Listening to: 'Heaven' by Live
Feeling: Relieved
He looks at my breast for 5 seconds and says, 'You have mastitis. There are two cords right here. Did your cat scratch you? It looks like you have a cat scratch. That may have started it.' So, either my big lunk of a stupid cat who regularly climbs on my head and chest at night is the reason, or it was the smaller, more feral one that has recently learnt the joy of companionship and tries to sit on what he considers a comfy pillow whenever I'm at the computer. I thought mastitis was something you only got whilst breast feeding. Hey, you learn something every day. That, along with my sinus infection, earned me some samples of an antibiotic that should take care of it. Apparently all that Keflex I had post-surgery mostly targets skin infections, and doesn't touch the stuff inside. Here's to feeling better. We are going to do a mammogramme anyway, just to be on the safe side/have a baseline for later. I understand that they don't squish your breasts quite as if they were play dough these days, at least to the degree they used to. They're also referring me to someone who can help with all the up and down emotional stuff, since my original psychiatrist practises in another town now. And I'll need to get a hold of Dr W, my sleep doctor, to see about getting a replacement CPAP masque, something I need to get more rest and incidentally really tends to yank the rug out from under sinus infections.
What else from today? Oh, I discovered when I went to try purling stitches that they looked just like what I had been producing...a co-worker who used to be a knitting fiend (I gather it is addictive, and that Liz [whose blog has become pretty much a testimony to the Church of Knitting] is not alone in her frothingness. U misses it, I think, but seems to have known when to walk away. :) ) showed me the difference and much enlightenment ensued. I told you, I'm not great at diagrammes. Trust me to learn to knit backwards...so it's the knit stich I get to learn now. I will endeavour not to become subsumed by the cult myself. I just find it relaxing and I'm doing a little bit every day, usually before bed (it helps me sleep) or if I'm waiting for an appointment.
We found at that we get paid at the hospital (a day early) tomorrow. Then on Thursday I get paid for my other job(s). The last state payday of the year would normally be the 30th, but they cut the cheques right before Christmas, which is a happy thing as I might get some shopping in before going home on Saturday.
Speaking of holidays, HAPPY SOLSTICE [whether you celebrate it as Yule, Saturnalia, or any of the dozens of other festivals of light). Today was the shortest day/longest night of the year, but from now on the sun will be visible a little more each day and appear higher in the sky, hence the legends of the Sun God's birth which were later incorporated into Christian mythology. (Remember Emperor Constantine, who made Christianity 'official' in Rome? He was an adherent of Sol Invictus, the All-Conquering Sun [sometimes conflated with Mithras, a popular deity amongst Roman soldiers], whose feast/natal day was December 25th. He also meddled in early Church councils and generally seems to have confused Jesus and the Sun God, hence many of the early correlations that exist to this day, then officially converted to Christianity on his deathbed.) Constantine's nephew, Emperor Julian (often called the Apostate because he rejected Christianity and tried to restore the cults that had, many believed, brought most of the known world under Roman rule)was probably the closest thing to a pagan 'saint'--along with Hypatia, the female Neo-Platonic philosopher and astronomer killed by a mob of fanatical Christian monks in 415 CE). For the solstice celebration, you may want to read his Oration to the Sovereign Sun. He died in 363 CE during a battle with the Persians, but many people still admire his philosophy and dedication to ethical paganism, including an organisation of which I'm a member, the Julian Society.
Well, that's all for now. Hope you have a holiday full of warmth, light, family, hope, love, joy, and a prosperous and safe new year. 'Night.
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