Tag: bloodwork

The Space Between

Thursday morning and still suffering from my sinuses. Bloody hell! Yesterday the headache plagued me for most of the day, and of course the air conditioning in the office made me want to curl up and sleep after yesterday’s thunderstorm. It’s going to rain for most of the day today, and so I’ll run my errands in the rain today after work. At least we made it to Thursday, right? Tomorrow morning I have to get up and get bloodwork done as well as get my left hip X-rayed; I’m not sure if I have told you about that already, Constant Reader, and don’t want to bore you with information I’ve shared previously, but…when I was sick, I would lose my balance and start to fall–unexpectedly and at any time. Walking out to get a delivery, I lost my balance and fell sideways into the fence. My leg bothered me after that, but I just assumed I had bruised it. Before I saw my primary care doctor I realized that my leg still felt bruised, but it should have healed. I also realized that what I thought was bruising was actually numbness, so I am getting my hip X-rayed to see if it’s a pinched nerve or something else.

Here’s hoping it doesn’t involve another surgery. Christ.

We finished watching We Were Liars and I must confess to some disappointment with the show’s “big twist,” which sort of explained some of the issues I was having with the plot, but…yeah. It also opened up even more questions–things were mentioned during the season, but never explained later. I suppose the ending left a second season as a possibility–which would also account for not wrapping up some of those subplots–but I don’t know if we’re onboard with more of the show, honestly. I can’t explain my disappointment without giving spoilers, and I don’t want to ever do that, in case you may want to watch. Maybe you’ll enjoy it and not see the problems we noted while watching.

Again, last night, when I got home I didn’t do much of anything. I tried to edit and revise for a while but it really was like pulling teeth so I finally gave up and sat in my chair with Sparky. I didn’t do any of the chores I needed to do last night, so I will have to do them when I get home tonight. (I’ll have to ignore Sparky’s pleas to sit in my easy chair–not easy because he is very spoiled and used to getting what he wants.) I think maybe this week my body is getting used to not taking the steroid every morning. I’ve noticed also that I am not that hungry as I was and am not eating as much as I was just last week. It could also be that my body thinks it’s reached the proper weight for me, so is signaling I don’t need to eat more. I don’t know. I just know that the last couple of days I’ve not eaten as much breakfast or lunch as I did last week, and I’ve not eaten anything for dinner either day. It can’t be coincidence that my appetite disappeared as soon as I stopped taking the prednisone, can it? The weight gain seems to have tapered off a bit; I weighed two pounds more this morning than I did last week, which is always within the margin of error because of water weight. (Most people’s weight fluctuates up and down in the range of three pounds either way.)

I feel good this morning–the sinus headache is still there and may not be going away any time soon; it may not be sinus related, either. I noticed this morning that my neck is a little stiff (it has been all week), and when I move my head a certain way, I am aware of the stiffness AND the headache. The headache itself isn’t constant; I only feel it every few seconds and it feels like a sharp object is being stuck in my head on the top but just behind the ear. It may be related to the neck stiffness.

Sigh. Being old really sucks sometimes.

But as we head into my work-at-home day and the weekend, I am hoping to be able to get a lot done (don’t I always?). I know we are going to go see Superman (the MAGA boycott only makes the film more appealing to me) this weekend, and I’ll need to do some things–like wash the car and make groceries–so I am hoping it will be a good weekend.

There’s always hope.

And on that note, I am heading into the spice mines. Have a lovely Friday Eve, Constant Reader, and I’ll be back tomorrow, probably after the blood draw and so forth. We’ll see how it goes.

Former collegiate wrestler and now a fitness influencer @wrestle.chris on Instagram–there may even be an OnlyFans, too—I just checked and yes, there are links on his Insta to OnlyFans.

Song Sung Blue

Weeping like a willow….

Apparently, per my last bloodwork, I am a bit anemic. My primary care doctor isn’t concerned; he thinks it’s a result of the illness-related weight loss, so I am probably going to have to have the bloodwork done over again to see if the anemia is persisting, or if getting more back to eating, with its concurrent weight gain and feeling better, has improved the situation. My deductible is paid in full, so yeah, I am all about getting tested and doing all kinds of things for the rest of the year so I can get more value from my insurance. I am assuming that since the deductible shows paid off, that I will most likely be getting the bill from Ochsner Baptist soon, and I am curious to see how much six nights in a hospital and all the care that went with it actually costs. (The pharmacy bill from the stay is the only one showing yet on my insurance account; and it was over twenty two thousand dollars. Just for medications, but I am assuming that includes the IV’s, too.)

But yay on the deductible being paid off at last! I’m not thrilled about how it happened, of course, but it’s quite delightful to know everything isn’t going to cost me a cent for the rest of the year, mwa-ha-ha-ha.

I also wrote last night. The story isn’t finished yet, but I put in over two thousand words yesterday, so my writing muscles are getting stronger and looser and that’s lovely, isn’t it? The story now sits at just over three thousand words, and yes, it’s quite horrible but I feel confident I can do something good with it once I finish. But it felt good to get those creaky muscles back to work, and maybe I can get even more written this weekend.

I wasn’t terribly tired when I got home from work last night; it was a very slow day in the clinic and I was able to get caught up on a lot of Admin work. And now I am working from home today, with more Admin work to do, too. It’s supposed to be a rainy weekend, too, which is always nice. Hoping to get some good reading time in while I do chores and around writing this weekend. And if I don’t, well, as long as I get some rest that’s really the most important thing, really. I like feeling better–at some points while I was sick I wondered if I would ever feel better again, or if that was my new normal. God, that was unpleasant, and I’m glad it’s over for the most part. It may come back, which is the scary part, so you can bet your ass I will do whatever I need to do in order to be sure that doesn’t happen.

But my breakfast and my morning coffee are really hitting the spot this humid morning. The rain isn’t supposed to be here until later this evening, which is nice. I think I’ll run my errands tomorrow instead of today; today feels like a good stick around the house day, to be honest. I did do some chores last night, so this morning I just need to empty the dishwasher and do some laundry, and then the floors, which somehow always look terrible by the weekend every week. I also finished writing a newsletter last night that I’ll probably send out this morning before I start working.

And on that note, I am heading into the spice mines. Have a lovely Friday, Constant Reader, and I may be back later or tomorrow morning; stay tuned to find out!

Anubis in Queen Nefertari’s tomb, Egypt, Valley of the Queens

I Can’t Get No Satisfaction

Blergh.

I am up way too early this morning, and I can’t even have any coffee. I am having labs drawn this morning, and I need to fast for them…so I always schedule it for super-early so I can get it over and done with and back home to the shower and my coffee. I am not working at home today like I usually do; we’re having a department meeting and although I had permission to join the meeting on Teams…I also had some admin work to do in the office so I figured I might as well just go in person and do my work time there. I mean, I took Monday and Tuesday off, so missing out on a work-at-home day when I have four days off in a row isn’t going to be a major issue for me. And it’s not a full day, anyway. We’re going to Costco after I get home from work later, and I do have some errands to get taken care of this weekend. But I took Monday and Tuesday off for my birthday, so I have four days to relax, read, clean, or just do nothing if I so choose.

Well, I am home from having the labs drawn. I won’t spare you the gruesome story of the poor phlebotomist who had to locate a vein–the vein he finally found in my right forearm only gave one vial, so he then had to use my left hand; it actually didn’t hurt (I’ve steeled myself to having blood drawn, and having it done so regularly for my PrEP prescription has kind of inured me to sharp pointy metal things going into my skin. I also scheduled my flu shot and my RSV vaccine for tomorrow morning, so look at me–getting all this medical stuff knocked out and being pro-active about my own health, which is actually kind of lovely. It’s one of those things that I consider “ooh, look at me being a responsible adult” which is kind of a reaction to being told for so long that I was so completely irresponsible by so many people. I do enjoy, however, those moments when I behave like an actual adult. (I’ve set the bar pretty low for myself, in case you couldn’t tell.)

Despite being tired on my way home from work last night, I did do a speck of writing. I’ve been thinking a lot about a short story that’s been in progress for almost ten years, but I was never really sure how to end it, or really what it was about. I got the idea for it when I had to stop to use the rest room at a rest stop in the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee. There was only one other car there, and it was running with the passenger door open. At first I was amused–I guess someone really had to use the bathroom pretty badly–and of course my next thought was that it was probably a woman…but as I walked up to the building and went into the bathroom there was no one in the men’s room, so I assumed I was right. But after washing my hands, I walked back out and the car was exactly the same as it was when I passed. I called Highway Assistance–in case it was something serious and there was a woman lying on the floor in the bathroom or something, and once I was back on the road again, I thought about the situation all the way to my parents’, and pictured a woman coming to the same rest stop and encountering the same situation, only she finds an unconscious bleeding woman in the bathroom…and the main character is really not in a position herself to call the police. A picture of the Smoky Mountains on Facebook–the riotous colors of fall–came across my feed over the weekend, and it put the story back into my frontal lobe, so I decided to work on it some more this week since it was taking form in my head. I know why the main character is there, I know why the bleeding woman is there, and all I have left is deciding which ending is the best. I didn’t write much–Sparky kept distracting me before Paul came down to watch television with me–but I did get some writing done, and that feels simply wonderful.

Anyway, this day is going to feel off all day because it’s out of the ordinary. Getting up and out for the lab work; coming into the office for a meeting and to catch up on Admin work here that should be done before I leave for my brief vacation this weekend–odds and ends, really, that shouldn’t wait until I return to the office on Wednesday.

And on that note, I am heading into the spice mines for this strange Friday. Have a lovely day, Constant Reader, and I doubt I’ll be back before tomorrow morning.

When the Sun Goes Down

Work-at-home Friday has rolled around again, and today I get to do data entry and quality-assurance on forms until my eyes cross. I have a couple of errands to run this afternoon–but other than that, I am looking forward to a nice, peaceful day at home doing my work-at-home duties and my chores. Later on, I hope to get some good work done on the book before I repair to my easy chair with the latest Wanda Morris novel. It was a tough choice between that and the new Donna Andrews, but I am thinking since Dashing Through The Snowbirds is a Christmas tale, I may save that for Christmas reading this year–it makes the most sense, and since I generally don’t watch any Christmas movies or specials anymore (I do sometimes watch A Charlie Brown Christmas–it’s my favorite), maybe I could read Christmas-themed books and stories this year in December; maybe call it “The Twelve Reads of Christmas” or something like that. Hmmm, it’s a thought.

It really is amazing what a good night’s sleep will do for you after a few days of insomnia and exhaustion/fatigue.

Last night I didn’t sleep as deeply or as well as I did on Wednesday night. I kept waking up, partly due to Scooter’s restlessness and sometime need to let me know his outrage about something, but was always able to fall back asleep. I had to have bloodwork done this morning; I got an email from the lab telling me I had lab orders waiting for me, so I scheduled it. I got there this morning and checked in–mind you, I needed to fast, so I didn’t eat last night or have anything to drink or eat this morning before leaving the house–only to find out they didn’t, in fact, have lab orders for me. Hilariously, I am terrible about remembering to do the labs after my doctor appointments, so this last time in July I made the appointment for Labs the same week as my doctor appointment and had them done. Once they told me I didn’t have orders in, I looked in the app and saw that I had, indeed, had them done back in August. So, no need to fast overnight, no need to not have coffee before leaving, no need to leave, in fact. Heavy sigh. But I did start reading Wanda Morris’ new book while waiting to be told I didn’t really need to be there, and it’s quite marvelous already. I knew it would be–her debut novel was superb–and it’s such a delight, as always, to see exciting new voices grow and become even stronger as their career progresses.

Last evening as I relaxed before heading to bed I watched another documentary about the history of gay pornography–I’ll probably watch another one later today–which of course put me in mind of writing about that history. I really do need to focus on getting this Scotty book and the next thing I have to write finished so I can get back to Chlorine; my goal for the rest of this year and 2023 is to get these two books finished, finish two other in-progress projects, and wrap up some other things that are unfinished but need to be finished so I can cross them off the list. I may do another short story collection; I’m not sure but I think I have enough sold and/or published for another collection to actually be possible. This one, when it materialized, will be called This Town and Other Stories, because the strongest story I’ve done since the last collection was “This Town”, which was in Holly West’s anthology Murder-a-Go-Go’s. At least in my opinion, although The Affair of the Purloined Rentboy and Other Stories would probably sell better…

And of course, tomorrow is a big day for the Southeastern Conference, with division championships on the line. LSU can actually get a leg up in the West by accomplishing the gargantuan task of beating Alabama in Baton Rouge for the first time since 2010–but I don’t think that’s going to happen. Sure, it’s possible–anything is possible in college football on any given Saturday; I am sure no one would have thought Kansas State would shellack Oklahoma State the way they did last weekend–but despite all the hype chatter, I’m not getting my hopes up terribly high. Yes, I want the Tigers to win–but I don’t have any expectations, just as I really haven’t all season. I’m just delighted the program seems to be on the rise again after the last two horrible years. I certainly would have never thought LSU would be coming into the game with Alabama tied with them and Mississippi for first place in the division. And earlier in the day Georgia and Tennessee will play for the leg up in the East–which again, no one would have seen coming before the season started; no one really give Tennessee much thought as the program has been moribund since at least 2007, the last time they won their division (which also happened to be the year a two-loss LSU team won the national championship–see how you can see omens and portents in everything?). I am not a Tennessee fan by any means–I rooted for them during the Peyton Manning years because I thought he was a phenomenal athlete plus I despise Florida with every fiber of my being, but that was about it. I only root for them in non-conference games and bowls, but I am happy for their fans–just as I was happy for Georgia fans last year as they finally beat Alabama and won the national title; I always think back to what a glorious ride 2019 was for LSU fans, so it’s always nice to see a long-starved fan base finally get something they can be excited about. Pundits and fans are already comparing 2019 LSU and 2022 Tennessee…but it’s really not even the same. Sure, no one thought LSU would be as great as they were in 2019, but they were also coming off a 10-3 season. Tennessee was 7-6 last year, so it’s an even bigger turnaround for them on that level. I plan to get my writing and my errands and chores finished tomorrow morning well before the 2:30 Georgia-Tennessee kick-off, so I can spend the rest of the day nervously cleaning with the games on in the background. Paul also comes home tomorrow (yay!) so I am going to need groceries, too.

And my kitchen, as always, is a disaster area on a Friday morning, so it’s perhaps time for me to head into the spice mines. Have a lovely day, Constant Reader, and I’ll check in with you later or tomorrow.

This Used To Be The Future

Today’s title is actually true, and rather depressing if you spend too much time thinking about it. This is not what I had hoped or dreamed the future would be, at least not for me or for the world. Maybe it’s because I’m getting older, but it seems that things just get worse as I get older, year to year. Oh, sure, we have made progress as a society–dragging those opposed to progress along kicking and screaming like petulant children every fucking step of the way–but I had certainly hoped that a lot of this bullshit would be over and done with. I’m tired, frankly, and can’t imagine how tired everyone else must be as well–and I’ve had it relatively easy compared to many.

I was up this morning at a ridiculous hour to get my blood work done–it required fasting, so I thought I might as well get up early and get it over with so I could move on to having coffee, (which is feeling quite wonderful right about now) and now I am home. I got a shingles vaccine as well and picked up my prescriptions–I told you, that nurse practitioner is on top pf everything–and at some point this morning I have to call the mammogram place back to get that appointment set up. I do feel better about getting all of this stuff under control and handled, frankly; I know it’s a low bar, but I’ve disregarded my health so much throughout the course of my life and so regularly that it’s actually nice to be handling it.

Now, to drum up the nerve to go back to the dentist.

We had a magnificent thunderstorm last night; the kind where the rain just pours down like someone turned on a massive firehose and pointed it down at the city; where the thunderclaps last for as long as twenty seconds and are so close it seems like something exploded nearby. I do love those storms, frankly; they are quite marvelous and I love the feeling of listening to a storm raging while I am safe and warm and snug inside the house. I’ve always loved storms, ever since I was a child, and as I’ve gotten older I’ve come to love them all the more.

This week seemed to speed past; it’s hard to believe it’s already Thursday. This is an enormously pleasing change–just a few weeks ago I woke up on Wednesday, realized it was only Wednesday, and wanted to crawl into a hole and hide somewhere. We’re still watching Dark–we’re now onto the third season, and it’s amazing how they continue to not only keep the show going, but adding more timelines and things that are a bit confusing at first, but once you have it figured out you marvel at how actually seamless it was.

And on that note, i need to get back to the spice mines. Have a lovely Thursday, Constant Reader!