writings in between

I was supposed to get a blood test on Monday. I fasted and everything. And then the doc couldn't find my veins. This is not an unusual problem, although he's been pretty good at it before. It's just sometimes nobody can find a good vein in me. And it's not usually this bad.

So I came away with a paper for a pathology appointment where the people seem to manage it very well and swiftly (they're also younger; I like this doc, but he's pushing 70 if not 75). I made the appointments for a couple of weeks time because it's fasting, and because my veins in both arms had not been forthcoming so no point in trying again and collapsing them further.

Tuesday was the solar battery guys (which is going quite great guns, tbh), and while I was clearing stuff away for them, I felt a sting in my heel.

Ugh. Pointy wood splinter, in under the skin. I pulled it out, tossed it away, and thought nothing of it. I didn't put any antiseptic on it, or try to clean the thing out. I just didn't think of it at the time since the splinter came out cleanly.

Except, obviously, the splinter wasn't clean.

Five hours later, my ankle hurt right in the spot where the splinter had been - over the achilles tendon, making walking difficult. I skipped hockey training, went to bed early.

Woke on Wednesday, still swollen, and the swollen area was slightly larger. I was a bit worried, but hoped it would pass. By midday, I was feeling tingles in various extremities. Not a good sign. We had a set of antibiotics from...some time previous. So I started taking those - keflex, is the type.

I booked an appointment with the doctor the next day. Went to bed. Woke up feeling a little better, but still with the swollen heel and the tingly. The doc looked at it, declared it infected, and put me on a course of penicillin, which I've been taking the last four days with varying regularity. The tingling has pretty much stopped (phew) and I'm supposed to check in with him on Tuesday.

So that was my near-brush with infection this week.

Lesson: when stuck by a bit of anything in the garden, clean it off!

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Today, the half-brother and his family are coming over for dinner. Hopefully the little girls will be okay, because the twins are eager to meet them. I've met them both before, although the younger one was only just over a year old and she wasn't great with strangers, but we hardly see them at all and we're not really a presence in their lives except distantly.

I'm doing dinner - roast goat loin and roast pork. Along with roast vegies.

Anyway, hopefully it all goes well.

Apparently the battery guy wants to come in TOMORROW.

*sigh*

Luckily, I prepped the planned battery site on the weekend. One less thing to think about. Although I guess that's forward planning on my part.

Short story: I climbed up on an unsecured stool in the garden, fell off and whacked the back of my head on the edge of a bathtub garden. Right parietal. Still the skull, so protected, but there was definite OW involved.

tl;dr I got it checked out, and scans, and no concussion or symptoms, but I'm taking it easy

I had a sore head with a lump, no blackouts or dizziness, definite swelling. Got the neighbour to take me to the doctor, then to the station so I could go get it scanned - ultrasound and CT. Haematoma (ie. blood swelling) but no significant injury that they could spot.

Still no dizziness or blackouts, no memory loss (that I can tell) and everything seems fine so far. I'm still typing.

That said, today, my right side is all achey - I've been having issues along the outside hip, involving stiffness of the muscle - it gets better after movement, but for the duration of the stiffness, it's not fun. Now, my right hand and right foot are feeling tingly. I have a bunch of very marginal neural issues on the right side of my body, so this has probably just exacerbated it. Either way, it's not fun.

Luckily the Edible Garden Trail is done so far as hosting is concerned. I'm planning to go out on the trail with a friend tomorrow - I have a plan, but it's fairly extensive so we'll see how we manage going along. Could be good, could be a problem. I'm going along with the woman I invited over for Christmas Day lunch - she seemed pretty happy to come along and visit gardens, so that'll be nice.

The main issue of going on the Trail is probably going to be petrol and driving. Through Sydney city and inner west, it's going to be just a wee smidge rough.

Although, interestingly, today I went to the doc for the follow-up on the scans. (Everthing's fine.) And although it was lunchtime on Friday there was almost nobody at the cafes next to the station. That's unheard of. I suspect a lot of people aren't eating out as often - which wasn't the case during COVID. The city businesses suffered then, but I suspect that with everyone pulling back from excessive spending, we're going to see a lot of local business going out as well...

*sigh*

Finally got paid via the new payroll company, as well as the 'catchup' pay that I missed out on at the start of the month. Phew.

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And in other money news...

stories about my father

...well, not quite. Dad is coming to Sydney in April. Probably. If a Sydney client will pay him. He's been waiting for four months for this client to pay him, though... It's eternal optimism with him. And, honestly, I understand the hope, but also...I'm kind of like, "Could you not have just made nice quiet money the way your wife was doing back when you met her? Basic real estate stuff? Did you have to get glamourous and intiative-driven and foward-thinking?" Oh Dad.

I just want to shake my head at my dad. I love him but...

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Anyway, it is Friday, I have just finished work. It is the weekend, and I suppose I should try to do some writing, but on the writing front I have been absolutely awful. I have to rewrite the Final Confrontation of Book 1 again - finally found the plot notes for it...

So close! SO CLOSE!

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Did I mention the new chickens we got? We got two, one died, we got another two, and the three are hanging out together pretty happily. Except that we just had a cold snap (went from 25-30C days down to 15-20C days like that) and while they're doing okay-ish outside, we're bringing them in at night.

...Actually, I wonder if we could stick them all in the one cage. We were keeping them separate so we could tell whose shit was whose (for a while we thought they might be experiencing the same issue that the other chick died of) but it's just coccidiosis, which we're treating with special water. And they're not so large that it's impossible to fit them all in one cage overnight right now. Hm. It's a thought.

Right. Time to rest up.