... more like Arm Leg Mouth for Nev
... ... and Mons Butt between-Toes for Nova
yup, that's right, the stupid coxsackie virus has struck this household again.
Mommy hasn't had a day off to herself for 12 days and counting since one got hit, then the other, and while the pediatrician's stand is they aren't contagious once the fever is gone for 24 hours, daycare insists they do not return until all blisters are at least scabbed over. So once Nev was daycarable, Nova wasn't.
Wheee!
(attached pic: Nev looking so miserable last week)
Sorry for the blog(s) silence... I'm battling my what seems to be kinda seasonal attack of the hives... We have yet to find ourselves an internist / main doc let alone an allergist, so I'm just using what worked in the past, but doesn't seem to be doing much right now, hence this post's title.
This was me about 2 weeks ago: just call me Lynne Dax??!* * that's a ST:DS9 reference, in case you didn't get it
I have attacks on different parts of the body, depending on the phase of the moon or something. Occasionally I wake up with one finger or the other swollen such that I can't quite make a closed fist without discomfort. Or over the course of the day my belly, or back, or inner thighs, get covered in welts that of course get angry as I scratch at them...
.. I thought I had found a temporary solution: we all know that calamine lotion is the go-to anti-itch lotion, but I really didn't want to deal with the chalky flakiness. Then my sil introduced me to this clear anti-itch gel that functions like calamine lotion, but goes on clear. Its main active ingredient is 1% analgesic, so it gently numbs you just a wee bit... worked well for me when we were visiting with her last week. So well, that before heading back to Springfield, we got a bottle of the stuff for ourselves.
Turns out that there's generic, and then there's generic.
My sil had the Safeway brand generic (from Dominick's, if I'm not mistaken); we happened to drop by a Jewel-Osco and got their Equaline equivalent. The 'original' branded product is Caladryl Anti-Itch Lotion.
Guess who seems to be reacting to the Equaline product??!!
*sigh*
but again in an inconsistent manner... I slathered some on the instep of one foot and on a forearm but there wasn't a noticeable reaction... but for example this morning I slathered some on my belly and in the underwear region and omg you should see it now! Or rather, be glad I didn't snap a pic.
Tuesday afternoon, Kosh and I hopped in the car and were out of town for about 24hours. Upon waking up yesterday, my hives and itches were practically non-existent!
That's pretty telling: whatever that was triggering the outbreak, it's something(s) I'm exposed to in Chicago / the apartment.
Can't say it's just the new place tho, because the flare-up started in mid-June, while we were still in the previous apartment. So it's something we brought with the move (dust! old cushions, pillows, mattress?); or perhaps something in the Chicago air that's been at a higher than normal level since mid-June?
Something to discuss with the allergist, definitely.
Anyways.. I'm continuing with the pills regimen that previously was struggling to clamp down on the outbreak: hopefully it'll now be able to keep any outbreaks at bay. I have noticed one or two new hives appearing today.
Depending on incline and speed, I take between 52 and 60 steps in 30 seconds while on the treadmill. I usually do 30mins, which brings my total steps to 3120 - 3600 steps for every gym session.
Today, in addition to the above (*gasp!!* yes we actually hit the gym today!!), Kosh and I spent about one hour walking this evening.
The "excuse": reduce the turnaround time of Netflix DVDs by dropping them off at the 9pm pick-up Post Office, resulting in their arrival at the DVD facility tomorrow, resulting in next-in-queue DVDs also getting sent out tomorrow, resulting in their arrival in our mailbox on Thursday! [Yes, sometimes we really want to squeeze our money's worth out of Netflix, can you tell?? LoL!]
Unfortunately, today is NOT normal :( I do not foresee us putting in this amount of walk time every day: we don't have THAT many Netflix DVDs to return, ... I wouldn't want to have that as a regular route, me being paranoid and all ... and we're bored with walking around this neighbourhood ...
We do need to up our activity level, though.
The weather was so crummy over the past few days (they blame Hurricane Ike), all cold and rainy, all I wanted to do was curl up with a good book *and* gorge on comfort food! It's just September!!! It's not even winter yet!!! Aaaarrgghhh!!!
*sigh!*
And while I wouldn't want to get all too hung up on the number "10,000", [I raise questions about quality vs. quantity], this is as good a target as any to strive for while getting other stuff into gear.
My thanks to Doris who prompted me to start thinking about how may steps we take in a day, which is another way of getting a handle on our level of (in-)activity.
I'm seriously considering getting us a pedometer each for our anniversary.
And since I've alredy discussed this with Kosh, and it's from me to us, this gift would NOT AT ALL be in the spirit of "Happy Anniversary I bought you a treadmill!" [see vid for what I'm referring to, at about 1m 30s - give the whole thing a spin tho, it's 2min short, and funny!]
