Trip to the ER

Yesterday afternoon, while I was working, I suddenly got an intense pain in my stomach. At first I thought I was just hungry, so I grabbed something to eat, a hot dog. About the same time I was eating the hot dog, I noticed that my back was hurting as well. Something just did not seem right, so I went to the computer and searched Bing to see what having back pain and stomach pain at the same time could possibly mean for me. While I was doing this I started to get a headache as well. Meanwhile, the results from my search of the Internet led me to think that I should probably go to the emergency room, or at the very least, I should call my doctor's office to see what they though.

I tried calling my doctor's office but no one answered, so I proceeded to call a hospital where I explained my symptoms to the triage nurse. She suggested that I either come to the emergency room or call my doctor for a recommendation. I called my doctor's office back and the nurse there also suggested that I go to the ER. I then called my aunt to come get Maximus. She also insisted that I should not drive myself to the hospital, so she and my cousin took me there as well.

Mel showed up after I had been admitted, but before I had been seen. She had been at a doctor's appointment of her own when I called her to let her know I was going to the hospital. I had an ultrasound done on my abdomen. About an hour and a half after the ultrasound, I learned that I either have stones or sludge in my gallbladder. Removing it wasn't an emergency, so they sent me home with instructions to see my doctor to see about having surgery done. They also sent me home with a prescription for Vicodin. I haven't used any of that though as I have yet to experience any pain since returning home.

Como Park Zoo

This afternoon, after waking Emma up from her nap, we all went to the Como Park Zoo. One of the things we wanted to see at the zoo was the polar bears in their new habitat that opened earlier this month. The Polar Bear Odyssey was very crowded with people who wanted to view the two polar bears. We were able to get in and see them though. Emma loved the polar bears.

Another exhibit we visited while at the zoo was Blooming Butterflies. This temporary exhibit immerses visitors in the butterflies' habitat. There were butterflies flying all around us. At first it seemed that Emma was a bit apprehensive about having butterflies fliying so close to her, but she quickly adapted to them and enjoyed walking through the exhibit, looking at the wide variety of butterflies.

There was one animal at Como Zoo that Emma did not enjoy seeing on our visit today. She did not like the sea lions, due to their loud barking. Emma just does not like loud noises, and I think she may have found the noise from the sea lions to be frightening.

F***ing Bad Drivers!

On our way to church this morning in, we nearly had a traffic collision. We were driving on Radio Drive from Cottage Grove toward Woodbury. We were going around the roundabout in the inside lane, intending on continuing straight across. We were halfway around the portion of the roundabout that we were traveling through when an older couple in a Cadillac entered the roundabout in the outside lane immediately to the right from us. Both of us slammed on our brakes to keep from colliding where we would be exiting the roundabout and where they would have continued through. The woman, who was the passenger in the front seat, waved her finger at us and appeared to be shouting at us through our windows. I shook a finger, albeit a different finger, back at her as her husband started driving again, driving around the front of our car.

Clearly, if we had collided, it would have been the fault of the Cadillac's driver as he failed to yield to us, a vehicle already in the roundabout. I am wondering what they could possibly have been thinking. Did they think that since we were in the inside lane that we wouldn't be exiting the roundabout? While I do not think the collision would have been our fault, and as much as I wouldn't mind getting a new car, I am very happy that the collision was avoided. For one, I wouldn't have wanted anyone to be injured. And secondly, the car I was driving is just about paid off.

Wasting Some Time

I ended up wasting a couple hours of my time today. Last week I noticed that my Social Security card was not where I thought I had it. I looked in all the obvious places in the house and still could not find it. So I decided that I should get a replacement Social Security card. I thought it would be as easy as filling out a form, maybe getting it notarized, and sending it in. However, the Social Security Administration's website made it seem that since they have a location here in the Minneapolis/Saint Pall metropolitan area, I needed to go to their office to submit my form and evidence of who I am.

I figured this would take at most an hour of my time, maybe just a little more, so around the time of my lunch break from work, I set out for the Social Security office. My first problem came when I encountered a closed street that my TomTom wanted me to drive on. There was not a clearly-marked detour either. I ended up spending probably ten extra minutes driving around before I could find my destination.

I don't know why I didn't anticipate it, but there was a significant wait before I could be seen to submit my information. After waiting for a while it occurred to me that there was really no reason why I needed a replacement Social Security card. I know my Social Security number, and I have other documents I can use for my I-9 if I start a new job, not that I am looking for a new job right now, I want to make that clear. However, I had already been waiting a while, so I stuck it out and eventually was seen by someone. In a couple of weeks I will be getting my new Social Security card in the mail. I should probably put it in a safe place so I don't lose it again.

Patrolling the Neighborhood

Police Car Lights
Originally uploaded by davidsonscott15

I was up around 2:30 Monday morning to feed Max. At 3:00, when Max was fed and sleeping again, and after the episode of Forensic Files I had been watching on truTV had ended, I put him back in his crib. After I laid him down, I saw a bright light outside the window, looking outside I saw that there were two police cars outside. One was stopped at the intersection of our street with the street which would run into our house if it continued. Behind that car, there was a police office talking to a man wearing a "wife beater" shirt. The second police car was driving slowly down the street, shining its spotlight in people's yards.

After looking at a couple yards across the street from our house, the police car made a U-turn and went down our side of the street. A moment later, a car slowly drove by, in the opposite direction as the police car. That police car then took off after the other car. The police car drove by again a few moments later.

I am not sure what the police were doing outside our house. I was tempted to go out and ask the police officers what was up, but I decided that I better just stay out of the way. I wonder if someone had called the police because they had seen someone prowling around. I frequently see people just walking down the street when I am feeding Max late at night. I have found that to be odd, but I have never seen the people walking down the street deviate from a straight path down the street. Aside from the fact that these people are out really late, they haven't seemed too suspicious.

Both police cars left by about 3:10, and I went back to bed, still wondering what they were doing. I admit that I was slightly concerned seeing them outside. Of course, watching Forensic Files as I do most nights when I am up with Max didn't do much to ease any concern I had. It can be a little creepy watching that show so late at night with just Max. Sometimes I worry that I may be the next victim featured on the program. Of course, if that were the case, I could at least take comfort in the knowledge that the crime would have been solved.

Torticollis

Last Wednesday, under the recommendation of his pediatrician, I took Maximus to see a physical therapist to treat him for torticollis. Torticollis is a condition in which the head is tilted to one side while the chin is elevated and turned to the opposite side. In Maximus's case, his head is tilted to the left and he tends to look to the right. One side effect of his condition is that the right side of his head is a little flattened because he turns his head to the right and spends a lot of time lying on the floor.

The physical therapist gave me a couple of exercises that we are supposed to do with Maximus several times a day. These exercises should help to stretch his neck muscles, correcting the condition. We are also supposed to do whatever we can to encourage him to look to the left more than to the right. This includes feeding him so he looks to the left while he eats. I have found this to be difficult for me, but it is something I need to learn to do for him.

Today I took Maximus back to the physical therapist for a second appointment. He seems to be doing fairly well, and he is getting beginning to tolerate the exercises and being on his stomach even more. Since we are comfortable with doing his stretching exercises, we just have to go to see the physical therapist every other week now instead of once per week. I feel very encouraged that Maximus will benefit from his exercises and from seeing the physical therapist.

Brown Bears

Last month the family and I went to the Minnesota Zoo where we saw the brown bears wrestling. As I promised then, here's the video of the bears.

Catching Up

I do not know why, but I haven't been blogging much lately. In fact, my last blog posting was at the end of last month. Since then I have been pretty busy. At the beginning of this month, Mel and I took a trip to Canton, Ohio, for the wedding of a good friend of hers. We had a good time there. This was the first wedding I had been to in a very long time, if ever, that had an open bar. Most of the weddings that I go to have free beer and soda, which is fine, but this one had free mixed drinks as well. While in Canton, I didn't do much sightseeing. Canton is the home of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but I did not go. I do not care enough about football to pay the admission to see whatever they had.

I took this past week off from work for family leave. I get two weeks off that I needed to use in the first six months after Maximus was born and he turns six months old next month, so I needed to get to it. I had a good week with Max. We did go to see a physical therapist on Wednesday because Max has torticollis. He has to return to the physical therapist weekly for a while. In the meantime, we have to get him to look to the left more and tilt his head to the right. He doesn't like it very much when we force him to do this.