Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Went to the doc Monday

So, update on the asthma front.

Last Tuesday, (10/21) when my ProAir went completely nutso on me (or was it my body going completely nutso on the ProAir?) I wrote down the times I used Mom's blood pressure cuff, along with the blood pressure and heart rate readings.

So the doc listened to my lungs (way more than last time) and they (the nurse) took my oxygen saturation reading twice. (I should have asked what it was.) But I have a new temporary inhaler, Advair, and two prescriptions, one for a new rescue inhaler and the other for 5 day pack of steroids. Again! I'm tired of steroids.

(Okay, so I do breathe better when I'm on them, but they make me hungry all the time. Last time I managed to avoid gaining any weight by buying those steamer bags of frozen green beans and snacked on those all day. I actually lost weight!)

And I had just gotten my ProAir and Qvar refilled on Friday (10/17). Now I have one unused Qvar and one slightly used ProAir. Wondering if he'll put me back on Qvar after I'm done with the Advair? I've read the insert on the Advair. It's meant to be temporary, long term use can lead to worsening of asthma. Eek.

And so now I'm like broke... until Friday. Sigh...

And my blood pressure readings from 10/21 just in case anyone's interested....

Took ProAir at 1:30 pm
1:40 pm BP 170/124  pulse 58
2:35 pm BP 128/90    pulse 83
3:10 pm BP 137/75    pulse 65

Two teapots that I made....

Now thinking of selling the turquoise teapot... but I'm not sure what I would charge for it. Any suggestions?

I wouldn't mind also selling the tree teapot. But there's one little problem with it. The lid won't come off. I used an iron oxide and I thought I had not gotten any on where the pot and lid meet. But obviously there was some meltage. Maybe next time I'll fire the lid and the pot separately. (Yes, I'm making another.) If I sold this one, it would be a cut rate price, simply because it's become a decorative doorstop now.

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Fun with my ProAir inhaler

Not really. 

Okay, so it was like Thursday (I think) when I was driving from one card account to another.  When I got to other card account, I noticed that my ProAir inhaler had been lying in the sunny spot.  The ac was on in the car, and I wasn't sure if had been over heated or not. 

I puffed on my inhaler.  Then for about an hour, I felt terrible.  My heart rate seemed off, and my breathing seemed more difficult. 

Okay, so I just assumed that it got overheated, and the medication inside was damaged.  I had a couple days until the prescription refilled automatically, so I just did without until then. 

Well, I took my new ProAir inhaler just before leaving for work.  I never made it to work.  I felt terrible again.  My mom has a blood pressure cuff, so I used it.  Blood pressure was 170/124 and heart rate was 58. 

I called my mom's nurse.  She said that's a common side effect of ProAir and I should lie down for an hour after taking it so I don't faint.  (So definitely no driving.)   She thinks my body's reacting to it because I've gotten used to it. 

I checked the paper insert and it mentions heart palpitations and fast heart beat.  I called the doctor's office and made an appointment for Monday.  (I don't even have my new schedule yet.)   I might call the office and see if they have anything open Thursday.  Nothing was open Friday. 

It's just annoying, and now I don't want to use the ProAir anymore.  And I just got the cutest little carrying holder for it too.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/205259587/reserved-for-be-inhaler-holder-custom


The ProAir inhaler has this 'butt' that the other inhalers shown don't.  So I shipped BeaG an empty inhaler case so she could make a custom one for me.  Isn't it cute? 
 
Anyway....

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

So this happened at the pain management clinic

Has anyone had something like this happen to them? 
 
My mom had an appointment at the pain management clinic.  After getting my mom's wheelchair set in a spot where she is not in the way, I pulled out my sketchbook and started sketching. 
 
I chose a couple, man and woman, because they were conversing with each other, and I always like attempting to show folks interacting.  I drew him first because I had a better line of sight on him.  I finished a quick sketch of him, not a detailed one, and started sketching the woman. 
 
He got up and came over to see what I was doing.  When he saw that I had sketched him, he got extremely upset, and started saying that I had to right to sketch him, and what gave me that right?  I tore the  page out of my sketchbook, and attempted to hand it to him.  He got even more upset, and wanted me to erase it.  So I erased the page and showed it to him. 
 
Did this shut him up?  No it did not.  He kept going on and on and ON  about what right did I think I had to sketch him.   He claimed it was illegal for me to sketch him.   Some guy in the corner got mad.  He said he didn't see anything wrong me sketching people, and he took a picture of the man with his cell phone.  Noisy guy did not like that at all.  So Corner Guy and Noisy Guy started arguing.  (Meanwhile I just wanted to melt into the floor.)

Some guy from the pain management office came out and told everyone to pipe down.  I put away my sketchbook at office guy's request. 
 
After office guy went back, Noisy guy and Corner Guy kept their grumbling at each other to a low growl. 
 
After Noisy Guy left, people started to talk a bit more.  Noisy guy had talked to one of the other clients.  He was from New York originally and had to come down here.   So someone thought maybe he was in the Witness Protection Program.  Someone else wondered if he was wanted by law enforcement.  Someone else suggested he needed his meds. 
 
So, thoughts?  

One idea did occur to me.  This was an older black man.  I was wondering if he was defensive because, well, y'know black people have been taken advantage of.  I could have seen artists using black people as subjects in the Jim Crow era, and not paying them very much, or not at all.  Meanwhile, they'd sell the painting for a good sum. 

Anyway... I'm posting this, and then I'm going to my best to forget about it so it doesn't keep steaming me.

I'm just curious if anyone else has had someone really object to being sketched, and how you have handled the situation. 


I've never had anyone get upset when they notice I'm sketching them, and they usually make a comment on whether it looks like them or not. Most folks either don't notice or don't care. 

I've had folks I'm pretty sure knew that they were being sketched, but obviously didn't care.



Anyway,...

 

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

See the inhaler is not supposed to get over 80 degrees.  Well, today I didn't have it in my pockets.  I thought I left it at home.  When I got home it wasn't where I like to put my phone, keys, wallet, etc. that I keep in my pockets.  

Nope, it was in my purse!  Which had been in the truck, behind the seat under a shower curtain sample.  Aw crap.  I'm supposed to be taking that ProAir inhaler every four hours.   (Since I'm still having difficulty breathing.) 

I'm annoyed at myself for this.  I am going to contact the doctor's office tomorrow and let them know what happened.  There aren't refills on that inhaler.   Plus I don't have enough to get it right now.  I'll have to wait until Friday.  Sigh. 

Maybe I should get a temperature gauge for the truck. 

Monday, August 18, 2014

Mariah died August 14th.




Mariah was this cat my sister and I rescued by accident. I came home from work one night and there she was in the tree meowing. She seemed so happy to see humans. "Hoominns! I'm saved!"

When she jumped down from the tree, that's when we noticed she was pregnant. She had three kittens that we named Ivan, Erik and Amelia. Well, more like my sister named them. We would feed her on the porch. The kittens would toddle after mom, see us, and run away. Mariah would give them a look like "Why are you running? Hoomins are our friends."

She had obviously belonged to someone. I remember taking ads out in the paper, but no one ever called. 

At that time there was this man who would poison cats, so we brought her and the kittens inside. Her kittens at that time were a bit feral, and we had trouble catching them. So my sis would say to Mariah, "Mama. Mama, where kitten?" And she would point out their hiding places to us.

We kept for a bit in a large cage in the garage with her kittens. Once a day, my sis and I would clean out the cage. We took turns; one would clean out the cage, the other would mind the kittens. We would put them in a laundry basket, and they would try to escape. She would simply stroll by when they would cry to her ("Mama! Halp! Rescue us!") and find a nice spot to start cleaning herself.

Feral Friends helped us adopt out her kittens. My mom ended up wanting to keep her. So we did.

She had to have one eye removed in the spring of 2002. I remember that because I had signed up for drawing class after being laid off about 12/21/2001. I made her eye trouble a project. I don't know where I have the paintings or sketches I have of the changes to her left eye. I should pull them out and complete that project.

She was 13 years old. 

PS she spent the last few years disabled. Thanks to her poor vision, she walked off something she should not have, and hurt her back. First time she recovered pretty well. The next time she did not. She would drag her backside around. I had to have her super groomed and changed her litter to a non clumping type. It would clump up on her tail and back legs.

Saturday, June 21, 2014

Life sucks....

A co-worker of mine just lost two of her daughters in a car accident.  I had heard they were in critical yesterday, then this morning I heard that they had died.  She's Korina Hernandez-aguilar on Facebook, if you would like to leave your condolences.  

Anyway, I'm passing on a GoFundMe link that a friend of hers set up.
http://www.gofundme.com/angelinaleilani

Please donate if you can, and boosting the signal would be greatly appreciated.

Sunday, May 25, 2014

Wordgazer's Words: Male Headship and the Problem of Power

I love reading Wordgazer's blog.  She knows quite a bit about the culture/times in which the Bible was written.  She also speaks against "male headship" and about the problems inherent in that system of belief. 





Wordgazer's Words: Male Headship and the Problem of Power: Several people have asked me privately to follow up on the radio conversation I participated in on Up For Debate  last weekend on the topic ...