Hmm roast chicken...

with cranberry sauce!

I almost feel well. It must be feed a fever...

I wonder how long it will last ;-)

Small rant on eco bags...

I am getting overwhelmed with eco bags. Everywhere I go someone gives me one. I hate those weird ones that are a cross between paper and cloth, they do not hold up. They are not water proof, they are ugly and feel gross.

I am also not thrilled with the dirty looks I get from people carrying those bags when I get a paper bag from my local market. I live in fairly liberal neighborhood. Usually I walk to the store but today I am ill. Not the usual, I ate something I am allergic to or food poisoning ill. Today I am running a fever that seems to come in waves and is wiping me out. I am also not sleeping still, again, whatever...

I am not hungry, actually I don't care much about anything. My thoughts processes are a bit off. I even unintentionally insulted Al Stewart, my favorite singer songwriter, last night who graciously thanked me afterwards for my "charity." I also perhaps gave a back handed compliment to Steve Forbert, though he really was cute in this video, really, but I could have said it better. Al didn't deserve it. I am told Steve is a very nice guy and he liked the old youtube I found:-)

Anyway, so I drive to the store. drive! wasted gas! I even took the long back route because the state fair traffic has the usual route all backed up. Our state economy is tanking but the fair is more crowded than it has been in years, go figure... Usually, I have my two Ikea bags in the car, the big blue one and the small one that holds 2 gallons of water. They are cute, easy to fold, strong, lightweight, durable, water proof and you can throw them over your shoulder or hold onto the shorter straps. The Apple store back pack bags are almost as cool. However, I forget to unload them from the library and office depot the other day and put them back in the car. In fact, they are currently sitting over there fully loaded, looking cute which I type this.

At the store, I pick up chicken, cranberries, eggs, bananas and an individual Lindt hazelnut chocolate truffle-just your standard I-feel-horrible-fare when you don't have the energy or cash to get or make anything elaborate. I get to the counter to pay, trying hard not to cough or breathe on anyone. When the clerk asks if want a bag and what kind, I say "paper" and the man behind me holding up his his eco blue bag, that shows hard wear, gives me a dirty look! Of course those bags always look pre-destressed anyway, and as I said they don't wear well in comparsion to canvas and decent stitching.

I definitely reuse brown paper bags. They go to the co-op if they are in good condition. I also use them to sort, or put paper recycling in until they rip. Then I use the remaining paper for patterns or book covers. I used to wrap packages in them like my grandmother, but the post office doesn't like that anymore.

Long before the eco bag craze and really cool Ikea blue bags, I was using canvas bags from trade shows, I always have. I am into bags, I store much of my textile collection in these cool bags from sewing trade shows.

Its not that I am against bringing your own bag! I just don't think it gives people the right to look down on others just because they have an eco bag. I wish places would stop pushing them on me, they are everywhere. Next week, when I am well enough to go to the fair, I am going to count how many of those bags I am offered, I am betting at least 5. Maybe I will refashion the ones I have into something else, though I am not sure what they would be good for? Eco bag purse anyone?

Public Health release for the day, LOL!

"Health officials warn of disease risk from handling baby chicks and ducklings
Seven Salmonella cases identified from March through May

State health officials have identified seven cases of salmonellosis in recent months that are associated with handling chicks or ducklings, prompting them to remind Minnesotans to wash hands thoroughly after handling baby poultry. Read the entire news release.

For more information, contact:

Doug Schultz
MDH Communications
651-201-4993

Dr. Joni Scheftel
State Public Health Veterinarian
651-201-5107"

#####

They also makes some recommendations such as don't let poultry live inside your home. So all you people out there incubating chicks in your kitchen....

So I kept saying I got a rash when I went to the dentist

but no one believed me for quite a while...

but after a few months of fun that included but not limited to:
dehydration
hives
ER
shock
bacteria
toxins
spores
more antibiotics
no belly dancing :-(
pro-biotics
bananas
and zinc
it turned out I was correct. The rash was connected to my dental visits as were all the rest. It took a while for it all to get connected, and I kept thinking ok this is it, like the hives, its over but it wasn't.

What I learned:

• Clindamycin is not a good dental pre-med, and is notorious for this particular bacteria.
• There is a high relapse rate.
  
• Too many dental appointments close together are not wise esp. if you take pre-meds.
• Bananas are your friend. Fresh, powdered, or dehydrated are best. Chips don't work as well.
• ER's in the middle of the day are not as good as going on a holiday, weekend or wee hours.
• Sometimes its worth leaving an ER even if your hives are continuing to spread down your nerve pathways.
• Bathroom mirrors make nice dry erase boards.
• Zofran is amazing and wonderful (and I still have some!)
• Benadryl keeps the hives from swelling as much.
• I no longer need pre-meds.

A couple weeks ago, I won a major Susan vs bacteria battle and felt reasonably well enough to attend the parties at a sci fi fantasy convention. I had a blast! I was there until about 1:30am the first night and left reluctantly at 4:30am Sunday on the second.
I saw the usual suspects, had tea, watched belly dancing, partied with some defenders of an allied nation and got to try on the coolest headgear ever! I will post more about this later.

Tuesday, I woke up with a sore throat. Lucky me, 2 days of health and I get the flu. Due to the above, my medication options were limited. I had been reading about Elderberry extract and its use in the prospective pandemic, so I tried that.
For the first few days, I took Elderberry & Zinc lozenges (10 per day) and rode out the fever. Then I switched to Elderberry capsules (3/day) for a day, and then a combo of both. They actually seemed to work, the really bad flu stuff lasted about 3 days, I was still getting pretty wiped out for another few days but no fever. 3 days ago I walked over 12000 steps and survived fine. Its now been 9 days, I still am getting a bit more tired earlier in the evening but otherwise feeling quite healthy.

Today I discovered that Ikea has cute little stuff guinea pigs! They are even machine washable and only $3.99. Is that cool or what?

Yikes my tongue is blue!

Why is my tongue blue? Well the day started out strange, strange emails, not pretty storywriting, an assortment of offline ims I wasn't expecting. I went to work, it was dead, worked on sales tax and a red and black bra during my breaks. I don't normal wear black but it is the only color of powernet I have that seems to go with the red I wanted so once I decided on that, I thought might as well accent it with black picot edge elastic. After I closed the store, I worked on it for another hour or so, got everything done but the back clasp and the straps done. Don't know if it will fit but hey it looks interesting.
Maybe I can be like those people who fill their library full of never read leather bound books, except I can fill my lingerie drawer with funky lingerie...

Anyway (or anyways-for Laurie) back to the blue tongue, so I decide to stop on the bra, I am kind of sick and getting rather feverish, so I decide to find myself a place to swim as it was about 85 out. I kind of remember that there are two lakes north of the store with beaches, though one is closed. I look at a map, yes that does occasionally happen! I only have a state map, but it does show the general vicinity of two lakes beginning with the letter J, Johanna and Josephine, so I decide they might be ideal places to swim. The fact that I do not have a swimsuit with me I decide is immaterial, ones doesn't need a swimsuit to swim. I am wearing a long sleeve shirt and light loose trousers that are tight at the ankles, and my current hat of favor, no problem I have swum in worse or less or something. I have even swum in this particular hat.

So I drive north until I find Lake Johanna, the one that is closed. There is a sign clearing saying closed and part of the road is blocked off, the rest of the road is full of parked cars, including a couple police cars. The park is full of people, having picnics and bar-b-ques. So I join the illegal parkers and head down to the beach, take my sandals off and start into the water, at which point a very nice policeman tells me I can't swim because the park is supposed to be closed. A few people come over to listen to him explain that the park really is closed despite the number of people in it, he points out that they all know this too because none of them is the water! I concede it his point and am starting to leave when the listening people invite me to their bar-b-que, since I can't swim ;-)

Now my blue tongue and I are dancing along with a Bollywood music video on PBS, great fun, a mixture of dance styles!!!

I wrote this a while ago and meant to post it, can't remember why my tongue was blue now :(

Black death

About a month ago I started reading the book "Return of the Black Death-The World's Greatest Serial Killer." I had just gotten to the chapert "Building an identikit of the Killer" when I got very ill. I started coughing at night when I would lay down to sleep, no big deal, thought it was allergies, went to the doctor. My eyes were itching again too. Did xrays, blood work, EKG and all were fine. The dr put me on Nasonex. It seemed to help a small bit, but there was a high pollen rate so I didn't think much about it.

8 days later the coughing get worse, tried warmer showers, vaopizers, anti histamines, nothing helped much. a couple days later coughing all the time, total dry cough, talking was hard, it was cough-word-cough-cough-word-cough so I called the evil nurse line. They asked me all these questions, stuff about my broken leg, my neck, nothing that had any bearing on my cough, then we got disconneted, so I called back. New nurse wants to ask the questions again, I say no just talk about cough, after a few breathing related questions she says call your dr. Its night but I call the dr, luckily my dr is on call. He calls, doesn't even block the id but anyway (or anyways for Laurie!), he says he can see me in the morning. I don't have a fever at that point, everyone has been telling me if I get a fever go to the er. I drive out and get cough meds, 45 mins later I have a fever of 102.8 so I drive to the er.

I am so warm when I get to the ER they don't bother taking my temp, they just wrap me in cold blankets. Stick me in front of one of the oldest xray machines I have every seen, its blue. Take my blood, do a culture, stick an oxygen clip on my finger. The ER dr is an old friend of my former dr of 15 yrs. He tells me how they dream of having their daughters who are currently in med school work with them at this hospital. I am coughing too hard to tell him they are nuts.

One of my good friends breaks her middle toe around then and goes to the same ER. we see each others car but miss each other, oh well. I have pneumonia, lower lobe of left lung is non-functional. The ER dr told me he had this kind of pneumonia 6 weeks ago. I am given the choice of being admitted or going home, am told it will get worse until the antibiotics kick in. I choose home figuring I will get more sleep there. They give me a loading dose, some to take with me and some T3. They tell me to take the T3 at night to give my muscles a rest from coughing.

I go home, it gets worse, I take the T3 and it feels like I am drowning, after a bit I am still drowning but I don't care. A friend stays on the phone with me for several nights, talks me through the "drowning" to the not caring part. Every time I cough really badly he says "are you alright?" and every time I say "no, I have pneumonia." There is a strange comfort in that.