Catching up
I always find it amazing how much more active I am at work than at home, which is one reason I went for LJ rather than a personal program. Before I left work on 13th December I knew I had picked up a seasonal bug of some sort, but decided I had too much I wanted to do to take time off sick. I assumed that I would recover on my holiday (at home, but still a holiday). Unfortunately, I had a lot of stuff at church, went to a few parties which I can't normally go to (busy working) and did some Christmas shopping. I cannot remember everything I did, but I was definitely busy. The result? I got tired and ill and my lungs flared up. This lasted right through Christmas and through the new year. I took 4 days of extra leave to make sure I was as fit as I could be and then went back to work. (4 days is the maximum before calling the doctors.)
The positive bit of this illness, if there is one, is that I got better all through herbs and rest. Without them I would have probably been in hospital over Christmas. As it was, between no. 10 (magic bullet), no. 14 (strong cooler) and no. 19 (anti-inflammatory) I brought myself back from the brink. For the record, in the 4 extra days I took off, I noticed a dramatic improvement and my diabetes stabilised. I saw the acupuncturist on Thursday, at which point I still had borderline phlegm heat; we both felt that the infection had gone on so long that antibiotics (oral, probably) were a distinct possibility. As it happens, when I went to my scheduled CF clinic appointment the following day, my blowing results were the best I have had for almost a year (2.65ish FEV1 - about 60% - and 4.65ish FVC - about 95%). By no means perfect, but definitely good for present. My only worry was my sputum which was still dark and somewhat thick (although it cleared easily). Because of that I reserved the right to get oral antibiotics if it persisted (and this was agreed to - of course!).
What have I done since then? I have worked and slept! For 4 days there was nobody manning my desk, plus two weeks before Christmas, so there was a fair amount of problems to catch up on. There has been an upgrade causing its own share of problem (well I never!), as well as other bugbears for me to get my teeth into. It is also amazing how many queries a broken stapler can cause. The sleeping is mostly a holdover from my illness: my sleeping patterns were completely shot, between afternoon naps and being too tired to get to bed. So for a lot of the last week I have been alternating between 5 and 12 hours of sleep (I had 4-5 hours the night before I went to the hospital). I may have got the sleeping part fixed, but work continues to be busy - I will be working late because of the time taken to write this, and I still have a couple of mini-projects to do.
My time over Christmas was not completely wasted. I read quite a few roleplaying books that have been lurking temptingly on my shelf for too long (and sadly bought some more to replace them... curses!). And as my concentration slowly returned (in the last week of my convalescence) I finally got down to designing a couple of board/card games I had been thinking about in my head. Since I last did this kind of card design, I have become more familiar with Access and found a much easier way to produce the cards (I used to do it in Publisher, having to make each individual card myself). If anyone wants to playtest... (although one of the games has no taste whatsoever). I also did a couple of days research on my final essay, although not enough.
I have pretty much come to a conclusion now that I will not be doing a dissertation. Even if I enjoy what I am doing, I find that I cannot work and do masters work at the same time. When I started, I could do some reading, and even some writing, during work time. As the use of computers and online resources has grown, my time has reduced (even as I become more efficient; efficiency only goes so far). I also no longer have the energy or space to work late into the evening regularly. Irregularly, yes, but between one irregular moment and the next means that I have forgotten what I had been doing and I have to re-do most of my thinking each time (making the time almost pointless). On top of all this, I have lost momentum and so, to a certain extent, interest. Besides all this, I am no longer sure that I want to make Subject Librarian. There are so many library-IT jobs going these days which I would have a decent chance of getting if I didn't have a masters hanging over my head.
There is just room to add my current condition. I am still taking herbs for my lungs - nos 10 and 14 - and I still have a certain level of thick, off-colour sputum (although it moves easily). However, sleep patterns aside, the rest of me is doing well and my diabetes is dropping again. I am still thinking about those antibiotics though because I want to move to more proactive herbs at some point. To be continued...
The positive bit of this illness, if there is one, is that I got better all through herbs and rest. Without them I would have probably been in hospital over Christmas. As it was, between no. 10 (magic bullet), no. 14 (strong cooler) and no. 19 (anti-inflammatory) I brought myself back from the brink. For the record, in the 4 extra days I took off, I noticed a dramatic improvement and my diabetes stabilised. I saw the acupuncturist on Thursday, at which point I still had borderline phlegm heat; we both felt that the infection had gone on so long that antibiotics (oral, probably) were a distinct possibility. As it happens, when I went to my scheduled CF clinic appointment the following day, my blowing results were the best I have had for almost a year (2.65ish FEV1 - about 60% - and 4.65ish FVC - about 95%). By no means perfect, but definitely good for present. My only worry was my sputum which was still dark and somewhat thick (although it cleared easily). Because of that I reserved the right to get oral antibiotics if it persisted (and this was agreed to - of course!).
What have I done since then? I have worked and slept! For 4 days there was nobody manning my desk, plus two weeks before Christmas, so there was a fair amount of problems to catch up on. There has been an upgrade causing its own share of problem (well I never!), as well as other bugbears for me to get my teeth into. It is also amazing how many queries a broken stapler can cause. The sleeping is mostly a holdover from my illness: my sleeping patterns were completely shot, between afternoon naps and being too tired to get to bed. So for a lot of the last week I have been alternating between 5 and 12 hours of sleep (I had 4-5 hours the night before I went to the hospital). I may have got the sleeping part fixed, but work continues to be busy - I will be working late because of the time taken to write this, and I still have a couple of mini-projects to do.
My time over Christmas was not completely wasted. I read quite a few roleplaying books that have been lurking temptingly on my shelf for too long (and sadly bought some more to replace them... curses!). And as my concentration slowly returned (in the last week of my convalescence) I finally got down to designing a couple of board/card games I had been thinking about in my head. Since I last did this kind of card design, I have become more familiar with Access and found a much easier way to produce the cards (I used to do it in Publisher, having to make each individual card myself). If anyone wants to playtest... (although one of the games has no taste whatsoever). I also did a couple of days research on my final essay, although not enough.
I have pretty much come to a conclusion now that I will not be doing a dissertation. Even if I enjoy what I am doing, I find that I cannot work and do masters work at the same time. When I started, I could do some reading, and even some writing, during work time. As the use of computers and online resources has grown, my time has reduced (even as I become more efficient; efficiency only goes so far). I also no longer have the energy or space to work late into the evening regularly. Irregularly, yes, but between one irregular moment and the next means that I have forgotten what I had been doing and I have to re-do most of my thinking each time (making the time almost pointless). On top of all this, I have lost momentum and so, to a certain extent, interest. Besides all this, I am no longer sure that I want to make Subject Librarian. There are so many library-IT jobs going these days which I would have a decent chance of getting if I didn't have a masters hanging over my head.
There is just room to add my current condition. I am still taking herbs for my lungs - nos 10 and 14 - and I still have a certain level of thick, off-colour sputum (although it moves easily). However, sleep patterns aside, the rest of me is doing well and my diabetes is dropping again. I am still thinking about those antibiotics though because I want to move to more proactive herbs at some point. To be continued...