Summer Already!

It's hard to believe but we are days away from my birthday which means we are now in the summer season full blown. Wow. My sister will celebrate her birthday the day after mine. I always went first. What happened to spring? Winter was long and cold. Spring was barely here. I usually enjoy the flowers, the days of a little warm sunshine followed by some soggy days. This year they were all cold and damp and windy. I swear we live on the windy place in the state. We have had two bonfires this year and if we are lucky maybe one more before the summer is out. If the wind doesn't stop blowing we won't have any.

My First 20K-Dam to Dam 2012

By Angie Looney Just saying "My first 20k" sounds like I have plans for more. But in order to plan for the future I have to resolve the past. So here goes my story of my experience in the Dam to Dam 2012. Last summer I was standing around talking with some other 5K runners about upcoming races and other such nonsense when I listened to multiple stories of the Dam to Dam. It seems every other 5k runner had done that race, oh it was a great time, yada yada yada. Now I had just started running 5k. In fact, I just started running again after a 17 year lay-off. After my knee surgery I slowly gained the strength to run. Which was awesome but I wasn't sure I was doing the right thing by putting the demand of the pounding of the pavement on my "new" knee and would my other knee hold up? However, I always forget about that stuff in the spur of the moment. In fact, my husband Tim reminds me daily of my "just do it" attitude and pay the price later. So in August at my first adjunct meeting at the University of Iowa with all the other new instructors coming in we had to go around the room and describe one thing about ourselves. Now, I could have said I am an avid gardener. I could have said I was teaching myself to play the guitar and wanted to form an all-girls punk rock band. Yes, I use girls but really mean women over 45 who want to blow some steam off. I could have said I was an award-winning photojournalist. But I did not say any of those things. No, I said something like this, "I had knee surgery a year ago, thought I would never run again, completed five 5k races and am planning on doing a half-marathon next year." Wow, out of my mouth it flowed. Practically word for word like I described. It was too late to take it back. Now, the plan was in place. In my process to prepare, I needed to find a victim to come along with me in this race. I did not know what I was doing, I did not know any details other than it was a 20k. One of my work-study students who also is a runner volunteered to do it with me. We would make a pact to train and encourage each other. She was a great inspiration for me and kept me thinking about it, training for it. We ran the Turkey Trot in Marion together in November. It is a 8k. Victoria and I were doing a great pace and I believe after the first mile they blurted out 8:30:00. I knew I could not keep up this pace, so I backed off and told her go on without me. I should have not heard it, I wouldn't have known how fast but once I heard it it was like, oh, that is too fast for me, slow down. If I would have kept up at that pace would I have gotten a faster time? Or would I have used up all my energy? I run conservatively, so I probably would have gotten a faster time, damn. My point is this, Victoria moved back to Chicago and I was on my own. Now, I have to rely on my husband to be my "handler." And it is a good thing he has practiced with the dogs, because he is a great handler. He had my race map printed out, got us a room to stay at (I believe however I actually found it online-something I regret and will explain later) and he printed off the info on picking up my packet the night before. All important stuff that I don't really want to think about, all I wanted to do was run it. He's my detail man and thank God he is here for me. So briefly, a review on my training from August outburst. I did a 5k race, got a medal. Go Apple Gallup Run. I ran a 10K for the Fair in Buchanan County. Oh, I missed the start by 12 minutes, for some reason I thought it started at 9am and it started at 8am. Oops. Yea, I got out, pinned my number on and ran as fast as I could. My mile 4 my knees and hips were hurting. I did not catch anyone, was last place and everyone was cheering for me. I felt like a complete loser, but knew I got a good time. Note to self, always read the start time don't assume each race is the same! And the last race of 2011 was that 8k race in Marion in November. So a 5k, 10k and 8k and six months to train for a 20k. The first thing I did was go online and get a training schedule. I printed out two, had them on my desk at work. Put my dates in there and the weather cooperated. I started three weeks earlier than planned, did not think I could run farther than eight miles. That first eight miles about killed me. It was hard. But I persevered. Each week I added another mile on to my training run. I ramped up to twelve miles. The day I ran my first twelve runs, my husband Tim's band had a gig. It put a lot of pressure on him to drive out six miles to give me water. He was suppose to be in "rock-start mode" but I was cramping his style a little. I felt good all night too. I knew I was ready, I just had to wait three more weeks. And it was the longest three weeks of my life. Waiting is always the hardest part. Now I was just ready to get it over. All this training and preparation and now I wanted it to be over. As it was nearing, one of my co-workers had some friends who were running in it. So we talked about times etc., and it was good to hear an outsiders perspective. I did not know anyone I was running with. All the runners I knew were not running it this year. It kind of bummed me out, but I don't do things with other people. I want to but it never turns out that way. I went to college by myself. I moved to Texas by myself. And I entered this race by myself. Of course, my family supports me so in that respect I am not alone. But I don't have someone right beside me running with me. I guess that is ok because that is what I am used to. I used to run with my dogs Brownie and Krunchy. But once I started doing 4 miles at a time I left them behind. I did not want them to get tangled up with other dogs on my run. It takes too much effort just to run myself and having to stop and break up a dog fight or a "sniff off" was too mentally consuming. At one point Tim would drop water at the mile and half from home and let Krunchy and Brownie run the last portion with me. That did not work out so good. Brownie rushed up to see me, practically tripped me. Now, I love my dogs but I had just run nine miles and was dying so having a forty-eight pound dog run up to me and make me stop to keep from running into her was not a good thing. Tim and I decided no more dogs on the last leg of the training runs. There is my training in a nutshell. I tried to avoid eating crappy foods except Fridays. I enjoy a greasy hamburger and fries once a week. I limited my alcohol especially if I knew I was running in the morning on the weekends. The biggest concern was using the bathroom on my runs. That sort of timing is key and essential. I knew going into the race I had to have a plan. As it turns out, the plan may have cost me several minutes off my time but I saved face. Enough about that. Moving on to the race. It is now Friday. Tim and I have left our country home. Both kids are staying there unsupervised. In hindsight poor decision by us. We did not eat lunch at home, it was after noon and I knew I had to eat something. We ended up stopping in Grinnell at the Grinnell Steakhouse. I think that may be the name. It was about 2pm or so and only one old guy was at the bar. It was a fancy place, we weren't sure what we were getting into since we don't go the "'fancy" way. I ordered a burger and a salad and Tim order a burger and french fries. I needed the green to do it's thing. While we were waiting, the guys from the kitchen came out to the salad bar. They were adjusting the compressor on the coolant thing. You know, the thing that makes the salad bar stay cool. Meanwhile, the waitress is giving me my salad from the salad bar, the cook's are taking the potato salad and pea salad away. She is now handing me my salad with dressing. The lettuce is not cold. Now, I am realizing that if I eat this I could pay the price. I have a race to run in less than 24 hours, I am not going to get food poisoning. Then I look down in my salad and there is a black hair. It could be mine, but it was mixed in the lettuce. So I push it to the side. The waitress asked me about the salad and instead of telling her how I am grossed out how the non-working coolant of the salad bar I just say "there is a hair in my salad" and she takes it away apologizing profusely. Tim commented that having hair in our food is like being home. You see, we have four cats that live with us inside. There is cat hair everywhere. I clean the house, but we end up getting cat hair everywhere. So the hair did not gross me out, the thought of eating something that is spoiled was a worse fear. She gave us half off on my meal, we tipped her well and drove to Des Moines. We made it to the center to pick up my packet in good time. We only made a few detours along the way. You see, I make the driver nervous and he listens to me and takes the wrong turns. So he drives better without me. I say he is always a nervous wreck. Anyway, we don't know where to park so we find a loading place that gives us twenty minutes to do our thing. I ask a woman carrying a race bag where she got it, she told me where to go, and off we go. We entered the event from the back side, so the signs were limited but we got in. I had to ask around for my number, I was off by 50. My bib number is 7094. So I got my packet and there was free food everywhere. Again, now I am afraid to eat anything so I grabbed some cookies and M & M's. That was probably a good thing. Next on the agenda is to find the hotel. It is a Budget Inn. I would have paid double to not have stayed there. It was the scariest place both of us have ever stayed at. The windows did not close. The door had been broken in several different times. There were holes in the wall and the ceiling. The queen-sized beds were double beds. I know, sounds like I am being picky but I needed the extra inches. We realized our eight year-old truck was almost too nice for this parking lot. There was this guy sitting out on a picnic table with his two dogs. He had a grill out there. He must have been living in this hotel. They had weekly and monthly rates. The one good thing was there were kids around. That did make us feel safer. We decided we should get out and go find the start of the race. We did not leave our possessions in the room however. We were pretty sure an older guy and a hooker walked past us on our way out. She had an expensive bag. Either that or they were having a steamy affair. So we drove to DMACC and Saylorville Lake. It took about five minutes and I would need to be there in the morning sometime between 5am and 5:45am which was the last pickup. So we were both confident we would be up earlier enough to make it, provided we were not murdered in the night. We drove out to the lake. Drove across the dam where the start was and drove to a parking lot to get out and walk around. Now we were just killing time. So we started driving back to our sleazy hotel when we ended up taking a huge detour. We were practically driving the length of my race. It was hard to fathom I would be running this. Unbelievable. Tim told me I should drive my training run that I would be amazed by the area I cover. We stopped at Casey's to fill up on low price gas and I got a coffee. I would drink this in the morning. Now we are back at our hotel and waiting for night to be done. We watch some college softball. I decide to take out my contacts. I go in to the bathroom, take out my contacts, put them in their case, and start brushing m y teeth. I go to spit out the toothpaste and somehow my contact case goes flying into the sink with the water running, toothpaste spit foaming and my case breaks open. My contacts! I scream. Tim comes running in there. "Oh my God!" Tim says. "I know," I reply back. I quickly retrieve my case and thankfully both contacts are clinking to the case. I did not bring any extra contacts. I am blind as a bat. My old glasses fall off my face when I look down. It would have been a tragedy if either of my contacts were gone. Oh, thankfully they are here. Covered with toothpaste spit. So I carefully clean them off. Tim reminds me I should put them in my eyes now to avoid the minty taste in the morning. So I do it. One hurts more than the other. I clean them off again. Put them in, not so bad. More cleaning. More putting them in my eyes. We just avoided a terrible tragedy. I need to sleep. I can't sleep. Tim can't sleep. I wake up every hour checking my phone. So does Tim. Finally 4:30am comes. We get up quickly. I eat a banana and half a bagel. Nothing happening with the bathroom area. Drink my coffee and share it with Tim and we leave. W

Tim Looney on Being a Musher

Being a Musher

Angie Looney: Angie Looney: Keep on Running

Angie Looney: Angie Looney: Keep on Running

http://tvnewsworkshop.wordpress.com/

Dreams reveal....

I had a weird dream early this morning. A kid whom was working at this hotel I was at, was showing me the directions to park my vehicle. So I followed him, got in his small golden colored late model car. The windows were roll downs and they had been rolled down. He drove us into the water. I said, "What the bleep?" I started swimming out of the car and he started coming after me. I said again, "What the bleep?" and started swimming harder to get away from him. That is all I can remember.

I did not look it up in my dream dictionary, but I am guessing it has something to do with the suspicion I have of a man who is dating my BFF. If I do not return from my class reunion activities this weekend, I want you all to know of my impending doom.

Signed,

Angela J. Looney

ps-I wish I were kidding but I am not.

Summer Heat

The days are hot. It is summer and that means humidity. Summers are suppose to be a time to enjoy canoeing, fishing, picking berries, gardening, mowing the yard, running, playing ball, biking and swimming. It is not a time to go head in the house to escape the temperatures. Instead, kick your shoes off, cut up your old t-shirt, put on your sunscreen and wear a hat. Get outside and enjoy the heat. It is summer after all.

Brought to you by the summer lovers fest.

Living in a Modern Commune

So I was thinking on Mother's Day as I was sitting around the campfire by myself this thought popped into my mind. It would be great if I could live here on my farm, maybe raise a pig and a cow, along with the chickens, cats and dogs, and have a garden. And I would count on my neighbor to grow the feed for the livestock. And we would shop at the local General Store that would NOT get their items from foreign countries but from other crafters within the state or county. And we would gather together in times of harvest and planting. We would share in joys and sorrows. And no one would go without. Everyone would have enough to eat, and warm place to sleep, food in the pantry, food for the livestock, and a place for the children to run and play without fear of stranger abductions.

Is anyone else out there interested? I realize some would say, hey join the Amish. Or some other religious cult. But I don't need religion. Religion is what has caused the great divide of humanity. I am looking for others who wish to commune with others on this spiritual level, who wish to live together as a human unit.

A Conversation with Sarah

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Reverence to Life

I saw the rope
Innocently blowing gently against the silver maple trunk
root bound on top of the concrete
It is what its forced to do

But no complaints come from the tree
until the wind blows
starting slowly, gently, rocking
to and fro
lullaby for finches
and chickadees,
who fly around in a buzz
scrounging for their supper

Alas, I have gotten off the subject
of my suicidal discoveries

I saw the rope
and cut it
but it was tough
cotton, old and covered with
a film of moss

as I sawed the salvation
to my suicide
my arm began to wear
such work to off one's self
why all the bother?
there should be an easier
way
or at least a less dreadful
effort to send the soul to the
other side.

Finished.
The rope is now cut,
the curious dangling rope is
but a stump of a rope
still attached to the Silver Maple
forever, soon to become
swallowed up into the abyss
of organic life.

My thoughts of giving up life
by using the rope
is now being taken by the life force of
the Silver Maple
forever being locked up to be found
by some palenentolgist from
another galaxy
exploring Mother Earth by a
future being.

Even in death, life continues
in perputual motion
forever and ever.
Only dust becomes us
and in that moment
it ceases to be just a particle
but nothingness.

Reverence to Life



Angela J Looney

What Happened to Your Machine Tim?

If you read all his posts after his nose surgery and all those pictures of Tim with his shirt off covered in his mask, you also would wonder what happened? He is not wearing his mask at nights. Why not you ask? I don't know he won't answer. Maybe all that drama for nothing.
Oh well.....I'm too tired anymore to ask him about it. Time to go to bed and get up at 5:15 to ride along with a 14-year old driver. A driver who stops when we turn corners! And he likes to drive on the left side of the road. Are we in England?
Crykey, I'm gonna go to bed. G'nite.

A Concept

Sometimes, I come up with the idea and have to let it out. Not wanting to wait, I wish to spit it out like that bad taste of Black Velvet that hits my lips when the husband says, "Here, mouthwash! I want everyone to read my words. I want to share with the millions of Looney Talk subscribers. And then the worry sets in. Like a black film beginning to build on the surface of the bathroom mirror as my spouse is in the shower. The confidence police start circling, waiting for the slightest moment of inadequacy. Hoping to catch me in the act of failing. And then the paranoia hoovers like a Black Hawk helicopter, waiting for me to finish my repulsive act and it strikes me hard to the cool, damp ground. They all are taking over my ideas, my words, my concept.

Shakespeare wrote "to be or not to be, that is the question?" After all the years of trying to figure out just what the bleep he was talking about, I think I have it figured out. If I were to write about my concept right now, it would be open to ridicule before it was even polished. It could possibly be stolen, someone else could take credit for it. All the creative flare I have dedicated to my project- taken in one swift move, similiar to that of a hawk making off with our farmyard chicken.

So, should I write my concept down in the blog? Let the readers put their two cents in. Or wait for the day when I actually do write my concept. Write it down and submit it to some twenty-something year old Hollywood script reader who wouldn't know a good story from a hole in his shoe. He would scribble on my script, "This would not sell! No one would watch. No one would read this." Oh, the negativity monster creeps in, taking all shred of human value I possess in my soul.

Pondering the infamous question of Shakespeare, I will sit upon my rock and challenge my mind, to be or not to be.

Death on 380

It was not a pretty sight. In one of those moments you see happening in slow motion, it was happening to me. Three vehicles ahead of mine. Playing out for all drivers to see. Or at least those who were wide-eyed and bushy tailed. By almost eight in the morning, at least half a pot of coffee has been ingested by myself. The drivers on the other side, were they paying attention? That is my question. When I saw it happening I wanted to honk my horn and come to a screeching halt. But I knew the drivers behind me weren't paying attention. They were too close. So letting off the gas as the accident happened was all I could do. To my amazement they must have seen it happen as well.

Running as fast as it possibly could, a beautiful doe had decided it was time to cross the busy interstate before 8 o'clock. Thank God she didn't have her fawn following. She was alone. Probably chased by a sexually charged buck or blood-thirsty hunter. Either way it was the final curtain for our little lady. I was three automobiles back. She came running past on the western side of the interstate without getting hit. She was halfway through. But there were a line a traffic on both northbound lanes. A black SUV in the fast lane hit her with its left headlight. Bam! She went straight down in the median. Just as fast as she came out of the corn field did she fall to her death. Murder on the highway. There was nothing to do. Everyone kept going. No one stopped. No one pulled over. Not even the SUV. Everyone drove on by. I kept finding myself slowing down the rest of the commute. Looking and scanning the horizon for her family and friends. No deer anywhere. Guess they all are waiting for their turn to run across the deadly highway.

It is a sad day for the deer and the driver. Their insurance will probably go up. They will likely have thousands of dollars of repairs. I will have that vision of the deer's final seconds of life play over in my head. It's like a movie that you can't take your eyes off. Mesmerizing in a morbid way. Death on 380.

Bedtime Story

After a month of using the CPAP I can report – underwhelming effect!

It took a while, but I am finally becoming adjusted to wearing it. The hardest part was under my nose, where the mask presses my mustache hairs into my skin. That still hurts by morning.

The other main adjustment was in sleeping position. At first, I slept on my back, but that hurts my lower back. Eventually, I was able to sleep on my side facing the direction the hose went. It took about three weeks to finally get comfortable sleeping on the other side as well, when the hose has to come up over my neck. But it is the only way I can sleep, as I toss and turn and must sleep on both sides.

I am still learning about the humidity level. I do like having cool, moist air when it is hot. We’ve had some cool mornigs, so I am trying out various temperature settings, although th eaother morning, something was weird and I nearly drowned!

But, still no “amazing energy burts” that other users had promised me I would experience. I know my level of sleep apnea is not very high, and ther pressure setting is fairly low, but I still wish I could feel something! I now need to work on getting to bed earlier (thanks a lot, FaceBook!) but I’ve never really been able to sleep more than six or so hours.

So, my report is practically “no report”, at least as far as benefits go. The longer I wear it, the more I get used to it, but I sure hope to feel the effects kick in sometime!

Friday Night Music

With the change of the seasons come the change of our music format.  Or at least this time.  Instead of cranking up the stereo and playing everything loud, we went unplugged.  We didn't shake the house last night, but it was a rumbling good time had by all.

  Music night started out with a girl and her guitar and her man singing.  We had started playing together over the weekend and found out that we enjoyed playing together.  We started the evening with a Ryan Bingham tune "Hard Times" and I think this one is a keeper.  With Tim on the vocals doing a Dylan-style melody the followers the Looney's may find it entertaining.  However, having said that don't be mislead that we'll be fashioning any open mic soiree anytime soon.  Practice must come first.  After all we aren't just ammee's here.  

   Next on the set list, a stunning rendition of Moonshiner.  Or was it strumming?  This one gets the fingers fumbling and without being repetitive, with one word I can sum this up-practice.

   "Tear Stained Eyes"-Son Volt  what a great song.    It is one of those tunes that you can easily sing along with especially the chorus.  It feels simple but it is quite complex which makes it a brilliant piece of Americana.  Don't fall off your chairs but we added some harmonies to this one.  Another keeper for the Looney's.  The capo really helps on this one-Thank You Jeff Schmidt.  You rock.

   "Passenger Side"-Wilco.  God I love this song.  Yeah, we got some issues with the beat but it will come together.  It is fun to play and sing along with.  Another smart writer, a simple song that is complex.  Where do these guys get that I wonder? :)  

   Now the voice is going and the fingers are starting to not work as well.  Time for some easier strumming and we're getting ready to close the joint down.  Grab that dance partner and start your little jig to "New Madrid"-Uncle Tupelo.  A great little ditty-it's a keeper.

  And  ending our session, a fun song to play and sing along to, "Wagon Wheel" -Old Crow Medicine Show.  Now somewhere I had heard that Bob Dylan wrote that song.  Guess I should research it before posting but that would require work and time, so for the moment I will CYA with, we were performing OCMS rendition of said song.  It's a great song.  

   Next on the FNMN show we viewed on DVD the 100s from Java House.  Performing back in January for IPTV Radio, it was a great performance.  Unplugged but not undone.  I love these guys.  Great songs, simple but highly complicated.  Similar to those other guys we mentioned above.  Do you see the attraction?  I don't know if you can buy this, but I believe every now and again, the cable channel in Iowa City shows these past performances.  It was a great show-Vern McShane rocking the place on the pedal steel.  I especially loved the bass solo on the "Picture" song.  The only thing about that gig that I disliked was the small room and crowded stage.  Not anyone's fault, it just was tight.  Great night of music folks.  If you have never heard any of these tunes before look them up on google. It is worth the little bit of effort to find them.

Peace,

Ang

   

  

Friday Night Music Night: Back on the Air

After taking some needed creative time, Friday Night Music is back. Thanks in part to sister Jill for her awesome Christmas present. And another thanks to boss Bob Burns and his CD at work. I'll explain how those two brought us here.
As I was driving to work Friday, I like to jam out. So I looked in my CD lunch bucket case and pulled out a CD Jill made for me for Christmas. Remember those days of "Mixed" tapes? Yes, this was one of those. I remember the other one she gave me and with a slight hesitation I put it in, fearing the worst. (That's another story for a different day.) Heard some great tunes including a Kinks cut. So I wrote to Looney and told him about it and he wrote me back about going to a Kinks concert and the opening act blew him away-Cheap Trick. Well, Bob had a Best of Cheap Trick on his desk several weeks ago and I asked him if I could take it home and listen to it. So Tim had finished burning it that day and when we got home, there was the Cheap Trick CD. So there is the back story now here is how the night started.
Goth girl was looking great and I wanted her to listen to a Pat Benetar song that I thought Adam Lambert should have performed on Idol when doing songs from the 80's. "Hit me with your best shot." So we jammed to that, she knew the words and danced around the basement and air guitared the solos....Looney still has it. Next cut, and Goth girl was so excited...."Carry On My Way Word Son -Kansas....so turn the dial up some more! It was great. The three of us carrying on and such. Next cut (this is off the CD Jill had made it remember?) "Hair of the Dog" by Nazareth. Oh, the great times of high school that song is. Goth girl doesn't know it, asks what's this? and leaves. That means she will check it out later without the parental units watching. Meanwhile, we dig it. Next cut is the Kinks-"Captain America" which cut then leads us to Cheap Trick. Following us now? So we listen to a cut that has Chrissie Hynde "walk Away" which I had never heard before. I had wanted to hear some Pretenders stuff so this was a nice treat. Loon says the Pretenders have a country album out so we really need to check that out. After hearing "She's Tight" "Southern Girls" "If you want my Love" and "Dream Police" we moved on to a band that maybe listened to RUSH......The Police. Great times we listened by all. Played "Answering Machine" by the Replacements, who must have influenced Uncle Tupelo because I hear so many nuances in Jeff Tweedy's music. I hope he is ok with this. I think Paul Westerberg is a genius. Drugs and alcohol is the downfall of a lesser man no doubt. Paul is still doing so stuff out there so look him up readers. I will do more research and see what I find out and post at a later time.
Played "seven Chinese Brothers" -REM. We had a nice discussion about REM. I told Tim I liked them when they were a college band, before they hit it big. He said he thought they were a bit pretenses and too artsy fartsy....my words not his.
I think (a couple of beers and a nice glass of scotch tend to fog up the later part of the night) we ended on the Police's Message in a Bottle-but I can't remember. Oh wait we spun a U2 song (Tim picked-can't remember the name....oh the edge sorry. Wait, Tim is looking it up...."The Fly" off Achtung Baby. And I think I ended it with Sinead O'Connor-"I don't want what I haven't got."
A great night of some of the finer music of the late 70s and mid-80s and into very early 90s. Tune in for updates on our picks.

Bed Head

Snoring Cure Part 3

The journey continues!

First was the breathing doctor who sent me to the sleep center - see: http://looneytalk.blogspot.com/2009/06/sleepless-in-cr.html

The diagnosis: Sleep Apnea. It turns out I stopped breathing 14 times an hour!

Then the really bad news: I can't be fitted for a C-PAP breathing device because I don't move enough air through my nose. Surgery will repair a deviated septum and reduce my turbinates. "Hopefully" that solves the air-flow problem and I can get a C-PAP. Otherwise, the next thing we'd be looking at would be to remove my tonsils. While that is a relatively safe and easy procedure in children, it is one of the most painful and hard to recover from surgery for adults! As in, "Most people schedule it for the day before Thanksgiving so they can save on the sick leave." Yikes! Don't want that!

So, after a full physical and more blood tests, off to the hospital. What typically is an out-patient procedure will require an overnight stay for me - since I stop breathing so often.
Relaxing in the prep room as the drugs kicked in - and a thunder storm hit outside! Hope they don't lose power while I'm under the knife!

Next thing I know, I'm waking up in recovery! Then off to my room. I feel like I have the worlds worst head cold - perhaps due to the miles of gauze shoved up my nose? My nose is tender, but the drugs are preventing much pain. My biggest complaint is my neck - I think they broke it during surgery!

So, after an un-restful night, I can finally go home. Sounds good, right?

Well, the pain killers were strong, but not enough to eliminate all of my nose pain. My neck still was the worst, plus I have to sleep upright on several pillows, killing my back as well.

I've had surgery before, I thought that staying home for a week would be fun - movies, TV, internet - I thought I'd clean some files off an old computer. Boy was I wrong! The drugs made me brain-dead! I couldn't concentrate on anything. I couldn't follow a movie or even get into a televisions show. All I could watch was HGTV - I could wake out of a daze, say, "That's a nice kitchen" then doze back off.

So, it's gotten better since then. Flushing the nasal passages feels better than it sounds!

Finally, it was time to head back to the sleep center.

I scheduled it for a Friday night so I wouldn't have to deal with it at work the next day. I was pretty tired going in, and the Ambient kicked in fairly quick. I got wired up and had the C-PAP strapped to my head. Nice, cool air gently blowing into my nose. (When I opened my mouth, the air blew out lol!) With stuff between my eyes, I couldn't focus on the TV, but it didn't take long and I was out. She woke me up once to have me roll back onto my back, but otherwise, I slept the whole night - from about 9:30pm until 4:30am. I won't say I woke up refreshed, and honestly, I think I had a hangover from the Ambient, but it wasn't bad sleeping with the mask on. Other than the headpiece was too tight and gave me a headache. In fact, getting ready for bed Saturday night I kind of wished I had the nice, cool, gentle air forced up my nose!

But I could still get the report that it was ineffective and I need tonsil surgery, so I'm not going to rest until I know for sure.

To be continued...

Alice, Nicky & Mom