Any Old Iron?

Apparently a by-product of domestic goddess earth mother homemade sourdough bread baking activity is the urge to make a lot of homemade soup to accompany said sourdough. I think Suse could have warned me.

(Lamb & barley soup. Tastes better than it looks).

Or maybe it's a by-product of super-improved energy since the iron transfusion. Because I just feel SO much better. I would thoroughly recommend the process to anyone out there feeling like a beached whale, or how I imagine a beached whale feels, viz:

Damn, how did I end up here, I should swim back out because otherwise I'm going to die slowly and miserably but it looks too hard and I cannot be bothered. Maybe a nice hippy will come and heave me back.

I wish I'd found out about my iron deficiency and my sludgy thyroid a couple of years ago. I should actually have paid better attention to my fabulous GP, who narrowed her eyes every time I brought one of the kids in for an appointment and said why have you got such awful bags under your eyes? Or why do you look so terrible? Which at the time was slightly insulting and I of course thought the answer was : because I'm old and nature is cruel. Well, I am and she is. But more to the point and for no reason that we have yet discovered (although my guess is that the babies leeched out all my nutrients during their incubation and breastfeeding days) my iron levels were so pathetic that instead of the normal dosage of half or 1 gram of iron, I needed 2 grams of the stuff. I think this explains why I turned pink the next day.

Anyway, like I said, I feel great now, and it hasn't even been the full 3 weeks they said it would take to kick in. Teaching tap is going great guns, I've got my bounce back and my students are starting to feel the burn (and incidentally the phone is running hot at present; the tap business is doing very nicely indeed). And I can now just get out of bed of a morning instead of draaaggging myself out. Sadly, the house is no cleaner. But that is partly school holidays, partly very wet weather (who wants to mop when you know the kids will track in mud?) and partly dealing with extra tap stuff. I'll get there though. One day. I have cleaning plans.

Probably not for this weekend though. I have an appointment with Harry Potter. So, like Captain Oates, I am just going outside [the blog-tent] and may be some time.

What's Black and White and Red All Over?

I'm having a slight side-effect. The iron has turned me a gentle shade of pink all over. A bit like the time the Climber got scarlet fever but without the fever.


Also, I met Pea Soup (for the first time) and Shula (again) this afternoon. So nice to meet up with these 2 excellent bloggers and I just want them both to know I'm not always this pink.

My boys were far more interested in Shula's gorgeous shaggy dog and, after a slight false start on Cherub's part (he loves dogs but is not used to big ones), they did their best to hurl the ball so Angel could retrieve it. I came away from this mini blogmeet with a container each of Shula's home-made muesli and Suse' sourdough starter. I hope to bake my first ever loaf of bread over the weekend, all things going well.

*********

The Horrifying Sounds Meme via Tanya. (Hers is much funnier than mine.)

1. A little voice saying Mummy wh'ar you? just as I've snuck off to the loo and locked the door.

2. Our ill-fitting laundry door banging (erratically) every 30 seconds if one of us forgets to shut it properly.

3. The sound of our Prime Minister's voice, particularly when accompanied by a visual.

Bec is back in the blogosphere and in search of a meme so I tag her. But it's okay Bec because there is no running involved in this one.

The Needle and the Damage Done

Actually there appears to be no damage, but there was definitely a needle. I had 2 grams of iron transfused into me today, and was fully expecting to cartwheel out of the hospital!! But due to some technical thing, the iron won't hit my system for another 3 weeks. They explained it to me but technical jargon always washes over me. I mean, I think I'm listening and taking it all in but an hour later I haven't got a clue. Something to do with the blood cells regenerating and the iron not being fully effective until absorbed by new red blood cells?? Or something.

Anyway, today I went up to the 5th floor where I checked into the 'Medi-hotel' (not quite a ward) at St Vincents. I got there at 9-ish and the transfusion started at 11.

I packed my iPod, Anne of The Island, the latest NW (trash mag), my knitting and The Age puzzle page. Did a bit of everything over the course of a very long day.


I forgot snacks!! They gave me lunch (a sandwich and an apple) but there is something about kicking back with a book on a couch that makes me crave lollies, biscuits or chips. Or preferably all three.

We were treated to some ad-hoc entertainment during, in the form of 2 intrepid window-washers. Apparently this only happens once a year. File this under jobs I'd never do..

And at 4.30 I was pronounced free to go. Gee, it felt good when the tape came off and the needle came out..

Fixit as good as called me a wuss for not wanting to mash the potatoes with my poor sore arm tonight, but he ended up doing it for me anyway.