Is tech making us dumber?

As much as society wants to shoehorn me into being a Millennial (born between 1981-1996) I feel like I belong to Generation X. Being born in 1984 meant a split between having little technology, to being at the cusp of a technological boom when it comes to cellphones and internet. True that I was young (around 8-10 years old) when we brought the internet into the home, and I had my own computer that was a hand-me-down from my dad. But prior to this, and really, for a lot of that childhood, I was still in the "play outside and ride bikes until the street lights came on". I grew up using tapes and recording songs from the radio. I used VCRs and recorded shows. I had a tape walkman and then a CD walkman when they came out.

Granted, my situation was a bit unique. I was an introverted child, quite overweight, and when we moved in 1994, it was to 5 acres away from everything and everyone. I was 30 minutes away from the town. I still played outside quite a

bit, exploring the woods and taking care of my ducks, but as the internet began to grow, I grew with it. I had 28k at home, (downloading with Napster was a chore!) and 56k when I moved to the big city at 18. And I didn't get my first cellphone until about the age of 23.

While my parents (my dad especially) kept up with technology for a while, they began to lag further and further behind. I feel as if technology, and the internet especially, has not made me more dumb. Lazy, sure. But dumber? No. Let me give you an example.

So when I was younger I wrote a lot. My creativity came out both visually and written, and I had a lot of ideas when it came to stories. Obviously when I was young, I was handwriting all of my stories, and for a while I would have my friend Mandy type them out for me because I was incredibly slow at typing and I wanted a better way to preserve my work. But as I learned to type for myself, using programs like Microsoft Word, I learned how to spell [better]. The little red squiggles under all the words I spelled wrong annoyed the hell out of me. I could have been lazy and just right-clicked to fix without ever knowing what Word was doing, but I decided to learn instead. This is an important distinction. Why was I always spelling 'necessary' wrong? It was so annoying! Yes, it took a lot of repetition to remember how to correctly spell it eventually, but without Word telling me it was wrong and why, I would have never known.

Now on the flip side, the whole "you need to learn the maths because you'll never have a calculator in your pocket" hilarious argument that teachers made back in the day has me forgetting how to do even the most basic of math in my head. But to be honest, I was never good at math anyway. It's my worst subject and I hate it. I was never taught correctly how to do it in the beginning, so relying on my phone to do simple tasks like tipping would probably be something I'd still be struggling with today regardless. If I was tipping without computer assistance I'd probably just get it wrong all the time. So it's much better this way lol.

As the internet grew in size, scale and ability, I took full advantage. I soaked up information like a sponge. It was like a bronze age all over again. I learned and I learned some more. And I'm still learning. I see my parents stagnate as they only use the internet for the most basic of tasks like using their Mychart. I never want to be like that. I love learning; and if it wasn't for the internet it would be a much harder thing to do now that I'm out of school.

In this, tech is definitely not making me dumber. However, we're also beginning a new age... the age of AI. While Baby Boomers think we're lazy and rely on technology too much in our daily lives, boy they got another thing coming when they see AI enter the chat. Things may change substantially once we as a society start using AI for things that we used to do ourselves. 

I don't want to be left behind when it comes to using AI, but I also don't have a job that would benefit from it. I'm not a computer programmer or use Exel spreadsheets. My company as a whole would benefit substantially, but I'm not working for that part of it, so it's up to them to do what they will with it and I hope they use it. For me and the basic life that I live, I'm not sure what AI has to offer. But I will keep up with it and make sure to figure out how to use it once it becomes beneficial to me.

I'm not about to be left in the dust.

Vitamix 5200 vs Ninja

I could not find anything on youtube comparing any Vitamix blender against the Ninja Smoothie maker. The Ninja blender sure, but how does it stack up against their smoothie making system?

I had gone to Costco and bought the Ninja Power Blender Ultimate System on sale for $120 because I thought I could replace my old Ninja Blender (it's like a first gen model with the 3 different cup sizes and the motor on top with a single speed), replace my food processor, and add a smoothie maker. Sounded pretty neat.

But, I kept looking at Vitamixes because they can also heat soup and stuff, and the Ascent series has a food processor attachment along with a smoothie cup. I won't go into too much detail for my researching but basically buying the Ascent Series, in addition to accessories, would put me into stupid debt so it wasn't a viable option, plus I kept reading about how bad the "new" jars were for small batches, and the Ascent series doesn't have a classic jar option to buy. (The low profile jar would fit under most countertop cabinets, but I don't intend on leaving my blender out on the counter 24/7 so I didn't care about that.)

That left me with the classic Vitamix series (non-smart) so although it didn't have a bunch of cool features, it would blend like a champ and last me for 10-20 years so I began looking around ebay for some deals. And I found a screaming deal on a Vitamix 5200 with classic jar for $170. Built in 2020, was sitting in a storage unit probably its whole short life. It was unbelievable. 

So, onto the comparison. The recipe I used was a standard kale smoothie I found online. I wanted to use kale because it's notoriously hard to blend down so that little flecks of green stuff don't get stuck in your teeth. Who wants that?

The Recipe:

1 cup milk

1 frozen banana (I only had fresh)

2 kale leaves, stems removed

1 cup diced frozen mango

1/2 tsp grated ginger

handful of ice

Bonus: this is pretty darn tasty as well

As you can see here, while the smoothie cup on the Ninja is packed to the brim, the Vitamix has plenty of room to grow. Granted, the smoothie cup is meant as a single serve on the go container, but you can't "grow up" to the using the Ninja blender for this if you wanted to make several servings at once, as it can't even come close to the Vitamix (there are plenty of examples of this on youtube).

Now, the Ninja is cool because it has settings for stuff like Smoothie, Extract (for like a V8 dupe), and bowl (meant for like, an Acai smoothie bowl-type consistency). The setting for Smoothie goes for 55 seconds and pulses a couple times before turning it up high to pulverize it all. So if you like to set and forget, Ninja is still a good option.

On the Left: DB of the Ninja. I was quite surprised how quiet this meter said it was - because it seems VERY loud; maybe it's just at a high pitch, I'm guessing. 

On the Right: The Vitamix at "high" speed, which is higher than the "variable at 10" speed. The box around the motor seems to dampen the high pitches, so while they're comparable in DBs, it sounds quieter.

So to give the Ninja a fair shake, I also ran the Vitamix for only 55 seconds, starting at variable 1, ramping it up to 10, and then turning it on high. I did not need to pulse at all.

This is the Ninja result. You can easily see flecks of kale still in the mix, and if you move your finger through it, you can feel the grittiness.

The Vitamix result is lighter and smoother. I felt no grittiness when moving my finger through it.

The final test was a side by side blind drink test. The results will surprise you! All jokes aside, here's the rub. I couldn't tell the difference. I tried so hard, drinking one right after the other, and I couldn't tell until Patrick asked me to chew. When I chewed on the Ninja smoothie, I could catch the grit in my teeth, while the Vitamix had none.

So here's my final verdict on the Ninja Smoothie maker. It does a pretty darn good job all things considered. And Ninja has a lot of options in regards to buying their products. If you don't need a blender or a food processor, you can get the Ninja Twisti, which just has smoothie cups, for about $120 on Amazon. But if you also need a blender, I don't think I could recommend the Ninja; I've had mine for several years and although it's a cool product, its blending ability with those triple blades just don't cut it (haha). If you can find a really good deal on a used Vitamix, I'd go for it, especially with the versatility it brings you if you're interested in making nut butter, hummus, sauces, and yes, even hot soup.

Bioluminescence Kayak Tour

You guys, I am still in awe over here. Patrick and I just had the most amazing experience and I wanted to share it. I decided a couple months ago to buy tickets for a bioluminescence kayak tour up at Port Gamble. 

[A brief description of bioluminescence: In the most basic sense, bioluminescence is the light emitted by a living organism through a chemical reaction happening in their bodies. Bioluminescence often happens in the ocean and in the water as this is where the most bioluminescent organisms are found. This is a great article that also has some really cool pictures of bioluminescence].

Something to note here: Patrick and I have never kayaked before. And our first experience was going to be at night - and a very dark night - because a new moon is the best time to see Bio, and Port Gamble was a place with very little light pollution. It was really good timing over all because we were just coming off of a pretty intense heat wave, which is great for bio tours in general, plus it was still going to be quite warm that night. We had no idea what to expect, and I was, as per usual, freaking out about it. I tend to do that when I'm walking into unknowns. Plus, I wanted to take my camera in hopes that I could capture some amazing photos [which, sad to say, I did not], and I was freaking out about capsizing and losing my camera. That was actually my biggest worry. The camera actually remained in the dry bag the entire time we were out on the water because steering and maintaining stability on the kayak was hard enough and the last thing I needed to do was fumble with an expensive piece of (not waterproof) equipment.

Instead, we just decided to enjoy the experience, which I really don't do enough of. For me, pictures are great reminders of past experience. I can look at a photo I took and remember all the circumstances surrounding it. I do go back and look at my photos and fondly remember things. Living in the moment for me can be kind of difficult when I'm busy trying to capture it for later.

So anyway, we had four guides, and their 30 second "this is how to paddle a kayak" info was really not enough to go off of. There were roughly 40 people on the tour, and probably only a handful of them have never been on a kayak before, so... yeah. Their kayaks were the double sit on top kind (yay? lol), and we were first in the water. Eep. 

We sat in the water as everyone got pushed out into the bay, where we were playing bumper boats like, the whole time while waiting. The boat kept swaying and I was not at all confident that we would stay upright, but it got better with time. We were going to kayak about a mile out, staying close to shore the whole time, and then head back.

To say we were slow was an understatement. Considering neither one of us knew how to paddle, and Patrick was a much stronger paddler, it took all of our concentration just to go straight. And we failed at that. A lot. But in the end it didn't matter because what we saw when we were out there was incredible. I'm going to borrow a picture from their website to show you roughly what we saw.

I can't even adequately describe to you how beautiful it was in person. The boat itself would disrupt the phytoplankton and caused glowing waves lapping against the kayak. In some spots, it was barely visible; just pretty sparkles in the dark water, while in other spots it was bright and intense. It would disappear just as quickly as it showed - you could slap the paddle and it was gone in an instant. But that is what is so unique about choosing a kayak to see bioluminescence. Your presence in the kayak itself is enough to make them emit the light. All you have to do is move through it and enjoy.

We were in bio pretty much the entire time we were out there. It was just so amazing. The stars were so bright, the night so dark, and the glow was mesmerizing.

As we made our way back, we began to get really tired. Paddling is hard work, and neither one of us have any stamina to speak of. Plus, our paddling technique (or lack thereof) was soaking our pants. But we had a great time. Even Patrick, who had started out not very excited about this endeavor, ended up enjoying it immensely. Would I do it again? You bet I would. 110 percent. And you should too. If someone with no experience in a kayak can do it, so can you! Worth every penny.

Shout out to Olympic Outdoor Center for doing these tours. It was fun!

Olympic Wilderness Basecamp

I like to watch Evening (Magazine) for cool ideas on places to eat or visit. One that popped up recently was Olympic Wilderness Basecamp, so I decided to make a reservation.

OWB is about 1-1/2 hours away from home, but off the beaten path pretty substantially. I chose the weekend of the new moon to take advantage of the clear night and potentially get some Milky Way photos in. It's only about 30 minutes away from Staircase at the Olympic National Park, and about 25 minutes away from Hoodsport and Hood Canal where I would have a clear view to the south.

We left at 1pm on Sunday and I had decided to take the slightly longer route through Kitsap County instead of diving I-5 the whole way there. Turns out that was a bad idea. Thank goodness for Google Maps, because they had closed parts of Hwy 3 due to a fire, and we were being rerouted on a long detour to get around it. We sat in line waiting to turn off of Hwy 3 and luckily Google knew what was up so it was trying to reconnect us back to Hwy 3. But once we got back to the stop sign that led us back to our road, another backup had formed and we quickly learned that it was still closed. A State Trooper told us to take a different route - luckily we could still reconnect with Hwy 3 later, and Google helped us majorly in getting back on track. All in all, it only lost us about 20 minutes, so not too bad.

Review of Olympic Wilderness Basecamp

I really liked this place. What is cool about it is that it bridges the gap between camping and a hotel. It's like glamping, but I don't think it's as fancy. There's no electricity (they do provide a Jackery battery) and no running water, but you do have your very own porta potty, and it was as clean as a whistle. I was actually quite impressed. 

There was a queen bed inside a geodesic dome, raised up on a wooden platform, with two comfy chairs and a clear plastic side with a view of the campsite and the wilderness beyond. It also comes with a wood stove for cold nights, a 2 burner propane stove for cooking, and a sparkless metal firepit. The bad news was that there was a severe burn ban in effect so we weren't allowed to use it. They had called us to let us know ahead of time (and provided free propane for the stove) which was super awesome of them. 

I just love that fact that most everything was provided. It gives us urbanites the ability to camp without having to find a place to store (and pack!) tents and sleeping bags etc. They sold propane and firewood on site so you didn't have to pack that either.

They have 7 geodesic domes at the campground, and some are spaced quite far apart in order to give you plenty of privacy. It's down a very well maintained NFD (national forest development) dirt road. The place itself was very well hidden though, and a small sign pointing to the driveway would have been quite helpful as it's basically a 180 degree turn to get onto the driveway, and nothing but a small gate; you would think it was somebody's property because there's no sign. 

The only other confusing thing is that there's nowhere to like, check in. I think it would be helpful if each of the domes had a sign with their names on them (We stayed in the Chinook dome) so we knew for sure we were in the right place, since there was no check in. We just kind of pulled up and started unpacking! But to their credit, they had the propane waiting for us (and then a new bottle was waiting when we got back from Staircase), so they were definitely around. Somewhere. lol

The geodesic dome itself had no insulation, so because it was 80 degrees outside, it was probably 90 inside the dome as it retained the heat like plastic windows tend to do. Luckily that also meant that as the temperature dropped outside, it quickly dropped inside. It was about 60 during the night so that was the perfect sleeping temperature for me. The bed was memory foam and actually quite comfortable. I was very impressed with the whole set up and want to go back for sure.

As soon as we got there, we set up to cook dinner, which was a tri-tip roast from Costco that was already pre-seasoned and sealed. Once we finished dinner, we headed out to Staircase to hike the 2 mile trail that followed the river. I wasn't sure if we were going to have to pay as I couldn't find any information; The hike was inside Olympic National Park but it didn't state if there was a fee because the only access to the Park was that hike and the campground itself. It was a 30 minute drive and yes, we had to pay. I didn't want to waste an hour driving back and forth again because it was already 6pm and I didn't want to lose anymore daylight. Patrick spoke to the ranger and got his permission to come back after the hike to drop off the payment info (thank goodness! The ranger was very nice).

I got some really good pics along the hike. 

We took the hour to drive back and forth again to drop off payment and once we were done with that it was time for quick s'mores (on the propane stove, lolz) so that we could take a nap before heading out for milky way photos. 

We found 2 spots along Hwy 101 for photos and I think they turned out pretty well - it was a lot brighter than I was thinking it was going to be, as the Milky Way was positioned right above a city glow.

We got back around 230 and went straight to sleep. We made a quick breakfast the next morning and headed back home around 10. We stopped at what used to be my favorite winery - Hoodsport Winery. Unfortunately, they closed production and now just sell other people's wines. They still had a lot of fruit wines though so I'm pretty excited to try the 3 that I bought. Once we were done we went straight home. It was a good trip and I'm excited to share the photos.

Married 6.9 ... Nice

Patrick likes Numerology. I like boomerang jokes. When we were discussing what day we wanted to get married (I wanted it to be in summer [for reasons] so cool dates like 2/23/23 or 2/3/23 were out) the first date that popped into my head was 6/9.

It's a childish joke, but because it's been a boomerang joke on LTT for years (definition: a joke that comes back again and again), and it's reminiscent of the number 47 (when Star Trek writers decided to try and hide the #47 anywhere in the episodes that they could), I figured, why not?

Neither one of us were keen on doing a "real" wedding (we were 1 and done with that), so getting married at the courthouse was the plan. 6/9 fell on a Friday so that was perfect. We planned on doing a small reception (aka "party") on 6/10 for a few close friends at the clubhouse of the apartment complex.

I didn't care to go through the whole wedding dress process. Not only did I want to keep the budget down but I wanted things simple since hardly anyone would see it anyway. I figured I could order something that I could wear more than once. I decided to order a dress online at an e-tailor called eshakti. What's cool about them is that you can take your measurements and they can tailor the dress to you before it's shipped. You can also change some features on them like the sleeve length or dress length. It was coming from India though so the whole thing took almost two months. But, it only cost me $90 and it fit great, so win-win.

My colors were teal, silver, and white, so once the dress arrived, we matched Patrick with a light gray/silverly suit and a teal tie. I made my own bouquet using white carnations, hydrangea, and mums, along with a matching boutonniere for Patrick. I let the flowers soak in teal water in order to pick up some of that color.

I ended up ordering the tie and my shoes on amazon because we shopped literally everywhere and could not find a matching tie color or white heels. Yet the first teal tie I ordered off amazon matched perfectly. Go figure. Grabbing some costume diamond jewelry to complete my look, we were set.

I was only nervous because I had never been to a courthouse wedding so I wasn't sure what to expect. I always like to over-prepare for stuff. I invited my parents as witnesses, along with my best friend Mary and her husband and child. Dad decided to get his camera out of storage and took some pictures for the first time since his heart attack. I was really happy that my mother (and father, tbh) were able to be at my wedding after the big health scares they had.

We set the time for 4:30 on 6/9, got our marriage license, and was told to arrive at the courthouse early because they close at 4:30. Even though I arrived in a teal and white dress, all the guards and stuff congratulated us on getting married. Oi. My parents were already waiting in the lobby, and Mary joined us outside the courtroom. It was a really simple process. The judge just asked us questions about where we wanted to stand and if we had our own vows and stuff (we did),
and got the ball rolling. I had Mary take pictures with my cellphone. It went off without a hitch and turned out great. We were out of there by 5pm.

I wanted the reception the next day to be slightly fancy so I had ordered a small wedding cake custom made with my colors (only invited about 13 people which is basically the limit for the clubhouse anyway), and a large charcuterie platter from one of my favorite restaurants called Stink. (I just heard that the owner sold it and I'm so sad!!). Got all of my wine from my favorite winemaker Wynoochee Winery, and a helium tank with some white, teal, and silver balloons. 

I was going to play bride and groom games, but unfortunately none of Patrick's friends could make it. Apparently everything in the world was happening on 6/10, including the World Poker Tournament in Las Vegas so Aaron couldn't come. His other friend had just had back surgery so he couldn't make it either. (Also, Brenda's daughter was doing Prom that night so she couldn't stay long, and Kim had finals for her RN classes.) Games such as "who said this, bride or groom?" wouldn't work since only my friends could come. I did set up a "Pin the Bowtie on the Patrick" game, and gave everyone a scratch-off ticket and Brenda won the $10 Target gift card.

Oh, I forgot to mention that while I was setting up, I tried to lift a case of water and threw my back out. I survived the party on oxycodone and well wishes. I couldn't wear my heels at the party or drink as much wine as I wanted to, but it still turned out well. Unfortunately that also meant that I was laid out on Sunday and Monday also so we couldn't go out to eat in Seattle like we had planned.

Overall though, it all turned out very well with no catastrophes, so I consider that a win!

Underrated Movies: Hook

I felt compelled to write about this after watching Peter Pan and Wendy, which is a movie that came out on Disney+ recently. The comments/reviews on it seemed positive so I gave it a go on a boring Saturday morning. I mean, sure, it was a good movie, but it wasn't innovative. Peter Pan has been done 100 times and the story is pretty old at this point. There wasn't anything new or different about this one. However, some of the lines reminded me greatly of the movie Hook. And maybe that was because they were taken from the book; I don't know, because I have never read it. But it had me reminiscing about that movie and how great it was.

Hook was amazingly underrated in my opinion. Has it aged well? I'd say so; as a lot of Steven Spielberg movies tend to do (ie: Jurassic Park) thanks to extravagant and well built sets. The music, done up by the one and only John Williams, will never get old to me. There could not have been a better Hook than Dustin Hoffman - I compare all others to him. 

And Robin.

I thought briefly that it would be great to be able to remake this movie with more modern stuff, but Robin Williams can never be replaced. I grew up on Robin Williams movies, and his kind will never be found again. He was truly a one of a kind, amazing man, and perfect for the role of a child who never wanted to grow up.

The premise of this movie was very unique. About a man named Peter Banning, who is a grumpy, stuffy lawyer with no sense of humor or fun in his life. His two children get kidnapped, and it turns out it was Captain Hook who stole his kids and took them to Neverland in order to lure Peter back to his childhood home, where he had completely forgotten that he was actually Peter Pan. With the help of the Lost Boys, he begins to remember his past and how to fly and fight so that he can save his children from Hook. A fresh take on a childhood classic for sure.

The movie is not perfect. I do say that anytime Tinkerbell is portrayed as a jealous bitch who wants to kill Wendy is completely idiotic, (and I did appreciate that Peter Pan and Wendy did not go this route), and luckily Hook didn't go crazy here, but this Tinkerbell (played by Julia Roberts, whom I think was badly cast for this role) was completely strange and took away from the movie. Her love for Peter was kind of creepy to be honest.

The movie had a lot of slow parts. Hook trying to convince Peter's kids that he was a better father than Peter and trying to teach them how to be good pirates was kind of a stretch but interesting if not a tad boring. Jack switching sides was fun, and him teaching Hook and crew how to play baseball was really entertaining to watch.

One can never forget the scene where it finally clicks for Peter how to feel young at heart again, and is able to insult Rufio like only an unscripted Robin Williams can.

There are a few good lines, including one scene between Hook and Smee:

“- Smee: I've just had an apostrophe.
- Captain Hook: I think you mean an epiphany.
- Smee: Lightning has just struck my brain.
- Captain Hook: Well, that must hurt.”

But overall, I think this movie is very enjoyable and unique enough to keep you engaged. There are only so many movies in my life that I watch multiple times, and Hook is one of the rare few. If you've never seen it I would highly recommend it. Sometimes it's difficult to get into movies meant for children, but if you don't mind it, it's a good watch for sure.

Raising Awareness of PVCs... again?

If you are unfamiliar of my original blog post, it's here, and it kind of explains what a PVC is.

This is more of an update post because I had gone to the ER back on 4/13 for frequent PVCs. This was a little bit different than last time. It started on Wednesday evening 4/12, in which I began having PVC "events". In the world of PVCs this is not abnormal, but I was fairly concerned. What would happen is when my heart began an event and I would put my fingers on my neck to track my pulse, it would go something like this:

Beat/pulse

Beat/pulse

Beat/_____

Repeat about 5 times. The heart would reset itself, but then 10-15 minutes later, another event would happen. This went on throughout the night which became concerning to me.

The PVCs I was having back when I wrote my original blog post were more disturbing because my heart would go: beat/____, beat/____, a few times in a row, which feels a lot more like a panic attack or a heart attack and was a horrible feeling. If this kind of PVC lasts more than a few seconds, it can become V-tac, or Ventricular Tachycardia which requires a call to 911. Luckily, V-tach/V-Fib are two shockable (with paddles) types of heart attacks.

Source: https://avive.life/blog/shockable-vs-non-shockable-heart-rhythms/ 

Side note: if you are familiar with medical dramas, you have probably seen doctors try to use paddles on a non-beating heart. Defibrillators are named exactly for what they do - when your heart is in a fibrillated state, they send a shock to correct the error in the rhythm. You can not do this when your heart is in PEA (pulseless Electrical Activity) and Asystole (aka, "flatline").

Anyway, so I had decided by morning to go to the urgent care to be evaluated because the events hadn't stopped. I figured they might be able to monitor my heart rhythm or send me home with a 24 holter monitor or something. I was first in at 8am but realized quickly that they could do nothing. They advised I go to the ER so they can properly monitor my heart.

I had no other worrying symptoms like chest pain, dizziness, or SOB, but I just wanted to make sure my heart was okay, so I went in. Luckily, it wasn't super busy and we only ended up waiting about 30 minutes. I even got a "room" with patients separated by a curtain. Certainly better than the hallway, I suppose.

They drew blood to make sure my electrolytes were ok (I was still unintentionally fasting at this point so that's cool), did an EKG which showed nothing because its only about a 6 second picture, and hooked me up to their heart monitoring machine.

The PVCs continued in the couple of hours I was there, and the funny thing is that when I was checking in I told them I was having what I "thought were PVCs" but not being an actual medical professional I didn't want to sound like a know-it-all, but when the doctor saw the monitor he was like, "You were right, you're having PVCs".

Anyway, they basically said that because my heart was still pumping blood effectively, there wasn't really anything to be concerned about or anything they were able to do while I was there. They just warned me about calling 911 if it turned into V-Fib or V-Tach, and they were going to hook me up to a fancy new wireless holter monitor called a Zio XT. I was apparently their guinea pig that day because this was the first time the ER was going to hookup a patient with it. It was all so new that the Epic system wasn't even fully integrated with it yet so it took them much longer to set me up and make sure it was working before releasing me.

Besides being a little itchy under the diode, it's fairly unobtrusive, and with no wires, a lot easier to manage. I wore it for 14 days and was even be able to shower with it on without a problem, which was pretty neat. I got my results back very quickly (The PVCs only lasted for a total of about 24 hours, so the rest of the 14 days was fairly normal), and turns out I was having PVCs and PACs, so that's cool /s.

I have no idea what happens now, I'm assuming nothing because it's not really something anyone can do. There's no point in putting me on a medication when my heart isn't constantly going nuts. I'll write and update if that changes.

It's Daisy Day

It's been a year since we decided to put our Daisy kitty down. I have to admit, sometimes I still feel guilty about making the call to euthanize her. I had watched so many youtube videos on "when is the right time?" or "Did I do this too soon?" trying to decide what to do and when.

They say it is one of the hardest decisions you will ever have to make. They aren't kidding when they say that. With cats, I can say it's even harder. Daisy had cancer. It started as a lump under her armpit that we excised without running a pathology on it. As the lump was growing, I knew it was bad news though because it was hard, red, and oozing in 3 different spots. Without running a pathology on it we couldn't be sure, but it certainly acted like cancer. When it grew back, we did an x-ray and that confirmed it had spread to her lungs.

The lungs are the absolute worst place for growths like this. So many bad things could go wrong so quickly without us being there or having time to help. She could end up SOB, or not breathing at all. I was scared. And cats are notorious for hiding their pain and discomfort. Neither one of us really knew how much pain she was in, and that was the hardest part.

We were already giving her gabapentin for her arthritic pain. She was throwing up nearly every day so we were giving her anti-nausea medication. She basically stopped eating, so we were giving her an appetite stimulant. She was still grooming. Still able to use her litter box. But when we looked at her and watched her, we knew things were bad and getting worse. The hospice vet had given her a ketamine shot, which felt like a miracle drug. It made Daisy do a complete 180. She was like a new cat. She was hungry, she was eating. It was amazing. But it only lasted a couple of weeks. It just seemed to show how much she was actually suffering.

The choice to (and when to) euthanize is a personal decision linked to each experience. We both knew she didn't have much time left, but we didn't know when the right time would be. I expressed my worst fear of both of us being gone at work when Daisy suddenly can't breathe and needs help, and we come home to find her gone and that she had suffered alone without her humans. Or maybe it happens when we're there, but we have to rush her to the emergency vet. Maybe they put her on a ventilator but basically tell us that we need to put her down, and now she's in a scary place and we're doing this so quickly without us being prepared. I couldn't live with either one of those scenarios. 

Of course it still felt wrong to make this decision at all. With dogs, a lot of the time you can see the light go out of their eyes. Maybe they become less active. Maybe they hoble or whimper. Maybe they won't play anymore. Dogs are so expressive. Cats feel like trying to decipher hieroglyphs. And Daisy was never my cat... I took care of her, but Patrick knew her for I think 10-12 of her 18 years. I was barely a blip for her lifespan.

I didn't want to wait until it was "too late". I watched videos of cats with kidney disease.... just wasting away. Losing weight, not eating, sleeping all day, no grooming or playing. I didn't want that for Daisy. We knew she was in pain, but she was a tough girl and it was hard to know how much. I still feel guilt about thinking it was too soon. It's been a year and I don't think that feeling will ever go away. There's always going to be that "what if we had waited?" Sometimes you have to remember quality over quantity. And were we waiting for her, or for us? That's the hardest question to answer. I didn't want to avoid putting her down because of our selfish want for her to be here longer. No matter how you faced it, it was hard to justify either decision.

In the end, we knew she had lived a long, fruitful life. We took care of her the best as we could. We gave her all the pets and all the love. We euthanized her in her home, with her humans and her favorite things. And the worry about her dying alone evaporated because she had gone the best way we knew how. All the suffering she had endured was over. All that is left is her ashes, her pictures, and our fond memories. And that will have to be enough.

It wasn't alcohol intolerance!

I don't know if you want to call me a hypochondriac, but at least I'm logical about it. I usually don't message my provider regarding symptoms I'm having unless I have a logical guess about what is going on. And yes, sudden alcohol intolerance didn't make any sense, but I wasn't sure what else it could be.

Turns out, it could be hypoglycemia. Now, I'm not diabetic, but I was taking Ozempic at the time for weight loss, and I was on 2mg (2ml? I don't know) of it, which is about double what a normal diabetic would take for their disease. During the last year or so, I had slowly been increasing my dose to reduce symptoms like diarrhea or gas or abdominal pain. So, drinking at the beginning, I either had no symptoms or very little (such as what I would dub the "wine headache") and that's when I had stopped drinking for several months because I didn't feel good after drinking while all the while, increasing my Ozempic dose.

So when I finally decided to partake around the holidays, I felt really crappy. I had read that Ozempic and alcohol together might lower my blood sugar, but I wasn't putting two and two together because the last time I'd drank it wasn't nearly this bad. But I was also taking a much lower dose at the time.

Turns out alcohol intolerance and hypoglycemia have a lot of the same symptoms, including shaking, abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting. 

I'm just angry that had I known it at the time, I could have had a spoonful of sugar and felt better! Ugh!

Now this song is stuck in my head. Goody.

I had figured this out because shortly after the holidays were over I had stopped taking my Ozempic; mainly because it wasn't doing much for me anymore, which is depressing in and of itself because I didn't think this was something my body could or would "get used to" like all the other medications I had tried. 

AND YET - obviously it was doing something because it was causing hypoglycemia when I drank. The F, yo. But I had tested the drinking waters after I'd stopping taking it and guess what - no more symptoms. I was perfectly fine.

My PCP probably hates me. Have you ever heard the idea that doctors make the worst patients? Like, at least doctors went to medical school. I didn't. I just have basic anatomy knowledge (and way too much GYN cancer knowledge), so I'm probably an even worse patient, as this misdiagnosis can attest to.