GIP!
bec76 caught a couple of good shots of Shroom asleep on my head (her normal position, especially during winter). I'm very pleased. This is my cranky old lady cat; she's about 15 or so, and sleeping with her reminds me frequently of one of the most awe-inspiring aspects of interspecies friendship -- the trust. That we (and they) are capable of developing true trust between species never ceases to amaze me. I sleep with her claws right on my face, head, and throat, and it's ok. I trust her that much. She frequently sleeps with my face nestled in her belly. She trusts me that much. Seriously mindblowing, when one stops taking it for granted for a moment.
In other news, guess what I got for my 35th birthday?
A CPAP. Joy. Had my followup appt for my sleep study today. No actual apnea, but a whole lot of hypopnea (which is breathing too shallow to oxygenate properly), so it's worth treating and seeing how it goes. Another 2 months before I know about provigil, which is frustrating. We have to let me acclimate to the CPAP, see how I'm doing, and then do another full sleep study with the CPAP, and an MSLT after that, in order to know if there's definitely narcolepsy going on aside from the apnea/hypopnea. Frustrating result, but the NP was awesome (one of the NPs I worked with through patient-instructing, actually, back when she was in women's health), and I still really like
my neuro, too. They apologized for the crap with the last study, and no one telling me what was going on.
So I'm not thrilled, but especially since the hypopnea was so severe, I'm willing to give it a try and see if it improves my fatigue problems.
On the other hand, I am developing a serious loathing for those automated blood pressure machines. They cause me intense pain, and that sends my BP up, as well as being, well, friggin' painful. Today I had petechiae bruising over my upper arms from it, which at least gave me something to show them to demonstrate how much the machines suck. Anyone else have negative experiences with those things? I don't know if it's a body size thing; I wonder if it's just not capable of dealing with the fat on my upper arms, and I'm curious whether people with complaints come from across the size spectrum, or are clustered toward my end.
Talking to the NP really made me miss patient-instructing, though. As did the Around Noon today about the mammography/BSE recommendation changes. I'm curious how that'll affect our teaching, and I'm frustrated not to be able to be at work talking about it. Thank maude I live with Liv and Grafton, at least (they both teach, and I get a vicarious fix from their work-related chatter).
Also, Terry Jones' Medieval Lives just gave me a minor epiphany. He was explaining the purpose of heraldic devices, and one of those obvious facts that we totally overlook by being immersed in the modern world really clicked finally. Heraldic devices were so you knew who famous people were, because unless you'd met someone face to face, you didn't fucking know what anyone looked like! Once he said it, it was obvious, but it had somehow never really sunk in before. Now I'm wondering how our commonly used vocabulary for physical description compares to that of medieval times (there are all sorts of descriptive "physical feature" words that I never hear outside books anymore), and whether access to image reproduction has been a factor in how much less regimented costume is these days.
I found this out because I'm watching Medieval Lives (on grf's recommendation) on Netflix. From work. Oh, hell yeah! Just discovered last week that although almost every other type of streaming media is blocked, Netflix viewing works just dandy! I've been mostly watching things I know well enough to enjoy as "radio plays" (Doctor Who is great for this), since I'm usually working on things in other windows, but it's a definitely perk of second shift.
And in other work-related news, the Clinic's ergonomics guy came in today. I didn't know we _had_ an ergonomics guy. I'm pleased. Proactivity is nice, and he had some useful suggestions as he went desk to desk working with us. Given how long we spend sitting in front of computers typing, that's seriously handy. Also, awesome boss continues to be awesome. Yay!
My birthday itself was fun; I declared Saturday to be my unofficial bday, got yummy food from the West Side Market (including some excellent delmonico steaks and baklava), dropped some acid, and spent the day getting nothing productive done. The hot tub was great. Monday (my real bday) I happened to be on a shift where I could get a ride with a coworker, so I didn't have to bus it, and it was a ridiculously quiet day at work, and Bec and Grafton made me tasties for when I got home (steak and raspberries and pound cake), and Caleb got me a copy of a book I really dig, and wanted to have in the house (Your Inner Fish), because it's got great diagrams and reference material, and I keep wanting to reference it. And Bec and Jer got me a Eureka comic that turned up just the day after I was lamenting the wait for new Eureka episodes!
In house news, I'm still loving having the houses, but I'm also struggling with the typical new home-owner "Damn, everything is so expensive" stress. I'm getting better and better at finding things inexpensively, though. This weekend we're getting a delivery of five 55-gallon plastic food-grade barrels, suitable for conversion to water barrels, for $50 total. So much better than paying $80-$300 a piece for premade. Now we'll be able to reuse our rainwater for the garden, and minimize some of our water runoff concerns (there's concrete very close to the houses, and non-ideal grading -- the more we collect, the less gets down around the foundation).
Our relationship with our one real neighbor continues to develop, though! She may be working longer hours soon, and she's asked about petsitting for her little pom Coco. I'm pleased about this both because of the bridge-building it reinforces, and because it'll mean another critter around the house to get to know. I was missing Spike earlier today, and I was horribly tempted to get overly friendly with the stray(?) cat in our parking lot. Do not need more pets. Do not. Have promised not to adopt anything new until at least next August. Must satisfy cravings for new-critter interaction in other ways. That is something really specific that I very much enjoy, though... Getting to know a new animal and winning them over. It's part of what makes me a total sucker.
And because I'm a sucker, here's another ShroomHead pic, this time from right after we both woke up.
Shroom sleeps on my head. After we both woke up.
And here ends my belated and now seriously overlong post.
In other news, guess what I got for my 35th birthday?
A CPAP. Joy. Had my followup appt for my sleep study today. No actual apnea, but a whole lot of hypopnea (which is breathing too shallow to oxygenate properly), so it's worth treating and seeing how it goes. Another 2 months before I know about provigil, which is frustrating. We have to let me acclimate to the CPAP, see how I'm doing, and then do another full sleep study with the CPAP, and an MSLT after that, in order to know if there's definitely narcolepsy going on aside from the apnea/hypopnea. Frustrating result, but the NP was awesome (one of the NPs I worked with through patient-instructing, actually, back when she was in women's health), and I still really like
my neuro, too. They apologized for the crap with the last study, and no one telling me what was going on.
So I'm not thrilled, but especially since the hypopnea was so severe, I'm willing to give it a try and see if it improves my fatigue problems.
On the other hand, I am developing a serious loathing for those automated blood pressure machines. They cause me intense pain, and that sends my BP up, as well as being, well, friggin' painful. Today I had petechiae bruising over my upper arms from it, which at least gave me something to show them to demonstrate how much the machines suck. Anyone else have negative experiences with those things? I don't know if it's a body size thing; I wonder if it's just not capable of dealing with the fat on my upper arms, and I'm curious whether people with complaints come from across the size spectrum, or are clustered toward my end.
Talking to the NP really made me miss patient-instructing, though. As did the Around Noon today about the mammography/BSE recommendation changes. I'm curious how that'll affect our teaching, and I'm frustrated not to be able to be at work talking about it. Thank maude I live with Liv and Grafton, at least (they both teach, and I get a vicarious fix from their work-related chatter).
Also, Terry Jones' Medieval Lives just gave me a minor epiphany. He was explaining the purpose of heraldic devices, and one of those obvious facts that we totally overlook by being immersed in the modern world really clicked finally. Heraldic devices were so you knew who famous people were, because unless you'd met someone face to face, you didn't fucking know what anyone looked like! Once he said it, it was obvious, but it had somehow never really sunk in before. Now I'm wondering how our commonly used vocabulary for physical description compares to that of medieval times (there are all sorts of descriptive "physical feature" words that I never hear outside books anymore), and whether access to image reproduction has been a factor in how much less regimented costume is these days.
I found this out because I'm watching Medieval Lives (on grf's recommendation) on Netflix. From work. Oh, hell yeah! Just discovered last week that although almost every other type of streaming media is blocked, Netflix viewing works just dandy! I've been mostly watching things I know well enough to enjoy as "radio plays" (Doctor Who is great for this), since I'm usually working on things in other windows, but it's a definitely perk of second shift.
And in other work-related news, the Clinic's ergonomics guy came in today. I didn't know we _had_ an ergonomics guy. I'm pleased. Proactivity is nice, and he had some useful suggestions as he went desk to desk working with us. Given how long we spend sitting in front of computers typing, that's seriously handy. Also, awesome boss continues to be awesome. Yay!
My birthday itself was fun; I declared Saturday to be my unofficial bday, got yummy food from the West Side Market (including some excellent delmonico steaks and baklava), dropped some acid, and spent the day getting nothing productive done. The hot tub was great. Monday (my real bday) I happened to be on a shift where I could get a ride with a coworker, so I didn't have to bus it, and it was a ridiculously quiet day at work, and Bec and Grafton made me tasties for when I got home (steak and raspberries and pound cake), and Caleb got me a copy of a book I really dig, and wanted to have in the house (Your Inner Fish), because it's got great diagrams and reference material, and I keep wanting to reference it. And Bec and Jer got me a Eureka comic that turned up just the day after I was lamenting the wait for new Eureka episodes!
In house news, I'm still loving having the houses, but I'm also struggling with the typical new home-owner "Damn, everything is so expensive" stress. I'm getting better and better at finding things inexpensively, though. This weekend we're getting a delivery of five 55-gallon plastic food-grade barrels, suitable for conversion to water barrels, for $50 total. So much better than paying $80-$300 a piece for premade. Now we'll be able to reuse our rainwater for the garden, and minimize some of our water runoff concerns (there's concrete very close to the houses, and non-ideal grading -- the more we collect, the less gets down around the foundation).
Our relationship with our one real neighbor continues to develop, though! She may be working longer hours soon, and she's asked about petsitting for her little pom Coco. I'm pleased about this both because of the bridge-building it reinforces, and because it'll mean another critter around the house to get to know. I was missing Spike earlier today, and I was horribly tempted to get overly friendly with the stray(?) cat in our parking lot. Do not need more pets. Do not. Have promised not to adopt anything new until at least next August. Must satisfy cravings for new-critter interaction in other ways. That is something really specific that I very much enjoy, though... Getting to know a new animal and winning them over. It's part of what makes me a total sucker.
And because I'm a sucker, here's another ShroomHead pic, this time from right after we both woke up.
Shroom sleeps on my head. After we both woke up.
And here ends my belated and now seriously overlong post.