March 2011 wrap up

March started in much the same vein as February ended, as the nearly continuous migraine I'd had at the end of the month continued. Unfortunately, this meant that I wasn't able to do much when the girls attended a show for some of Eden's artwork, held by our friend Sara at the Launch Pad gallery - I pretty much just ran down there after class, and Eden sent me home after taking one look at me. Can't blame her at all for that, as I was quite out of sorts, but I had been hoping to be more effective in lending a hand. I ended up spending the day at home, marginally functional, but still getting some things done - mostly just starting to scan some of the older photos that my mother had recently helped me find, though I'm afraid that I didn't make too very much of a dent in the task.

On the plus side, I did get a bit of a break on the 5th, as the pain finally broke, and the queasiness that I'd been wading through toned down to the point that I actually felt like getting out of the house on my own. I took advantage of the time by heading up to the Ridgefield wildlife refuge just a few miles north of us, which definitely helped bolster my already pleasant mood.


My head went back to being a bit iffy the following day, but remained close enough to functional to prompt me to at least take a walk in the woods near our house, while Eden and Cassie headed out for the annual Portland Yarn Crawl. In the end, we both had a lot of fun, although I'm afraid I was forced back inside after only an hour or so.

Monday, the 7th, was a big ticket day - my intake appointment for the VA finally arrived. Eden and I actually spent a bit more than 2 hours at the new East Clinic, clocking in at about 45 minutes apiece of face time with a nurse and then the nurse practitioner assigned to me, running through a boatload of interview questions to try to determine exactly what I've been experiencing and what's been tried. Nothing resembling definite answers yet, of course, but at least we got things started, and I had a huge batch of tests ordered.

The 8th was another big landmark, though for a different reason, as it marked our second anniversary. The gods saw fit to be relatively kind to me on this occasion, and kept my symptoms within a relatively manageable range, although there was enough moisture in the air that Eden's arthritis symptoms we acting up and making her feel not so very good. We ended up heading through Cannon Beach, Manzanita, and Nehalem, then went back north to Oswald West, with me driving the whole way! It may not sound like much, and admittedly I was popping ibuprofen and ginger candy the whole way, but this was the first trip that we'd taken in at least 6 months where I was able to drive the entire time, instead of being forced to tap out and have Eden drive. According to Eden, that felt like a great anniversary present all by itself. Even with various symptoms, we had a really great time, and met a few wonderfully dynamic dogs along the way. We finished up the evening back in Cannon Beach, taking in a tasty dinner at Mo's, then heading home just after sunset.


The 9th was another surprisingly productive day. I woke up relatively early, and decided to head back to the Vancouver branch of the VA to get various bloodwork done, since I hadn't eaten in the last 12 hours. Surprise, surprise, they wanted a urinalysis as well, so I ended up having to stick around an extra couple of hours. The topic of disability had come up in talking with the local family at a number of points (I think I'm going to have to separate out some thoughts on the subject in a separate post, and so won't go into it here), so I decided to head over and see about getting an idea of where I stand. It turns out that the Jinkampo incinerator that was being operated not half a mile from where Jessie and I lived on base was putting out some really bad stuff, including dioxins similar to those found in Agent Orange, and there may be some connection between it and my increasingly bad health - according to some of the groups that have formed to pursue the matter legally, I'm not doing as bad as some, but who knows what's down the road? In the end, I actually started the process of filing a claim for disability investigation through the local VFW - don't know if it'll go anywhere, but we'll see.

The test results from that trip were actually fairly interesting - apparently I'm low on potassium and vitamin D, high on triglycerides but ok on cholesterol, and my white blood cell count is abnormally low. I got a whole list of foods to beef up in my diet, but they're pretty much all my favorite foods already. Makes me wonder if the problem doesn't have more to do with processing/utilizing the stuff than not getting enough. I guess we'll see in a few months if there's a change.

Mom and Dad were in town again on the 11th, so Eden and I met them at the airport Red Robin to visit and catch up. They've been flitting around lately like crazy, it seems, travelling through Hawaii, Mexico, and Minnesota in a matter of months. It's strange - seems like I never quite know where to find them from day to day, simply because I can't seem to keep up with their plans!

Saturday the 12th was time for our A&P lab final for the term. I actually felt pretty well prepared for the event, thanks to Professor Christie's excellent teaching skills and handy, if ridiculous, mnemonic rhymes. Unfortunately, it was another bad, bad migraine day, and I spent most of the time just trying to hold together long enough to get through it. Not the best mindset to score well, as I suspected and later confirmed - final score for lab was a mid-range 'B' - good, but not good enough.

Migraines continued to be nasty throughout the weekend, and I spent a fair portion of the time just cowering in the dark, but my head finally cleared for a bit on Monday evening, leading to a short session of playing around with some of Eden's jewelry, a macro lens, and a couple of flashes. I'll need to make the set up a bit more stable for next time, but I'm fairly pleased with the results.

Unfortunately, the clear head didn't last at all. Eden and I went up to Seattle on Thursday, and I'm afraid that she ended up doing most of the driving. The spike hit home while we were locked up in downtown traffic, which really sucked, as I had to spend 20 minutes trying desperately to hold together until I could get somewhere to pull over and change drivers. Usually I have a few minutes while it's changing from drivable discomfort to get away from traffic, but this time, not so much. We were up to check out the PIMA radiology program, which is a private school associated with Apolo college. As it turns out, not a good fit for me ($40,000 tuition, not accredited, and just a persistent tone that they were much more interested in the cash I could give them than actually conveying an education... oh, and only 30 out of 900 applicants per term would be selected, most of which statistically come out of their own Medical Assisting program, which I read to mean "People who have already shown they're willing to pay through the nose for a certificate that won't land them a job'.) While the intro session was a frustrating waste of effort for me, Eden did get a chance to check out a half dozen of Seattle's knitting shops while we were there, and she had a great time doing so. We're planning to make a day trip of it towards summertime with Cassiein tow.

I ended up taking my lecture final on the 18th with yet another horrible headache. I actually didn't score that badly, ending with a 90.8% for that test (and making a nice progression with the previous two midterms at 88 and 89% each, respectively), but of course that wasn't enough to lift my final grade out of the 'B' range. Pity, but not entirely unexpected, I'm afraid. Honestly, while I feel like I'm actually learning quite a bit from retaking A&P at PCC from the different perspective and emphasis between the two schools (of the two, I think PCC is actually tougher and more interesting - as a for instance, OIT only spent a few weeks of the first term on histology, whereas PCC works it in throughout), I almost feel like I'm treading water with respect to making progress in improving my application chances - I've bumped up my chemistry and medical terminology grades, which'll help, but A&P hasn't moved a bit so far, and I don't hold a lot of hope for making an 'A' in the last term either. On the plus side, we started pet sitting for Jake, Teddy, and Rikki again that evening, so at least I had some furry friends to console me.

The next few days were a bit of a muddle, as I stayed rather horribly dizzy and nauseous, with occasional spikes of pain throughout. It seems that the recent "supermoon" helped all the ladies at market synch up their cycles, and Eden's PCOS helped make the time extra miserable. In the end, I spent most of the time at Vicki and Kari's trapped without a vehicle (which I wouldn't have been up to driving anyway), and Eden spent most of the time huddled up in our king size bed with our cats comforting her.

By the 23rd, we were both absolutely fed up with cabin fever, and said damn the consequences. Off to the gorge for a brief escape from respective houses, and a tiny bit of time together. We ended up visiting the site of the original Multnomah Lodge, which burned down decades before, but the chimney still stands. Somehow, not many people know about the site, but it's very pretty, and even has it's own route to Mist falls if you're willing to hike nearly vertically.

On Friday I headed back to the VA to meet with the psychiatrist that had been assigned to meet with me, since the VA would now take over the management of my ADHD meds and wanted to verify the original evaluation. I have to say, I was really quite shocked and impressed by Dr. Blumner - I'm afraid that my experiences with Jessie have left me terribly angry at their profession as a whole, since I think a lot of the issues that led to her death resulted from her psychiatrist functionally just throwing pills at her problems without any associated therapy. There's not a whole lot in specific that I want to share about our session, but I must have spent at least an hour and a half with her for what was supposed to just be a quick intake interview, and spent an annoyingly large portion of that time actually crying. I think that, more than anything, brought home just how depressed I've been over these past few months - regardless of the fact that it was a safe environment in which to do so, I simply lost control of my emotions for a while - it's not something I am comfortable with, as a rule. And of course, while we did eventually decide to try an anti-depressant (one which often is issued as a treatment for migraine, so maybe we'll get lucky and get help with both issues, there) and a different ADHD med, she's also set me up with a therapist to try to make things more survivable while I get my health back under control. So yeah, bonus points to her for coming off as a completely trustworthy ally when working with an overly skeptical patient.

The next few days lapsed back into the pattern of me at Vicki and Kari's and Eden in Vancouver, as migraine issues persisted and Eden developed a relatively short sinus/fever bug. I ended up hiking a couple of miles to the Max to get back up to Vancouver at the end of it, just to try to save her a trip, which didn't work out so well for my netbook, yet again - somehow the backpack opened up while I was in the middle of the street and the poor thing hit the deck relatively hard. It seems like ever since I've been working towards getting out of the computer field, technology just doesn't care that much for me. No problems with the hard drive this time, since it was powered down, but there were some issues with a jammed power button that took me a while to figure out and fix. In any case, Eden, bless her heart, wanted to come down to the house to help me clean it before we locked up to turn it back over the Vicki and Kari, but ended up feeling so awful by the time we got there that she ended up having to turn right back around and run for home. Still, it was a noble thought, since she had spent barely any time at the house and still wanted to help clean.

Not too much to report about the remainder of the month, except that adapting to the new meds has left me rather vulnerable to stress - it seems like it takes barely any excitement to tip me over into agony, as an incident with Piranha getting sick in the middle of trying to help Cassie beat a deadline proved. It's kind of a weird change - seems like the headaches are coming on a bit less on their own, but are almost vindictive about striking when there's an excuse to raise my blood pressure. Unfortunately, every one of the meds I've just changed to lists dizziness as a side effect, and the doctors want me to shift away from a few of my normal coping methods, like the energy drink caffiene bombs, so it's been a bit rough. Hopefully it'll be the beginning of a transition back to normal, though.

March 2011 Roundup

March 2011 Roundup [Show images on map] [Fullscreen slideshow]

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February 2011 wrap up

February opened with a rather unusual event on the 3rd, as one of our good friends, Mary Kelly, held her very first fashion show ever! While we had talked about having me shoot at the event, I must admit that I had very nearly decided that I would have to opt out due to yet another migraine and the fact that both Eden and Cassie were horribly sick. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately after all), Mary let me know that the other photographers that she had asked to come to the event had already flaked, leaving me as the only potential shooter. I ended up deciding to just deal with the pain and disorientation for the duration and accept the backlash later, and I'm actually glad that I did. While I did end up feeling that it wasn't the absolute best work I could have done, thanks to distraction, pacing, and lighting, I still had a heck of a lot of fun shooting, and was really quite fascinated to watch the amateur models visibly gain confidence as the evening went on. Hopefully it will lead to other opportunities in the future.


The next few days were a bit more stressful than absolutely necessary, thanks to the fact that my main laptop finally finished dying. Given that that is the only computer I have with any horsepower, I was left without any way to process the photos I'd taken for Mary! As it turns out, however, my dad happened to have a good portion of the bits I needed to pull together a new, better desktop, and was willing to just flat out give them to me. Bonus points for awesome dads!

Unfortunately, the entire house, save for myself, ended up staying horribly sick for the next week. Just nasty awful creepy crud. Of course, once Eden finally started to recover, my own immune system decided to give up the fight and let the little bugs lay me out too. Honestly, other than the times where I absoultely had to drag myself into school, I spent at least a week straight in bed.

Which unfortunately meant that Valentine's was a bit of a bust, at least with regard to couple-type activities. Eden spent the day in the kitchen, making incredibly cute (and tasty!) cookies, and then headed out for the evening with Cassie to hang out and knit at the bar.

On the 16th, the next phase of my apparent new allergy to technology hit - the network storage device that I had picked up specifically to back up photos and other critical (to me) information spontaneously decided to stop working after only 3 weeks. Not cool man, that's just not cool. Cassie, however, was, when we went to drop her off for work that day - just absolutely dapper in her cold weather gear - had to get a quick snap.

On the 19th we stepped out to celebrate Heather's birthday, an associate we originally met through the Saturday market that's become quite a good friend. Somehow we just don't usually get a chance to hang out with all of our market friends between market seasons, and this was a really nice change from that habit.



On the 20th, I actually felt pretty decent for the first time in days, not needing to cringe away from the light at every turn, so I decided to take advantage of the moment and volunteered to help my father-in-law, Jon, collect some concrete for a wall that he's building in the backyard. Unfortunately, the people that he had arranged to get the rubble from had left the gate locked and left for the day, so the trip was more or less a waste, save for a bit of time to chat and the opportunity to visit with some goats and bunnies that were near the place.

Snow came to Portland again on the 24th, while we were housesitting for JJ again. While we really don't make any money at it, effectively, thanks to commutes to take care of our own beasts and meals for the duration, housesitting has proven to be an awfully cheap series of micro-vacations, and we have a lot of fun. Being snowed in (momentarily) at JJs certainly wasn't any kind of a hardship, by any stretch of the imagination.

The next day started a heck of a trial, though I didn't know it at the time. Mega migraine, that overlapped my A&P midterm at the start (horrible for grades and concentration), and just stayed with me and kept on building and building over the next two days, without any break. I finally had to tap out on Sunday, and ask my dad for help in arranging some kind of pain relief. I had called the VA in desperation, since technically I was in the system, but still waiting on an initial consult, but the best they could tell me was that all they could recommend was going to the ER and hoping that things would be covered retroactively. Not something I was willing to do, as there is no way that I could cover the thousands of potential dollars that might have incurred in bills. Thankfully, I was able to get a prescription for Torridol, pain reliever, and nausea relief with the doctor on call relatively quickly, which is a darn good thing. I had started the day at about an 8 on the pain scale, and peaked at about 9.5 while waiting the endless 30 minutes it took to get the prescription filled. Pain levels stayed fairly epic for the next week or so, but managed to stay just within bearable though careful hoarding of meds. Not the best way to end the month, but the intake appointment with the VA was due in a bit over a week, giving me at least something to hold on to as a bit of hope for the future.

January 2011 wrap up

January opened somewhat poorly, I'm afraid, with the new year's migraine from the previous day following us to the airport, leaving me in abject misery, and Eden as my lonely keeper during the 8 hour wait at the St. Paul airport. I spent most of the time in a bit of a drugged stupor, thanks to some emergency medicine that Dad had thought to pack, more or less just chowing through ginger candies endlessly. Not the best way to travel, let me assure you.

Given that Eden has had to put up with me more than anyone over the last several months, she reached something of a breaking point in early January, and finally insisted that I try acupuncture at the local center, Working Class acupuncture. In retrospect, I think it was more a coincidence of timing between trying that and a "normal" break in my cycle, especially in that my migraine seemed worse after the first session, and later sessions gave no relief, but at the time, it seemed like something of a miracle, as my constant migraine broke for almost a week straight shortly after the second session. Unfortunately, even with their vastly cheap sliding scale, it was not a habit that we could afford to continue, and I had a few unpleasant experiences along the way with funky nerve reactions left over for a few days after later sessions. Ah well, learning experiences, right?

Our friend Vash finally got a chance to play again at Biddy McGraw's on the 10th with a few new friends, the first time we've been able to see him play in months, pretty much ever since Circled by Hounds broke up. While the sound was a bit different than the previous wonderful Celtic jams, it was still a great show, and I hope that he continues to find venues to play with them.


On the 12th, we got just a bit of snow in the air and on the ground in Vancouver, which caused no end of delight for the girls, and even inspired Eden to borrow the video camera and shoot a quick segment to show the world.


The school side of things perked up a bit as the new term started; I recently began recording and sharing class and lab sessions with other students, and it's caused rather more people than I'm used to to notice me. I've even got some pretty cool lab partners out of it!

Eden had yet another crafty swap on the 18th, and I just couldn't resist playing with the cactus stuffy she made - it was just too neat, with a small collection of different mustaches and beards to send along with it. Somehow, somewhere in there, she was prompted to make a log as well. A captain's log. Specifically Jean Luc Picard's. Don't ask me, I just don't know.


Towards the end of the month, on the 25th, we took a break from the city and headed off to Manzanita and Cannon Beach, just to get away from it all for a little while. As it happens, the weather was miserable in Portland, but quite nice at the coast, prompting Eden to grab another short segment to introduce Manzanita to the world.


We went down to Lake Oswego the following day to visit with Vivian, and to allow Eden to help her out around the house, since she's not quite as spry as she used to be. Even though I love to visit down there, more often than not, there's nothing specific that I can do to help (or am allowed to - I'm a bit of a lummox), so I took advantage of her deck and feeders to play with the local wildlife for a bit.

The month ended nicely with a visit from my brother Tim and his friend Timmy Straw. While I'm afraid that I was prevented from joining the group in partaking of dinner thanks to heavy migraine induced nausea, it was still awfully nice to visit with him - we just don't get enough time hanging out together anymore.

December 2010 wrap up

December was a month of both delights and disappointments. The first week of the month coincided with finals week for winter term, and, as it turns out, I landed with a 3.75 for the term. My A&P grade was actually dead even at 80%; just barely a B. This was, of course, the class that had me tearing my meager hair out and driving everyone insane. I did't improve my grade on record, but I did't overwrite it with a lower one either, which would have been pretty bad....

That Friday, the 9th, our friends Bob and Fara Grim threw quite a nice holiday party, allowing us to get out of the house and meet some fascinating people. There were even a couple of kids there to join us for the Christmas boats and to ham it up in front of the camera - they actually got into the habit of thinking up a new trick every few minutes and shouting for my attention with a cry of "Hey mister!"


The following Wednesday, the 13th, found us with a rather uplifting discovery, as we sallied forth in search of crafting supplies for Christmas. As it turns out, someone had decided to decorate an evergreen by the 500 exit to 205. It was really quite a touching thought for someone to have put in place, and it even stayed intact for the remainder of the season, apparently invulnerable to the effects of random holiday jerks.

We went to visit with Eden's grandma Vivan that friday, the 15th, both to put up her tree, and to abuse said tree, just a bit, for the purpose of taking pictures of a few of Eden's origami ornaments in place.


The girls decided to experiment a bit with uniforms for Fairy Floss, leading to Eden whipping up some charming pink Santa hats. Our friend Vash took a moment to pose in one when we went to visit for a few card games, and also showed off his new Jayne hat that Eden had made for him for Christmas. Of course, the girls looked cute in the hats too!


Another new project and photo opportunity arose when the girls built a gingerbread house this year. Fortunately, I was able to set up a few shots before pieces started "mysteriously" disappearing from the structure.

Christmas was again a rather wonderful week long event this year, allowing us to celebrate with just our small family in Vancouver on the 24th, then with the full Scheans clan down at grandma Vivians on the 25th. Unfortunately, while I was feeling relatively ok in the morning, allowing me to take advantage of an unprecedented clear view of Mt. Hood over the river, epic migraine pretty much checked me out for the duration of the festivities, and the camera stayed holstered for the duration.

Eden and I headed to the airport, and on to Minnesota early on the 26th, letting us join the Byram clan at Bugbee in time to celebrate my mother's bithday.

The 27th proved to be a bit of a mixed bag, in that I managed to persuade Sue to drop me off just outside of town instead of driving all the way back to Bugbee - I got a few interesting HDR setups done that I've only recently finished processing. Unfortunately, the horrible migraines that have been plaguing me reared up and left me cowering down in our loaner bedroom in the evening, instead of joining in with the rest of the group in swapping stories and playing board games.

The kids were eager to play in front of the camera, and had a great time posing whenever they got the chance. I had a lot of fun getting some dynamic photos of everyone outside, having had a year to brush up on my action techniques since last time. Of course, the luge from last year had melted, but that sure as heck didn't stop the family from building a bigger and better course this year.


Eden and I happened across a colony of feral cats living on the grounds by the garbage burn pile in the afternoon of the 28th. Despire the squalor of their living environment, and the horribly chilly weather, the cats seemed to be surviving pretty well. They made rather wonderful (and soulful) photo subjects - honestly the shots I came home with could easily grab PETA a ton of money.


We left Bugbee late on the morning of the 29th, but not before taking a few runs on the resurrected luge, and taking a few more shots of the sledders. Eden's fingerless gloves had caused just a bit of lust from the girls, so she decided to knit up 3 more sets (she's just incredibly fast at this stuff) and present them just before we left. Needless to say, the gifts went over quite well.

We stopped at Tim's house on the way through St. Cloud and even got a chance to visit his ice fishing hut, which was quite a new experience. Dad had originally planned on making dinner for the family once we arrived in Duluth, but challenges in the kitchen led to a decision to have dinner at the Clyde ironworks instead. While the food and the service were a bit shaky, I found the experience to be quite fascinating, as the had dozens of pictures from when the foundry was working decades ago - given the photographic technology of the time, some of the pictures were just flat out amazing.

The next two days were a strange mix of agony and delight. We got the chance to visit with my grandma Snow, and Eden got to play over at the Yarn Barn again (I swear, I think she'd go to Minnesota for that experience alone), but my migraine cycle just kept amping up more and more, peaking with me zonked almost out of my mind, clutching an icepack to my forehead rather desperately while trying to eat at least a little of the delightful New Years repast that Betsy and Jerry had put together. Needless to say, I don't think it made the best impression on our hosts.