Sitting Duck? Duck Soup? Lame Duck?

...



I keep telling myself that I'm getting better, but I think I'm really saying that because I'm impatient with the poky pace of my recovery. I had more blood tests done and while my "liver levels are normal," I'm still in a lot of discomfort. I get instant liver pain immediately after eating anything, and I'm still flirting with nausea.

Robb is such a better patient than I am.




Look at this male bufflehead. He's all spunky and smiley, just like Robb.




The female seems to be having a more difficult time, particularly when food is involved. That's me. Biting off more than I can chew, and then struggling like an idiot.

I keep trying to get back to my normal pace of life, and instead I over-exert myself (doing really simple activities) and make myself really ill. Did you know that there's a direct correlation between a short, leisurely bike ride and a long, nasty bout of nausea? Robb and I were suffering from cabin fever, and I figured that taking the bikes out would be a good idea. He cycles way better than he walks, and I figured that I could be a super-slacky slow cyclist, and not over exert myself.

And I was wrong.

Cycling equals nausea, at least for the moment.

Our attempt at kite-flying was more successful. Robb took the trike, and I walked alongside him, carrying my new stunt kite. (Thanks Robb!) Launching this kite is a two-person job, and despite Robb's lack of mobility, we actually made a pretty good team. Stunt kite flying is really fun, but it involves a lot of crashing and lot of untangling. On this outing we understood that we had to respect our own limitations, and stop when I started feeling nauseous, and when Robb's back started to hurt.

Dealing with crashing and untangling....there's probably a lesson in there, if only I weren't too stubborn to learn it.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Those are gorgeous pix. Marina? Aquatic Park?

Don't you just love buffs? They just show me something new every time I look at them.

I trust you're heeding what your liver's telling you and slowing down, even if it makes you stir-crazy. You wouldn't want Big Nurse to come over and SIT on you, now would you??

Damn, though, what a PITA. Oh. Ginger is good for nausea. Ginger tea, crystallized ginger, ginger ale, even those ginger Altoids things. Big Nurse hates nausea. Big Nurse would rather have a toothache than nausea. Big Nurse loves her some ginger.
Lisa said…
These Buffleheads were photographed at Lake Merritt, just down the hill from our home.
Anonymous said…
If I were more learned in zen I would be able to guide you in the mentality that unraveling and then flying kites high and away from you is a metaphor for distancing yourself from the pain and aggravation that the both of you have had to endure physicality-wise. The weightless existance is a good way to escape the weighty burden of a body hampered and slowed by illness.

But as I'm more of a beer and potato chips style gal, I'd have to say, please turn your dial down to 1, way down from the 10 it has been set at.

Go for slow short walk around the block if you have to, not a bike ride. Let Robb arrange the kite, and you lay on the earth and hold the string. Please take it very easy, a lot easier then you suspect you have to. Liver pain is an odd concept to me, but it can't be good. You WILL NOT HEAL if you don't rest.

Please pamper yourself with bedrest, your both worth it. Please let yourself heal, and that can't happen wthout your committment to it. It's weird to make an effort to be effortless, isnt it? Put bluntly, It's got nothing at all to do with what you want, and everything to do with medical science. I'm speaking from experience here. Especially if this can NOT be treated with a pill, it requires even more rest then you initially suspected.

I want to recommend that you develop a film buff side to you, watch movies or PBS theater dramas, all in the name of visual work-related research, of course! You'll be resting and keeping your mind active and in the game.

Annalisa
Kristen said…
bufflehead. perfect name for those buffle-headed ducks. Practically an onomatopoeia.

you get better!

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