I are photographer!

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I entered two photos in the ET Photograph Competition! They are on page 4. That is all!

Update (March 27): Okay, they got moved to page 5. But they're still there! Ha!

Diagnosis: Too Much TV

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So I went to the doctor today, and after waiting about half an hour to see her (the waiting room was PACKED--flu and allergy season, don'tcha know), I told her what was wrong (sinus infection and mysteriously swollen fingers). Then we got into a conversation that sounded a lot like an episode of House:

Doctor: "Hmm, have you been sick any other times in the past couple weeks?"

Me: "Actually, yeah, a week or so ago I thought I had the flu, but it went away in a few days."

Doctor: "Did you have any sort of a rash when you thought you had the flu?"

Me (confused by strange question): "...Uh...Oh, yeah, actually I did. There weren't any bumps or anything, just some red splotches on my chest and stomach that didn't itch or anything. They went away a few hours after I noticed them. What does that mean?"

Doctor: "I think you might be suffering from some complications caused by strep."

Yes, apparently the flu-thing I had last week was strep throat without the sore throat part. I did not know this was possible (my mom now theorizes that it was because I have no tonsils), so naturally I though I had some little 48-hour bug and didn't tell my doctor. Apparently, an untreated strep-throat infection can cause weird side effects, including my swollen fingers. So my doctor put me on antibiotics for the sinus infection, though they will help the strep thing too if that's what it really is. She also did one of those nasty gaggy throat-swab tests, which in a few days will tell if I actually have strep or not. And just in case she was wrong, she made me get a blood test to make sure the finger thing wasn't something more serious.

So now I have a head full of snot, my fingers are all fat and sore, AND my arm hurts. Oh well. At least I'm probably on the road to recovery.

On the "I have no tonsils" thing: I had them removed when I was six, after they stopped working right and caused me to become chronically infected with--guess what?--strep throat. (It's a nasty (but not fatal) bacterial disease whose most famous symptom is a really wicked sore throat. "Strep" is short for the type of bacteria that cause it, which I'm guessing is either streptococcus or streptobacillus. I'll have to look it up.)

Diagnosis: Hypochondriasis

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Okay, not really. I actually have something that could be serious. For one, I feel like crap because I have a cold that skipped the "cold" stage altogether and instantly became a sinus infection--which for me is not unusual, just annoying and icky. My real worry is that some of my fingertips hurt and have started to swell up (unrelated to the sinus infection, obviously). I know I didn't injure them--how could I have, when it's a few random fingers on each hand? I have no idea what could possibly be causing it--well, okay, it might be poor circulation or some sort of vitamin deficiency (lord knows I have terrible nutritional habits). What really sucks about it is that my left pinky is all swollen and hurts like heck to touch, so since I'm left-handed, I can't write, draw, or paint. What really really sucks is that my spring break just started today. I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow morning, so hopefully they'll figure out what's wrong with my hands and give me some means to fix it. (The sinus infection doesn't matter. I get them all the time, and they usually go away on their own.) Luckily I can still type okay.

This sucks.


...Wait a minute, did I just say "lord knows" somewhere in there? Huh. Religious expressions are so ingrained into this culture that even I use them, and I don't believe in God/gods. (Well, I don't deny the possibility that he/she/they could exist, but until someone shows me convincing scientific proof, I'm inclined to believe otherwise.)