Some of you may be wondering what happened with my second allergy test, which I had like a month and a half ago. As you'll recall, I was initially tested for a bunch of gross categories (and here I mean gross in the sense of "general" rather than "icky"). Anything for which I did not test positive was put on the docket for the more specific, under-skin test. Have you ever gotten a TB test, to see if you've ever been exposed? If not, a nurse uses a very very fine, short needle to put a little pocket of fluid just under your skin. It hurts less than a bee sting unless you get a super good nurse, and then it doesn't hurt at all. Imagine having 18 TB tests done on your upper arm and that's what the second round of allergy testing was like. Would you like to see the result?
Yeah, the red dots are blood, but that wasn't so bad. The bigger the swollen welt, the more allergic I am! Woot! I was going to ask them for a list of all the things they tested me for with each one marked positive or negative. But then I was positive for all of them, so the list seemed redundant. The good news? I'm
least allergic to dust! Hooray? ...! My favorite thing for which I was tested was "smut." It's a kind of mold, but I like being able to tell people that I'm allergic to smut. If only I could orchestrate it so that I would sneeze whenever I saw a "Girls Gone Wild" ad... I'm sure some Pavlovian thing with steel drums would do the trick. I'm also
really allergic to grass, tree pollen and cats! Thank God I live in an arid, scrubby environment with no pets!
2 comments:
Those are some sexy welts you got there...
You know what's great? Listening a Japanese student of English try to say "I'm allergic to pollen," but he doesn't know the words "pollen" or allergy." It turns into "yellow dust from flowers causes me to sneeze." Which, you know, is technically right I guess.
Yeah, there are certain vocabulary words you just never learn. Here are some that I learned in France in the course of living that I would have never learned in a classroom. Maybe you can use them in your classes!
- Bladder
- Water heater
- Throat
- Mothballs (Actually, I guessed this one rather than learned it. It's "naphthalene." Thanks, High School Chemistry!)
- Faucet
- Tsunami (Well, "tidal wave," but they don't distinguish in French.)
- to cough ("tusser," which makes you think about the root in "robitussin.")
Then there are the words that I never learned but half-assed my way through with retarded descriptions like, "You know, the metal thing that you hold like so and turn thusly and it makes the other little metal things go round and round and hold a, um, thing together?"
- Wrench
- Screw driver
- Hammer
- Screw
- Bolt
- Nail
Okay, so they're all tools. Or tool related. Maybe you could do a lesson on tools! I could send you stickers, if you like!
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