Cold-er

If you thought it wasn't possible you were wrong.  It's bitter cold, cold and clear, so cold that the nice (but short) ex-Marine guy across the street's transmission is frozen and he can't move his jacked up, compensating, diesel pickup truck away from the bottom of his driveway which is sloped so he could roll down but now that he's across the bottom of it, he can't go back or forward.  Oops.  Gonna be a fun day.

I didn't make it to work yesterday.  See I've been having some worrying physical symptoms for the last month and every time I tried to talk to my doc about them she had her nurse tell me to go to the ER because they don't have machines to deal with heart problems.  Now, I knew that I didn't have heart problems because I can run around with Porter or snowshoe around the yard and not get faint or spots before my eyes or tunnel vision.  I read the side effects for the thyroid medicine she gave me in late October which says that it takes weeks to take effect and I have a history of overreacting to meds.  (I can't even take more than half a dose of Tylenol Cold every 12 hours or I'm loopy--sheesh)  So I called a few times to discuss it before going to get checked out but all they said was "go to the ER" in increasingly strident tones.  Yesterday they managed to scare me enough so I called Mr. Boss to say that I wasn't coming in to work and I went.  (I made Durwood stay home because he can NOT breathe outside when it's this cold.  They gave me a phone so that I could call him whenever I wanted to.  That was very nice and a great comfort when the scareds got too strong)  I got there around 9:30 AM.  I left just before 5 PM.  I got IV-ed, EKG-ed (2 or 3 times), chest x-rayed, poked again for more blood tests (did I tell you that I have petite veins that roll away from needles? I look a bit like a junkie today), shot with radioactive goo, scanned, walked on a treadmill for 5 minutes, shot with more radioactive goo, rescanned, and finally got the news that my heart's in tiptop shape and I'm having an adverse reaction to a medication.  I coulda told 'em that at 9:30, and I did, but they had to prove it to themselves, I guess.  Good thing I grabbed my Kindle and knitting bag as I went out the door, huh?  I also foolishly took my lunch soup and fruit just in case I got to go to work.  (hahahahahahaha, silly woman)  They told me that it was also a good thing that I came in so early in the morning so I didn't have to spend the night in the ER waiting for the nuclear stress test.  Yikes.  I volunteered to work today but Mrs. Boss got stuck in Honduras (don't you wish that'd happened to you?  I certainly do.) over the weekend so she didn't get her dive shop work done on Sunday so she has to work today so I can't.  I can go pick up my paycheck though, and I'll do that when I go out to pick up the release paperwork I forgot at the ER when I scampered out just before dark and take a copy to my regular doc to politely say, "see?  adverse reaction to meds, not heart problems" in a nice way... if I can figure one out.  BTW, I made the decision on my own to not take that thyroid medicine anymore, the ER doc said that she couldn't advise me to stop taking it but many many people have problems with it.  Then she kind of cocked her head.  I got the message.  My doc only gave it to me to try to up my energy (which I don't need) and jump start my metabolism so it's a bit easier for me to lose weight.  I'll soldier on the old way, thanks.  Not a day I want to repeat anytime soon, thanks.  But take comfort, family and friends, in knowing that I have the heart of a lion.  And my cholesterol and blood sugar is just fine too.  Whew.

January 22--Leonard Limosin, Henri D'Albert, King of Navarre.  Hank called himself "the King of Auto Mechanics" for years.  See, his name was Henry King and when he was plunking down the first month's rent for his shop he told the landlord "now I really feel like a king" and that was that.  He had a picture of himself on his business cards looking happy with a cartoon-y card on his head.  He papered the neighborhood with coupons good for a $10 oil change for new customers and built a broad customer base.  Hank was an open-handed and helpful guy.  He stood across the street from King's Garage watching it burn and wondered who hated him enough to torch the place.

I hardly got anything to eat yesterday with all that ER-ing and even after having a lovely supper of leftovers, I'm still hungry.  It might be an oatmeal day again since I didn't really eat mine yesterday.  *sigh*  Enjoy your day and STAY WARM.
--Barbara