Learning Experience…

Last night I made Oyakudon.  It was good. I nearly set off the fire alarm twice and spent 3 hours from start to finish.

San Diego but not really

Highlights from the Beach Camping trip this last weekend:

- At least a dozen students asked why we were taking I-10 instead of I-8 if we were going to San Diego.  “easy” I said, “because we’re not going to San Diego. We’re going to south LA.” The irony?  My caravan took the 8 :).

- A car of all guys from our caravan (which I won’t identify) somehow made it through border patrol not wearing any pants.

- Dustin and Bryce sumo-ing on the beach

- Richie and his bro Steven also sumo-ing in a Moreno throw-down

- Edwardo’s car breaking down at the meeting point before leaving and a group of guys pushing his car into a parking spot, with all the students staring asking themselves “…who’s going to have to ride in that car?”

- Asking the famous Scraw camping trip question to a tent full of freshman guys.

Statistics:

• 80 People
• 18 Cars
• 792 gallons of gas consumed
• 1 stingray attack
• 2 blown tires
• 8 vehicles that tried to find the beach by going east (needless to say, they got lost)
• 11 hours of sleep
• 14 hours on the beach
• 18 hours of driving
• 1000+ pictures and counting
• 2 students who were really, really, really sunburnt.

Credit due

When I got out of the hospital my parents came down from Phoenix for the day to see how I was doing. They brought a dozen roses for Ariel for putting up with me in the hospital and this for me:

Oh yeah. be jealous :)

In other news my blood is back to normal except for my Fibrogen levels. Right now they're at 36. They're supposed to be between 200-400. We're getting there!

What I’ve been up to

After a regional conference in Palm Springs I followed a friend back to Irvine for a few days to hang out with Tokyo BEST club, and namely my japanese buddy “M”.

It was a great time reconnecting with “M”, “MO”, and “Y".” We went surfing (I just watched because of my still-thin-but-getting-thicker-blood), hung out on the beach, and reconnected at a bonfire with all the other Japanese summer workers.

The funniest thing about the experience is that as soon as I returned to Tucson, that night was the kick off BBQ to a three day Utsunomia BEST club trip.  I miss Japan.

snakebite update

After seeing more doctors and giving more blood than I ever want to again, the verdict for now is that I can go to CA this weekend for our annual Navigators Regional Kickoff (yay!) and I don't need to get more antivenom.  So that's really good!  My blood is still screwy (read: really thin), but the doctor told me as long as I'm careful and avoid major activities for the next 2-3 weeks I'll be fine and it should thicken out eventually.

Thanks for your prayers!

Recovery

Keep praying I recover quickly from this dumb snake bite. I’ve been dizzy and way weaker than I though i would be. Today I had to cancel 2 out of my 3 meeting time with students. It’s even more frustrating because I’m heading out of town next week and don’t feel like I’ve had much time to “sow” during this extremely valuable sowing season.  Pray for energy and that God would lead clearly on who to be investing in during this precious time at the beginning of the semester.

And for your viewing pleasure, my best scar from this whole experience is in fact totally unrelated to the rattlesnake bite.  While in the ambulance the EMT tried putting in an IV right when we went over a bumpy bridge.  The result was an IV that slipped out, lots of blood, a ruined shirt, and a sweet bruise :)

There’s a snake in my boot!

Two days ago while walking at night in flip flops down a dark paved road with Ariel’s parents I felt a surge of pain in my foot. I shake it off, pull out my cell phone and see two small blood marks on the top of my small toe, and feel my foot start to cramp and bruise.

After an ambulance ride to the ER, two IVs (one fell out over a bridge), four bottles of CroFab anti-venom, two nights in the ICU and way more opportunities to pee in a bottle than I care to remember, I was released!

Now at home my foot’s still swelled and it hurts to walk on it, but at least I can get around. Ariel's family was in town and kept me company most of the time I was in the hospital, and Ariel spent the night both nights, which I'm increadibly greatful for.

My fat swelled foot. The lines are how much it swelled at different times.