'the belt story'

one of my most popular stories is about how leaving my belt on floor nearly lost me my foot. keep reading, its a good one.

early fall my junior year of high school, i woke up like every other day, jumped off my top bunk and felt pain like nothing before. i sit on the bottom bunk lift up my foot and my belt comes with it. the prong part that slips in the notch had punctured the bottom of my foot and i could see it pushing up the skin on the top. i must have gone into fight or flight mode, because without thinking i pulled it out. i hoped down the stairs went into my parents bedroom told them 'ummm...mom, dad, i stabbed my self with my belt but i pulled it out and i'm ok. i'm going to go to school now.

i limped around for a few days. and i was fine after that...or so i thought. it would be funny story if i just left off there. but no if i do something outrageous i have to go all the way.

a year later, my senior year of high school, i was on my feet a lot. i was drum major and working at dairy queen nearly full time. it was a crazy busy time. i noticed a bump forming on the bottom of my foot and it hurt more after being on my feet all day. when it started bothering me all the time, i told my mother and we went to the foot doctor. i told him all about the belt and pulling it out. he asked me if it bled when i pulled the belt out. i didnt think anything of it till he said something. a little trivia real quick: if puncture wounds dont bleed, thats BAD. when a wound bleeds the body is flushing out anything that shouldnt be there. if it doesnt bleed the body is a perfect place for whatever to grow and fester. all this to say when i pulled the belt out of my foot, it didnt bleed. the doctor determined that there was a cyst on my foot. we planned surgery and everything was going to ok after that.

i had surgery on a wednessday in feburary. everything went fine and i was to see the doctor the next wednesday for a check up. and if that was the end of the story, it would still be crazy, but its not.

thursday i felt great, i barely needed any pain meds, i was walking around on crutches just fine. friday i felt a little sick, saturday i was in pain but had the darvocet so i was cool. then, on sunday, i felt like i was dying. i was stretching out my pain medication as far as possible. i had a dressing on my foot and was told not to remove it till i saw the doctor. i could only see my toes which were purple, kinda green and i knew something was really, really wrong. i was crying, throwing up, i was in so much pain i could barely think. my father called the emergency line and they said i could losen the wraping around my foot. i did and it hurt more. being the cuirous person i am, i took a look and the insicion. what i saw, it is not describable. the stitches were raised off the bottome of my foot about an inch, the the wound went from being a tiny half and inch insicion to a raised blister, if you will, about three inches long and two inches wide. my foot was colors that dont naturally exist in a human.

we called and made an apointment for monday with the doctor so he could take a look at it. when the nurse saw it, she stop in her tracks and said 'i all my years i've never seen anything like that.' gives a person a lot of confidence right? when the doctor came in his face went pale. he took a look said 'huh...did we put you on antibiotics after surgery?' no, they did not.

he lanced it and all the pain i'd been feeling for the last few days started to be relieved. as he pressed on the wound and examined it, i was torn between extreme pain and total intrest. if it looked bad on the outside, it was nothing compared to the damage on the inside. the dead tissue extended about two inches into my foot. the doctor told me that my foot would take a lot longer to heal than previously estemated. well, duh. he also said my foot may not ever heal completly. but i was also lucky becuase, if the infection had gone any further, i could have very possibly lost my whole foot. and even more awesome, if the infection would have gotten into my blood stream, i could have died. yeah, awesome.

i had to do wet to dry dressings for the next, month and a half. by the way doing your own wet to dry is... well, rough. actually any wet to dry is rough. i dont care who you are. i learn to deal with a lot of pain during the time, lets just say that. still to this day my right foot bothers me after really long days but its nothing to complain about. and i have this cool half inch by inch and half scar where i have no feeling.

all that to say...dont leave your belts lying on floor where you can step on them, or at least look before you leap.
all for now. hope you enjoyed
-erl

future of tv

My taste in television maybe classified as eclectic. at least i havent met any other one person that likes all the same tv as me.

A trend in tv has developed and i love it. watching whatever you want whenever you want. anymore if you missed an episode of your favorite show or say your favorite series has been moved the night you always work, you can go to hulu or use tivo or dvr to watch it when ever you have a chance.

I've never liked that people's lives revolved around tv. i would always get riled up when someone would ask 'are we almost done? Their favorite show here is on at eight and i have to get home' REALLY? really? When the tv guide schedules your life for you, there is a problem. But that problem is nearly eliminated with all the new ways to view television. personally, with school i'm so busy i dont watch tv for weeks at a time. but on a lazy saturday afternoon sometimes i like to get on hulu and catch up on my favorite shows.

I now know more people who watch their favorite series online or dvr or even wait for them to come to dvd then those who still watch at the regular broadcast time. However, what irks me is that those viewers arent counted when it comes time for the powers that be to make decisions concerning the fate of a tv series. only the number of viewers during the actual broadcast time are counted. my two most recent examples are terminator: sarah connor chronicles and dollhouse. both put in the friday night slots on fox(which we all know is doom for any new series) and because of thier 'numbers,' failed misierably. however both shows had a large and true following online. i would say that both series had a younger fanbase. younger people 1. are proly doing something else than sitting at home watching tv at 7and8 on a friday night and 2. know enough to know how to record or just watch the episode online later. Therefore the young fanbase is not being counted and thier say was wieghed in the deicsion to cancel these two great series. i personally loved both shows. the story, the actors, even the whole way the stories were portrayed, i really enjoyed dollhouse and tscc. and now they are gone. now where am i going to get my fix for lena headey, eliza dushku, or evenTahmoh Penikett?

the future of tv in no longer set in the traditional or maybe even antiquated primetime slots every weekday night. it is in ondemand streaming and the first network to realize that is going to win. and the rest are going to be left in the dust for awhile. i look forward to this new trend to become the mainstream way of doing things.

all for now
-erl



ps. after i wrote this i found out that dollhouse was not canceled after all. fox decided to give it another chance. this makes me happy. however, Terminator: the sarah connor chronicles is still canceled. I liked tscc more than dollhouse but at least fox has given joss whedon another chance.

first timer

Ok. so i never thought i would be one to blog. generally my teenage years were spent avoiding the internet at all costs. well, look at me now.
A friend told me that i should start putting my crazy stories online so she could read them whenever. so this blog is for her, and anyone else who wants a good story or rant. (ps. if anyone does happen to comment, please be nice. my self esteem may not be able to handle cyber abuse as well as reality. Thanks!)
A little about me, i'm a nursing student at a small christian college near chicago(there will be no more info than that due to all the crazies out there). during school i live with three roommates in an on campus apartment. i think we are an interesting group but we work well together. during summer, and breaks, and likely for the rest of my life i live with my sister and brother-in-law and a couple that they live with. we have a communal living kind of situation. i love all of them and live on the front porch of the house they all bought together. yes, i would rather live on the porch with no heating or cooling or actually electricity than anywhere else, thats how much i love living with my pseudo family. i truly consider them my real family and God willing will follow them wherever they go.
I love nursing school and cant wait to be a real nurse. school is hard and i'll proly end up writing about that sooner or later. i love my profs, they have done so much for me i cant even describe.
Proly the most important factor in my life is Jesus. Ok some of you reading are like 'here comes the religious freak! i'm outta here!' i encourage you keep reading. make you decision on what you actually read not your previous experiences. Every direction change in my life i can attribute to the Holy Spirit's direction. more on all that to come.
overall, i want this blog to be just my observations on life. i dont like it when people whine or are wicked mean. that is just unnecessary and i wont stand for it. also i'm the worst speller on this planet. to be honest, i cheated in spelling in fourth grade in order to pass and that was the last year spelling was required at my school. yeah, i know. how sad, right? same thing with grammar. also (not that any of you could know) i have the worst handwriting. so that fact that i cant spell combined with the almost impossible task of trying to decipher my personal sanskrit, i feel bad for any one trying to read anything i write out on paper. just to paint a picture, i wasnt allow to write out anything in high school. i was the only student that was REQUIRED to type out all papers, lab reports, and assignments. in jr.high one teacher made me write everything out in graph paper. one letter per square. yeah it's that bad.

my intro to me kinda went of into left field a little, but i wont be surprised if that happens nearly every time. i look forward to writing and maybe even hearing from a few who read this.
for now good bye and farewell to all who are out there.
-erl