Meme

I was tagged by Minnesota Nice.

Six Word Memoir Rules:

1. Write your own 6 word memoir
2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you'd like
3. Link to the person that tagged you in your post and to this original post if possible so we can track it as it travels across the blogosphere
4. Tag 5 more blogs with links
5. And don't forget to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play!

I like stuff. Okay, some stuff.

Bet you weren't expecting that! And yet, it's so true. Anyway, I tag Emm, Tiffany, Rikki, Mel, and Christine.

Photographic evidence

I've kind of hit a plateau with Diabetes 365. I haven't missed any days, but I'm feeling less enthused about it and it's been longer and longer between uploads. Mainly it's that I don't think my photos are very good and what was okay for an occasional shot looks different when you have hundreds of them. To some extent I am limited by equipment, but also I just don't know a lot about photography or shooting objects.

For some reason, I feel strangely drawn to the original 365 project, 365 Days. On the one hand, I feel it's kind of weird to take photos of yourself, but on the other hand, I have very few photos of myself from the past seven years (because I am the only photo taker) which I find kind of disappointing. In a way, it seems strange, because I grew up in a family that despite its numerous issues took photos of absolutely everything. I guess that's the way it goes, though.

I feel like doing a new project will actually infuse new life into my older project, instead of taking away from it. I'm still trying to decide, though.

In other news, recovering from the flu and still quite tired, but my toe is better and the government sent us some of our money back.

Purses

I've been meaning to mention this for awhile, but the place where I get these kinds of purses:


is now making a smaller model for all those of you who can get by with a smaller bag (not me). Here is the smaller one which comes in a lot of colors:



I really like the inside of the smaller one, but I just have too much stuff to carry, so I got another larger one. I love them, and I'm pretty hard on bags.

Enough already

Well, around Thursday I started getting really tired - much more tired than I had been. On Thursday night, I tried to go into the store to buy one thing and discovered I was so tired I could barely make it out of the store again. Like my limbs just wouldn't go. I also had joint, muscle, and nerve pain. Joint and nerve pain is pretty standard for me, but this was way worse. I only get all over muscle pain if I try to do something, like clean something, give the cat a bath, etc. Since I just *had* given the cat a bath on Wednesday, I figured it must be that, even though it was much worse than usual. The pain didn't go away, though. The surprising thing is how high my pain level is given all the painkillers I'm taking (for me). I've also been sleeping 10-12 hours a night and still feel so tired all the time that I can barely lift my arms, or anything else. I don't feel like eating at all.

Anyone else see where this is going? Well, I didn't until today. I heard my husband coughing because he stayed home from work sick (which he NEVER does), and something "clicked." Duh, I have the flu. How does one have the flu for five days without noticing? Well, I normally have chronic pain, I've had chronic fatigue (not CFIDS) in the past, I normally have all these transient things, I'm on a lot of painkiller for the whole teeth thing, and my body doesn't really do fevers because I have an autonomic nervous system disorder. I'm not coughing, but I've had the flu once before, and I didn't cough then, either.

At least if this is day 5 for me, it should be over soon. My husband is definitely getting the short end of the stick here, since he's never sick and isn't used to this sort of thing the way I am. It's too late for him to get Tamiflu, unfortunately.

More and more

Well, I got a recommendation for a good dentist. Drawback: he's 18 miles away. I didn't really care; I've seen enough bad dentists in my life. They were able to get me in on Monday, too!

I took a copy of my panoramic x-ray, although the receptionist said it was basically useless. Well, as it turns out, the dentist kept referring to it, the assistant made notes on it, and I had to convince them to give it back to me (since it's my copy) when I left. Anyway, I was telling the assistant I thought #14 had a cavity on the panoramic. She scoffed and said it would have to be the "world's largest cavity" to show up on that. Then she did a full set of x-rays - luckily I had taken the good painkiller, because no one's ever successfully gotten a full set out of me before. My mouth is too small, apparently. They also measured my gums. Again with the painkiller. I will have to remember that in case I ever have it done again. I did really like the dentist, though, and he also does implants.

Well, the result of the x-rays is that I have the world's largest cavity in #14. I also have multiple cavities in every tooth I own. I wasn't too surprised by that, since I have weak enamel and my teeth are too soft. It's just something that you're born with. Anyway, I have to have a root canal, so they referred me to an endodontist.

The endodontist wasn't able to get me in until the 17th! Still, that might even work out better for me (despite the obvious drawback of waiting) because I can't get any more time off. They're having me come in next week for an "evaluation." They said that during the evaluation, they decide whether a root canal is actually needed. I think I burst out laughing when they said that.

And again

Well, I went to see my internist on Friday and he was appalled I didn't get any treatment from the dentist (and even worse, it's his dentist). So he wrote me a Z-pac just in case and told me Darvocet could be cut in half. I tried it at night first and it seemed okay, so I tried it during the day. It makes the pain somewhat bearable.

At one point I discovered one of my teeth (#14) is more painful than the others. It already has a lot of fillings. I looked at it more closely and it looks like it's cracked. Frankly, I would be glad if that's the problem if it's just a matter of a root canal and filling it in. It's not like it's in the front. You can see it on the x-ray here if you want. Compared to #3 it looks like it might have a cavity.

So after taking the painkiller I had some time to think. Why did the dentist refer me to a prosthodontist for a serious dental and health emergency? Now, I do need to see the specialist eventually, but for this? I called his office and they confirmed they don't handle this kind of work. So it looks like I need to find another dentist! I don't want to go to just any dentist; I've had all kinds of bad luck in the past. I will check around.

I'm almost tempted to try to go back to my old dentist in Bellingham. None of *his* crowns have fallen out of my mouth, and he was always excellent. He's apparently having some legal troubles right now, though (nothing I'm that concerned about) so I'm not sure if he's still practicing. Also, he's not open on the weekends so I'd have to get up to Bellingham during the day (I don't drive) and that's a lot of time. So I don't know.

And now for something a little

2 March 2008 Day 146
Originally uploaded by lilituc.

Here I am with Gary Scheiner (in what has to be the most unflattering light ever). He was great, though!

I spent this weekend at the Children With Diabetes Focus on Pumping conference. It was very interesting. One of the pump reps remarked that it was such a different atmosphere from the usual - where everyone "gets it." That sums it up pretty well.

I don't know if the larger conferences are the same way, but it was definitely focused on parents of children under 18. Many of the speakers and reps were adults with Type 1, and a couple of the parents were, but otherwise it seemed like I was the only one there without a child. Yet while the focus was more on children, I could still apply the information, knowing the differences between management of children and adults.

My husband decided to sign up for a TrialNet study, since his father has Type 1. They take a blood sample, test it for antibodies, and will let him know the results in 4-6 weeks.