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Friday, August 21, 2009

Bee Allergy


Photos clockwise from top, left: Josh at Ozone, honey bee outside my house, my hand about halfway to the full size (~24 hours after sting), a cartoon of an epi-pen from http://www.epipen.com/page/how-to-use-epipen-auto-injector-index)

Last weekend Josh was passing through Oregon, heading up to Washington for his next NOLS course. We went to Ozone on Saturday, and while we were approaching the climbing area, a bee just decided to sting me. Maybe someone pissed it off, coming down the trail in front of us, but one second Josh and I were chatting, and another second, I was jumping up and down, swearing. The honey bee "left it's butt in me" as I've been telling folks, and it was a good thing Josh was there, because he directed me to "scrape" the butt out to avoid getting more of the poison in my hand. I was stung twice at Ozone when I went climbing with Ian and Graham earlier this summer. Maybe that was enough bee juice for my body this year. By the time Josh and I got home, my hand started getting big.

I took two rounds of Benadryl, made a pen mark when the swelling hit my wrist, called my insurance companies free nurse line when the swelling was a third of the way up my arm in the morning, went to see a doctor at the advice of the nurse line, took 60mg of prednisone and waited six hours, then called the nurseline again when I couldn't feel my hand anymore, and then headed for the ER when the nurse told me he wouldn't have waited that long if it were him, and I was starting to lose circulation in my hand, which was obvious from the cold fingers, and white hand. After several hours in the ER, and some humming and hawing over my ridiculously small veins that are almost impossible to get blood out of, let alone stick an IV into for such a small problem, the folks turned my arm into a real topographic map (watching for more swelling), and I waited. Then I got a cool lesson in histamine and the allergic response in the body, reminding me of those funny H2-receptors, blah blah blah - at that point I was really zoned out on Benadryl, but still really enjoying the geeky talk about why I would be taking Pepsid (an antacid) to help lessen the reaction.

Now I have to carry an epi-pen. That's the funny thing about the allergic response to an antigen like bee stings - the reaction can get worse after every exposure. This time it was my hand, and most of my arm all the way up to my elbow that swelled into a painful, red balloon. And next time, I'll have this handy dandy epi-pen around in case I get stung on my neck. Ew.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Soup in the middle of summer

I'm pretty sure the last time I made French Onion Soup from scratch was in 2006 (post) when Phil lived in Mountain View. I think it's typically made with yellow onions, but last night when I was wandering around Fred Meyer at 10pm, I saw Walla Walla's on sale for $.49/lb and decided I wanted French Onion soup today. Two Walla Walla's amount to almost three pounds of onion. I scaled it down to two pounds, and followed this recipe from epicurious.com. Three hours later, Rachel and I had dinner. My mouth was watering too much to get the proper foodie shots, and I was already nibbling the edges of the melted Gruyere, so this is all I got.

French Onion Soup (1 of 8)

Friday, August 14, 2009

Food Pics - mmmm

Scallions at the Portland Farmers Market - Wednesday.

Scallions

Josh at Mai Thai

Josh with a Chang


Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Update...

Well, there's not really anything to update on. Since my last post...
  • Things have been CRAZY hectic with work. I've been working out of the Portland office the past couple weeks, instead of working from my bedroom. I do love the bike commute in to Northwest (lets me have 60 minutes of riding per shift), but working from home with Kitty is nice too.
  • I put clipless pedals on my bike. Woohoo!
  • I made the fourth batch of pesto this summer. All from my little planter box of five basil plants. (Another harvest will be coming this week)
  • Phil and I went to his ten year high school reunion. Yup. He's old. Keith and Ashley were there, and it was great to meet new people and see old faces.
  • I ate Korean food for the first time! At Phil's reunion I met Kate. She was also adopted from Korea, and we've hung out a couple times since the reunion. The first time was so she and her boyfriend, Ky, could teach me about Korean food. Yum!!!
Ky and Kate

  • Last week, I got to babysit Caitlyn for a day. ALWAYS a blast to spend time with the munchkin.
Caitlyn
  • On Friday, I went to Seattle for the first time. Phil and I attended a party for Urbanspoon.
  • On Sunday, Dad and Jill and I rode in the Providence Bridge Pedal. This was the driving motivation behind me getting the new pedals, and boy was I glad to have them! I'm still super tired.
Panda shot during Providence Bridge Pedal
  • And, last but not least.... I bought a MacBook Pro! I'll go ahead and give another "woohoo" to that.
macbook_pro_aluminum.jpg