Caroline’s Kitty Corner

Well, here I am again, after about a week of no activity. I wanted to write something to let you all know that yes, I am alive, and yes, I’m still here. It’s been a crazy couple of days and I haven’t been home much. Saturday was my day to do nothing, and that’s just what I did. It was great.

The weekend was quite warm, so I spent much of it in front of the air conditioner. I shut my computer down as well since I didn’t want it to get too hot. There was a major difference in temperature between my office and the rest of the apartment, and it wasn’t pretty.

On Monday Jim and I went to a cook-out. There’s something about brats and burgers in the summer that just makes it feel like summer is really here, so it was nice to start off the season with them. They’re just not the same when cooked at other times of the year when there’s no charcoal grill involved.

Last night several people talked me into participating in a blood drive and donating blood. I’ve done it before, but my last experience was less that satisfactory for me since they put the needle in and then proceeded to start moving it around. They claimed that they couldn’t get it to work, and there was a problem with the tube, and .. Well, you get the picture. So, I really didn’t want to go last night, but it’s for a good cause, and I felt that I should do it. So, I went through the usual. Questions about everything under the sun, a finger prick for an iron test, blood pressure and temperature. All was good, so they got me into the chair for the needle. I was goofing around with the techs that were there and some of the other people, trying to forget about where I was. They put the needle in and everything seemed to go well. One of the things that was read to me last night is the fact that anyone donating blood in the state of Wisconsin will have blood drawn for some study. They’re trying to look for bird flu or something; I can’t remember off the top of my head. Anyway, they say that if you do not want to be a part of the study then you can’t give blood. Fine. Who cares. I’m not contagious, I have no strange diseases, so on and so forth. But, I wasn’t expecting the slight discomfort that went along with collecting the sample tubes. There was no problem with the main part, just this tube thing. It felt like the needle was going all over the place again. Once it was done I got my juice and snacks and then went home. By the time I got home though my arm was really hurting. I’ve done this enough times to know what’s normal and what isn’t, and I don’t remember this being normal. I strapped on my favorite ice pack, (Yes, I have a favorite ice pack. We’ve been through a lot together), and snuggled up in bed with the cats and the TV remote. I had a nice relaxing night. This morning though was a different story. It’s really weird. Not only does it hurt every time I try to straighten out my arm, but I have this tingling and itching under my skin. And, it’s not even at the injection site. It’s above and below the elbow, kind of in the muscle itself, but along the vein. Earlier I was having trouble typing, but that seems to be a bit better now after another bonding period with my pet ice pack and a couple of pain pills. It’s weird though because I’ve never felt like this after donating blood, and it’s really quite painful. I can’t lift anything with this arm, and I can’t hold anything very heavy in my hand either. I’m really glad I chose to have them use my left arm or I’d really be miserable. Hopefully this will go away soon because it’s really cramping my style.

Anyway, that’s about it for me for now. Typing is starting to aggravate the arm again so I think I’m going to go back to reading and giving this thing a rest.