C.J. Cherryh's Blog, page 56

The steroid’s kind of kicking in—way painful last night…overdid it…but..

Today I’m down to one Advil, being cautious, but not having pain. I was clear-headed enough to actually gather up my notes and write the opening paragraphs of the next book.

I ought to get out there and wash out some pond filters–but that might be pushing it.

Way better than Sunday, I’ll tell you!

Went to the doc and the news is better than feared…

What I managed to do is aggravate the knee mightily…first annoyed it in one direction, in a mistep, then the other, in a subsequent near fall two days later, and x-rays are duly taken and made clear. Probably a good thing I got rid of the old Reebok sandals that allowed the ankle to pitch in—the cartilage is wearing on that side. Now I am resting weight in a better way, with orthotic shoes and sandals. But the tendons were strained in the first sprain, then reinjured, and I have fluid where fluid doesn’t belong, in the bursas (small pockets) that attend the several tendons, as best I get it. So tendons are not torn from their attachments, but they (and nerves) are being pressed upon by a lot of swelling and fluid retention. This creates the pain. I also have a little arthritis, but nothing serious. The short-term cure? Ice, Nsaids, exercises, and today a nice shot into the cavity of the knee to try to move out the fluid. Nice long needle, but it sounds much worse than it was: microfine needles don’t really hurt. Well, not until they get where they’re going—then the sky kind of lights up purple for a couple of seconds, but it’s more pyrotechnics than pain.

Anyway, when you have that kind of thing done you get a bit of an adrenaline buzz, so I’m not worth much today, but the pain is lessened (ice and the numbing portion of the shot) and they say a couple of weeks more and this should be all better.

Thanks to those who’ve expressed concern. I think we’re onto it and it doesn’t look like surgery unless I do something massively stupid.

Shejicon I hope was a success: wish everybody a safe trip…

Had a quiet good time. Thank you for the wonderful gift. I know many contributed who weren’t able to be there. I’m so happy to have it. It’s going to have a place of honor in ultimate arranging. And thank you all, those who could attend and those who couldn’t make it. We’ll do this again sometime, if interest is there.

Jane got the drapes finished….they’re really spiff.

And Seishi is feeling better. Still not asking him to eat regular food, but he’s certainly not seeming out of sorts.

Took Seishi back to the vet.

Diagnosis: tonsilitis. Why, except it’s allergy season, I have no idea. But I could tell the point at which he starts to gag on kibble is pretty well the point at which the food reaches the back of his jaw. So they x-rayed him for stray string or sewing needles—a possibility in this house—and negative on that. The tonsils, however—merited an injected antibiotic, and some painkiller I can give him via needle-less syringe every 12 hours.

He’s already feeling much better, doing his usual head-butting of my computer screen, and acting happy. Shu is hissing and spitting at him because he smells like the hospital.

My own leg got through last night’s climbing up and down the boat stairs to the top (I will eat out on the deck even when it’s raining, but the rain held off, and we had a lovely party…managed to coordinate Tim & Cheryl, Randy & Char, all of local fandom, and Patty & Mike Briggs, all on the same sailing, all made it through traffic —we squeaked in last!—and stuffed ourselves. Really good feed, and one dinner in which there’s not one single dish with onion! But I had to go upstairs and down with food and drink, and I was really stiff — didn’t sleep much because I knew I had to get Seishi in at 8:15 and I was afraid to take a pain med lest I oversleep.

And I was worried, of course, about Seishi. It was raining—at least it missed the party last night. And of course by the time I brought Seishi back, the sprinkler system was going, and soaked me—he was in his carrier.

But over all, not so bad a thing.

Doing the birthday thing today—haven’t done a lick of actual work…

…except helping Jane with the drapes. Which she’s freehanding. WHich are going to look good.

Headed out for free birthday steak at the Swinging Door.

Maybe dessert.

had a kitteh scare…

Seishi had a real 24 hour bout with nausea. This being (of course) Saturday we had to hale him forthwith into the vet’s before closing (at noon) and get him checked out. They think it’s just hairballs, and just shot him full of kitteh Exlax and fluids and sent him home. We’re going to be keeping an eye on him. He’s 3 years old and has a bad habit of scarfing down anything remotely resembling string, which is a very bad kitteh habit.

I was up half the night with the poor lad. Now he’s not real happy, but the vet says he has no fever, no sign of any blockage, just, we think, a real unhappy gut.

Arrrgh.

I am in love with this garden clipper…

Hands can get quite sore coping with shears and vines and bushes.

Got this lovely little Mantis grass and shrub trimmer, qv, which powers up a battery, then handily uses a back and forth action to make good cuts on branches up to a quarter inch.

Oh, have we got work for this one!

Bardarbunga is apparently sending an outrunner of magma over to a neighbor…

The linkAnd melting the ice over it.

It comes down to ‘nobody knows what will happen.’

But it is now pretty well officially erupting.

After the rock setup, under actinics only: This is how ...

After the rock setup, under actinics only:

This is how the tank is for an hour before main lights come on and an hour after they go off: this is actinic (blue) light, which is high-energy light that penetrates deep. The fish have headed for their nooks in the rocks.