(no subject)
Well, I'm glad I stuck to my guns and scheduled the appliance place's plumber to install the new dishwasher, because it required plumber + assistant, with daily experience of such installation not to mention the proper tools, over 2 hours to do the job this morning. Which means it would have taken Steve something like 6 hours, and it would not have been installed today. Hell, it might not have been installed this month. :P
It's a rather intimidating machine, really. There are enough touchkeys that I have to read the manual just to figure out how to operate it. And it has a "sanitize" setting that apparently nukes your dishes, just in case. *fear*
This has been doctor-appointment heavy week. I checked in with the allergist on Tuesday - actually, the allergist's Physician Assistant - and told her about the Incredible 5-Day Migraine of last week. She was concerned about some marks/itchiness on my one arm that she thought might be spider bites, which led to a lovely discussion of wolf spiders, brown recluse spiders, and revelation of the rather disgusting factoid that the average person ingests 7 spiders a year - either through sleeping open-mouthed à la Steve, or from having them crawl into the nasal cavity, again while asleep. Okay so I'm NOT an arachnophobe, and generally tolerate spiders, but THAT is just plain ooky.
Other than that, she thought I was doing pretty well - a little congestion, but the antihistamine-antileukotriene-steroid-decongestant measures and the household-allergen abatement seems to be doing as well as can be expected. My chief hope for further improvement remains desensitization shots. But she wanted me to go back to my PCP for the headache, although she agreed that it sounded very allergic in its overall presentation, because they're not really equipped to deal with migraine in that practice other than in a "Here, try Imitrex" way, which - been there, done that. She also suggested I might need to check back in with a neurologist, as it's been a dozen or so years since the migraines were diagnosed.
So I saw PCP tonight, and since I had the weird reaction to Imitrex, he took me off that and gave me something pharmacologically similar called Relpak, with detailed instructions on when to take it, since that's half the problem with these meds - you have to *know* it's going to be a migraine and not an "ordinary" headache, because they're such limited-use drugs, but you also have to take them as soon as possible once you have a good sense that it really is a migraine. We decided my migraines aren't dependent only on the shiv-through-temple sensation, but also on the blurry visual aura, so that should be my cue to take it - not before, but not "waiting and seeing" once the visual disturbance starts. So if that method works on the next migraine yay, and I'm allowed to take 2 or 3 doses per headache, but if I have anything else approaching a 5-day experience again THEN he'll go the neurologist route. Whoopee! :P
In the meantime, I've lost 4 pounds over the past month, so that's something.
On the non-medical front, I can't believe it took me this long to discover that Wawa makes their BLTs with something approaching half a pound of bacon. (Eight thin strips, by my count.) My goodness. I had to take some out of the sammich. It was just. too. much. (Although some people might consider that heresy.)
This entry feels aimless and focus-free, and I'm going to end it here.
It's a rather intimidating machine, really. There are enough touchkeys that I have to read the manual just to figure out how to operate it. And it has a "sanitize" setting that apparently nukes your dishes, just in case. *fear*
This has been doctor-appointment heavy week. I checked in with the allergist on Tuesday - actually, the allergist's Physician Assistant - and told her about the Incredible 5-Day Migraine of last week. She was concerned about some marks/itchiness on my one arm that she thought might be spider bites, which led to a lovely discussion of wolf spiders, brown recluse spiders, and revelation of the rather disgusting factoid that the average person ingests 7 spiders a year - either through sleeping open-mouthed à la Steve, or from having them crawl into the nasal cavity, again while asleep. Okay so I'm NOT an arachnophobe, and generally tolerate spiders, but THAT is just plain ooky.
Other than that, she thought I was doing pretty well - a little congestion, but the antihistamine-antileukotriene-steroid-decongestant measures and the household-allergen abatement seems to be doing as well as can be expected. My chief hope for further improvement remains desensitization shots. But she wanted me to go back to my PCP for the headache, although she agreed that it sounded very allergic in its overall presentation, because they're not really equipped to deal with migraine in that practice other than in a "Here, try Imitrex" way, which - been there, done that. She also suggested I might need to check back in with a neurologist, as it's been a dozen or so years since the migraines were diagnosed.
So I saw PCP tonight, and since I had the weird reaction to Imitrex, he took me off that and gave me something pharmacologically similar called Relpak, with detailed instructions on when to take it, since that's half the problem with these meds - you have to *know* it's going to be a migraine and not an "ordinary" headache, because they're such limited-use drugs, but you also have to take them as soon as possible once you have a good sense that it really is a migraine. We decided my migraines aren't dependent only on the shiv-through-temple sensation, but also on the blurry visual aura, so that should be my cue to take it - not before, but not "waiting and seeing" once the visual disturbance starts. So if that method works on the next migraine yay, and I'm allowed to take 2 or 3 doses per headache, but if I have anything else approaching a 5-day experience again THEN he'll go the neurologist route. Whoopee! :P
In the meantime, I've lost 4 pounds over the past month, so that's something.
On the non-medical front, I can't believe it took me this long to discover that Wawa makes their BLTs with something approaching half a pound of bacon. (Eight thin strips, by my count.) My goodness. I had to take some out of the sammich. It was just. too. much. (Although some people might consider that heresy.)
This entry feels aimless and focus-free, and I'm going to end it here.