This Could Get Embarassing

Posted on by

I was sitting and talking to the secretary of the Lutheran church in town today when my arm started itching.Â? I rolled up my sleeve and saw that it was all red and flushed.Â? The secretary was also looking at me with big eyes.Â? “I’m turning red, aren’t I?” I asked.Â? She nodded.Â? I explained that it was just a niacin reaction and would go away within an hour or so.

This is making me want to wait on taking it until AFTER my the funeral tomorrow and AFTER the LSAT on Monday as I’d prefer not to have a ton of people asking what’s wrong with me tomorrow and not to have to deal with the flushing while I’m trying to make logical deductions and read obscure passages.

In addition, the spot on my left arm where they have been drawing blood is now black and blue.Â? I don’t usually bruise that badly from bloodwork but I guess the vein has been pierced enough.Â? I’ve also got a lovely collection of needle trails in that spot.Â? If you didn’t know me well, I’m sure you’d think I was trainspotting.

Niacin, I Hate You

Posted on by

My doc is having me take 500 mg of niacin (25 times the RDA) to try and lower the cholesterol and tryglicerides.Â? OK… not a problem — picked up some OTC stuff at the pharmacy with my Metformin and took it yesterday without a problem.

I had to go in for early bloodwork today and took my daily pills (we’re up to 6 now) with some blueberry yogurt and a South Beach Diet bar I had left over from Synod Assembly.Â? I then went and got a water bottle and drained it while at breakfast with Jon and his pastor homies.

On the way home, I started feeling hot and like I had pins and needles in my face.Â? It eventually spread over my entire body until I was red from head to toe and feeling like someone had put a space heater inside of me.Â? I was really itchy but couldn’t scratch any of the itches because it felt like my skin was sunburned.Â? Had my grandma not told me about feeling tingles when she took it, I would have thought that I was having a serious allergic reaction to something.

I got home, changed into a t-shirt and shorts and called the clinic.Â? I got their answering service so I called the pharmacy and talked to the pharmacist.Â? He told me that this was completely normal and that it would go away in a while.Â? I asked if there was anything I could do (since I was pretty uncomfortable).Â? He told me to drink some more fluids to see if it would cause the blood vessels in my skin to undilate.Â? (The niacin caused the blood vessels to dilate.)Â? At this point, I was simultaneously feeling chilled so I cowered under a quilt on the couch until I could fall asleep.

The redness and tingling are gone (I was “normal” when I woke up an hour later) and I was told that if I take my niacin with plenty of liquid (i.e. actually DRINK something instead of taking my pills with my morning yogurt), it would probably not happen again.Â? Let’s just say that it had better not happen again or my doc is going to get a really pissy call from me on the subject.

I Want A Refund On This Body!

Posted on by

Last Thursday, the vampire at my clinic bled a few vials of blood out for a CBC (required yearly for the various meds I’m on) and for a glucose tolerance test.Â? (Apparently, my doc orders those for anyone who has high cholesterol/high triglycerides and we’ve been aware of mine being bad for about 8 years now.)

The Good News:Â? My liver actually works.Â? Considering that two years ago they were scrapping scar tissue off it along with my very diseased gallbladder, this is very good news.Â? I’ve also been on meds that have the potential of causing liver damage so it’s good to know that I do have some organ systems that are functioning like they’re supposed to.

The Bad News: My cholesterol is higher than normal and my triglycerides doubled.Â? Ummm… yah.Â? Not good.Â? They can’t put me on statins because I’m of child-bearing age so I now get to take a boatload of Niacin every day.Â? (I resisted the urge to ask if I could just suck on a watch battery because I *LIKE* my doctor.)

The Even Worse News:Â? My glucose tolerance test results show that I’m in the lower-mid range of being pre-diabetic so… I got a call from my doc’s nurse this morning telling me that I had a 3:15 appointment with them and I needed to be there PERIOD.Â? It turns out that in some hypoglycemics, one can swing up towards diabetes so this isn’t unexpected.Â? (All of this is of course genetic which means that my kids will also get this.)Â? It does suck however because I’m now on meds for THAT.Â? I got lots of nice pamphlets on eating like a diabetic to see if we can’t reverse this and they’ll do new bloodwork in 2-3 months.

So… could those with pissy pancreases please give me some tips on dealing with the latter news?Â? Please and thank you.

2007 Synod Assembly Redux: The Good, the Bad, and the “What Did They Just Say???”

Posted on by

I’m fairly blissed out on Benadryl at the moment so beware of weirdness caused by my antihistamine-induced haze. 😛

The Good
[-] Staying with my aunt and uncle and having two excellent tomcats at my disposal.
[-] Some of the worship music (particularly “Canticle of Turning” from the first night)
[-] Meeting new people.
[-] Conversations with friends (especially those who admit to reading this blog — you know who you are. 🙂 )
[-] Good food at Mackenzie River Pizza Company on Friday night.
[-] Getting some cross-stitching done on my 1st project in 15 years.
[-] Electing an AWESOME new bishop and being able to give her a congratulatory hug.
[-] Meeting friends of my father-in-law and having them figure out who I was by my credentials tag. (All of us had name tags with our name, parish, and geographic location on them. Let’s just say my last name is fairly unique.)
[-] Schmoozing with important people like the president of PLTS. (She sat with us for the Saturday morning plenary.)
[-] The privilege of being asked to be a communion assistant for the closing Eucharist. (I’m not clergy and I’m not incredibly special in the synod so I was pretty jazzed to be asked and gave a BIG hug to the person who asked me.) It was humbling to say the least.
[-] Talking with the college kids on Saturday and asking them what they were going to do with their idealism and energy.
[-] My aunt and uncle’s most excellent tomcats. (They deserve another mention, especially Fredd who has parts of his back shaved for stitches from an owl attack.)
[-] Getting to talk to Bishop Omland and having him actually KNOW who I am and remember the first time he met me. (Let’s just say that the bishop inviting a candidate’s wife to have coffee with him and tell him about herself was a welcome change from the normal ELCA attitude that the clergy spouses are baggage. It’s the reason I trusted him as bishop — I’m an actual person to him, not just a name on a paper.)
[-] My travel equalization paying for my $tarbuck$ habit during assembly.

The Bad
[-] The new worship settings in the ELW — can we say “mass-produced inclusivist crap”?
[-] The inclusivizing of the Psalms in the ELW. See above.
[-] The omission of “Jesus In Thy Dying Woes” from the ELW. You guys suck. It’s THE Tenebrae hymn for Good Friday. Get it right.
[-] The re-writing of the Lord’s Prayer for the service on Friday night.
[-] The serious lack of air-conditioning in the main assembly chamber.
[-] The reflux and gas bubbles caused by dinner on Saturday night.
[-] The orange creme and vanilla bean fraps from $tarbuc$ — the first was over-rated and the second had a nasty aftertaste.
[-] Not giving the youth decent sound for their offertory.
[-] Getting an allergic reaction to whatever pollens were on Loogy’s fur. (Mr. Apex Predator was apparently hunting in some kind of weed or grass to which I’m pretty allergic.)
[-] LOOOOOOOONG days.
[-] Being utterly Laeodicean on the sexuality resolutions. Can we actually STAND for something instead of tabling it until next year?

The “What Did They Just Say???”
[-] The “amending of the amending of the amendment to the resolution”. I’m not even sure what that actually entails and if it’s even possible in the English language.

Montana Synod Assembly

Posted on by

Well… we have a new bishop and…

IT’S A GIRL!

(OK… LikeÂ?Pastor Jessica Crist *wasn’t* going to be elected?)

She’s quite awesome and I’m looking forward to the next 6 years here.

I’ve also gotten a ton of cross-stitch done while resolutions have been parsed up and debated.Â? Best line so far:

“I’m a recovering English major.”

A Blessed Pentecost to You!

Posted on by

ÙˆÙŽÙ??ÙŽÙ??Ù??ÙŽØ? Ø?ÙŽØ?Ø?ÙŽ Ø?Ù??Ù??ÙŠÙŽÙˆÙ??Ù??Ù? Ø?Ù??Ù??Ø?ÙŽÙ??Ù??Ø?Ù?ÙˆÙ??ÙŽØŒ ÙƒÙŽØ?Ù??ÙŽ Ø?Ù??Ø?Ù?Ø?Ù??ÙˆÙŽØ?Ù? Ù??Ù?Ø?Ù??Ø?ÙŽÙ??Ù?Ø?Ù?ÙŠÙ??ÙŽ Ù??ÙŽØ?Ø?Ù?? Ù?Ù?ÙŠ Ù??ÙŽÙƒÙŽØ?Ù??Ù? ÙˆÙŽØ?Ø?Ù?Ø?Ù?ØŒ í????ì???히 í??˜ëŠ˜ë?œë???í??? ê???í??˜ê?? ê???í??œ ë???람 ê???ì??? ì??Œë??ê??? 있ì??? ì???í?? ì????ì??? ì˜? ì???ì??? ê???ë???í??˜ë?? Potom sa zjavili plamene, akoby ohnivÃ? jazyky, ktorÃ? horeli nad hlavou kaÅ?dÃ?ho z nich.Â? Tutti i presenti furono pieni di Spirito Santo e cominciarono a parlare in altre lingue, come lo Spirito Santo li guidava.Â? Ð? Ñ??Ð?Ð?Ð?Ð?Ð? Ð?Ñ??Ð?Ñ?Ñ??Ð?Ñ?Ð?Ð?Ñ??Ð? Ð? Ð??Ñ??уÑ?Ð?Ð?Ð?Ð? ÑŽÐ?Ð?Ð?, Ð?Ð?Ð?Ð?Ð?Ñ??Ð?Ñ?Ñ??Ð?Ð?Ð? Ñ??Ð?Ð?Ð?Ñ??Ð?, Ð?Ñ?? Ð?Ñ?Ð?Ð?Ð? Ð?Ð?Ñ??Ð?Ð? Ð?Ð?Ð? Ð?Ð?Ð?Ð?Ñ??Ð?.Â? Î?Î?Î?Î?Î?Î?Î?Î?Ï?? Î?Î? Ï??Î?Ï?? Ï??Ï??Î?Î?Ï?? Ï??Î?Ï??Ï??Î?Ï?? σÏ??Î?Î?Î?Î?Î?Î? Ï??Î? Ï??Î?Î?Î?Î?Ï?? Î?Î?Î? σÏ??Î?Î?Ï??Ï??Î?Î? Î?Ï??Î? Î?Î?Î?Ï??Î?Î? Î?Î?Ï?? Î?Î?Î?σÏ??Î?Ï?? Ï??Î? Î?Î?Î?Î? Î?Î?Î?Î?Î?Î?Ï??Ï?? Î?Î?Î?Î?Ï??Î?Ï??Ï??Î? Î?Ï??Ï??Ï??Î?Â? Siling nila, “Ano ini? Pulos sila mga taga-Galilea!Â? Vá??y thÃ? sao chÃ?ng ta nghe ai ná??y Ä??á??u nÃ?i tiá??ng riÃ?ng cá??a xá?? chÃ?ng ta sanh Ä??á???Â? ÕŠÕ?Ö??Õ?Õ?Ö??Õ?Õ?Ö??, Õ??Õ?Ö??Õ?Ö?? Õ?Ö?? Ô?Õ?Õ?Õ?Õ?Ö?Õ?Õ?Õ?Ö??, Õ?Ö?? Õ?Õ?Õ?Õ?Ö?? Õ?Ö?? Õ?Õ? Õ?Õ?Õ?Õ?Õ?Õ? Õ??Õ?Õ?Õ?Õ?Õ?Õ?Ö??Õ?, Õ??Ö??Õ?Õ?Õ?Õ?Õ?Õ?Õ?, Ô?Õ?Õ?Õ?Õ?Õ?Õ?Õ?Õ?Õ?Õ?Õ?, ÕŠÕ?Õ?Õ?Õ?Õ?Õ?, Ô?Õ?Õ?Õ?Õ?Õ?, FrÃ?Ã?gias ja PamfÃ?Ã?lias, Egiptuses ja KÃ?reene-poolses LiibÃ?as, ja siin asuvad roomlased, juudid Ã?hes nende usku pÃ?Ã?rdunutega, ×??×?×?×??×? ×??×?×?×??×??×? ×??×?×?? ×?×?×??×?×?? ×?מ×?×??×? ×?×?×? מ×?×?×?×??×? ×??ל×?×?×??×?×??×?×?? ×??×??ל×??×? ×??×?ל×??×??×?׃Â? Hepsi hayret ve ÅŸaÅŸkÄ?nlÄ?k iÃ?inde birbirlerine, â???â???Bunun anlamÄ? ne?â???â??? diye sordular.Â? Abanye ke babehlekisa ngabo, besithi, Bahluthi yiwayini enencasa.Â? ÞÃ? steig PÃ?tur fram og Ã?eir ellefu, og hann hÃ?f upp rÃ?dd sÃ?na og mÃ?lti til Ã?eirra: ,,GyÃ?ingar og allir Ã?Ã?r JerÃ?salembÃ?ar! Þetta skuluÃ? Ã?Ã?r vita. LjÃ?iÃ? eyru orÃ?um mÃ?num.Â? irgazen-agi ur skirÌ?en ara am akken i É?ilen kra seg-wen, axatÌ?er atÌ?an d tÌ?esÉ??a n sÌ?sÌ?behÌ? kan !Â? Baina haur da Ioel prophetÃ?z erran iÃ?an dena.Â? ç?žè??ï?šåœ?æœ?å?Œçš??æ???å??ï?Œæˆ??è??把æˆ??çš??é?ˆæ???ç?Œæ????æœ??çš??ä??ï?Œä??å????çš??å????å??è??è??é??è???ï?Œä??å????çš??é???å??ä??è??è???ç???è??ï?Œä??å????çš??è???å??ä??è??ä?œç???å??ã????Und auf meine Knechte und auf meine MÃ?gde will ich in denselbigen Tagen von meinem Geist ausgießen, und sie sollen weissagen.Â? ã??ã?Ÿã???ä?Šã??ã??ã???å??ã??å???è??ã????è???ã???ã???ï??ä???ã??ã??ã???åœ?ã??ã???ã????ã???ã????ã???ï??ã???ã??ã???ã??ã???è???ã??ç??ã??ç???ã??ã???ã???ã????ç????ã??ã????ã???ï??è???ã???ã????ã??ã???ã???ã???ã????Solen skal bli til mÃ?rke og mÃ?nen til blod, fÃ?r Herrens dag kommer, den store og herlige.Â? И Ð?уÐ?Ð?Ñ??: Ð?Ñ?Ñ?Ð?Ð?Ð?, Ð?Ñ??Ð? Ð?Ñ??Ð?Ð?Ð?Ð?Ð?Ñ?? Ð?Ð?Ñ? Ð??Ð?Ñ?Ð?Ð?Ð?Ð?Ð?, Ñ?Ð?Ð?Ñ?Ð?Ñ??Ñ?Ñ?.Â? “Wananchi wa Israeli, sikilizeni maneno haya! Yesu wa Nazareti alikuwa mtu ambaye mamlaka yake ya kimungu yalithibitishwa kwenu kwa miujiza, maajabu na ishara Mungu alizofanya kati yenu kwa njia yake, kama mnavyojua.

(Props to The Unbound Bible and Bible Gateway for the translations.)

The Joys of Small Town Life

Posted on by

I went to the pharmacy to get my Allegra refilled and found out that I had no refills left.Â? They let me call down to my doctor’s office and I left a message for one of the docs that I see (not the prescriber — he’s out today) to ask for a refill on it.

After going over to the local coffeeshop and spending some time reading letters and the paper, I came back to the pharmacy not expecting to actually *HAVE* them refill it.Â? Well… it turns out that the doctor’s office called and asked about my history with the drug and my pharmacist told them that I’d had it for at least the 18 months he’s known me and to please fill it.

So… I had to wait another 5 minutes but I at least got my Allegra today.Â? It’s nice to have a pharmacist who knows me enough to advocate for me.Â? 🙂