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duskpeterson"Education doesn't change life much. It just lifts trouble to a higher plane of regard."
--Robert Frost. Found on a bookmark from my college bookstore, in a cardboard box I browsed through today.
COURAGE
I never knew the meaning of courage till I found myself struggling to breathe, while Doug fed me tea in hopes that the caffeine would help, and my apprentice told me to go to the emergency room if my fingernails turned blue--
--and I realized that my apprentice, who has chronic asthma, goes through this every day. And has never complained, in the three years I've known him.
To the rest of you (I know you're reading this) who deal with chronic illnesses (your own or loved ones'), some of which are life-threatening, and continue to post blog entries and fic and all that good stuff . . . my hats off to you. I'm a whimpering pool of panic every time I pass through a particularly bad patch in this illness.
BRIEF HEALTH UPDATE
Won't bore you with a recital of all my new symptoms - I'm collecting them now, like bottle tops - since some of them are rather icky. I mean, I'm sure you're glad I'll spare you a description of what it feels like to have your private parts flood with lymph fluid. ("Ack! Back!" I cried, and managed to persuade the fluid to go flood other parts of my body, like my buttocks.)
The buttocks problem is limiting how much lying down I can do. There is now officially no position I can safely stay in for more than twenty minutes at a time . . . but I'm going to try tilting the bed again tomorrow, just in case. It seemed to help last time to drain the fluid from the lower half of my body; it's simply a pain to lift a big, solid bed when I'm sick.
Am totally in the mood to write disabilityfic, if I could figure out how to do so in ten-minute installments (which is how I'm writing this).
The breathing problem, by the way, was due mainly due to my position when typing in bed. My body seems determined that I not do computer work. Alas, I need to, because that's the only way to get the necessary medical and financial information.
By the way, doing your taxes when you're sick? Not fun.
REPLIES TO LAST POST'S COMMENTS
@Lee Rowen: So neat about the electric acupuncture - I hadn't known that. Since you raised the topic, I asked my doctor about Lyme disease and West Nile Virus. He sort of offhandedly dismissed it, but I'm going to press him again, because a paramedic friend of mine also asked about Lyme disease - after I'd read him my symptoms - and I do have a half-bullseye mark on my arm where I might or might not have had blood taken at the hospital. It's the "might not" that worries me, of course.
At any rate, I'm on antibiotics at the moment; I'm not quite sure why, but whatever bug I have sure ain't a flu, because it only shows up when I'm late taking my next dose.
@wrabbit, thanks for the lymphnote. :)
@yonmei wrote: "I have doubts about how much use the current bill is going to do you"
I saw an article that said the Senate bill would kill the "no pre-existing conditions" clause - which would be great if it did, because that's what I have now.
@Rose Red, I include tahini regularly in my pea soup recipe. Just tastes peanut buttery to me. :) How is it supposed to help the immune system?
--Robert Frost. Found on a bookmark from my college bookstore, in a cardboard box I browsed through today.
COURAGE
I never knew the meaning of courage till I found myself struggling to breathe, while Doug fed me tea in hopes that the caffeine would help, and my apprentice told me to go to the emergency room if my fingernails turned blue--
--and I realized that my apprentice, who has chronic asthma, goes through this every day. And has never complained, in the three years I've known him.
To the rest of you (I know you're reading this) who deal with chronic illnesses (your own or loved ones'), some of which are life-threatening, and continue to post blog entries and fic and all that good stuff . . . my hats off to you. I'm a whimpering pool of panic every time I pass through a particularly bad patch in this illness.
BRIEF HEALTH UPDATE
Won't bore you with a recital of all my new symptoms - I'm collecting them now, like bottle tops - since some of them are rather icky. I mean, I'm sure you're glad I'll spare you a description of what it feels like to have your private parts flood with lymph fluid. ("Ack! Back!" I cried, and managed to persuade the fluid to go flood other parts of my body, like my buttocks.)
The buttocks problem is limiting how much lying down I can do. There is now officially no position I can safely stay in for more than twenty minutes at a time . . . but I'm going to try tilting the bed again tomorrow, just in case. It seemed to help last time to drain the fluid from the lower half of my body; it's simply a pain to lift a big, solid bed when I'm sick.
Am totally in the mood to write disabilityfic, if I could figure out how to do so in ten-minute installments (which is how I'm writing this).
The breathing problem, by the way, was due mainly due to my position when typing in bed. My body seems determined that I not do computer work. Alas, I need to, because that's the only way to get the necessary medical and financial information.
By the way, doing your taxes when you're sick? Not fun.
REPLIES TO LAST POST'S COMMENTS
@Lee Rowen: So neat about the electric acupuncture - I hadn't known that. Since you raised the topic, I asked my doctor about Lyme disease and West Nile Virus. He sort of offhandedly dismissed it, but I'm going to press him again, because a paramedic friend of mine also asked about Lyme disease - after I'd read him my symptoms - and I do have a half-bullseye mark on my arm where I might or might not have had blood taken at the hospital. It's the "might not" that worries me, of course.
At any rate, I'm on antibiotics at the moment; I'm not quite sure why, but whatever bug I have sure ain't a flu, because it only shows up when I'm late taking my next dose.
@wrabbit, thanks for the lymphnote. :)
@yonmei wrote: "I have doubts about how much use the current bill is going to do you"
I saw an article that said the Senate bill would kill the "no pre-existing conditions" clause - which would be great if it did, because that's what I have now.
@Rose Red, I include tahini regularly in my pea soup recipe. Just tastes peanut buttery to me. :) How is it supposed to help the immune system?
