Better than yarn
Saturday July 07th 2007, 11:18 pm
Filed under: Life

Boy, that got your attention, didn’t it? The San Jose Mercury News just validated the cost of the year’s subscription to me. I happened to thumb through their gardening section–like that’s going to do me any good, right? A lupus patient with a flare at the moment so that my eyes are currently going into whiteout conditions, unable to see well enough to read for the rest of the day if I go out in direct sunlight even for a moment. (I’ve been going to the passenger side of the car lately in dark glasses with my eyes shut tight and someone guiding me.) I’m not going out in the sunlight. I’m not growing tomatoes this year. I don’t want to go blind–I was for a few weeks on the left two years ago, and I refuse to go back if I can help it.

But there was a mention of www.bugband.net in an article describing how the reporter had tested it out. A bracelet with geranium vapors to keep mosquitos away. It was cheap, and it had worked.

I not long ago opened my front door to watch a beautiful little goldfinch die right there in front of me on the edge of my welcome mat. The county refused to test it: there was no point. They had thousands of dead birds reported and West Nile was already known to be here in greater force than I believe any other county in California.

I have almost no immune system. I’ve been on chemo for four years. I have been unable to take walks in the evenings, the simplest escape from cabin fever, for fear of a simple mosquito bite and all the potential risk in it with all that I have going on.

A simple bracelet. Totally non toxic. Designed so you can string them into a collar on your dog if you want. Or an anklet to go with your bracelet if you’re really paranoid. Designed to snap open rather than cause damage to the wearer if snagged.

I can’t tell you how much of a hurry I am in for that package of bracelets to arrive. Let freedom ring me!


10 Comments so far
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Thanks for the link! I hadn’t gotten around to reading the paper yet, and I’m usually bug bait outdoors, so I’m going to get one and try it. If it works for me, then several will probably go with my family when they head off to camp in August.

Comment by Kathy in San Jose 07.08.07 @ 1:12 am

I’m sorry you’re living like that. Will you ever be able to go in the sun again, or is it only when you’re having a flare up?

I hope your bracelets arrive soon.

Comment by Amanda 07.08.07 @ 5:43 am

Yeesh, that sucks — the sun thing, not the bracelet thing. I hope this flareup passes as peacefully as the last few have.

Hugs and hugs, and then a few more hugs.

Comment by kristine 07.08.07 @ 6:14 am

I’m sending prayers and good thoughts your way during this rough time. You will get through this!! I hope the bracelet lets you go outside, for even a little while. That turtle shawl is gorgeous, my LYS is waiting on your book so I shall have it soon! *Hugs*

Comment by Elizabeth 07.08.07 @ 7:07 am

I am sorry to read about your lupus flare, and totally understand your problem with sunshine – since I, too, live with lupus. Although mine is not nearly as severe as yours. You have an amazingly upbeat attitude through it all, and I so enjoy reading your blog and seeing the photos.

Karen in Oregon

Comment by Karen Kalebaugh 07.08.07 @ 12:04 pm

I feel for you. I have fibromyalgia and our hot, humid NC weather keeps me here in the AC most of the time. One thing to remember about flares is they don’t last forever. Let us know how those bracelets work.

Comment by Judy 07.08.07 @ 12:19 pm

A product endorsement with a disclaimer: A friend of ours who does take payments to do commercials, used a product called ThermaCell. It’s a butane cartridge that heats a repellant pad that is carried in a holster or set near you. It is advertised to keep bugs away from a 225 sq ft area. The friend, who lives next to a large swamp and hunts in it, told me that it really works awesomely good to keep bugs away. I have never had to use one, since I live where it rains maybe 15 inches a year. Counting snow moisture. But he had no reason to misrepresent anything to me, so maybe it is a product that could help you.

Comment by Anne in Wy 07.08.07 @ 2:28 pm

Hi Allison,
So sorry to hear of the flare ups. They remind me of white-outs from blizzard conditions, maybe you remember them from New Hampshire. Hopefully this too shall pass.
Will be buying your book shortly as I love semi-circular shawls. In fact I just finished one. Any blocking tips?
Get well soon!
Valerie, your friend from the KnitList.

Comment by Valerie 07.08.07 @ 4:26 pm

Oh, I do. We had one Thanksgiving where we woke up to a huge amount of snow, and Merrimack decided not to pay overtime to the snowplowers for the holiday, and that way not to have any accidents either: everybody would simply have to stay put wherever they were. Our guests had no chance of getting through, it was just us and the huge meal we’d already begun preparing.

And it was very quiet and very peaceful, surrounded by all that pristine snow, watching the bird tracks beginning to appear on its surfaces.

Which is a lot like how I feel when I ignore the lupus and Crohn’s and just sit down with some good yarn and look forward to making someone happy with it. Which, right now, happens to be in white, for a bride. Perfect.

Comment by AlisonH 07.08.07 @ 4:46 pm

Weather Network…

I couldn’t understand some parts of this article, but it sounds interesting…

Trackback by Weather Network 09.16.07 @ 7:31 am



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