In and Out

Woke up last night around 3:30 a.m. sucking for air. It was a little scary. I finally started to get some relief from the tightness by stepping outside. Then I came in and managed to wake Ken by demanding to know why he had not awakened me at 11:30 p.m. for my next dose of cough medicine. He said that because I appeared to be sleeping so soundly (albeit sitting up), he didn't want to wake me for it. So, feeling vindictive and miserable at that point, I took the cough medicine and proceeded to sit in bed next to him for the next hour coughing. He slept anyway.

So, since my misery was not getting much company, I came down stairs for an hour until the meds finally kicked in and I was able to go back upstairs, sit propped up on pillows and I slept from 5:30 until 8:00.

I called in sick to work.

My boss knows I don't do this. She said she is worried about me. Told me to go to the doctor.

Ken called the doctor for me and got me an appointment with Bonnie, the nurse practitioner.

Now, I don't like Bonnie and Bonnie doesn't like me. I've been to see her several times over many years. Since I am normally only a visitor to the doctor's office once a year or so and normally only when I have something acute going on (like a pneumonia or gangrene developing in my foot), I don't have time to wait a week to see the doctor. So I end up seeing Bonnie.

Normally I know what is going on with my own body and with the bodies of my children. With the doctor I can walk in with diagnosis ready and get him to confirm it and come home with the necessary prescriptions. If I really haven't a clue what the problem is I prefer my doctor's careful elimination of possible problems over Bonnie's stab in the dark approach.

For instance, when I was chomped on by a tiny seed tick about two and a half years ago; I became deathly ill. My entire body morphed into a swollen red hive covered, fever filled, joint twisted, confused and miserable creature. Bonnie did no blood work, had no explanation for the fever, swelling or confusion but said she thought I had reumetoid arthritis. She sent me home with an anti-inflammitory.

I came back three days later even sicker and waited four hours to see the doctor. He saw in my chart from my previous visit that I had a tick bite two weeks prior. He did a blood test and discovered that I had Lyme Disease and put me on a very high dose, long-term antibiotic and did weekly followups for a month.

When I went in because I could not bend my knee after falling on it, Bonnie declared I had bruised it and it would be better in a few days. It wasn't. I went back and the doctor sent me for x-rays and other tests. Turns out I had severe arthritis in the knee which required surgery to get the damaged inside of my knee cleaned up.

All in all, she has mis-diagnosed either me or my kids 10 times in 15 visits.

This time, even though she didn't bother to look in my nose or get a really good look in my throat, she had them do a finger prick and announced that I have sinutitis, prescribed Tussionex (a narcotic cough suppressant), and Azithromycin (a five day broad-based anti-biotic). I suspect that I have brochitus for I have no pain in my sinuses and am not having any problem with congestion in my head. The anti-biotic will help. The cough medicine will not for what I really need is a decongestant. So I will probably not use the cough medicine unless desperate for sleep.

In any case, I'm hoping Bonnie got it right this time. I have a program to run at work that requires me to be there three days this week (and three days out of nearly every week from now until January).

Matt's Hat

In any case, I wasn't at the doctor's office very long but I did get four rows completed on Matt's hat while waiting for blood tests and such.

Considering I screwed up his hat once already (we are giving that small version to Jacob for Yule), he's a little anxious that I will not successfully complete the project for him.

But I'm determined that this kid will have a hat made to his exacting specifictions (no curling, no wild colors, only one thin stripe of taupe colored yarn two inches from the bottom edge in an otherwise all-black cap, with very little edging other than an inch of K1 P1. No holes in the crown and a shaped top (regular decreases to make a kind of star pattern).

I actually like his design. It's actually pretty classic looking although he thinks its "punk". But even in the too-small hat, he looked good in it; so a properly fitted one will look quite sharp on him.

Perhaps he can drum up some hat orders for me. Certainly they are simple enough and doable in a week or less.

Lace and Such

I forced Ken to hold 880 yards of Knit Picks Bare Lace Weight 100% merino 2 ply yarn for me last night while I turned it into a ball. He's actually very good at doing the classic yarn-holding/skein holder job. He turns his arms like a small windmill to allow for smooth off take.

For such a grump about my fiber expenditures, he's been pretty helpful when it comes to doing things like this. I think more than anything he needs to see me doing SOMETHING with the stuff. I think he's afraid it will all end up in storage, unused.

In any case, I'm going to start the Kimono Shawl. The pattern is simple enough for me to manage and I really love the design. I found that I was not ready for the grass pattern I had picked out earlier for an altar cloth but I could do this one.

Who knows it may actually end up being a shawl for me. I'm thinking of using some of my homespun in the brick colors to make the altar cloth. Or I may use some fingerling weight from my stash (the stash that my mom gave me).