I got hit with the flu last Tuesday. I can pinpoint the moment it happened, so I know it's the flu and not a cold. For 5 days it was pretty brutal, but all things considered it could have been much worse (for example, unlike some folks with the flu, I was not on life support or dead). The worst of it was the unbelievable pain in my lungs and chest. Then for a couple of days I woke up feeling a little bit better. This morning, though, I can barely stand up.
I don't know why I'm feeling so dizzy. I stepped on the scale and found that I'd lost several pounds. I feel nausea with accompanying waves of overwhelming anxiety. I'm shaking like a mad person and feel absolutely horrible throughout my entire body - and a little scared that this might be more than just the flu.
Anyone have these sorts of symptoms with the flu? I'm in an area rampant with both the seasonal and swine flu variations, with verified cases of both, so it could be either of them (or either of them with something else). I've got a doctor's appointment for tomorrow - anything I should ask him about that I can't think of right now? I've checked online for symptoms and they vary WILDLY so I'm wondering if anyone has info to share.
Please keep your fingers crossed for me... I'm working on a freelance assignment and while dealing with this flu I've still been able to indulge in the joys of a home office, but I can't afford to be flattened down sick right now. I hope that you and your loved ones are healthy and can get the vaccine for both flu versions this year! Wash your hands and cough in your sleeves!
xo
What's the oldest article of clothing you own? Bonus points if you show us a photo!
If by this you mean the oldest piece of clothing that is mine and worn by me (not antique clothing), then it would have to be my giant blue sweatshirt from high school - it's a Coconut Joe sweatshirt.
It's the only piece I have left. I would have had more but I had a zen-like purging of my closet not long ago, getting rid of cheating boyfriend's concert shirts and other assorted items from decades ago. Never mind that it's all just crap taking up space, who needs to look at stuff and be reminded of how shitty people can be?
Considering I was wearing maternity clothes right up until a few years ago (and my kids are no longer babies) then it's pretty embarrassing to even admit having saved this ancient stuff in the first place. I have new clothes now, I've lost a huge amount of weight, and I'm happy to rid my house of bad juju from people who do not wish you well. And in this new house my closet is a walk-in and HUUUUGE, so no need to have anything bouncing around in there that I don't want to see. Even my storage areas are happy places :)
As in, How do you like them apples.
I picked this up tonight... after avoiding class for a week because I didn't want to deal with seeing a big fat F- on something with my name on it. I really almost walked out halfway through this thing.
So yeah I kind of can't believe it either.
Go forth and fill your libraries with media.
Seriously, thanks to everyone for being so amazing and patient. You are the reason I love Vox.
I was just told that the Amazon Conduit will be fixed by tomorrow. I will post here as soon as I get word that it's back up and running.
I know this has been frustrating and I am sorry there wasn't more I could do to make it less so. I really appreciate your patience though.
Cheers,
Bad news. As many of you have probably noticed, the Amazon Conduit was not fixed in the last week's release. Unfortunately, there was an undetected bug that is preventing the conduit from working.
We are working on this bug fix and hope to have the Conduit back up and running this week.
I will keep you posted.
Thank you for being so patient.
Blog Action Day is every October 15th, when blogger are asked to post something about a single issue to show our strength and conviction as an online community. It's a great way to feel connected to the greater good, and the participation of so many bloggers to support the world's leading non-profit organizations is something you can do to help, right now. By blogging today, you're supporting some of the world's leading non-profits and sharing your voice for change.
This year's topic is climate change, and we'd love to read your thoughts on the topic. If you participate, leave us a link to your post in the comments, so we know to check out your post!
Go to www.blogactionday.org to learn more, get a badge for your blog showing your participation, and see some ideas for your post on climate change.
Can't wait to read your posts!
~ daisy
I just got invited to complete a second-round application for UCSF.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is a blog posting about my grandmother. She died early this morning. I miss her terribly.
JC says that if there is one word she thinks of when she thinks of my grandmother, it is "elegance." I agree completely. Granny had Style. She could walk into any room and turn heads, even in her nineties. She was always immaculately composed; she wore skirts around the house and had the kind of grace and bearing you see in Golden Age movie stars. She was a brilliant conversationalist and read the New York Times every day so that she would have something substantive to discuss over dinner or at the club that night. She got her way with charm, and if that didn't work, then with force. She was an utter lady and also a wicked sportswoman. She grew up playing field hockey and messing about in boats, adding skiing, tennis, and golf to her repertoire as an adult. She had a breezy, easy attitude towards competition, I think because she was good. My grandfather used to dutifully practice his golf swing out back every day. My grandmother would show up at a tournament after weeks of not playing and just sweep the thing. I have some lovely salad serving implements from Kenya that came from one such tournament. She wasn't much for trophies.
She was also fiercely independent, and smart. I like to think I got a shred of this from her. When she was in her twenties she commuted to New York City by train and was at Lord and Taylor's every weekday morning by 9 o'clock. She didn't stand behind a perfume counter though I'm sure she would have looked lovely doing it. She was a personal shopper, putting wardrobes together for well-heeled ladies. Later she was one of those well-heeled ladies. She also exercised some kind of crazy juju with a sewing machine, tailoring beautiful suits and blouses and skirts for herself. She taught my mother how to sew, and my mother taught me, but we're pretty lousy compared to Gran. Ditto for automobile driving. When I followed her "the back way" to her house a year or so ago I could barely keep up with her. And my mother was shrieking.
She had a boudoir, and she loved parties and social hours. One summer when I was living with my grandparents I remember tiptoeing in because I stayed out so late. It was a wasted effort; I was tiptoeing into an empty house. But as intensely social as Gran could be, she would spend long hours watching the boats out in the harbor or painting by herself in the Sun Room. My grandfather used to call her the Harbormaster. She loved the sea and anything of the sea. This I most definitely got from her. That, and she was something of a Dog Whisperer. It didn't matter what she was wearing; if there was a dog snout in the vicinity, it would find its way over to her lap. I sent her a CD of foghorns a few years ago and she loved it. She told me it reminded her of the foghorn out at Stamford Point. I think one of her dogs swam out to that foghorn one day, but I can't remember exactly.
She took up painting late in life but as with everything she did, she excelled at it.
Gran and I shared one other thing: a fascination with history and specifically communism. She remembered the blackouts during World War II, when people worried about German U-boats coming into Long Island Sound and there were orders some nights to turn off all your lights. But it was the Russians and the Cold War that really grabbed her. When Gorbachev came to speak at my high school, she was there, and even might have nudged a high schooler or two out of the way so she could personally shake Mr. Gorbachev's hand. A few years later she went to a black-tie party at the Guggenheim because Putin was a guest. One of the times I called her this summer from Soviet Georgia, I heard her order a doctor out of her room because she "was on the phone with Moscow." Gran was no idiot; she knew I was on the Russian border, not in Russia proper. But I know she got a bit of a kick from the theatrics of it.
Some people live a long life and some people live a good life. Gran was lucky enough to do both. At the same time there is a huge sense of loss. When I got out of bed this morning after talking to my mother, I went out on my back porch. It was already one of those consummate autumn days with the kind of crisp blue sky that makes a person shudder with the beauty of it. Gran would be sore at me for missing her so much, so I'll just say this: Gran, you are sorely missed.
DOI: 9-01-09
Work Status: Full time x 2
Assessment: Meeting expectations; ridiculously overtired
Current Rx: New membership at the Bay Club; occasional g&t
This is a typical heading for the surgeon's charts I put together every day. It is a two-part process; at the end of each day the other medical assistant and I template charts for the patients the surgeons will see the next day. Then when we are seeing patients we populate the chart templates with our measurements and observations, and where possible write up the surgeon's examination, assessment, and treatment plan.
Writing lab reports is a lot like writing charts. I just realized this tonight. I had been coasting through the summer on the idea that this year I would be "just finishing up a few prerequisites." I guess I forgot that those prerequisites were mostly labs, and that labs are ridiculously time consuming. Which is why I am so ridiculously tired. Well that plus the whole business with secondary applications for medical schools. And that I don't get to start this process until I get home from class, which is between ten and eleven p.m. depending on the night. And then I get up at six in the morning. Jesu! It is a lot.
But back to this charts thing. Now that I have made the connection between charts and lab reports, I think I am going to be working more efficiently. Sitting down and trying to do the whole lab in one push is tedious and takes many hours. Sitting down to make a lab report template, and then populating and writing it up the next day? Much, much better. Mucho mejor.
I have a nice template for my physics lab report in place, and will get up ridiculously early tomorrow morning to populate it with data and write up my assessment. But! Unlike with such an approach to an essay or research paper I will sleep perfectly well tonight knowing within exactly which parameters I need to be productive in the morning, over coffee and an egg sandwich.
It took a couple of weeks to figure this out. But I think this is a good working solution.
Also a bit of an apology. Early on I clearly designated this as a No Work No Man blog. I continue to adhere to the No Man aspect, but as it seems that all I do is work these days, I have to write about it otherwise there will be a Big Blank Space on this blog site. Also, I am really excited about the work I have been doing.
Oh and I removed my first pin today!! It was an easy removal but a bit of a gusher.
A final add-on: I have someone very close to me that is Sick right now and needs good thoughts. Send them if you can.
