Meta Watershed

Monday, June 10, 2013

LOLCATS WEEKLY ROUND-UP FOR 11 JUNE 2013

Here's the weekly best of what I've gleaned from I Can Has Cheezburger efforts. There are some really creative folks out there.

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

LOLCATS WEEKLY ROUND-UP FOR 4 JUNE 2013

Here's the weekly best of what I've gleaned from I Can Has Cheezburger efforts. There are some really creative folks out there.

TREADING WATER

Just et a bean and sausage burrito followed by peach crisp. Jessica the nurse has been and gone. My pulse ox was 84% after having been off O2 for an hours, so am leaving it on again today. I am so exhausted I have trouble writing simple sentences.

The sleep study has been delayed another week, paperwork issues. I hope they don't ask for the copay up front. The MD I recently left behind in favor of the new one has gotten months' worth of bills ready (funny how they had the staff to get right on that, but not to answer my health need calls, etc) so I am suddenly out an extra $150.

Some good news is that I found a temporary work-around for the "upgrade" the folks at I Can Haz Cheesburgr inflicted on their own site last week, which made made it impossible to see all the raw LOLCats flowing in. It was that stream I trawled looking for my weekly round-up. They made the change allegedly to interface between with FB, but as with all FB changes, it was bound to have a crap result on their actual users. I went to google to find other disgruntled consumers and discovered a so-far usable back-door. After I post this, I'll go assemble a LOLCat post for this week and get that up as well. Then to sleep without real rest again.

Friday, May 31, 2013

SO NEVER LEAVE ME LONELY

Gillian Anderson and Archie Punjabi in "The Fall"

Awakening from a dream in which I have a lover with two beefy / teefy / blondie teenage boys. We are driving down a dirt road to pick them up at the lake. The radio is playing:

Each time we meet, love
I find complete love
Without your sweet love
What would life be?

Tweaked the cannula a little last night. Slept 6 hours and only slight headache. Scoutie pressed against my legs.

Yesterday was no nap after only 2 hrs sleep: I could not surrender consciousness that night, took more courage than I could muster. And of course that became the day of endless intrusions, maintenance crew, deliveries, phone calls, new "How are WE today" nurse...Today at the least I have a carotid doppler at some point. Get the AC freon checked. Call the Gilead social worker.

I need my own personal pulse oximeter. Nurse said WalMart had 'em for $25, $15 less than elsewhere. Add it to the list. My sat when she got here, after I'd been off O2 for a few hours, was 90%. Went back up to 95 after I pulled into 2 liters for five minutes. Math I must manage now, in addition to carbizmas.

Dinah's weekly vet visit reveals she has gained back all the half-pound she lost last week -- Zillah remarked "That cat, she's tricky". Diplomatic way to put it. Scout has now developed feline acne on the right side of her chin and we commenced treatment with hydrogen peroxide today, under strenuous ginger protest.

Margot got a chance last night to watch Clare Balding's latest documentary about the suffragettes and agrees with me as to its excellence. I recommend it without reservation; don't know when it will reach the American airwaves. I also avidly watched and appreciated the Time Team special about the tsunami on England's northeast coast about 8000 years ago that permanently altered Brit geography and culture.

But the best thing on TV, hands down, is "The Fall": extraordinary writing, as good as "Broadchurch" and visiting the same general theme from a completely different perspective. The role allocated to Gillian Anderson's character is that of a woman who refuses to operate within "female" boundaries, and how she handles the resultant dehumanization with her assumed masculinity. Now that they have added in Archie Punjabi (KALINDA!!!) as her medical officer, my fascination is absolute. Apparently it is the highest viewed BBC show in years and they have already signed on a second series. I only wish American TV would give female actors such complicated, intelligent characters as in "The Fall" or "Scott & Bailey".

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

MUST GIVE US PAUSE

Spherical colonites of Nostoc commune, a bluegreen algae, photo by Gerd Guenther

I just finished another visit with my new MD, Doctor Matt. She is going to do another blood panel to recheck my thyroid, in particular, but her main impression is that I am at dire risk from sleep apnea of fairly recent onset. The oxygen tank will remain until I can get a sleep study with a firm diagnosis.

As usual, insurance and money is the hurdle. I can't get to a sleep lab without ambulance transpo, and Medicare won't cover a non-emergent ride. My home nursing agency appears to have figured out a way for me to have an in-home study, but are trying get around the 20% Medicare copay which may well amount to $1000. I will let you know how this goes. I think my life is going to hinge on treatment around this.

Just had a good cry with Tammi patting my arm and Scoutie standing on me anxiously. What I keep feeling at the moment, besides fear, is luck -- lucky to have this new doctor, lucky for the people around me who won't let me sink like a stone. And lucky to have a machine feeding me air. Air is a blessing.

Monday, May 27, 2013

NEW POEM

ON THE VALUE OF ANOXIC HALLUCINATION

We are given more sensory apparatus than we can handle
at once. Maturity means learning to ignore.
Time elephant-charges by us or stalls out
(You know that's true) .
We obey two rules: stay alive, and
write a story to fit the chaos. What you do for me
is listen. All I ever wanted.

　

by Maggie Jochild, written 27 May 2013, 10:23 p.m.