And so it was that Pip and Cat flew to Cat's parents' house for the holidays and there was...actually a pretty good time to be had by all. It wasn't snowy, or snowing, at all (disappointing) but it was plenty cold, though not so much compared to how it usually is. All the formalities taken care of we had a great Christmas, did a one-shot with Meg, went to Second City, the Institute and Uncle Julio's, saw Pan's Labyrinth (a Spanish flick) at the Evanston Cinearts and enjoyed all of the mildly awkward perks that come with being a couple staying in one partners home and being visited by their friends. It was actually quite a nice time and I was surprised by a sincere attempt to accomodate my dietary needs, both by my parents (stockpiling food), sibs (making complicated and tasty recipes from stockpiled food) and friends (teaching me to make sushi and Korean dishes to avoid having to use said food). I did end up glutening myself a couple of times near the end of the trip, though to my credit we had a really ditzy waitress at one time. Sure enough I was sick by the time I left.
My New Year's resolution was going to be cleaning the apartment but having returned to an eerily spotless one (and I just can't stress how impossible this level of clean would have seemed a week ago, even yesterday...I'm a bit worried that Erin may have pawned all of my belongings, although she picked us up from John Wayne and left us here to our ecstatic dog while she went off to a party, and called when it struck her that I may notice my pennies missing from a little dish we keep them in. So she went about explaining why she had used the pennies just in case I was to notice and sit here fuming about my missing pennies. I mention all this in case anyone actually thought that I suspected my room mate of selling my things.
So my new New Year's Resolution (I've never seen the point in them before, and I can't say I do now, more as symbolic currency) is to reassess the entire diet and set up an elimination for soy and legumes as well. Since I've now been provided with a rather avid depiction of the way in which my immune system and gut interact. I expect this to be a headache. Everything is closed today and my bags are still lost so I guess I'll have to wait until tomorrow.
I hope you've survived your holidays and that your new year fadges better than the last.
12.31.2006
12.18.2006
Remove Glass
It seems so simple.
Remove glass. Pip demonstrated the gesture required many times at lunch. You'd think, given modern medical technology, the stringency of medical school and a wealthy capitalist state brimming with medical culture and all the resources a practicianer could want, that the task wouldn't be so complicated. We deal with complex neurological disorders, organs as fragile as the eye and the lung, we can change people on a genetic level and yet...when it comes to splinter of glass accidentally lodged in my heel, all bets are off. Instead I waited for hours to see some yahoo who thought that jabbing a biopsy needle into the wound and pushing the glass further into my tender flesh was clearly the parsimoniest course of action. When I informed him of the fallacy in his plan (by unintentionally leaping over the examination table to get away from the pain) he recommended pain killers and another try with the needle. Suffice it to say, I still have glass in my foot. I'll be waiting 2 weeks to a month for my body to remove it by its own means. But I did get a tetnus shot out of the deal and for that I'm grateful.
What burns me most about this, aside from the fact that I got said splinter when waltzing back from my last final of the semester, giddy as could be, was that I was really looking forward to spending a holiday season healthy for once. With my parents treating this Celiac diet as just another extension of my general malaise and sickliness, I was excited at the prospect of showing them how much more energetic and alive and, well, downright healthy I've become, finally. I'm not clinging to some "fad diet" or unlikely recent diagnosis and continuing to "pretend to be sick", I've actually had a profound change. But now, after the growing excitment of getting better day by day, all they'll see will be my limp as I hop around, trying not to put pressure on my left heel, obviously a sympathy bid. Talk about frustrating. But this is merely the most recent installment in a very long story indeed. So I'll move on.
I've gained an understanding for the hatred people harbor for those who break bottles in the street. I've also learned my lesson about wearing sandals in dirty areas, [insert chuckling of every person reading this who ever pointed out how hypocritical my sandal-wearing was] yes, I know, thank you, you win. In the meantime, I guess I'm toe-walking for a while. Maybe quite a while. Although given my body's penchant for rejection, I doubt it'll be that long. At least it wasn't metal. That'd make my airport time so much more interesting.
Remove glass. Pip demonstrated the gesture required many times at lunch. You'd think, given modern medical technology, the stringency of medical school and a wealthy capitalist state brimming with medical culture and all the resources a practicianer could want, that the task wouldn't be so complicated. We deal with complex neurological disorders, organs as fragile as the eye and the lung, we can change people on a genetic level and yet...when it comes to splinter of glass accidentally lodged in my heel, all bets are off. Instead I waited for hours to see some yahoo who thought that jabbing a biopsy needle into the wound and pushing the glass further into my tender flesh was clearly the parsimoniest course of action. When I informed him of the fallacy in his plan (by unintentionally leaping over the examination table to get away from the pain) he recommended pain killers and another try with the needle. Suffice it to say, I still have glass in my foot. I'll be waiting 2 weeks to a month for my body to remove it by its own means. But I did get a tetnus shot out of the deal and for that I'm grateful.
What burns me most about this, aside from the fact that I got said splinter when waltzing back from my last final of the semester, giddy as could be, was that I was really looking forward to spending a holiday season healthy for once. With my parents treating this Celiac diet as just another extension of my general malaise and sickliness, I was excited at the prospect of showing them how much more energetic and alive and, well, downright healthy I've become, finally. I'm not clinging to some "fad diet" or unlikely recent diagnosis and continuing to "pretend to be sick", I've actually had a profound change. But now, after the growing excitment of getting better day by day, all they'll see will be my limp as I hop around, trying not to put pressure on my left heel, obviously a sympathy bid. Talk about frustrating. But this is merely the most recent installment in a very long story indeed. So I'll move on.
I've gained an understanding for the hatred people harbor for those who break bottles in the street. I've also learned my lesson about wearing sandals in dirty areas, [insert chuckling of every person reading this who ever pointed out how hypocritical my sandal-wearing was] yes, I know, thank you, you win. In the meantime, I guess I'm toe-walking for a while. Maybe quite a while. Although given my body's penchant for rejection, I doubt it'll be that long. At least it wasn't metal. That'd make my airport time so much more interesting.
12.14.2006
Turgor
I haven't been sleeping well. It's a combination of things but I always wake up with my jaw clenched and my muscles fatigued. I have a lot to work out over this upcoming break.
Pip and I are headed back to Chicago for a week or so and we'll return before New Years. Once I get all of these tests over with I'll be the better for it, I think. I've one a day through Saturday yet to do. Saturday is spelled kind of strangely, isn't it?
Days and nights are long and tired. I still have evals and self-evals left to do.
One of my profs lost all of his equipment to theft over two nights. It's strange. Someone knew that he had something worth stealing (the rest of the rooms in the building are more readily accessible and have high end projectors, computers and such) and which of his rooms it was in. Further, based on the signs I've seen, it seems as though the person who took the stuff had a key. I wonder if Public Safety will eventually head my way, as I was one of maybe three non-staff members to have a key to that room. Very disturbing. Moreso because it nixes his future class plans and a lot of his equipment was his own. The department can't just shuffle funds around. It's a shame. I hope they find the person. I have a bad feeling it may be someone I know.
There's a lot up in the air: my May term class, my role within the community, a couple of my grades, even. Yikes. What a hellish semester. The next will be good though, I can feel it. Christmas is somewhat daunting. Maybe I'll hang with my Jewish friends instead, get some take-out.
My body is very, very disappointed in me.
I hope this "vacation" goes better than most. Else I think I'll be reduced to that sharp, bitter, stygian shadow who speaks only in Laconic pentameter. I kind of miss her, to be honest.
Pip and I are headed back to Chicago for a week or so and we'll return before New Years. Once I get all of these tests over with I'll be the better for it, I think. I've one a day through Saturday yet to do. Saturday is spelled kind of strangely, isn't it?
Days and nights are long and tired. I still have evals and self-evals left to do.
One of my profs lost all of his equipment to theft over two nights. It's strange. Someone knew that he had something worth stealing (the rest of the rooms in the building are more readily accessible and have high end projectors, computers and such) and which of his rooms it was in. Further, based on the signs I've seen, it seems as though the person who took the stuff had a key. I wonder if Public Safety will eventually head my way, as I was one of maybe three non-staff members to have a key to that room. Very disturbing. Moreso because it nixes his future class plans and a lot of his equipment was his own. The department can't just shuffle funds around. It's a shame. I hope they find the person. I have a bad feeling it may be someone I know.
There's a lot up in the air: my May term class, my role within the community, a couple of my grades, even. Yikes. What a hellish semester. The next will be good though, I can feel it. Christmas is somewhat daunting. Maybe I'll hang with my Jewish friends instead, get some take-out.
My body is very, very disappointed in me.
I hope this "vacation" goes better than most. Else I think I'll be reduced to that sharp, bitter, stygian shadow who speaks only in Laconic pentameter. I kind of miss her, to be honest.
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