I'm baaa-aaaack...sorta

[nancyskitties]

You have my sincere sympathy; I've heard that is also less than palatable.

The only things worse I've encountered so far are the fish oil caps. With them you DO have a choice of M, L, or Institutional size, depending on what your dr. estimates you can choke down, although the general total dosage remains constant; so if you can't swallow anything big, you take 3 mediums; If you're more talented in throat relaxation (or a teenaged boy), you take 2 Larges; and if your doctor either hopes you choke or figures you have the capacity of an anaconda, you are inflicted with the Institutional size. Then there's the taste. At first, not much. But once that gel capsule starts to dissolve, you spend the rest of the day burping up (& getting vivid tastes) of dead mackerel which really deserved a decent burial about a week before they were processed into pills. I used to like seafood, but I've given it up for Lent; also Easter - Memorial Day - Mothers Day - Fathers Day - 4th of July - Yom Kippur/Rosh Hashama - Diwali - King Kamehama's birthday - Yayoi - Groundhog Day - Labor Day - Samhain - Columbus' Day - Independence Day (Canada) - Election Day (US)- Pearl Harbor Day - Thanksgiving - my birthday - Alferd G. Packer Day - Xmas - Noo Years Eve & Day, & so on. For every day in the year there's some holiday somewhere, in some culture, at some time, which I can use as an excu - ah, I mean, to renounce Fish Oil pills.

[victoriavictrix]

Have you asked your doctor about using krill oil instead of fish oil?

http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/uncategorized/why-krill-oil/

More expensive but MUCH smaller pill (like, magnitudes smaller) and no fish burp.

[nancyskitties]

Just a heads-up to alla youse, that if I disappear again for the next month or so, I'm not at Club Fred: it's just the annual required simultaneous submission of the FY 12 budget/FY 11 Amoss (State Grant) funds/1st quarter reports/Amoss update inventory and reports/monthly reimbursement submission/and of course the annual Audit.

Just to make things interesting, the station has an influx of 'stinkbugs' - those flat, dun-colored, shield-shaped large bugs - all over the place. Y'can't smack or squash 'em because they've come by their descriptive name honestly. They don't DO anything, really, except to have competitions to see who can drop from the ceiling into the coffee cup, down a shirt collar, or onto a bare head; they 'plop' at odd intervals but loudly onto tabletops, chair seats, or the papers I'm working on. I have to shake everything out lest I file them with the invoices in the folder drawers. They don't bother me, but they have traumatized a visitor or two as well as some of the career personnel. And here we are having Open House this weekend, just in time to coordinate with the deluge of rain we so badly need (we just got 4+ inches in the past 24 or so hours, but being so hard & fast, it didn't "stick", just ran off down to S. Carolina - but that's OK, 'cause we're expecting another 6+ inches this weekend. That means I'll have to hie over to Harpers Ferry to see if the river's gone over the bank and up to the lower main street past the elevated train trestle yet. I know most of the trees on either bank will be sticking up out of the water, which is so weird to see; nor would anybody guess that only an inch or so below surface are some really bodacious boulders that could rip the bottom off the Titanic. Most of the time they're way out of water, nice & warm to sit on after you've been wading around in the gentle flow at the edge of the river. You never really realize how powerful water is until you're standing on the bank, mulling over the peaceful scene of trees growing out in the middle of the river ... and an entire 75-foot monster, root ball 'n all, comes straight down the current, smashing back & forth against the unseen boulders underneath, rather like the tree version of someone trying to survive the Kona Pipeline on a surfboard.

Mmmm-hmp! No, guess I'll put off wading today after all....

[maywong]

Gee Nancy, never a dull moment by you. LOL

[nancyskitties]

Yeah, that's the problem: my Mother cursed me, that my life should always be 'interesting'. I wasn't old enough to know at the time what a terrible thing that is to wish on anyone.

Physically, I'm not sure how to report. On the one hand, I've lost enough weight I didn't even need to unfasten my corduroy jeans when I went to the Ladies'; nor have I had any good nervous breakdowns recently, or even weepy spells - but then I have traded those in for this extremely sharp burning pain in the side of one leg, which has become a medical mystery unrevealed by hand-, sonar-, or cat-scan. A small sort of string of small hard lumps can be felt along the worst line of source, but ... nothing shows. Phlebitis, the Vascular Midiot says. Great. Yes, I know the red is cellulitis; I also know it indicates infection, dammit. You went to med school 25 years to tell me THAT? If it ain't one thing it's another. Oh - & here I've been anticipating my new knee in early April. Except they won't do it if the Lymphedema (which is irreversible) isn't neutralized, nor will they do it at all if I'm even suspected of still harboring phlebitis or cellulitis. Well, I'm not spending my life in a wheelchair: if they can't come up with better than that, then I'll take my leg somewhere else & have 'em chop it off! At least with a prosthesis if someone steps on my toe it won't hurt, but if I step on theirs, they'll know it, heh heh heh.

Ah, me. The worst part is I've gotten used to being home sleeping in - as late as 7 some mornings - & wandering leisurely through the days, this past week or so. Would I could retire. Can't get Soc. Security Disability retirement because I can still haul my butt to work & sit at a computer all day, even tho sitting with my leg down just makes the edema/phlebitis/Dutch Elm Disease worse. If I had the leave, I could just take my leave & as long as I didn't go to work, I could technically still be on the payroll getting a regular paycheck, yet be 'unemployed', and as soon as I'm 'unemployed' for 6 months - TA-DA! I qualify. There's something wrong with the Soc. Sec. system that almost requires you to commit fraud to qualify, when you have 6 or 7 specialist MDs all more than willing to testify you really should be retired, but the rules require that as long as you can be set upright at a keyboard, you're OK & not eligible; while someone else has a sore thumb, but THEY qualify, somehow.

My dolls are so mad at me. The Gurlz haven't had a single new outfit all year (sweaters don't count, & JanetT has to teach me to take a decent photo closeup first). Bella hasn't spoken to me for weeks, & even Ollie is nose-out-of-joint. The guys, bless them, don't care. As long as they can watch the TV. I keep trying for inspiration, from my art books, my fabrics ... but all I end up doing is being inspired to put things in order. This past weekend I cleared out & rearranged my pantry, right down to alphabetizing my spice jars, soup cans, & so on. Is this anal, or what?