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Showing posts from March, 2017

Searching for the Causes of Syncope

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This week has been one of tests - the kind that I don't know how to study for. Tuesday morning I had a light breakfast around 7am, and arrived at the hospital around 11:15am for round one of tests. After checking in at the main desk I was taken back to registration where a sweet lady named Lorraine asked me to present my ID and insurance cards, make a payment on my balance, and sign a bunch of forms. Eventually I was sent out to the waiting room to wait until they were ready to take me back. A short time later, a young woman in blue scrubs and her blond hair in a ponytail came in and called my name. She introduced herself as Jesslyn, and I followed her down a hall, through a locked door that she had to open with a key card, and down another short hall through the last door on the right to the room where the tests would be done. If you stood in the doorway we entered, on the right there were a wall with a few hooks where I was told to hang my purse. Straight ahead along that wal

Vandalism and a New Car

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Friday morning, Hannah and John went out to the car to go to seminary, only to return back inside saying, "I think someone broke into our car!" When we went out to check, the van - our 2004 Toyota Sienna that we have owned and loved for the last eight years looked like it had been hit by a tornado on the inside. Every compartment that could have been opened had been opened, and its contents were strewn all over the seats and dash. Steven ended up driving them to seminary while I called the police to file a report. After further inspection, we realized how thoroughly they had vandalized our car. Besides making a huge mess, they had attacked the rear speakers with a small file, and a broken off part of that file was jammed into one of the speaker holes. Probably that same file was used to stab and scratch the DVD player screen. The knob on the gear shift lever was missing entirely. Something had been jammed into the ignition keyhole and then broken off inside so we couldn&#

The Encroaching Blackness aka Syncope

The first time in my life that I ever passed out completely was during a choir concert in high school. We were dressed in the red polyester choir robes, packed onto risers like sardines into a can, made to stand there under the hot spotlights on the stage and sing, At some point, the blood drained from my head and darkness crept from the sides of my vision until my sight was filled with blackness, and I sunk down onto the riser for a short nap. I woke up a little while later confused and disoriented, wondering why I was napping - dreaming even- in the middle of a choir concert. Six or seven years later, I was pregnant with my first child, but not far enough along to show. I was kneeling in worship, and once again I felt the darkness come creeping in. I tried to stave it off, shifting my weight, concentrating on breathing, but nothing helped. Again, I fell into an unexpected sleep, and awoke in another room, with no memory of having been carried there. About five or six years ago, a