Jim Goings

I took this pic a couple of weeks ago and forgot to post it.  It’s just too good to not immortalize here on my blog.  I present – the green cruiser.   T-top, gold wheels, chain steering wheel, beige leather interior.  Word to yo motha!

I went to work on Wednesday with the tail end of a cold.  Other than some linger sniffles, I felt fine.  Around 9am I had a mild headache.  At about 10:30 I started to feel queezy, similar to motion sickness.  I figured I was hungry so I grabbed lunch early at 11.  A small subway sandwich later, I’m back at the office.   Feeling of motion sickness increased and around 1pm it was to the point that I needed to vomit.  I went to the restroom and did so several times, hoping that I would feel better.

No such luck.  My head was pounding and I continued to dry heave.  At about 1:30pm, I called my wife and asked her to pick me up as there was no way I could drive in my condition.  My boss came into my office to check on me and when I told here that Beck was on the way and there was nothing she could do, she shut the door (so others didn’t have to hear my heaving) and left.  My head was hurting so bad that I couldn’t keep my eyes open and I began to sob.  It was unbearable.  I put my head down on my desk and prayed that Beck would get there soon.

Next thing I know I find myself on the floor of my office looking towards the interior window.  The pain is extreme and completely debilitating.   I can see the occasional person walking by and although I’m screaming in my head, I cannot make any sounds louder than a whisper.  No one hears me.

The next thing I remembern is some voices, someone calling my name, and somehow I ended up in the hospital.  My head is pounding, I can’t stand the light, and moving any of my limbs makes my head hurt more.  This isn’t migraine pain, this is “I want to die” pain.  Morphine comes and a wave of relief washes over me.  My head still hurts, but it’s now only a 6 or a 7 on the pain scale.

They do 2 CAT scans, one without dye and another with it.  Nothing.

They then do a spinal tap to check for meningitis.  Although they find that I don’t have meningitis, they do discover that I have high spinal fluid pressure.  I don’t remember the exact figures, but the doctor said something in the nearborhood of about double normal.  This can cause extreme headaches, nausea, vomiting, seizures, sight loss, etc.

After ruling out life threatening issues, they give me a prescription for dilaudid (hydromorphone) and send me on my way and told me to follow up with a neurologist.   We stop by the pharmacy on the way home as the doctor said that I would need to pickup the prescription myself with ID since the narcotic was so potent.  As a note, Ride Aid did not ask for an ID, but it could be because I was still wearing my hospital arm band.  My pain on the ride home was about a 7 and by the time we got home, it had reached 8 or so.  I raced straight to bed, curled into the fetal position and hoped it would subside.  Luckily, it did for the most part and I fell asleep.

Thursday, I woke with a level 5 headache and decided to take a pill before it could get worse.  I’m a serious lightweight when it comes to drugs and man that pill sent me to the moon.  I don’t like the disconnected feeling it gave me, but it did work… very little pain.  By noon, the pill wore off and I had a mild headache (3 or so).  I took 2 aleve and they worked.  My head pain was gone by 3pm.  I called every neurologist that’s covered by my insurance plan and none of them were available until next week.  I have any appointment next Friday.  Here’s hoping something good comes of it.

I returned to work today and although I had a level 3 headache that spiked to level 4 occasionally, it never went beyond that.  I worked all day without much effort and without any medication (well, 2 ibuprofen).

I haven’t had to take any more of the morphine pills although I did take 2 aleve when I got home.  My head hurts only a little now (about a 2-3) and it makes me wince every once in a while with a sensation similar to eye strain.  My eye prescription is current and my vision isn’t blurred, so I don’t think it’s really eye strain.  My lower back started hurting today after I did some low impact aerobic walking excersizes.  It’s sore around the lumbar puncture location, but they said that’s normal and will subside withing a few days.

Anyhow, that’s all the news for now.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted and the end of 2008 proved to be full of change.

I recently started a new job as the Director of Support at Optilink, a Division of The Advisory Board Company.  Yeah, it’s a mouthful.  It’s quite a culture shock from Jive, but I’m getting more comfortable with each passing day.  I still miss Jive and often wonder if it will be the pinnacle of my career.  I really miss the people there.  But, perhaps my new boss was right when she said to me yesterday, “The best decision you made in 2008 was to come here”.

My friends Chris and Karen had a new son, Ryan Donald, on December 21st.

My friend Kevin and Val just had a new daughter, Alexis Lee, on December 30th.

Rebecca is due to give birth to Sophie Grace any moment now.  If she doesn’t deliver on her own beforehand, she will be induced first thing Saturday morning.  We are all very eager to receive the new addition to our family.

My mom and Thom were just here for Christmas and had a somewhat sad departure as they had to leave just two days before her new grand-daughter arrives.  Unfortunately, my mom is responsible for payroll at the fire department so she had to leave today.

As if three babies wasn’t enough, God saw fit to ensure that our good friends Damon and Monica were also adding to their family.  Their daughter (tentatively named Alison) is due sometime in April.

2009 is sure to bring many things, but I am hopeful that much of it will be good.  Only 19 days until Obama is sworn in and I pray that he leads us well.

We spotted the hummer owner parking on the other side of the street today. He parked legally and paid… But get this: he put an empty parking citation envelope on his dash, presumably so that when his time expired it would look like he already got a ticket.

We also discovered that he’s the manager of Aura, a night club that we frequent for weekday happy hours.  I really fought the urge to say something to him, but realized that nothing good would come out of it.  He isn’t going to care that he cost my company several hundred dollars.  And most likely he’d just kick us out of the club which would be bad for everyone since they have grub food.

Here you can see the hummer with the “ticket” on it.

And here you can see the empty envelope.  (yes, we checked – it’s a decoy!)

And here you can see that his parking permit expired at 4:21PM… picture taken at 5:15pm or so.

The movers we hired had an amazing truck driver that was able to put a tractor with a 53′ trailer right into our back lot without even flinching (inches on each side – it was crazy).  While they unload the truck – some a**hole parks his hummer right next the driveway in the no parking zone.

As a result, they couldn’t get the trucks out of the back lot which prevented the other two trucks from unloading.  The space was so tight by the freight elevator that we couldn’t even park the trucks on the street and roll the stuff around the sidewalk – there was no room for anything past the trailers to get to the elevator.  So we were stuck until this Hummer was moved.

I called the police and told them that this guy was costing us a few hundred dollars an hour.  They were Johnny on the Spot and the parking enforcement dude showed up with a huge grin on his face.  He was absolutely thrilled to ticket this guy.  In fact, he got two tickets – $60 for parking in a no parking zone and $60 for not having a front license plate.  He then slapped a red “Tow” sticker on the windshield.

The tow truck showed up about 15 minutes later – but because there was another car in front of the Hummer, he couldn’t do much.

His dollys weren’t beefy enough to handle the weight of the Hummer and the parking break was set, so the only option would be to drag it out, likely causing drive train issues for the Hummer owner.  He called in his buddy who had a different towing device that extended out and could reach the hummer.  They lifted the front of the hummer up and the front of the tow truck came up too – it was pretty cool to behold.

I snapped this pic just as the tow truck’s front tires hit the ground after being about 1 ft off the ground.  They continued to jockey the hummer, just inches from the back of the Jetta and finally got it into a position where they could hook it up to the larger tow truck.

Unfortunately, the with the rear wheels still locked in park, they had to crawl under the Hummer and disconnect the drive shaft.  Here are some choice quotes from the tow truck dude while they were under the Hummer: