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Beautiful but horrible, long day

As part of Museum Day (free admission offered for participating museums as part of a Smithsonian event), I drove to Vero Beach to McKee Botanical Gardens. It's a small, historical garden know mostly for it's water lilies. 

 

 

Then a lovely day out went downhilll.

 

Background: I had borrowed my father's car because I didn't want to drive 3 hours round trip in a car with a wonky A/C.  I had called Dad, who was out of town for the week, and he said that his car would be fine for the trip.

 

When I went to leave the car won't start. I called AAA for them to send a tow truck and learned that I only get the first 5 miles of towing free and it's $5 a mile after that. The repair shop they tell me to go to is 13 miles away and my home is 85 miles away.  I called Hertz with the AAA emergency discount number to get a rental car and learn all the area Hertz rental places closed 2 hours earlier. It was almost closing time at the gardens and one lady (who's name I didn't catch) patiently waited for me to leave. The tow truck showed up 20 minutes late which would also be 25 minutes after closing time for the gardens. Tow truck driver, Chris, a very nice guy, had no idea who or where the repair place AAA told me about it but the place he's affiliated with was only 3 miles away. I handed him my keys and say, go for it.

 

After talking to him and the garden lady, they think Enterprise is just down the street and doesn't close for a half hour. She unlocked the gift shop so we could call Enterprise when Chris walked in and said he has it running but doesn't think it will start again if it's turned off. I choose to drive it back home and stick to US1 instead of trusting it on I95. I have to drive the hour and a half back never taking my foot off the gas pedal so at every stop light I have the left foot jammed on the brake while revving the engine with the right. There are a lot of fucking stop lights on US1. I make it home ok though. I was sweaty, exhausted, dehydrated and hungry. The chicken I had put in the fridge to thaw hadn't. Dinner ended up being sauteed frozen perogies.

 

If I didn't know others who had also had a bad week (and yes, other things went wrong for me earlier in the week), I would have thought I was cursed or something.  I can only hope this week is better though I hasn't started off that way.  Today was truly a Monday.

A Woozy Type Jab

I went for my lesson in giving myself injections several weeks ago (yes, I've been too busy to post) at the doctor's office.  It went well while I was there. I did ask the nurse if I would stop getting nauseated about the needle at some point and she assured me I would.  They gave me a prescription for the smallest needles which helps somewhat. It will be 1 shot a day for 3 days and then 1 shot every 2 weeks.  I'll have the test re-done the day before the second 2 week shot.  If my levels are good, it's 1 shot a month for the probably the rest of my life.

I did the second shot the following morning after my shower and things didn't go as smoothly as they did with the nurse watching.  I had the reaction to the needle I had been fearing before the lesson.  It's annoying because I wasn't expecting it, but I got lightheaded, nauseated, and broke out in a cold sweat.  I managed to finish the injection before I had to put my head between my knees.  Once I caught my breath, I laid down for a little bit.

For the third morning shot, I got up earlier, and did the shot while sitting on the bed so I could lie back down right afterwards.  It went better.  Kind of.  I didn't almost pass out.  I did still get nauseated and lightheaded though.

For the first two week shot, I was back on days at that point and knew I wouldn't be coherent enough in the morning to do the shot then so I waited until after work.  That turned out to make a difference.  I got a little nauseated but was fine other than that.  Having Destination Truth on as a distraction also helped. It was the episode where Allison Scagliotti from Warehouse 13 was helping with the investigation.

The day before the 4 week shot I had my blood drawn to have my levels checked.  The shot the next day went very well. I followed the advice of one of the education professors at work. She said to lightly tap the needle where you're going to do the shot.  If you feel a prick from it, tap a spot close by.  When you hit a spot where you can't/barely feel it then press the needle in. (I wipe a large area of my thigh down with gauze soaked in rubbing alcohol so I'm not worried about contamination.) I didn't even get nauseated though I still had to talk myself up.

Last week, the day of my next shot (at 6 weeks), I had an appointment to learn what my new B12 and Folate levels were.  Folate went from 3.4 to 14 so I'm good there and just have to keep taking the one pill a day for that.  My B12 levels went from 173 to 301 which is a nice jump.  According to my doctor though, with anything under 400, you're risking nerve damage. Heh.  Yea, me.  I will get to keep taking the shots every other week and she upped my dose to 1.5 mL (cc). She had to prescribe new needles for me because the first set are for 1 mL only and I'm not doing 2 shots at a time.

Then came the problem with that night's shot.  I hadn't picked up the new needles yet. I had decided to do a 1 mL shot that night and then a .5 mL shot the next day.  The caps on the small needles are a pain to remove.  I was trying to pop it off without also dislodging the needle from the syringe.  As I worked it loose, it came off very suddenly.  You know how it goes when you're struggling to pull off a cap?  When it all of a sudden comes off, your hand jerks out and then back.  Yes.  That's what happened.  I ended up with a puncture-slit in my right middle finger and a bent needle.  I put the cap back on it, wiped up the blood and decided to try again the next day with the larger needles. 

Random aside, does anyone else have the problem that when they have a bandaid on the end of a finger they tend to hold it away from whatever they are holding? Picture doing this while holding a glass and then raising the glass to take a drink.  I've been inadvertently flipping people the bird for a few days now.  I find it funny at least.

Regarding the new 3 mL needles, it's easy to take the cap off but they're a pain to fill and get all the bubbles out. They're also longer.  Still the shot went fairly well. 

We'll see how the blood work goes in 2 months.