Only a little drama while the boys are away March 23, 2009
Posted by irisia in hubby, jack, medical.Tags: care at CMC Union Monroe, care at presby matthews, Carolinas Medical Center Charlotte, Carolinas Medical Center Union Monroe, charlotte hospitals, charlotte medical care, cmc charlotte, cmc monroe, cmc vs. presby, presby matthews, Presbyterian Healthcare Charlotte, Presbyterian Healthcare Matthews, Presbyterian Healthcare North Carolina, prespyterian hospital charlotte, vertigo
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Wouldn’t it figure that the one time Howard is out of town I have a scary health crisis? Well, How and Jack were out of town for 2 nights. On Saturday I felt a little dizzy but I thought it was a result of the nagging allergies. So, I took a Benadryl and was fine. On Sunday morning at 4:30, I awoke to go to the bathroom. I sat up and got out of bed. I was so dizzy, I whirled to the ground. I got up, held onto the wall and sink and barely made it to the bathroom. Everything was spinning. I crawled out of the bathroom and lay face first on the cold tile. I was having a cold sweat and the tingle typical of a fainting spell and I did not want to faint. I waited for the fainting symptoms to subside before crawling back to my bed an on to the bed.
I sat there dizzy as could be, feeling nauseous, and my hands started to tingle. I tried to feel for my pulse in my neck but I was having a hard time feeling it. As I sat there, I felt worse and worse. I tried to lay down but that made my heart race. I waited and waited but then thought I should call Matt just in case. I asked him to bring the phone and a bowl for the nausea. It didn’t get better and I kept hearing in my mind, if you have these symptoms, don’t wait. When it didn’t go away, I told Matt I thought I was having a heart attack and he urged me to call 911. Calling that number needing medical help was really surreal.
In addition to not wanting to have to call, I was so worried about Kate seeing the ambulance from across the street at her sleepover. If she saw the ambulance and then I had to go to the hospital, she would likely see my rolled out in a stretcher and that would be terrible. I asked the operator to tell them not to use lights or sirens.
Three paramedics came and it was so bizarre to see them stick their head around my door and walk into my bedroom. It was sort of like I was watching the whole situation. They did the standard tests and everything checked out with my heart and breathing so we weren’t sure what to do. I asked them to stay until I could walk across the room. Every time I tried, I dropped from dizziness so they decided to take me to the hospital in the ambulance. The doctor said it was vertigo and gave me medication for it. I was home by 10:30 that morning.
This brings me to my assessment of the care and the comparison to the care at Presby Matthews and the care at CMC Medical center in Monroe. The long and short of it is CMC had much more caring care and Presby Matthews moved more quickly. At Presby Matthews, one of the nurse’s aids pulled my shirt right off in front of the paramedics to put leads on my chest with no regard for my privacy. Almost nobody at Presby Matthews told me what they were going to do. They just did it. The didn’t tell me what was going to happen next. The lady who came to draw blood just left the vials of blood on my bedside table until someone came about 45 minutes later and picked it up. When they wheeled me out to the waiting room, nobody wheeled me out to the car. She just left me there in the wheelchair as I waited for a ride. In the CAT Scan, my IV popped out and my blood went everywhere.
When I was at CMC Union in Monroe last year, the care was excellent. Everyone I saw said “I hope you get to feeling better”. It never seemed trite. It was very sincere and really made the level of care feel good. They told me what they were going to do and what to expect next. But, they were very slow. It seemed like any order for tests or meds took about an hour to get going and getting cleared for checkout seemed like forever.
Bottom line: CMC Union – best care. Presby Matthews – fastest medical assistance.
Matt and I get to spend a night alone March 21, 2009
Posted by irisia in matt, mom.Tags: 5 guys, caving tn, lost sea caves, lost sea tn, marble slab, spelunking tenn, spelunking tennessee, spend time with one just one child
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I knew Jack was going camping last night. Howard had told me in passing that he was thinking about going with Jack because they were going caving in Tennessee which Matthew says is spelunking. What a great word. Then, we found out Denise’s niece, what Kate adores, and Lily, her old neighbor friend, were spending the night across the street. So Matt and I had the night to ourselves. It always seems fun when Mother/daughter get a night out to themselves but then it always ends up feeling lonely. Even Matt felt the loneliness. Our night out on the town was tainted by the fact that Matt was kept at school and not allowed to ride the bus home. His last period teacher kept the class late because they were talking. By the time Matty went to his locker, the bus had already gone across the street to the high school to wait for the high school students. So Matty walked across the street to get on the bus. I guess this is against school policy – which I can understand. Matthew could have been hurt crossing the street. So, they had him sent to the office to call me for a ride home. To exacerbate the situation, Matthew couldn’t remember our home phone number and I had the cell phone on vibrate. So, needless to say, by the time I picked him up, he didn’t have the energy for a big night on the town. He enjoys shopping and going out to dinner as much as I do but last night he wanted a very short trip and just to go home and veg. It was still fun but I felt so badly that he was exhausted from the long day, enough to want to cut short our night out.
Jack and How went spelunking at the Lost Sea caves in TN. From their web site, this seems like sort of a commercial destination for the Boy Scouts. The Boy Scout group encouraged anyone with claustrophobia not to attend because they would be in tight spaces. Jack had to buy one of those doctor headlights. Here’s the page showing how claustrophobic the caves are and why they need the headlight. Yuck. Yick. AND, they are going to sleep in the cave one night. Double ick. What if there are bats and the bats get in their hair? I am sure they will have great stories.
Anyway, Matt decided to go to 5 Guys hamburgers. I sort of wanted to have a lighter dinner but the place is always great. Matt and I both like raw onions which is good because anyone in our house who didn’t have the raw onions would have thought we were quite stinky. We did grab an ice cream to share at Marble Slab before we headed out of the shopping center. I love the cake mix ice cream and I also love chocolate. Guess what? Last night they had chocolate cake mix ice cream and it was GOOD. Then we went to Goodwill to drop off yet another load of donations. We just got done cleaning out the garage and this was my last load of donations. I’m trying to figure out how to give away the Ethan Allen table that we no longer have chairs for. I may put an ad on Craigslist.
Kate gets her first A honor roll March 17, 2009
Posted by irisia in kate, Kate school.add a comment
I am so excited that Kate got her first A honor roll. I knew she could do it but I’m not sure she knew she could. I’m such a strong believer that truly believing you can do it is one of the biggest factors in success with grades – this and talking to the teacher. I believe teachers work harder with the students that they think care more. It took me until my second semester of college to get straight A’s – partly because I felt it was more important to my father than it was to me, and partly because the belief that it was more important to my father led to the bad grades which led to me believing that I really was dumb.
One thing that drives me crazy is when I asked the kids “how did you do on your test” and they say – “I don’t know, I haven’t received my grade yet.” So I say to them, I’m not asking you your grade, I’m asking how you think you did. To them, I may as well be speaking a foreign language. They can’t possibly fathom how I can expect them to have a magic ball and figure out ahead of time what their grade is going to be. They think I’m mad to ask them to predict the future. But I’m really asking them to tell me about the past. When they saw the questions, they were either certain of the answers, had absolutely no idea, or were somewhere inbetween. Perhaps I will spell it out to them this way and see what they say.
I’m so proud of Kate. I hope she keeps doing this.
Jack works 6 hours on a service project March 15, 2009
Posted by irisia in jack, jack boy scouts, Jack community service.Tags: 10-hr service project, 8-hr service project, attend 8-hr service project, boy scout service project, oldest boy, service project in the rain, treating an oldest child differently
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Yesterday Jack was supposed to work at a service project. It was one of those times I really debated if I made the right decision. It was raining and the service project was supposed to be outside. The leader who was running it has a lot of military experience and is very zealous. He likes to think the boys can tough things out and would not be the one to cancel an outdoor service project because of rain. To make it worse, it was supposed to be 10 hours. But, Jack’s good friend’s father is a leader and he was taking his son to the service event. So I felt that if Mike was willing to take his son, and they were all going together, then I would let him go. But all day I worried that he would come home sick and we would pay for a week for making a foolish decision.
It’s funny about how I make different decisions because Jack is my oldest child. I guess I am as bad as the zealous leader. If it were Matt or Kate, I would never have let them go. But I do want him to be tough and brave and more like a man.
The length of the service project was supposed to be really long. It was supposed to be an 8-hr project but it was going to be extended to 10 hours because two of the boys needed some extra service hours. I’m into working really hard, especially on service, and I was so proud of him that he was willing to do it. This was the first time he complained about service. He always jumps right in but even he thought 10 hours was crazy.
So they had an interesting discussion about a particular scout advancement requirement to “attend an 8-hr service project”. Jack debated with the boys that the requirement translated into working the whole 8-hour project. The other boys debated that they just needed to “attend” and work a couple hours – and if they needed 8 hours, they could work those another day. I’m not sure if this is something that is up to the discretion of the leader. But it seemed to me that the interpretation of this requirement that has the most integrity would be to work an 8-hr day. I was proud of Jack that he interpreted the requirement that way.
But, after it was all said and done, the group they were partnering was sponsoring an event that almost nobody showed up for so they ended up wrapping up after 6 hours.
Matty’s Battle of the Books competition March 13, 2009
Posted by irisia in matt, Matthew Educational.Tags: battle of the books, battle of the books t-shirt, context clues, final competition, north carolina, strategy
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Today was Matty’s BOB competition. I went and there was one other parent there. His team did not fare as well as it did last year. They came in 2nd last year and this
year they were not in the top 3. They really missed a lot of questions. But, I know Matt had fun participating and I’m sure he will do it again next year. If they will let the other parent and I get involved, I think it would be good. The winning team used a lot of strategy and was very well prepared. For example, the other mother and I were noticing that even without having read the book, there were so many context clues in the questions. One question mentioned fried bananas specifically. One of the books was Cuba 15 about teenagers in Cuba. Another book mentioned a barbed wire fence with wooden slats which was the book about the Shoah – Striped Pajamas.
They designed adorable t-shirts. They said:
- Book – $19.99
- Transportation: $5.00
- t-shirt: $10.00
- Bandaids for Paper Cuts: $2.79
- Joy of reading: Priceless
Here is Matt at the competition:
Here is the team at the competition
Genealogy hunt for Kusnierskis, Kusmierskis, Kutynas March 6, 2009
Posted by irisia in genealogy, mom, Uncategorized.Tags: ancestry research poland, genealogy poland, kusmerski, kusmierski, kusnerski, kusnierski, kuszmierski, kusznierski, kutyna, ochowo, ohowi, ohowis, poland ancestry, uchowi, uchowis, uchowo, uhowo, victoria, waclaw, walter, wiktoria
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I’m trying so hard to research my family from Uhowo or Uchowo Poland from back at the turn of the last century. Their surname is Kusnierski but it can be spelled so many ways. My grandmother spelled her name Kusmerski but her brother spelled it Kusnierski. She had simplified it. Her sister had simplified it even more. They are from a town Uhowo in Poland near Bialystock. My grandmother says they had money and were landowners and furriers but I can’t find anything about them living back in Poland. My great frandfather Walter (Waclaw) came to this country around 1913 or so with his brother Stephen. He had 3 other brothers of which one stayed in Poland. My grandmother is not even certain of that brother’s name. I wish I could find this information.
Walter’s mother was Victoria (Wiktoria) Kutyna. This surname also has a lot of variations. If anyone finds this post and knows anything about my family, please comment.
Why do kids do those crazy bugged out eye and sideways peace sign photos? March 6, 2009
Posted by irisia in lamentscha, mom.Tags: cell phone photos, kids photos, pictures bugged out eyes, sideways peace sign, taking pictures of yourself
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I’m friends with my nieces and young cousins on Facebook. It sees like every time they post a picture, they and their friends are doing those bugged out eyes or that sideways peace sign. Then, I see other photos in the news of young kids and they’re doing this also. Does this mean “hey man, I’m really crazy about peace”? Or, does it mean “stop, that camera is blinding my eyes”? Of does it mean, “Look, here are my eyes. I’ll point to them with both fingers and open real wide”. Please comment. I don’t get it. What does the sideways peace sign mean?
Battle of the Books gets serious – The practice competition March 4, 2009
Posted by irisia in matt, Matthew Educational.Tags: battle of the books, childrens book clubs, kid book clubs, middle school competitions, reading competition
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Kate and I went to see Matt’s practice Battle of the Books competition yesterday. He did great and it was so much fun to watch. I wasn’t sure how the whole thing would go down with answering the questions. I guess I had envisioned something more similar to a spelling bee where one person is at the podium at a time. But, it was really cool. Each school got to compete as a team. They sat at a table together and could confer with each other before they answered each question. I took video of each of Matthew’s questions. The whole name card thing was interesting. When it was each student’s turn, that student would turn their name card up so the person asking the question could call their name. Here are the videos:
Question 1: “That is correct”
Question 2: “that is correct”
Question 3: “that is incorrect”
Question 4: “that is correct”
Here’s a great picture of Matt:
Here’s a great picture of the 2 teams. Matt’s team is on the left.
