New Pain Scale

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With a recent ER-worthy medical adventure, I now have a new pain scale. I thought I knew what pain was.  I’ve had stab wounds, joints dislocated, hot grease that was literally on fire land on my legs, wisdom teeth dug out without anesthesia (hello, EDS side effect), and natural child birth. This, however, gets first place for pain.

Perhaps part of it was I had no idea what was happening. I had movie clips from the movie Alien popping up in my mind while it was happening, and I wasn’t far off! I kept saying that I needed imaging, but I was patient 36 in an ER made for 35, which had a skeleton crew including one very busy MRI tech.

I was making sure Kevin knew where the important paperwork was because I thought I might just die. Then he looked so concerned I tried to reassure and crack some jokes, but my brain wasn’t able to function through the pain, so I just told him that I loved him in case that was the last thing he heard me say.

Now on a scale of 1-10, childbirth still lands at 10, and a kidney stone gets a 20.

Especially with prior lab work being consistently healthy, it’s strongly suspected that the antihistamine I was taking caused my glucose levels to significantly increase, and at my follow-up with the urologist, I was the second patient that week with this likely scenario. It doesn’t happen to everyone, but with the increase in MCAS (and similar conditions) post-covid, there is likely an increase in patients dealing with this. The specialists need to talk to each other more about these things and compare notes. Based on what we now know, I should have had lab work about 6 months after starting the antihistamine regime to see how my body was doing with it.   For those of you also on the antihistamines (and I know several of you are), it’s something to be aware of.

I know to get lab work for the ferrets if they start a medication, but it didn’t occur to me to do this for myself. As much as I am trying to make sure I take care of myself more now instead of being only other-focused, I keep having these face-palming moments of failure.

I’m now taking quercetin, DAO, and other supplements for the histamine, along with paying attention to what seems to push me past my histamine threshold (and also what helps).  Fresh air, low stress, lots of water, and a “curated” healthy food list. It complicates life a bit, but there are worse things (such as kidney stones!).

All at once now — a quick update

A waterfall at the Fairy Pools, Isle of Skye, Scotland

A waterfall at the Fairy Pools, Isle of Skye, Scotland

We’re back from Scotland, so expect to see several posts over the next several days (weeks?) related to that adventure.  There’s much to share, including how to survive single-lane roads, millionaire shortbread, the great hoodie search, castle ruins, Doric dialect, figuring out how to order coffee, and security observations coming and going. One constant: the people of Scotland we met were kind and welcoming, and they had a fun sense of humor — like there was some sort of “trickster” gene they shared.

As if International travel wasn’t enough, we’re also in escrow to buy a house, which is its own adventure. If all goes well (please oh please let everything go well), we close on the 24th.  The last day of our rental lease is the 30th, so this is going to be a couple weeks of remembering to breathe. We’ll be hosting friends on the 18th, so we’re figuring out what we can pack now, and what must wait until the 19th so our friends have a comfortable space.

Of course, all the while, my work is full of big projects while overseeing the daily needs assigned to me, plus I’m attending a STAR symposium this week (on neurodiversity). It’s all actually quite fun!  Just requires a bit more caffeine these days.

Love Between Fairy and Devil – exploring beyond the familiar

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I was thinking about stopping my Netflix subscription again. Try as I might, I couldn’t find anything new that I wanted to watch.  Why do I even have this account?  I browsed different categories, and it was more of the same. I clicked the thumbs-up icon to “like” certain shows to try helping the algorithm, but still nothing new.  It actually recommended Twilight to me.  Okay, so I’m good with fantasy and shape-shifters and such… maybe I can help refine the results a bit?

So I searched for “vampire” to see if I could find some vampire shows that I did like and let Netflix clue in a bit better.

What I got was something unexpected. It was mostly Korean and Chinese Drama shows, None with vampires, mind you. Among them, however, was something called Love Between Fairy and Devil.  

My first reaction: Netflix, your algorithm is drunk. Go home.

But curiosity got the better of me, and I opened up the first episode. The intro was beautiful, so I kept viewing.  Then the first scenes played, and I found myself asking, “What am I watching here?”  It seemed like a combination of a comic book, a stage play with elaborate costuming and background scenery, and some CGI.  Not just the visuals, but the acting too. I allowed myself to let go, be curious, and just take it in.

It was cute, silly, cheesy… and I cringed a bit at first. However, it was also beautiful and interesting, and I found that I couldn’t look away.  I kept watching. It required that I let go of preconceived ideas, not expect familiar visuals or tropes, and watch the characters’ reactions to things that were said or done (because I couldn’t rely on my own interpretations of how meaningful a certain action was). By the end of the show, I felt I understood those expectations a bit more.  That’s right: I watched the whole thing, all the way to the end.  I have all the songs stuck in my head now, none of which I understand the lyrics for, but I found that I enjoyed them too.

Netflix noticed that I watched all of the episodes.  Now my account shows me almost only shows I need the captions on to understand. There’s a whole other world out there, and apparently I have found entry to another small part of it. Perhaps, once I explore the current recommendations, I can see where else a key word search can lead me.

Living in Liminal Spaces

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Changing the bedding, I stripped the blankets and tossed them on the floor. The blankets ended up staying there for a couple days because the twins decided this was their new favorite place to sleep.

Eventually, laundry had to happen, along with a bunch of other cleaning.  In addition to packing for an overseas trip, we needed to make sure our rental was presentable for showing.  Let’s just pile on the tasks, shall we?

We moved the tech and other valuables out, but still have moving boxes stacked in some spaces. Upon our return, we will have guests visit us for a couple days, then pack more, sign papers, and (hopefully, if all goes well) move to a new home.  That’s right: we gave notice, but nothing is 100% set for the next steps.  We’re just living in liminal spaces these days!

In a few weeks, I hope to have more solid updates – hopefully happy updates – and lots of pretty pictures to share.

Two small ferrets in bedding laundry