Turns out, you’re never too old to make a new friend! According to Siri who can’t seem to translate it correctly, my new friend’s name is Ana Histamine. I’m spending a lot of time with her lately…Three times a day, at least! The lovely nurse even told me, “When you are with Ana, you can’t operate heavy machinery, you should work from home, and <my favorite> do not take care of small children.” Did you hear this?? Ana is giving me a VACATION from my life! Unfortunately, I explained to her, I am much too busy for a vacation right now, but I did appreciate her valiant efforts in trying to get me to slow down! Truth be told, the only side effects I feel with Ana is that I’m sleepy or that my brain is in a complete fog. Ugh.
So yes, I’ll spare you the details of my mystery skin situation, but a quick summary is that I’ve had another cellulitis attack last month followed by a few weeks of unexplained hives and itchiness. I’ve never had allergies in the past, so it’s all very perplexing, and well, very itchy, and uncomfortable as well (and don’t think I haven’t searched up photos of Monkey Pox!). I’m back on a few medications and while at parkrun yesterday, scoffed at the deer fly who chomped down on my tasty ankles (yes, covered in bug spray!) and yelled, “The joke is on you! I’m already on meds! Ha!” But nonetheless, the scene did make me hustle to my car for my bite/allergy stick… What can I say, bugs love me!
This morning my daughter asked, “Mom, are you still writing your blog?” When I told her I hadn’t in a long time, she said, “Well you should!” But I really have been enjoying my weekends and spending some fun time with the family, getting time on the golf course, tending to oodles of foster kittens, and taking a few weekend trips away. We are also having the upstairs flooring replaced which meant a few weekends dedicated to spring cleaning. It also means my house is a dusty disaster, another thing I’m sure isn’t helping my allergy situation. I even signed up on Duolingo to learn Spanish and now know the meaning behind words like ‘manzana’ or can say things like ¿Donde esta el museo?” Very handy, right? Honestly, phrases like, “Me pica” or “¿Donde esta la Benadryl?” would better serve me right now. It’s a fun, easy app on the phone, and rather than spending time mindlessly scrolling through social media, I now give my brain something new to learn instead.
As far as my running adventures, I had been doing well up until a painful shin splint last month. I thought I had fallen into the ‘When one thing gets better, another thing gets worse’ running club but I recovered nicely from some simple recommendations from my podiatrist friend and was on my way to doing nice solid runs until my skin flare up. Sadly, I had to put running on the back burner with only a few very short runs for a bit but I threw caution to the wind and went for a run this morning. It was my first run back since the sad story of Eliza Fletcher, the woman runner found murdered in Memphis. I spent a lot of my time thinking about her and my other woman friends and my children, her children…the world can be a scary, sad place.
I have to say, with everything going on, I was not in the mood to run but surprised myself with a decent pace for a hot morning and even went a little bit further than I thought I was going to be able to pull off. I did make a terrible mistake and had taken my medication before I left without thinking (you know, the one that says I may become dizzy) and on the last little part of my run I realized I felt like I could fall over at any moment. Damn you, Ana! Luckily, I was right outside my house and came in for some breakfast and felt better shortly after.
Today I was scheduled to have a quiet day with Ana, but seems like once again, my plans changed!
Ce la vie! Wait, that’s French…
Have a beautiful day, Friends!
