How The Zink Saved Christmas
Yesterday I had my appointment with the foot therapist at the hospital. It went okay. But my feet could be doing better. I have decreased feeling in them. Decreased sensitivity? Yes. I am in category 2 apparently. Category 1 is fine and dandy without problems. Category 2 is decreased sensitivity. And category 3 is no sensitivity. So it could be worse.
But my scores weren’t too good for a guy my age. So I have to take extra care with regards to my feet. When you have decreased sensitivity in your feet you might get a pebble in your shoes and not be able to feel it. Or like the therapist said, you might step on a piece of glass and think you’re stepping on an orange. Which would obviously be bad. Sores and cuts and bruises on the feet can be very dangerous when you have diabetes. In the worst case scenario you might end up loosing your feet. I like my feet, I would like to keep them. So I must check them regularly. And get some ointment cream stuff to put on them. And in a year or two, she said, it would be smart to start going to a foot therapist 2-3 times a year. To make sure everything is still okay.
It was good to get the feet checked out. I had been a little worried about them. Since I started the diabetes treatment I have noticed that I get numbness and stiffness more often, especially in my left leg and foot. Sometimes tickling and prickling. Sometimes I have a hard time falling asleep because of it. In fact I slept very poorly last night. So in my mind I was already sure that my feet were ready to fall off. But at least it’s not that serious. Yet. It still sucks a lot when you can’t sleep though. I have some herbal medicine thing. Valeria baldrian something something I don’t know. It says to take 1-2 pills to relax. And 3 to help sleep. I found that if I take 4 then sometimes it helps me sleep. Not always though. But it’s natural stuff, not something you’ll get addicted to. I’m thinking about talking to my doc about it on Wednesday when I have my appointment there. I wonder if it would be possible to get real sleeping pills. I don’t actually like the idea of real sleeping pills, I know it’s not a good road to go down. But on the other hand I’d like to sleep too, you know? Lying in the dark for hours with my feet jumping around and going stiff like a board and jabbing sensations, it ain’t fun.
More importantly, I went to see the lambs after the footie stuff.
And they saw me.
That’s me with the boy. It was really sweet. I was holding him and then Kurt came along, so I put him down and talked to Kurt. And the whole time little boy lamb stood in front of me and looked up at me. Kurt saw it and laughed and said “look at him, he’s all like ‘Plume picke me up again!'”. Hehe. When I didn’t pick him up again he instead sat down against me legs. I finally took pity on him and put him back in my lap. He sat there quietly, almost looked like he was falling asleep. Every now and then shivering a bit. It was very cold. With a strong, cold wind. Maybe that was why he wanted to be picked up. For the warmth. I really like that little guy. Earlier on he was being more feisty. I was making a video of them and he bumped his head against the camera. I wasn’t sure if it was an accident or a head-butt type thing. So I put my hand against his head, and sure enough he pressed back with all his might. He’s going to grow up to be a strong, fighter I can tell!
The girl is less feisty, but she still tried her best to take a bite out of my coat.
A happy family.
Today I got my laundry done. Although it turned out to be a bigger project than I had at first expected. When I came back to collect my laundry one of the machines had stopped and was blinking an error message at me. So I went to the housinge office to complain. They sent me on to the housinge daily management office (I’m not sure what these places are really called in English so I’m just making up names for them). They called an electrician and sent me back to the laundry room. He fixed the problem, but of course I still had to do the batch of laundry that had been in the offending machine. So all in all it took a whole lot of walking around in the cold and talking to strange people and then an hour or two longer than normal. Good fun. Last time I did laundry there was some guy who stole some of my laundry time. I was actually there as he filled the dryers with his clothes and I could see that I would have to use the dryers in 20 minutes time and there was no way his would be done by then and in my head I went “for fuck’s sake, you have reserved the laundry room, tell him that you have booked the machines and need them in 20 minutes” but I said nothing and when I was ready to use the dryers his clothes were still spinning in there and he had left and I had to wait for 25 minutes before I could get my rightful turn. Not much of a wait, but it’s more that humiliating knowledge that you are unable to speak up for yourself. Sometimes I want to shout at the world.
But most of the time I just want to hug lambs, luckily.
January 8th, 2009 at 1:00
Cuddley lambsies!
Yes, you need to always tell your doctor(s) if you are taking any supplements, vitamins, herbs, etc. Most are okay, but some are definitely NOT okay with certain illnesses (like diabetes or depression).
In the US, these supplements are not always tested very carefully and especially some of those weight loss things can kill people. So you have to be very careful and let your doctor know.
They’ve found some of the herbs can be very low dose in some pills and can contain a very high dose in others, so it pays to be careful.
Your laundry story makes me think there is some higher power at work to get you to be more outgoing and talkative!
My first job out of high school was being a cashier at a department store. I had to greet customers, ring them up, bag their items, make change, and send them on their way.
I was extremely shy, didn’t like to talk to strangers (or even people I did know), had trouble making change, etc. It was rough at first, but it did come easier after awhile.
Then when I got really good at it, I was able to train the new cashiers. More new people to talk to!! The thing was, the new hires were usually more scared of being at a new job than I was in training them.
So now you know where to go when you have washing machine troubles and if you watched the electrician, maybe you can fix washing machines now! You survived, you got through it, and it made for an interesting story to write about.
I think you came out ahead, not to mention, you now have clean clothes!
January 10th, 2009 at 23:20
Debster – Well I’m not so much worried about the stuff I’m taking now. I read the “manual” and there shouldn’t be any conflicts and I think these things are quite regulated here in Denmark. So it’s more tha “real sleeping pills” thing I want to talk to him about., Along with everything else that’s going on. Good thing I love talking so much!
Funny, I thought the laundry story meant that some higher power wanted me to stay inside and never do laundry again! I guess it’s a matter of interpretation!
I’m afraid I can’t fish washing machines by myself now, but I sure can tell people where to go about it!
And you, shy? I can hardly imagine that! *ducks from death stares* HEee
January 11th, 2009 at 3:42
I think your Higher power puts those obstacles in your path so you can overcome them. Like me being shy and having to talk to customers or another job, I answered the phone and had to talk to people.
I don’t like heights, so now I’m a painter and I climb ladders and go up on people’s porches.
I was never sure I could ever be married, but then my husband came along. I guess I wouldn’t consider him an obstacle to overcome. Well, on the other hand . . .
So you can look at “your” obstacles as something to overcome, to be proud of your accomplishments, not as a sign that you shouldn’t try something even if it scares you.
Next time you run into a laundry problem, it will be easier for you to do something about it as you’ve already successfully solved the problem when you had trouble before.