(no subject)

I always check the weather when I come online. Imagine my surprise when I was faced with a tsunami warning today.

When I investigated further, it all became clear. Canberra is in the mountains and inland, but Lord Howe Island and Jervis Bay get some of the same weather bulletins. We all get subsumed under the NSW regional reports, even though we're not NSW. Both Lord Howe Island and Jervis Bay are already getting the ripples from the underwater earthquake. Tsunami a very real threat and the authorities have already closed a couple of thousand miles of east coast beach.

I still find it funny that we get that warning. Imagine how much would be destroyed for a tsunami to hit my flat, which is about 670 metres above sea level and very much inland?

New Zealand friends, islander friends, friends who live on the coast (including Sydney, but not Melbourne) - may the tsunami be a litle one and may no-one you know be silly enough to go swimming for the next day or two. Friends who live in the Jervis Bay area or who visit Lord Howe Island next winter, you might want to check if those black ice warnings actually apply to you.

Health update

I've got a number of inquiries from nice people about my health, so here's an update.

Since the assessment of my right eye was that up to 50% of my vision is gone forever, it would be really helpful if friends would stop asking about how it's improving. I'm dealing well with learning how to use the reduced vision, except on days when things go funky. I don't deal well when eternal optimists assume the specialists are wrong. There is the possibilty of some treatment, yes, but a month ago I explained that the treatment couldn't be started until after my next assessment, and that's not till late March.

There is the possibility my sight will improve, yes. It WILL NOT ever be completely what it used to be. The macular oedema will be treated and may diminish, but not the other bits. The other bits of that Martian surface that is the back of my right eye are with me forever. No use crying about it. At the very worst, I have 50% vision in my right eye, and I have friends who have less than that and are doing fine. I just have to adjust and learn how to use it, which is what I'm doing right now. And my eye is science fictional in aspect, which at least is consistent with my interests.

Buying a magnifying glass or getting stronger glasses won't help, though thanks to friends who have suggested it. I don't have a new type of myopia on top of my old type of myopia. I have loss of vision. Magnifying nothing doesn't make the nothing more able to see.

Overall, I'm really happy with how I'm dealing. I can read and have started to do a small bit of craftwork, though I do have to stop when things get funky. I'm learning to use my eyesight just a bit differently. I'mm learning that I can't see things in certain places and I need time to work out text on billboards (and I need the right distance and angle)and that I just have to shrug with most end-credits for movies, but overall it's quite functional.

As I keep saying, it all could have been much worse. But each time a friend asks (hopefully) whether it's getting better or if I have new glasses yet, I want to scream.

I don't know any more about the heart. The dcotor has sent me to a specialist and she (the doctor) thinks I'll need more tests. I'll blog when I know more, I promise. Answering demands for a detailed breakdown of things I don't know is not something I enjoy, though, so please be patient with me until then.

The fatigue that I still have comes from something else. We don't know what. The doctor has done some blood tests. I'll know more about that around Friday next week.

The swollen legs are almost entirely solved. Some of it was my heart (and new blood pressure tablets seem to have sorted that element) and all the rest was mostly ibuprofen combining with the kidney damage. Take the ibuprofen away and my feet fit into normal footwear. The only remaining factor is perimenopause, and that will go eventually. All you need to do is ask and I will show off my glamorous ankles. In fact, Canberra friends get the showing off without the asking. They're rather tired of my lovely and slender ankles.

I should get quite a bit of quality of life back when that fatigue has been sorted. In fact, I have quite a bit back now, because of the steroids (which are forever, alas, but we've worked out the lowest dose that will keep my skin vaguely OK). I still have perimenopause and I still have all my normal chronic illnesses. As I keep explaining, PCOS and allergies and all the other charmers don't instantly go away just because something new has happened. They're the main cause of this week's high pain. The biggest single cause this week is my RSI, but that's getting a little better now I'm able to do some exercise again. Not lift heavy things, not run marathons or push beyond my limits, but I'm back to being able to get fit. This means I'm doing folkdance once a week, which is awesome. I dance in cute purple socks so I can't push beyond my limits - socks really restrict the number of fast turns and leaps and bounds one can do without sliding 4 metres and purple, of course, is reassuringly cool.

My zombie tooth has just 2 more treatments. There is no necrotic material in it anymore. There is no infectious material in it anymore. The final treatments are the restructuring bits.

For those of you not local to Canberra, my friends here are taking care of me. I've been told that the next day of eye appointments I will be given lifts, for instance. I was not given a choice this time because I didn't act sensibly last time (apparently bus and long walk worried people - I do love my friends!). I have help with shopping until such time as I can carry heavy things and two friends have written their phone numbers down in big letters and instructed me to ring them rather than just deal with things.

I still have my list of items that will reduce my anxiety because obviously this whole thing is going to take a while to resolve, but I'm also teaching again and have a bit of a social life, so anxieties don't pile up the way they did when everything went wrong at once. The DVDs from friends and that I get every week through that Quickflix gift make a surprisingly big difference. My funky vision can deal with things on a TV screen, you see, even on a bad day. The books also help, even though I'm way slower at reading than I was.

Which reminds me, I need to plan a trip to the library. The Gerry Bartlett and a promise from Bruce Gillespie has decided me: I need to find four more authors who write vampires into light women's fiction. This is nothing to do with Twilight. It's a subgenre that I haven't explored and it tends to be printed in really clear type and it's a lot of fun, which makes it perfect for exploration at a time like this. If any of you have favourite authors in this subgenre (charming rather than kick-ass, is how I define it right now), I'd love to know. I'm going to write Bruce an article about it, I think, but I need to read enough to say more than the obvious. This is not health-related, obviously, but it's definitely sanity-related.

That's all I can think of in terms of updating. I'm happy to answer questions, just as long as they're not the ones I've been asked a half dozen times this week, namely "When will your eye be better?" and "How is your heart going?"

(no subject)

I've been interviewed again. I was the last in the series Eneit Press did for Women in Horror Month. I think I managed to be respectful and sensible. Mostly.