Catch-up

Ok, so I have not written in awhile!

I have had so many things going on:

I have been at CU-Boulder for officialy one year now as an admissions counselor (not including my internship). It has been a whirlwind and I have grown in many ways. It has been exciting with all of the travel and might I say, I have become a pretty good public speaker (Americans #1 fear).

Where I have travelled for CU-Boulder in the past year:

North Carolina
Nevada
New Mexico
Idaho
Arizona
Minnesota

Where will I be going next year? Who knows....I am excited though. I LOVE to travel and it has been a fun experience.

Tonight I spoke at the commencement ceremony for a local community college. I was asked to speak at the ceremony because of my background: I went to the community college, transfered to CU, and now work in the admissions office at CU-Boulder as an admissions counselor and lead transfer recruitment.

It was a very good experience. I was SO nervous, but I think I did quite well and I am very glad that I did it. It was rewarding and is something I will remember forever. In addition, I ran into somebody that was graduating that will be attending CU and who I admitted! Talk about full circle and seeing & feeling your work in action.

I walked into the computer room tonight and Khazana was just sending an email.

Dear Porfesser,
I'm nine yrs old and I'm absalutley love Harvard.
If I'm not talking to the right porfesser please tell me. Well My name Is Khazana Nguyen and I right now am going to Aspen Creek K-8. I'm trying to get into Dawson for Middle school and High school. I want to get a teaching licenses and become a good photogafer. My friends are all ways saying it's Hard to get in to Harvard and they say I would never get in. I want a good nice life to. So I was wondering what I need to get into Harvard Unavirsity. I'm playing Lacrosse I actually just quit competived Gymnastics I've been in it for about half my life. I love Math, Science and Social Studies. When I do got to college what classes should I do.
Are there anythings that would help me or for me try to do? I'm a little Vietamiese and Indian and Half American. Well thanks for listening to my story.
From,
Khazana Nguyen

Believe me, I was a bit shocked. This was totally out of the blue and random. We have not talked about her doing this or anything. She looked up contact info herself on Harvard's website. She even misspelled Harvard and google corrected for her!

Amazing!

I am taking the GRE this Saturday. I plan on applying for a Master in Public Administration degree. I am not sure if I want to do this right away, but I definitely want to get the GRE out of the way.

I took and failed the Foreign Service exam this year. I had a feeling that I did not pass. My essay was horrible. I just could not get it together this time around. I did order my score breakdown and it seems as though I actually passed the exam section, but the essay was not scored high enough for a passing grade. Some of you know that I actually passed last year. Oh well, next year.

My tonsil surgery is all over and I feel %100! It was a slow recovery process, but I am glad I did it and it is over.

GOODNIGHT.

2 weeks done!

It has been 2 weeks since my surgery and I feel SO much better. Everything the doc said actually happened. He said that it would feel worse before it started to feel better- he was right. He said days 3-7 would be really bad and then 10 would hurt too- he was right. He said that I would feel hundred times better in 2 weeks- he was right.

I am still a bit sore and on pain meds. However, I have been taking fewer doses and yes, I am actually starting to eat real food!!! Woo hoo.

Tomorrow I am going to Salt Lake City, Utah. Khazana and I are visiting Andrew. My Dad is also going to join us for the weekend. Should be exciting.

Day 5/6

Yesterday was hell. Today, I feel better. It is hard to explain the kind of "better" I feel. I am now taking pain meds every 3 hrs, instead of the recommended 4. I was so scared of overdosing , that I would just sit and try to make it through the next hour and so after overcoming the fear of overdosing, I started take the vicodin every 3. This has helped tremendously.

For the last several days I could barely move. Today, I am up and around moving. I am in the kitchen looking for things to eat. Swallowing is still very painful. Even with foods that I can eat, I have to take a big swig of water with every bite and then the gulp from the water hurts. It is very very difficult and I have experimented with several different kinds of foods. Everybody talks about ice-cream, but there is only so much ice-cream you can eat. I am sick of cold and sweet foods. When this thing is all done, I am going to sit down with a big plate of McDonald's salty french fries and ketchup and I am not going to share.

In addition to this pain, I am now having horrible heartburn. I never have had heartburn problem and so I know it has something to do with the surgery. Anyhow, nothing a little vicodin can't cure.

I did have a chance to watch Obama's speech on race today. It was absolutely riveting. This a candidate that we can be very proud of and a candidate, I hope one day, I can call my president.

Day 3: Tonsillectomy

Aghh...feeling horrible. Yesterday (day 2) was ok and pretty much like day 1, however today, I just feel plain yucky. I feel like I am getting worse, which is to be expected. The back of my throat is completely white and my tongue is so swollen. To top all it all off, I AM HUNGRY! I have been eating, but it is all the same stuff...sweet, cold and milky. I want some meat. I want something with texture. I know, I know only a couple of days...but it feels like forever.

Things that have kept me going so far:

-gum (keeps your mouth producing saliva-very good)
-cold water
-Popsicles
-tapioca pudding
-Milo (cold chocolate milk)
-chloraseptic mouth spray (at first I thought it might burn too much, but it has really worked out well)

More to come tomorrow. I hope I start feeling better. According to the doctor, day 3 through day 7 is the worst. I hope I start progressing. I have been drinking tons of water and keeping myself pretty hydrated. Other than that, I can't go anywhere...I have been laying on the couch all night and day, drinking liquid vicodin and falling in out of sleep.

Tonsillectomy

Some of you know that I decided to have a tonsillectomy after having recurring bouts of tonsillitis. I have had throat issues several times a year from as long as I can remember.

My surgery was yesterday morning at 7:15 am.

First off, an adult tonsillectomy is very different from tonsillectomy performed a child. The pain is excruciating, well, at least that is what they tell me (including the doctor). Never ever google a surgery procedure before actually having it. Believe me I did and mostly what I could find was horror stories. Now however, if you are interested, just type in adult tonsillectomy and you will find what I did..enough stories to make you want to back out.

March, 13 2008, Day 1:

I woke up at 5:30 AM, took a shower and left for the hospital at 6:00 AM with my Dad. Kerry came and watched Khazana and made sure she was out the door for school. Andrew is in Utah. After filling out paperwork I was taken back to the surgery center with a nurse. The next hour was filled with nurses and doctors coming in out and asking me the same questions...is this your signature?....is this your birth date?...and so on. They explained that this was standard procedure to make sure that they were all on the same page...basically ensuring that I did not come out with a nose job or something like that!

The anethesiologist came in and injected my IV with something and said I would begin to feel happy. I said bye to my Dad and a few minutes later, as I was being rolled into the operating room, sure enough, I began to feel happy. That is pretty much all I can remember from that stage of the procedure. I woke up in the room that I was originally in...my throat hurt, I could not talk properly and felt like something was in the back of my throat. I know this is going to sound like too much information, but I felt like mucus was stuck and kept trying to spit it out....later I found out it was not mucus, but my uvula, that still continues to be about 5 times the regular size. It looks like a punching bag in the back of my throat.

I was instructed to stay at the hospital for about 6 hours. I usually hate laying in hospital beds, but this was an extremely good experience and the nurses took good care of me. I was given morphine through my IV after a failed attempt at another medicine that was making me sick and dizzy. After the meds kicked in, I managed to eat some applesauce. It is the weirdest feeling not being able to swallow...I had to drink water to push down the food.

Finally, at about 2:30 PM I was discharged. If you are having a tonsillectomy, you HAVE to have somebody drive you home. Don't kid yourself, the general anethestic is a general anethestic used in any other major surgery and you will feel very groggy! When I went home they sent me with liquid vicodin for pain, an antibiotic and several medicated lollipops for my tongue. They also put an anti-inflammatory in my IV several hours before leaving.

Since reaching home, all I can think about is eating and so I have had pudding, apple sauce, popsicles (which by the way is a lifesaver) and also attempted maccaroni (not a good idea, would not go down). I continued to medicate myself throughout the day and I have been drinking TONS of water. After surgery, your throat and mouth feels continusouly dry....I have found gum, water and apple juice helps. The doctor instructed that I take big gulps to get the muscles moving, sounds easy right? No, it is not....the natural tendency is to sip when in so much pain. It is a weird kind of pain...I am not in excruciating pain...but I am in pain, my tongue hurts. I tried a medicated lollipop before eating, another not so good idea, because it numbed my mouth so much I could not push my food down and I felt like I was choking.

2:25 AM:

Woke up with a lots of pain. Very very dry mouth and throat. I set my alarm for 1:30 so that I could take my meds. Probably a good idea to wake myself, the pain is starting to subside. I am blogging.

More to come tomorrow. I am going to go eat a popsicle, watch last weeks episode of Lost and drink some more water.

"In the language of metaphor, Clinton is an essay, solid and reasoned; Obama is a poem, lyric and filled with possibility."