A Throaty Wimper

[cbertsch]

Well, I don't need a "procedure" on my throat. Not yet, anyway. The horrible looking protuberances -- that was for you, Kim -- emerging from the back of my right tonsil are only horribly swollen lymphatic tissue. Hooray for me! My regular doctor, whom I like, did help to put my mind at ease, though. In all likelihood, he said, I don't have a staph infection of the throat, but rather a strep infection from a strain that yields a false negative. Strep can be pretty awful. But I somehow find it a comforting diagnosis. I've had strep so many times in my life. And, though more and more resistant strains are showing up, it still ranks way behind staph on the refuses-to-respond-to-antibiotics scale. Maybe my exhaustion really does have more to do with the antibiotics than what they're fighting. Time to head back to the front room, where Kim is working her ass off yet again -- her February 1st deadline is near -- and I'm trying to relax by rooting for Arizona to beat Oregon. I know, I know. I do give the Wildkatzen love sometimes, even when they're playing a Pac-10 rival. Just not against the Bears.

Comments

one comment, then I must read Tennyson

[elizabeg.livejournal.com]

I have never had strep throat. I had strep and staph infections in my arm when I was 10 months old. My mother was not happy about this but they did surgery to drain it. The doctors, not my parents.

Did I tell you this before?

When I was in high school/jr high I used to wait to see how long it would take for new acquaintances to ask about the scar that grew all the while with my hand. I never had to wait that long but at some point people stopped asking so much, or caring so much. Or stopped looking at my hands.

Re: one comment, then I must read Tennyson

[cbertsch.livejournal.com]

Not at such length. You know, I never had an urge to ask you about your scar! I hope you're feeling better too. Staph +strep is bad. I might have had that too. They aren't sure.

[commonalgebra.livejournal.com]

so is your "horribly swollen lymphatic tissue" unswelling? or uninflaming? i'm glad you don't have staph--but this lymphatic tissue situation seems a bit problematic...

also wanted to say the pic of headcheese you posted made me laugh. Now I have to share my two disturbing "meat" stories: okay, blood sausage--it's coagulated blood. I hadn't thought about this much, but my girlfriend Kiyomi was recently talking about having tried it when she lived in Spain. They didn't tell her what it was...and she liked it. how the fuck can anyone coagulate blood and then want to eat it? maybe I'm narrow-minded, but boiling and solidifying blood? YUCK.

Second, I know lots of people do this on earth...but not in my experience so much. my acupuncturist is planning on eating her placenta after she has her baby. okay. that's is so deeply disturbing to me. cast judgement upon me, but I cannot IMAGINE eating the afterbirth. GROSS. (now, in fairness, i think she's got a whole recipe, etc. for cookin' it up...but isn't that kind of more disturbing?)

Well, hope you're feeling better! those meds can be killer.

[cbertsch.livejournal.com]

As the butcher will tell you, the blood is what makes the meat taste good. I'm sure that's why people who don't like meat that much, like my Hindu uncle, insist on "cremating" it to the point of tastelessness.

The lymphatic tissue is gross. I had no idea all that stuff was lurking behind the façade of my tonsils, just waiting to swell into dangly protuberances. Awful. Now there's some sort of cold sore-esque pimply white thing on one of them. Uggggghhh.

As for the placenta, that is beyond my capacity to cope. Why not just eat the baby?

Sausage

[sittinginaroom.livejournal.com]

When I visited NYC in November, my girlfriend and I visited PS1, which was the first NY public school and has since been converted into a museum of contemporary art.

One of my favorite exhibits was this sprawling work-in-progress by a few fucking insane local artists. Part of their project (which had something to do with German and English romanticism and art therapy) involved making blood sausage from their own blood and serving it to dinner guests (who, I hope, were informed of the sausages' contents).

It was wicked great -- very pristine room with step-by-step instructions on how to safely draw enough of your own blood, and then detailed cooking instructions. The only uncooked blood I've ever tasted is my own, but I wonder if other animals' blood has a comparable iron content. I can't imagine ever wanting to eat something that tastes like loose change.

my blood sausage

[commonalgebra.livejournal.com]

Ca RAAAAAAZY, but pretty fuckin' awesome. I have a hard time imagining that I could eat the blood of a friend...pretty strange thing to agree to...

ah, perhaps for Art...