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Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Easter!

M and I went to Nashville this past weekend.  We had originally planned on staying put for Easter, but the closer I get to moving (yes we're moving to Houston...post on that by MTH later), the more nostalgic I get.  It was a must to spend one last Easter in the 'Ville, with my parents and at Harpeth. 

Saturday for lunch we went to Taco Mamasitas.  Conveniently right across the street from the bakery that made my wedding cake... Dulce Desserts.  Juanita, my cake lady, was in and was so excited to see us!  It made me even more glad that we used her!  She has a replica of my cake in the window..  And she offered to make M and me a 3rd anniversary cake in our favorite flavor for FREE!  Love her

 On Saturday, M and I went to an antique store called Preservation Station off Wedgewood.  We bought an antique door that we are planning on using as a headboard in our new home.  I forgot to take a picture of the door to show.  It's currently at Mom and Dad's.  I will post pics of a before and after as soon as we move and get it done! 

M's parents were also in town for Easter.  Mom had everyone over for lunch Sunday after church


When did Buddy get taller than Ash?

The 3 "Smith" girls

After lunch on Sunday, Matthew flew to Houston to make a walk-through of our new home and be there for the home inspection.  It makes me a little lot nervous to move to a house I have never seen in person!  But I trust Matthew's opinion.  I will post pictures of our new house soon! 

I hope everyone had a blessed Easter.  What a wonderful day to celebrate that Christ is Risen! 

We will be back in Nashville this coming weekend.  Dad, Ashley, and I are running the half marathon on Saturday... Trying to remember why I thought this was a good idea :) 

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Calls That Start With "Don't Freak Out"

These are the type calls that I don't look forward to as a mother.  Unfortunately I received ones of these distressing calls today.  Here's how it went down...

Around 9:45, I called Matthew to check in with him during a break from work, per usual.  He answered the phone in a completely normal tone.  We proceeded to have a normal conversation, until I heard these words, "Now baby, I don't want you to freak out...."  He continued on to tell me that he had been working with some cobratoxin, and a few minutes earlier he had started to get really flushed, was having trouble breathing, and felt like he was going to pass out.  A co-worker in his lab had to call 911, because they were afraid that he was having a reaction to the toxin.  M then said that he was feeling a lot better; they had canceled the 911 call, and he felt like he was fine.  I felt a little uneasy, usually there are doctors working in his lab, like "real" MD doctors :) but at the time it was just him and a fellow PhD, so I told him I would feel better about it, if I could come over and check him out myself. 
 
I run to tell my boss, tell her that it doesn't seem like a big deal, and that I will be back in 20 or so minutes.  I run up two blocks to M's building, and he's sitting down in the lab.. not looking "fine".  Right before I had arrived, Phillip, a pulmonologist, had gotten there and was checking M out.  He was shaking, still having trouble breathing, and said his throat seemed tight.  Not good signs.

M says he wants to go outside and get some fresh air.  I oblige, although I'm a little uneasy about him walking anywhere.  Outside, the symptoms continue.  I'm trying to coax Matthew into going to the ER, while at the same time trying to pretend I'm not worried.  He then tells me that he looked on-line, and apparently 4 micrograms/kg of cobratoxin is fatal.  Great news...things are looking up at this point.  I then get on M's phone and call our good friend, Jason Booten, who conveniently enough is an ER resident at UAB.  He says that if he continues to feel worse, he should come in, and he would speed up the process so that M wouldn't have to wait in the ED..which can take extremely long at a Level 1 Trauma Center. 

M decides that he thinks it 's best to go home... I don't want him sitting outside alone while I go get the car, so I decide to walk him upstairs back to his lab.  Except we don't make it back to lab, because M's symptoms get worse again.  Emergency Department it is...

4 tubes of blood, an IV of saline, an EKG, a chest x-ray, a call to the CDC (Center for Disease Control), and 4 hours later... the attending ER physician said that M could go home.  We're not sure what happened.  Whether he happened to inhale some of the toxin, or got some on him... we're not positive.  Either way, let's just be thankful that he didn't accidentally inject himself with it. 

Moral of the story:  Don't play with deadly toxins at work.  Stick with the boring stuff, like neutrophils.  I love you Matthew!  I'm so glad that you are ok!

The Proof...

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Useless Knowledge

Do you ever happen to sit and think about all the random tid bits of information you've come across that are completely irrelevant.  Maybe you don't, but when you live with someone who knows everything about everything, you sometimes ask yourself the question, "Why in the world does he know that?"

My useless knowledge consists of knowing all the prepositions in the English language.  How many people can say that?...  Other than the other 129 people in my 8th grade class.. thank you Mrs. Piper.  Who would have ever thought that when it comes to diagramming sentences, knowing all the prepositions is immensely helpful!  Diagramming.. that's another one of my useless skills.  I could diagram the heck out of sentence.  Whenever we were assigned sentences to diagram for homework, even if we only had to do the odd numbers... I would do the even numbers too ;)    Unfortunately my love of word puzzles did not overlay into Math problems.  I would vomit if I ever had to see another geometry proof.. GROSS.

I wish I could be a high school teacher that just taught Civil War history, diagramming sentences, algebra (no other math needed) and readings of To Kill a Mockingbird... as if you need anything else.. I mean, all Shakespeare plays have the same plot line anyway (sarcasm).  


Doesn't it look so fun?  Especially with the Understood You...



Happy weekend!