meanwhile, back at work…
I went into work last night, despite feeling crappy. The bleeding and cramps had subsided by around 2pm, so I threw myself together, popped 600mg Ibuprofen, and drove to work.
Everyone seemed to keep their distance from me - I think perhaps they were under the impression that I’d been out with the flu or something contagious. No matter - they’re all guys, anyway. Telling them about george would likely spook them off.
Later, on break, one guy did ask me what happened and was I ok. I shrugged, told him I’m drugged still, and that it’s “girl stuff.” He paused and said, “…oh..”, looked at me kinda funny, like he’s never encountered someone with girl stuff so bad before, and then walked off. Heee… he’s only 19 years old, anyway. He could use a good mind bending, I’m sure.
About 2 hours into my shift - around 6:30pm - I started experiencing really bad ass pain. This is the “someone is shoving a sharpened broomstick up my ass” feeling, which always accompanies george for the past ten or so years. I know that I alarmed the person working next to me - who is genderbenderific like me - because every time I jumped from the pain and stopped my book scanning work for a second, I could see out of my peripheral vision that he’d look up from his work and give me a look for a second, then cautiously return to working. Yet, he’s not good on making small talk or conversation, cuz when I was on dinner break later, and he came out for a break, I tried to say hi and engage him in some chat to no avail.
Still, he seems to dig me, and seems concerned for me.
He had pulled down books on genealogy for me and sat them on my chair for me to see when I returned from my dinner break. So I’m sure we’ll be friends before long. He’s just painfully, painfully shy.
He knows I’m into genealogy stuff, because on Tuesday, when our nightshift boss ordered pizza and told us to go eat, I’d politely declined, and was teased for being some kind of health food nut. So I told the boss about my wheat allergy and how per my doctor I have to be on a gluten-free diet.
Well, the place is so small - there’s only 8 to 10 of us on a given night - that everyone listened in and started asking questions about Celiac. One guy rattled off symptoms, which I nodded to. He then asked if I’m Irish, and declared that his whole family is sensitive to wheat, and that he is convinced that all Irish people have some degree of wheat intolerance. I told him I’m more Appalachian, but that Appalachia is made up of Scotch-Irish descendants, and I told him that his theory was interesting, and that I’d love to really dig in and research that.
Well, the Appalachia comment spurred even more commentary and questions, and that’s how I got to meet most of my co-workers, finally - through this conversation! That’s how they found out about my love of family preservation work (genealogy), and why I came to interview for this archival job - because preservation in general is dear to my heart.
So anyway, Genderbenderific Boy paid attention, cuz now every time he sees books on ancestry and genealogy, he leaves one on my chair for me to look over. :D
Back to the pain issue….
The broomsticky ass pain went in waves and lasted from around 6:30pm til after 9pm. By 9pm, I was so exhausted from fighting and steeling against the pain (I’d taken 400mg more of Ibuprophen, too), that now I was dizzy and very drowsy.
On top of that, our boss tried to cool down the room by sticking a fan on the floor and blowing it down the aisle we were all sitting in. Well, this is a small room built up industrial style - and it’s full of carts of old books, dating to the late 19th century. There’s a lot of dust. The fan was turned on high, right next to me, and stirred up a ton of dust. This inflamed my eyes and nose immediately. My eyes got sore and itchy and puffy, and my nose got instantly clogged.
I began to wonder again if this job would do me more harm than good, health-wise, and I started to worry that I wouldn’t hear back from the other job I interviewed for on Monday.
Genderbenderific Boy and I complained about the dust, and the fan was removed.
But as I said, the pain was so long-lasting that it wore me the hell out.
So there was the ass pain, the dust issue, and then… I started repeatedly sugar-crashing! Yes, no sugar has been present in my diet, and I’ve been eating protein and vegetables and LARABAR fruit protein bars, but because george is here, I have experienced hypoglycemic attacks every day this week. However, last night, I had one attack after another - I couldn’t stop it - I didn’t know how.
Those alone will make one want to sleep for a week after an attack, but combined with the ass pain and dust allergy…. OMG I just wanted to go lay down on the railroad tracks outside and wait for the next train to put me out of my misery.
I asked if I could leave an hour early, and was granted permission. But the last hour on the job was grueling. My scanning average was sucktastic for the evening as well, and I told this to my boss, who chuckled and told me to just go home and get some rest.
I’d expected to be paid last night, but forgot to ask about it when no check was handed out. Perhaps they pulled my check cuz I’d missed two days, and now they have to recalculate. Oh well, I did get my last unemployment check, though, which is good.
I came home and went right to bed last night.
Today, I woke up and immediately started to sugar-crash again. I ate 2 scrambled eggs and 2 gluten-free waffles with gluten-free butter. I’m still fuzzy-headed from the morning attack.
I’d like all of this to stop now, please. I’d like george to vacate the premises and let me go back to feeling reasonably healthy now, k thx.
…apparently this request is being denied, as I’m feeling the bleeding and slight bent of cramps creeping back up again. Go me.