Allergies, Aging and Memories

Last week was pretty difficult on me, physically speaking that is. Ever since having pneumonia in June, I've been meaning to get to a new allergist to proactively manage my allergies/bronchitis/etc. Lucky for me, there's a local doctor who has Saturday hours and I was able to get in this past weekend. The bad thing is that I wasn't allowed to take any antihistamines for 5 days prior to the appointment. And hey, I TOTALLY understand why - it just made me a miserable Karen for those 5 days! My eyes were gunky, my throat was itchy, my head ached, and I sneezed a gazillion times. Ah, yes, allergy season was in full force!

If you've been fortunate to never having visited an allergist, and I hope you haven't had to, you may not be familiar with the testing process. Essentially, your arms (sometimes shoulders) become a mine field of welts and, if you're allergic to what they test for, you'll wind up wanting to scratch your skin off for the 20 minutes it takes to wait for proper results.



All in all, I received 31 shots and found that yes, indeed, i'm SEVERELY allergic to dust (#21), grasses, summer pollens, and a variation of ragweed. My new regiment includes a higher dose antihistamine that Zyrtec, a nasal spray and an inhaler. Boy, I'm the life of the party now, eh? ha ha

On Saturday afternoon we helped my folks downsize my grandmother's apartment. Yes, of course there was dust...that I'm allergic to...doesn't that make sense? Anyway, sorting through some of her things brought back many memories of my childhood and I kind of wish my sister could have shared the day with us. My grandmother has traveled around the world and visited so many amazing places (i.e., China...during the first year they began allowing outsiders to visit) and her belongings reminded us of just how much she's done.

We went back to visit with her on Sunday and she was SO thrilled to see Ramona and equally excited that Ken was able to fix her cable/t.v. It's the little things that really make it all worth while sometimes.

In knitting news...I've been knitting like a fiend, as you can imagine. I'm finishing a sample sweater this week and prepping (doing "homework") for the Shirley Paden workshop next Sunday. Last night I made two different red velvet cake recipes as testers for Alyssa's wedding cake (Oct 9th). I have to sew in the ends of her super secret shawl and then have to start up a secret project and find time to (possibly) make my much talked about Rhinebeck sweater (Oct 16th). Where on earth does all the time go? I'm hoping that things get back to a more "normal" pace after Rhinebeck...but I doubt they will :o)

Happy knitting everyone!