Thursday, December 18, 2014

Fuming with Outrage

I very rarely actually attain "fuming" stage. I'm there. I've been sick for months. I've had to Epi Pen myself  7 times since the beginning of  October after NEVER using an Epi Pen. We've been searching for the cause of the elevated allergic state: viruses, different soaps, different food products, different additives in vitamins, ect. Until yesterday we've been coming up empty handed.  Cheese. The Shredded cheese that Walmart sells contains an antibiotic called NATAMYCIN. It is well known in my family that I am VERY allergic to anything in the MYCIN family of antibiotics. It causes anaphylaxis, throat swelling, eye swelling, severe stomach upset, ill feelings, among other issues.

I am fuming because I bought some pre-grated cheese from Walmart. I checked the label and the only warning it had was "Milk". Not an antibiotic. There are several manufactures that are using this antibiotic instead of other types of preservative so they can advertise as "Preservative Free". Kraft Singles are another such example. Makers are saying that it is a naturally occurring antifungal (some sources are saying found in soil, there for natural) so it is ok to advertise the products as "Natural" and "Preservative Free".

Only select products contain this extra additive. While Walmart's pre-shredded store brand cheese contains it, their same kinds of cheeses in blocks - do not. As mentioned above even the sliced cheeses aren't escaping unscathed. While I don't really want to be a cheese monger, it looks like I'll be getting to know my cheeses a lot better know than I have been. Surely I can get a good deal on a grater.




Saturday, December 13, 2014

When It All Goes To Hell..

Posting will be sparse, if at all for a while. About 2 days after The Girl's birthday she was throwing a fit and I went to talk to her in her room. As I bent down to talk with her as she was flopping on the floor, she kicked my hand, hyper-extending it. So, now, my right hand has a tendon flopping about just like my left one was before the surgery of hell. I had an EMG a couple of weeks ago that shows no nerve damage has been done (yet). But, I have another appointment Monday for an ultrasound steroid shot - whatever the hell that is. This new doctor I was assigned is very un-informative and un-forthcoming with information. While the past hand guy was super douche, he at least was very straight forward with what and why he wanted to do something.

To make this little debacle better, my left hand has been going numb for a while and hurting fairly significantly. So, while I was there for the right hand I had the left hand looked at. He seems to think there is a reasonable chance of a ganglion cyst somewhere way down deep in the something canal? Once again, I don't really know he just said I needed to get an MRI of it to see if there was a cyst pressing on the ulnar nerve. So right now both of my hands are fully wrapped and braced and I look completely and utterly stupid. Not to mention both hands are completely useless.

So. Aside from costing a crap-ton of money every single time I have to go to the doctor, I am fully and completely useless. Of course we are having to downplay WHY my hand is broken too. "Oh, it was an accident, you totally didn't mean to kick me as you were screaming at me that you hate me." "Oh, honey, it could have just happened on it's own you know."  "Oh, dear, you know that I have that odd connective tissue disorder. I should be more careful." But really, what the hell. My hand is completely screwed because my kid kicked it. I love that child more than anything, but she is more than I know what to do with most of the time lately.

Monroe had her puppies the day before Thanksgiving. I attempted to put pictures up once and couldn't get them to post.
Bwahaha worked great on the laptop though!

Monroe did great having them here at the house this time. She needed a little help, but over all this is a completely different puppy experience than last time. There were 8 puppies total and 6 live ones. 4 boys and 2 girls.

This little boy is one we've nicknamed Scooby Snacks. He's SOOO stinkin' cute. He has one white-ish ear with a spotch in it and he's starting to bark at me when I walk past and leave him! He's visibly the largest too. I keep trying to convince C that we should make Scooby Snacks and Rosa a power team, but I'm pretty sure that's a no-go.

We've also found a local high school boy to come out on Saturdays and help with the bigger farm chores! This works out great for us! He earns money, we get some of the more labor intensive chores done that I had been doing prior to the hand issues. He is used to more labor intensive work too, he grew up on more land before moving closer into town not long ago and he plays on the local baseball team. This could work out well for us too if we ever get to go on that big vacation we keep talking about.