Health | loraleeslooneytunes.com

Transplants

April 21, 2007 By loralee 27 Comments

Welcome, welcome!

I know what you are thinking. “Wow. Such a brave, daring, bold move, Loralee!” Ok, I deserve it. As one reader put it “I was expecting your url to be something like ‘www.superstealthysecretblog.com’”. So, I realize that this is rather anti-climatic for many of you. It’s sort of like a Kindergartener announcing they are running away from home and they go to the end of the driveway with their blankie and a PB&J.

When I bought my URL, I didn’t have determined, weirdo people trying to find me all the time or I probably would have ditched the Loralee and Looney Tunes altogether. My main reason in making the hoopla was that I have people that bookmarked my blogspot site and haveno concept of search engines, nor will they ever, so just changing to .com is enough of a deterrent. I love the whole “Looney Tunes” thing and really wanted to keep it.

Don’t be afraid to link or change or rolls or links on your page to this blog. I have a pretty good ip blocker on this site and my old one and am not expecting any trouble.

This site isn’t done, I have a lot to tweak and add. Jessica (“Kerfloppy”) redesigned my banner (GORGEOUS, huh?) and she is going to play around some more, but I wanted to get back to the meat and potatoes of blogging which is to actually post n’ stuff. So, here we are. Let’s move on to something I really want to talk about. (I will bitch mightily about WordPress and its photo function at a later date. GRRRRR!)

Michelle, Brigitte and I participated in a 5k this morning!

MY FIRST 5K!!!!

Note how I did NOT say, “I RAN my first 5k this morning!â€ (Yah, that was NOT going to happen) I did manage to run about a third of it. It was cold and rainy and the beginning of the course was up a VERY steep hill. My poor lungs just couldn’t quite take it, so I walked at a brisk pace for a lot of it. I haven’t been to the gym in a couple of weeks so I am proud that I finished the darn thing at all. My time sucked a duck six ways from Sunday.

45 minutes.

Sigh.

At least I managed to beat Michelle’s 5-year-old, Gracie across the finish line. Her 8-year-old, Abby kicked my butt, but I guess I have to have a goal to aspire to, right?

The run was to support organ donation. This is a very important issue that is close to my heart. It also affected the lives Bridgy and Chelle. Bridgy’s mom, Josie, was the recipient of a liver. We were all very worried for her when she got it, but she is doing very well now. She even participated in the run/walk today. She came in last, but she DID IT! Bridgy and I met her at the finish line with open arms.

Chelley had a beautiful niece that was tragically killed last Easter in a car accident and her family unselfishly donated her organs.

I was not able to donate any of Matthew’s organs when he died because he had to have an autopsy. I thought they were able to use his corneas and heart valves, but I was mistaken. The day I found out was very hard on me. I cried and cried. When we were asked about Matthew donating in the hospital I hesitated for about 15 seconds. It shocked me because I feel so strongly about it, but even I hesitated. It is a hard thing to sign consent to as a parent, but I really regret that they weren’t able to have Bug donate anything. It would have helped me to know his death had at least helped another little baby somewhere.

The reason I am so pro-organ donation is that one of my best friends passed away in 1994 while waiting for a heart/lung transplant. Scott Wolfer was the first friend I made at my high school. He was two grades ahead of me, but in my math class. I talked to him because he was wearing a “Phantom of the Opera” t-shirt. We were fast friends from then on. I don’t know why we clicked so well, probably because I was a shy, fat girl with unfortunate double-processed hair, and he was blue and wore an oxygen tank all the time. We were OK being rejects because we had each other. I wish I had a photo of Scott to post, but my box of high school memorabilia was destroyed by rain.

We had five wonderful years of friendship and I will never forget him.

Maybe it is because I was so young, but even when he was on oxygen 24-hours a day, I never really thought he would die. But he did. He died waiting for a call that never came. It will be 17 years this June since my friend passed away. He was only 21. So many people die waiting to receive transplants.

I hope this post puts a more personal face on something that is often far removed from public awareness. If you haven’t given thought to being an organ donor, please reconsider and sign up. Have your donor status put on your drivers licence and make sure your friends and family know of your wishes. You can’t imagine what the agony of waiting and hoping is like and you don’t know the blessing and impact you could have on many, many lives.

Filed Under: Adventures, Death, Exercise, Friends, Goals, Health, Matthew, YAY 27 Comments

Going to the dentist SUCKS.

March 7, 2007 By loraleeslooneytunes 20 Comments

EDIT::

I went to the dentist today due to breaking a molar in half eating beef jerky.

It freaking hurt. I’m up so late because I am suffering from face-ache.

I am afraid of needles and this dentist didn’t exactly have a “Gentle touch”.

They gave me so much laughing gas I thought I was dying. Actually, if you ever want to know what it feels like to come out of a coma, a high dose of laughing gas is pretty darn close to it.

I found out that I have cavities that have developed under a lot of my old silver fillings and have to have them all replaced.

I want to cry.

P.S. To the guy who emailed me wanting to have my broken tooth as a momento. No, you can’t have it. That’s just icky.

EDIT:
Photoshop Dave clearly blames my current dental issues with my love of Thin Mint Cookies.

Filed Under: Health, Insomnia, Suck 20 Comments

Breathe, just breathe…

January 11, 2007 By loraleeslooneytunes 7 Comments

I love where I live.

Cache Valley is a great place to raise kids, enjoy gorgeous scenery and has pretty much anything you “Need” to live a happy, comfortable life.

Problem?

Every winter in January and February, Logan and the surrounding areas experience a weather phenomenon known as an “Inversion”.

To be more specific, an inversion is a meteorological phenomenon that happens when warm air becomes trapped above cold air. This prevents the air in the valley from circulating. It traps polluted air containing ozone and ammonia (From all the agriculture) at ground level, making it very hazardous to breathe. Cache Valley is like a bowl surrounded by a ring of large (And beautiful) mountains. The mountains exacerbate the problem because it helps contain the air and slow cirrculation as well.

In 2004, Cache Valley had the worst air quality on record, despite the fact that we have very little heavy industry in Logan. Here is a photo taken from one of the mountains in the valley. We were trapped under this blanket of muck, breathing it in every day.You can just see the tips of the Wellsville mountains (Seen below) peeking out of the air. You SHOULD see the city below, but you can’t as it is obliterated by haze. During that time, if I went outside and took a big breath, I would start coughing and hacking. I call always tell when it is inversion time. 2004 was the worst-My head and lungs hurt for about 6 weeks and we had to be VERY careful with James because of his asthma. Every day about this time of year, schools have air quality readings that indicate if it is safe to hold outside recess because asthma and breathing issues for kids go crazy this time of year. In 2004, my school had about 20 inside recess days and it was very difficult on everyone.

Don’t get me wrong, Logan isn’t a cesspool of pollution, especially since 2004 people are more aware about driving contributing to the problem and keeping aware of air conditions. People still need to drive and we will still have the agricultural industry that contributes to ammonia in the air, but we do what we can.

I’m just bitchy because this time of year is hard on my family because two of us have compromised respiratory systems. Some good news is since we are cleaning my house from top to bottom, I have found about 8 inhalers so we are totally set in that area.

It is much harder to try and prepare for telling your snow-crazed 10-year-old that he can’t play outside because he has asthma and it just isn’t good for him.

“But, Mom! Christopher and I were going to make a snowman scene about you like in ‘Calvin and Hobbes’!”

“I’m sorry, son. I know you are disappointed. What was the scene going to depict, anyway?”

“I’m not sure, but we know that we wanted to try and work in your hatred of black licorice into it. That’s as far as we got.”

Goodie.
In the end, James has to stay inside on bad weather days, as does Christopher. It is tough on them (Especially with no damn Wii to console them. GRRR.