In Which We Get Caught Up

Wow.  It's been a while.

It's not that I've forgotten I have a blog, it's just that I haven't had much to say.  (I KNOW! Scary, huh?)

Okay, it's not so much that I haven't got much to say as that I have lots going on that I can't really talk about yet because it's in the still-working-the-bugs-out stages, or that it's someone else's story to tell first.  There are patterns and projects and things going on here that I am very excited about, but nothing is quite ready to see the light of the day just yet.  Let it suffice to say that there is much planning and spinning and knitting and writing going on around here.

I did get a few things finished over the summer.  This...

...Fiori Di Sole, by Rosemary Hill (Designs by Romi), in Manos del Uraguay Manos Lace (70% baby alpaca, 25% silk, 5% cashmere).

And this...

...Emily Shawl, by Mandy Moore, in handspun and logwood dyed paco-vicuna.

And much knitting of Halloween-themed projects that have yet to be photographed.

There has also been much sitting in doctors' offices and hanging out at labs going on.  I came home after Fibre Week feeling even more wrung out than usual, but I wrote that off to the burn-out I was clearly suffering from and went on.  But, even as I rested and got my head back in order, my energy didn't come back.  I have had ongoing issues with headaches and nausea, and was always tired and short of breath.  I slept late, and was ready for bed again by suppertime.  I was tired and irritable and anxious.  I basically had a bad case of the blahs.

So, off to the doctor I go.  And his first response was: menopause.  He wrote me a scrip for anti-anxiety meds and got ready to send me on my way, then decided it had been a while since I had had any blood tests and that we should check all the usual things--blood sugar, cholesterol, iron, hormones.  Oh, and while we're at it, let's get some ultrasounds and a mammogram.  I walked out of the office with a big fistful of requisitions and started making the rounds of the labs. (And I  DIDN'T take the anti-anxiety pills!)

And, lo and behold, a week later, the good doctor calls.  Something showed up in the blood tests.  No real surprise there.  I have ALL the risk factors for Type 2 diabetes, and a family history of cholesterol issues.  And guess what?  Blood sugar and cholesterol: textbook numbers.  What DID show up was a vitamin B12 deficiency causing a low red blood cell count, a condition sometimes called pernicious anemia.  (Love that word "pernicious"!  It's synonyms include sinister and devious. I picture a Snidely Whiplash kind of anemia.)

Pernicious anemia is easily treated with vitamin B12 shots, and the doctor assured me that I would feel better after the first shot.  And I did.  I am now well into the series of shots prescribed and I'm back to my old self again.  After having the pharmacist give me a couple of the shots, I took over and I'm doing them myself.  No more headaches, energy is up, and even the daily aches and pains that I had gotten used to are gone.  (Seems like nothing will cure my irritability, so I've just decided to roll with that.)

Yay.

Except.

Pernicious anemia and vitamin B12 deficiency do not occur spontaneously.  They are symptoms of about elebenty-billion other problems.  So we are now going through that list of problems, one by one, eliminating the possibilities.  We have narrowed it down to either a digestive issue (possibly celiac) or a bad reaction to pain killers that I took for the Kraken earlier this year.  Or both.  Or neither.  As each set of test results come back, new ones are ordered.  And so it goes.

The testing, however, will just have to wait a couple of weeks now, 'cuz I'm going to Disneyland!