Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Another follower!

Medical

I had a nice time with my young dr yesterday. I got there terribly early, due to anxiety about parking – and left the building shortly before my own appt time. Someone must have failed to show. So, not much sock-knitting.

My bloods are fine, as I expected. No diabetes, no anaemia, etc. I thot that would leave him with no alternative but to refer me forward for uncomfortable hospital tests, but no, he has thought of something. I take a weekly osteoporosis pill – my only medication; and nausea is a very common (10%) side effect. I have been taking it for years and thought I was out of side-effect territory, but he says it can be cumulative. So I am to stop taking it and he has prescribed a month's course of a “proton pump inhibitor” which reduces stomach acid and is used, among other things, to treat stomach ulcers.

 I am feeling cheerful. The osteoporosis-pill routine is that you have to take it first thing in the morning and then it's nil-by-mouth for half-an-hour BUT you are not allowed to dive back into bed. You must remain upright. So I am delighted to be relieved of that beginning to my Wednesdays. And hope is inspiriting, too. I don't feel any better this morning, but I wouldn't expect signs of that for at least a fortnight.

Calcutta Cup

The newspapers, yesterday, at least some of them, said that Scotland didn't deserve to stay in the Six Nations tournament, since we don't have a team fit to play or a pitch fit to play on. We're “Italy without the excuses,” according to the Telegraph (which also complained about the tawdry pre-match entertainment). What would happen to the Calcutta Cup if they threw us out? It can only be contested in a rugby match between Scotland and England. They'd have to retire it to Twickenham.

Knitting

I am within a row or two of finishing the third (of 19) pattern repeats for the centre of the Unst Bridal Shawl, and I am repenting of my promise to stop. I need the Milano for a specific date in March. I'm about halfway down the first sleeve – they're short, since the shoulder hangs down so far. I would think another week would suffice to polish it off – so if I allow it a fortnight, I can safely go on with the shawl for now, until sometime near the end of this month.

It's something about the way each row of lace builds on the last that keeps one knitting on as if turning the pages. I've achieved only about 3” of the centre (much more, of course, when blocked) but that doesn't matter compared to the exhilaration of stacking row 17 carefully on top of row 16.

Looking at the picture of the finished thing just now, I realise how much knitting there will be in the borders, when the centre is finished. Like the centre of the Princess, which lures one in with easy, short rows at the point of the triangle and then stretches out to the end of time. That's OK, I think, in this case. I've allowed the borders 48% in my calculations for the sidebar – that may be about right.

Reading

I'm enjoying Persuasion. That was a good tip.


Mary Lou, do you remember where and what was the spooky New Yorker story you read recently? I like spooky. Stephen King had two (at least) stories in the New Yorker, quite a while ago now. I gave the issues away to a neighbour – clearly, many of us do that; James, in Beijing, passes his on to the Financial Times. And then regretted not having them, and sought for years, and found them in the collection “Everything's Eventual”. They are called “The Man in the Black Suit” and “That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is in French”. I think perhaps New Yorker editing is good for Stephen King, not that he's not pretty good on his own.  

12 comments:

  1. I think you might have that Knitters' Disease - the "Just one more row syndrome". (Seriously, I do hope that your young doctor is right and you are feeling much better very quickly).

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  2. So glad to hear the optimistic news on the medical front. Proton pump inhibitors are useful things, and served me well when my tummy was disgruntled for other reasons, Hope things start to improve quickly.

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  3. I took those pills for three years. I was sick every Sunday, and often Monday. They also failed to work, and my osteoporosis progressed. I now have a IV drug every 2 years, and the side efects are minimal and short lived...and best yet, my bone density has improved. I bet you will feel better soon.
    Glad you are enjoying Persuasion.

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  4. i posted this under the other days comments about the New Yorker - with your print subscription you get all digital access online to ALL(as in from the beginning of time) issues - its quite something and helps a hoarder of NYorkers like me in my biannual clear up of them ... 52 is one thing but two to three years does add up. i once kept them for over 10 years and the stack was taller than me (this was before digital access). now i have a clearing out session where i tear off the covers (someday i will paper some room with them).

    glad to hear that a young doctor pays attention to your current medication and takes that in to consideration in his diagnosis. hope the side effects wear off soon!

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  5. Sounds like a good doctor. The story was not scary creepy, I just found it creepy. You can read and decide for yourself. It had the Pope making snow angels on the cover. I think it was called the Christmas Miracle. Oddly, I have read Persuasion several times without moving on to Mansfield Park. I quite liked the film version of Persuasion, as well. Ciaran Hinds is Captain Wentworth.

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  6. So glad to hear you received positive medical news. Hope you feel much better soon!

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  7. Anonymous2:22 PM

    The New Yorker with Pope Francis as snow angel on the cover is the 23 & 30 December 2013 issue; the story is Rebecca Martin, ‘The Christmas Miracle’.
    Seconds to the digital access of The New Yorker. It does not mean I do not have a couple years stacked (spilling over everywhere!) waiting for me to sort through them and rip out the things I keep (some covers, some cartoons, some great articles; anything written by Alex Ross, their classical music critic who is very good and very smart even if his musical tastes are not the same as mine; usually anything by Adam Gopnik, too; and so on.)
    Hope the new doctor‘s advice is just the ticket.
    cheers!

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  8. I had no problems with osteoporosis pills for years. I got a new doctor, who took me off them, saying that taking them more than 5 years has no benefit.

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  9. Anonymous5:14 PM

    Persuasion is my own favorite of Austen's novels, so I'm glad to hear that you're enjoying.

    Good news on the medical front, then. Lorraine's comment above re osteoporosis meds is interesting, too.
    -- stashdragon

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  10. Anonymous6:00 PM

    Jean, I'm happy to hear that your doctor visit went well. My doctor took me off of the same pill several years ago, even though I had had no adverse reaction to it after 6 years. She said that one should not take that pill for more than 5 years, but I don't remember the exact reason why. Out of curiosity, I'll try to remember to ask her the next time I have an appointment.

    Mary G. in Texas

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  11. So glad that you are feeling brighter in yourself. I'm constantly amazed by the "Repeat prescription" phenomenon, with no active system for reviewing the effects.

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  12. Glad your appt went well--I do hope the doctor is right. Happy that you're enjoying Persuasion. It has my favorite bit of dialogue of any Austen in which Anne, speaking with a male character, is debating whether men or women love more intensely.

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