lady_schrapnell (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
lady_schrapnell) wrote2007-04-23 10:15 pm
lady_schrapnell) wrote2007-04-23 10:15 pm
A little of Column A, a little of Column B
But not with columns. I've got nothing like the ability to do columns...
So, already confused if that A is for Awesome or Awful, and B for Brilliant or Badbadbad...
- I had a cyst under my arm about two years ago, which happened to get infected just when I was at the dermatologist for a somewhat dodgy thing on my face. (Good timing.) Had it removed - a very minor proceedure that turned more unpleasant than I'd expected (or even than the consultant had expected).
It came back - almost before it had healed, but sat there innocuously until Saturday morning, when it was suddenly tender. Much more tender Sunday, so remembering that the doc had said they can get really nasty quite quickly, I went to after-hours service instead of waiting till today. Now on antibiotic, still with very tender arm-pit, and looking at another removal. Yay. (All in the Awful or Bad column, and that 'yay' is sarcastic.)
I now have not only an appointment with the consultant, but one with the dentist. The little bit from column whatever about the latter is that when I (literally) lose sleep over that, I can at least say that I've conquered my phobia enough to make the damn appointment. And maybe I'll find drugs before then.
Anyway, while in Dun Laoghaire for a perfectly legitimate medical visit, I mosied on down to the local bookshop, fingers crossed that the Catherine Fisher (not officially released until 2 May, remember) just might be there, and it was! Oh yes. While I was there, I fell to Percy Jackson & the Titan's Curse as well, which I'd had in my hand and put back last time in a Dun Laoghaire bookshop... This was All Good: new Catherine Fisher, before I'd real hope of getting it and I had no guilt about a trip into town to look for it. Only a little guilt for purchasing the Percy Jackson, which I could have waited for. But, hey - got to support those writers!
Felt really quite ill by the time I got home, which provided a good excuse for lying down for an hour and starting Incarceron. And it's really good so far! I'm so not going to get into a lengthy discussion of the boundaries between science fiction and fantasy, but this is one of the CFs which plays interestingly with them, wherever one decides they are. For now, I'm thinking science fiction with a rather fantasy sensibility, but it could easily change.
It's alternating chapters, with initially unassociated characters, whose connection is becoming increasingly obvious, and I had great fun with this: imagine a book which did this - dropped hints so the playing-along reader was spotting the increasingly strong connection between the two disparate stories, and then at the end - they turned out to be a totally random set of characters and events! Well, it amused me (and even O.D., who kept saying 'I'm losing interest.... I'm really losing interest.' Until I told her the random bit, which she did like).
And in the All Good (except for the finger-crossing): MotherReader has announced the Second Annual 48 Hour Book Challenge. If I were a sensible, rational sort, I'd say that my last year's experience (then 82-year-old mother just home from the States, where she'd had a Heart Event - of the probably Attack sort - came down with a violent stomach bug the Friday night of the weekend, requiring nursing, and then I got it from her) would guarantee nothing could go wrong this year.... Yup. I'm not that type at all, so I'll say that fingers crossed, touching wood and definitely doing the Witchy Dance for Luck, I'm in. Unless something comes up. Oooh - at least I can have good clean anticipatory fun with the mental stock-piling of books for the Challenge...
So, already confused if that A is for Awesome or Awful, and B for Brilliant or Badbadbad...
- I had a cyst under my arm about two years ago, which happened to get infected just when I was at the dermatologist for a somewhat dodgy thing on my face. (Good timing.) Had it removed - a very minor proceedure that turned more unpleasant than I'd expected (or even than the consultant had expected).
It came back - almost before it had healed, but sat there innocuously until Saturday morning, when it was suddenly tender. Much more tender Sunday, so remembering that the doc had said they can get really nasty quite quickly, I went to after-hours service instead of waiting till today. Now on antibiotic, still with very tender arm-pit, and looking at another removal. Yay. (All in the Awful or Bad column, and that 'yay' is sarcastic.)
I now have not only an appointment with the consultant, but one with the dentist. The little bit from column whatever about the latter is that when I (literally) lose sleep over that, I can at least say that I've conquered my phobia enough to make the damn appointment. And maybe I'll find drugs before then.
Anyway, while in Dun Laoghaire for a perfectly legitimate medical visit, I mosied on down to the local bookshop, fingers crossed that the Catherine Fisher (not officially released until 2 May, remember) just might be there, and it was! Oh yes. While I was there, I fell to Percy Jackson & the Titan's Curse as well, which I'd had in my hand and put back last time in a Dun Laoghaire bookshop... This was All Good: new Catherine Fisher, before I'd real hope of getting it and I had no guilt about a trip into town to look for it. Only a little guilt for purchasing the Percy Jackson, which I could have waited for. But, hey - got to support those writers!
Felt really quite ill by the time I got home, which provided a good excuse for lying down for an hour and starting Incarceron. And it's really good so far! I'm so not going to get into a lengthy discussion of the boundaries between science fiction and fantasy, but this is one of the CFs which plays interestingly with them, wherever one decides they are. For now, I'm thinking science fiction with a rather fantasy sensibility, but it could easily change.
It's alternating chapters, with initially unassociated characters, whose connection is becoming increasingly obvious, and I had great fun with this: imagine a book which did this - dropped hints so the playing-along reader was spotting the increasingly strong connection between the two disparate stories, and then at the end - they turned out to be a totally random set of characters and events! Well, it amused me (and even O.D., who kept saying 'I'm losing interest.... I'm really losing interest.' Until I told her the random bit, which she did like).
And in the All Good (except for the finger-crossing): MotherReader has announced the Second Annual 48 Hour Book Challenge. If I were a sensible, rational sort, I'd say that my last year's experience (then 82-year-old mother just home from the States, where she'd had a Heart Event - of the probably Attack sort - came down with a violent stomach bug the Friday night of the weekend, requiring nursing, and then I got it from her) would guarantee nothing could go wrong this year.... Yup. I'm not that type at all, so I'll say that fingers crossed, touching wood and definitely doing the Witchy Dance for Luck, I'm in. Unless something comes up. Oooh - at least I can have good clean anticipatory fun with the mental stock-piling of books for the Challenge...
no subject
I'm SO jealous that you have both the new Catherine Fisher and the new Rick Riordan. I might just sulk ! (*grins*) I'm bugging the library for them both !
Michele
http://scholar-blog.blogspot.com/
no subject
I'd feel guilty about my acquisitions except that you'll probably still have both read and written up before I finish Incarceron. :) But let me know if your library doesn't co-operate.
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I don't know about that - the library takes weeks (months often) to get new books. They've got a record for "Titan's Curse" - but no copies are on order - so I shall have to prod them for that. And not even a record for "Incarceron" - so I suspect it'll be June at least, before I see either one... *sigh*
Michele
http://scholar-blog.blogspot.com/
no subject
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And it might not be June - but given how long they took to get The Fledging of Az Gabrielson, I don't hold out high hopes for them having either Fisher or Riordan much before June ! If I could borrow Incarceron, that'd be terrific. I'll still put in a request to the library for them to buy a copy, though - they should be happy to buy it, they've got everything else of hers so far...
Michele
http://scholar-blog.blogspot.com/
no subject
Incarceration OTOH sounds great, though I got to say finishing a book is sounding like an imposing chore almost to me ( much less finishing it in 48 hours). It has happened before, I will go back to addicition soon, but it probably means a change of tastes or book infatuations...
no subject
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(Anonymous) 2007-04-24 05:56 pm (UTC)(link)no subject
drugses
dunno what drugs you actually meant, but over the border in the UK, Boots and other chemists cheerfully
sell various lidocaine/benzocaine gel packs (The Oragel brand 20% benzocaine is the most powerful - and
expensive, at over a fiver).
but please don't just keep numbing your tooth nerves until your jaw rots off: do see a dentist, even if you cheat
and risk nasty interactions by numbing your toothypegs before the dentist gets out the long needle. Also, be sure
of whether you want adrenaline in that needle or just the anaesthetic - who ever thought it would be an idea to
dose probably nervous patients with adrenaline in their dose?
Re: drugses
Re: drugses
I don't know which tranquilliser your daughter was considering (there are various temporary paralysers and
locals also used in eye surgery, because it is delicate work and the eyelashes are, well, hair triggers), but
the pre-med promethazine should work for you. It's an H1 receptor antagonist used to calm children before
surgery, and the reason it's not used in adults is that it can cause spectacular hallucinations when combined
with alcohol. It can be bought over the counter in the UK, and is frequently abused with alcohol or by codeine
junkies. It has some antipsychotic effect (classed as approx a tenth the effect of chlorpromazine, FWIW), but is
mainly an anti-cholinergic (reduces CNS/ peripheral nerve effects mediated by acetylcholine) and is an efficacious
sedative in the hypnotic class. [It is also useful aganst nausea resulting from seasickness or use of narcotics]
There are drugs which can be given after traumatic events to disrupt the formation of powerful memories, but
I'm not the expert on PTSD and prophylactic or later treatments - I could ask a friend who specialises in that
field.
I'm sure you could avoid the booze! The local anaesthetics come as gels rather than pastes. "Gel pack" sounds
like something on the good spaceship _Voyager_ or those things you put in your foot-hurting high-heel party shoes - I apologise for poor phrasing (repeated "dose" as well: must post less in the later hours. Ahem).
Dr Barry Cockcroft has this week banned re-use of files and reamers in UK root canal treatment (autoclaving
doesn't deal with vCJD), which makes it even more expensive. There is almost no vCJD epidemiologically
speaking, but rogue prions are hard to destroy, so the blood service and the remnants of the dental service are
being handed very strict rules, on the Precautionary Principle.