The excitement of being me, part II

G'day all!

What a fun time I've had recently!  I think I shall just launch into the current excitement.  Be warned, it is long, rambly and whiny.  TL;DR?  I'm whiny and pretty much housebound after weird allergy crap occurred and I can't do much knitting and my voice is shot.

My tomatoes!  So proud of them :-)

Friday I went to the doctor cos my sinus weirdness has not cleared up after two weeks (flying and many altitude changes may not have helped).  She prescribed antibiotics (ones I've taken before) and a nasal spray.

After that, I took the car to the dealer to get a software module upgraded in line with a recall (stability control could fail on full steering wheel lock - not when you want it to go!).  They said it would be ready in about four hours, so I skipped off down the street (not literally).  I walked sedately, watching the pavement because the footpaths and sidewalks in Seattle can leave something to be desired.

I love Rudbeckias

Because the sidewalk I was on seemed flat, I ignored it and looked up around me.  And that is when I found the only non-flat bit of pavement with my left foot.  Suddenly I was running down the street, trying to catch my balance.  I realised I couldn't regain anything - balance, dignity or composure - so I may as well fall over.  I had my phone in my hand, and effectively threw it down the street when my hand opened in preparation for landing, and then crash landed, grazing both the heels of my hands and my left knee (which is sporting a very pretty bruise).  I ended up flat on my face lying on the ground.

Gosh I felt like an idiot.

A woman at the nearby intersection asked if I was ok.  I got up and dusted myself off, picked up my phone, said "I will be" and then looked at the mess I'd made of my hands (particularly the hand with lymphedema).  I won't explicitly state what I saw but I did get a bit worried.  So I took off for the closest Bartell's and asked if I could use the washroom there before buying some medications to clean myself up.  Alas, upon washing my hands I realised that I needed to get gravel picked out so I headed off to another branch of the same doctors that I had visited in the morning.

I may like Rudbeckias a whole lot
even upside down looking ones

A nurse there said I needed to see a doctor but they were all booked out.  She arranged for me to see a doctor at their main branch and also a taxi to get me there (!!!!  I'll add a few more !!!! cos I was amazed.  Nurse Diane was very, very helpful.).  Unfortunately the taxi took 25 minutes  and I only had to go 0.7 of a mile - I could've walked that in much less time.  I was then late, of course, but the doc could see me anyway.

They aren't all just plain yellow petals 
with dark centres

Getting wounds flushed with saline and the gravel picked out stings quite a bit.  I may have danced quite a bit and blathered even more.  I blather when I'm nervous.

Hand wounds are blasted annoying.  It is very hard to keep dressings on skin that sweats and moves so much - hands are very flexible.  I can't do any cleaning involving water because I have to keep the dressings dry and I can't get rubber gloves over the dressings without pulling them off.  (I can't buy bigger gloves - I already take larges and the US doesn't stock XL - weird, huh?)  DH is on kitchen and cooking duty but he's not much chop at cleaning up after himself.  Even after watching Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, he still doesn't realise you have to wipe things down and clean them.  I can't just grab the sponge and clean like I normally would.  I can't manipulate certain things that press on the heels of my hands cos I took a fair whack of skin off and they are tender.  And I have to be really careful about developing infection in my lymphedematous hand.

So I've been whiny about that.

I even forgive them for being
Hawthorn coloured

But it gets worse.

On Sunday, I was walking up the hill to look at Viking Days or whatever it is at the Nordic Heritage Museum when I realised that I couldn't breathe properly.  Indeed I was not breathing at all well.  A little bit of a panic and some carefully measured panting and I felt better, so I kept going (cos that is what one does!).  Then I came home and things just kept feeling worse.  Talking was almost impossible, swallowing was dicey and when I went to walk to the supermarket with DH I realised I had some real problems.  I couldn't get enough air to walk up a slight incline.

Proof that I am pigheaded

So I went home, rang the nurse line and when DH got back, took myself off to ER in the car.  (DH can't drive the car cos I got a manual, not an auto.)

They didn't know what is wrong with me either but a nebuliser of ventolin and some prednisone later, I could breathe without wheezing and was more able to swallow.  I still had no voice though.  They suggested I stop taking the antibiotics in case it was them but thought it was more likely to be an environmental allergen.

Penstemons are lovely
But Denver Daisies are cooler

It's a day later and I still don't have a voice and I still have very little aerobic capacity.  I have to be careful drinking water as I can choke on it (it reminds me of being on chemo - not a fun thing to remember!).   My cough is weak, probably due to the laryngitis-thing.  I can breathe in and out deeply but not quickly, even after taking a hit of ventolin (which makes me shakey cos I overdose on it easily).  I think the voice thing is interfering with my breathing and I also wonder if I am panicking a bit and remembering how not to breathe - I used to get bad asthma with I was a kid, bad enough that I had house visits from my doc (I found out much later that he was one of the state's top paediatricians) in the middle of the night.

My doctor said to stay off the antibiotics and take it easy for a couple of days.  Oh and to avoid talking.  That is mostly easy since if I'm housebound, I don't see anyone to talk to.  If I've still got problems in a couple of days, come and see her.

I've been fond of them ever
since we lived in Fort Collins

Because I can't blather out loud, I'm blathering online instead.  I need to blather a bit to get rid of the words in my head and some of the nervousness I feel about not being quite right.


Man, I hate being sick.  I don't feel sick (though my sinuses hurt) but if I get up and start doing something more energetic than unloading and reloading the dishwasher, I feel like I can't breathe.  My brain isn't telling me I'm sick.  My body isn't telling me I'm sick, well not until I try to do stuff.  And a little paranoid part of me is saying it is a cancer thing, that it is back, and I really don't want that!  But I have to be patient and wait and see if it clears.  Anyone who knows me will guess I am a terrible patient - I am impatient!  I push the boundaries cos I hate being sick.  I was sick so much as a kid that I hate being sick now - I won't stay in bed unless I literally cannot move.  Even if I'm only able to camp on the couch or on my chair in front of the computer, I do that.

Even blurry shots are better
than no pics of Rudbeckias

I hope that finishing off two quilt backs and doing some knitting and reading nearly every last thread on Ravelry (or so it seems) is taking it easy.  And cleaning up the kitchen a bit.  I have no idea how I'll keep myself occupied tomorrow.  I have heaps of pics.  I should be doing work but we'll see if I'm up for it.  It is desk bound and doesn't just much more than brain cells.

I said I would make a couple of blocks up for a challenge and they are done but alas I can't get to the post office.  Am getting really peeved with this and it's only been a day.

An old favourite block

My first ever flying geese

I hope I can start pulling a couple of tricks soon, or maybe I've used up my luck by getting a couple of double yolkers recently.

Mmmm, breakfast!

I'm slowly getting pics up on my Flickr stream.  If you are a bit of a rock hound or fascinated by geology, these early ones have a lot of interesting formations in them - the canyons of the Front Range are fascinating!  Maybe that will entertain me tomorrow.  We have many many many pics on the big camera - more than on my phone and I had over 2Gig of pics on the phone...

anon!