Today I Ate Chips!

It's a big deal, seeing as how I got the stitches taken out of my gums yesterday. That was no big deal--I didn't even feel them come out. And of course, afterwards I wanted to see them. Gross! Peridex maintenance is still ongoing and hopefully I can start flossing again in a few days.

Lately I've been addicted to Facebook. I have made contact with one of my dear friends from college that for years I have been searching for! I have also made contact with other friends and Facebook is a convenient way to keep in close touch with all of them. I also made contact with my Puerto Rican jerk ex from college. The less said about him the better!

Finally I got in to vote early yesterday. It went really quickly, which was great since the line was too long last Friday at lunchtime. I voted for a mix of candidates, except for when there was a libertarian running, then they got my vote immediately. As promised, I did not vote for either Obama or McCain. Obama wants to take my guns away. McCain wants to take my abortion rights away. I can't tolerate either candidate!!!

Today something really strange happened. I was on my way to a lunch meeting (the Friends of the Library). I had just washed my hands and dried them under the hand dryer. I was walking out to my car, talking on the phone to my ex-Sgt. when both hands started to tingle with pain, as if they had fallen asleep or something. The palms turned redder and my fingers swelled up. I stared, perplexed. It hurt to put my hands on the steering wheel. They also felt kind of cold. I tried sitting on one hand and driving with the other for the 10 min. drive to the meeting. I realized I was going to have to take my rings off in case I could not get them off later. My fingers were, not puffy, but definitely bigger and my palms were red-tinged. When I got to the meeting, I said, "Is there a Dr. in the house?" and I got some laughs b/c most of the Friends are esteemed and noteworthy local M.D.'s. I explained what had happened to one of the doctors, though he seemed unsure of what to say. A few min. later a noted and locally notorious dermatologist showed up and she looked at my hands. She suggested that maybe I was having a reaction to the antibiotic I was on (but I finished that on Mon. night so I'm dubious). By then the hands were numb. I placed my rings on the table and ate my lunch and tried to relax. By the end of the meeting the numbness was noticeably lessened and I put my rings back on, though they were still a tiny bit tight.

Naturally, being a medical librarian, I immediately looked up these symptoms when able. My 2 initial suspicions are that this was yet another manifestation of the ongoing stress in my life, perhaps exacerbated by the recent gum surgery. I took 2 much-needed days off from work last week, what else can I do? My other suspicion is that perhaps this is some kind of autoimmune reaction to something--since autoimmune disorders of varying types run in my immediate family. My grandfather has vitiligo, my mom has Stiff-Person Syndrome. And diabetes runs rampant in seemingly every other family member!

But definitely this is yet another sign for me to slow down and relax and have fun as much as is humanly possible.