Monthly Archives: January 2016

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Meeting Miss Ellie

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IMG_0945Please note the title is meeting, not meet as in I did not adopt a pig! I thought it was best to set this straight right away because my mother knows what an animal lover I am and she would be having a stroke thinking I am now living with a pig. My dog Soleil is an only child and will stay that way because that is how she prefers it. She doesn’t mind when we dog sit but I don’t think she needs a companion twenty-four/seven.

My friend Brittany who I worked with ten years ago on Women’s Health had posted a few months ago she was looking for someone to watch her two pigs while they were on vacation this summer. I being the animal lover, jumped at the chance. My cousin Eddie owned two different pigs and said they were smarter and cleaner than dogs. Then all of a sudden then ended up fostering and taking in the third pig which was Miss Ellie. I knew there was no way I could handle three pigs but I didn’t have the heart to tell her. Well, then she posted that she only wanted me to watch Miss Ellie (the other two are boys.) She wanted to bring her by for a home visit so I could meet her and she and her husband could check out the house. It reminded me of when we adopted Soleil. So she and her husband brought her over yesterday and Kayla was home. I would have felt like an idiot taking pictures but you know the younger generation photos everything so Kayla took a bunch and put them on her snapchat story. So that is where I got this one. Ellie loves to eat Cheerios and Soleil just stood there patiently and Zach gave her a couple.

I didn’t pet Ellie too much because I figured maybe pigs are like dogs and do not want people just touching them. So I used the Cesar Milan rule of just kind of watching her. She’s really vocal, especially when you try to get her to move to go outside or change surfaces like hardwood to concrete. The more she doesn’t want to do it, the louder she becomes. They told me just to ignore that. This reminded me of the bearded dragon and the previous owner telling us just ignore his puffed up behavior and pick him up anyway.

Soleil got along really well with her. One time Soleil was bugging her so she got the head swipe. Apparently pigs don’t bite they head butt each other. I looked at Soleil and said that will teach you. She will be coming over again before they go on vacation. This time the animal lover Allyson should be home. She was disappointed she didn’t get to meet Ellie and asked Kayla and me all kinds of questions. It shall be a fun summer adventure.

 

Mole moral~ If you need pet setting, the Mole’s are your people!

 

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Shleprock takes Holly for a test

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According to Brian, only crazy people ask Shleprock (me) to take them to the hospital for a test. With my bad luck, that’s like asking to die. Oh the Mole house is so, so morbid. My friend Holly is crazy like me and she had me take her for a cardiac cath today. Except it wasn’t exactly a cardiac cath but rather a comedy because the only person who knew what test she was having was the cardiologist. The rest of them would be what I call “clueless wonders”. The nurse had her sign a permit that basically said a cardiac cath with possible stent placement and/or angioplasty. That was scary. Holly was told she was having a left heart cath but everyone else seemed to think she was having both sides of her heart and with dye. Everyone was confused and disoriented even the nurse practitioner who went over the entire cardiac cath procedure. So when the cardiologist comes in he tells her that he is going up her femoral vein (big vein in your leg) and not her artery because he was only measuring the pressures in her heart and not looking for blockage. That there wouldn’t be any dye used because dye isn’t needed to obtain heart pressures. He gets finished talking and I look at him and say “so are you doing a swan ganz catheter.” He looks at me amazed and says yes and asked how I knew this. I said I worked in the burn unit for ten years. (Yep somehow I manage to mention when I worked in the burn unit quite frequently). After he told us it was a swan, I knew the risk was small. After all they let the residents float those in all the time. And heck I use to get the numbers off of them so how hard is that. She got back from her test right as I left for my appointment. I got back from that just in time for the doctor to talk to her. Right after the procedure he told her she had mild pulmonary hypertension (that is high blood pressure in the lungs for my non medical friends) but when he came in he had reviewed the pressure numbers and told her she had moderate pulmonary hypertension. But it was all good because it wasn’t severe like her pulmonologist (lung doctor) was afraid of. Of course the crazy nut had gotten on google and looked this up yesterday and freaked herself out. Then he rambled something about the pressure being up in the right ventricle and maybe she just needed to double her diuretic. However, he is a cardiologist not a pulmonologist so he cannot decide on the medication. When we first signed in, the girl was reluctant to tell her that her CO-PAY for this test was 1300! She has private insurance and still is expected to pay 1300. I am surprised she didn’t have a heart attack and die right there at the desk. I can’t wait to find out what the full billing for this procedure turns out to be. Health care in America is so jacked up!

So Holly survived the test without bleeding to death and was discharged by 2pm just like they said she would be. They told her if she gets home and feels or hears a pop in her leg to call 911 immediately. Then said well its your vein so if that happens you shouldn’t bleed out because it’s not the artery. Then the nurse gives her discharge instructions as if she’s had a cardiac cath and told her not to resume one of her medications for two days because of the dye. Except she didn’t have dye. See everyone confused and disoriented. We had quite the comedy show going and I will end this with my favorite Holly story. Well it’s two of them. I met Holly two days after I came back from the nurses strike. I had just gotten in big trouble for writing “Spare Me” on the dry erase board. I walked up to her and asked her if she smoked. I then said you are giving me a cigarette and we are going to smoke. Oh and my name is Rachel. We were friends from that day forward. A couple of weeks later I realized that she and Brian graduated the same year from the same high school. She asked me what his last name was. I looked at her like she had three heads and said “Moehlmann same as mine” It’s a Holly classic.

 

Mole Moral~ If you need comic relief before and after a procedure Shleprock is your girl!

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The mother daughter trip to South Carolina

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I was rather quite on Facebook after Emily and I arrived at Uncle Larry’s. This was because we had a rather chill time. As Emily described it, “it was like a beach vacation without the beach.” My mom thought this was hilarious and calls my uncle a beach bum. We did manage to leave the house three times. Once to go to the grocery store, once to visit my cousin and lastly to visit Shelly and her family.
I met Shelly in 2011. She was training with fleet feet and a friend of J-Ho’s. They met at fleet feet. I had met her at the Halloween 5K a couple weeks before my big Dr Veronikis surgery. Shelly and her husband and I believe his sister had signed up for the Arnold turkey trot. Their babysitter cancelled at the last minute. J-Ho knew we both lived in Arnold so she had Shelly contact me. They actually lived within walking distance of us. (Maybe a 1/4 of a mile~normal people walking distance). Brian took Emily over to babysit and I went with to pick up. I still felt like hell but must have not looked too bad, because Shelly asked me if I ran that day. A couple years later Shelly was transferred to Kansas City for her job and Emily ended up being her kids “nanny” or babysitter. Whatever they are called these days. Emily loves Shelly’s kids and was always excited to babysit for her. She would be bummed when school would conflict and she wasn’t able to help out. Shelly was transferred to North Carolina around the time the school year ended. (At least I think, I can’t keep my own dates straight these days). Emily was so sad because she had to give up seeing the people she loved.

A couple months ago I came up with the grand idea to visit my uncle, cousin and Shelly since they all live about an hour and a half from each other. And I did airport checks and we could fly southwest for 150 round trip into Charlotte NC which was also in the one and a half hour radius. It was perfect. And thanks to all the silly cake hunting, my fear of not knowing where I’m going is much less. As Emily pointed out I had the radio volume on 17 dropping the rental car off when normally it would be 8 or less. Although when the freak horned me in the drop off spot my anxiety shot through the roof and I looked for my tranquilizer gun to shoot the dude.

We had a great time at Shelly’s. Her kids are so well behaved and polite. Emily knew what she was talking about. I hadn’t seen her husband Arick in such a long time. I had forgotten how much I loved him. I was reminded of the love dare days in which I was to identify a couple with a great relationship that I would want to use as a model. Herc and Christy Noblitt were who I chose. Had I known Shelly and Arick at the time, they would have been included. Shelly shared with me after I first met her that there were six girls in line for Arick if Shelly died. I immediately announced I’m number seven and started calling myself that. I conveniently forgot that the entire time we were visiting. It’s a good thing too or I might have not been able to speak to Arick. I really am shy in a lot of ways! They really are a great family and I hope one day they are brought back home to Saint Louis (because life really is all about me).

My fitness was horrible this past week. When I say chill I should have said never moving off the couch. I usually average 12,000 steps a day (I have a competition problem) and yet this vacation it was like 3000. I forgot my charger for my fitbit so I went a good 24 hours without data input and yet the world did not come to an end. Full marathon training starts tomorrow. I was going to use the coach portion on my Nike plus app but that starts off with an eight mile long run. That is ridiculous so while sitting on the couch at uncle Larry’s a found a much more reasonable 16 week training plan. So watch out Fitbit friends the step monster will be back on track. While at the charlotte airport I decided to walk the length of the airport for steps. Now I know why they say Lambert is tiny. Concourse E had 50 plane slots. Not sure what they are called. I got in about 2500 steps. I’m a crazy nut job.

As my mother daughter trip with Emily comes to an end, it’s time to start planning my mother daughter trip with Kayla. She wants to do a four day cruise so that means I need to work a little extra. She also wants to fly instead of drive so I better start working on that anxiety. How are we getting from airport to boat. Now I’m thinking taxi or über. I think I need a drink stronger than the diet doctor pepper I ordered on the plane.

Mole moral~ Despite all the yelling and fighting Emily and I had a great time at Uncle Larry’s and once again not seeing anything in Greenville South Carolina. Maybe the fourth trip I will actually leave the couch. Probably not!