Author Topic: Message from Diane  (Read 9602 times)

Offline Ellemeno

  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • ********
  • Posts: 15,367
Re: Message from Diane
« Reply #20 on: November 27, 2006, 03:04:51 am »

Anyway, I guess I should save this story for the "what surgery have you had" poll or thread. Meanwhile, it's great to have you back, Diane. I look forward to seeing you here and at imdb.


Katherine, I literally burst out laughing at this.  I think what happened was I smiled because it was funny, but then I burst out because I realized that ridiculous as it sounds, it could be part of the next wave of gettin'-ta-know-ya here.  At this point, I can actually see this poll/thread happening.

Diane, it IS good to have you back.  We haven't talked much to each other directly, but I love reading your insights into BBM.


Offline Penthesilea

  • Town Administration
  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 14,745
Re: Message from Diane
« Reply #21 on: November 27, 2006, 09:09:05 am »
First, the hospital was so much fun I stayed up til 2 a.m. just savoring the peace and quiet. Then at home: husband out of town, kids at their cousin's, a big supply of Vicodin and the house to myself! Seriously, it was great. (I guess that's kind of a pathetic statement about my normal life, hunh?)

I don't think it's pathetic. I'm so here with you. Living in a household of 5 persons + a dog I can empathize with you. I didn't have a single night all alone for the last 11 years. Savoring the piece and quiet... for a whole weekend... sounds mighty fine. Maybe I should volunteer for an appendectomy  ;)

Quote
Anyway, I guess I should save this story for the "what surgery have you had" poll or thread.

 :laugh:

Offline dly64

  • Brokeback Got Me Good
  • *****
  • Posts: 708
Re: Message from Diane
« Reply #22 on: November 27, 2006, 08:27:39 pm »
I haven't had a hysterectomy, but I did have an appendectomy the summer before last and it was actually one of the best weekends I can remember. First, the hospital was so much fun I stayed up til 2 a.m. just savoring the peace and quiet. Then at home: husband out of town, kids at their cousin's, a big supply of Vicodin and the house to myself! Seriously, it was great. (I guess that's kind of a pathetic statement about my normal life, hunh?)

You are cracking me up! I can't say it's been quite so relaxing. The second night in the hospital, I had a roommate whose TV was on the entire night! They made her wear headphones, but the light of the TV kept flashing in my eyes. So, I was achy, I was running a fever and that damn flashing light gave me a mind blowing headache! YEOW!!!! Believe it or not, the morphine did not help my headache one iota (but it did help my soreness from the incision)!! BIZARRE!!!

Yes, I was sent home with Vicoden, but I have already stopped using it. I am too paranoid of becoming addicted. However, the staying home and recuperating is kind of fun. I can watch all of the movies I want, I can take naps when I feel like it and I can get on the web (albeit, at this point, minimally). I am guessing after four or more weeks of being at home the majority of the time, I will start going a little bonkers (more so than normal …. hmmmm ….. scary :o)!

Anyway, it’s good to be back … I’ll be around more as the weeks progress!
Diane

"We're supposed to guard the sheep, not eat 'em."

Offline serious crayons

  • Moderator
  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 22,712
Re: Message from Diane
« Reply #23 on: November 27, 2006, 09:53:48 pm »
Believe it or not, the morphine did not help my headache one iota (but it did help my soreness from the incision)!! BIZARRE!!!

I didn't get much relief from morphine, either with my appendectomy, or a few years earlier when I had pneumonia. That's when I found out you can always ask for Vicodin or Percoset instead!  :laugh:  I know all the tricks -- I'm an addiction waiting to happen, but luckily far too clueless and chicken to figure out how to get it when I'm not really in pain!

Quote
However, the staying home and recuperating is kind of fun. I can watch all of the movies I want, I can take naps when I feel like it and I can get on the web (albeit, at this point, minimally). I am guessing after four or more weeks of being at home the majority of the time, I will start going a little bonkers (more so than normal …. hmmmm ….. scary :o)!

Isn't it nice to hang around your house and know that you don't have to be doing anything productive? It does get old after a while, though. But whenever you get bored, you know where we are!!

Offline Ellemeno

  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • ********
  • Posts: 15,367
Re: Message from Diane
« Reply #24 on: November 27, 2006, 11:37:02 pm »

Isn't it nice to hang around your house and know that you don't have to be doing anything productive? It does get old after a while, though. But whenever you get bored, you know where we are!!


When I was sick as a kid, my mother always said that getting bored was a sign of getting better. 


Offline serious crayons

  • Moderator
  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 22,712
Re: Message from Diane
« Reply #25 on: November 28, 2006, 11:39:13 am »
When I was sick as a kid, my mother always said that getting bored was a sign of getting better. 

Once as a kid I was home sick from school long enough to read a biography of Helen Keller and teach myself sign language (not the whole-word kind, but the single-letter kind). Sometimes I wonder how I could have been well enough to do that yet not to go to school, but ... Anyway, the sign language came in handy, years later.

Offline Ellemeno

  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • ********
  • Posts: 15,367
Re: Message from Diane
« Reply #26 on: November 30, 2006, 09:00:51 am »
Once as a kid I was home sick from school long enough to read a biography of Helen Keller and teach myself sign language (not the whole-word kind, but the single-letter kind). Sometimes I wonder how I could have been well enough to do that yet not to go to school, but ... Anyway, the sign language came in handy, years later.

I'd love to hear how the sign language came in handy.  And then I'll tell you mine.


Offline serious crayons

  • Moderator
  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 22,712
Re: Message from Diane
« Reply #27 on: November 30, 2006, 07:12:08 pm »
I'd love to hear how the sign language came in handy.  And then I'll tell you mine.

Well, it's a short story, Elle. Only one night I was usin that sign language. In college, a girlfriend and I went out to see a band in a bar, where we met three men who were deaf. After the bar closed, the five of us went out to breafast together, and spent a couple of hours in a really fun conversation, partly in our clumsy sign language (my friend had taught herself at some point, too), partly writing on the paper placemats, partly lip reading and talking a little.  Finally my sign language had come in handy! The guys were interesting and I had a great time. And that Christmas, one of the men sent me a Christmas card, which was nice.

And that's the story of my sign-language career.  :)

Your turn!
« Last Edit: November 30, 2006, 09:20:47 pm by latjoreme »

Offline Ellemeno

  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • ********
  • Posts: 15,367
Re: Message from Diane
« Reply #28 on: December 01, 2006, 01:10:17 am »

And that's the story of my sign-language career.  :)

Your turn!

You weren't no angel like me, myself, and I:

I've always been into languages, quite ferociously when I was young.  If I had an opportunity to learn a language, i would suck it down as fast as I could.  So when I was about 20, a friend of mine in medical school decided to take a sign language class and I decided to join her.  The class went too slow, so after a while I just studied it on my own, and my friend and I would sign to each other the best we could, laboriously finger spelling when we didn't know the sign for something.

One night I was walking down the path to my house in the dark and tripped over a tree root.  I was pretty sure I had wrenched my ankle.  It hurt like hell and seemed scarily out of whack.  My friends who were in the house drove the car as close to me as they could and then supported me to hobble one-legged into the car and drove me to the emergency room.

I got put in an examining room, up on an examination table, and then was left alone for a long time, with my scary ankle that felt weirdly crunchy when I tried to put any weight down on it.  Eventually another woman was brought in and put on the other exam table in the room.  A doctor came in to examine her.  Well, turns out the patient was deaf and the doctor was a moron.  He quickly started exhibiting impatience for her communications limitations, and she was close to tears.  So I spoke up, or, I guess, signed up.  I signed to her that I could sign a little and that I would be happy to interpret if I possibly could.  I still remember her look of relief and gratitude, probably only partly because I could help with the communication, but mostly because I was just nice.  So anyway, I did actually wind up helping them quite a bit. 

Right after they were done, someone finally came in to examine me (I had been on that table for what seemed like two hours, waiting).  He gingerly rotated my scary ankle, and, for some reason, it didn't hurt anymore.  Hunh.  After a bit, I carefully stepped down off the table and tested my weight on it.  My ankle was completely fine, just felt a little weak.  But the scary pain and crunchiness was just not there.  I walked out 95% fine.  Hunh.

Fast forward 23 years.  My daughter was born, and I had been reading about signing with infants.  I got a couple of books, and found that the dormant signing was still in me.  I started signing to her when she was about 6 months old (as the books suggested).  I focused on the baby basics - eat, drink, more, all done, bottle, change (diaper), etc.  One day, in her high chair, I suddenly realized that the spazzy knocking of the backs of her hands together was her signing "more."  Holy shit!  It was like the dog had just spoken English.  I couldn't believe it.

She and I signed together a lot.  Several of our mommy & infant buddies were too.  At one point, right before she got really verbal, I counted 47 signs that she herself had used.  Just like the books predicted, as she began to talk, the signing faded away as she didn't need it anymore.  But she still has strong interest in it.  We still sign together now, for fun, and use signs for more sophisticated concepts than we could when she was an infant.  I consider it her main secondary language, more than the French and Spanish we also mess around with.  The cool and unique thing about sign, is that you can speak it at the very same time that you are speaking English, so it is very easy to impart meaning.

Anyway, sorry for hijacking your thread, Diane.  [Elle rubs palm over heart in circular motion.]  :)


Offline serious crayons

  • Moderator
  • The BetterMost 10,000 Post Club
  • *****
  • Posts: 22,712
Re: Message from Diane
« Reply #29 on: December 01, 2006, 01:21:27 am »
Wow, Elle! Not just one but two very cool stories. Thanks for telling them! I know kids who are bilingual because of having bilingual parents or schools, and unfortunately I'm not fluent enough in French or sign or anything else to provide that opportunity for my kids (my younger son was so impressed that I was able to clumsily respond to a French-speaking docent/reenactor on a field trip -- little does he know my limitations!). So they'll probably be stuck where I was -- learning a language at a ridiculously delayed age of 13 or so. What a great opportunity for your daughter. And for you!

  :D