




1 YEAR AGO: If Only I Could Fit All Of This Information On A Bumper Sticker…
2 YEARS AGO: Providence Silhouette
3 YEARS AGO: Published
4 YEARS AGO: Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
As of today, we've been in Shipshewana for a week. Normally, I'd be pulling my hair out having to be at a shop for this long, but the difference here is, these people know what they're doing. Unlike some other places we've been. I've stolen the photo above from the ARI web site so you see exactly where we've been spending our nights; it's the building with the truck exiting their driveway.
We initially came to have some warranty work done but all of a sudden, everything Ed had in his head for the last year, exploded into words and tumbled into the ears of the service manager. Ed was like a kid in a candy store.
So what was supposed to be touch-ups and minor fixes, turned into...another set of steps for the other side of the catwalk so we could access the back door from either side; having the truck plumbed so we could hook up to a water source when in an RV park; adding docking lights to the airfoil on the back of the sleeper so they shine down on the trailer, allowing Ed to have better visibility when loading or working on the trailer; re-routing the exhaust pipe for the generator from coming out the side of the sleeper to coming out at the back; moving the airlines that typically hang on the "pogo stick" from the back of the catwalk to underneath the truck so they come out at the back bumper, rendering the air lines virtually invisible; outfitting the trailer for the new air lines and adding a quick disconnect; adding a grease deflector underneath the catwalk so grease and road filth doesn't spray up onto our back door, and finally, putting the new flooring in the cab.
To see where we've spent the week, I'm also stealing this video from the ARI web site, originally shown on The History Channel, so you can get an idea of the work area that we sneak in and out of when we're bothering the talent as they work.
Other than that, not much else is going on. The snowfall has been delightful and we'll probably be here over the weekend again before going back to work on Monday. Being here has totally upset my sleeping schedule; when I rise to the sound of horses hooves clip-clopping outside my window, indicating that the Amish are also up, you know it's early. And since I'm a night owl, these early mornings have been doing me in.
I need the weekend to nap.
I thought I should smile for the second picture. Makes a big difference, huh??
I started swelling more as I sat there; cheeks, chin and neck were getting puffier by the minute. My face felt twice its normal size. The Benadryl I usually took didn't seem to work as well as it had in the past. When I told the nurses I took 75 mg of Benadryl, they glanced at each other and one of them said "I'm surprised you're still standing". Usually 50 mg of Benadryl knocks me out, but this time it didn't seem to take hold that quickly. When I got to the ER, they gave me an IV with even more Benadryl, in additoin to Prednisone and an anti-inflammatory.
This next shot shows how I look with lip liner and lipstick. I mean, when you finally have lips like Angelina Jolie, you have to experiment, no?Prior to putting on the lip liner, the most GORGEOUS doctor came in to tend to me. I joked about showing him my driver’s license picture so he could see what I really looked like. He was extremely cute, but SEVERLY lacking in personality. The jokes did not go over very well with him. Besides, he was married and Ed was sitting nearby, so I couldn't really offer him up a tasting of my juicy Angelina lips.
Finally, here I am in my new "Jackie O" sunglasses so I could get out of there unnoticed…since I was in Florida among the beautiful people perhaps everyone would just think I was coming from a collagen lip injection or that I was swollen from a "procedure".I am feeling better now. I'm less puffy, but still not back to normal. My nose is still wide and under my eyes are puffy. My lips went down but I no longer look like Melanie Griffith OR Angelina Jolie. Damn it!! But, at least I am not the hideous creature I was just a few days ago.
So, $120 later, I walked away with some steroids and a prescription for an EpiPen just in case this happens on the road and I'm not near a hospital. I can’t wait to see the bill from the hospital that I’ll be getting in the mail; I surely don’t think that the vacation is going to be worth THAT money.
After my little ordeal, I was tired, hungry and a little cranky so we promptly drove to Outback for a nice juicy steak. I figured it couldn’t get much worse, so I ordered another Caesar Salad. After all, I did have my EpiPen now.
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So here we are five years later, and I've never had to use that Epi-Pen. I still have it, but I'm sure it's not any good. I've never before and never after, had a reaction quite this bad. I have had a few incidents with swollen eyes and a couple of mini throat swellings, but for the most part, it seems to have gone away. I can usually tell when it's coming on, I get a little warning. Ed is also well aware of the issue just in case something happens so quickly it renders me speechless.
Although, I'm not sure that'll happen because even with my restricted airway and big lips, I was still able to talk.
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1 YEAR AGO: Marking This Day In History With A Vibrant Spot Of Color
2 YEARS AGO: Lighting To Do Laundry By
3 YEARS AGO: The Benefits Of Dating A White Boy
4 YEARS AGO: Shhhhhh, You’ll Wake The Driver