Selenay's Ramblings

I visited my parents at the weekend and my Dad has the most horrendous cold.

Yesterday I woke up with a slight tickle in my throat. But I was singing at Marylebone station after work and I am a determined sort of person, so I did my thing and ate Vocalzones and make it through two hours of carols and assorted Christmas songs successfully.

By the time I got home, my voice was on its way out.

Today I have no voice. I am hilarious. If I strain, I can get a sort of whisper squeak out. My boss keeps curling up laughing every time I have to speak.

(He's a treasure. An actual treasure, not the sarcastic type. He fought marketing off for me today so he gets so much kudos.)

I need to do some last minute shopping after work so I plan to do that, get home, and possibly not leave the house again until I can speak properly. Although I've now started sneezing and sniffling, so I might not feel much like going anywhere for a couple of days. Please let this cold be done by the weekend? I have too much to do!

I thought that things were improving over the weekend. I made it through most of Saturday with no problems and while Sunday wasn't as good, it wasn't as bad as it had been during the week. Right up until I was kept awake for two hours on Sunday night with cramping and, er, other issues.

I had physio yesterday and, as the physio's office is round the corner from my office, I elected to go to work afterwards. My doctor's office is just across the road from my building so it was a good plan. Apart from spending most of the day in the bathroom and not keeping any of my food in my stomach. Argh!

The physio was disappointed that I'd been ill and thus unable to work on my core much. As working on my core tends to set off cramping, I've not been getting very far with my exercises. He wants me to try harder this week. Yay?

My GP left the practice in March of last year. At the time, this didn't seem like the end of the world because I was fine, nothing was going on and the practice staff assured me that she was being replaced ASAP. My new GP starts on 7th February. Argh. So I've been relying on duty doctors at the walk-in clinic at my practice, which isn't good when you've got active issues.

Yesterday I managed to get lucky yet again, by seeing the doctor who was leaving the practice at the end of the day and thus was reluctant to do anything that would require paperwork. Like referring me to a rheumatologist. That will be my battle when the new GP starts. The duty doc said that it will take months, maybe years, to get me a rheumy so what is a few extra weeks in the grand scheme of things?

I think she may be missing the point, but there's nothing that I can do about it apart from trying to get an appointment with my new GP the moment he arrives.

The big reasons that I was there was to discuss my meds and discuss my stomach issues. We got nowhere on the meds, her suggestions being counter-intuitive in light of what's causing the pain and my other issues, and she was rather less than helpful on the stomach thing.

She did, reluctantly, fill out a requisition for some lovely invasive testing because I've been having issues on and off for years and it may be a good idea to rule out some form of colitis. She also signed the requisition for some bloodwork to check for anaemia. I'm getting tested for a whole bunch of things, in fact, so it's fasting bloodwork. Somehow I have to get myself to the doctor's office tomorrow morning having consumed nothing, including my painkillers, since tonight's supper. This may be interesting.

For my current problems, she suggested peppermint tea and a trip to the emerg if things don't resolve in a week or so. Argh.

This morning I've been having flashing lights, dizziness and extreme exhaustion which I'm reasonably sure are due to my inability to process food properly for a week. I'm giving it another couple of days before I think about the ER. Just not quite sure how to drive to get my bloodwork done tomorrow if I'm still like this...

On the up side, this is a great weight loss program. I didn't need to lose weight, but I'm going to look so sleek and slim by the time this is over. That's got to be a bonus, right?

Between a stomach bug and the death of a friend at church, last week totally sucked so I am hoping that this week is a bit better. After all, it can't be much worse!

Of course, this morning I woke up with a trapped nerve in my neck (again!) so it's not looking promising. I will not despair! I will believe that this week is going to be awesome!

I have very little planned for this week. There is Yuletide to sign up for and Thursday will bring knit night, but otherwise I shall be largely mooching around and doing regular stuff. I'll be trying for plenty of sleep this week so that I'm not completely exhausted when I get to the weekend. Plus I shall be getting back into the exercise habit. I made a good start last week and was then felled by the stomach bug and an asthma flare. Argh. Sometimes having asthma sucks because it does unexpected things and getting out for a nice brisk walk doesn't go well when walking across the room leaves you breathless.

Good thing I stocked up on inhalers. It looks like I'm going to be taking my preventer regularly rather than just when I've got a virus. Blergh. I know, I should probably be taking it all the time, but for the last ten years I have literally only had asthma issues when I have a cold and I hate taking meds that I don't need 99% of the time.

In slightly more interesting news, I am one and a quarter sleeves away from a new sweater. It's coming out really well and should hopefully be one of those great sweaters that's suitable for most occasions, as easy to wear to work paired with smart trousers as it is to lounge around in paired with jeans.

The yarn is a bit of a departure for me, being both not-purple and cotton. It's a rather lovely shade of brown that everyone keeps telling me looks fab with my hair and I'm looking forward to having a sweater that will go with just about anything. It's Rowan Handknit Cotton, a DK weight pure cotton yarn that is actually really lovely to knit with and is producing a very soft fabric. A lot of cotton is unpleasant to knit with because it has no elasticity or spring and can be rather harsh on the hands. I've also found that it can be very splitty to work with, meaning that you can't do anything else while knitting because you constantly have to watch your needles. This stuff is tightly plied, so it's not splitty, and although it isn't springy like wool, it doesn't feel harsh or stiff when I'm working with it.

Also, it's a machine washable yarn and the ball band says that it can be tumble dried. I'll probably dry it flat and then fluff it in the dryer because cotton can get quite stiff and scratchy when it's washed. But it is going to be a garment that's very easy to care for, which is what one needs sometimes. Special snowflake sweaters may look beautiful, but how often do you wear something if you know that cleaning it will be a bitch?

So. That cold. I still haz it. In fact, it's still as had as it was on Sunday. Yesterday was spectacularly bad. If I tell you that I didn't spot that my shirt was snot-stained until I got home from work, that should tell you something.

Today I've been working from home. Couldn't face driving.

I've also not really felt like eating, but I'm going to try and remedy that shortly. Maybe if I start eating then I'll actually be hungry?

Anyway, I hate all rhinoviruses, adenoviruses and that other cold virus that I always forget the name of. Stupid things. Flu, at least, is a really cool virus. The cold ones are stupid and boring and did I mention that I hate them?

Blergh. Please kill me now?

I have a migraine. There's been a thunking headache for the last three days (tiredness, I suspect) so I toddled off to church as normal thinking it would just stay as a headache and started to feel nauseous during the sermon. Taken Migraleve (I'll need to get Mum to bring some over in the summer) but lying down hasn't helped.

So I did the neck/shoulder shaping on one side of the tunic to relax me a bit. Now I'm in the main house with all the (screened) windows open and the screen door adding to the breeze. Nausea is, at least, starting to recede and the headache is down to thunking rather than blinding.

The cats are thoroughly excited and can't quite decide which window is best, so they're running from window to window :-) It's quite sweet. They run away from open doors (the outside might get them!) but they love open windows. Thank goodness for screens here.

Anyway, after a miserable foggy day yesterday the sun is out and there's just enough of a breeze to keep it nice. If I were feeling better, this would be an afternoon to blow off everything and go to the beach. Bright sunlight isn't my friend right now, though :-(

Perhaps I'll go to the beach after work this week?

I have slept. Now I have a tickly nose and my asthma is playing up. I surely can't have con crud. Too much to do!

Plan for today is to photo copy my ID and then walk to the post office to post the forms to request a criminal records check. Hopefully I'll have my security clearance for my government job within the next two months...

Mostly today is about recovering from the con. I'm quite enjoying being here, surrounded by familiar things and seeing my parents. At the same time, I'm quite happy that I'll be going home next week. I'd been half-afraid that I'd come back to England and never want to leave, particularly after the harsh winter that was so much worse than anything I'd expected.

Nope, I'm quite content to visit and enjoy myself with the prospect of going home a pleasant and happy thing next week. Why did I ever think that the shower here was powerful? And wow, the kitchen here is tiny. It feels a bit odd not seeing my knitting group this week and I do miss my ocean. It took me ages to get used to some things about living in Canada and now I can't quite get used to the way England does them.

Yeah. England is a nice place to visit but I really wouldn't want to live here again.

Although I am going to make the best use of my visit that I can and I'm still seriously considering a visit here over Christmas.

There were so many things that I thought of saying, but I cannot remember any of them. I'm sure they'll come to me about five minutes after I post.

I have one day and eight hours to post my Yuletide fic. It's finished. It's edited.

Tonight I am going out to the grocery store and then I'm decorating a Christmas tree. Tomorrow I am going to the market in the city in the morning.

And I have a headache, sniffly nose, cough and nausea which I suspect means that I'm coming down with a cold.

Please, someone, find me an extra ten hours in the day so that I can do everything and get Yuletide posted more than five minutes before the deadline?

Yesterday someone stole half my spoons, making it a very unpleasant day.

Today I have a couple more spoons, but the cutlery drawer isn't exactly overflowing. I probably have three-quarters of my usual spoons. The day should have been easier and it's true that right now I'm working away, feeling tired and sleepy but better than yesterday.

The problem is that I might have been optimistic about the "it's just fatigue, not a virus" thing. Either that or my asmtha has decided to be triggered by fatigue :-(

It crept up and surprised me. One minute I was plugging away with my work, then I noticed that I was coughing a little bit and then - maybe five minutes later - I realised that not only was I coughing a lot, but I was also struggling to catch my breath after each cough and my lungs were filling with liquid.

I've learned my lesson so my asthma meds were sitting in my handbag. I made a trip to the bathroom to take my inhalers (where my boss caught me - her daughter apparently has asthma so she understands) and ten minutes later it was pretty much over. Not a full attack because I'd caught it in time, but I know what it would have turned into given another ten minutes without meds. Three hours later I'm still at my desk, my lungs have stayed fairly clear and I'm mostly just headachey and sore throat-ey. And really tired.

I just can't decide whether I'd prefer this to be a virus or a new thing that fatigue does to me.

Perhaps I'll give knitting a miss tonight and spend the evening curled up in bed.

So I haven't done any of the stuff that I had planned for this morning thanks to a lovely migraine attack. Bleh.

I woke up at 6.30am this morning with a raging headache, which wasn't too weird because I went to bed with a slight headache and sometimes they get worse with sleep. As usual, I took some co-codamol and went back to sleep because 90% of the time that does the trick.

My alarm went off at 8.15am and I snoozed it a few times before finally admitting defeat, sitting up and thinking "crap, now I'm nauseous too". Unfortunately because I had taken co-codamol two hours before, I had to wait before taking Migraleve. So I got up, had a shower (moving very slowly) and tried to force some breakfast down. Took the Migraleve at 10am (yes, half an hour early, I was desperate) and the Quaker guy called almost immediately afterwards.

The good news is that we have got everything sorted out on that front, so I'm feeling happier.

I tried to drink some coffee but that proved to be too much, so I made a dash for a quiet, dark bedroom and slept for a few hours.

Thankfully the worst of it is now over. I've taken some of the yellow follow-up Migraleve and the headache is mostly gone, the nausea is gone and I've eaten some lunch. I now just have the migraine hangover to deal with, but that's much more pleasant than the actual migraine.

The best explanation is that I am finally starting to wind down and my body went "Eeep!" quite loudly at the idea of not being totally stressed. The migraine certainly explains why I was feeling unhappy and ick yesterday evening. As I usually have two or three a year and the last one was in January, I was about due for one and I'm very glad that it happened today rather than tomorrow when I have stuff on that I'm committed to.

The only bad thing is that I have a check-up with my GP in an hour and migraine hangover wasn't the state I wanted him to see me in!

I absolutely do not have a cold. Really. It's not a good time for me to have
a cold.

The most likely explanation is that I am now at the "so tired I feel ill"
stage of exhaustion, which is why my stomach is upset and I feel sniffly and
cold-ish. In fact I feel down right miserable right now :-(

I will kill anyone who tries to make me stay late in work today. Seriously.

Tomorrow Da and I drive up to North Wales with intentions to do our Snowdon
climb on Friday and then spend Saturday relaxing and being tourists. Right
now I am far too tired to contemplate the drive, so my plan tonight is to
have a nap when I get home, eat something (combining this task with Tour de
France watching to save time) and then pack according to the list that I
have drawn up. If my plan succeeds, I will be in bed by 10pm having also had
a nap.

If my plan fails then I will have no nap and still be packing at 11pm.

Can I have lots of good vibes and hope that my cunning plan will succeed?
Because I really do need to be fit and awake enough to do some of the
driving tomorrow.

Also, I need to not feel quite so ill because I shall be climbing Snowdon in
48 hours and being so tired that I feel ill is not a good thing.

At some stage I will read all the lovely femslash08 stories, but
I suspect that won't happen until I get home from Wales now. Somewhere in
there someone has written a story for me, except I haven't even had time to
look for it yet! And someone wrote Susan/Talia for netgirl_y2k
and as there is very little Susan/Talia fic out there it is going to be
first on my list of to reads after I've found my fic.

Can I go home now? Seriously? I really need to curl up and sleep :-(