Damp!

Okay, here’s the fourth attempt at a post today. In fact, this is being written in Word so WordPress (or, more precisely, Cox) can’t erase it again.

So the dawgs and I awoke to quite the little freshet this morning. It stormed most of the night, and by dawn water was hosing out of the sky.

The mayor and the governor declared states of emergency over the storm. Tina said all the freeways on the east side of town were closed, and they’d closed her daughter’s school. She was supposed to go in to Tempe for some big confab with one of her several bosses. Haven’t heard whether she even tried – it would have taken her two hours to get there through the frantic bedroom-community commuters. When a freeway shuts down in both directions, the gridlock defies belief.

This part of the city made out OK, as far as I can tell. My neighbor across the street lost a big branch of her beautiful specimen paloverde, which was quite a gem. She said she’d call our local arborist (guy lives here in the hood) and try to get it trimmed off. In the meantime, her hubby will trim off the broken branches and haul them into the alley.

We didn’t lose power, for a change, although some parts of town did. The water did not come up to the back door, thank goodness, so there was no flooding in the house. During the night there was a fair amount of lightning and thunder, I think. It scares the dogs and causes them to wriggle around.

Somewhere in the darkness, they tried to persuade me to get up and let them off the bed, but I was so heavily drugged they couldn’t get me to climb out of my stupor. So they finally subsided. In revenge, one of them peed on the floor come morning, when they were disgusted to find that vast amounts of water were still falling out of the air.

They hate to get wet. I mean hate to get wet. Cassie will not go out in the rain at all unless you pick her up and carry her out. When your boob hurts so much it feels like it’s going to fall off, that is not a very pleasant task. Carried her out three times and she still refused to go. Just stood there looking miserable. Same with the pup.

 Yesterday I worked up the nerve to try the cephalexin, after carrying it to a pharmacist and asking what would happen if I really am allergic to penicillin. She agreed that Cipro is, said she, “not the drug for you.” She said only 10% of people who have allergies to penicillin get a reaction to cephalexin, and advised having a bottle of Benadryl and the phone at hand.

Shortly after I arrived home from that venture, my friend The PC Magician (a.k.a. Your E-book Builder) showed up. When he realized what was up, he sat there and made small talk endlessly. I am pretty much on the verge of delirium and do not recall much of what was said, only that he did not leave after I swallowed one of the potentially toxic pills and then later decided maybe I should try a Benadryl.

He also has had negative experience with Cipro, and his lady friend is among the berzillions who have had seriously bad reactions to the stuff. He ranks, now, among the many who believe it is toxic.

Amazingly, yesterday I found a research study published in some journal of skeletal development where the team used Cipro to induce toxic lesions in the growing bones of adolescent rats.

That should tell you something, huh?

They discovered, btw, in this limited study (40 subjects, plus test groups) that magnesium supplementation worked to ameliorate damage to bones, joints, and tendons brought on by Cipro, which among other things chelates magnesium and calcium out of your body. That’s why the package instructions tell you not to take antacids with it (while the stuff is eating out your gut): an antacid containing magnesium, such as Gaviscon, neutralizes the drug by about 90%.

Magnesium supplements are nothing to mess with. You can make yourself good and sick overdosing on that stuff. However, quite a few foods are rich in magnesium, among them green leafies like Swiss chard, kale, and spinach, quinoa, bananas, certain nuts, and stuff like that. I, however, am too sick to drive around in search of more food – actually am out of food and surviving hand-to-mouth on whatever is in the fridge or kitchen cabinet.

Anyway, no ill effects ensued from the cephalexin. Can’t see that any especially good effects are ensuing, either. My fever dropped from around 100 to about 99.4. I need to get one of those digital thermometers: trying to shake the stupid mercury thing down has sprained my wrist, and it’s almost impossible to read.

My business has gone to hell on a skateboard. I had to blow off a client this morning who kept pestering and pestering about a stupid little detail and wanted me to revamp part of an index RIGHT NOW – before flicking eight o’clock in the morning!!!!!

My beloved novelist awaits a chapter that I haven’t even started.

PC Magician brought over an e-book proof yesterday and I haven’t read it. Spent the entire day in bed, unable to function. Actually, I hoped that maybe if I just stayed quiet all day while slurping down antibiotic pills, some improvement would take place.

So far, no dice.

Internet connection has been cycling on and off all day. Four times this morning, I tried to publish a FaM post, and four times Cox killed it. When you hit “Save” in WordPress, you’re engaging the Internet, too…so when I tried to save the things, Cox disappeared them by going offline in the middle of the process. Finally gave up and went to bed.

God. I must have food. Going to AJ’s to buy one of their overpriced dinners, which should last for two days. Bye.