What Fresh Not-Heaven Is THIS?

Genius, The Pony, and I have been playing Wordle every day, sending our results to each other. I had ONE DAY where I was the winner! So far, The Pony has been leading our pack, sometimes guessing the word in 3 tries. Genius has done that a couple times. Me? Only ONCE! But it was grand, being the daily winner of our trio. At least I've guessed it every day, as have Genius and The Pony. You only get 6 tries.

Now The Pony has come up with a torture more heinous than anything Farmer H could ever inflict upon me. I refuse to suspect that The Pony is trying to kill me. But if I played this game, it might...

"Hey, Mom! You know that Wordle game Genius told you about? Well now there's a new one. WORLDLE! It's about geography! It gives you the silhouette of a country, and you type in your guess. If you're wrong, it tells you what direction to go from your country to get to the right one. And what your chances are of getting it right."

"No thank you. I don't think that's the game for me!"

"Try today's! I'll even give you a hint. It's an ISLAND!"

"Is it England?"

"Heh, heh. No. You didn't even look at it. I guessed it the first try. It's Iceland."

 

"Good for you. You KNOW how I am with geography!"

"Let me bring my phone over so you can play. Here. What country is this?"

"I don't know... Russia?"

"MOM! I already told you! It's ICELAND!"

"Oh. Well. It doesn't look like Iceland to me. It looks like Russia."

"I can't believe I told you today's answer, and you STILL couldn't get it!"

"I won't be playing that game."

Who in the WORLD would want to play that? Not this ol' gal, that's for sure. I don't need to be reminded every day of my inadequacies.

I HOPE We're Not Going There Again

Sweet Gummi Mary! Saturday morning, I took my medicine at 6:00 a.m, then at 7:00 a.m. It doesn't say I can't take them at the same time, and in the hospital they just give you every med in a little plastic cup to swallow at the same time. But I like to stagger them a bit. I took the prednisone at 6:00, and the doxycycline at 7:30. Then I was tired from only sleeping four hours. So at 8:30, I went back to bed for a nap.

 

When I got up at 10:00, I had a definite RASH! It was on my upper chest/shoulder area, and on my forearms and the backs of my arms. Itchy, itchy!

 

Now the dilemma. Is it just the rash from the VIRUS? Which the NP Birdy told me is common. She was not at all concerned with the rough itchy rash on my lower back, just above the rumpus. Felt it, and said it didn't feel or look like a strep rash. Looked at the little pink bumps on my upper chest/shoulder area, and said it wasn't much. Then suggested the benedryl, and lotion because dry skin is itchier than moist skin.

OR...

Is it a rash from an allergic reaction to the antibiotic, which is doxycycline, which I've had before? I'm on Day 4 of a 7-day prescription. If I'm allergic, I should stop taking it. I've had allergic reactions to medicine before, and this looks just like it. HOWEVER, I had a mild form of this rash BEFORE I started taking the doxycycline!

For now, I'm declaring that it's a VIRUS rash. The more I looked it up online, it seems that's the case. Seems about 20% of recovering VIRUSers get such a rash about 4 weeks after contracting the VIRUS. Which I got on Jan 22, and noticed this little rash on Feb 20.

I'm kind of worried what this rash will do when I take my last prednisone pill on Sunday...

Nothing Mysterious About The Pony's Package

Of course we're not discussing The Pony's personal package, but one he was tasked with delivering at work. He's so kind to show us the unusual items he deals with. So this time, I was confused when he showed me the picture.

"Want to see a package I took a picture of today?"

"Okay. I don't have my glasses, though."

"I think you can tell without them. See?"

"Uh. No? What IS that?"

"You don't know what this is? I couldn't take a picture of the front, because the address was on it. I thought the back would be good enough."

"Let me get my glasses. Or you can tell me. Or put your phone closer!"

 

"It's a SHOVEL, Mom!"

How embarrassing! I am blinder than I thought. But I also wasn't thinking of a shovel. WHO DOES THAT? Who orders a dang shovel through the mail? 

 

I guess somebody who was snowed in, and couldn't get out to buy a shovel...

Farmer H took a look at it, and proclaimed it to be a guitar. He even had his glasses.

It's WHO You Know

It's probably WHOM you know, but I'm not a stickler for proper pronouns. 

 

Farmer H took me by the pharmacy after my most recent visit to Convenient Care. I had prednisone for five days, and doxycycline for seven days. I always thought an antibiotic was prescribed for ten days, but you know I'm such a shrinking violet that it didn't occur to me to question it. I didn't know until I got home, and I sure wasn't interested in calling NP Birdy to ask. I might insist on a certain drug, but I don't presume to know the dosage.

 

Anyhoo... my prescriptions were not quite ready. I was told this by the pharmacist himself, who was behind the tall counter. I might have mentioned before that this pharmacist is the older brother of two of my former students. He met my eye as I walked in.

"Oh, we're working on your prescriptions now. They're almost ready."

"Thanks."

"Would you like me to run your regular prescriptions now? To save you a trip? It's almost time for the refills."

 

"I don't think so. I still have enough left. I always do them on the same day. The 25th, I think. This is only the 22nd." 

 

"Yes, you call them in on the 25th."

 

"Okay, I'll just wait. I don't want to get too far ahead."

 

I was browsing at the medicines on the shelves of that tall counter, looking for the Benedryl. Just in case of an allergic reaction that would make me break out into even more spots. I found the Benedryl pills. But not the liquid form, which NP Birdy had suggested. I guess it gets absorbed faster.

"Could you tell me where to find the liquid Benedryl? I see the pills here. I'm supposed to get it in case I have an allergic reaction."

"It's on the children's shelf behind you. Get the generic."

"Okay. Thank you."

I looked. And looked. Saw the brand name. But not the generic.

"Huh. I can't seem to find the generic."

"It's right there beside the original."

"Sorry. I'm just not seeing it."

The Pharmacist came out from behind that long tall counter, and reached out and handed me the generic.

"Wow! They're such tricksters! It's the exact same style and color as the real box!"

He chuckled and went back to his job. Great with customer service, that guy!

Shortly, I got my prescriptions and paid for them and the fake children's Benedryl. The girl ringing them up was extra-nice to me. It's who you know, people! Though I'm sure The Pharmacist would have been just as polite to any old HICK off the street... 

At least he made me feel special.

We've Got To Stop Meeting Like This

Back to Convenient Care on Tuesday, with my hive-y rash. It was not as busy this time, my third visit there in 28 days. Farmer H dropped me off at the door, and didn't go in. I was feeling fine this time, just itchy and concerned. I checked in and sat down under the TV. Only two other people in the waiting room, and they were together. A woman on a sit-on walker, and her male companion. She was called in a couple minutes after I got there. I was next, about two minutes later.

The gal checking my vitals was a bit ditzy, but friendly. She took my history, but I don't know how much of it got to the Nurse Practitioner, since she was writing on a Post-It note. You'll never guess who I got as my NP. Yes you will!

BIRDY!

The NP whom I was not so fond of, who gave me the Z-Pack that did nothing for my fever the first time I was there on Jan 24, in the midst of my Pony sickness. Not that it's Birdy's fault. An antibiotic does nothing for a VIRUS. I just wasn't thrilled with her chairside manner.

Birdy was a bit more friendly this time, though I still suspect she might have a case of Oppositional-Defiant Disorder. I explained the Lovenox injections during my Unfortunate HospitVALzation. And the hospital follow-up nurse's belief that it was from the preservative in a generic form of Lovenox. I told her the timing of the end of steroids, and the start of these at-first small red spots that expanded into larger-than-tennis-ball bright pink flat hives.

Birdy even looked at those hive-y things herself. Felt them for heat. Poked them for texture. Yet at the end of the appointment, she was in denial as to the causation. 

"I don't know if it's from the Lovenox. It might be cellulitis. Does it hurt when I press on them?"

"No. They don't hurt at all. And it's funny that they appeared one at a time, around each injection hole I had from the Lovenox. I could tell the order the shots were given by the timing of the spots' appearance."

Seriously. If I'm going to have cellulitis, it will be in my legs. Not six spots on my belly-fat after six injections.

Birdy wanted to give me a steroid to reduce the hive-y-ness. And an antibiotic in case of infection, since a couple of the hive-y spots were getting little red scabby things on them. Probably from my wayward scratching, even though I thought I controlled myself fairly well for the past 10 days since the first one appeared.

Birdy was Not-Heaven-bent on prescribing me Bactrim.

"I know you're allergic to the penicillins and the cephalosporins. But how about the sulfa drugs? Can you take them? Have you had Bactrim?"

"I don't know if I've ever had it. Surely I would have made a note to list it as an allergy if I broke out from it."

"Well, I'm going to prescribe it for you, and some prednisone for the itching and redness. Don't take them and go to sleep! In case you might have an allergic reaction. Take them during the day. And you also might get some liquid benadryl for the itching, and in case you have an allergic reaction."

"Benadryl makes me go to sleep. So I'm not sure that would be a good thing to take..."

"Oh. Well. Then just have some on hand in case you have an allergic reaction."

I suppose so I can put myself to sleep...

Anyhoo, I must have mentioned doxycycline about 37 times while I was there. How I know I'm not allergic to that, because I just had it to get rid of ear infections in December.

"I don't know if it works for skin issues like this. But I know I've taken it without any problems."

It was almost as if Birdy didn't want to give it to me BECAUSE I brought it up!

Anyhoo... I left there with her calling in my prednisone and Bactrim. Farmer H took me to Country Mart and the Gas Station Chicken Store for scratchers. While I was in Country Mart, money in the lottery machine, and a couple scratchers in the tray, my phone rang.

"Hello. HM? This is Birdy, from Convenient Care. According to the medication list, Bactrim will interact with your blood pressure prescription. So instead of Bactrim, I'm giving you doxycycline. I knew that would be okay with you. You're probably more comfortable with it anyway. So I'm just letting you know that I changed it, and the pharmacy is getting it ready."

"Okay. Thank you."

Heh, heh. One way or another, Mrs. HM gets her way.

Here We Go Again

Farmer H is loading me up for another trip to Convenient Care this afternoon (Tuesday). I actually feel pretty good, but after a conversation with the hospital nurse who called to check on me Monday, and an overnight development, I feel better getting checked out.

I still have those bright pink spots from the Lovenox. One is wider than a tennis ball now. It's funny how they appeared one by one, about a day apart, until I had the full complement of six, from my six shots. And how they doubled in size almost every day. They are not perfectly round, but oval, due to gravity's pull, I suppose.

Anyhoo, the nurse told me that it's probably a reaction to the preservative in the shot. That's what most people react to. And that in the future, if I have to get Lovenox, to tell them I need the BRAND NAME, and not a generic, which seem to have a different preservative. Funny how I also had a reaction at the dentist one time, with the novocaine stuff, and now I'm supposed to have mepivicaine instead. Plus I had a dizzy reaction to lidocaine when my old doc used it in the office to cut off a skin lesion on my shoulder.

Anyhoo, the nurse seemed a bit concerned, and said to watch those spots for heat or hardening, because that could mean an infection. She said that the 1% hydrocortisone cream I got over the counter should have had more of an effect in making them go away. I've had them at least 8 days now.

 

The nurse said my thought that the steroid kept this reaction at bay MIGHT have been part of it. Since the bright pink spots started about two days after ending the steroid. She also said that it takes a while for the Lovenox to work its way through the fat, and up to the surface where it would cause this reaction with the skin.

Here's what happened overnight. I've also had an itchy spot on my spine, from the rumpus upward. I can't see it, but it feels like small bumps, which are rough. I remember when the boys were young, and had strep, and it was a red tiny-bump sandpapery rash. So I don't want to think I have strep! During the night, my upper chest also started itching, and I saw little red bumps in the mirror. Plus, my face looks like a toddler put on makeup, because my cheeks are very red. I don't have any fever. Not even up to 98.6.

 

I'd like to think it's all just related to the Lovenox, and will go away since I haven't had any Lovenox since Feb 3. But I also hope I don't have another infection poised to jump into my lungs.

I might be a hypochondriac, but I think it's worth getting checked out.

A New Addiction For Mrs. HM

Genius is an enabler. He had the audacity to ask me, by text, on Sunday if I play Wordle. No. I do not. An answer Genius did not like to hear. Or read.

"It's so easy!"

"I've heard of it. People are mad that the NY Times took over. They say the words are impossible now. And their winning streaks were erased."

"The words are NOT harder! You should try it."

"I'll have The Pony put it on my phone. Or can I play it on my computer?"

"Do it on your phone. You can send results on your phone. It's not even an app. Just a link: 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/games/wordle/index.html

 

"Okay. I'll get to it later."

 

Genius contacted me twice, asking if I played yet. I had not. When I finally did, I sent him my experience. Got it in six tries. The last chance! The word was SWILL. A Genius kind of word. Genius did NOT get it! Heh, heh!

 

Anyhoo... he started goading me to share my results with him. It shows the number of tries, but no letters. Since it has a handy SHARE button, I did. Now Genius sends me his results every morning when I'm trying to sleep. I send mine later in the day.

 

The first day, I mistakenly sent a text to The Pony that was meant for Genius. It included my tries until I got the word, but not the word itself. Later in the evening, I encouraged Pony to play. He got in on the second try!

 

"Dang it! You're not supposed to beat me!"

 

"Um. Did you forget that message you meant to send to Genius? I had all your tries to work with."

 

"Oh. That's cheating!"

 

"I know. But I shared it with Genius anyway. And that's what HE said: 'You cheated!'"

 

Now we are all playing and sending our results. Genius and I got today's word on the fourth try. I was quite proud, until Genius said, "Four is like par in golf. The expected number of turns." So much for ME being a genius...

 

Anyhoo... The Pony got today's word in THREE tries. With no cheating. We can't let this happen. Genius and I need to step up our game. There's only one word every 24 hours. Good thing. Today's took me about 20 minutes. The word was OTHER. Not really all that hard...