Aging Tomato

This summer, I attempted (and nearly failed at) growing tomatoes. All I managed to get was one tomato, and the plant died before the tomato started turning red. After quite a while on the windowsill, she's finally starting to ripen. And I'm faced with the idea of eating something I've spent so much time, energy, and love growing.

I really have mixed feelings about that idea. I'll be proud when I eat her (since I grew her all by myself), but at the same time I've grown so attached to this one tomato that somehow managed to defy all the odds and live. Especially since the other tomato that was growing was about the size of a pea and died along with the plant, leaving this one tomato as the sole survivor.

I'm hoping that this unexpected attachment won't be nearly as strong next time I grow tomatoes. The next plants I buy will be more adapted to container growing and my climate, as well as potentially producing a lot more fruits. Since there will be more than one (I hope), I'll be less attached  to them and more able to handle the idea that they're food. Wish me luck!

My Surgery Story

Have you ever wondered just what it's like to go through a major surgical procedure, or what it's like to recover from one? Well, that's exactly what I've been doing this past week. Read on to know more:

Background Story

All summer I had been having trouble with nausea after eating, and after my summer class was over my mom took me to the doctor. The doctor eventually decided that I was making too much acid and put me on a prescription-strength antacid, but I did notice a sharp discomfort when she poked slightly below the right side of my ribcage. After I got poked, I started having spasmy, crampy pain after I ate. My family and I ignored it, assuming it was just gas.

Two weeks after the doctor's appointment, when I went to a football game in Rock Springs with other people from school, I noticed that the area the doctor poked was swollen. I was slightly concerned, but there was nothing I could do so I tried to ignore it. The adult on the bus passed out candy when we were on the road, and after I ate a little bag of fun-sized M&Ms the swollen area started hurting. Again, I ignored it since there was nothing to do about it at the moment.

The day after, on Saturday, things took a turn for the worse. The area was warm in addition to swollen, and the pain was constant - and severe. My dad called my mom at work, and mom said to put an ice pack on it while I waited for her to get home (since dad called an hour before she'd come home anyways). She took me to the emergency room as soon as she could.

At The Emergency Room

Once we arrived at the ER, the person in admitting realized that I was in awful pain and got me to a room as soon as possible. The doctor felt both the left and right side of my body, and when she poked the painful area I almost screamed in pain. Shortly after, when the doctor left for a moment and mom went to call dad, I was crying in pain and fear (since my instincts said the problem was severe - I'd never cried in pain before). The nurse came in soon after mom got back, and she put an IV in my elbow to draw blood and give me pain medicine as soon as possible. The pain medicine worked quickly and calmed me down.

The blood tests showed an elevated enzyme, and the doctor ordered an ultrasound of my liver, right kidney, and gallbladder. The ultrasound poked all around the area that hurt, which didn't make me happy or comfortable. The ultrasound revealed that there was sludge in my gallbladder, and the doctor sent me home with pain medicine, anti-nausea medicine, and instructions to call the surgeon's office on Monday.

At The Surgeon's Office

The surgeon got me an appointment on the same day mom called. When we arrived at the appointment, mom filled out a lot of paperwork while waiting for the surgeon. We didn't have to wait long before I was taken to an examination room. The doctor listened to my story (which he said was very consistent with gallbladder trouble), poked the area that hurt, and took one glance at the ultrasound image before scheduling me for surgery the day after.

What Surgery Did I Need?

 I had my gallbladder removed by means of four incisions in my abdomen (click here if you want a better description of what exactly that operation is).

At The Hospital - Before The Procedure

 The surgeon wanted me at the hospital at 8AM on Tuesday, an hour and a half before I was scheduled to be operated on. When I got to the admitting area, the people at the desk who handle checking in patients already had my papers and whatnot in easy reach, since they knew I was coming. Admitting me didn't take long, and a few minutes after I got to the hospital I was sent to the lab to have some tests done.

After the tests (they learned that I'm not pregnant - why they needed to test that when they know I'm on the pill is beyond me), my mom and I were sent to the surgery waiting room. We were waiting for less than five minutes when one of the nurses came to take me back to the room where I'd get ready for the procedure. The room was a relaxing blue with a (fake?) wooden floor. There were two beds, separated by a curtain, but I wouldn't have to share the room with any other patients.

I had to change into a hospital gown, which took two tries since the first gown I put on couldn't tie in back. Almost instantly after I had changed, the nurse came in to weigh me (since the anesthesia is based at least in part on weight). Seeing how much I weighed was a happy moment, since I had lost ten pounds since the last time I weighed myself. After my mom and I rejoiced a bit, the nurse settled me into the bed and put an IV in my hand. Luckily for me, she injected some numbing stuff before putting the IV in.

Once I was comfortable and got some medicine through the IV, the nurse left so my mom and I could wait in peace for the surgeons to be ready for me. Mom read random bits from her book to me, which was quite fascinating. Slightly before 9:45, the anesthesiologist came to talk to me and answer my numerous questions (in case you're wondering, they check to make sure you're unconscious by touching your eyelashes and checking for a reflex reaction). After I was satisfied, a handful of other people in scrubs came to take my bed to the operating room.

I don't remember much of the operating room, except for it being big and white - basically your typical, sterile hospital scene. When I got there, the people pushing my bed lined it up with the operating table and helped me move from the bed to the table. I was moving blindly, since I couldn't see at all where the table was to position myself right. In fact, when the people moved the bed, I nearly fell off because I wasn't placed right!

Eventually I got as comfortable as I could be, given that the table was steel and ridiculously cold. When I was in a good position, someone injected the general anesthesia solution through my IV. They might have kept me asleep by using the stereotypical gas mask, but I don't remember that at all. The last thing I remember before passing out was a pretty blue operating light (yes, the ones you see in movies and whatnot).

What's General Anesthesia Like?

After I was injected with the anesthetic, I remember becoming really tired, really quickly. After that, I fell asleep and woke up in the recovery room. It's exactly like falling asleep and waking up on those nights when you don't remember your dreams.

At The Hospital - After The Procedure

 When I woke up, I saw that I was in a hospital bed in a large recovery room. The room could hold a lot of people, and the area was divided into multiple individual rooms by green curtains completely surrounding the bed and monitors they watch patients' vital signs with.

Mom told me that one of the nurses commented on how most teenagers are "hormonal and crying" when they wake up from surgery. Not me - I was completely calm, even though I was tired, disoriented, and achy. The first thing I felt when I woke up was a combination of pain and bloating from the gas they pumped into my abdomen (which makes seeing and moving around easier for the surgeon), followed quickly by an ache where the incisions are. Shortly after, I realized there was an oxygen tube in my nose, which actually did make my breathing a bit easier.

Seeing that I was awake and fairly aware of my surroundings, the nurse in charge of my recovery removed a wet towel on my forehead and brought my mom and dad through the curtains. They sat by my bed and talked to me while I rested. The nurse brought me a few little packs of saltine crackers and offered me a selection of drinks - I chose Sprite. An hour to an hour and a half after I woke up, the nurse gave me the option to go home. I tried to get out of bed (with help, thankfully), but moving caused more pain than I could handle, so the nurse put me back in bed so I could get more oxygen and IV fluids.

Getting up the second time worked, and the nurse helped me get my clothes on and walked with me to the bathroom (which was really a small part of a storage room with wheelchairs and other things). When I was done in the bathroom, the nurse helped me back to my bed area. A wheelchair was waiting for me, and after she gave mom my goodie bag (which was a can of 7-Up, a microwaveable instant chicken noodle soup, and a ton of crackers) and got me into the chair the nurse wheeled me down the elevator and to the car.

Homecoming

As soon as I got home, mom helped me to my room and got me settled in my own bed. She got an ice pack from the freezer for me so I could keep my incisions cool like the doctor suggested. I fell asleep really quickly after my head hit the pillow and didn't wake up until later that evening. One of my parents helped me out of bed and got me to the recliner I like to sit in.

Dinner that night was the soup that came with my goodie bag. My parents and I sat in front of the TV the whole evening and watched Storage Wars, which is one of my dad's not-so-secret addictions. When dad and I were hungry later, mom cooked some Italian sausage for us. I felt OK after eating mine, but it caused some discomfort a while later. Soon after my second dinner I went back to sleep.

What I Experienced While Recovering

I went through a lot of discomfort the past week - and a lot of pain. The doctor prescribed a heavy-duty pain medicine, which I took religiously every four hours for the first few days after the surgery. The doctor also told me to breathe deeply and cough at least once an hour for the first day and to keep ice on the incisions for two days after. At first, my diet consisted of bland foods (the same stuff you eat when you have the stomach flu). If I ate anything else I would become nauseous and have to take the prescription anti-nausea medicine I was prescribed in the emergency room.

Nausea was one of the problems I had a lot of (and at the most random times, too), but there were many others that I had to deal with. I was dependent on the pain medicine - if I didn't take it I felt horrible. Even after taking the medicine I still had to hold a pillow or ice pack to my abdomen to keep me comfortable. If I took the pillow off for more than a second or two I would ache. Coughing, sneezing, and laughing were all painful, even if I was holding the pillow.

There were definite limits to what I could easily do, although I eventually found ways of getting along without much in the way of help. A lot of things we do every day, like getting in and out of chairs and beds, and moving in general, require using abdominal muscles. After my surgery, those muscles were really sore and painful when I used them. For the first two days I couldn't get out of bed without help, and I had to stand up slowly and carefully for much longer. In addition, for the first three days after the surgery I had to walk VERY slowly with both hands on my abdomen, just to keep the pain from being excruciating. Even with this amount of care, I still needed to sit and take breaks more than usual.

Moving in general was miserable. As a result, I was limited to my bedroom, my recliner, and the bathroom for three days. I couldn't stay on the computer for long either, since sitting in office and dining chairs for more than five minutes was painful for some reason. Because of this, I spent a lot of my time watching silly and pointless TV shows, like Pranked on MTV.

I also spent a lot of time sleeping, since I needed an average of fourteen hours of sleep every night just to feel like a human being as opposed to a brain-dead zombie. There were a lot of backaches involved, since I couldn't sleep on my side for two or three days - and my mattress doesn't provide much back support. Dehydration was a problem too, since I drank glass after glass of water - especially before bed. This made me have to get up at least two times a night to use the bathroom, which is why I discovered a way of getting out of bed without help (rolling onto my right side, then holding the bookshelf by my bed and pulling myself up with my arms).

Being limited in what I can do was incredibly frustrating, which kept my mood low. I learned to cope with bending by using my knees more than my back and using my toes to pick stuff up (much to my dad's amazement), and standing up was made easier by pushing myself up with my arms instead of using my abdomen whenever possible.

Recovery Timeline

Wednesday (1 day after surgery) - I was so tired and felt terrible enough that I slept and watched TV all day.

Thursday (2 days after surgery) - Very tired. I slept in late, but still fell asleep in the recliner before the appointment to get my hair dyed. Sitting in the stylist's chair for four hours was painful, but so worth it! Mom and I stopped at Albertson's after the appointment to write a check and get cash, since McDonald's doesn't take checks. Then we got food at the Mickey D's drive-thru. My dinner was grilled chicken caesar salad - yum!

Friday (3 days after surgery) - I took the bandages off of the incisions. The surgeon said I could do it on Thursday, but paranoid me waited an extra day to make sure that it was safe. The incisions were covered with medical tape, and dried blood was around them - ick! The bandage adhesive is proving to be difficult to remove, too. I slept on my right side for the first time since the operation.

Saturday (4 days after surgery) - My parents and I went to Taco Bell for lunch. I wasn't nauseous after eating 3 Doritos tacos, most of mom's regular taco and the last bite of her chalupa (she was full), and a bowl of pintos and cheese! We dropped dad off at home, then mom and I went to Wal-Mart and Staples. I was tired after the little bit of walking we did, and I went to bed soon after getting home. When I woke up, later that night, I tried going downstairs and back up - it worked pretty well. I slept on my left side for the first time since the operation.

Sunday (5 days after surgery) - My parents and I were going to take labels down to a show dad has art in, but the restaurant was closed. Instead, we went to Wal-Mart (again) and ate at Subway. I ate a full footlong sandwich without feeling nauseous. Mom and I walked around the store for a while, and I didn't tire out even though it was more walking than we did on Saturday. In fact, I stayed awake until about midnight even though school's supposed to start on Tuesday.

Monday - Here And Now

I've noticed that every day I feel a bit better than I did the day before. Today, six days after the surgery, I'm doing great. I don't absolutely need as much sleep as I did a few days ago, although I'm still fairly tired. In addition, I can sleep on both sides of my body now, and getting out of bed is a breeze. Getting out of chairs is easy now too, and I don't have to take a ton of pain medicine or walk slowly - or have my hands on my stomach. There's still some discomfort and a little bit of pain, but it's nowhere near as bad as it was even the days before the surgery. I was a lot more nauseous before the surgery than I am now. I'm improving every day, and soon I'll feel better than I have in a very long time.

Miscellaneous Comment - Hospital Convenience And Caring

The hospital was extremely caring and considered my schedule before their own. Since I had eaten before I went to the emergency room, the ultrasound scan would normally have been delayed until twelve hours after I ate - that is, 1AM. The doctor suggested that we do a CAT scan, but the radiology people refused to do the scan without a pregnancy test, which would have taken a while to process. Mom tried to schedule an ultrasound appointment the next day so I could have a chance to have an empty stomach, but that didn't work. The appointment was scheduled for Monday, which neither mom or I were happy with. Instead of saying tough luck, the doctor threw caution to the winds and had the ultrasound done early so mom and I wouldn't have to wait until after Monday for answers.

In addition to the emergency room, the surgeon worked me into his schedule quickly so I would be recovered before school starts. He set up an appointment to talk to me on the same day mom called his office, and he found a time to operate on me the day after so I'd have a full week to recover before school (which is the normal, full recovery time).

Everybody involved with the operation itself took the time to make sure I felt valued. The surgeon said good morning to me as I walked past on the way to my room. The nurse putting my IV in made sure to tell me everything she was doing before she did it so I wouldn't be scared (which the ER nurse did too). The person in charge of my anesthesia answered my questions before I was taken back to surgery as well as reassured me that he could keep me unconscious. The people waiting for me in the operating room gave me a warm welcome when my bed arrived. When I was leaving the hospital, the nurse gave me a bag full of food that wouldn't be hard on my stomach. Finally, a few days after the procedure, I received a card in the mail from the people who worked with me. Having a hospital that sees you as a person instead of just a patient makes scary times a whole lot easier.

Surgery Eve

Tomorrow morning I go to the hospital for my first ever surgery. I really have mixed feelings about the procedure. I'll feel a lot better after my gallbladder's gone, but the idea of having a part of my body removed is disconcerting. That's the part of the surgery I'm most unsure about. I'm not so much afraid (like I was in the emergency room) as I am coming to terms with losing something that was with me since I was born.

Of course, I also think that these feelings are just a bit silly/frivolous. It's not like my gallbladder forms a major part of who I am, and I'll be able to get along just fine without it. Also, I'll have a very interesting story to tell when people inevitably ask what I did this summer. Not very many teenagers can say they've had abdominal surgery, let alone had their gallbladder removed (which is normally a procedure that's done to people at least in their 20s). I'll feel better, and my summer won't be like the other students.

This is what's passing through my mind tonight. Slightly more pressing, though, is the fact that I won't be able to eat or drink after midnight tonight. That's going to be seriously difficult, since I'm always thirstiest after the sun goes down for some reason. Not having breakfast is going to make the whole ordeal much harder, since being hungry makes me incredibly grumpy. The grumpiness will be amplified by getting an IV placed, which is hard on me even when I have normal blood sugar levels (needles? EEK!). But there's a good reason, so I guess I just have to go along with it.

The Adult Child

Comparing me to the rest of my generation is, at the moment, like comparing apples and oranges. I don't listen to popular music. I don't wear popular clothes. I don't use the current catchphrases, like swag or YOLO. I'm not glued to my cell phones like most people my age are. Heck, my phone is dead half the time and I don't even notice. This is why I rarely choose to interact with my peers - I have so little in common with most of them. Instead, I prefer to spend time with adults.

When I was a little girl I would go with my parents to adult events, like dinner parties. I was usually the only kid there, so the conversations and whatnot were about grown-up things, like work, politics, etc. Before I went to kindergarten, this was most of my social life. Sure, I had friends my age, but the majority of my socializing was with my parents (who treated me almost like a little adult, but not in a bad sense) and other people their age.

Could early exposure to adult conversation have helped me mature earlier than the rest of my generation? I'd have to say yes. Seeing adults in their natural environment taught me quite a lot about manners and etiquette, for example. It also made me prefer interacting with adults, since adult conversation is what I was used to. Even though I've grown through the years, this fact about me hasn't really changed. I've learned how to interact with people my age, but I would much rather talk to adults, since that was what I was doing during my most impressionable years.

Rubber and Glue

While I was in the shower today I had an epiphany. There's more truth to the phrase "I'm rubber, you're glue. What you say bounces off of me and sticks to you." than people realize. For example, let's say that somebody is being bullied. That person is the rubber, and the bully's the glue. Even though what the bully does is awful and hurts the person he/she is bullying, the bully will likely get more long-term consequences. The bully's reputation will probably be ruined when the world finds out about it (like what Mitt Romney did to that kid when he was in high school), and people will be less likely to want to be friends with him/her. This is how a bully's actions bounces off of the rubber of the victim (even though the victim will be damaged from it) and sticks to the glue of the bully.

Annual Vacation

I was in Fort Collins this week spending time with my godparents, and I had all sorts of fun. The first thing I did (after going out to lunch at a Greek restaurant named Cafe Athens - yum!) was tag along with my godmother, who was giving a presentation on what an editor does - namely, a lot. Since we were early, I filmed a nice elevator from the 1960s and two bathrooms with brown toilets, although sadly the color on the toilets didn't show up as much as I would have liked.

On Monday, the day after I arrived, the most exciting thing was going grocery shopping. Buying stuff for my breakfasts is much more difficult than it needs to be since I despise most breakfast foods. I spent the rest of Monday annoying the three cats that share my godparents' home and playing Sims 3, which I did a lot of over the course of the week.

Tuesday afternoon was spent in the pool with my godmother. I brought my snorkeling set with me and enjoyed splashing around. Especially throwing water in the air and watching it fall back into the pool. After swimming for hours, we went back to the house and took showers. The shower head in the guest bathroom doesn't have as much pressure as I'm used to, and it took a good 10-20 minutes just to rinse the shampoo and conditioner out of my thick hair. That was annoying, but not nearly as annoying as having an allergic reaction to my body wash. I was bright red when I got out of the shower, so my godmother said. The irony of all that is, the soap was supposedly designed for sensitive skin! Oh well, looks like it'll be an excuse to buy more soap at Bath and Body Works this month...

Wednesday was delightful. In the morning I went to work with my godfather, who works in a lab developing vaccines. He showed me monkey cells that were infected with various amounts of a certain virus. It was so cool to see how the cells reacted to the infection! After being amazed by the wonders of life, my godparents and I went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Before looking inside the museum, we had a picnic in the park next door. Lunch was peanut butter and raspberry jam sandwiches and cherries.

After lunch we bought tickets for the planetarium and the IMAX theater. There was an hour before the planetarium show started, during which time we looked at the rock and gem exhibit. My favorite part of that exhibit was looking at all of the shiny gems that people make jewelry from. They're so beautiful! There was a bit of a connection between seeing diamonds in the museum and the show we watched in the planetarium, which was about weather in space. On Neptune, carbon becomes compressed in the atmosphere, so every now and then it literally rains diamonds! How cool is that?

The IMAX show was about storm chasers. Storm chasers go into dangerous conditions to gather videos and/or data about storms that produce tornadoes. The goal of the data is to figure out more patterns between those storms so tornado warnings can be issued earlier before the tornado hits, giving people more time to get to safety. Given how much destruction those storms can cause, more time to prepare is definitely a good goal.

After the IMAX show, we went to look at the prehistoric life exhibit. The exhibit looked at the evolution of life and the planet from the time when only single-celled organisms lived on Earth to the evolution of humans. I didn't actually learn very much that stuck with me, although I did learn that Wyoming used to be a rainforest. Hard to imagine, no? The most exciting part of that exhibit was finding two very unique, European-style elevators, which I had to film since there just aren't many elevators with that style in America.

Once we looked through the prehistoric life exhibit, my godparents and I took a look at the Russian sculptures carved from different types of gems. They are so beautiful! The amount of detail that the sculptor was able to carve into them is absolutely mind-blowing. I'd definitely suggest seeing them in person if you can, since words really can't do them justice. After we spent what felt like ages admiring the details in the sculptures, we went shopping in the museum shop. I found a gorgeous purple stone necklace that I could not pass up. The museum was near closing when we finished shopping, so we had to go back to my godparents' house and annoy the cats (which we had no complaints doing, since the cats are so easily annoyed).

Thursday was a day of even more shopping. My godmother and I went to lunch at the Taj Mahal, an Indian restaurant that has been a part of my life since I was a very little girl. I completely stuffed myself at the buffet, since I rarely get to go there these days. After lunch, we went shopping in Old Town. I found an awesome cup, with a curly straw included. Again, I could not pass it up. I'm planning on making it my school water bottle, since it can hold a reasonable amount of water. Once I spent all of my money, my godmother took me for ice cream. We made the mistake of buying medium cones at Dairy Queen, which we thought would be smaller than they actually were. I made a royal mess of myself, even though I couldn't finish the cone. I'd forgotten how fun it was to make a mess like that!

Friday was my last full day of vacation. I spent most of the day playing Sims 3, which was a good mental exercise since I couldn't cheat to keep my Sims' needs from decaying. In the afternoon I helped my godmother harvest tomatoes. There's nothing quite like eating food you've harvested yourself! The most exciting part of the harvest was finding a Siamese tomato (two tomatoes that have grown together like Siamese twins). I took quite a lot of pictures, since I've never seen one before. After dinner, my godparents and I played Settlers of Catan, which I'll admit I suck at. I had fun even though I always lost, though.

Every night my godfather and I would watch Big Bang Theory (the only sitcom I can stand - it's hilarious!) while my godmother cooked dinner. During dinner - and for the rest of the evening afterwards - we all watched the Olympics. It was so inspiring, seeing the USA gymnastics team and Gabby Douglas win gold medals. Watching Missy Franklin do such a good job swimming was also amazing, especially since she's from Colorado. She has more medals than some countries in the Olympics, which is quite impressive.

I had so much fun with my godparents this week that it was almost a bit sad to leave. Especially since one of their cats was my cuddle buddy every evening (except Friday for some reason). I'm most definitely going to miss him, since neither of my cats cuddle with me much. I have the good memories of what happened, though, and I'm looking forward to the next time I can stay with my godparents for a week!

Escaping Drama?

Let's start by stating the obvious. Being a high school student, for most, is not easy. Especially when it comes to the social scene. This is most of the reason why I'm a bit of a loner - I don't have to deal with the constant drama that most teenage girls seem to get themselves caught in. Even though drama has been a part of high school life since the concept of high school appeared, what strikes me as unusual is how teenagers (especially girls) escape the drama.

Lots of girls I know - and a few boys, to be fair - get away from their own drama by watching television. The shows that they watch, ironically, are full of drama. Take Jersey Shore for example. The people on that show are constantly fighting, sometimes physically. Sometimes this kind of thing helps keep your mind off of your own drama, but other times it can cause a lot of drama of it's own.

Imagine that there are two best friends, Tanya and Bob. Both Tanya and Bob watch the same TV show, which is part of the reason they became friends. Now imagine that two people on the show, Alyssa and Jessica, get into a nasty fight that goes on for an entire season. Tanya really thinks that Alyssa has the right idea, but Bob believes that Jessica is right. Tanya and Bob could agree to disagree, or they could argue about who's right and risk losing their close friendship.

This is how shows full of drama are a double-edged sword. They can relax people by taking their minds off of their own problems or, like for Tanya and Bob, cause problems that wouldn't be there if they didn't watch the show. Television really isn't always the safe escape it's intended to be.