Misadventures on the way to The Container Store, or how not to spend your Christmas vacation...

Before I write about my misadventures during Christmas vacation, I should start by saying that everything that happened occurred AFTER Christmas and I really had a wonderful Christmas.  It was great to be able to fly to Colorado and see my whole family and spend another holiday season all together.  Nothing could be better than that and I look forward to it all year long...My flight there was uneventful, slightly delayed but the snow in SLC wasn't too bad and the snow in Denver didn't start until the next day.  In addition to all of the regular Christmas activities, one of my goals was to visit the Container Store that had just opened near my parent's home.  My mother had put off going to the store so that we could go while I was at home.  I am still under the delusion that once I find the perfect organizational items; then my house will organize itself,  will always look neat and tidy like a magazine, and I will have a lot of extra space...  (I know, there are medications to help with these types of delusions...)

Our initial plan was to go the day after I got to Colorado on the Wednesday before Christmas.  Snow was predicted, but only 1-3" so our plan seemed perfect.  That is until I woke up the next morning and it was snowing hard, continued to snow all day long, and 1-3" turned into nearly a foot of snow.  No going to the Container Store that day so being flexible like we are... we decided to brave the crowds and go the day after Christmas.

Christmas Day came and went, way too quickly like it always does and I woke up the next day and was sick, shivering so hard that I couldn't get warm.  No going shopping that day either.  I slept a good part of the day and then woke up with a bad headache and backpain.  After trying to deal with that for a while, I resorted to taking aspirin-- not more than directed, but taking two every few hours.  I missed going to see "Singin' In the Rain" with my family at the Dinner Theater but was glad to wake up on Sunday morning feeling a lot better although that didn't last.  I'll spare the gory details (except one)...  but will say that I discovered that throwing up blood is not normal and is considered a bleeding emergency.  Something that you should go to the ER for immediately, even if you are out-of state... just like they tell you in the First Aid certification classes at work.

My Sunday consisted of going to an Urgent Care center, being sent to the Emergency Room at the hospital, being admitted to the hospital, and then having endoscopy in the middle of the night to take care of a bleeding ulcer... Not fun!  Although, a little funny because apparently I was a bit "combative" during the procedure.  I only remember trying to get some hair out of my face... but that reportedly created some difficulty for those doing the procedure... I also heard that I was quite funny after the whole thing while I was still out of it-- not sure that I ever heard what I said exactly and I'm not sure I want to know... I remember telling the nurse that I was dreaming about popsicles which makes sense after a tube is pushed down your throat.  Lo and behold, I had a popsicle on my dinner tray the next day!

Prior to the endoscopy procedure, I was admitted to a regular room on a unit.  Now, this is a newer hospital and the room was NICE.  Fairly comfortable bed, desk area, entertainment console with a nice TV and DVD player, tiled bathroom... really nice!  After the procedure, I spent the remaining 4 days in the ICU-- not necessarily because I was that sick-- but because the monitoring was better by the nurses.  The ICU room was not very nice.  Teeny, with a ton of equipment, but the part I really didn't like was that there wasn't a separate bathroom-- just a toilet that you could pull a curtain around, or at least partially around because the curtain kept getting stuck!  The other side of the room was a glass wall facing the nurses station (a little like a cage at the zoo...)-- with another lovely curtain you could close for privacy.  A picture is worth a thousand words, so here is a picture of what the room looked like.  While I won't say that a private bathroom is what I am most thankful for in the entire world, it certainly makes my current list of things that I am thankful for.  Other things that make my thankful list include:  my family visiting so often while I was in the hospital, Kim taking care of my cats for an additional week, Rebel for teaching my lesson on Sunday, Fred for picking me up at the airport... and everyone else that called or checked on me to see how I was doing!

That's probably enough about the hospital with the exception of saying how appreciative I am of the nurses that were on the ICU.  The nurses I met were wonderful and did so much that they probably don't get a lot of credit for.   If you have a moment, thank a nurse because they have a hard job and at least these ones were pretty awesome at it!  The other important thing I learned was that aspirin and ibuprofen really can cause and exacerbate problems such as ulcers.  I am now a fan of Tylenol.

On Thursday, after having nearly every part of me X-rayed, Ultra-sounded, or Cat-scanned, I was finally discharged... which was good because I felt fine and was planning on leaving AMA if I wasn't discharged that day.  Four days in the hospital can make you grumpy!  Especially when it seems like they are running every possible test just looking for problems.  Not everything needs to be fixed in the ICU!

Was discharged on New Years eve and had a quiet night and nice New Year's day with the family at home.

Then,

on Saturday...

we planned on going to the Container Store again...

and...

we finally MADE IT to the Container Store!  No accidents, blizzards, sicknesses, or disasters. 

And I liked it and bought a few things and am now hoping that one eventually opens in Utah.  I was worried that it would be anti-climactic but it wasn't and I really enjoyed going there.  Would like to buy a bunch of stuff when I am not flying and having to ship everything home. 

So... that's how I spent my Christmas vacation....