I know they’ll tell everyone involved that should an implanted defibrillator go off, get him to a hospital YESTERDAY. The shock will restart his heart immediately, but does nothing to fix the underlying cause of the arrythmia.
Oh, and a defib shock hurts like a mofo.
We had a nice celebratory dinner out last night. And talked about the budget for the new year. (Everyone who didn’t get laid off had to take a 5% pay cut so we’re readjusting numbers.) We should be in good shape this year though, and should even be able to take a real vacation! (The first since '06.)
Do you have tips for finding a therapist who specializes in CBT? I went to therapy years ago, but the therapist wanted to delve into my childhood and my parents. No, my parents weren’t perfect, but they loved me and were good parents. I don’t want to spend sessions trying to avoid a therapist who wants me to bash them. I want to know how to deal with my anxiety now regardless of the past. (The only real connection between my anxiety and my parents is that my mom is anxiety personified, and I don’t seem to have escaped that fate.) I don’t really want to have to try 5 therapists to find one who’ll help me focus on the ways to deal with issues now and in the future, not the past.
Good luck with therapy, soapy. I hope you can find someone who’ll help.
I’ll go… I’ll go! Just not quite yet. After that almost-month-long cold followed by the round of antibiotics and prednisone, I need a little time to feel healthy again before getting stuck. We’re usually good about going regularly, but this winter has been tough, and I’m feeling bad about not donating. 
I have to say, Cap’n, I think you’re a little crazy for wanting to do stats. Theoretical stats was the only class I ever got a C in. In grad school. ::gulp:: So I’m NOT a fan of stats.
Down here we’re all thinking that weathermen are drama queens. We got about 2 inches of snow and now it’s bitter cold out. Big whoop. There are NO delays at either airport–what is all the fuss about? 
mousie–I did wonder briefly if your grandpa was having an ablation, but I’ve never heard of that causing heart failure (but then I should have remembered that heart failure means different things to different people). Whatever test he’s having, I hope it goes well. 
I am doing a crockpot roast today to keep the kitchen warm. I feel like I’m coming down with something. Ugh. I start my [del]insane work schedule[/del] career challenge tomorrow–one day off in 9. Go me. [sub]ugh[/sub]
…and The Tooth Fairy is the Easter Bunny’s illegitimate daughter, and her godparents are Mr & Mrs Claus. Yuh huh. 
Cute jewellery, Pie. I’ve bookmarked your Etsy site so I can take a poke next time I’m in need of retail therapy… I’m always on the lookout for fun jewellery and we all know that food is one of my favourite things, so this stuff counts as a twofer as far as I’m concerned.
OK, back to work I go. Maybe if I try really really really hard, the Powerpoint decks I’m reviewing will magically transform into useful informative documents that actually make sense, and the system requirements they’ve provided will look like they’re written in English instead of monkey… in NavaLand, anyways.
Oh, and I’m not allowed to donate blood. Maybe someday Canadian Blood Services will get their head out of their ass, but in the meantime, my blood is mine mine mine mine mine. Nyah.
The rules change by location, but you’re NOT supposed to go get bitten if you’ve had antibiotics recently. So don’t feel bad about not donating, feel proud that you know when you shouldn’t.
They didn’t take my blood this time, either (last time it was an itty bit too low on hemo). They took a sample for a malaria test, due to having been in Costa Rica for six months about… uh… two years ago. I reckon in another four tries I may be able to say “I donated blood in Scotland.” At least I know how have they written my name in the system: the whole thing is correct, but instead of separating two-first-words as firstname and three-last-words as lastname, they moved the second word into the lastname. I think that’s a new alias for me, although according to a US Customs officer, the US Guvmint has a list of 20 or so; they’re all misspellings, initialed variations, words left out or words smashed together, except for a Maria Garcia which I believe comes from a credit agency who called every Maria-anything in Florida looking for that Hispanic “Mary Smith”.
Stats was one of my favourite courses in college, but it’s because it was Applied Stats and because the teacher was great. In high school I hated it.
noonie and gt, please put a bench in the evil corner cause I thought nava’s snark was a hoot, too.
carrot, honey, I don’t have advice on which study path for you to take but I would recommend you switch to decaf. 
Glad you got your heat back, rosie.
{{{{soapy}}}}
Yay on the new store, doggio.
Just busy here.
Tupug
Just squeeze in on my other side… I don’t mind being squooshed a bit between **GT **and you
Gives new meaning to “having a sandwich for Lunch”, don’t it?
My place is having a blood drive today too, but I just feel like crap. V. V. sick yesterday, today less so but still not up to the puncture.
I like “peripatetic.”
But let’s not take it too far and claim that “like in every sandwich, the good stuff is in the middle,” eh?
A much better snark than the one I was working on. Well played.
Nava, I am so totally jealous. I’m not sure what it is about other dialects/accents/etc of English that make me swoon, but they do. My coworkers were highly amused by me. They often are.
Blurf.
I donated blood once but honesty I barely make the weight limit and I didn’t feel well for about three days so I decided that since I’d given the one unit I got during surgery as a kid back I wouldn’t do it again.
Blizzards? Wow, here it’s been hot enough (and bleeping windy) that I’ve been wearing short sleeves. =^_^=
Not sure where you’re parked taxi, but I live in British Columbia so I was able to attend a 6 week course developed by the UBC Psych Department at our local mental health facilities. It’s called Changeways and is a group program, which I wasn’t looking for but it was free and I could get an appointment 2 days hence instead of months for individual therapy.
Each week we were given a new section to add to our binder so it was a lot of reading, thinking, and writing–not just talk therapy–and consciously practising the concepts. Each week we had to tell the group what our goal was last week and how well we had met them.
In my case, delving into some things with my parents help me understand why I tend to have an aggressive rather than assertive reaction to conflict, and why I compartmentalize my feelings. Once I began practising communicating assertively (hell, communicating at all) my stress went away. We could talk without me going from zero to yelling in 6.0 seconds. :o
ln therapy sometimes our parents are just part of the journey and not the actual destination, but we’re in the driver’s seat. We can cruise right by Placing Blame and head straight for Understanding.
I just got off the phone with my EMT instructor. I’m tenatively scheduled to retake the practical portion of the class final next Firday at 1 PM.
VWife is not amused. :rolleyes: Screw her.
AFAIK, I’m permanently on the No Vampires list. Good luck on finding a gay man who isn’t on the Red Cross’ banned list.
Right now, DH is on the No Job list. He found out this morning that his position was eliminated. Yesterday. How nice of them to make him spend the train fare and come in this morning, only to find that it’s time to pack up the pictures and plants.
He was sort of expecting this - in a meeting, there had been some talk about possibly needing some staff cuts. So, once again, we do the Unemployment Tango.
In an odd irony, we got an email from the cruise people saying how we can start making reservations for special dinners and shore excursions now. Income or no income, we’re committed to the trip - it’s paid for, and the cancellation penalty at this point is awfully close to 100%, so it would be silly not to go.
Well, SURE, noonie! In for a penny; in for a pound I always say.
Sorry for the unemployment news, gotti. It *really *sucks that they made him go in this morning just to say “Oh, by the way…”
Thanks for the info, criminey. I’m in the Midwest (US) but with a major university near by so maybe I’ll try looking there.
Are you surprised that the weather folks are drama queens, rigs? Around here we wouldn’t know what to think if they didn’t get all freaked out and act like “OMG IT’S GOING TO SNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!!!1!!!eleven!!!11!!!” or today’s version which is “OMG IT’S COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLD!” or the summer equivalent, which is “THERE’S GOING TO BE A THUNDERSTORM!!! AND IT’S GOING TO BE HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT TOO!!!” We’ve had a Severe Weather Alert almost every day since the start of December, either for snow, cold temperatures, or wind advisories. And they’re always all in caps so it seems even more like they’re shouting. It really seems like crying wolf and that someday the big storm’s going to come and we’re all going to ignore the warnings.
Not really surprised, more irritated. I was all prepared for white out conditions and BLIZZARD!! and of course we got almost nothing. Keep in mind that the south side of Chicago (and the southern Cook County suburbs) do NOT exist to most networks or the Weather Channel, so all their predictions of dire precipitation is focused on the NW suburbs, Chicago proper and Indiana. Meh. But the sky is clear BLUE today (all day) and neither airport had delays, so I’m wondering about their MAN THE PANIC STATIONS mindset.
Re the therapist: you may want to ask at church (if you attend one). Pastors etc usually have a list of nearby therapists who are well rated. That’s how I found mine, anyway, back in the day. The first session is more like a job interview–the therapist should tell you about his or her education, years of practice, general approach to therapy, that sort of thing. Since we came to her via church, she asked us if we wanted “Christian oriented therapy” (the mind boggles), but we politely declined and religion never came up again (unless I brought it up). She was open about her husband being a pastor (not at our church). Fees, possible insurance coverage, length and number and frequency of sessions should all be addressed in that first session. If not–to me, it’d be a red flag. She or he should be able to give you a handout on their credentials, too.
Hope that helps.
Might not be a bad idea.