Archive for March, 2012

Bookworm.

Posted: March 28, 2012 by Angel Young in Uncategorized
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I’ve always been a book-loving girl. My mom always read to me before I could read myself, and once I could – I took off, reading everything in sight.

Normally, I read a HUUUUUGE number of books in a year, but with being sick so much, I haven’t felt as up to it as usual (between headaches, exhaustion, etc). Which makes my goal to read between 60 to 80 books this year sorta rough. But I’ll get there… hopefully. Eventually.

Anyway. I figured that I’d keep track of this Bookworm Challenge via blog – what better place, really? So here’s where I’m at right now:

1.) Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare

2.) The Woman in Black by Susan Hill

3. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

4.) Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

5.) Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

6.) The Iron Thorn by Caitlin Kittredge

Technically, I’m not quite finished yet with The Iron Thorn (I’ve got about 100 pages left), but I’ll soon be finished up with it and move right on to my next read – hopefully, if I can get my hands on it soon, the sequel. This book is pretty freaking incredible: strong heroine, interesting and unique story, wonderful writing… I adore it. You’ll definitely see the sequel, which I believe is called Nightmare Garden, popping up on my list of books for this year. =)

So, what have you all been reading? Anything good? Anything from my list? Any coming book-to-movie adaptions? Do share!!

~Angel

Mysterious Sickness of Doom: Part Two

Posted: March 26, 2012 by Angel Young in Uncategorized
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So, lots has happened since my last post, and I’m really hoping I have the energy to sum up at least some of it before I get too exhausted.

Well, Thursday the 15th I had to go have an ultrasound done on my abdomen to see if I was having anything serious going on that they could pick up on that way. It came back abnormal, and the next day we were planning the next steps: since my common bile duct was dilated, and my liver and kidneys looked enlarged, they were planning to ship me off to Barnes in St Louis for a procedure called an ERCP. We had hoped to do this the following Friday.

Of course, with my luck, that didn’t work out.

Monday I was feeling pretty awful, and Wednesday morning I was sort of convinced I was dying. When we called up to schedule me for my procedure Friday, the doctors at Barnes said to bring me up that day, and not to way. Needless to say, what I thought was going to be a normal Wednesday turned into a day of my going to St Louis to be admitted to the hospital. Joooooy.

I’ve never had to stay in a hospital before, so I was pretty nervous. At the time I went to Barnes, my total number of needle pokes for the month of March was at 19, and I was hoping it’d stay that low. But after my admission, they spent several hours trying to get blood from me and start a new IV. Nine pokes later, nothing. Sometime before they did my picc line procedure (where they use ultrasound to guide the needle and run this tube up a vein in your arm into your chest — VERY unpleasant), they managed to get an IV in my hand, but they still wanted to do the picc line too. So I had both my hand and my arm with things in them, and my arm was really, REALLY sore from the picc line. They made me NPO (no eating or drinking after midnight) in preparation for my ERCP procedure the next day.

Which never happened. Instead, they decided to do some more tests: EKG, Echo of my heart, MRI. I was NPO still until they were done, and NPO again after midnight so they could do my ERCP Friday. So I was pretty tired and hungry, since I couldn’t really sleep and only got to eat once in a while.

Come Friday morning, I was exhausted and ready to get my procedure over with. And, guess what – no procedure. Instead, they decided to discharge me – YAY! – and send me home to see if I get better on my own or if I need to go back. They aren’t 100% sure what’s been going on with me, and the only thing close to an answer was trace positive on the CMV virus – which I don’t think is what’s wrong with me, to be honest.

I kinda worry they’re missing something huge. I’ve never felt so miserable in my life. It’s like my body is just dying. And it’s a very scary thing. I want to feel normal again and be healthy again. Maybe I’ll be fine in a week, or maybe I’ll end up back in the hospital. Who knows anymore. =/

Anyway, I’ll update more as I know more.

 

~Angel

Loss, Hobos, Boredom.

Posted: March 12, 2012 by Angel Young in Uncategorized
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Still suffering the Mysterious Sickness of Doom (currently running a lovely temp of 101.6 – go me!). But I went back to the Day Job today, did my work super fast, and have since clocked out and am now trying to rest myself into feeling better. Which probably means I shouldn’t be sifting through agents I could possibly query about the work-in-progress, seeing as that causes a headache in my poor already-aching head. So, I’m trying to distract myself in other, somewhat productive ways, but somehow I end up on Twitter or Facebook or being amused by this website.

Books:

So, how about I share a little something I’m excited about? The upcoming release of the fabulous Jackie Morse Kessler’s new book, LOSS:

The next book of the Riders of the Apocalypse series, and I’m soooooo excited about it. I love those books, and proceeds from each book gets donated to a great cause. Jackie is amazing, and you should definitely check out her work!

Photography:

The last I had posted about myself shooting, it was SUPPOSED to be with Little Red, but my schedule and her schedule ended up getting all messed up, so it didn’t happen. BUT I did end up shooting with the fab Alesha Mahurin for an awesome-tastic start of a new project for us, called Saving Grace for now (blame the Everlast song). Here’s a a peak:

Alesha has been on this kick about me doing a series of hardships, so I started it out by making her a hobo. She’s a hobo with some pretty clean pants oddly, but whatever. Wasn’t a bad shoot and really didn’t take too long. Go us!

Looking forward to getting better so I can shoot some more. I miss getting all creative and artsy with it, like SERIOUSLY crazy ideas. Someday I’ll get all better from this Mysterious Sickness of Doom and have some seriously kick-ass photos to share, hopefully not as sad as hobos (even the pretty kind.)

~Angel

The Mysterious Sickness of Doom

Posted: March 4, 2012 by Angel Young in Uncategorized
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So, those who know me in the “real world” are somewhat aware of the fact that I have been hella sick all week. Like, unholy pain, vomiting, headaches, bleeding in ways I shouldn’t be – including urine and vomit, fevers. But not everyone is filled in on exactly what’s been going down, so I’ve decided to make a single post describing what’s going on so hopefully I don’t have to type it out five billion times for friends and relatives alike.

I had this odd pain about a week or two before the actual sickness began, and we still aren’t positve how much it has to do with what’s actually wrong. But it was this horrible sharp pain that went up my heel to my back which was unbearable after a while, and we assumed that was something to do with my sciatic nerve causing me issues. But Tuesday this week I was in so much pain, I literally started crying at work. By that night, I was puking up blood and everything else my body could scrape out of me, along with running a temp. I was unbelievably miserable.

So, Wednesday I was forced into bloodwork and IV fluids/medications. I was pretty sickly most of the day, with the exception of right after the pain and stomach meds kicked in, as well as the fluids – dehydration is a bitch, after all. By that night I felt crappy again. Thursday morning I felt like crap but tried to go about my day anyway, until I found out my mom had left work really, really early for some reason and was coming to pick me up. So, I crashed on my couch until she came after me and informed me my lab tests came back with three critical alerts (alert low on sodium, calcium, and potassium) and I was heading back for even more IV related hell. By Thursday night, before I went to do my taxes, I had been stabbed by needles 4 times since Wednesday. So trust me, I was thrilled when they put a lock on my IV so it could be left in my hand for the other IVs. That way, I logically wouldn’t need poked again.

Thursday night, however, I hit a bad low. I really thought I was going to die, and I’m pretty sure my mom did too. Hell, looking back on it, I may have been dying. I never want to be so miserable again. EVER. I felt so weak and so out of it and hurt so badly… *shudders* yeah. It was baaad.

Friday morning I wasn’t feeling so hot either, so of course that day I ended up back on the IV stomach meds and fluids. I also had to do more bloodwork to see if I was still critical, so I had to be stuck two more times (my IV was being a bitch and not letting them draw blood out of it. Of course.) That means I’ve had needles poked in me 6 times since this mess began. Not the worst, by far, especially for me. But definitely not something I’m big on doing. Plus I had an EKG – which was normal, thankfully – among other things.

Now, I felt pretty crappy today and yesterday. Still vomiting, hurting, being miserable in general. Had to have more IV fluids and antibiotics yesterday. Last night we found out my labs improved, though my calcium is almost to a bad point now, which has us worried. But, I’m still miserable. Mysterious Sickness of Doom is not ready to let me go.

Technically, we’re thinking it is or at least started as pyelonephritis, a bad kidney infection. But… if that were it, logically, it should be gone by now, or at least fading. Yet, it isn’t really. So, we have no clue what’s wrong. Unless it’s just not getting better, or it’s turning into something else.

Anyway, that’s all for tonight, folks. I’m feeling pretty bad and ready to crash. Once I know more about Mysterious Sickness of Doom, I shall share.

~Angel