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Less itchy

The allergist peeled the allergen-impregnated patches off my back today. The itching lessened immediately, telling us much of it was really from the patches themselves, but I did show some response to a few things. Those spots are still itchy.

Now I can take a shower and get warmed up! But no scrubbing the back because I have to go back in a couple more days to have the itchy spots looked at again.

Then the allergist did skin testing on my arm and provoked mild histamine reactions to everything. These tests were for pollen, dust, pets, and other inhalant-type allergens. To which I've never been allergic, I might add.

What does this mean? More importantly, what does it mean given that I'm dosed to the gills on immuno-suppressants and anti-inflammatories?

We really can't tell. The immuno-suppressants might be suppressing allergies which have developed in recent years, or they might have affected my immune system in such a way that the test can't yield accurate results.

Most importantly, what does it mean for the cats?

The reaction was very mild, so they can rest easy:

But they'd better watch that attitude:

(Sparky isn't really giving me a bilabial fricative, he just forgot to put his tongue all the way back in his mouth.)

Itchy and scratchy

I am getting tested for contact allergies this week.

My back itches.

The allergist stuck these big patches impregnated with assorted allergens onto my back on Monday afternoon.

I have no way of telling if the itching is contact dermatitis or just a result of having large adhesive things stuck to winter-dry skin.

Also, I cannot take a shower until the allergist removes the patches tomorrow afternoon. Ish. Sponge baths in midwinter leave one feeling colder than when one began with the bathing.

Did I mention that I itch?

I'm not supposed to scratch either, but I've found that leaning up against a wall is somewhat soothing.

It's not clear whether my recently developing sensitivities to random things in the environment is due to the lupus, or just part of ageing (but the only one of my relatives with similar problems has some lupus symptoms too). More and more I'm finding that my eyes burn (and if I don't remove myself from the irritant I'll get a rash) when I'm exposed to sunblock, citrus peel, anise, cologne, hair spray, almost any products containing "fragrance" and many things that simply have a smell.

Most things have a smell.

This could get problematic if my immune system decides that it's out to get everything. It's bad enough that it's out to get me.

Home, sick

I've been on immune system suppressants, for the lupus, since August. I wasn't tolerating the first drug (methotrexate) too well, so my doctor is having me try the next least horrifically toxic drug on the list.

All well and good, as these things go, but I managed to catch a cold last week.

Despite having been chronically ill for the last decade, I'm not used to being sick, at least with infectious things. My super-powerful immune system doesn't mind taking time off from attacking me and dealing with pesky little germs. In general, people with autoimmune disorders like lupus tend to get sick more, because they are weakened by their immune systems' constant attacks. I have not found that to be the case at all, but that may be about to change now that my immune system is artificially subdued.

Along with learning to deal with the whole concept of being sick-with-germy-things, I am having to learn a whole new set of cues as to when I should go to the doctor. My old standard of going to the doctor was basically color-based: if something green comes out of your body, you have an infection and you must go get antibiotics. That was about it, with a corollary for sore throats and coughs.

However, this standard no longer applies when your immune system isn't doing its job. I discovered that many of the things I think of as symptoms of disease are in fact the effects of my immune system doing its job. Like green stuff: byproduct of immune system killing things. Fever: immune system creating inhospitable environment for attackers. Likewise, fatigue, body aches, etc.

So I caught this cold and except for a horribly runny nose, I didn't feel sick at all. I figured I was just suddenly allergic to dust, perhaps through the agency of the immunosuppressant. My temperature was quite low. I felt more inconvenienced than anything else. I went to the doctor anyway, because I didn't know whether my usual practice of waiting for it to go away on its own still applied.

The doctors took the cold much more seriously than I did. I got antibiotics, prescription antihistamines, cough medicine, lectures about how "You have to stay home from work and rest and drink chicken soup. How do you expect to get well?" (But I'm not really sick? And if I'm going to feel kind of crappy and be bored, I might as well go to work?)

I've taken my medicine and a couple days off. I still don't feel any better (or worse) than I did before. I cleaned the kitchen sink, read books, got more vacation pictures up (we went to Vermont in September), and got ahead on my cooking (the freezer is full of dinners and lunches).

I'm kind of bemused (and disturbed) by this business of being sick without feeling sick. I'm going back to work tomorrow. I don't think I'm sick anymore …

Catch-22

The stress fracture in my foot is supposedly healed. I'm taking my osteoporosis medicine and extra calcium. The next step is to get back to moderate, weight-bearing exercise to build up those bones.

The problem is that moderate, weight-bearing activity is what cracked that bone.

Theoretically, sturdy arch supports will help the poor, weak bones in my arches support my weight. Unfortunately, sturdy arch supports aggravate an old soft tissue injury in my left knee.

I'm having a hard time finding the balance between not moving at all, moving enough to keep my body functioning, and moving so much that more parts break. (At the moment I'm sitting with my foot propped up, actually, because it started protesting more of that strenuous "standing in the kitchen" thing I do.)

So, what does a photographer do when she can't go for a walk?

She lies on the floor and takes pictures of cats.

Monte Alban using his favorite headrest. Cute!

Oz always says, "He's just too lazy to hold up his head!"

I always say, "National Geographic ran a photo of a lion doing the same thing. He's like a lion!"

Sparky gazing out the window at a squirrel or something else tasty-looking.

I like how the bokeh blurs the background so you can't see the paper grocery bags filled with paperbacks. (We need more bookcases.) If I'm going to be doing a lot of interior photography, we'll have to clean the place up a bit. Oz suggested hanging a backdrop in front of the clutter.

Amtrak provides a few opportunities for sedentary photography as well.

Like when the train just stops for a half hour after traveling five minutes from the station where you got on.

American railroads are in about as good a shape as I'm in.

Ladies, take your calcium

With my left foot hurting worse and worse instead of feeling better and better, I broke down and went to a podiatrist, who found a stress fracture in my second metatarsal. No wonder it hurt so much to walk.

Treatment involves wearing a surgical boot and trying not to take any more steps than necessary. I also get to keep using my glamorous cane.

I've been spending a lot of time with my feet up. In theory, it sounds luxurious, but the reality is on the dull side, especially when it's springtime outside and one is missing all the flowers. Especially when one has spent all winter looking forward to evening walks among the spring flowers.

But how, you ask, does one get a stress fracture? Skydiving? Jogging? Sticking one's landing after doing a backflip off the uneven parallel bars? Standing around in the kitchen stirring a pot of soup?

Any of those things can cause stress fractures, but the last one is only dangerous if you have very weak bones.

It turns out that I have very weak bones. Unexpectedly so. I'm not that old, so although bone-thinning is a known side effect of the steroids prescribed for my lupus, it was not expected that my dosage level would turn my bones to air.

So not fair. Other people get big muscles and 'roid rage. I get osteoporosis.

Now I get to take the old lady osteoporosis drugs and try not to worry too much about falling. Sucky as this is, though, I think it would be much worse if I were older. I'm in fairly good shape, and my balance is pretty good (though the fracture has thrown it off a bit and every wobble is terror-inducing when the consequences of a fall involve broken bones). My coping skills are getting quite the workout. I'm finding that when you're enduring a big thing with all the equanimity you can muster, there just isn't much equanimity left for the little things, like constantly dropping your keys (when you're juggling a cane in addition to the rest of the stuff you always carry, the keys are always leaping to the floor), or anything that requires extra walking (Stores reorganize. How dare they do this now?).

So if you're in your thirties or forties, and you think that your regular, or not so regular, weight bearing exercise and occasional dairy consumption are probably enough to protect you, you might want to re-evaluate that "probably". What level of certainty is appropriate for consequences that involve the bones in your feet cracking just from walking around? Even if the consequences are thirty years in the future?