Marathon Con Traspie: Holidaze-21 Omicron

It's on! Turkeys have been trotted! Hannukah is making itself known. And roughly all the rain we missed the last couple of PNW summers... it's dumped down on us in the span on one very "atmospheric" month.

That back there used to be a soccer field... (not really)

And of course, minutes away from the whole family being vaccinated the world world is getting all excited about some hot new covid fad. Oh boy! Better be new masks stuffed in those stockings.

But the world goes on! By golly, we shall celebrate. Our neighborhood association even had a little ceremony to light the "fruit trees" in the Commons Park.

Allan and I just barely made it for the lighting. There was some Chariots of Fire sprinting as the count down occurred, but we made it damnit! It was sweet. It was cute. Allan actually ran into a classmate and they drew pictures together for a spell.

Our neighborhood keeps it real. We even had a high school marching band on hand for the occasion and Allan is so going to band camp some day.

Not only did they light up some fruit trees, but last week they went and gave us adults our covid boosters. That was a little unexpected, but Andrew was looking around and suddenly was like "I'm going to walk to the park". He came back boosted.

Allan, had to wait an extra week, but her turn has come!!

She was so cool. She told me that she was scared. Then she told the nurse she was scared, because it hurt. And she sat down and took deep breaths and they gave it to her. She got a candy cane and a (I kid you not) $50 gift card to safeway for her efforts so she felt pretty good all in all.

We are cutting it close for her to be fully vaccinated before her post-Christmas trip, but should come just under the wire if we just cross our fingers covid 3.9529 is not going to be doing her mega world tour at that point. All I want for Christmas is 96% efficacy against severe illness! (and a pony).

So, I am pro vaccine and I'm pumped to have gotten the covid booster, but I gotta say that - as somebody with a fussy as fuck immune system - the booster has been a bear. Yeah no, no aches or fevers. My arm didn't even hurt.

But the hives! Oh the hives! Pressure hives, as always, so I mostly look totally normal if I hold totally still and touch nothing. I'm like a very ruddy hypercolor at this point. Allan of course has been extra super duper handsy the last few days. I have Allan-marks up and down. It's gotten less dramatic in the course of a week, but not back to normal. Immune system has reved itself up a bit I guess.

Convenient timing, I was finally able to talk to my immunologist. Her thought was that Dupixent (the biologic injection for atopic/allergic dermatitis that her colleague and I had discussed in August) would be a harder sell to insurance than Xolair (a biologic injection for chronic hives). Both also stabilize mast cells and do some other things for conditions I don't have, but insurance could give a rat's ass about that.

Anyways, Xolair does not have the scary eye side effects, but it's a lot more likely to cause hair loss, so I'm weirdly obsessed with shaving me head now. A few weeks ago it was wigs. But now I want some weird punk style with lots of fancy razoring. We'll see what happens!

It's not going to be my ticket back to normal, exactly: The contact allergens are probably the most prohibitive in terms of making it so I can't really go anywhere - planes, trains, automobiles and definitely other people's houses, e.g.

But it would be a big thing nonetheless. Maybe I'd be able to wear clothes that fit or that have elastic again. Or when Allan's a bit cuddle-squirmy, I might not break out into a million red welts before I have to run away.

I could cuddle in general a whole lot more. And - most importantly - It would definitely curtail the possibility of this continuing on to recurring anaphylaxis. So...

..I start that next week. I'll get a shot and then wait for 2 hours at the office to make sure I don't go into anaphylaxis, because of course everything that can prevent anaphylaxis in most can induce it in others.

And then, probably sleep for a few days from everything I hear. The side effects are fairly immediate (joint paints, hair loss, fatigue... oh my!) and the benefits can take months to manifest, but some see the beginning of results in days to weeks, so fingers crossed.

And for good measure, we decided to finally test for Mast Cell Activation Syndrome!!! In short it's an immune (not auto-, just immune) hyperactivity where the mast cells in the body react when they shouldn't. Like allergies, but more extensive and less predictable. Anything can be a trigger, triggers can change, and it hits every system of the body.

In some ways the testing is sort of a superfluous activity because (1) it actually doesn't change the course of treatment much, as much as it justifies doubling down on the treatment course already recommended (2) the tests are famously poor at actually detecting MCAS and only a limited percentage of MCAS patients get positive tests and usually only when taken during a bad episode (this will likely be considered the baseline)

So, I was exsanguinated last week. Then I spent 24 hours collecting and and fastidiously chilling my urine in a bright orange jug. Needless to say, it was thrilling stuff.

My life: splashing urine at midnight and trying not to scratch!

But how could I fail to be grateful when I'm not-dead-yet AND I have such a charming sweet little family of bunnies?

Allan had a normal week back in school (yay) and then Allan AND Andrew took Thanksgiving week off. That's been great.

Recently Andrew's been getting out more and making some more ambitious plans (full day away ride with friends and dinner after versus a ride from home, that kind of thing). Which is great. I love the energy It brings him. I love seeing him feel more actualized and coming home with new stories.

Same time, I was realizing that my current hermetic predicament has left me a bit at a constant state of on-call parenting. Because I don't go out, it's been kind of assumed that I'm home and on the job. And ... it wasn't working as well for me. So I've been making more of a point of just going upstairs to the bedroom at least one evening a week, and Andrew's been taking on on-call parenting status a bit more when he's off work. This week has been nice for that. It can be hard not to want to be part of the adventures they take, but it's also been so nice having the time to myself to read, watch movies, chat with friends... etc.

So it's been a really nice break, hivey hiviness notwishstanding. And there's been a lot of time to hang out in the mornings and let Allan's brilliant little bunny mind wander. She tells such complex stories. Here she's telling the multichapter story of "Goodbye Circle" which is the first of a Trilogy. The second installment is "So Long Star". I'm not sure what the Triangle installment will be called.

Plenty. PLENTY to be Thankful for. And well you'd think I'd be on this holiday like red on Bhutanese rice, but I've always been plenty ambivalent about Thanksgiving. I mean nowadays it's a chance for a large group of people (covered in products I'm probably allergic to) to join together in a poorly ventilated room and binge on foods I'm definitely allergic to and/or just can't eat without digestive problems. But bigger picture, there's that whole Pilgrims and Injuns thing and it does make me uncomfortable. And just chosing to ignore that part feels a little iffy (yeah yeah I know the holiday came into creation during Lincoln and . At least a white lady privilege.

But one thing I really miss is my Thanksgiving meals with my dad. We'd get together, often just the two fo us and inevitably discover that we'd gotten all kind of inaccurate ingredients for the recipes we'd chosen. Improvising would ensue a la Iron Chef and the meal was always amazing.

For the holiday, itself, we thought we were buying kind of a pre-made T-Day meal, but... not exactly?

We got turkey. Turkey is good. And Struffing Cubes. Andrew and I both thought we'd ordered Stuffing. Period. Stuffind. But no. So ad libbing hit hard at about T minus 2 hours when I finally went to check on things. Whoops. But we also had pie, so the important things were covered.

I did not have:broth/bouillion, poultry seasoning, gravy of any kind, garlic or onion, or celery or...

I did have: beet juice, a bunch of dried herbs and spice, frozen onion and peppers, potato, garlic powder, a ton of zucchini, parsley, quinoa, and a helluva lot of butter.

It worked out pretty ok. Especially with the pie at the end.

They nailed Hannukah though (went back a few days later and got a feast!). We have so many leftover latkes and I can't show you many pictures, because... all eaten. Wait I saved a sufganiyot for tonight too. It's hidden and I'm not telling anyone where!