bloodyrosemccoy | Entries tagged with having a body is weird

Fun, huh? But let's start at the start. Last summer, I got whomped pretty hard with a tsunami of hypomania.

... Hang on, hypomania doesn't generally lead to strokes, right?

Yeah, uh, so ... that's the thing.

My hypomanic episodes are generally harmless, but my brain goes nuts, lighting up like a goddamn Trans-Siberian Orchestra Christmas house. I have ALL THE FEELINGS AT ONCE, and generally outsource those feelings to fiction--either my own or other people's. I wrote a good chunk of the OGYAFE* because, given the Fire Hose of Ideas I have during these events, I felt like I had SOLVED IT, and I probably watched the entirety of Stranger Things around four times. Also had friends over to watch the Lord of the Rings movies, because those movies definitely have some FEELINGS in 'em.

HOWEVER.

( Did ... did my head just explode? )

Damn, I am out of practice with the blogging thing. Time was I'd go around composing entries in my head all day, commentating on the day's events with a very meta narrative voice. Now all my thoughts are bite-sized; 280 characters, tops. But I figure I ought to just jump in with both feet and try to get the hang of it again.

... Which reminds me I'd like to start swimming again. Only problem is, I was cursed by goblins and now my skin is itchy and I keep scratching so I'm tearing it off. Not real good in a swimming pool.

No, fucking really, goblin curse! I developed a Mysterious Rash a couple years ago, and after some back-and-forth with a dermatologist, a patch test wherein they stick little patches of allergens to your back and you spend several days wanting to wallow like a buffalo to tear 'em off, we determined that the only thing I was reacting to was nickel. Which led to a tentative diagnosis of Systemic Nickel Allergy Syndrome?????????, and I can tell you that has been a real adventure to try to figure out what food I can have now. I figure it was triggered by a really nice cast-iron tetsubin I bought; I think it must have had nickel in its enamel or something. I was drinking two pots a day, and it might have caused me to react. So I sold my cursed teapot with many dire warnings to a buddy and got me a nice clay one.

As for the goblin aspect, I got curious about the etymology of nickel the metal, since Mom has cacklingly announced that pumpernickel means "goblin farts," and I looked that up, and what do you know, she's right; Nickel is a diminutive for the Devil, rather like Old Nick. So I checked on the metal's history, and in medieval Germany, some miners found some ore that looked like copper, but when they tried to smelt it they didn't get any copper, but they did get a load of unpleasant rashes. This can only be the fault of Bad Fairies. So they called the ore Kupfernickel, goblin's copper, and it got re-shortened to nickel.

... Well, that spiraled. ANYWAY, as you can see, I'm still an etymology nerd, a folklore nerd, and a health disaster! Some things never change!

(Also I'd like to point out that I'll be darned; I am automatically HTML-ing quite well! Ha! Even post stroke, I retain my skills!

((Oh, you're wondering about my stroke? HA HA! Maybe I'll talk about it next time!)))

What I Learned Since The Spring Equinox

Being head of a household is time-consuming, but rewarding.

Smart Watches are pretty dang fun.

Getting a business license is an annoying process.

If you fill a ping-pong ball with one hole in it with liquid nitrogen and then drop it into a pan of room temperature water, it'll flail around like a groundflower.

Kittens are busy.

They also flail around like groundflowers if you put collars on them.

A holomictic lake is one in which the layers of water mix at least once a year. A meromictic lake's water layers never mix.

You may actually be able to feel pneumonia in your lungs. Weird.

Dandelion champagne has a nice bite to it.

I can wear a cocktail dress if I get some leggings.

Carroll Spinney/Big Bird was almost slated to go into orbit, but the costume was too big. Which means he didn't get to go for his scheduled ride on ... the Challenger shuttle.

Being the "coach" for shows is almost as nerve-wracking as being the student.

There is such a thing as Nutella-flavored gelato.

The name "Saoirse" is pronounced "SEER-shuh."

Nikki Akuma-Bird needs to star in her own action space opera.

The term for oxygen-carrying blood cells is "erythrocyte."

At 3:00 a.m. or so in early June I can see the Milky Way unaided if I concentrate!

Kidney failure is one of the most common ailments of senior cats.

Trimming grape vines is a nice meditative process. You trim a lot, but it does grow back.

The bearded vulture is the only known warm-blooded osteophage--it eats actual bones. It has one tough gut.

A "ginger bug" is like a starter for sodas that makes use of wild yeasts.

Sun conures really are friendly little buggers. And loud. So loud.

And not all of them are really into toys. Some just want to chill on your shoulder.

Unless you're chewing something. Then they will bite your ear.

They can be potty trained after a fashion, though. Which is nice.

Ehlers-Danlos syndrom is another weird disorder that leads to things like oversized bones, stretchy skin, extreme flexibility, and other such strange effects.

Social change is messy, slow and difficult, but it does not do to get discouraged.

Current Mood: hibiscus basil lemonade
Current Music: Beethoven ~ Ode to Joy

I went back to work today! It's amazing how much better I feel after going out and doing something. And tomorrow I do many things--there are three Dome Shows in a row. Back in the thick of things!*

And, of course, May the 4th be with you all. BECAUSE WHAT IF THE NEW STAR WARS IS GOOD

*I have hit the staggeringly predictable part of my recovery where I want to COOK ALL THE THINGS. It's a surprisingly regular occurrence. Although at this point I'm reduced to watching Alton Brown's Good Eats on Netflix with a notebook in my lap to satisfy the urge.

Current Mood: Twinings' Lady Grey

SO ANYWAY THIS ONE TIME I GOT PNEUMONIA

Probably I'd Better Call A Doctor

OFFICE MANAGER: Thank you for calling this doctor's office! How can I help you?
ME: Well, I've got a bunch of pneumonia symptoms, and an image of Jim Henson just scrolled past my Facebook feed. I think I'd better see a doctor.
OFFICE MANAGER: Okay. The next appointments I have are either 7:30 tomorrow morning or two weeks from today.
ME: Probably I'd better take the seven-thirty one. I'm not sure I'll be alive two weeks from today.

Seven-Fucking-Thirty A.M. the Next Day

ME: Right, I got this. Drive down to the hospital, get an assessment, stop by the grocery store, back home for some rest.
MEDICAL ASSISTANT: Okay, I'm going to get your blood oxygen and your blood pressure ...
ME: Okay, that's great, but I just ... I think I need to lie down on the exam table ...
MEDICAL ASSISTANT: Wait, what?
ME: I'l just ... yeah. Down I go.
MEDICAL ASSISTANT: ... I guess you can stay there. Let me just take your temperature.
ME: *zzz*
MEDICAL ASSISTANT: in the hall HOLY SHIT IT'S 104.2°!
DOCTOR: also in the hall And you said she DROVE HERE HERSELF?

Gettin' A Chest X-Ray

INTAKE NURSE: Have you had any contact with anyone who might have had ebola recently?
ME: What, any of the four of them? NO.

One Chest X-Ray And Some Tylenol Later

DOCTOR: So it's totally pneumonia.
ME: You don't say.
DOCTOR: Go home. DO NOT DRIVE YOURSELF. Sleep. Push fluids. Take these antibiotics. Call if you get worse.
ME: I guess I'm not going to the grocery store today.

Sickness Behavior

Putting out an APB here: I will cough on the enemies of anyone who brings me chicken soup today.
— Amelia Rose (@AmeliaRoseWrite) April 28, 2015

If you bring grapefruit juice, I will also sneeze on them.
— Amelia Rose (@AmeliaRoseWrite) April 28, 2015

one hour later

ASPEN: Hey, I am at your door! I've brought you some cassoulet!
ME: Is ... is this an entire chicken?
ASPEN: And here is some grapefruit juice!
ME: ... I really did not expect that to work as well as it did.

Everyone Is A Helper

CAT: Hey, I'm feeling better! But I think I want to hang close to you. Like, really close. Like, I will accept nothing except sitting on your belabored chest.
ME: This is a ploy so that if you die you can take your food human to the afterlife with you, isn't it.

ME: *cough*
BIRD: *cough*
ME: *cough cough*
BIRD: *cough cough*
ME: Are you making fun of me?
BIRD: *cough snort cough*

ME: Hello, Aunt! I think I am dying. Can you come up and heat up this cassoulet for me? And feed the cat her prescription food? And maybe do some laundry for me?
AUNT: You bet!
ME: So far, you are the best helper.
AUNT: I like to think it's the RN training.

And now I'm feeling better, which means I went to get the car and I am watching David Attenborough's Life of Birds. I"m still planning to talk about the awesome Space Place Gala, but till then, let's hope I survive.

Current Mood: ALL THE GRAPEFRUIT JUICE
Current Music: David Attenborough's The Life of Birds

You ever go around for two full days putting up with chills, headaches, body aches, fatigue, and a slight cough and only THEN realize you might be sick?

... What? Yeah, uh, me either.

Okay, I do have an excuse--I've been sick so often this past year that I apparently assumed that I couldn't POSSIBLY be sick again. Ha ha! I was so wrong.

At least I wasn't this clueless about the cat. Fern hasn't been eating lately, and the vet diagnosed her with early kidney failure, a complication of being an old-ass cat. He graciously came in yesterday to pump some fluids into her--and to teach me how to do the same. Fern is a little put out with me at the moment, what with two vet visits and a load of needles, but she's also hanging close.

So we're feeling lousy together, and letting the bird fend for herself, with NPR for company.* The good news is that Fern's already getting sparkier after some fluids, so there's hope for this grandma cat yet.

At least we have a day off. It's been an adventurous week. When I feel less dead, I'll tell y'all about the Space Place Gala. For now, though, the cat is curled up on the bed; I think I will do likewise.

*She's going to be a very erudite bird. She didn't like Pledge Drive Week, though. She'd scream whenever they started in.

Current Mood: Celestial Seasonings' Tension Tamer

Whoof, long week!

- Last weekend, not to get too technical about it, but most of my blood fell out* and when I got up to get ready for work on Tuesday I just about passed out in the bathroom. Ah, anemia. So now I'm building up my iron again, but I keep forgetting. So last night I didn't have enough energy to finish watching a MOVIE and was wondering why the hell until I remembered what was going on and took an iron tablet. Good times.

- Probably didn't help that I went to work on Saturday. We do a Boy Scout Merit Badge Workshop once a month at the Space Place. I hate to say this, guys, but my overall opinion of the ability of Boy Scouts to survive in the wild, or in fact in their own damn LIVING ROOMS, has not improved. We literally tell them WORD FOR WORD, SEVERAL TIMES, what to write down on their little worksheets and give them time to write it, and yet when we check them out at the end so many of them have failed completely to write it at all.

- The good news is, I am getting the hang of black cherry soda! The next batch needs more almond extract and sugar, but overall it's better than my previous attempts with cherry syrup. Turns out actual black cherry juice really helps.

- The other completely surprising soda recipe I've tried recently was Spiced Black Lemonade, from Homemade Soda by Andrew Schloss (though I let it ferment). Y'all, this recipe reads like it was developed by Dr. Insano. It contains lemon zest, lemon juice, cloves, sage, chile flakes, and browning sauce.

IT IS FANTASTIC.

I don't know how to explain why. It's so weird, but delicious--spicy and lemony and just so damn strange. Mom and I plowed through most of it, though Aspen seemed to enjoy it, too, so I made more tonight. Hope it turns out as well this time.

- Hey, look! I have more stuff in my Etsy shop! And I am making more! Keep an eye out!

*In the usual way. Didn't get stabbed or nothing.

Current Mood: Republic of Tea's Vanilla Almond
Current Music: The FPlus

My emergency backup gallbladder potion* was a lot cheaper this time around. That stuff's great, but usually it's pretty expensive. So this is great!

*Don't laugh, but it took me over a year of, um, a new and exciting digestion adventure after getting rid of that chestburster to realize that hey, maybe the doctor has something that could FIX that problem. I GOT COMPLACENT, OKAY? But hey, it turns out there is some stuff that replaces the bile salts I am no longer getting, and it's GREAT.

Dad keeps feeling bad that I got rid of my gallbladder only to pay for a replacement, but I have to remind him that the one I had was not working.

Current Mood: Peet's Golden Tip Assam
Current Music: Eurythmics ~ There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart)

What I've Learned Since The Fall Equinox

Finnish-speakers play havoc with their own crazy case system, because there are so many different dialects.

Enameled copper can offer some bright colors to your chainmaille, but boy is it soft!

My original query letter was probably better than the revamped one.

Hatching birds' wings look ridiculously flippery and adorable.

Flu shots do not make you invincible.

There actually is a way to fix the digestive issues I've had since getting rid of the chestburster. Figures I'd take 14 months to actually think to ask my doctor about it.

I apparently don't remember the periodic table at all. Everything I thought I knew turned out to be wrong.

Body cameras on cops apparently wouldn't help, as grand juries will see videos of cops committing homicide and still not indict.

Remember to oil your bottle capper or it will lock up annoyingly.

There really were some Chuck E. Cheese murders back in the day, which might be what Five Nights At Freddy's is based on.

Upon going to schools for Space Place Outreach, I realized that all of those damn posters all over the wall are a huge problem for me because I have to read them. The other person has to keep snapping me out of a daze. God, I must have been so overstimulated as a student.

Gifted education is a lot more difficult than I expected.

I am okay at making lecture plans, but activity plans are beyond me.

Surface tension keeps your tears stuck to your face out in space.

After you've poured boiling water on your fingers, you might have to drain your blisters just to keep them from exploding when you flex your fingers.

Checking out sunspots with solar filters is pretty dang cool.

Suddenly becoming a de facto homeowner is a daunting prospect.

There is methane on Mars! HMMM.

Current Mood: Golden Tip Assam
Current Music: video game noises

I have the plague. Pretty sure I'm dying. Goodbye, everyone. I leave all my dolls to my brother. May their constant soulless gaze forever remind him of me.

Another entry on the list of Things Not To Get Into A Fistfight With: kettles of boiling water.

Today's pizza has been cancelled on account of large knuckle blisters. Who's up for corn chowder instead?

Got the pharmacy to switch my Fukitol back. I am slowly getting less vertigo-y, but I'm exhausted. It's amazing how difficult staggering around like you're on a pirate ship for a week can be.

Yesterday I started to feel that unpleasant vertigo sensation I get when I've missed a dose of Fukitol. Every time I turned my head the world would kind of slosh, and I was wobbling like Captain Jack Sparrow. So I checkd, but no, my little pill-calendar is up-to-date.

Maybe it's just a bit of benign positional vertigo, I thought, and went to sleep.

This morning at work I went from mildly seasick to "you're SURE you're not drunk?", and realized ... I just started a new bottle of pills on Sunday.

So I called my pharmacy.

ME: Hi, pharmacy guy!* It's Amelia. I was just wondering ... did you folks switch brands on my Fukitol?
PHARMACY GUY: Uh, let me check ... do they look like they always do?
ME: Well, they LOOK the same, but I am falling down, which is different.
PHARMACY GUY: Oh, here, looks like we switched companies.
ME: I see.
PHARMACY GUY: I mean, it's the same exact drug--
ME: Uh-huh.
PHARMACY GUY: ... we could change it back if you want.

I decided to see if the seasickness wears off, but I may take him up on that, because this is not comfortable and I am not sure if driving is a completely swell idea. But it just goes to show. That whole "They'll never know the difference unless you tell them" thing? It is a FILTHY LIE.

*I know all the pharmacy guys. It's right downstairs from Dad's office and I used to be in there all the time buying chips and things.

Current Mood: seasick
Current Music: Kenny Vekhaavera ~ Bailando por la Calle

HEY GUYS!

GUESS HOW MANY HORMONES I'VE GOT GOING RIGHT NOW!

...

DID YOU GUESS "ALL OF THEM"? BECAUSE THE CORRECT ANSWER IS "ALL OF THEM."

Yeah, so, it's not a good day. I hate the Space Place and I hate editing trip photos and I hate trying to make pizza that WON'T JUST GODDAMN SLIDE ONTO THE PIZZA STONE WITHOUT TURNING INTO A CALZONE and I hate flies and I hate humans.

I realized today that my recently-acquired monthly power drain/mood fuckery probably coincides with my pharmacy switching me from one generic Pill to a different generic Pill. They say they're all the same stuff, but they are LYING. I hate them, too.

The nice thing about bad moods like this, though, is you know they won't last. I'll take some Advil and enjoy a nice ~~pizza~~ calzone Margherita and avoid Tinker Bell and David Cronenberg and I will probably love all of the above things again.

Except the flies. Sorry, flies.

Bah. I was GOING to go out today and do some planting in my garden--god the beans need to get started, and I only have half my tea herbs in the ground--but instead I have been flattened by allergies. So we're going to amend today's activity to sitting INSIDE and playing Zelda.

It always surprises me just how FEVERISH hayfever can make you feel. I mean, I guess it's in the name, but I mostly expect an itchy, runny, sneezy face. The malaise is never nice to be reminded of.

Maybe tomorrow I can get those beans going!

Planted some squash today! Now my allergies want me dead. Fair trade, I think.

Argh. Nothing like the Monday after Spring Break to bring one down.

Especially since, related to the previous Bucket o' Blood post, I think all my blood fell out over the last few days. We were getting positively Cronenbergian there. So yeah, feeling a bit anemic. Bean and beef burritos tonight!

Current Mood: British Breakfast

A few months ago I decided to try menstrual cups again.

( So You Know Where I'm Going With This Cut. )

Current Mood: Pride of the Port
Current Music: The Ark ~ This Piece Of Poetry Is Meant To Do Harm

Tried to take off some of my copious PCOS-style leg hair so's I wouldn't get mistaken for a Sasquatch when wearing ankle-length skirts. Now I remember why I usually don't bother.

Fuck it. I'm gonna let it grow back out, dye it blue, and just tell everyone I'm one of the X-Men.

Current Mood: English Tea Time

Work on writing up Trip Reports, Part 2 of the Winemaking Process, and Scatterstone has been slightly hampered by my ferocious battle with a snuffly cold.

And yes, it sounds better to say "I'm going to go continue this ferocious battle with a cold" than "I'm going to take some Nyquil and then sleep for 15 hours," but it amounts to the same thing.

Plus, gotta be over this cold for going to the midnight showing of The Hobbit in a coupla days. I had to call in sick to Rifftrax; I'll be DAMNED if I call in sick to this.

Anyway. I'm going to go continue this ferocious battle with a cold. Don't wait up.

Current Mood: Ginger Peach

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bloodyrosemccoy

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The Desert Mermaid

I Am The Boss Princess

Entries tagged with having a body is weird

SO ANYWAY ONE TIME I HAD A STROKE

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The Life Experience ~ Summer '15

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PNEUMONIA

I Heard That You Were Feeling Ill ...

Weekly

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The Life Experience ~ Fall '14

pathetic cough

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Also I Hate Coming Up With Subjects

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Blackbeard The Pirate's Bucket O' Blood Is Back

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Nyquil Doesn't Cure Colds; It Just Lets You Sleep Through Them

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April 2025

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