Rocky’s Nut Brunch

Brigham Young University has a very strict dress code.  Of course, you might see a single ear piercing in each ear on a woman but more than likely no more than that.  And of course, none in men.  You won’t see tattoo’s either and no tank tops bearing midriffs. And you won’t see any of the colorful hair designs or spiked hair that you might see at some other colleges.  But here’s something you might not know.

Male students enrolled at Brigham Young University need a doctor’s note to grow a beard.  Yep, you heard that right.  It’s in the Brigham Young University honor code.  No beards.  Men can have a trimmed mustache – but no beard.  The only exception is for medical reasons and then there is a step by step process to get approved to grow a beard.

Thoughts?

 

 

31 Days of Spook – H.H. Holmes

I know you are asking yourself who in the world is H.H. Holmes and why is he being featured on my 31 Days of Spook?  The name sounds so plain and innocent.  But I assure, it is not.  You see H.H. Holmes is the common name of Dr. Henry Howard Holmes (who was actually born Herman Webster Mudgett – try to figure that out huh?)  H.H. Holmes is considered America’s First Serial Killer.  Does the name sound innocent now?

Most people that want to become a doctor go into the field hoping to prevent death. H.H. Holmes went to school to become a doctor to help him out more in causing death and destruction.  Let’s start from here and let me explain to you what H.H. Holmes actually did.

It starts out in 1886 in Chicago.  H.H. Holmes built a hotel right in town near all of the fair activities.  In the time that he was building it, he often brought in different construction crews to add things and then fired that crew afterwards.  Again the next day hiring a different construction crew to work on something else at the hotel.  That way, not one construction crew or person knew of the intricacies of the hotel.  What intricacies?  Well like 100’s of windowless rooms, doorways that opened into brick walls, stairways leading to nowhere, doors that opened from the outside and don’t forget the fun rooms.  The rooms that had soundproof walls and gas lines in them to asphyxiate the guests.  Or rooms that had walls covered with iron plates and blowtorches to incinerate guests.  Or the secret hanging chamber… or the basement where he would dissect, strip the flesh off guests and then sale their bodies to medical schools.  What a host huh?

The hotel was nicknamed the Castle by the people of the area and it was three stories and a block long.  The name of the actual hotel was called the World’s Fair Hotel.  Yep, you guessed it.  The hotel was right there in the same area of the World Fair in 1893.  Just think of all of the innocent people coming to  Chicago for the World’s Fair.  They see this nice, new hotel and check in thinking they are safe… and then they are never heard from again.  Thus in the end, the hotel was then called the Murder Castle.

In the end, justice was given to H.H. Holmes.  He was eventually caught and although he claimed to have killed 27 people, it is actually thought the count could be well over 200 people!  What’s even more interesting is that H.H. Holmes is even linked to the likes of Jack the Ripper.  Some people even think that they may be one and the same.  H.H. Holmes was actually in London during the killings of Jack the Ripper.  And of course, Jack the Ripper was actually a very clean cut killer – some believe that he had a medical background.  With all of the killing that H.H. Holmes did, I would think he would fit that bill.  Do you?

Picture Mugshot from Wikipedia

 

Donating Plasma – How Do They Do It?

  Mom has gotten a lot of questions asked here in blogville, Facebook and by email about why she is donating plasma and how they do it.  I thought I would give mom the blog and let her explain everything.. it really is exciting when you think about it.  Take it away mom!

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Personally, I’ve been wanting to give plasma for a very long time.  It helps a lot of different people with an assortment of medical problems.  I’ve even seen a commercial on television lately about plasma helping people with arthritis.

Once you decide that you want to donate plasma, you have to go through enrollment.  They will  go over a series of medical questions with you, you will watch a video, you will then do a medical enrollment, take vitals and lastly you will be seen by an on-site nurse.  If you make it through all of the criteria, then you are ready for a donation.  After the initial enrollment, each time you donate you will have your vitals taken before donating.  There are certain guidelines that you have to pass each time you donate.  For instance, blood pressure, temperature and pulse rate have to be within range.  Every time you go, you will have your weigh checked and you will also have your finger pricked so they can test your red blood cell count and your protein levels – which also have to be within range.

Once you pass all of above, then your next stop is the donor room.  Depending on how many nurses they have on staff that day depends on how many ‘beds’ they have open at one time.  A good bed to nurse ration is 12 beds.  And they tell you standing in line, for every 12-15 people ahead of you it could be one hour worth of wait.  So it’s not a quick thing.  I have waited 3-4 hours at a time.  But to me, giving plasma is worth the small price of inconvenience that I have to pay for waiting.

Giving blood plasma is a process called plasmapheresis.  Say that real quick huh?  You are hooked up to an IV in one of your arms.  Does it hurt?  I’ve had so many people ask me this.  The needle is bigger than when you are having a blood test.  Some nurses are also better than others – just like the doctors office.  I’ve had some nurses do it and I don’t feel a thing.  I’ve had other nurses do it where I cringe my eyes and try to breathe through the pain.  And then people ask if it’s painful why do you do it?  And I have to tell them that the little bit of uncomfortable pain that I might feel fleetingly is *nothing* compared to the people that it helps.  I have to keep thinking of the bigger picture – people that are in need.

Once you are hooked up the IV, your blood is pumped out into this machine and goes into the bottle (which is the middle part of the picture). The plasma is stripped from your blood and placed into a container.  The blood is then recirculated back into your body during a process they call the return.  Now how long does it take?  Well, depending on how much water you have drank throughout the past couple of days it can take anywhere between 35-90 minutes.  Personally, it takes me around 30-35 minutes if nothing goes wrong.

If you see the bottle in this picture, it shows you the amount that you are donating.  Plasma comes in all different colors – it can be bright red, pink, green or a tinge of white/red – all depending on the medicines that you take.  Mine comes out a greenish/white.  Over the Christmas holidays, I had a guy ask me why my color was green.  Without missing a beat, I told him that my father was an Elf.  Snorts – we all had a good laugh about that.

You can donate twice in a 7 day period.  By the time you read this posting, I will have made my 17 donation!  My personal goal was to donate 20 – so I’m almost there.  I’ve had ups and downs during the process.  One time, they couldn’t get my blood that was pumped out to return and I lost blood during the donation. Of course, I’ve been bruised at the IV site – it happens.  I’ve had times that my iron was too low to give that day.  I’ve had multiple problems with my pulse rate.  The rate has to be 100 or less.  I’ve had to sit out for 15 minutes to try the pulse again and there have also been times I couldn’t make it that day because of my pulse.

*Pictures are off the internet at various web sites to share how the process works.

 

Pay it Forward

Okay Friends – Here We Go!

My sweet friends at Nikitaland have started this monthly issue of Pay It Forward.  We asked for you to keep this in mind all month and to share things here today on what you have been able to do.  Paying it forward is not for bragging purposes – it’s an attempt to show how many different things we can do to pay it forward – lots of them don’t even include money.  Gestures that we take for granted may be a God send to another person.

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Friends – this month mommy is going to report on something that she has started doing, something that is close to her heart and means so very much to her.  She has been thinking about it for some time and to be honest with you she had not done it up until this point because of one reason – she was afraid.  But she finally bit the bullet and did it.  What you ask?  Well, here’s mom to explain.

Thanks Bacon.  When my husband Jim was in a car accident years ago, he was in the hospital for over 12 weeks, most of those in intensive care.  During that time, he was treated with blood transfusions and other treatments that contained plasma.  Then years later, a good friend of ours needed treatment that also came from plasma.  I’ve done a LOT of research on plasma donation and it was one of those things that I really wanted to check out since it touched so close to us here at the Hotel Thompson.

Well, I took a big step on 11/18/2015 and went to a center to inquire about the procedures.  Now I had done a LOT of research on line and knew about some things; however, to actually do this you have to go through a process that could take 3-5 hours the very first time.  This involves watching a short film on the process, reading a short manual at the center, giving a medical history, being evaluated by a nurse and having your vitals taken – blood pressure, weight, pulse, temp.  IF you pass all of this, then you are ready to give blood plasma.  I was accepted – HAPPY DANCE!

If you have given blood or had blood drawn for blood work, that is how it feels.  And let me tell you something my friends.  This one ouch moment is *nothing* to how you feel afterwards knowing that you gave to a great cause something that you had that someone else could use.

And today by the time you read this, I have made 4 donations with 2 more scheduled this week.  Even last week while on vacation, I got up at 6AM on my days off to be at the clinic and in line waiting to make a donation.  Each donation, you go through vitals check and you can plan on being there for 2-4 hours.  There is that big of a line which is awesome!  I have to admit though, I’m having problems some visits with my pulse rate.  It has to be under 100 bpm.  As long as I can keep it under that, all of my other numbers (blood pressure, hemoglobin, iron and weight) are perfect.  Please pray for me my friends that I can continue to do this.  My commitment to myself was 20 visits.

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 My buddy Nikitaland made up a good deeds sheet.  You can get it here.  You can print it, hang it on your fridge and just jot some things down that you do during the month.  That way at our next meet up, you can share what you have done to PAY IT FORWARD.

AND if you are interested in getting some Pay it Forward bracelets, check out Nikitaland’s post here for ordering information.  Believe me friends – WE CAN ALL MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

Next meet up will be January 6th – mark your calendars!

 

Weird or What?

Hello friends.  This is actually me.  I know some of you question as whether or not I’m a pig – I am 🙂  I’m up on the couch for snuggle time with mom getting ready to watch some of our regular television shows. 

I wanted to give you a heads up on a new television show that we have started watching on Tuesday nights.  It’s called Weird or What? and is hosted by William Shatner.  Now, I’m not going to lie.  It did take us a couple of weeks to get caught on to the show and now we are full fledged followers.

Here, it comes on the SyFy channel – we *love* that channel.  Each episode contains two to three stories of the bizarre and unexplained.  It balances out the supernatural vs. scientific theories of the individual cases.  It mainly features strange occurrences like ghosts, aliens, monsters, natural disasters and medical oddities.

I don’t think that this is the first time it has been on television.  I want to say that it premiered in maybe 2010 and only had three seasons on the Discovery Channel?  Someone let me know if I’m wrong. 

If you get a chance and you’re looking for something to watch tonight, bounce over to the SyFy channel and check it out.  Let me know what you think.