Happy birthday, Pix and Maria!

vw, all fingers and toes crossed.

So much less-stress~ma and more joyful, healthy pregnancy~ma to you and your DH, vw. It's wonderful to see your font, here or on FB.

Pix & Drew, I am so glad that the loan went through. What a relief for you!

All ~ma, vw.

vw, that's exciting! I'm sorry it's stressful and scary right now. All my good vibes to you for a supremely healthy baby.

ION, I'm having an allergic reaction to one of the drugs for my sinus infection, and the problem is that I don't know which one. The NP gave me prednisone, which has never caused a problem before, BUT I have had an allergic reaction to other steroids (consider the irony of having an allergic reaction to something that's supposed to STOP an inflammatory reaction). So it could be that I'm reacting to the prednisone because it's in the same family.

But it could be the antibiotic, which would piss me off SO HARD, because I'm already allergic to a lot of antibiotics and it scares me a little to think how narrow my options are getting if I ever have a badass infection.

So I stopped the steroid this morning and took one more dose of the antibiotic (because I thought, at first, that the reaction was to the steroid; therefore the antibiotic would be "safe"). And now I'm loaded up on Benadryl and tired, itchy, and annoyed. (I seriously might take a third Benadryl; I am THAT itchy. No breathing problems, though, or anything else potentially life-threatening.)

Why so messed-up, body? Drugs are supposed to HELP you! Play nice with them!

Wow vw, congrats and also loads of ~ma for a safe and healthy pregnancy. I'm so glad to hear your OB is great. Makes such a difference.

Ugh Steph, that's such a bummer. I hope the benedryl does its job and the reaction clears up quickly.

It's just frustrating, because I feel like such a delicate flower, being progressively allergic to everything. Grumble. And itch.

{{{{VW}}}}

We'll be pulling for you.

I'm still not over the fact that allergies can appear at any time. It's a betrayal, I tell you. Then again, so is turning 40. I shudder to think what my 50s will bring.

Speaking of our bodies betraying us, I am beginning to develop an irrational/somewhat founded fear that I'm carrying some gene that predisposes me to cancer, and so I'm tempted to go on one of those radical anti-cancer diets, like a short term fast or a cleanse or cutting all sugars & carbs. There's a growing body of evidence that dietary interventions can help (but better for preventive care than treatment), but it also sounds kind of crazy to me. Also, the diets that appear to work are pretty radical in terms of their restrictions. I mean fasting for goodness sake! How long could I possibly endure a fast?!

Burrell, I tell you what, being a medical editor scares the crap out of me at least once a day. Because I edit an article about something horrific and think, "Holy crap, I could be developing that RIGHT NOW and I don't even know it!"

But on a more probable level, all the heart disease in my dad's family is a looming specter that I've decided to ignore, because it's always there, and if I thought about it too much, I would obsess over it. And the damn medical evidence has changed so radically in the past 20 years about what dietary factors contribute to heart disease that it feels like a sucker's game to try to change my diet to prevent that first heart attack.

Not to mention all the addiction in my family. For some reason, knowing that Phillip Seymour Hoffman was clean for 23 years and then fell off the wagon makes me think, well Jesus, so far I'm the only member of my nuclear family who hasn't become an alcoholic, which means my odds of becoming one are astronomical.

And then there's the fact that people who do everything "right" still get heart disease and cancer and other random awfulness, while people who do everything "wrong" live long lives with few problems.

Some days, it feels like, well, I'm doing what I can (although I should eat more veggies), and that's fine, I'm at peace with that. And other days I feel like I am so eternally fucked.