| About me: |
**Update 6/2** Thanks to my buddy Darkling for letting you know of my illness and hosting a well-wishing thread.
To everyone: thanks. I just got home from the hospital this afternoon. I'm still quite sick, but I'm "out of the woods" and needed to have my own bed and bathroom.
I started feeling lousy about 1pm last Tuesday. By 4pm, my temp was 104.7 degrees. I called the Dr, and she said to get to the ER immediately.
It turns out I was in Septic Shock. I spent Tuesday evening and night in ICU. Wednesday I was transferred to a cardiac ward; my heart and lungs weren't functioning properly. Wednesday night I spiked a 103 fever. I was discouraged with the setback, but I got excellent care and didn't have to go back to ICU. During all this, I had tests that revealed I had double-lobe pneumonia in my left lung and pneumonia in the upper lobe of my right lung, a sinus infection, and some problem with my body metabolizing glucose (but NOT diabetes.) I have to monitor my glucose levels and keep track of them. Apparently a severe infection and heavy med treatment can cause your blood sugar to whack out.
Long story short: My veins were collapsing, so they put in a PICC line, and I got 4 heavy-duty antibiotics, steroids, potassium and basic fluids through there. I was also on oxygen, a heart monitor and a catheter. I don't remember having so many tubes before!
Finally, on Friday, the Dr. said it looked like I was "out of the woods," but I still had a fairly serious case of pneumonia to get through. He said I could probably go home Monday or Tuesday if I continued to make decent progress.
Over the weekend, they gradually removed some tubes and some meds, and had me walking in the hallway. Yesterday, they switched me to oral antibiotics. Today, I got to come home after they removed the PICC line.
I'm still not feeling great, but I'm so, SO happy that I didn't die. Septic shock is often fatal.
Anyhow, thanks for your thoughts and prayers and well wishes.
I still have to rest quite a bit, but I'll be around when I can.
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Yeah, Yeah, I know the profile needs work. I'll get around to it.
Most of the time, I'm Shopping Sheryl.
Sometimes, I'm Shopping Sherylock, due to my powers of deductive reasoning. Meg is my amazing sidekick and partner in crime(fighting,) Dr. Watson.
Sometimes, I'm Shopping Sheryl - Grammar Goddess.
I'm a member of the COATS, where I'm Shopping Sheryl has a candy COATing.
Apparently, I'm the AB Expert on Toilet Paper! So, listen carefully: the roll goes OVER, not under!!!
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I am stunned and saddened by the loss of Blank Savage. We had just been emailing each other for a few days before his death. He had a heart of gold and a generous spirit. I shall miss him. I hope he is resting in peace, and reunited with his beloved daughter who went before him.
Please take a moment to read his profile and remember him. Thanks.
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I'm fairly seriously ill now, but getting good treatment.
Hubby's waiting for a kidney transplant. Type O+. Please let me know if you spot one lying around.
We are quite the pair!
If you want to know more, please email me.
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I'm proud to be a wife, mom, and stepmom. I'm a chronic illness patient and cancer survivor. I'm always happy to make new friends on the 'net. I sing professionally, although my recent lung surgery has forced me to take a break from that. I love to cook, and collect cookbooks. I have about 300 of them. I'm a moderator on an international cooking website.
I'm interested in linguistics, foreign languages, and English grammar. I spent a few summers as a proofreader, and won a school spelling bee. I even have a cool shirt that my stepdaughter got me, that I wear with pride. It says, "Grammar Police: To Correct and To Serve."
And "correct and serve" I shall. Not to be mean and petty, but in order to educate. I promise not to do it all the time. But, sometimes it's irresistible! "Warner's English Grammar" and a good dictionary are your friends!
Like Takei-Shihan, I also am a card-carrying member of Mensa. Whenever I do something dumb (and I do, many times!) my husband teases me with: "I thought you were a *genius*!" My favorite Far Side comic is the one where the kid is trying to push on the entry door to the Midvale School For The Gifted, right underneath the sign that says, "pull."
I like:
Freebagging
Bacon
Cooking
Eating
Jetpacks
Sarcasm
Quick wit
Dry humor
Puns
Good grammar and spelling
Sharing recipes and cooking tips
People who are open-minded
Miniature Golf
Board Games
Card Games
People who maturely agree to disagree, respect each other and remain friends
I can't stand:
Chronic illness
Sandra Lee (on food network)
Proselytizing
Text-speak
Golf (except for miniature golf, see above.)
Homophobes, and intolerant people in general
People who don't bother to READ questions, answers and comments.
Trolls
When people congratulate themselves. (It's rude-get someone else to do it)
People who downrate without comments
People who downrate due to disagreement (not a valid reason)
People who start threads about themselves asking if people like them/would miss them if they left.
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I like to think that I'm open-minded. At least, I try to be. How are we supposed to understand our own positions if we don't understand the opposing viewpoints? I prefer to try to understand the main issue, as well as multiple sides of any controversy about it, before I formulate my own opinion. And even after I've formulated it, if I see new information that makes sense to me, I'll even change it!
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Things are sometimes hard to interpret here in Cyber-land. Writing has limitations; it's tough to deduce intent and inflection, and we have no visual cues such as body language.
I do the best I can, but may not express myself very well. TACT is definitely not my strong suit.
I don't like rumors and gossip.
Therefore, IF you have a question about something I've posted, or that I've been rumored to have posted, would you please contact me via email if you'd like to discuss something further? THANK YOU! (My email is posted in the blue profile box to the left.)
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Here's what I look like (and you can see my handsome son, too!)
http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/1195714
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DYOH!!!!
Do Your Own Homework! It bugs me when I see questions that are an obvious lameass attempt to avoid doing your homework. The rest of us had to do our own research; you can too! (Posting a question on AB does NOT qualify as research.)
I think it was Jay or ASweetGuy4YoutoKnow who suggested perhaps we should deliberately post incorrect answers on these types of questions. Sneaky, funny and evil...I like it! Well, I like the idea. I don't think I could be mean enough to actually do it, though.
I don't have any problem with guiding and directing someone on how to figure out the answer. That's helping people to LEARN. But a person learns absolutely nothing if you just spoon-feed an answer.
Here is one of the best examples I've seen on AB that illustrates the best way to give an answer to a homework question: http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/2637670
And, here's an excellent answer that gives links to helpful homework sites: http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/627005
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STOP BEGGING FOR POINTS!
It is against the AB rules to ask for points. You have to EARN them.
The best way to get points here is to ask and answer questions, and perform moderation (you get 5 points for doing things such as flagging duplicate and offensive questions, etc.)
Here are 2 of the places where AB-Joel has said this:
http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/988147
http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/1417
I don't make the rules, and I don't enforce them, so don't take it out on me with downrates. I just help make people AWARE of them.
That's just TOUGH if you don't *LIKE* it.
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I support the HR (has reason) movement. Many of us feel that when a downrate is given, a comment explaining the reason for the downrate should be REQUIRED. Please join us, and put the letters HR in your username.
Don't be a chickensh*t!!! If you have the balls to downrate me, you also ought to have the balls to tell me why. I have no respect (NONE!) for people who can't politely express disagreement and seek to understand why someone holds a different viewpoint from his/her own. Here's a thought...you might *learn* something.
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I'm now a proud member of the AB Hat Club! My hat is a tiara. :-D Thanks, Nelson Squeeko!
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I admire Blaise Pascal. Here's one of his quotes that I really like:
"Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction." -- Blaise Pascal |
