Dear So and So: I'm back baby!

I haven't been able to do a Dear So and So for a while, but this week, like the title says, I'm back baby!!!!



Dear Mama Mia (the movie),

I heart you so much! Apparently the Germans love you too because this is the 5th month out of the last 11 that you've been a featured movie on the movie channel. It's in English!!!! Fortunately (for me) Mr. HH and Indy both love it too and will watch it any time it's on. I always wonder why there isn't a soundtrack for my life. How awesome would that be?

The Dancing Queen (young and sweet),
MIHH



Dear Heel Spur,

I hate you. A lot.

Painfully,
MIHH



Dear worker bees removing the asbestos from our attic area,

OMG! 7 am? Are you kidding me? Do you KNOW how loud you are? I know you're just doing your jobs, and that's cool, but 7am until 4pm M-F? Really? Really? I feel like I'm going crazy. Indy can't concentrate on school work and I'm seriously thinking of Irishing up my tea in the mornings.

Head poundingly,
MIHH


Dear fresh baked chocolate chip cookies,

QUIT. LOOKING. AT. ME. LIKE. THAT. Yes, you're ooey, gooey delicious, but I cannot eat all of you, no matter how much I'd like to. The dollar to euro rate blows right now and I can't afford (nor do I want to) buy bigger pants, so please, cut me some slack.

Hungrily,
MIHH


Dear Exchange Rate,

You are seriously sucking right now. When the Euro first came out in 2002 the exchange rate was about $1.60 to 1 Euro and now it's $0.65 to 1 Euro. WHAT???? Do you know how much that makes stuff at IKEA? Come on!

Poor,
MIHH



Dear blogger,

Why can you not make the Euro symbol? Or accept it from MS Word? That's really annoying. I hate typing out Euro all the time. It would be so much easier to make the curved capital E looking thing.

Still poor and now annoyed,
MIHH


Dear house,

How many times do we need to have the discussion about cleaning yourself up?

Disgusted,
MIHH


Dear Edward,

You're mine. Don't be swayed by any of those other bloggers. Especially Cammie. I'm the one. Me.

Obsessively,
MIHH


Dear Johnny Depp,

Same goes for you. I'm willing to cut you a bit of slack because you have kids with what's-her-name, but I'm your true love. Remember that, okay? And yes, I can in fact juggle both you and Edward. Oh and Mr. HH too.

Loving you,
MIHH


Dear Meryl Streep,

You have gorgeous hair. I kind of hate you for that.

Enviously,
MIHH


Okay, I guess I'm done. Head over to Kat's to read the other Dear So and So's. You won't be sorry.

FINALLY! A reason for the exhaustion

I know you'll find this hard to believe, since I'm so witty and funny and whatnot, but over the last several months, I've been exhausted. I don't mean just tired, I mean exhausted. Barely able to function, exhausted. I would sleep 10+ hours a night, take a 2-3 hour nap every day and still be completely worn out. It's been getting progressively worse for a few months now and last week I finally decided to go see my doctor to find out what was going on. They drew a ton of blood (seriously, I need that stuff) and did a bazillion tests. Today I had my follow up for the results. The first thing my doc said he wasn't surprised I was tired. He was actually more surprised that I was upright and conscious. Well, with an opening like that, I was a bit concerned. He sat down with me and went over a bunch of numbers that didn't make much sense to me, but I smiled and nodded like I knew what he was talking about. My iron levels are beyond low. The normal range is 25-170, with 25 being on the edge of anemia. My level is 15. My blood itself has a very low red and white blood count. He said my blood is mostly fluid and nearly opaque under a microscope. Nice, huh? My binding agent is good (on the upper end of the spectrum even), but there are so few blood cells for it to bind to. So now I have to take iron supplements. Hurrah. If, after a month my iron levels don't increase, I may have to do a transfusion. No thank you.
He said I need to eat more green vegetables, especially spinach. I actually laughed at that. I eat spinach almost every freaking day. Indy and I grew salad spinach from seed for a school project and we are now overloaded with fresh spinach. If I ate more, I'd turn into Popeye.
On the up side though, he said my kidney and liver levels were at the level of a teenager. He's incredibly impressed with how good a shape my internal organs are. Yea for me, I guess.

Last Christmas (I gave you my heart) and ended up in the hospital

Christmas 2007 is known around our house as "Worst. Christmas. Ever." Seriously, it was bad. About a week or so before Christmas I began having terrible chest pains. I assumed it was heartburn (though I never get that, but it seemed the most likely cause) and ate about 500,000 Tums. They did not work. I tried Zantac thinking it might be acid reflux, something I had suffered from in the past. It did not work either. The pain was sort of always there. In the day it was bad, but at night it was unbearable. I couldn't sleep because every time I laid down it got worse (see this is why I thought heartburn or acid reflux). I ended up sleeping in a chair several nights. On Christmas Eve the pain hit a zenith. I cried it was so bad. M tried to get me to the hospital, but I refused (I can be very obsinate-I know that's hard to believe, but it's true) because I just knew I'd sit in the ER for hours, see a doctor for 10 minutes and be sent home with Mylanta or something like that. No thank you. I could be miserable, but far more comfortable at home. I finally fell asleep (in a chair) and woke up the next morning to a very excited Indy and so much pain I could barely breathe. Indy opened his presents and immediately afterwards I went to the hospital. The pain was making me nauseated and dizzy. Something was up. When I got to the ER there were 8 people waiting. A couple of them had the flu and one kid had what was probably a broken arm (one of the hazards of getting a skateboard for Christmas). I sighed thinking I was in for a long wait, and went to check in. The moment I mentioned chest pains, I was whisked off to the back and surrounded by doctors, nurses and some scary looking machines. Apparently chest pains trumps broken arms. Ha! Take that skater boy! In the back they ran several tests including an EKG and told me they thought I was having a heart attack. Um, what? I was 34, a decent weight, ate right and worked out almost 5 days a week (sickening isn't it?). There was no way I could be having a heart attack! They argued that all my symptoms pointed to it and they were going to admit me. To the cardiac ward. I was so not happy. They gave me an IV, nitro glycerin shots (in the stomach!) and took me off to do some more tests. One of them, and I can't for the life of me think of what it's called, is where they shoot dye into the IV and put you in a machine. What is that called???? Anyway, about 30 seconds after the dye went into my IV I started itching. Everywhere! It was awful! I am allergic to the dye. Sadly, I found this out the hard way. I was covered in hives and in addition to the pain in my chest, I was on fire. They ended up having to give me a shot of benedryl, which knocked me out. I'm actually kind of thankful for that because I finally got some decent sleep.
About 3 hours later they wheeled me up to the cardiac ward where I was easily the youngest person there by a good 30 years. My roomate was 94. And naked. And flatulant. Fa-la-la-la-la! I spent 2 days in the hospital getting every possible test done, my vitals checked every hour on the hour (this does not make for a good night's sleep), drugged to the moon and being fed food with absolutely no salt. Blech. My tests all came back negative. See, I KNEW it wasn't a heart attack! Turns out I had something called costochondritis. It's an inflamation in the sternum. The symptoms mimic those of a heart attack and to diagnose it, heart attack must be ruled out. I was discharged and sent home with some mega pain killers. The pain lasted another 4 months, though never as severe as it was on Christmas. I feel totally cheated out of last Christmas. Christmas 2007: Worst. Christmas. Ever.