Stupid Hurts….trust me I know!

“And here is you shirt, just try not to get shot.” Then Mike the other security guy grabbed his beer, got in his truck, and left me standing there looking lost.

Sunday night was my first night working security at night club called The Lakeview Yatch Club. I showed up for training, the head security guy walked me the bar area an introduced me to a few people. Then he promptly tossed me to the wolves.

For the most part the night was pretty quiet, but considering the fact this is Stupidhurts we all know there had to be some stupidity. My night got interesting when I got several complaints from patrons that a drunk, belligerent, individual had been harassing them. I figured it might be best to play it cool and watch him for a second since it was my first night and I really was a bit little unsure on how to handle the situation. Unfortunately while trying to figure out the best way to approach him, it was brought to my attention I had to go break up two people before a fight erupted. Apparently one of the customers had flicked the ashes from his cigarette into the face of the person he escorted there. So that of course became priority number one. I was able to get those two guys tossed out pretty and off our property quickly but not before the first guy had managed to cause a even larger scene.

At this point the kid gloves came of with him and his friend and it was time to be aggressive. So I stepped into his blind spot applied a gentle hammer lock onto his arm and grabbed his other shoulder and told him and his friend I needed him to leave while guiding them both to the door. He only argued for a second before I applied a little more pressure onto his shoulder, then he became very submissive. Once we all got out side I let go of him and he and his friend proceeded to walk away from the front door. Near the corner the patron I had grabbed then decided to turn around and yell and curse at me. At that same time, the bar back who weighs about 50 pounds more than me walked outside to smoke, and he obviously wasn’t in a good mood and ready to fight. I think that quieted things down pretty quickly.

I really wish that tossing out those two drunks had been the high point of my night, but that didn’t come until later when I was walking in the front door and something caught my eye, but my brain didn’t exactly register what I saw. I had made it all most all the way half way across the bar when it finally clicked. There was a guy standing next to the front door getting a blow job. I at least have the common courtesy to take that sort of thing to a restroom. So I had to go back and toss them out. Luckily they knew they were in the wrong and went with out much hassle.

Between tossing people out and flirting with the waitress, I had a great time working security. Plus I got a new shirt to add to the collection. Hopefully I will get to do it again sometime, and maybe next time without the wolves muttering to themselves about the fresh meat.

The little free time I have had this weekend has been spent making updates and functional changes to my photo gallery. I have managed to upload a bunch of new and old pictures, and I moved a few pictures around in an effort to make navigation a bit easier for everyone. Hopefully the changes will work out for the best.

Granted as always I am far from done, but at least a little progress is nice.

“Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.“ The entire theater was silent when he spoke those lines. Clark Gable’s voice gripped everyones’ throat for that moment. Then ear shattering applause.

I got to see Gone with the wind for the first time at the Alabama theater this weekend and had an absolute blast. With my short attention span the plot was a little hard to follow, but some of the cinematography and the costuming is amazing. To make the show complete the soundtrack interspersed with music from the Wurlitzer pipe organ, and there were five or so women roaming around in period costumes.

Past that I have spent most of the week out riding my bicycle up and down the hill I live on and roaming around downtown Irondale.

Getting down the hill is easy, and once I got used to the speed has even proven to be the fun part. There is something special about looking down and seeing that your bike is doing 35 miles and hour and trying to get the phrase ”stupid hurts” out of your head.

Since my camera and Ipod are both busted, I think I am just going to go ride my bike

Finally a chance for some alone time in my head.

The current team Birmingham cycling uniforms are red this year, and I found out even though I would be a late seaon pick up they were nice enough to save me a set, since technically I am still part of the team. Even if I did skip town at the beginning of the season for a girl. Unfortunatlly I chose to decline my space on the team for the rest of the year, but I may still attend a few of the of the remain ride and races in a solo aspect.

One reason being is because I am not in the shape to represent the team very well. And two well this below picture of the Polish team will explain why I prefer the old black “southern discomfort” uniforms over the new red uniforms.

This was over the course a month. and is more or less what happened to my memory.

So late June I gave serious mountain biking a few tries before deciding it really wasn’t for me. While out on each excursion one of the things i had to contend with was the massive tick population in Ok. I didn’t think much of it because we don;t have aggressive ticks in Alabama. Anyway a few weeks later I developed a rash but it went away in a few days. Then on Saturday I had to leave work early because my knee really hurt. I got home iced my knee and pretty much passed out there. When I woke up later on that night I felt like hell. I had an insane headache it hurt to move my eyes, and a fever that was quickly ramping up. I figured it was just the flu or something and that I would try to sleep it off. Sunday passed and I still had a fever, Sarah told me she was afraid I was going to burn her.

Monday came and my fever broke that morning after nearly overdosing myself on Aspirin. We went to an unrelated doctors appointment I had already, and then headed back home. On the way home she was speaking with her mom who told her that if my fever was above 103 to take me to the hospital. We stopped got a thermometer and I proceeded to check myself. I got pissed because it read 104. So I went and wasted nearly 3 hours in a clinic for “We don’t know whats wrong with you, it might be ticks take these pills pay the nurse out front, if it gets worse don’t come back to us. go directly to the emergency room.”

And the pills are the best part, you have to take them on an empty stomach or you will throw up, if you eat any dairy product while on them you get severe diarrhea, and they make me too dizzy to ride my bike, not that I had a lot of that planned but it

written by sarah

Many of you know but I’ve been dating a boy named Courtland for the past few months. During the later part of the weekend he develpoed a high fever and had body aches all over. On Monday I took him to the doctor and they told him they didn’t not know what was wrong with him but that his symptoms matched “Tick Exposure.” Last night I had to take him to the E.R. because he had a seizure. While there they ran a cat scan, blood tests and did a spinal tap. They believe that he has a viral infection, possibly caused by West Nile Virus. They are not sure so they are sending him to a Tulsa hospital because they have a better neurologist.They are sending him by ambulance. I’m asking everyone to please pray to whatever God/diety you believe in and keep Courtland in your thoughts. I’m on my way up there right now. I’m not sure how long I will be up there. And there is a good chance that I won’t be near my computer for a day or two. But I will try to post updates as much as possible. You are welcome to call me on Court’s phone (if you don’t have the number let me know and I’ll eventually get it to you) or you can text me on my old number.

As things stand now they aren’t looking good right. Yesterday Court was awake and coherent. He was tired, but he was still able to interact and even seemed like he was getting better.

Last night at 4am he had another seizure. Not as bad as the first two, but still a seizure. They sedated him so he could sleep. About 6am he started to have what one doctor described as “absent seizures.” Basically he opens his eyes, stares blankly, doesn’t respond, chews his tongue and drools. He’s been having these all morning. He goes back to sleep right afterwards. His vitals are fine, no fever.

Here’s what I know so far. It’s not a lot. I saw the regular doctor this morning and the neurologist an hour ago. They don’t think it is a bacterial infection and they don’t really think that it was caused by a tick bite. They think the kind of infection he has is encephalitis. Which is an infection/inflamation of the brain. Most likely causing the seizures. They aren’t sure what is causing this infection. They have a few ideas and are running tests. Right now he is on a seizure preventing medicine, the doxycycline for the tick bites (just in case), and some meds for the encephalitis. The problem with the meds for the encephalitis is they aren’t sure what exactly caused it. They are starting to think it isn’t West Nile Virus (though they are testing for it just in case). They would just start giving him medicine to see what works and eliminate possibilities but his kidneys are failing.

So as of now I’m waiting for the Kidney specialist and the infectious disease specialist. Hopefully they will know more. He is also going to have an MRI performed. His CAT scan and is EEG brain waves are fine (they were performed Friday and yesterday).

If anyone has any questions feel free to call or email me. With him sedated I really have nothing to do but read, crochet, and keep a journal of his activities. I should sleep since I’ve had 6 hours in 2 or so days, but I’m afraid if I do he something will happen.

The not-so-great news: They still don’t know what is causing the seizures. They have a list of options such as viral infection and tick exposure, but nothing guaranteed. We are still waiting on some culture reports. Hopefully they will spread some light on this issue. Right now they have him on two different seizure medicines, a kidney medicine, and the tick exposure medicine and something else that I believe is for a viral infection. Basically they are throwing stuff at him to see what works. Really it just depends on what doctor you talk to. All are unsure, but each has his own opinion.

As for his mental health, he is getting better. He is still missing huge chunks over the last 6 months, but mostly just the last week. But everyday he becomes more like himself and stays awake for longer periods. Once again of you call him I write it down in my private journal so he can check it out late in case he doesn’t remember.

So here’s the report today. Courtland had another seizure today. Actually he had three. He had two absent seizures and one real one. The reason for these recent ones is because they took him off his drip/IV and put him on pills and lowered the dose. Since the seizures they have kept him on pills but upped his dosage. So we shouldn’t see any more of them. The only good thing about this recent round of seizures is they were giving him an EEG (again) when one happened, so they were able to map it. The seizures are accruing on his left side of the brain.

We spoke to the neurologist and all the culture reports came back negative. He doesn’t have Herpes, West Nile, or Tick Exposure. He does/did have a viral infection called encephalitis. The problem is they don’t know which one because there are so many and most don’t have cures. Plus there is a chance that the virus is gone.

What this means basically is they have no clue what caused the encephalitis. They also said that the virus left its mark (that’s the best way I cold explain it). Basically he is going to have to be on seizure medicine for the rest of his life.

So his mother/father is making plans for him to go to Birmingham as soon as he is discharged. They have the one of the best seizure facilities and hopefully can go beyond what the doctors here found and find out what is causing the seizures. Hopefully.

Anyway the doctor did say that his short term memory would eventually come back. I’m just hoping that we can get past the part of where every time he wakes up we have to start from scrath and let him know what is going on, where he is, and how he got here.

Well it had the opposite on him. Since Thursday night he has been hullicinating and acting manic. One moment he will be himself then he gets really hyper and happy then he starts seeing things then he crashes and gets depressed and doesn’t remember anything. This could be because of the seizure medications, the seizures, the fact that they just took him off of three medications he didn’t need anymore (kidney meds, meds for the tick exposure, and meds for the herpes virus) or it could be a combination of all three. So he really isn’t himself. We’ve been trying to monitor him when he is on his computer, but if he gets on AIM or any other website and posts remember he’s not all there at the moment.

I don’t know what his mom is going to do in moving him home. He can’t be on all three meds forever. They have to get his seizures under control then they can start figuring out what combinations to give him. Plus if he really has a virus like they say that could be a while before it gets out of his system.

Court again

made it home home safely to alabama and got moved in with grandmother. i love this women and has an epic force of will. She used to be and high bio teacher so trying to argue anything with her is pointless. My reading and writing and writing and less than perfect still and I still don’t sleep much.

Sarah again

So Court’s been home almost two weeks. His initial dr.’s appt. wasn’t going to happen till August 1st. But the last few days he’s been throwing up and has had a fever. So they took him to the ER and now he is in a great hospital that deals with seizures. They are re-testing him all over again and taking him off his meds so they can start from scratch. Let’s hope they find something!

Court again
god damn my month has sucked. just spent a week in the hostpital in birmingham in case you guys missed it

I was told today that I seemed way too efficient for someone who has just gone through as many major events in a short period of time as I have . According to her I should be depressed and crying in a corner somewhere. She said I should not be trying to get furniture for my apartment, out running errands, or helping my friends with their issues. I tried to explain to her that I am extremely depressed, but I need to get stuff done more so than I need to hide in a corner and cry.

But there is my near total lack of catharsis. I don’t have a lot of ways to unwind really. Plus I have only been let out of the house once to see my friends since I have been back in Alabama, and I have been lectured several times for being on the telephone to often even though it is my personal cell phone. I now understand why tigers pace in their cages. I have been reading and doing push-ups to kill the time. I am up to 150+ push-ups for the day.

Fortunately I am a little closer to getting my bicycle back, so then I will be able to get out ride and relax some. Maybe even have some time to myself alone to think and clear my head. My mom also said she will loosen up on the whole “constant supervision thing” once I get my bicycle. She agreed to let me out during the day by myself.