And here's another one, still from Aurora Borealis on facebook.

And I'm back to having that 'weird' heartbeat.  I've never had this diagnosed.  It might be nothing.  I wouldn't be surprised, with my luck, if a doctor told me it was anxiety.  I used to hear that kind of thing all the time before we found out I have Common Variable Immune Deficiency and asthma.  'It's stress, it's depression, it's anxiety, it's just a cold....'  All right, sometimes I still hear it.  Well, life certainly is stressful at times--having a major illness is stressful.  I feel fine today, but when I can't breath that is absolutely stressful.

We've been considering the possibility that I have something called 'Selective IgA Deficiency' instead of CVID.  I may have to go ahead and pay the $50-$100 (maybe I'll wait 'til we get our tax refund in the spring) to get my old medical records and see exactly what kinds of blood tests were given over the years and what the results were.  It does seem like the symptoms fit better.

And Selective IgA Deficiency is usually hereditary.  It can have major, life-changing symptoms, minor annoying symptoms, or no symptoms whatsoever.  I have a sister who struggles with sinus trouble, a mother who has Rheumatoid Arthritis (which frequently goes along with--all right, this needs an abbreviation--Selective IgA Deficiency), and a father who used to get ear infections as an adult when he worked outside.  As well as one daughter who has just this year started having ear infections at eleven, and another who has had problems with her sinuses and lungs since birth.

And that one's sick today.  Everybody's had a cold here.  Knock on wood (not that I'm practicing some kind of superstitious paganism here, it's just a figure of speech), I've had a very minor version of it.  But then, it's never the cold that gets me, it's the opportunistic infections afterwards.  The weather here has been extremely mild for December, which has probably (hopefully) saved me from getting pneumonia this time.  I've been trying not to go outside when it's cold and/or windy.

But my daughter is sick.  She's missing school today.  I wonder when we'll have to take her to the ER. (Darn it, I wish I'd said 'if'.)  Maybe I should ask them to test her for IgA.  I'll bet they've never even heard of it.  They often tell us she just has a cold (I've blogged before about being blamed when the illness got out of control when I was the only one who realized how sick she was and couldn't get anybody else to listen).  I have four children and I'm not a worrywart about their health--at this point I'm more like, 'go lie down and I'll bring you a glass of something and a blanket, and let me know if you need anything else', and then I go on with my life--it's not as if I have nothing to keep me busy around here anyway.  (I know when I'm sick I generally wish everybody just would go away.)  But I generally do know when somebody's *really* sick.  I mean, come on, we've all been together a lot for over a decade now--how could I not know this?  And what this child has is different from what everybody else has.  She starts coughing this dry little cough that nothing but prednisone fixes, and even that only works somewhat.  Sounds just like her mother.

Well, not much else happening here.  All four girls went to the dentist for check-ups yesterday--no cavities at all. :)  I started reading a library book about Beethoven in the waiting room--sounds like my kind of guy.  Hung around in the woods a lot, went to parties and couldn't hear what was being said, got accused of being surly--and he had a hard time being taught the way other people thought he should be taught, too.  In his case, probably because he was so far ahead of them that he could have just taught himself.  I've started playing from a book of Beethoven music I have.  I also have a few other pieces in various books, and a complete collection of his sonatas, which last year formed the basis of a minor obsession for a month or two.  Not that I'm playing them really well, but that hasn't deter me at all.

I cleaned house a bit yesterday, too--tidied up the shelves of arts & craft supplies just a bit, took everything off the coat rack to see what's been outgrown.  Christmas is coming--I need to do some shopping, maybe a lot of it online, and continue to tidy up around here.

And I need to get to work this morning--it's 9:30 already.  Yes, I have all the morning chores done, wood stove's started, and I'm all dressed up and ready to go.  But I haven't even played the piano yet, and there's always more housework to do.  Bye!