Dear DELL,
I enjoy all the promotional emails you send me. I can't say that for all the other ones I receive, but yours are colorful and informative and dammit, they make me want to buy a new computer. And sometimes I get so close that I am literally on your website, customizing a laptop that fits my needs. It's all going swell; who doesn't smile at instant price reductions and free 2-day shipping?
But then my cloud 9 status disappears. What is this? Vista? No. Never. But then I'd have to pay more to get XP pre-installed? No. Never. This is terrible. This is why I've refused to get serious about buying new. It's a shame because it's not your fault, DELL, but the harsh reality is that I -- like millions of people -- do not want to get stuck with Vista on their great new computer. And they don't want to have to spend more just to have XP (which I already have) already loaded.
So here's the thing: until Vista is removed from your customization page and replaced with Windows 7, you won't be getting a purchase out of me. I'm sorry. It's Microsoft's fault, yes, because even they acknowledged you were all guinea pigs for Vista and that everything wrong with it is now corrected in W7. And this recession doesn't help, but I sure do hope you stick around for another 18 months to reap the benefits of a good operating system on your great computers.
By all means, keep sending me the promotional emails. I'm loving the idea of a mini-DELL and if I didn't have my iPhone, I'd be all over that (in a year, when it's doing things W7-style). But I'm only looking, I'm not buying.
Again, I'm sorry, but this is just how things have to be. I refuse to deal with Microsoft and the shit they send out and the prices and the shotty marketing with television commercials that are dumb and don't fix basic problems. I would move to a Mac if I could, but something is holding me back (is it you, DELL? is it YOU?).
Good Luck and have a good day.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Sunday, January 11, 2009
You, Sudafed, you!
And people wonder why I've said no to drugs and cigarettes my whole life. Like that time I was being pressured into smoking weed (yes, kids, it was just like those after-school specials) and I laughed it off that I'd probably become addicted like I am with television shows. Turns out, I don't even need the illegal stuff to get completely fucked up, I can just take Sudafed.
Now, it doesn't happen to everybody so I'm not warning off Sudafed completely; it's just me who's now not allowed to take it. More specifically, the pseudoephedrine and phenylephrine that are used to make Sudafed. Nasal decongestants can, apparently, kill me. Good to know, I'll write that one down.
How does it happen, you ask? Slowly. Very slowly. The first time I took Sudafed was at the end of last May. I took it for a cold because the doctor told me to. I didn't start using it for shits and giggles or like a, 'hey, wonder what Sudafed can do to me?'. Nope, totally innocent me just went to the doctor to make sure I didn't have strep throat. Least of my worries, that stupid strep throat.
I don't know how many colds you're supposed to have in a year, but I have started to get more due to being in an office environment, constantly around people all the time with nowhere else to go. I felt a cold coming on while I was in Michigan (you were in Michigan? Yes, I was) so I took Sudafed to try to keep the overall symptoms at bay. I was also starting to feel really crappy otherwise, which I thought was just the cold starting off. So it wasn't. Who knew?
The only reason I was weirded out was because as I walked to work from the train station, I'd have a really tough time walking at my normal pace. I walk fast, as my mother says, so the fact that I could no longer walk that fast without having to catch my breath definitely scared me. I also felt like there was something in my lungs, whether it was congestion or whatever else could be in there. Eventually I'd be able to catch my breath and my breathing would get better, but I did not feel 100 percent at all. I was sluggish, tired; I had trouble going up the stairs in my house. I didn't sleep at night because being on my stomach affected my breathing and I just coughed all night. I couldn't sleep on my back at all, there was something in my lungs that preventing me from doing that position.
It was a Tuesday after work that I asked my mom to take me to the emergency room. I had just come home and was coughing horribly, not breathing right, and I'd basically had enough. Whether it was laryngitis or asthma or whatever, I just wanted the medicine to make it better. The ER (not a real ER, if we want to be honest; they were horrible and screwed up my insurance information) took my blood pressure first thing . . . 205/153. Guess what? That's high. Ridiculously high if you want to compare it to a normal, 120/80. They took a chest X-ray and found my heart to be twice the size it should've been, working at 20 percent, and I had a lot of fluid in my lungs (no shit! definitely explained my congestion problems).
I was put in ICU overnight and my mother had me transferred the next day to MGH. It had to be done. Even if the original hospital had been able to help my mom all those years ago, I was a different case altogether. It wasn't normal for a 25-year old to have these symptoms and it wasn't okay that they weren't doing all they could to get my blood pressure down. Plus, everyone my mother talked to told her to get me out of there.
I stayed in MGH for about a week. I didn't sleep, I stayed in a room with some crazy people, had to deal with some annoying residents intent on solving my case, and left without a true diagnosis and a few medicines to keep my blood pressure normal.
It wasn't until a month later that the cardiologist told me that they were thinking it was the Sudafed. There had been a few (read: not many) cases of this happening, but since both of my parents also had high blood pressure, I was probably already predisposed to it and the Sudafed kicked it into gear. Awesome, thanks. Otherwise, hey, I'm in pretty good health. My kidneys are working fine and my heart is now back to normal size and working at about the percentage it's supposed to, around 46 percent.
I should point out that before going to the ER, I had tried to get an appointment with my primary care doctor. The first time, she was on vacation; they second time, she was booked until the Thursday I was in the hospital. So it's not like I didn't try. My only other option was going to the doctor who gave me the Sudafed. Really, no thanks, I already didn't like him.
I have another appointment with the cardiologist in a few weeks, so hopefully things will check out and I'll maybe not have to deal with as many pills as I have. I don't know. I'm kind of young to be lugging around a pill box for high blood pressure.
Now, it doesn't happen to everybody so I'm not warning off Sudafed completely; it's just me who's now not allowed to take it. More specifically, the pseudoephedrine and phenylephrine that are used to make Sudafed. Nasal decongestants can, apparently, kill me. Good to know, I'll write that one down.
How does it happen, you ask? Slowly. Very slowly. The first time I took Sudafed was at the end of last May. I took it for a cold because the doctor told me to. I didn't start using it for shits and giggles or like a, 'hey, wonder what Sudafed can do to me?'. Nope, totally innocent me just went to the doctor to make sure I didn't have strep throat. Least of my worries, that stupid strep throat.
I don't know how many colds you're supposed to have in a year, but I have started to get more due to being in an office environment, constantly around people all the time with nowhere else to go. I felt a cold coming on while I was in Michigan (you were in Michigan? Yes, I was) so I took Sudafed to try to keep the overall symptoms at bay. I was also starting to feel really crappy otherwise, which I thought was just the cold starting off. So it wasn't. Who knew?
The only reason I was weirded out was because as I walked to work from the train station, I'd have a really tough time walking at my normal pace. I walk fast, as my mother says, so the fact that I could no longer walk that fast without having to catch my breath definitely scared me. I also felt like there was something in my lungs, whether it was congestion or whatever else could be in there. Eventually I'd be able to catch my breath and my breathing would get better, but I did not feel 100 percent at all. I was sluggish, tired; I had trouble going up the stairs in my house. I didn't sleep at night because being on my stomach affected my breathing and I just coughed all night. I couldn't sleep on my back at all, there was something in my lungs that preventing me from doing that position.
It was a Tuesday after work that I asked my mom to take me to the emergency room. I had just come home and was coughing horribly, not breathing right, and I'd basically had enough. Whether it was laryngitis or asthma or whatever, I just wanted the medicine to make it better. The ER (not a real ER, if we want to be honest; they were horrible and screwed up my insurance information) took my blood pressure first thing . . . 205/153. Guess what? That's high. Ridiculously high if you want to compare it to a normal, 120/80. They took a chest X-ray and found my heart to be twice the size it should've been, working at 20 percent, and I had a lot of fluid in my lungs (no shit! definitely explained my congestion problems).
I was put in ICU overnight and my mother had me transferred the next day to MGH. It had to be done. Even if the original hospital had been able to help my mom all those years ago, I was a different case altogether. It wasn't normal for a 25-year old to have these symptoms and it wasn't okay that they weren't doing all they could to get my blood pressure down. Plus, everyone my mother talked to told her to get me out of there.
I stayed in MGH for about a week. I didn't sleep, I stayed in a room with some crazy people, had to deal with some annoying residents intent on solving my case, and left without a true diagnosis and a few medicines to keep my blood pressure normal.
It wasn't until a month later that the cardiologist told me that they were thinking it was the Sudafed. There had been a few (read: not many) cases of this happening, but since both of my parents also had high blood pressure, I was probably already predisposed to it and the Sudafed kicked it into gear. Awesome, thanks. Otherwise, hey, I'm in pretty good health. My kidneys are working fine and my heart is now back to normal size and working at about the percentage it's supposed to, around 46 percent.
I should point out that before going to the ER, I had tried to get an appointment with my primary care doctor. The first time, she was on vacation; they second time, she was booked until the Thursday I was in the hospital. So it's not like I didn't try. My only other option was going to the doctor who gave me the Sudafed. Really, no thanks, I already didn't like him.
I have another appointment with the cardiologist in a few weeks, so hopefully things will check out and I'll maybe not have to deal with as many pills as I have. I don't know. I'm kind of young to be lugging around a pill box for high blood pressure.
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