Wednesday, Thursday, Etc.

Wednesday

The new year is off to a bang, health-wise.

I had my long-awaited appointment with the allergist yesterday, three hours worth of appointment, including a skin test for allergens which told me what I already knew (I'm wildly allergic to a variety of pollen from different trees and mildly allergic to grasses and molds) and a couple of things I didn't know (milk is probably not my problem as far as the hives go). I have yet to do the blood tests as that requires me to go to a different lab. I made a follow up appointment to talk about the test results when they come in. The doctor thinks my problem might be easily solved, but if it isn't, it might be somewhat unsolvable. In the meantime, I'm supposed to be taking double doses of two different kinds of antihistamines, which I haven't started taking yet because I hate taking antihistamines (or any kind of drug actually). I'll start probably Saturday.

Such is the way of allergists.

After the skin testing, the nurse gave me some Benadryl. It made me woozy enough that I came home (Dave was driving, thankfully) and just passed out cold for several hours. I woke up about an hour before Dave came home from work and we decided to go out to Thai Vegan for dinner. We haven't been there in awhile, and we had a few old favorites ("Freshy" rolls, Chinese broccoli, and spicy noodles with tofu). It was good, but the restaurant was too loud for my Benadryl hung-over Brain and Dave and I had to switch places because there was a light in the restaurant that was shining directly into my eyes. (It didn't bother him. I think I was just extra sensitive, as I often am to certain kinds of light.)

Oh, one thing that I did find out during my appointment was that my blood pressure was slightly elevated, so I called and made an appointment to have it checked today. I'll have to run up and do that before my therapy appointment at 4:00.

It will be a busy afternoon.

We had snow yesterday and rain so far today. I like all this crazy moisture. It's been less cold, too, which is nice.

This past week, Dave and I had lunch with my brother--subs and salad--and after, I used my brother's glucose meter to test my blood sugar. I hate the pin prick part, so I got my brother to do it, but even though he pricked my finger about three times, no blood would come out. Finally they cranked the lancet up really high and Dave stabbed my finger and we managed to squeeze out two drops of blood. (I wonder if my decades long love affair with rough, groggy clay has toughened up the skin on my hands.) Anyway, my blood sugar wasn't high, which is good.

What else has been going on?

I've been reading a biography of the strange and unusual artist Joseph Campbell (he, of the amazing shadow boxes), but it's slow going. I have another work of non-fiction behind that, by Diane Ackerman.

Thursday

I'm up this morning to head back to the doctor's office. I put off my blood pressure check until today, so I'm going in to do that. (Actually, I won't see the doctor--he's on vacation until the eleventh--but the nurse.)