kiss your girlfriend.
Posted by Kelli Little at 11:17 AM | Comments (2)
Bully for who?
I'm sorry. If a child is watching 8 hours of television or more a day, there is something more dramatically neglectful with the parenting and inherently scarring to the child than his future behavior as a bully.
Posted by Kelli Little at 10:07 AM
April 01, 2005
Doc's Yet Again
I'm going to be brief.
Chyla (I think that's how it's spelled: +4
Rouleau: +3
Spicules: +1
New Bacteria Infection: +2
Iron Anemia: Gone
B6 Anemia: Gone
B12 Anemia: Almost Gone
Red Blood Cell count (RBC): down. Lots of ghost cells
White Blood Cell count (WBC): down, most inactive
Today accomplished: Last B-12 shot for a while, food allergy panel, microscopic test.
$600
Hey, at least this incentive to keep from marrying anyone. That way, I'll die in debt, but the debt'll be erased and no one will have to worry about footing the bills.
I'm going to bed now.
Posted by Kelli Little at 01:58 PM | Comments (5)