Work and Sleep and Not Feeling Well: Day 8

Yeah, this isn't happening.

After a week of being in a cat-ified environment, I can no longer handle my allergies.

I slept most of the day today, from 1:30am-5:30am, then 9:30am-7:15pm.

My face feels like it's going to freaking explode. I've had "Wal-dryl" (generic Benedryl), Advil, Advil Cold & Sinus... Absolutely nothing is helping me beat this.

As a result, I've been sluggish, in pain, and tired. I don't have time to write blog posts, and even when I do, it's not like I have anything to talk about. I just haven't been working as much as I should.

Guess I'll just share what I've managed to get done these past few days.

Woof?

I managed to work a little more on the pit bull. He now has eyes and ears, so I baked him (successfully) to preserve the work I've done so far. He still needs his face worked on since his muzzle isn't where I want it to be.

Bracelets, oh my!

I've also been beading a little bit in front of the TV. I feel like I need a lot more concentration and focus for sculpting, and since I've been feeling so crappy, I've just been trying to do what I can.

The plastic white pony beads are actually UV beads, which will show color when put in sunlight.

The army grows...

The top left UV beads are blue, top right UV beads are purple, bottom left UV beads are orange, and bottom right UV beads are purple/yellow/purple.

I'm going to try my best to do what I can while I'm here, but it's apparent that I can't be around cats... and Jon's house is contaminated with kitty allergens.

Bah, life never gets easy, does it?

Work and Play on Vacay: Day 3

I'm a day late with this blog entry, but for good reason... I had a pretty craptacular morning and afternoon.

My hormones tend to get messed up since I'm still adjusting to my switch from Mirena to Nuvaring as control for my anemia, so I ended up being super tired and sleeping late. Jon kept trying to wake me up and I kept asking for more sleep time. It wasn't until 5pm, when he came back with a Rita's gelati and brought his mom back from dialysis that I finally had the strength and willpower to get out of bed. Of course, I felt really bad about sleeping the entire day away, but it was all pretty much explained when I realized I was bleeding again, even though I bled last week as well. (I always get insanely tired the day of or day before I get my period, because my body hates me.)

Anyway, annoying bodily dysfunctions aside, my Rita's gelati was absolutely delicious, though Jon's mom accidentally ate my Swedish Fish flavored one and left me with cherry. Honestly, that was fine, and pretty hilarious. When I looked outside, however...

WHAT IS THIS SHIT.

Seriously? Snow?

Yep, snow.

Even though it's officially spring AND we're a bit more south than Connecticut, Delaware got some snow while Connecticut escaped unscathed.

In an attempt to salvage the rest of the day, Jon and I decided to go out for dinner at Ruby Tuesdays.

I've never been there before, plus we had coupons, and coupons are always a good thing.

We left at about 6:30pm, and arrived at 7:00pm. (Delaware is big and flat, so travel usually takes a while.)

Tempura green beans. I ATE GREEN BEANS.

I have to say, for a fairly large restaurant chain, the food was really good. I don't ever eat vegetables other than corn, cucumber, spinach on pizza, and occasionally broccoli, so I was pretty amazed at how delicious the tempura green bean appetizer was. 

Southern-fried chicken tenders? YES PLEASE.

The chicken tenders I had as an entree were really good as well. They lived up to their name, that's for sure... They were lightly breaded, tender, and moist rather than overly-crunched and dry, like most restaurants offer.

We skipped dessert since we already had Rita's earlier, and were absolutely stuffed anyway.

At 8:20pm we went to Walgreen's to pick up my meds, and got home at 9:00pm.

After our little outing, it was time to bunker down and get some work done!

Testing tools on Super Sculpey!

After getting a feel for the material, I decided to try and start sculpting Stolas!

I'm not 100% sure if this will work, but I'm trying to sculpt him on a base of styrofoam balls. I did a little bit of research, and apparently it's safe to slow-bake it under 200ºF. The styrofoam WILL shrink, and I'm not sure if the clay will buckle along with it. Hopefully the clay will keep its shape and I can just remove the shrunken styrofoam from the piece once its baked.

Whooo?

I didn't get too much done, just got around to cutting the styrofoam balls and putting on a base layer of clay around the head. I punched out the eyes with a paint dabber (the thing my index finger is accidentally pointing to) and I still need to put a base layer on the body, and build up the upper thighs. 

I'm aiming to mold him eventually in three parts... head, body, and feet. I'm not sure how I'm going to do it, but I'd like the head to be able to swivel on the body, and the legs to be able to fit holes at the bottom of the thighs. Those might have to be glued into place.

Oh well, I shouldn't get too ahead of myself. I'm not even sure if this piece will hold up in the first place. I might have to completely redo him if my styrofoam base doesn't work.

Only time will tell, and thankfully I've got lots of it!

The Agony is Almost Over

The end is finally in sight!

Wednesday will be judgement day, aka my allergy test. I'll finally know what on earth I'm allergic to and what's causing all of this agony.

Yes... Agony. 

I've been in so much pain these last few days because I've been ordered to be off all antihistamines until the test. No nasal spray, no Benadryl (which has also been helping me get to sleep), no Advil Cold & Sinus...

Things have been bad enough WITH medicine, but without has been filled with nothing but awful facial pain.

Not only do I have sinus pressure below and above my eyes now, but also my upper jaw hurts like it's been punched, or like I walked headlong into a wall.

Now not to get all girly on you all, but there has been another side effect of this sinus saga...

Damn. Dark. Circles.

I haven't been able to leave the house often anyway, but the few days that I actually haven't been feeling like death, I've been LOOKING like death. Covering up the deep, sunken black semi-circles under my eyes has been a pain.

Pre-makeup and post-makeup... Not a 100% fix, but better than nothing. It's either fix the eyes a little, or risk looking like a clown.

To make a long blog-post short, I just can't wait for this hell to be over. Life with facial pain is a very miserable life indeed. I've already missed so many classes, a birthday party for an old high school friend of mine, and a Bully Breed Rescue event due to this crap. 

It's time for it to stop.

Allergies. WHY.

Over the past two... okay, maybe three... weeks, I've been absolutely miserable.
It seems that my sinuses have decided to rebel against me, and cause me great discomfort. By that, I mean stabbing pain above my eyes, below my eyes... Basically, my face has been killing me, somewhat like if I inhaled acidic Jell-O.
I've been trying to medicate myself with Advil Cold & Sinus (that's the serious stuff, the one you need to show an ID for) but for the most part it's been only a temporary relief that also knocks me out for a few hours. Not exactly the perfect fix.

It was last week that I finally threw my hands up and decided that this needed professional attention.
I showed up at our local medical center, which is basically a giant building next to a hospital that houses just about every damn specialist you could ever be needing.
My specialist? "Ear, Throat, and Nose."
Or maybe it was Sinus instead of Nose.
Whatever.

It was then that I became acquainted with THIS thing...

Yes, that is a giant metal rod.

A giant metal rod that goes up your nose.

WITH A CAMERA.

Let me tell you, that was the oddest sensation. Imagine being on the brink of sneezing for about a minute.

It was kind of like that, except I did actually sneeze... Not with that thing up my nose though, I had to raise my hand to alert the doctor, at which point she removed it and I sneezed.

Anyway, the moment she stuck that metal nose probe up my nostril and into my sinus, her first reaction was, "Oh... You look REALLY allergic."
Allergic.
THIS WAS DAMN ALLERGIES ALL ALONG.
All the pain, the headaches, the throbbing, the clogged airways... ALLERGIES.
I don't HAVE allergies.
I'm allergic to mold and cats, and that's about it. No trees, no pollen, nothing.
Despite what an allergy test said a decade ago, I'm apparently severely allergic to something, and it's causing really bad inflammation of my sinus tissue.

In two weeks I'm going back to get a full battery of allergy tests done, because apparently you can suddenly become allergic to something you've never had a reaction to before, and I think this is what has happened to me.
I've lived relatively allergy-free for the past 13 or so years since we gave back our cat. (We got a hairless cat thinking it wouldn't trigger allergies... only to find out that it's cat SPIT I'm allergic to, and hairless cats lick themselves more. Go figure, huh?)
It's annoying to think there might be something else I have to avoid, but I guess that I just will have to suck it up.

Until next time... for now, I'll be taking some weird-smelling prescription nasal spray that doesn't seem to do anything, and waiting for my test date.