Candor Creek

Ayyyyyy, mast cells, lmaoooooo Writing posts about symptoms I experience as a result of wonky mast cells (or any of my health issues, really) is still a little weird for me. They're not often shared by others, so it's not really something I post to commiserate about - and I'm constantly worried about being perceived as an attention whore or a pity monger. In the end, though, I take the pictures for my records anyway (which is a great thing to do if you have chronic health concerns and are fortunate enough to have external indicators) and I guess I feel that I have just as much a right to share them as someone else would with a selfie of them and their friends at a dinner or a picture of someone's cute baby. Dinners and babies are someone else's life. Symptoms are mine. I'm actually kind of excited because I found the pattern for this one: predictably, regardless of soaps or weather I get cracking, thickening, swelling, itching, stinging skin on both hand...

My goal today was to make him smile. Storm, as old men tend to do, has been having a bout of just not feeling good lately. I am certain that it's a pain management issue; his behavior matches that of what he exhibited just before going on his latest pain/nerve medication. He has a fairly extensive vet appointment on Wednesday (checkup, bloodwork plus thyroid panel, dental cleaning, benign gum tumor removals) that will most likely result in an incease in these meds, and it can't come too soon as far as I'm concerned. I hate seeing him in pain. He's never been a healthy boy anyway, but as he's gotten older his rough patches tend to leave him in a heap on our floor, life force drained, with this terrible look on his face. That expression will absolutely always carve holes in my chest. It actually haunts me at night. ...so maybe that's why somewhere in my current mania I decided that I needed to drop everything and give Storm a Really Good Day. Between both o...

This is what my kitchen CAN look like. My aging dog has been sick for a few days, which can lead to some late nights for me. We're close to the end of this episode, but I decided to give him another dose of the mix he needs to purge the badness from his system. I planned to stay up with him (rather than berate myself for terrible sleep habits as I normally do) so I'm doing dishes and laundry at 4AM in between taking him outside so that he'll expell the evil in his system outdoors rather than in the apartment. I am still hoping to tackle at least part of the living room. I wanted to have guests over for the Packer games this season but right now the living room is an atrocious mess, wholly unfit for visitors. Thursday is the Packers/Bears game, though, and I'm kinda tempted to give up and move what I haven't neatened up to the bedroom just to have people over. I'm holding myself to a standard ("you didn't keep house correctly the first time, you...

Me, on a three hour drive, making a pit stop in an attempt to wake myself up. I have a lot of reasons to be tired, exhausted, or sleepy most or all the time - enough, in fact, to be able to tell you the differences between the three descriptors. They are not interchangeable in my world. The symptom is hypersomnolence (too much sleepiness) and it can be a side effect of seasonal allergies, Mast Cell Activation Syndrome, bipolar disorder, and several of the medications I take. In addition, it is tiring for a body to have to carry out any semblance of a daily routine while also shouldering several chronic health issues. Finally, someone as introverted as I am gets tired out quickly in social situations. If I'm honest my life is generally one great big exhausted struggle with rest and sleep. By far the activity that is most affected by this is my driving. Sure, I can fake it around town if it's a short trip, but I have cancelled activities with people due to being ...

...and this is just the beginning. Autumn, bitchessssss. ...and all yall haters, pumpkin spice shamers, and people who chuckle condescendingly when a white girl in a seasonally-colored sweater smiles at the falling leaves can go suck a big one. This autumn-loving white woman has been pretty severely ill for the past two autumns - multiple-ER trip, bed ridden, windows sealed, life-changingly ill - and I've missed the cooler weather and the colors. My soul needs the extra time baking in the kitchen. Autumn used to be my peak geocaching season, and I loved everything about wandering around in the woods, finding rocks and taking pictures of leaves, even if I never made the find. This year I've been learning how to navagate life with the MCAS diagnosis and its various sensitivities. Thanks to wearing my UV-blocking clothing in and out of doors along with increased use of my mask outside I've so far been able to stay out of an emergency zone for the entire month of Sep...

A homeowner's declaration during Hurricane Katrina. Image from here . I live streamed Hurricane Harvey coverage nearly all day today. I couldn't help it - I'm a weather nerd anyway, but I also have some pretty distinct memories of Hurricane Katrina and I found myself instantly transported backwards about twelve years after tuning in.  ABC 13 out of Houston is doing a fantastic job of getting information and resources out to their community and of showing those of us in other parts of the country exactly what is going on down there. As I watched interview upon interview with people just pulled out of their homes it became frighteningly clear that we were dealing with another Katrina. There was one shockingly clear difference in the interviews this time around, however. Once in a while - and increasingly - a dog's bark would split the air or the camera would pan on people cradling their pets. Animals were part of the developing story. Many of those rescued...