Day-Glo Orange

Image by jima via Flickr

So, totally like these toe nails except pee.  In a toilet.

My pee is that color.

Felt like sharing that.

Seriously though, I've been taking a supplement with various B vitamins and that can apparently make your pee look like you've been gnawing on hi-lighters.

Then I got a UTI and the med for symptom relief turns pee super-super orange.    

This is kind of freakish.

And I'm on Cipro for the UTI.  If I were more uncomfortable, possibly hallucinating, trapped in the middle of the desert, surrounded by jackasses of the animal and human type, and praying for death it would be just like being in the field again.
(Cipro was the usual broad-spectrum antibiotic travel docs would give us for major GI infection, etc.  Reading the drug warnings was always awesome - ruptured tendon is one of the possible side effects.  So this usually left me working out in my head whether I felt bad enough to be okay with maybe rupturing a tendon.  Fortunately, if I couldn't even think that clearly I defaulted to just taking the damn meds.)


Anyway, the Botox seems to be wearing off as far as migraine prevention.  Although my thyroid is messed up again and the weather has sucked so that could be something to do with it.   All I know is that my forehead is very unwrinkled, I can't raise my eyebrows as much as I used to, but it feels like the connective tissue between my head and my right shoulder and most of the side of my face is actively on fire.  Also, I'm dizzy, my hands and feet have swollen up, most of my joints hurt, and my vitiligo is more obvious.

Right now the bright side is literally and figuratively my pee.

Eight

I am no longer any where near that thin, but whatever.  :P

We are still super cute.  And I got a pretty magenta-purply African violet and a holographic flower-growing card.

Tom got 8 knitted pimento-stuffed olives in a jar (Olive You) and a card with the same pun that I found completely by accident after I'd already started knitting the olives.

I need to get a photo...

Do Not Taunt Migraine Monkey

Good news:  The Botox and/or CoQ10 supplements have helped reduce my migraines in frequency and severity (at least this week).
Announcing this publicly seems to have angered the migraine monkey.  I got walloped yesterday and especially today.

Today's involved one of my least favorite aspects of the migraine aside from the pain - hyperirritability.  Even after all these years of being a migraneur, the sudden rush or wash or wave of hypersensitivity to sound and flush of near fury is disconcerting at best.
I think it's only been in the past few years that I've been able to associate this with migraine.  Before that, I would just suddenly be pissy and feel like picking a fight for absolutely no good reason.  Part of me even recognized that I had no real reason.  Figuring out it's associated with the migraines has at least helped, especially because it cues me in to taking abortive meds.

It's a truly bizarre thing though, to go from being fine one minute to the sound of traffic outside or the TV or someone eating or the neighbors upstairs walking across the floor suddenly becoming nearly unbearable sources of infuriating irritation.

The joy of dog companionship

Image by shoveling_ferret via FlickrOreo just had a walk.  The easily disgusted should probably stop reading now.

It's getting near time for another hair cut and so he had a little bit of poop stuck.  Tom got most of it with the poo bag, but O still needed a bit of a wipe when we got in.

Tom leaves to walk to the grocery store.

This leaves me with SUPER-EXCITED Oreo.  Because apparently using the bathroom outdoors is just that awesome.  I have never, ever been that happy after doing so, but hey, whatever.

Anyway, I was trying to coax Oreo to come with me to get a damp paper towel so I could wipe his booty.  Still, super excited.  And there is the following exchange:

"Okay, come here; no, hold still; no, I want to see your butt, not your face..."
Oreo proceeds to whip out some break-dancing moves.
"No, seriously, you little fart-knocker, I'm trying to wipe your butt, quit squirming, geeeeeeez."

He was still surprisingly bouncy even after he figured out there wasn't really a treat involved in me calling him.

Now he's on the couch next to me whimpering because Tom isn't here.

Still Alive

Image via WikipediaWow, time just runs away from me sometimes.

I've been a bit busy and distracted, so not as much writing has gotten done as I'd like.  I'm hoping to pull together a few posts and possibly even a bit of a redesign for the blog soon.

Oreo is most displeased that I have not spent as much time in bed lately, which consequently means that he has not spent as much time in bed as he wants.  He has actually tried to herd me into the bedroom.  And has also taken to going and crying at the foot of the bed or sitting on the side of the bed and barking to tell me he wants to go to bed.  At 1 in the afternoon.  Brat.

The weather lately has had me in a bit of a pain flair - arthritis and migraines, joy.  I've been coping as best I can.  The Botox does seem to be helping.  I'm still getting migraines (especially with crazy weather changes) but they seem to respond better to abortive meds.

Arthritis stuff is just a matter of trying to stay mobile and trying to keep NSAIDs from eating a hole in my stomach.

My eyebrows are not moving as much as they used to (or at least as I think they used to) and that continues to be weird.

Allergies are insane today.  As I said on Twitter, I feel like I've been snorgling a cat.  Gahhh.

We went to the Chicago Botanical Garden on Monday for an outing.  Beautiful, if a bit crowded.

And I have gotten some Vibram Five-Fingers and am loving them so far.  I feel a lot more secure when I'm barefoot, believe it or not, so these are a nice compromise.  I went with the Trek Sport kind so they are water friendly as well.  Very fun.  The only problem so far is the distinct lack of sparkles.