Yes I'm still on about the kidney stone.

I had momentary panic when I woke having missed a dose of pain medicine and in agony. Then after a the panic settled I remembered that I had similar really nasty pain after my first kidney stone, because that stone tore a damn hole on it's way out.

After the first stone I went back to the ER about a week and a half to two weeks after I passed that stone and was reassured that it was normal to hurt (that's part of why they prescribe more than a few days of pain medication), and that it could hurt intensely for up to three months.

Not especially reassuring but basically keep an eye on things, if I start to bleed, if pain worsens, or if I have unusual urine I should get looked at. I'm in about as much pain I was in before going to the ER but not as much pain as I had while actively passing the stone. So.. I just have to gut it out basically.

Thankfully I am not having to juggle school assignments and work with it this time. I was relating to Mom that I while passing the first stone I went to work, worked my full shift, went to school from there, and then went to my morning class the next day before I emailed my afternoon professor and begged off. I explained to her that I was actively passing a kidney stone, asked permission to submit my schoolwork via e-mail, and e-mailed her my ER note from a few days prior as proof that I wasn't just making excuses. She told me not to worry about the homework and to go home and rest and she hoped to see me next class. So, I went home immediately e-mailed her the assignment and doctor's note (because I listen SO well), and then went into the bathroom and finished passing the stone over the next three to six hours. Oh and I was foolish and turned down pain medication so I did all of that on pure stubborn stupidity. Never again.

That was really awful, and in contrast I have been mostly on bed rest, intermittently mobile (mostly to prepare food and eat so I can take my pain pills), and have really not had much pressure to do anything but try to rest and heal.

The really tricky thing is going to be how I do Tuesday. Mom and I have some minor dental work that needs doing, and I'm basically not able to wear anything but loose pajamas right now because my kidney is still inflamed, and it hurts to move or wear anything remotely constricting. I'm wearing a loose T-shirt and athletic shorts, and have basically not worn proper clothing since we left the ER.

So.. tomorrow I'm going to try and get dressed (gauge my pain) and see how much that hurts. That will determine how we do things Tuesday I think.

I'm still mostly eating soft easy to prepare food (toast, bagels with cream cheese, lots of orange juice, fresh fruit, instant mashed potatoes) because it takes too much energy to prepare AND eat food. I've done well with rinsing my dishes, and emptying the dishwasher, to minimize extra work for Mom.

In contrast to me at optimal health I'm eating very slowly. I tend to be the first one finished eating most of the time, and it's taking me forever to eat TOAST. It's taking me a half hour to eat a small bowl of mashed potatoes. It's very frustrating.

I have this incredibly unrealistic mindset of "I've passed the stone so obviously I'm FINE now. I should be instantly better right?" and I'm growing increasingly impatient with my very slow to heal body. If it were a ragdoll, I'd have thrown it across the room by now in a temper tantrum. It's been what, less than a week since I was diagnosed with the stone, and it took about two days to pass it from the ER visit so I'm only 2 days out from a huge physically traumatic instance and I'm fidgeting and going "COME ON LET'S GO! I WANT TO DO THINGS!!"

I have to laugh at myself because I barely have the strength to get up and walk to the restroom or kitchen and I'm sitting here going "Yeah I feel like crap, and I'm tired but I'm SO BORED." Not realistic at all.

Second kidney stone of the year is done, I think.

The last several weeks have been a blur of pain haze, foggy memory, and for the last few days feeling really really drugged in between moments of intense pain. Because I actually had pain relief for this kidney stone I am somewhat less certain of when exactly I passed the stone.

I had several painful abdominal cramping sessions between my cuddles with a heating pad, and short naps with vivid dreams. Somewhere in that time the pain moved firmly out of my kidney, and this morning I can't find any spot of pain, discomfort, distinctly OTHER feeling of where the stone might be, so I can only conclude that in one of the painful cramping moments I did actually pass it.

I have little memory of October at all. I think I pretty well fell off the radar. I don't remember much of September either to be honest. I am relieved that I was sick, because it makes a bunch of my "WHAT IS THIS" symptoms make sense. I am still physically drained, though well-hydrated, and have quite a bit of residual pain, but it's not actively passing a kidney stone pain now. I think it's "I just passed a kidney stone and boy did leave an internal mark" pain.

Holy crap I'm confused. We aren't in October yet are we? What the hell. Did I mention vivid dreams? LOTS OF VIVID DREAMS?!

Right then, I'm done. I'm going to lay down with my heating pad. I will be trying to catch up with everyone over the weekend and into next week.

Oops, another kidney stone.

I've been having some troubling symptoms  for I guess a couple of weeks. Fever coming and going, increasing lower back pain, and quite a bit of nausea without the usual migraine as accompaniment.

Turns out I have my second kidney stone this year. The first I can firmly blame on Topamax which I am no longer on. This one? No idea. I was told I might be more prone after the first stone.

I discovered my back pain was kidney pain quite by accident. I asked Mom to look at my back and tell me if there was any bruising (I've been falling down, running into things) and she said no and asked if it could be a kidney stone. I said "No, because that would hurt here *knuckle to kidney in back* OW!!" Instant bruise where my knuckle had been.

So I slept on it, emailed my doctor whom I had just seen for routine blood work, and he told me if I suspected a kidney stone to please go directly to the ER. So, we did when Mom got off work yesterday and it was or is indeed a small stone in the kidney and thankfully no infection.

Today Mom and I will make a quick run to the pharmacy for medicine to help it pass easier and with less pain and then I'll be housebound until the stone passes.

General Health Update

I'm having some insomnia issues culminating in being awake for very long periods of time and then falling asleep at odd moments and places. I had a visit with my doctor this morning, and he took blood for routine lab work, and we discussed which medication I think has been causing some issues. We also discussed my need for a routine and some possibilities for getting enough physical activity during the hot times when I can't realistically get outside much.

I think the next step will be when I see him in a month discussing some low impact exercise I can do at home to help. I also emailed him prior to my appointment about some EDS information and if he is able to read up on that during the month (I do realize he is busy and has things to do) then we can discuss appropriate testing. In theory it is a simple flexibility check with some questions and observations but we'll see what we see.

In the meantime he re-upped my imitrex so I will have enough of that to get through the next month, and sent in a script for zophran for me to have on hand for when I get the really nasty sudden onset nausea.

Rather than continuing with Mom to work and then Knit Night we determined that I should come back home and try to rest. I've started a load of laundry and once I get that into the dryer, I will take out my contacts try for a nap. If my body won't have that, then find something to do that will be physically taxing.

My back is sore at this point from bending and lifting things. Overall pain is low. Dr M takes the blood himself and sends off what he needs to, to an outside lab, but much of it they can do in house. He seemed quietly amused that I wasn't bothered by him sticking me and didn't express much in the way of pain when the first stick didn't work and we had to switch to the other arm. I explained that while it wasn't comfortable it was nowhere near my levels of pain that I'm used to with medical stuff. I think I had an involuntary flinch or muscle spasm on my left arm where he initially tried. I'm impressed that there is no bruise there. I tend to have ridiculous bruising after blood work, usually immediately after.

Fingers crossed everything comes back normal. This is routine stuff, not looking for trouble stuff. Last lab results I had said that everything was functioning normally but it's been at least 6 months since my last ER visit or lab workup.

I am incredibly fatigued and I think my tolerance for heat is fluctuating, as what has been roughly comfortable in the house is now just a bit too warm, and I'm feeling overheated about 90% of the time. I'm not hot enough to be heat sick, but definitely warm enough to be uncomfortable. Dr M and I agreed that ideal temperature would be approximately 68F which is roughly where we had the thermostat in Virginia, but Mom is prone to bronchitis and that would be FAR too cold for her. We're going to try dropping it from 75F to 74F for awhile and see if that is enough. I will have Mom adjust the thermostat since I don't know how to work it, and I don't want to screw it up.

First big DFW meetup.

I spent Wednesday afternoon with my brother and his wife. We had a fun time playing video games and binge watching TV, just hanging out. We watched a complete season of "How I Met Your Mother" which was initially on for background noise as Logan and I played Dragon Quest 9 and I directed through plot points.

I've been watching Being Human (original UK version) and am into Series 5 now, and it's gone a bit odd as they do a few seasons in. I want to keep going but I'm beginning to be bored with it, which makes me sad. There are some compelling plot things I want to watch play out but there's too much of the old villain is destroyed (again) meet new more Villainy villain. It's ..a weird cliche of supernatural TV shows and I remember it so much when I used to watch Buffy. It drove me nuts then too.

So.. I'm also knitting. I've been slowly working on a doll sweater, and when I finish it, I am wanting to try to size the pattern up for MSD and possibly down for TinyDelf. I am not ready to do the necessary math for that right now though.

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Last night I went to my first big local public BJD meet at Pie Five and it was nice. I just woke up from a weird anxiety dream in which a "local" person was hosting a meet at their house, cornered me and was either aggressively hitting on me or trying to make me feel unwelcome by being the wrong sort of friendly. I woke up in an anxious way breathing hard and feeling freaked out.

I chalk that up to meeting so many new people. Mom and I sat quietly with our dolls and were friendly, everyone there was friendly, but I felt myself slipping out away into "I'm not here because I literally can not process any of this anymore" overwhelmed place. Mom either picked up on that or was also just done. We made polite goodbyes, and both came home and went pretty immediately to bed.

I took Robbie my School C boy, and Mom took Grace her Pukifee Shiwoo girl.

The only people I knew from actually having met physically before were my brother's roommate Ed, and Debbie and Crockett. There were many beautiful dolls and everyone seemed friendly but I was rather too intimidated to go over and visit with people that weren't seated just right next to me. I'm not sure if even half of the usual people were there but it was way too many people for my comfort zone, even if they are NICE people.

It's really strange because I can remember hosting doll meets and setting up meets for Southeast Virginia shortly after I moved there in 2006/2007, and because we were so far south we rarely had more than six or seven people show up, and it wasn't always the same people but I don't think they started to get bigger until towards the end when I stopped hosting/scheduling them. I don't know if anyone out there is till hosting them. The community there fluctuates so much because of the military.

I have many friends I met through BJDs who have relocated to the DFW area since we started being friends which is really cool, but DFW is a HUGE metroplex and that makes coordinating difficult and overwhelming. I like the big meetup in theory but I think next time I go I will take an anxiety pill before we go, and sit in the corner with my back to the wall. I met too many new people at once and that anxiety is likely to spill over for several days.

I took some photos but my hands were shaking pretty badly so I'll try to post the least blurry ones.

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Tuesdays are long.

So I accidentally stayed up Sunday night into Monday binge-watching Being Human (UK version) halfway into Series 2. When I did realize how long I'd been awake I immediately went to sleep, slept about 7 hours, and woke for dinner, a little bit of conversation and went back to sleep for maybe 4 hours. I woke about 3 am.

I've packed lunches for Mom and me today. Tuesdays I tag along with her into work and we go to Knit Night afterwards with my sister Faythe. So I spend the day in downtown Dallas, down in the lobby playing Pokemon or Dragon Quest, or on my phone or drawing etc, while trying to ignore Fox News which is where the charging ports are.

I have also discussed with Mom getting some floating shelves to put along the wall where my dresser is for doll space. I want to get them up off the dresser, maybe some of them onto stands, and have a safe place for that. I also want to install a wall-mounted desk, but I'm trying to figure out the best (least expensive) way to do that, which will support the weight of a desktop PC. I'd also like to get narrow bedside table and possibly a laptop stand which I can swing round next to my bed. If I had more space I would have the bed set up as a day bed since it also functions as a couch for me for watching TV, playing games etc, and day beds area good fit for a twin mattress.

I don't want to commit to a bunch of real furniture though. I'm pretty upset that I had to leave my loft bed behind in Virginia and that I had to leave my really nice mattress behind in Tennessee. The one I'm using now is not a bad one, but I had a very nice one that I bought when I bought my bed.

Also my room is a very compact space. I believe it is the smallest of the three rooms, and I'm okay with that really, but ideally I would like to have enough room to have a functional bedroom AND space for the dolls and that so far is not working out to my liking. If/when I put in a desk (either tiny student desk or a wall mounted desk) I will have to put away the small amount of doll furniture that I do have out, and I really don't want to do that.

I'd like to put some floating shelves about my bed on the wall opposite the dresser for displaying completed Lego sets. I have many that I would love to have out on display and be able to take down for play.

It's a process. Anyway I have a long day ahead of me so I'm off. I hope you're all well!

Doll Sitting

I dug out clothes, wigs, and eyes to see if the B&G Saphira is a doll I could work with as one of my own and I think I found a bit of spark. The wig would not be long-term, but I like the golden eyes, and he looks good in the borrowed clothing. This particular sculpt has optional elf ears which are included, and are super cute. I think the faceup would need to be repaired or altered (I like it, but there are some not easily seen on camera scuffs).





I like the bones of the sculpt, but I think I would prefer him as a blond or with a different style of red wig. I think he looks better with the 16mm eyes I put in him rather than the 18mm default eyes. The elf ears are really cute and I took a few pictures of those on my phone for comparison.





I have him with just the human ears in right now because I don't want to risk breaking the long elf ears. The wig protects the human ears well.

Next I need to pull out the other doll and eye and wig him and see what I feel. I think I could definitely see this guy in my long term crew even if I don't know who he would be yet. I'll have to discuss with Logan and his wife what sort of trade we could work out exactly.

Migraines and knitting.

So.. one of my migraine medications makes it super easy to sleep and the other switches me on like woah. I had migraine backlash this evening so I took the other one, because I had taken my preferred (Imitrex) several times in the last couple of weeks and I'm supposed to be alternating them.

I lay down to sleep/rest, plugged my phone in to charge, rolled over.. and suddenly I was WIRED. Aggravated, I got up, turned the light back on, and grabbed my knitting.

I finished a the hat for Logan's Pan yesterday and cast on a sweater for Yo-SD. I'm about four rows past where the sleeves split off (raglan pattern) and I've set it aside so I don't make any serious fatigue mistakes.

Have I posted any of the knitting I've done recently? I don't think that I have. Since I made Owen's sweater in July 2015, I haven't really been able to knit because I was so sick. Since I got to Texas late June of this year, I have made a stuffed cat, two sweaters, and the hat for Logan's doll Pan.

First I made Beans the Cat, which I named Bohne die Katze, which if my German isn't too rusty should translate to "Beans the Cat" because I was either going to do it in German or Spanish, and I think Osaka beat me to it with naming one Frijoles del Gato. I may also make a black or brown one named Frijoles del Gato, but it will be smaller than the first one I made.

I'm not fluent in German or Spanish, truly, but I know enough that I can do silly stuff like that. I named my last cat Decke Ventilator Von Souffle, which if I recall correctly was "ceiling fan" in German with Von Souffle tacked on the end, because I was a goofball. I loved that cat.

Anyway knitted stuff. First we have Beans:


Then I made Toby a sweater of his own in a soft acrylic which has hints of tan and pink:


Then feeling confident I made another sweater from the same pattern from different tidbits that were all gifts from friends. I called the project the Friendship Sweater:


And last for now, is the hat intended for Pan, modeled by October:


In addition to late night knitting I've also been organizing playlists for my mp3 player and putting music back on my laptop that was accidentally deleted, from the mp3 players. I made a new playlist for when I'm just hanging out at the house.

Going back to my migraine medicine, I think that my backup medication (Maxalt) is aggravating my insomnia. I will bring it up with my doctor when I see him later this month and see if instead of alternating the two as needed migraine medications, I can just get more of the Imitrex. Doctors seem to be really stingy with migraine medication which baffles me because it doesn't get you high, and honestly it makes me feel like crap, just less like crap than I do when I actively have a brain-screaming migraine. It's probably a legislative thing but it's frustrating all the same. I would prefer not to even risk repeating the 9 month migraine and right now I'm still fighting out of the two week-ish one.

Random thoughts. I'm going to try to sleep.. again I think.

New shoes today!

Holy cow. I fell under a migraine-rock and don't remember much of the last two weeks. It should be safely over. I was reminded by Osaka that I frequently get migraines at the end of a vial of testosterone, that are resistant to medication, and now that I'm in the new vial it should even out with my medications.
In the mean time I am vaguely aware of having interacted with people in person and online but my brain just dumped everything in the "shred/burn" pile so it's all a bit hazy.

If I have spoken to anyone about anything important, a reminder would not be at all out of bounds. I don't think I committed to anything other than making a hat in trade for a pre-ordered copy of Pokemon Moon via my brother Logan, but I would like to be certain.

Ashbet, I emailed you when I did the thing that you asked for, but if there was anything else I was supposed to do, or bring, or schedule (like another get together) if you could please remind me of details I would be super grateful.

My technically common-law brother J was out of town for work this last weekend so Faythe was over with us from Thursday night to Monday evening. We put her Netflix on my PS3 so that when she is over we can watch things together. Monday we watched the new The Little Prince, and the animation was gorgeous all over. I wasn't familiar with the story so there were some unexpected feelings but it was a great film, and when it comes out on bluray, it will be coming home. When Zootopia drops on Netflix at the end of the month I will ask Faythe to watch it with me. I have heard nothing but good things about it.

Honestly for the past two weeks I can only remember taking medicine, sleeping, and brief painful stints of sunlight. I am aware that I DID other things, and enjoyed a visit with Ashbet but I don't remember anything else.

I'm aware that Osaka and Ringo went to a beautiful quilt show and posted lots of lovely photos and specifically I remember two bear quilts from that post, but everything else is kind of.. gone. I will go and re-read things while I am reasonably coherent.

This evening after Mom got home from work, and a quick Costco run, we went by Academy Sports and Outdoors and got two pairs of shoes on clearance. Mom got new sneakers, black, and grey with red highlights, and I got a pair of slides (Mom called them slippers, regional variation?) that are stone-wash denim with memory foam insoles. They are reasonably fashionable, and probably very adult looking but I don't care because I have shoes between flipflops and snow sneakers now. When I go back to school proper Mom is willing to buy me a second pair of shoes so that neither pair blows out in 6 months to a year.



Pictured with my charging 3DS, and my blue fuzzy blanket.

I am also doll-sitting two dolls for Logan, both of them elf-earred boys. I will rummage and see if I can get them, dressed, wigged, and eyed and take some photos. Logan has had them in the closet for 3 years "for sale" with no bites and wanted me to give them some love. If I do want one or both he and his wife will discuss bartering some reasonable exchange of crafted goods for one or both dolls.

The little one I've never seen before, it's from Popo doll, and the other is a B&G doll but I'm not sure which sculpt.