The Magical Nose Pot

Jon has been sick lately...last weekend he had the terrible stomach bug that is going around and this weekend he has a head cold. Ever since we've been together, I have told him about the wonderfulness of the "nose pot", as he calls it. The "nose pot" is a Neti Pot.

A neti pot is used to clean out your sinuses. As you can tell from the picture above, it's not a fancy device, just a little tea pot you stick up your nose. Well, Jon has always thought it was disgusting (and in some ways I agree with him) and had refused to ever try it. But last night, he was so stopped up that he caved and tried the neti pot.

And you know what he said....."That is the best thing ever! If I would have known it did this, I would have tried it years ago!" But isn't that what I've been saying all along!!! It's a good thing I love him!

Best Seat in Town

So, I was at the hospital the other day and had to do a modified barium swallow study on a cute little old lady who had dementia. Now, people with dementia do say some pretty funny things, but this story takes the cake!

The cute little old lady is sitting in the modified barium swallow study chair, which is a tall chair that slides in between the radiology tower and the table (like being in a closet so small the walls touch your arms), waiting for the radiologist to come. Usually it takes the radiologist several minutes to show up, so I'm left entertaining my patients.

So, I'm making small talk with this cute little old lady when she says "I am so excited to be at this football game! I have never had such good seats for a football game! And, you decorate so nicely for these football games! I love sports; I played volleyball in high school. Oh, I am just so excited; I have never had such good seats for a football game!!!"

So what did I say? I did what any good speech pathologist does when encountering a patient with dementia....I went along with her story. Now, her nurse, who was there supervising, attempted to re-orient the cute little old lady several times, but with no luck. The cute little old lady just kept repeating her story! "I have never had such good seats for a football game!"

I don't think I'll be forgetting that little old lady anytime soon!

News From The Wedding Front

So, as you may or may not know, I am supposedly way ahead of the wedding planning game. I have all of my vendors booked, I have my flowers picked out, I have a dress and all the things that go along with it, and many other things I don't care to think about now. But, if you know me, that hasn't stopped me from trying to finish up wedding planning now. I want to have it all done and I want to have it all done now. What's the point in procrastinating? Anyway, I don't want to get started on my rant.

This weekend was a designated wedding extravaganza weekend. We (meaning I) designate a weekend every so often to focus on wedding stuff. Since I refuse to plan this wedding alone, my wonderful fiance, Jon, graciously puts up with me during these weekends and does a very good job helping me out.

Now, wedding extravaganza weekends rarely go well, and it usually takes every ounce of strength I have to make it through tear-free (didn't make it this time). Those of you who know me know I am a self-proclaimed organizational freak. But, despite that quality, I hate wedding planning. I want a beautiful wedding and a nice party afterwards, but all I really want is to be married to Jon. And wedding planning stresses me out! So, I'll just throw it out there that this weekend was a rough one. But, again, the point of this update is not to complain; it is to show you one of the good things that came out of this weekend!

The one last thing I needed to complete my wedding ensemble was a comb to wear at the junction of my head and my veil. I had searched all over for a comb that I like, but hadn't found one. And, I just couldn't stomach the $60 to $80 dollar price tags that came along with the ones I found. So, on a whim (I know....who knew I did whims), I dragged Jon to Hobby Lobby and blindly bought supplies to make a comb myself. Now, I don't want to toot my own horn, but I am super impressed with myself. See...

Tada!! And, the best thing....it cost less than $22 bucks and 2 hours of time!

Haven't had any work stories lately, have we?

As I pulled up my blog today, I realized that I haven't posted any work stories lately, which is the true purpose of this blog. Honestly, I don't have any recent funny ones, so I'll tell a sappy one today.

There are patients you treat who will always stay with you, even if they have passed on. For example, my denture man (see archived post). I was reminded of one of those patients today when I ran into his wife (CS is a small town...). Ok, here I go trying to be all sappy and this turns into a funny one, but I'll tell the sappy part first...

My patient, Mr. H, had Parkinson's Disease. Now, even if you're familiar with Parkinson's Disease, you may not realize what implications it has on your speech and swallowing (most importantly). In patients with Parkinson's Disease, the swallowing muscles, just like the other muscles of the body, become weak. Weakened swallowing muscles result in unsafe swallowing, in which food or liquid goes into the lungs, resulting in aspiration pneumonia. Aspiration pneumonia is deadly. Most people with Parkinson's Disease don't die from Parkinson's; they die of pneumonia. Anyway, Parkinson's Disease also weakens the respiratory muscles and impairs a person's perception of speech volume. Thus, a person with Parkinson's Disease speaks with very poor breath support and a very soft voice.

So, I was working with my patient, and his wife of nearly 60 years, trying to make him more aware of his very soft speech. The following conversation ensued:

• Me: Mr. H, has there ever been a time where you needed to use your voice to get something and didn't get it because your voice was too soft?
• Mr. H: Well, yes.
• Me: Ok, can you tell me what happened?
• Mr. H: Well, we were getting ready for a trip and I was in the bathroom reaching for something in the tub when I accidentally fell in.
• Me: You fell into the bathtub?
• Mr. H: Yes
• Me: Were you hurt?
• Mr. H: No, but I couldn't get out of the tub.
• Me: So what did you do?
• Mr. H: I tried to yell for my wife, but she couldn't hear me.
• Me: So then what did you do?
• (Side note: Mr. H was a brilliant aeronautical engineer for the Air Force)
• Mr. H: I couldn't get out and my wife couldn't hear me, so I wedged my foot under the toilet seat (which was apparently next to the tub), lifted the toilet seat with my foot, let it go, and let the lid slam down. I did that about 10-12 times before my wife came to see what all the noise was about.
• Me: (Trying so hard not to laugh) So, you slammed to toilet seat with your foot so your wife could hear you?
• Mr. H: Yes
• Me: Well, I'm glad that worked, but don't you think that since your voice is so soft you and your wife may need a personal alarm button you could wear and push in just a situation like that?
• Mr. H: Well, I suppose that beats sticking your foot in the toilet!

Mr. H was the sweetest patient and had the most loving and caring family. He passed away a while ago, but I often see his wife working out in our gym. Whenever I run into her, I am in awe at the love she had for her husband for over sixty years and I can't help but remember that story!

Thank You Santa

Christmas #0 - the Christmas before our real first Christmas together once we're married - is sadly over. I love Christmas and having Jon there really solidified how much I love him and can't wait to be married to him. Ok, enough with the gushy stuff, onto what Santa brought....

Santa Jon definitely brought me the number one item on my list: the iPodTouch!

I know I shouldn't be in love with an electronic device, but I am! I've already loaded a few applications, but I am still doing some research on the best calendar/to do list application. I think the winner will be this one...Smart Time Plus.

Mom and Dad and Tee and Kev were definitely good to us this year as well. I say "us" because the majority of our loot was wedding/future life together related. The top "when I grow up" gift
by far was a Panini Press/Griddle:

Now the part about Christmas I like the least is upon us: writing thank you notes. And yes, you should write thank you notes and send them in the mail to your family...it's just the polite thing to do.

In other news...
I had my knee MRIed on Tuesday. The good news: it didn't cost me an arm and a leg because I had it done at the end of the year. The other good news: nothing is torn. The bad news: it still hurts, but not as much. When I went to the doctor on Monday he gave me some pretty good anti-inflammatory medication, so I think they're helping. I haven't seen the doctor again since the MRI, so hopefully on Monday he'll give me a game plan. You know, I really hate exercising, but when you stop for a while and can't go back, you actually start to miss it! I wonder if all those Christmas cookies I ate have anything to do with that?!?

Alright, avid followers (haha), I am off to play with my new toys! Enjoy yours!!!

I'm Bad at Blogging

I'm such a bad blogger! I don't really blog for anyone but myself, but I love reading other people's blogs and feel bad that mine is never updated. So, here's a few (or maybe more) snippets of what's going on in my life. Enjoy!!

My Stupid Leg
Ok, so I'm blogging on Saturday night. Why, you ask? Because I hurt my stupid leg. Well, my stupid knee, really. Right now I'm laying in bed with my knee in a brace, propped up, and covered in ice. Jon is here and is taking very good care of me. I consider this a good practice run for marriage. So far, no big fights, despite the fact that I am cranky. I went to the doctor last week and was told to take the conservative route first....brace, ice, steroids. Well, that route isn't working so well. So, on Monday I'll be calling him back and giving him the ok to order an MRI. Yea, all I really want for Christmas is an MRI! Anyway, I'm being a crab and that's why.

But What I Really Want for Christmas Is....
So, I've been telling Jon for a long time that I want a Palm Pilot. I am a self described organizational freak. I have four calendars I keep up with....e-mail, day planner, wall calendar, and work calendar. All of these calendars are always up to date...no matter what. So, anyway, I have been telling Jon for a long time that it would make my neurotic life much easier if I had an electronic organizer instead of all these different calendars. Though I love writing on all of them and color coding them with Sharpie, keeping up with them can get a bit time consuming. Jon resisted the idea of a Palm Pilot because the technology is a bit older and I didn't want it as a phone all-in-one thing. So, he introduced me to the idea of the iPodTouch! Now, I already have an iPod, which I use when I work out, but WOW.....that thing can do so many organizational tricks that I almost peed my pants! So, I don't know if "Santa Jon" will put it under the tree for me, but he sure has been hinting at it. I really hope he does, because I've already spent like 4 hours in the Apps Store picking out organizational applications I would put on my iPodTouch if I got one. Please Santa, I've been an awfully good girl!!! And, I made him chocolate covered pretzels to bring to work!

How About a Knuckle Sandwich
So, work has been pretty crazy lately, more so than normal. Anyway, I have this patient who I see for articulation (pronouncing things correctly) therapy. My patient, T, is 7 years old and hates speech therapy. But, he is a good sport about it because I've devised a system where if he practices he can earn points. And points = good prizes from his parents. So, the other day, he came into my office just *thrilled* about being at speech therapy, and asked me "Miss Emily, have you ever heard of a knuckle sandwich?" Of course I know what a knuckle sandwich is, but I definitely didn't know where T was going with this. So, I told him I knew what it was and he responded with "Well, aren't they cool!" And that was it; we just went on with therapy. How random!

Speaking of knuckle sandwiches, I had another patient this week, total different from T, who tried to give me a knuckle sandwich. My patient, a very old man with pretty significant dementia, was having swallowing problems. We were down in radiology getting ready for a modified barium swallow study (x-ray of swallowing while you eat conducted by an SLP). I tell my patients, with complete truth, that the longest part of these x-ray swallow studies is waiting for the doctor. So, here I am standing in front of my patient, so he won't fall out of the chair, waiting for the doctor, making small talk. Then, all of a sudden, my patient reaches out his arm, with a semi closed fist, like he is grabbing for something on my chest. Now, I wasn't scared because this man is not strong enough to hurt a fly, but nevertheless I didn't want him grabbing me, so I gently guided his hand away from me and asked him "Mr. H, what are you grabbing for?" This is a pretty typical question I ask my patients in these situation because many of them take medication that makes them hallucinate. Anyway, in response to my question, Mr. H answered "Not grabbing, just seeing how tough you are!" Haha...this man was trying to give me a knuckle sandwich.

And I'm Done....
Well, blogging just not as fun when you have someone laughing/reading over your shoulder, so I'm signing off for now.

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas!

Well, I'm pretty sure we won't have a White Christmas in College Station, but we got awefully close yesterday! And, to top it off, snow was still on the ground this morning. Thank you global warming!!!

Reading the Obits

I never thought I'd be the type of person who reads the obituaries...but now I am.

We see so many people during a single day that it can only be the awesomeness of God that allows us to remember them all. It is also the awesomeness of God that causes our hearts to sink when we find that they've passed on.

I've always been an old soul, but it still baffles me that I can recall these people and even tell funny stories about them (i.e. gluing someones mouth shut). I pray that they are at peace now and am so thankful for the impact they've had on my young life.