Ok, not sure how many know my history for the past couple years, but it has been a little rough healthwise. In the last year, especially in the last few months, it seems like my body has been going haywire. In the last month or so, I have suddenly developed high blood pressure, a rapid heartbeat, orthostatic hypotension, cold hands and feet, headaches, flushing, and a few other odd symptoms. The doctor in FL prescribed a diuretic for the blood pressure. When I got back to ABQ, my bp was still high, a week and a half ago, the doctor on base prescribed lisinopril, and ordered blood tests.
I got my blood tested Friday. Yesterday, I got an urgent call from the doctor. She said to go to the ER or call 911 right away, because my potassium levels were critically low, and basically I could drop dead at any second. She didn't need to tell me twice, but I had to wait for my teenager to get home to watch my son, who had a stomach virus and spent the night and most of the day puking.
So, I get to the ER, and they put me right in the front of the line. I had zero waiting time. I had an EKG, a blood test (potassium was even lower than it had been) and this doctor took the time to get a detailed history. He said, "I will bet the root cause of your problem is adrenal." Wow. He gave me a paper to take to my doctor today. And prescribed some MONSTER potassium supplements to take just about all day long. I nearly choke every time I swallow one. How do you swallow something almost as big as your thumb?
Last night, I got online with my friend, a longtime cardiac nurse. He likes to pretend he is Dr. House, so I gave him the whiteboard symtoms. He said, "Adrenal--probably a pheochromocytoma." I laughed and said, "That's always House's first diagnosis and its always wrong." He said, "Look it up." So, I did. I have almost EVERY single one of those symptoms, including the little neurofibromas by my eyes.
I called my doctor today, and she agreed that I should be tested. I go for another blood test tomorrow, and a follow up next week, then she is getting me a referral to an endocrinologist, who will hopefully agree and have me tested. A pheo is rare, and can be deadly if undiagnosed and untreated. It most often isn't cancer, and can be cured by surgery.
So, I admit I am PROBABLY wrong about my self diagnosis of hypopituitarism. I'm not upset, though, because I feel like I have finally found the right set of doctors to get me to where I need to be to find the cause of all this.
I submitted a query to Elaine Spencer at The Knight Agency a loooonnnnggg time ago, and I finally got a reply yesterday saying she wants to see the first fifty pages of one of my stories. And she actually apologized for my long wait. She was very nice. I was thrilled, but I am not getting my hopes too high. I know it is very, very hard to get a big name agent. And even if I do somehow miraculously pull it off, don't worry. I'm still gonna edit for Champagne. :) It's just something I love to do.
It's amazing how easily I can be suckered. Before we moved back to ABQ, my neighbor that lived below me asked if he could rent the condo until we sold it, assuring me he was just going to "put a desk in there" so he would have a private place to work away from his kids. My kids were like best friends with his kids, and he was always so nice. He took the kids for sleepovers several times. Well, we cut a deal, and agreed he could put hus desk in there and rent the place for the cost of the condo fees, which are $400 a month. Well, I just found out from my realtor that the guy has DRILLED HOLES into my walls, shoved about a million plants into the master bath, and done all kinds of other things to funkify my beautiful condo. The realtor is taking pictures as I speak. I am so thankful I made a lease agreement. I had this feeling in my gut that said I had better cover my butt, so I added a little sentence that says, "Tenant shall make NO alterations to the property without WRITTEN consent of the owner." I am so glad I trusted my instincts, but I was very close at just doing an even simpler rental agreement. After all, he was such a "nice guy" and treated my kids so well. And his condo always seemed to be clean. I thought, "He's such a good person, he won't hurt my condo." But that nagging feeling kept at me until I wrote a more thorough rental agreement. I am sooooo glad I listened!!!
I saw that show "Lie to Me." Pretty much pure fiction, but I would love to find out how to tell if someone is lying to you. I am actually pretty good at it, I always seem to "know" when someone is lying. I have very strong instincts that are like, never wrong. It would be nice, though, to study the nonverbal and verbal cues to the point where I can back up my instincts, and also have the outright courage to say something like, "You just lied to me, you sucker."
I am a terrible liar. For one, my conscious eats at me until I finally blurt out the truth. And really, I am just not good at it. Take for example when I was 12. My best friend lived on my street, and going inside her house was like taking a step back into the 50's. Dark and bland, with a sewing room, even. Her mom was sort of a health nut, and every time I went over, she was trying to shove vitamins down my throat.
Well, one day, my friend came over and said, "You want to eat dinner at my house? We're having spaghetti." Well, I knew that would be trouble, since I don't like sauce on my spaghetti (just tons of butter, salt and pepper), and EVERYONE knows the only one who knows how to make spaghetti right is your own mom. So, I stood there, thinking fast. I said, "I...can't. I...um...um...well, we're going somewhere in just a few minutes...so...I'm not allowed." Plus, I didn't like to swallow pills, and I knew there would be vitamins on my plate.
So, she left, a little sad. And I probably ended up eating poptarts for dinner.
Ten minutes later, I was speeding up and down on the street on my bike in full view. And yep, she saw me, and knew I lied. Back then, I didn't really care. We still joke about that to this day. I really feel bad about that. But come on, who wants someone else's mom's spaghetti?
I believe I have discovered what is wrong with me. Have you ever seen that show "Mystery Diagnosis?" Well, sometimes, when nothing else is on, I'll watch it. I watched it yesterday, right after I had an "attack" of my weird blood pressure type problem.
Let's go back to when I had my first child. I had an Air Force doctor, who was pretty much inept. This is gonna get kinda gross, so forgive me. My daughter came out, her shoulder catching and giving me the worst kind of tear you can get in childbirth-a 4th degree tear. I lost a LOT of blood. The doctor was on the fence for two days about whether to give me a blood transfusion. Since I was young and healthy, she decided against it, and I was weak and tired for at least 3 months afterward. It took weeks for my blood levels to return to normal. So, the obvious verdict is extreme blood loss during childbirth.
It was soon after that my thyroid went berserk. It was hyper for a while, then hypo, then flashed back and forth between the two for months before it settled on hypo. I take synthroid, but still have to get blood tests about every six weeks, because my thyroid can't decide on just how hypo I'm supposed to be. Over the years, I have been steadily getting worse. Two years ago it started getting really bad. I never felt good, and when I thought I felt good, it wouldn't last for long. About a month ago, things started getting even worse. Lots of dizziness when standing, lots of weakness, high blood pressure spikes, etc...The doctor in FL put me on hydrochlorothiazide, and the doctor here in Albuquerque added Lisinopril, and blood work, which will be done tomorrow. Last night I had the worst attack yet, so bad I had to rest three times during dinner preparation. My BP was 139/100, which is very high for me. Everytime I stood up, though, my BP plummeted and I would feel faint. I chugged some PowerAde and called the on call doctor, who said it could be medicine related and told me to get my bloodwork done ASAP and get into the doctor for followup ASAP.
Then, last night's "Mystery Diagnosis" showed a young girl with a lot of the similar symptoms I am experiencing. The diagnosis: hypopituitarism. Two years previously, she had hit her head in a car accident, which damaged her pituitary. Last year, I hit my head while wrestling a friend and suffered a concussion. It was enough to make me check it out online, and what I found was just sort of eerie, because your pituitary gland can be damaged by concussions, and by extreme blood loss during childbirth. The onset of symtoms can be very gradual.
So, that has GOT to be what I have, lol. I sure hope one of the blood tests I get tomorrow checks for that. If not, I'm demanding it. It's easily cured by two pills a day. The DAY after the girl on the show started taking the pills, she felt 100% better.
Big Mike tagged me, so I will play along. I like this sort of thing, where I get to tell about myself. In his blog, Mike mentions that women often have this huge network of friends. Well, that's not me. I have Asperger's (high functioning), which means I have developed very few friendships during my life. I have about four friends who I feel comfortable hanging out with one on one. However, I do have a lot of online type friends, which is good, and which really suits me, because online, I can talk without having to look anyone in the eyes. Anyway, I need to list six things that make me happy, and I am going to be a little more selfish than Mike was, lol. His were very good, so you should check them out...very moving.
1. Taking a hot bath at the end of a long, busy day makes me happy. 2. Reading a really good book makes me happy (and I will read it in the bath). 3. Going to Las Vegas makes me happy, especially if I win lots of money. 4. Surfing on the perfect day with perfect waves makes me happy. Nothing beats the sun tingling on your skin while the wave lifts you and propels you like a rocket toward shore. 5. Finishing a workout makes me happy, because then I don't have to worry about it til the next day. I especially love cycling in Albuquerque, with the desert all around me, roadrunners zipping across the street, bison (yes, bison) in the fields, snakes dead on the side of the road (yes, I will get off my bike to identify them), and the mountain in the distance. 6. Editing makes me happy, especially if the author likes me and can learn from my advice.
And, unofficially, killing spiders makes me happy (that was just for Mike). Lol.
There. Now I have to tag six people which will be incredibly hard, since I don't think I know six people that actually read this blog.
Rules: Link to the person who tagged you (http://www.nitpickyisgood.blogspot.com) Write down six things that make you happy. Post these rules. Tag six others. Notify me that you’ve tagged six others–or not.
And, if you take a peek at Mike and Candace's blog, you will find a lot of interesting topics that deal with gender differences. I have been a tomboy all my life, but I am also all girl. But, I have to share the following pictures, which shows you just how tomboy I was. I have about a thousand pictures just like these. My mom didn't make me start wearing a swimsuit top until I was about 10.
UPDATE: I just got a very brief update. My husband, along with the rest of the troops, evacuated to bunkers, and sat there for a couple hours. Other than being a little shaken, the soldiers seemed okay, just very very cold. He did ask for prayers of continued safety. The Taliban have definitely infilterated the city.
I woke up this morning to a very brief email from my husband, who is stationed at Camp Eggers in Afghanistan. The Taliban used a suicide car bomber just outside the Camp, and the explosion was apparently very large, but did not breach the camp's security. However, 1 US troop was killed and 6 were injured. All my husband is allowed to say is that he is OK. I emailed him asking for a little more details, but he hasn't emailed back. The Taliban are now in Kabul, the most fortified city in Afghanistan. My husband has just two weeks left of his deployment. I'm sure he is a little shaken and wondering now if he truly is going to make it home alive. A convoy was also attacked, possibly the same type of convoy he will need to take to get out of the camp on his way home. So any prayers for him will be appreciated. In his year there, this is the first action my finance officer has experienced.
Syrell made a good point yesterday with her commenting that she, as an author, would rather have her bad ms. rejected rather than it get bad reviews. I wish every author had that view of their work. And sometimes, in the case of the author I rejected, the writing wasn't that bad. There were some good, fresh descriptions, but there was nothing in it to keep a reader reading. Good writing is not all it takes. It's got to be a story that will interest a wide range of readers.
I have heard so many times an author call their manuscript "their baby" and I admit, I've done that myself, and when it was rejected, I was totally bummed. I let that get in the way of a manuscript I was working on at the time, which was eerily familiar to the Twilight series that's so popular right now. I was so bummed about the other manuscript, I wiped a perfectly good manuscript off my hard drive.
I repeat, I am such a dork. Don't do what I did. Don't let rejection stand in your way. Keep writing well, try your hardest to show and not tell, try your hardest not to use passive voice, and make your story interesting. And the best and only way to grab the editors attention is to make it interesting from the very FIRST sentence. I know some editors who won't read past the first sentence if it doesn't grab them.
Another problem I tend to have is rushing when I get about half way through. The first half of my story is really good, but then I start to rush, and the ending is sloppy. That's what I'm working on trying to fix. One thing I recommend every author do is always try to improve. Usually your first draft and even your second draft can be improved. So, go over it and go over it, adding description where you can, deleting extra words where you can, strengthening the plot where you can, then send it in.
Anyway, that's my thought for the day. My other thought is that I have to go to Wal Mart, because that is the ONLY store that sells frosted chocolate vanilla creme PopTarts, which is the only kind of PopTarts me and my son like. Boo. I hate that place.
I rejected my first story yesterday. I felt sorta bad about it. But, it just wasn't a good story. You have GOT GOT GOT to start the story in the middle of the action and not slow down. This story was the first three chapters, and it was like reading the life story of my boring neighbor across the street (believe me, if I wrote MY life story, which I might just do someday, you will NOT be bored, lol). So, I recommended that it be rejected and the publisher agreed.
Did you know I am a dork? For some reason, I am listening to See You Again by Miley Cyrus over and over while I edit today. So, Kimber, if I put dorky comments in your manuscript, you know why. Lol. Me and my daughter share ITunes, as we like a lot of the same music, and this was one of her songs, but for some reason, it's making be able to type fast. I know, I'm a total dork.
Saturday I start my Albuquerque cycling routine. I'm excited to get back on my bike!
I'm at the stage with my kids where they are scared of ghosts. Well, they weren't scared of ghosts until Brandon, the kid down the street, told my kids about the "true" ghost stories he was reading about in a book. Now, every single night, we go through the ghost thing, and how most ghost stories and ghost pictures, and ghost videos, are hoaxes. Then, of course, I had to explain what a hoax is.
I do believe in ghosts. Well, maybe not ghosts, I'm not sure what they are exactly, but there is something we don't quite understand out there. I don't think I believe in dead people ghosts, because I believe in the Bible and when a person dies, they go one of two places, end of story (please no debates here, I'm just saying what I personally believe). But I have experienced some pretty bizarre things, that most people would say is "ghostly activity." Maybe sometime I will post those experiences, cause they are pretty freaky.
But, the point is, my kids are scared at night now where they have never been scared before. I'm pretty sure this will all end when my husband gets back from Afghanistan at the end of the month (Daddy protects them from everything), but for now, it is driving me nuts!
I am one of those people who hates extra stuff. I despise knick knacks. I don't like clutter. I like organization and am not sentimental about too many things. So, yesterday, I had a garage sale, selling all the stuff we've accumulated here in Albuquerque. We've been here off and on for the last six years. I had no idea we had so much stuff. Mostly kids clothes and toys, which the neighborhood moms and kids gobbled up. I also had our old furniture for sale, and sold an entertainment center. So, I made about $500 yesterday, which is good. The rest is going to a local charity and the furniture I didn't sell will go on craiglist.
I really also need a new desktop. I'm shopping around now, but since I've had very good experiences with Dell, I'm thinking of an XPS. My friends all want me to switch to Mac, but I just can't bring myself to do it. Not yet.
Let's see...writing tip...one thing I notice a lot lately is sentences like this: Damn, but he's got my heart to racing. or Good Lord, but his butt in those jeans make me hot.
The word I don't like in there is "but." It just seems like an extra word to me. When I'm editing, I delete most of them, and keep a few, just to keep the author from freaking.
The kids will be back in school tomorrow. Although they have been to this school before, I will probably be a nervous wreck until they get off the bus. I think every mom suffers through the same anxiety on their kids first day at a new school. But at the same time, it will be heaven. A full day to do what I want! Which will probably be edit. Lol.
I also have some jewelry I want to sell. My mom gave me some spectacular diamonds and gold before I left FL, and I have an appointment tomorrow to see about selling it. I'm not very sentimental, and my mom never even really liked this jewelry, even though my dad spent thousands of dollars on it. I would like to use some of the proceeds for a long weekend in Las Vegas, and a new desktop computer.
Anyway, back to work for me. I'm editing a book for Champagne right now, and it seems to be very good. :)
Courtesy of my 13 year old daughter and the inch of snow that fell today. :)
Writing tip: "Alright" is NOT a REAL word, for the love of God. Use "all right." Yes, there is some controversy, but to me, the correct spelling is "all right."
Well, the hotel last night turned out to be not too bad. We all slept well, and slept intil after 8:30. Then, we had breakfast and hit the road, only stopping once for gas, and once to use the restroom. We got home at 2 PM, and unloaded the van and put stuff away. The kids ran around the neighborhood like crazy weasels, and ended up with three of their friends here...two of them being the infamous Brandon and Nathan, the little Asian terrors. Brandon is 8, and Nathan is like 6, but talks ultra Asian, so we can hardly understand a word he says. It's like he's talking Ninja constantly, complete with growls and karate chops. He's a little whirlwind of kung fu terror.
Then, I went grocery shopping, but once again, my appetite has disappeared. I loaded up on stuff the kids like, and I was going to get a filet mignon for me, but I'm just not hungry. I took my blood pressure in the pharmacy part and it was pretty high again. Probably from the stress of Nathan ransacking my son's room.
Then, the kids helped put away groceries, and ran to their other friends, the family from South Africa. They are really nice people, and offered to take my littlest ones on a train ride to Santa Fe tomorrow. So, I will just have my 13 year old for most of the day, which works, cause I need to edit.
Name: Mindy Home: Albuquerque, NM, United States About Me: I am Senior Editor for an imprint of Champagne Books. I am married to an Air Force Officer, who is currently serving his country in Afghanistan. I have three bright and beautiful children. See my complete profile
