On Thursday, I rather spontaneously decided to accompany Annie and Kristin on their quest to find an air mattress and bedding. It started out at the bookstore on campus, where Kristin had previous success in locating an air mattress. All we found was 50% off Dr. Seuss in Hebrew for me and 80% off some book on translations for Annie. Of course, I deliberately chose Green Eggs and Ham without thinking about the irony of that particular book being translated into Hebrew. However, the Hebrew title, לא רעב ולא אוהב, means Not Hungry and Don't Like, and throughout the book that is the translation for "green eggs and ham." Alas, Israel has koshorized Dr Seuss! When I return to the States, we can have storytime in Hebrew! [On a related note, a few weeks ago, I was given a Hebrew copy of the New Testament, which made me rather happy.] After Annie and I made our 'elephant' purchases, we tried our luck at the non-bookstore on campus (the name I gave it because both stores are called Academon) but to no avail. So we decided to make an afternoon of it and travel to the Jerusalem Mall, which is about an hour-long bus ride, to try Home Center. Success! We found both an air mattress and bedding for cheap (cheap for Israel AND cheap for the US - that NEVER happens!). And since we were having such a lovely time together (and had no desire to do homework), we extended the shopping trip into dinner at Black Burger, which ended with a victory lava cake for dessert. I don't know that we ever decided what 'victory' we were celebrating, but we're girls, so it's not like we really needed much of an excuse for hot, gooey chocolate goodness.
The major "H" of the week, however, was Hives. Wednesday I noticed some bug bites, which I assumed were mosquito bites as I was rather itchy. Every morning since, I have woken up with more and more bumps, itchier and itchier. They started to hurt and to sting, and sleeping became difficult. Yesterday, I woke up and was all but covered with these red bumps and finally decided they might be more than just mosquito bites. Of course, it was shabbat, so getting to a clinic (the Israeli version of urgent care) was not very ideal, so it had to wait until this morning. The doctor thought it was probably viral and prescribed steroids, since Benadryl (even 2 pills twice a day) wasn't helping. I maintain that it started out as mosquito bites, from which I developed hives. I have never broken out in hives before from mosquito bites, but I have had other allergic reactions to them (mainly ridiculous amounts of swelling). The doctor also wanted to make sure my blood counts were normal (they are), but once again I had a nurse who thought she knew better than me when I tried to tell her that she needed to take it from my hand. I get that normally it is more painful to take blood from a vein in the hand instead of the arm, but that is not the case when the veins in your arm are tiny and they have to dig around to find one. Katie, my friend who was kind enough to accompany me, said the look on the nurse's face was hilarious as she first tried one arm and then the other before finally realizing that I was right and she should take it from my hand. I realize that patients are not always reliable sources of medical information, but when it comes to things like where blood should be drawn, I think we tend to know what is best for our bodies - especially if we specifically request it to be taken from a nonconventional spot like a hand (or in my case, it was actually a vein on the side of my wrist). That probably means we have had some experience having blood drawn and know where it should be taken from! But anyways, the steroids seem to be doing their thing. I am not nearly as itchy (although I am still rather freaky looking), although I am having all sorts of fun side effects!
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