Intercranial Aneurysm

I'm sure some of you have been wondering why I haven't been posting much since last week.  It's not that I'm ignoring you, I have had reason.

On Wednesday of last week my husband decided to make a trip to the doctor because he had such a severe headache.  He had a CT scan done and they found an Intracranial aneurysm that had ruptured.  

I read an article about this that stated odds of surviving a ruptured aneurysm are between 40 and 60 percent. Actually, it seems that nobody wants to be specific and I really don't care about the math.  You're welcome to determine the odds.  This was a close call.  After his surgery on Thursday this puts us on day four but he's still not out of the woods.

Symptoms for an Intracranial aneurysm include:  

• a sudden severe headache that can last from several hours to days
• nausea and vomiting
• drowsiness, confusion and/or loss of consciousness
• Visual abnormalities

Hind sight is 20/20.  He probably should not have pushed himself to finalize that customer's order.  Maybe should have gone to the doctor sooner.  Who knows.  He and I are the fortunate ones.  Never in a million years would either of us have guessed something like this would happen.  He's healthy and strong.

Although high blood pressure is the most common cause of Intracranial aneurysms, he has never been diagnosed with high blood pressure.  

The whole ordeal has put me off schedule in a major way.  Well, it's been a schedule changer for the entire family.  

Please be aware of the symptoms.  Over the counter drugs will not correct this problem. 

Cowboy Matt Littrell's Long Trail Home

This weekend I had a moment of fearlessness when I offered some help to Matt Littrell with The Long Trail Home.  Please let me explain.

I adore horses and have since the American Quarter Horse Association sent me a free poster but I do not own one.  This may have something to do with the two near death experiences that I had as a child after I had received that awesome poster but I'm not really sure.  I still adore them and over the years I have fallen for different breeds.  The Clydesdale Horse rates high on my list, followed by Percheron and Shire, then American Paint and finally the Mustang.  

As I wrote in my last blog, the men with The Long Trail Home were brought to my attention in a round about way.  My daughter works at a horse rescue.  She and I discuss the horses daily and the conversation usually revolves around difficulties that the horses are overcoming.  When she arrived home full of excitement it was strange to me and there was no hiding it.  Look, I was raised in the suburbs and attended well groomed county fairs.  She's shoveling horse manure.  I spoil the cat and dog.  She takes me to the rodeo.  

The second rodeo I attended was a really cool, free-spirited crowd.  The excitement was contagious from the minute we entered the gates.  The weather was beautiful, the horses all appeared pristine and the vendors were busy with the crowd.   My husband and I decided to sit in the third row of the stands since I have a bad knee.  

Intermission arrived and the people around us started to talk to us.  Seems most of us in the lower rows of the stands have bad knees.  The lower the row, the worse the injury?  Anyway, a man about our age came along with his wife and they sat in front of us.  We welcomed them to the party!  The more, the merrier!  We laughed and joked and carried on and suddenly a teenage girl approached.  We all became politely quiet. 

The wife asked the girl what she was doing?  The girl told her mother that she was just going to go visit with one of the guys with the rodeo.  The man, in a deeper voice than I remembered, said, "You don't need to be hanging around with those cowboys."  The girl's eyes grew large as she looked at her dad.  The man turned around in his seat, belted my husband in the arm and said, "You know I'm right about that."  We all shook our heads and smiled trying to hold back our laughter.  The wife moved over a bit so the daughter could sit down next to her.

I commend Matt with his success in raising money for The Semper Fi Fund.  His dedication and compassion for his brothers-in-arms is extraordinary.  Please support Matt's effort by making a donation at The Long Trail Home.  

Matt, I'm sorry that my suburbian upbringing made me leery of cowboys.  

I know my fearlessness pales in comparison to yours,

 but I would put money on it that you would have

 told that sweet, young girl the same thing.  

The Long Trail Home

I have been following The Long Trail Home since May, just a few weeks after they left out from Surf City, NC near Camp LeJeune in Jacksonville, North Carolina on horseback. This wasn't something that I had planned on but when my daughter came home from work one day and said that Iron Gait Percheron Horse Rescue was expecting two men to arrive for an overnight stay, every bit of me that's a mother kicked in. I guess moms will understand this. No police officer in the nation will do detective work better than I. The who, what, where, when and why will all be answered!

My daughter had been excited and I had been told all about the coolness of somebody finally doing something of worth to help our returning soldiers and best part for her, these men were using horses to get their message out there. Who are these men?

That evening I pulled my chair up to my computer. It didn't take long at all to find Matt Littrell's name.  I was even able to find his riding partner, Raymond Avery's name too.  Matt and Raymond are from Elbert, Colorado. These two good, honest men are on a mission to help the Injured Marines Semper Fi Fund. It makes sense that they were traveling across Georgia to get to Camp Pendleton.

Okay, I'll admit that I over reacted a little. Matt and Ray are simply trying to help others that need to be reminded that they did not serve their country in vain.  I do not think anyone should ever be needing reminding but I cherish my freedoms and am thankful to have them and I am especially thankful that Matt has reminded me of what an incredible country this is.  Matt updates The Long Trail Home facebook page regularly so I get to enjoy the horses and the cross country trip.

Please visit The Long Trail Home and make a donation to the Semper Fi Fund through his page.  

Resume Help Update

This will not apply to you if you have followed GHC from the beginning.  If you're new, this blog is for you!

Yesterday the GHC web page was updated with resume help for new job seekers.  This page was established because we heard a number of complaints about the job market and the availability of jobs.  Yes, it is a difficult time to find a job but there is no reason to get discouraged because the jobs are out there!

This page was not directed toward millennials, in fact I specifically left that out because I think the term is somewhat degrading.  (Millennials are listed as ages 18-33.)  Big deal.  I'm classified as a Baby Boomer but I'm on the cusp and since I scored as 65% a Millennial I thought you might like to know that I am more on your side than not!  You can take the How Millennial Are You quiz from Pew Research and find out how millennial you are.

The page was posted to help others and simplify things as much as possible.  All of the information provided is free of charge.  Ads do appear on the page but you can ignore them.  I am in no way trying to get anybody to spend money through the resume pages on the site.  If anything, seeing as your needing to create a cash flow, I don't expect you to spend money through the site.  I teach and preach, "Zero in, zero out".

Age really doesn't matter.  I know there are a lot of people out there that are having a difficult time.  The reasons don't matter to me because everybody has a story.  What matters to me is that if you're looking for a job you can get out there and be included in that new job figure that will be released next month.

Happy job hunting!
~Kara

P.S.  I thought it was funny that an ad appeared for the top interview mistakes right after my little rhyme!

Resume Help for New Job Seekers

I've posted a new page on the web site for job seekers that are either new to the job market or returning to the job market after an extended period of time.  This page is not really directed at those in upper management.  

I've been hearing a lot from people that want to get a job but feel they cannot meet the requirements so they do not apply.  I think these people have more skills and talent than they give themselves credit for.  

If you know of someone that may be in a rut, please share the link to Resume Help for New Job Seekers.