Tao of the Panda-Girl

This post is going to be LOOOOOOOONG, and possibly TMI in places, so brace yourselves. Also, making this one public so my non- LJ-using friends and family can get the full scoop.


( Putting it behind a cut, to save your flists, and because the photos are kinda large.Collapse )

I've been trying very hard not to be a complainer, given that A) we've tried four long years to have this kid in the first place, and B) because I know that not everyone wants to hear about the ups and downs of being knocked up.

Well, it's not working.  Most of my posts on Facebook are now either complaining about all-day sickness, or lamenting the world's need to make fat chicks feel even more unloved by not having good, sturdy, AFFORDABLE maternity clothes for us larger-than-life gals.  It's all so very frustrating.

Nothing keeps the nausea away.  Not Zofran, not Phenergran, not ginger, not ginger ale, not saltines, not antacids, not bland food, not sour stuff, not peppermint, not hot stuff, not cold stuff, not sea-sickness wristbands.  NOTHING.  Friends have been great about giving me advice, but none of it has worked.  I've tried eating saltines before I even get out of bed; only gives me more stuff to upchuck once I reach the bathroom.  Tried making sure I'm never ravenously hungry; again, only gives me more stuff to hurl into the porcelain god.  Tried not drinking anything while eating; only makes throwing up hurt more.

At this point, I rarely leave the house, except to go to work or to run the occasional errand, thanks to being sick 3-6 times a day.  I can barely do chores around the house, and exercise?  Pffft, yeah, right!  I can barely walk to the mailbox and back without wanting to upend my stomach.

I'm exhausted, I hurt from all the gagging and hurling, and I want this kid to ease up on me already.  *sob*

Still working for GameStop, so still racking up PowerUp Rewards points left, right, and center.  However, I think I may have found something I MUST USE MY ACCUMALATED POINTS FOR. Not my kid, obviously, but I can't help but envision my own little tyke wearing one of these while Mommy and Daddy take turns playing Left 4 Dead or Call of Duty. :D

We're spawning.




Figured this was as good a note as any to come back to Livejournal on. ;)

Yo, West Coasties: Please check in.  Just heard about the earthquake over in SoCal.  Everything okay out there?

Strangely, this isn't as hard as I thought it would be to answer.  I'm going with the camera.

My reasoning?  My memory is CRAP these days.  However, my visual recall is pretty spot on.  The way I figure it, if I have pictures of my adventures (and if I manage to take photos of something OTHER than my husband *grin*), I can relay the tales of my travels with little problem. 

As long as I have a paper journal to record my thoughts, I don't need a laptop. 

As long as I have songs in my heart, I can hum (or goodness forbid: sing) them, and have no need for an MP3 player.

And as long as I have my faithful companion with me (you know, the one I mentioned I have trouble NOT taking photos of?), I have no need for a cell phone.  The most important person I would want to talk to would already be right there with me. 

;)

A real post is brewing in my head, but it will have to wait for later. The only announcement I have is that John may have yet ANOTHER kidney stone, and while he's handling it well. . .he isn't handling it well. More later.

For now, time to organize my thoughts. I need to make the house livable, in case we're stuck here for a few days due to snow. (Hell, I need to make it livable, regardless, but that's as good an excuse as any. Sounds less pathetic than the real reason, which is that I've lost my hand-sewing kit and I really, really, really need it over the weekend. *facepalm*)

List

-Arrange car inspection for John's car. DONE! 10 AM tomorrow at Chapel Hill Tire!
-Gather up house trash, take outside. DONE!
-Do dishes.
-Do laundry.
-Change bedsheets.
-Wash dogs.
-Scrub microwave.
-Make banana bread.
-Bring in/stack firewood. DONE!
-Mop floor.
-Return extra copy of Mass Effect 2 to GameStop on Friday.
-Turn in application at GameStop.
-Apply at Demand Studios for writing gig by Monday.
-Write biography and send it to Fiona, along with headshot, for WIGSIG newsletter. DONE!
-Send in feedback on new WIGSIG website design. DONE!
-Clean bathroom.
-Clear kitchen table.
-Clear living room table.
-Set up sewing machine in living room.
-Find missing hand sewing kit.
-Dust living room. DONE!
-Send out TGC pitch to WIGSIG steering committee.
-Discuss podcast with Josh. DONE!
-Put away board games. DONE!
-Make firestarted logs from leftover paraffin and cardboard boxes. DONE!
-Use up leftover shepherd's pie. DONE!
-Feed dogs DONE!

A little dragonling told me it is estellye's birthday today. Forgive my lack of Photoshop skills, love, but this image made me think of you. Happy birthday!

I just found out that besides crushing trauma and penetration wounds (pipes and sticks going through flesh, you get the idea), the two leading causes of death to the survivors of the Haitian earthquake? (So far, at least.)

Kidney failure, and complications due to burn trauma.

Burn trauma, I get, because many households there keep fuel cans for generators and stoves inside the house, but kidney failure???

People are turning into walking septic timebombs, simply because they sustained a crushing blow to some part of their back, but since they can't feel anything wrong and can still walk, they think they're fine. Plus, no centralized place for victims to get checked out = many "walking wounded."

Kidney (aka renal) failure isn't a pleasant thing to experience, but it often is a silent (one might even say "gentle") killer. Since the kidneys filter out toxins and by-products of cell turnover, the toxins build up in the blood, causing any number of symptoms from confusion, to hallucinations, to insatiable itching, to full-on seizures. Eventually, though, the buildup creates a lethargy in the victim so great, they simply don't care what is happening to them anymore. They slip into a deep sleep, and if left untreated, they just never wake up.

Jesus jumped up Christ. Of all the things to happen to a person. Survive an earthquake, only to die in your sleep from organ failure. The entire scenario seems monumentally unfair.

But that's what will happen to a lot of these people without treatment.

John got word from his cousin, Clive, around 3 pm today with news about our family.

The life of every one of our family members living in Haiti was spared. What in the world are the odds, right? Thank GOD.

However, according to them, things are much, much worse down there than anything you're seeing on the news. The first estimates of casualties (100,000+ lives lost) is a DROP IN THE BUCKET compared to the reality. More than 9 and a half million people live in Haiti, and that's only HALF of the island of Hispaniola, with most of the population concentrated around the capital.

Buildings that were originally built to be fortresses by private firms (some completed as little as 2 years ago) to keep out the gangs I mentioned in my earlier post are now nothing but dust and gravel. The U.N. Mission building collapsed, with the Chief of Mission Support and more than 70 of his staff inside when it happened. They can't confirm the numbers yet, but it looks like he and more than a dozen others died, and more than 50 of them were injured or are still missing.

The main offices and warehouse for Food for the Poor, Inc., a humanitarian relief company the d'Adesky family has worked with for more than 15 years to bring food, water, and sanitary supplies to the destitute on the island? Well. . .it looks more like a bombed-out structure in Fallujah than a warehouse in Haiti. They also wait on pins and needles to learn the fate of 12 college students and 2 faculty members who went to Haiti on a mission trip and remain unaccounted for.

The shanty towns that surround Port-au-Prince look more like piles of dominoes, at best, or demolition sites and scrap yards, at worst.

Aftershocks still rock the island, causing renewed panic with each passing hour. There are doctors and nurses who no longer have hospitals to work out of, and fear their patients will be out of clean water by tomorrow morning, if not before.

Children are wandering the streets (or what's left of them), looking for their parents and siblings, or at least some friendly face that will help them for now.

And then there's the looting, which was taking place in broad daylight, and will probably grow worse as night falls.

As you can tell, things are going to get much, much worse if we don't do something. Other than through my Etsy store, and through the organizations I mentioned in my last post, FoodforthePoor.org is another guaranteed way to get relief supplies to those who so badly need it in the earthquake zone. Please do what you can to help. Repost this, and my last post, or link to it if you see fit to.

ETA: I've also updated the entry before this one, so please re-read it. Thanks.