what in the hell have i gotten myself into?!?!?

greg asked me for some help on a little project. seems he's got some recipes from "Nanny" (his grandmother, i presume?) and other people and he'd like it all typed up and made into a cookbook. he wants to get them printed up for xmas presents for family members. okay, i tell him, get me the stuff ASAP. last weekend he tells me he'll drop it off monday - guess what, i didn't get stuff till tonight, THREE WEEKS till xmas!! and it's stuff clipped from newspapers and magazines, or recipes scribbled down on scraps of paper, some of it barely legible, some of it not legible at all. there are duplicates in there too - some index cards have the exact same ingredients and directions on them. i suppose what's scarier is when they ALMOST are exactly the same - there was one for some sort of jello salad...one called for Dream Whip, the other said Miracle Whip! Eeeeeek! Quite a difference there - we're talking Cool Whip vs. Mayo!

and of course my fucking carpal tunnel has been flaring up like a bitch - time for another cortisone shot, or time to look into surgery? dunno.

not sure if i'm gonna be able to get this thing done in time for him to send em out before xmas, but it'll be good to have for the portfolio (hopefully) when it's all done

VNS update update...

followed up yesterday's appointment with dr. mohan with a visit to him at the community hospital office today. since the computer at st. vincent's didn't appear to work properly, we met today so he could make sure my VNS was working and then increase the settings. so doc gets puter #2 set up - same shit happens...the screen says that the wand connected to the computer isn't making any connection with the implant. i know the implant's working - swiping the magnet over the vns makes it very obvious. thankfully, they had another computer in the office (apparently cyberonics is swapping out computers and limiting each office to only one machine - a bad thing to do, in my opinion) and on the 3rd try, things worked just fine. 3rd time's a charm, i guess. so now we've bumped up the stimulator from 1 to 1.25 and the magnet working at 1.5. no changes to the keppra i'm taking - dr. mohan wants to increase the vns more before doing that, since i'm apparently at medium as far as vns settings go...

1.25 is definitely causing some pain - seems like it may take longer to adjust to this than previous increases - the sharp pain in my left ear every time it goes off really sucks.

VNS update...

had a follow-up with Dr. Mohan today...

an example of words you don't want to be hearing out of your doctor's mouth? "What is this contraption? I have absolutely no clue how to use it." he'd asked the nurse for the VNS machine, to check my settings and increase the pulse strength. the nurse apparently misunderstood what he'd wanted and brought another machine, something looking about 87 years old. in tape on the case it said "nerve stimulator" and so i guess she assumed it was the vagus nerve stimulator - wrong! he later found out it was something they use in spinal cord surgeries or something that he doesn't deal with. eventually they rustled up the one machine they had at the office (in order to get an appointment asap after my seizure, i agreed to meet him at the office they have at the st. vincent's professional bldg - way up on the northwest side o' town) but it turned out that the machine was malfunctioning - however, they had 5 machines waiting at their office at community hospital, where i normally go. so, bright & early tomorrow morning i go over to the eastside and get reprogrammed.

the one benefit to going to going to dr. m's office up at st. vincent's is that it makes a terrific excuse to go to dunkin' donuts - there's only one shop in indy now, far far away from where i live...i suppose i'm glad i don't have to face the irony of having the endocrinologist that oversees my diabetes having her office way up there. *8-) ummmm, chocolate creme filled....