15 Minutes a Day

Lesson Learned on Wednesday, February 4, 2010

Time to decompress and think things through is important to physical and mental well-being. Yesterday I went home after a busy day with lots of meetings, fixed myself a drink, and curled up on the couch with my English Pointer who has the power to make me fall asleep. We snuggled and dozed while I “watched” the news and drank my drink.

By the time 8:00 p.m. rolled around I was relaxed enough and unwound enough to be able to think about what I had to do for school. I pulled my computer up onto my lap (the dog had taken herself off to bed by then) and was able to plow through my school work and felt that I had really learned and accomplished something. It was a wonderful feeling!

I see too many of my co-workers working through lunch or late into the evening and then wondering why they are exhaused or unable to think clearly. They cannot think clearly and are tired because they don’t take time to refresh themselves. Down-time is a foreign concept to them. When illness or injury strikes it takes them longer to start feeling better. Is there really anything (outside the medical and law enforcement professions) that is so important it can’t give you time to take an hour or two for yourself? Does everything really need to be done RIGHT NOW? Your thoughts…?

Image Credit: Retrieved on February 5, 2010 from Phil’s Favorites – by Irene.

One of the folks I follow on Twitter suggested writing down a lesson learned each day and then reviewing every Monday. I like this idea, so here goes…

When commuting on Amtrak – I went from Sacramento to San Francisco and back – keep carry-ons to a minimum. Preferably a backpack. Today I took a backpack and a computer case. It was too much for the limited space I had. When I go back in two weeks, I’m going to pack everything into one backpack.

Image Credit: Retrieved on February 3, 2010 from NY Daily News.

I know I’m coming into this discussion a bit later, but I’ve been sitting back and watching as things unfold. My interest is not intense enough to take sides, but is enough for me to comment. As I see it, each of the three parties involved have made some pretty poor decisions in the last several years to make them a non-comical laughing stock now.

Jay Leno, The NBC Fail Whale, & Conan O'Brien

Conan O’Brien’s Mistakes

When Conan O’Brien negotiated his contract in 2004 he got greedy and insisted that he deserved the Tonight Show. Jay Leno had been the host of the Tonight Show for 17 years. Before that, Johnny Carson held the reigns for 30 years. Jay Leno was not ready to retire and Conan felt he was justified in forcing Jay out. He got greedy rather than waiting his turn when Jay retired.

NBC’s Mistakes

NBC is guilty of having screwed up priorities. Jay Leno had been #1 in his time-slot on the Tonight Show since he took over from Johnny Carson. Conan O’Brien may have done well in his time-slot, but he didn’t have the audience that Jay Leno had simply because not as many people stay up that late. Also, Conan’s humor appealed to a younger audience than had been watching the Tonight show for nearly 40 years.

NBC had the choice of letting O’Brien go or screwing with Leno. They ended up doing both because now O’Brien is leaving and Leno was forced to give up the Tonight Show before he was ready. They also decided to dump their dramas for a cheaper-to-produce stand-up show rather than paying for dramas that their audiences had enjoyed and talked about for decades.

Jay Leno’s Mistakes

Jay Leno had kept the Tonight Show #1 in its time-slot for 17 years. Yet when NBC came to him and said they wanted him to give up the Tonight Show there was no apparent fight. He stepped aside graciously and even acceded to NBC’s lame attempt to keep him from going to another network by hosting the Jay Leno show in the 10:00 p.m. time-slot. He just let the network push him around. Now he’ll be handed back his show, but he will have lost part of his audience because of the clash between himself and O’Brien. He’s become damaged goods.

Conclusion

Leno, O’Brien, and NBC have screwed up a fantastic franchise and tarnished it for the foreseeable future. The sad part was that if any of them had avoided their individual mistakes, this whole conflict would not have happened – or if it had, it would not have been as dramatic or damaging. Anyway, that’s my opinion… What’s yours?

Image Credits:

• NBC Fail Whale Logo Image was retrieved on January 26, 2010 from TwitPic (posted by @studionashvegas).

• Jay Leno image was retrieved on January 26, 2010 from Jay Leno Fun Fan Blog Fotos using Google Images.

• Conan O’Brien image was retrieved on January 26, 2010 from Bill Brioux’s TV Feeds My Family using Google Images.

Shasta is the Yellow Lab...

In the last month-and-a-half my husband and I have had to deal with one figurative blow after another. It started with my incident on December 9th, continued with 3-4 weeks of a head cold while I was on short-term disability, and has come to another two points in the last week.

First our oldest dog, Shasta (4 years old), became very lethargic and was not her happy, active self.  Thursday we took her in to the veterinarian for the second time and had x-rays taken. They indicated that she had a blockage between her stomach and small intestine. She required surgery. Let me tell you, surgery for a dog is expensive!!! We had to drain our savings account and make a withdrawal from my husband’s 401k to pay that bill and meet some other challenges as well. There was no other way we could cover everything. Thankfully, Shasta is home and doing well now.

On top of this, Mark’s truck has stopped working. We don’t know why it’s not working because there is no check engine light which means the truck won’t give us a code to tell us what’s wrong. Mark is taking it to a mechanic tomorrow and we have some funds set aside to handle that crisis, but we’re not certain yet if it’s going to be enough.

The lesson we will take from this past month is to plan for contingencies quite a bit better. We were lucky to have some funds in reserve, but I think we need to become more serious about saving for both crises and for things like vacations. There are lots of places that Mark and I would like to travel to, but we have no active plan for saving for those trips.

The frustration we are feeling right now would probably be less if we were saving more – a retirement fund (which we both already have) along with a separate contingency fund account (which we sort of have) and another vacation fund account (which we don’t have at all). Now we just have to figure out how to get ALL that set up and how to afford it along with our other obligations. Time for some long-term thinking… Do you have any suggestions?

Image Credit: The “Budget Pie” image was retrieved on January 25, 2010 from Village Park using Google Images.

Growing up I was taught to be independent and self-sufficient. I was also a chronic klutz who was always nursing a skinned knee or elbow, turned ankle, bruises just about anywhere, and the occasional broken bone or set of stitches. This taught me to get back up and keep trying. “Getting back on the horse” was not merely a metaphor in my family.

I have family members who live on farms and I loved to ride horses whenever I could. This means I occasionally got bucked or fell of the horse… literally. On top of everything, I also had a seizure disorder and never knew when grand mal seizures would strike. In spite of all this – in fact largely because of it – I was never fragile. Today my husband calls me a “force of nature” and has rarely seen anything able to sideline me. I don’t like being dependent on anyone and I don’t like not being able to trust that my body will act the way it’s supposed to!

I don’t normally use this space to bitch and whine, but today is going to be an exception…

I have seen two physicians (neurologist and an endocrinologist) and a physician assistant in my PCP’s office twice since December 9th. I now have to monitor my blood sugar level, take anti-seizure medication (which I haven’t had to do in 15 years), and get nutritional counseling. All of this has happened because I had gastric bypass surgery two years ago. Ever since that surgery my blood sugar goes wonky from time to time. When it went wonky on December 9th I passed out, concussed myself, and had a grand mal seizure.

Since my incident on December 9th I’m not allowed to drive (understandable and right, but still irritating!). I get brain splitting, exhausting headaches that are nearly as bad as migraines. I have dizzy spells almost daily that range from minor spinnies to nearly knocking me over and everything in between. The meds they gave me for the dizzy spells (Miclizine) works very well except for the fact that I turn into a total space cadet, cannot focus more than five minutes ahead, and just want to go to sleep. I decided today that I will NOT continue to use the Miclizine Rx. I’d rather have the dizzy spells!!!

I guess I’m just feeling frustrated today. I had the gastric bypass surgery to avoid the pitfalls of obesity. Namely Diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol, and the side-affects of those healthcare issues. Instead, I have to deal with their exact opposites! Low blood sugar (opposed to high with Diabetes), lower blood pressure (it used to be 120/80 pretty regularly & was considered normal – now it averages 100/60 & is considered a bit on the low side). Also, instead of high cholesterol I’m having issues with nutritional deficiencies.

I did TONS of research prior to having my surgery. Heck, I did TONS of research before I’d ever even contacted my surgeon. The process to get a surgery date required that I went through medical testing, psychological evaluation, and that I lose 30lbs to show my commitment. I knew there were possible side effects and issues, but nobody – not my support group, surgeon, or any of my research – said anything about re-exciting my seizure disorder which I thought I had “grown out of” as my neurologists always predicted I would.

Nobody ever said that low blood sugar could be a problem. The worst side effects I heard about were vomiting and diarrhea and becoming a picky eater. I didn’t have those issues. I still don’t. The worst I’ve experienced before now was a bad reaction to spaghetti – which I love. However, I don’t love it enough to want to try eating it and feeling like I have to throw it up, so I avoid it.

Would I do the surgery again? I don’t know at this point. Yes, I like being thinner and feeling like I can climb mountains (which I’ve done since surgery). However, I’m feeling a bit low right now and having rare second thoughts. I trust (most of) my physicians and will work with them to overcome this. My surgeon and I are going to have a serious discussion about the warnings he gives patients in the future. I would just warn anyone considering weight loss surgery (WLS) to know all of the possible side effects and be sure you are willing to deal with them. WLS isn’t a magic bullet. I knew this going in and I still know this. Has it made my life better? Yes! Has it caused unforeseen side effects? Yes! Was it worth what I went through to have it and recover from it? Today, I’m not sure. Tomorrow I might have a different opinion.

Your thoughts or advice?

Image Credits:

Angel image was retrieved on January 12, 2010 from Soda Head using Google Images.

Stress Reduction Kit was retrieved on January 12, 2010 from A Round World Through Square Glasses: Pessimistic Views From An Optimistic Person using Google Images.