Spells of Vital Importance

For some damn reason, the quotes are blanking for people. I have attempted to remedy that.

Mucking about with the Greek Magical Papyri a bit. I don't have the lovely book
Hans Dieter Betz (ed.), The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation Including the Demotic Spells, Chicago:  The University of Chicago Press, 1986, but various excerpts are available around on the web.
In particular:
An ancient version of Viagra

xxxiii. To Get an Erection When You Want Grind up a Pepper with some Honey and coat your Thing. [PGM VII.186]

Something I desperately needed at conferences and receptions

xxxi. To be Able to Drink a Lot and Not Get Drunk Eat a baked Pig's Lung. [PGM VII.181]

Cure for Social Anxiety (presumably, you're too busy worrying about the crap on your face?)

xxx. To Let Those Who Have Difficulty Intermingling

[i.e. Socializing] Perform Well Give Gum mixed with Wine and Honey to be smeared on the Face. [PGM VII.179-80]

For migraine (totally trying this one)

xix. Spell for Migraine Headache
Take Oil in your Hands and utter the Spell: "Zeus sowed a Grape Seed: it parts the Soil; He does not sow it; it does not sprout." [PGM VII.199-201]

A Contraceptive. I assume the operative principle is that you are so busy collecting everything and mixing it that you have no time for sex.

xxi. A Contraceptive, the Only One in the World
Take as many Bittervetch Seeds as you want for the Number of Years you wish to remain Sterile. Steep them in the Menses of a Menstruating Woman. Let them steep in her own Genitals. And take a Frog that is alive and throw the Bittervetch Seeds into its Mouth so that the Frog swallows them, and release the Frog alive at the place where you captured him. And take a Seed of Henbane, steep it in Mare's Milk; and take the Nasal Mucus of a Cow, with Grains of Barley, put these into a Leather Skin made from a Fawn and on the outside bind it up with Mulehide Skin, and attach it as an Amulet during the Waning of the Moon in a Female Sign of the Zodiac on a Day of Kronos or Hermes [i.e., Saturn or Mercury]. Mix in also, with the Barley Grains, Cerumen from the Ear of a Mule. [PGM XXXVI.320-32]

Jenny McCarthy and Space Hippies

Santa Bot space hippies (Photo credit: shoveling_ferret)

Watching The Way to Eden, best known as the space hippy episode. Given Kirk's inability to keep it in his pants, you'd think he'd welcome a bunch of free-love types, but, no, he's all "get a haircut and lose the interstellar patchouli."

Anyway, the crazy, self-centered, irresponsible leader of the hippies, Dr. Sevrin is carrying a highly virulent disease that cannot be cured but can be prevented via vaccine. He apparently decided not to get the vaccine and has been knowingly wandering the galaxy exposing people even though he's been told how dangerous this is.

Why does this sound familiar?
Oh, right.

Anyway, the space hippies are annoying as hell and their drum circle sucks. Wow does it suck. Damn. 1969 in LA and they couldn't find better hippies? I mean, they could have paid them in pot and let them wear their own clothes. Instead they clearly let some 50 year-old dude who was a fan of the Monkees hire these assholes. "Yep, this is totally counter-culture. Them kids will totally boogy to this."

Also, Spock jamming with the hippies is physical painful to watch.

And could they possibly have been any more heavy-handed with the whole "the planet is made of acid!" thing? Burny acid, not trippy acid. Worst trip ever.

Apparently this episode didn't suck so much in the first draft. One of the hippies was supposed to be McCoy's daughter and Kirk was supposed to be all "mmmm, space hippy." And, obviously, McCoy was going to be all "you're gonna be dead, Jim." The original writer, the awesome DC Fontana asked they change her credit to an entirely different name, in fact, because she thought it sucked so hard.

Whoa have I been slacking off

Topiramate (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Between teaching (which sucks a lot of prep time as I do a lot of slides) and having a cold or a flare or both I have not been blogging with anything like normal regularity.

Latest news: I am teaching in the summer and probably next fall. Sweet! Both are things I've never taught before, but, um, yeah.

I finally got in to see a neurologist here. He was wearing a black t-shirt and a pin-striped suit, which made me do confused head-tilt, but he seems competent and is probably not a mobster, so we're cool. I am trying Topamax to prevent migraines.
I'm a little nervous - the side-effects do not sound fun, but willing to try it out. Everyone cross your fingers I don't turn into a suicidal zombie, which seems to be the most scary possibility.
I have enough trouble with brain fog as it is...

Ummm, what else?

I had to drive far-ish (for me) for the neurology appointment yesterday. I discovered (re-discovered?) that driving makes me question the size of other drivers' penises when they do stupid things. Or are in sports cars. Or it's Tuesday.

Oreo and I have been sitting on the patio for a while every day. He likes soaking up the sun and having a leisurely sniff-survey. I have to be  really careful to avoid sun rash/burn between my autoimmune disease and the meds to treat it (because making photosensitive people MORE photosensitive is AWESOME!!!), but I do like sitting out or at least having the door open for a lot of the day.

My birthday is coming up and I'm hoping to get the hat linked below and some sun gloves and sleeves so I can be outside more during the day.
Sundancer UV Protective Hat

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.

Mummies: CT scans of Egyptian mummies show atherosclerosis - Los Angeles Times

Image via WikipediaMummies: CT scans of Egyptian mummies show atherosclerosis - Los Angeles Times

I have the pestilence (cold) from hell at the moment, but this article was really interesting and I wanted to share it.

If you hadn't already guessed, I tend not to have a lot of patience for people who overly romanticize "non-Western" cultures (and often the concept of non-Western extends into the past to mean anything prior to the Industrial Revolution).
Therefore, this article about artherosclerosis, which is typically characterized as a disease of modern life, being found in Egyptian mummies is particularly interesting. One does have to wonder how much the results were determined by the relatively higher social status of the people being mummified and their greater access to diets that may have been less healthy.

It's interesting, though, the number of people who seem to think that if we could just transport some of the basics of modern hygiene and medicine into the pre-Industrial past that it would be a veritable utopia.

Not sure if this is making much sense as I'm loopy from the cold and stuff to kill the symptoms.

Anyway, ancient heart disease. Interesting.

Ancient Nubians Drank Antibiotic-Laced Beer : Discovery News

Image via WikipediaAncient Nubians Drank Antibiotic-Laced Beer : Discovery News: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"
Very interesting, especially as they seem to have adequately accounted for possible modern contamination.
A lot of grain storage in the Neolithic (well before this) was in pits, sometimes inside large clay vessels in the pits, sometimes just in a pit. If this population was using a similar storage method, then the growth of Strep is fairly easily explained.
Pretty cool.
And another example of the vast amount of information you can get from burials if you know how to take advantage of them.

To-ing and Fro-ing

Two medical appointments today.  One with endocrinology for my regular thyroid check.  If this panel comes back good, I'm good for a year barring major symptom changes.  Also checking my Vitamin D, just to see if that might be low and contributing to fatigue.  Amazingly, the Douchetastic Duo did something right and had already checked my B-12 and it's fine, actually a little above normal.
Next up I had a psych med review.  We decided to up my dose of Cymbalta as I've been feeling blah and I'm hoping that will give me a bit of a kick in the ass in terms of motivation.  Might also help a bit with my pain levels.  I have entirely too many unfinished and planned but unstarted projects hanging around that I should work on and haven't felt like doing.  I figure seeing if part of that is a result of depression is worth a shot.
I also managed to leave my copy of my neuropsych testing results at the hospital, which I discovered only after I had walked across campus to wait in Tom's office to go home.  So, then I had to call my doctor and walk back across campus to pick it up then back to Tom's office.  Owwwwwww.  By the final return trip I was seriously unhappy.

Also, I'd like to find whoever decided to only intermittently clear the snow from the university sidewalks and poke them with the ice-pick part of my cane.  Asshats.  I had to take a different bus than usual today which necessitated more walking.  All of it was on campus.  In well-traveled portions of campus.  Yet there were long swaths of uncleaned sidewalk.  Maybe the facilities staff has territories like the gangs and there are neutral zones?  Worse, my peripheral vision sucks and it seemed like every time I put my left arm/hand out for extra balance I hit someone in the chest or stomach.  Not hard (that would have been hilarious), just enough to be irritating.  Anyway, considering how much money they're spending on poorly conceived additions/modifications to campus and how little money they claim to have to spend on students, I would think they'd be a little more on top of basic litigation avoidance.  Hurrrr.

And now I'm pissed

My prescription coverage (which we have to do via mail for long-term meds) refuses to fill the new prescription for Plaquenil in either the name brand or generic because:

this drug is NOT COVERED by your benefit plan OR may NOT BE THE APPROPRIATE REGIMEN as defined by your plan

Of course, they don't bother to tell me this until about 20 minutes ago, when it's too late to talk to an actual human at either my insurance office, the drug coverage office, or my doctor.  Sweet.  Asshats.
I left a message for my rheumatologist, though at the time I thought they just wouldn't fill it because she hadn't marked "may fill with generic" or something.
Hopefully we will get this sorted out after the new year.

I was really wanting to try this med in the hopes it would help with the fatigue and pain and other autoimmune issues. I had, in the very back of my mind even dared to hope that maybe it will let me get some independence back and make it possible for me to expand the pool of potential jobs.
Now, because we've commoditized health care, some paper-pushing bureaucrat with little or no medical training got to decide what medicine I should take without consulting me or my doctor.
I'll add, too, that this is not a new drug or a designer drug, nor even an outrageously expensive drug (though with our current financial situation it is something that will be a stretch on our budget.)  Anyway, I'm going to check and see if the maker of the name-brand stuff has a discounted/free meds program too, just in case my rheumatologist yelling at them doesn't help matters.

The next person who tells me that there is nothing wrong with the healthcare system in this country better be way the hell out of reach of my cane and/or my knitting needles.

I was already in a funk this week.  This is not helping.

ETA:   I guess I'm glad I only blew a little of my Xmas money on books and knitting needles - I can save the rest for sweet, delicious malaria meds that might fix my autoimmune brokenness if it turns out whoever makes Plaquenil doesn't have a "holy freakin' crap I'm not a millionaire but would like it if I could have a decent quality of life and maybe work for a living" program.

The Cognitive Testing Results and Other Things

In short, there are some very mild deficits in functioning.  My attention fluctuates.  My semantic memory is not so great.  My cognition speed has slowed.  There are moderate to severe impairments in my fine motor skills and grip strength.  I suspect the motor skills would be worse if I hadn't taken up knitting and crochet.
I expected most of that.  The attention issue makes sense of what I was thinking of as memory problems - if my attention is not steady or as good as it should be on occasion, then obviously I won't encode memory properly at times. It also helps explain my sort of sensory overload in crowded conditions and why I can't really multi-task anymore.  The cognitive slowing also makes sense - it takes me longer to do things/comprehend things.  I get there in the end, it just takes a bit longer.
In most areas I was "average" which, for me, may indicate some deficits but, as we don't have a full testing range available from prior to my illness, we have to sort of guess.  I'm trying not to worry about it too much.
My verbal IQ is still quite high, which is reassuring.  It makes the semantic impairment a little more frustrating - constructing what I think to be a nicely flowing sentence with carefully chosen words only to then hit a word that I cannot think of/recall is irritating.  I dislike being reduced to saying "that thingie over there" on a regular basis.  :P

Regarding the somatoform stuff:
I do test very high for anxiety related to somatic concerns.  Very high.  Higher than I expected, but I suppose maybe we shouldn't be surprised.  Even though I know that what's going on isn't deadly or all that dangerous (at least not in the immediate sense) it is scary.  But, the neuropsych people think that this isn't uncomplicated somatoform or conversion disorder.  It's far more complicated than that.  Instead, it's clear that stress and anxiety play a role in my symptoms and that, in turn, my symptoms play a role in my stress and anxiety.  (Take that, Descartes)  I already knew this and, in fact, had pointed it out.  I feel worse physically when I feel bad emotionally.  So, stuff is not "all in my head" nor am I "crazy."  Nor can my symptoms be entirely explained by psychological issues.  I now feel comfortable in telling anyone who says otherwise that they can suck it.  It's also probably worth noting that I took all these tests just a few days before I was due to find out the results of my Huntington's Disease test, so, yeah, I would guess that unless I had been in a coma I would have had some high anxiety levels.

Overall, they feel that some of the attention and cognitive slowing may be due to my anxiety, but they feel that it's more due to a combination of autoimmune disorders, the minor white matter lesions evident in my MRIs, anxiety, and sleep disorders.

So, the plan is to work more on managing stress and anxiety in therapy, which is something we've already been working on.  I have already been compensating for the attention issues and cognitive slowing by trying to plan out tasks and have everything for a task together in one place before I get started.  Sometimes easier said than done.

As a broader plan, we'll see what the new neurologist has to say when I see her again in January.  If she's seeming to take a view of somatoform disorder and the test results as "it's a purely psychological issue" she will be fired.
If she has a more nuanced view after seeing the full report, then we'll see where we go from there.  I think I want to be re-evaluated for multiple sclerosis.  Even if it means another spinal tap.  (Sob.)
I also want to see if we can find someone who specializes in autoimmune related neurological problems.
We are also going to look into a referral to an occupational therapist so that I can be evaluated for driving ability.  This is based on the recommendation of the neuropsych people - the cognitive slowing, motor control, and attention issues make me want more data before I attempt to drive again.

With my psych team, we may re-consider trying one of the medications for ADD/ADHD.  I've been very hesitant to do this because I've become extremely sensitive to caffeine in the past few years with it increasing tremors and involuntary movements, my heart rate is typically very high, and I had a bad experience with Provigil.  So, trying another stimulant is something I'm a bit wary about.  However, if I can try it in a  carefully controlled situation I think it might be worth it.

In other news, my rheumatology appointment went fairly well.  My pulmonary functions tests show borderline mild neuromuscular weakness.  Yet another "minor" test oddity to add to the group.  They are starting me on Plaquenil to see if it helps with some of my symptoms.  It's also a malaria drug.  After the OMG teh malarias scare in 2005 it seems like we've come full circle.  I have high hopes for this one helping with my fatigue and pain.

Thanksgiving hang-over

So, the turkey Tom wound up making (because I slept all day) was fantabulous.  So was everything that went with it.
Oreo got his little share of turkey and mashed potatoes and cranberry jelly.  No gravy for him this year because it had garlic and shallots.  I wasn't sure about the stuffing so none of that either.  He seemed very pleased nonetheless.

I'm trying to reset my sleep schedule again.  Despite getting up at 9:30 AM on Wednesday, I couldn't sleep for more than an hour or two without being wide awake again until 5 AM Thursday.  Sigh.  If this doesn't settle by Tuesday, I may have to reschedule cognitive testing yet again, as I'm pretty sure the results will be skewed a bit if I'm about to pass out or throw up from sleep deprivation.  "Regular" tired = fine for testing.  Sleep deprivation = not so fine.  Trying really hard to stave off that "dementia" diagnosis as long as possible.  Or at least until we have several more small dogs and I acquire a wardrobe of muumuus so I can be the crazy dog lady.

After dinner last night we watched The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, which is one of my favorites and I played with polymer clay.  Tonight I think there may be some Doctor Who watching and knitting on my baby nephew's Xmas present.

My dislike of the acetazolamide is increasing.  I've mostly gotten used to the excessive peeing and the resultant need to consume large quantities of water.  Unfortunately, the headaches that come within a few hours are not so fun and don't seem to be going away as my body gets used to the med.  Neither is the intestinal disturbance.  And I don't think it's helping much on the involuntary movement front - at least not enough to make it worth it as far as I'm concerned.  Definitely not helping enough for me to up the dose to twice daily.
On top of that, I can't take my preferred headache/significant joint pain remedy, Excedrin (or the generic equivalent) because it has asprin (a salicylate) in it, which is contraindicated.
I also can't take Pepto for my stomach because it has salicylate because ALL salicylates are contraindicated.    This blows goats.  I'm trying acetaminophen (Tylenol) at the moment because ibuprofen will irritate my stomach and intestines even more.  It's working a bit better than it used to, but not nearly as well as it would mixed with caffeine and asprin.  Dammit.
So, my head hurts, I have to pee a lot, and poot a lot, and poop a lot, and the rest of me hurts too, BUT I have polymer clay, yarn, movies, and books, plus Tom and Oreo to keep me company, so I guess I'll survive and even be fairly happy.  Grumbly, but happy.

Groan

Overdid it yesterday between the pulmonary test and shopping and am thus tired and very, very achy today.
But, we did have a lovely dinner with a friend and watched Cat Ballou, which, despite my deep hatred of Jane Fonda, was pretty good.
And I managed to do all the dishes earlier today, clean the bathroom, and sweep the floors, so go me!
The Diamox/acetazolamide doesn't seem to be doing much for my movements. I'm still taking only a half pill because it does make me sleepy, spacey, and gives me a headache later in the day no matter how much water I drink. I started a potassium supplement today to see if that will help any. I'm not planning on upping my dose until the side-effects wane, especially the headache. It does no good at all to solve one major issue by creating another even more crippling one.

I could have sworn I posted yesterday...

...but apparently I did not.  Yesterday's achievements were:
- Fighting with Oreo over the husband pillow on the couch.
- Peeing.  A lot.  Yay, Diamox.  Also, it makes me light-headed and a wee-bit spacey and sleepy and gives me a slight headache, but so far I can deal.  Although that whole almost falling asleep on the couch and then jerking awake because I have to pee has been tons of fun.
- Drinking.  A lot.  (Of water, sadly, I haven't had much alcohol besides heavily watered wine in the past 20 months or so.)  Gotta make up for all that peeing.
- Making it to therapy, courtesy of a ride from a friend since I just didn't feel up to catching the bus.
- Acquisition of used books.
- Eating out.
- Giggling.

Also, while my right ring-finger continues to do its constant little dance, I haven't had much in the way of pelvic/trunk spasms (Elvis-pelvis) since Monday.  Not sure if it's the new med, since I didn't start taking it until Tuesday, but if it is, that's pretty awesome.  I have noticed that when I stretch or extend my back I don't get the quiver or shimmy I usually have almost all the time, so that's also pretty cool.

Tomorrow I have the rest of my pulmonary exam.  I know it involves a 6-minute walk, but I'm not sure what else.  I'm hoping no lung-volume test, because I'm not sure I can deal with being sealed in the little chamber.
Anyway, let's hope I don't barf.  That is so last week.

Today

I ate solid food for dinner.  Worked on some crocheting until I got frustrated.  Almost got a a temp job, but medical appointments interfered.  :(
Went and filled my script for acetazolamide. Starting it tomorrow morning.  Hoping that it will help or at least not cause any really wiggy side-effects.  Because, really, I don't need that crap.
Still trying to take it slow getting over this stomach bug.  Just the short trip to Walgreens and the grocery tired me out and made me light-headed.
Oh, and we tried some spray-on no-rinse shampoo stuff on Oreo.  It smells like cheap old-lady cologne.  And now so does Oreo.  Bleh.  I think it gave me a headache.  Awesome.
Also, I've been having a remarkably good day walking.  Very little weird hip-sway or staggering.  Kind of cool.  Wish I knew what (if anything) makes that happen.

Research shows chronically ill might be happier if they gave up hope | University of Michigan Health System

Research shows chronically ill might be happier if they gave up hope | University of Michigan Health System

AKA "Take your Pollyana BS and shove it!"
(Why yes, I'm a bit grouchy today, why do you ask?)

I found this interesting and, though I'm probably prone to confirmation bias here, it does make perfect sense to me.  I've done much, much better since I quit waiting to be "better" and have gotten on with things as best I can.
There is a huge difference between self-pity and accepting reality (something I've gone on at length about before) though it often seems in modern American society that many people cannot grasp that difference.  I am not, by recognizing my limitations and learning to cope with them and by making plans on the basis of how I feel now as opposed to how I might feel in the future, wallowing in self-pity and creating a self-fulfilling prophecy of chronic illness and doom.
It would be far, far less healthy to sit around waiting for a "cure" or to feel "better" and to be utterly devastated every morning I wake up and feel like ass and every time I go to the doctor and they have no clue.  (Well, that does upset me, but that's different...)

On another note - I think someone(s) deserve "Asshole of the Year" awards for letting some people think their bowels could be re-sectioned and letting others think the colostomy bag was permanent.

I've been shot!

It was a flu shot.  Just the regular one - they don't have the H1N1 (aka hamtrax) one at my primary care group.  Had my regular follow-up.  I need to look into checking my BP more often - it was fine today, but has been high at other times.  That could just be from stress being at the doctor's office (gee, why would I be stressed?).  So, I'll keep an eye out for low-priced home monitors.  My primary care doc suggests I get the H1N1 if I can, so I guess I'll keep an eye out to see when/if it becomes easily available around here.
We talked about my rollator request.  She offered to send me back to physical therapy for a new evaluation, which is apparently necessary for such things.  I told her I'd wait until spring.  Thinking about it, I don't think a rollator would do very well in the snow.  Nor do I fancy trying to heave it onto a bus full of undergrads.
And it seems my basic method of pain relief is okay - NSAIDs (usually ibuprofen) plus an OTC proton pump inhibitor when necessary because my stomach hurts.  Yay.
She also helped me get my pulmonary function test scheduled sooner.  Pretty cool.

I managed to get several rows of k1,p1 ribbing done on the fingerless gloves I'm making up as I go along.  Several older ladies were fascinated while we all waited for our flu shots.

The nurse who gave me a flu shot was wonderful. Very cheery.  I made her laugh asking how many people come in a drop their pants.  We wound up talking about race-relations of all things and it was wonderful.  I barely noticed the shot.

Allergies, baths, and apartments

Hubby and I went and looked at an apartment today. We actually wound up looking at two, but I'll get to that in a minute.

Anyway, the one we planned to look at is a 2-bedroom garden apartment. A garden apartment, for those who don't know, is a semi-subterranean unit, usually maybe 1/4 to 1/2 of its elevation is below street level. Sometimes good, sometimes bad. I really wanted to check this place out because the rent is an excellent rate, it's in a part of the neighborhood I know and like, it's near several friends, it's also near shopping and restaurants which would encourage me to get out and about a bit more. (At the moment, if I wanted to go out and get a cup of coffee or a bite I have the option of going to a slightly sketchy greasy spoon, walking several blocks to a Starbucks, or going to one of the places in the hospital. Perhaps I'm overly picky, but those options aren't usually all that appealing.)

Anyway, I liked the idea of the place, so we made an appointment to check it out.

First, the likes:

• It's huge. The master bedroom would accommodate our ridiculously huge bedroom furniture (a legacy from when I still lived with my parents - very nice, but very big).
• It gets a wonderful amount of light and is not dank or scary.
• There are only 3 nice clear, wide, indoor steps to go down to get to the front door. This is a huge deal for me given the increasing muscle weakness and balance problems I have. I also think that, in a pinch, the area would accommodate a small ramp or similar thing if I need a wheelchair.
• Nice big eat-in kitchen with a full size gas range. The windows in the kitchen would probably be suitable for our growing collection of plants.
• Two full bathrooms. One could easily become a dark room for hubby.
• Location is on a fairly quiet street near several parks and friends.
• Living room is pretty big.
• Second bedroom would be an excellent office/crafting room/storage/whatever room.
• Heat, water, gas included in rent.

Now, the not-so-likes:

• It is below ground-ish.
• The kitchen appliances are older, especially the refrigerator.
• The flooring in most of the apartment, except the kitchen, bathrooms, and entry is icky, dingy indoor-outdoor carpeting. Bad appearance wise (I have a serious hate-on for that carpet, actually). Bad for my allergies. Bad for Oreo and his allergies and his habit of sniper-crawling on his belly across the floor (rug burns). Bad for occasional spills, Oreo accidents, etc. I sort of doubt it could/would be replaced prior to us moving, but I suppose we could always check and see. I don't even want anything particularly fancy. Decent linoleum or laminate is fine. Just, please, a hard floor!
• The two bathrooms are dark, oddly shaped, and look sort of dingy. Kind of...yellowed. I'm not sure how this could be improved without a full remodel which is just not happening. I suppose if we were allowed to paint that could improve things dramatically...
• No parking lot.

Obviously, we have a lot to think about. I think we need to talk to both the current renter and the management company and see if there's any sort of deal that could be worked out re: flooring and bathrooms (really, just paint would make me happy on that front).

Also, while we were parking to go look at the place, we ran into a friend walking one of my favorite doggie friends. He mentioned that the place above him and his wife will eventually be available. We wandered over to check it out after we looked at the garden apartment. While it would be awesome in a number of ways, there are a lot of issues:

• Steep narrow flight of stairs to get to the apartment.
• The apartment itself is two floors - living/kitchen on the first, bedrooms/bath on the second. It's not a straight stair up either, so I can't even dream of installing a stair-lift thingie with money from Santa Claus or the Underpants Gnome or some other mythical being who would be willing to give me cash.
• The prior tenants were utterly disgusting, slovenly creatures who thrive in squalid atmospheres (aka undergraduate males, likely belonging to a fraternity). The place reeks of pot, dog, unwashed male undergrad, and who knows what else. I don't think they ever flushed the toiled. The whole place needs to be rehabbed, the roof replaced, the carpet replaced, etc.

So, like I said, we'll keep looking. We have to be out of here by the end of August. I would prefer sooner rather than later, but whatever.

Hubby is supposed to expand the search tomorrow through the staff housing office. We'll see what happens.

In the meantime, Oreo has had a bath. I have had another root beer.

I also tried cetirizine (Zyrtec) for the first time this evening as a potential replacement for my beloved diphenhydramine (Benadryl). So far it seems to be doing wonderfully - my eyes aren't as itchy, my sniffles went away, and I haven't been as itchy as usual. Hopefully that will continue - the only other antihistamine I've had luck with other than Benadryl was fexofenadine (Allegra) and the side-effects from it bother me quite a bit - stomach pain, headaches, and trouble sleeping. Allegra also needed a building-up period for it to work, usually about a week. While I do frequently have to take an antihistamine daily, I don't like HAVING to take one daily. Cetirizine is stupidly expensive for OTC, even for the generic, but if it works, it works. I'll just keep my eye out for coupons and deals.

I've also been feeling a bit down lately - I don't know if it's partly sleep trouble, worry about the move, or just general blahs. I'm hoping I perk up as the week goes on.