Allergy testing

A friend from Andrew's work, Marc, got some allergy tests done recently and got photos as well, which were really interesting, so I decided I should get tests done as well. As I mentioned previously, I get really itchy arms, and get lumps that look and itch like mosquito bites, and I wondered if it was caused by an allergy to something.

So, here's the results - redness and lumps indicate allergies.



As you can see as it turns out I have a fair few allergies!! It's always good when the doctor comes in and says "oh my God, you're so red!" :) They have to measure how wide/long the redness is, and the girl doing the test was having issues figuring out which redness belonged to which test, so her and the doctor both had to examine me trying to figure out which was which! The big welt in the middle of my back is a big reaction to grasses. The column to the left of that which is almost all red, is a rection to all but one of 12 weeds they test for. On the far left column is animals - toward the top is reactions to horses and cats (d'oh...), and toward the bottom is a reaction to dust mites, on the far right is a couple of trees. The main things were the dust mites and grasses, weeds and trees.

So we need to do a few things to get rid of the dust mites (bye bye woollen underblanket!), and I have a heap of steroidal creams to put on my arms. The doctor also recommended immunotherapy (ie. a series of shots to build up immunity to these things), particularly the grasses, weeds and trees.

Unfortunately I can't start the immunotherapy until my cardiologist gives me the all clear, because the shots are a contraindication to the beta blockers I'm taking, and I need to make sure that if I have a reaction to the shots, whatever the stuff they give is ok with an aortic aneurysm (which apparently it may not be).

I still feel itchy, but I don't know if I am actually still itchy, or if it's in my head (you know how if you see a movie where spiders are crawling over someone, you keep feeling what feels like spiders crawling over you...).

Books 7, 8 and 9

Book 7 for the year was Marian Keys "Further Under the Duvet". A book of short stories she's written - mainly real stories about her and her life, some previously unpublished, others published in magazines. Also talks about her battle against alcoholism when she was younger (which ironically turned her into a writer). Some stories are funny, some are sad, all are well written.

Book 8 was Nicci French "Secret Smile". This book annoyed me. Nicci French writes thrillers, and I've read one before which was quite good. In this story, nobody believes the girls story that this guy she dated for a couple of weeks is psychotic, and killed people, because he tells people she's stressed and not to believe her. He befriends the policeman looking after the case and convinces him she's lying. Lets not mention that this guy has a history of violence and strange behaviour, and uses fakes names (so wouldn't have any ID with his real name). As well as that she never tells anyone the whole story about what he's done, and also finds evidence that he's killed someone, but she never does anything with the evidence - doesn't hand it over to the police (because he's friends with the suspect), doesn't show her family (because he's wheedled his way into their lives)... And I'm sure if in a case, where the suspect became friends with the investigating officer, you could request a new officer. Anyway, it was quite annoying, and not worth the read.

Book 9 was Burned Alive by Souad which is "The shocking, true story of one woman's escape from an "honour" killing". And yes it is. Souad is an Arabic woman living in a small village in the West Bank and born in the late 50's. At 18, she has petrol poured over her and is set alight by her brother in law because she is pregnant, and unmarried. She would also receive the same fate even if she was not pregnant, and someone had have discovered she was secretly seeing a man (or even if she wasn't seeing a man, but someone THOUGHT she was!!), as it supposedly damages the family's honour, and she must be killed to restore their honour. This is the story of life as an Arabic female, and the daily beatings they must endure at the hands of the men in their family - purely because they are female, which makes them worth less than the sheep and goats. When she was on fire, some women nearby managed to throw her into a fountain and put out the flames, and she was taken to hospital. She managed to live, and get saved by a European aid worker, and taken to Switzerland to finally receive treatment. This is her story of how it is, and to get more publicity about "honour killings" which still happen today, and countries that still have laws to protect men who commit these killings. Definitely worth a read.

Getting very Californian!

Last week we finally got number plates for our car in the mail (that took about 6 weeks for them to send), and today I got my Californian drivers license (which took about 5 weeks I think to send...).

I'm feeling very Californian now!

They've also finally started processing my work permit - yayyy!! They sent me a letter saying they needed more info - to my old address. So I managed to track the letter down, got all the extra info ready, and on the weekend lost the letter. D'oh.

So today I rang Immigration and they're resending the letter. So I'll hopefully have the letter again soon and can get the work permit further in motion!

I hate scary movies.....

We hired a bunch of movies tonight (as a side note, all Blockbuster movies are weekly's, except brand new releases which are 2 nighters - cool!), and the second movie we're watching is one called Infection.

The plot sounded interesting (to Andrew anyway...), so we got it. As it turns out, it's a strange Japanese horror movie. The good thing about it is that I can bury my head in the laptop and not watch it and can't understand what they're actually saying because it's in Japanese with English subtitles.

I HATE horror movies. I have such an active imagination and have really vivid dreams, so freak myself out, and this kind of movie will probably have me awake half the night!!!!!!

I'll have to buy a movie like the Care Bears to watch before bed for moments like these :)

Do you ever feel a lot older than you are?

I have the following things wrong with me:

Heart condition
Bad back
Dodgy knee (previously operated on, still causes problems)
Lactose intolerance (only came on a year or so ago)
Constant rashes on my arms

Due to the above problems, I can't get my heart rate over 120bpm, my back aches if I sit in a bad chair for too long, stand for too long or just move the wrong way, the bad back puts me out of alignment which causes strained muscles, my knee often aches and it hurts to go up and down stairs, if I have any milky products I get associated uncomfortableness and lastly I am often woken during the night due to itchy arms - so itchy to the point that I'm rolling around in agony. I'm awake at midnight right now because I had a small amount of non-lactose free milk in a cup of tea, and am still awake with tummy cramps and an upset belly. Ridiculous.

All of this by the age of 25. Imagine what I'll be like at 30?

Most recent books

Books 4, 5 and 6 for the year were read while we were in Phoenix.

Booke 4 was Mary Higgins Clark - Moonlight Becomes You. It was a good read, gripping, but not too scary for wussy little me :) I also picked the baddie from the start which is quite unusual for me!

Booke 5 was Nora Roberts - The Quinn Brothers. I really really really enjoyed this book!! I was absolutely hooked on it and finished it within 2 days. It was a really nice story of brothers and family. It was actually a 4 parter, and the first 2 books - Sea Swept and Rising Tides were put together in one novel to make Quinn Brothers. Once I realised it was the first half of a 4 parter, I knew I would have to go and get the rest of the saga as the book was just so good.

So Book 6 is also Nora Roberts - The Quinn Legacy. I also really enjoyed this, which was the last 2 books combined - Inner Harbor and Chesapeake Blue. It was a little unrealistic in that 2 of the 3 older brothers (all early 30's) as well as the younger brother who i nthe last book is all grown up are guys who have regular short term flings, and the other doesn't really date, but all of them suddenly meet someone absolutely amazing in each book and completely fall in love, and marry within months of meeting that special someone and stay with them forever. The story of their relationships could have changed a LITTLE in the books!

If you can overlook that though, you'll find a really nice set of books!

Scrapbooking

Well, it was interesting to see who's reading the blog! So a big hello to everyone, and I'll keep on trying not to bore you too much... :-)

Anyway, almost every female I meet these days says to me "so do you scrapbook". So now my answer is "yes"! Or almost anyway...

When we were in Phoenix, our friend Sarah showed us her scrapbooking, and it was really nice - much more fun that looking through a regular album, and I figure it's something that my completely unartistic self can handle.

So Louise, who's husband is working with Andrew at Google (they're also Aussies who moved over recently), does scrapbooking, and was nice enough to take me out today to a couple of scrapbooking shops and show me how it all works, and the basics I'd need.

So now I have an album, some basics to get me going and some ideas. My nan had previously asked for a bunch of wedding photos, and I haven't managed to print them out yet, so I thought I'd try to do her a wedding album with the photos she wants in a scrapbooking style instead.

It's certainly something that will keep me occupied for a bit... :)