Ouchy Wah Wah

Here it is, 2:15am, and I am up blogging.   I am partially writing this blog so I can have a reminder to not be an idiot.

This is because something has given me a condition resembling a UTI but I'm pretty sure that its not a real one.  I've been in and out of the bathroom to pee about 30 times this evening and I'm sure I'll be going again in a few minutes.  I am prone to what is called bladder spasms.  I'm pretty sure they are caused by my diet, and I manage to keep them under control for the most part.  However, every now and then, I try something new in my diet and sometimes I have nights like tonight.  This is why I really do try to eat the exact thing every single day, or pick from an imaginary list of things that I know are compatible with my bad self.  I'm pretty sure I will not be sleeping at all tonight, which is going to suck royally tomorrow.

This episode I believe is caused by 3 factors:

Number 1-- I began taking a G.I. Health supplement powder (you mix it in a glass of water) that contains a rather large amount of Zinc (zinc-carnosine).  A very kind person gave it to me because she knows that I have also had trouble with anxiety and IBS symptoms and this supplement has many things that would help someone like me.  Until tonight I never knew...ANYTHING about Zinc except that it is a metal, it is shiny, and we need some to live.  I did not know that if you take more than 40 or 50 mg a day that you can actually poison yourself!  Now, I am sure that the levels in this supplement are within safe ranges for most people, but it does carry a warning for people with kidney issues.  It doesn't say why it can hurt those people, just not to use it.  Perhaps I have kidney issues that I was not aware of.  Anyhow, Google Search "Zinc poisoning symptoms".  It is mind blowing.  There is a class-action lawsuit against denture cream companies because they contain so much Zinc that people are dying from being slowly poisoned over many years!

  The symptoms I have been having in the 5 days of ingesting this supplement are:  

• extreme fatigue (ask my husband/kids.  Mommy is way droopier than usual).
• weakness
• I kept thinking something was wrong with our dishwasher because suddenly whenever a piece of silverware touched my tongue it tasted extremely metallic.  This is apparently a good way to test to see if you have too much of any metal in your blood.  
• headaches in the front of my head
• trouble speaking clearly (now this one is iffy, because I'm often a bumbling fool when speaking, but I was having trouble saying the words that I was thinking and that's a little odd)

I also noticed that I was very dehydrated by the end of the day and found myself doubling my water intake but still being thirsty.  That leads me to my next factor.

Number 2--When I don't drink enough water I easily will fall into a bad bladder spasm episode.  Usually I get a bad feeling when it first starts to happen and I can quickly chug a large glass of water and all will be well with the world.  That only works when its the only thing that is causing the problem.  I've been chugging water all night long and to no avail.  That leads me to the final idiot factor:

Number 3--I drink too much caffeine in one day.  I cannot and will not give up my morning coffee.  And when its chilly out I don't even think about drinking a soda.  But its been hot as hell here the past few days and I get that Diet Coke craving (yes, I know its poison, and probably not helping).  Today I gave in to the craving way too late in the day, around 4pm.  I was thinking it would be ok to have one since I was so incredibly tired that maybe it would help me stay awake so I could spend time with Kris after the kids went to bed instead of passing out snoring during Cheers. BAD IDEA.  If I could go back and slap myself...

Wow the whole time I have been typing this blog I have not had to pee.  That is a whole 15 minutes!  

Now, what the heck can I do about it?  I need to sleep!!

Everything I read says to drink Cranberry juice.  I knew I had bought some the last time this happened, which turns out to be over a year ago!  That means the juice is no good :(  So I had to dump it.  Really, I didn't want to drink it anyway because every time I do it makes me puke. To me, it tastes like licking a tire on a car that just ran over a skunk.  And I am not a puker.

I scoured the medicine cabinet for unused antibiotics (YES sometimes we don't use them all I admit it!) any kind would do.  Nothing.  I was a good girl and threw out all the old stuff.  I read that if you think you may have ingested too much Zinc you should drink milk.  So I did, and had an Oikos yogurt for good measure.  Then I decided because I am starting to get more and more pain that I would take 600mg of Ibuprofen.  So far I think that is the only thing that has actually helped.  If this is still going on in the morning I will of course see the doctor.  But true to form it has to happen in the middle of the ever-loving night when there is NOTHING I can do short of going to the ER, which is the last thing I want to waste their time on.  If I could hold it long enough I'd drive to the 24 hr grocery store three towns away and get some skunk juice.

Also see, Cystitis.  I have 6 out of 8 of those symptoms, but again it can be caused by diet.  Either way I see a trip to the Doctor's office tomorrow :(

Walk in the Woods at Niquette Bay State Park

While I was finding all those Monarch caterpillars I was also keeping my eyes peeled for large moth caterpillars.  I don't care much about regular moth rearing but if I could find a nice Cecropia or Luna moth caterpillar I would be thrilled!  The last time I had my hands on a big fat moth caterpillar was when I was oh, 12 or 13 years old.

Today I decided to take Autumn to Niquette Bay, our local state park here in Milton, because I was sick of sitting around inside and I can't walk locally right now.  We got headed out at 10:00am and after I missed the turn and had to reverse direction we got into the woods by 10:30.  It was beautiful, a little chilly but the crickets and birds were chirping and there was almost no one else there.  We took the Allen Trail which leads to the little sandy beach.

Allen Trail entrance

I'd never really gotten myself together before noon to go out in the woods so I got a cool surprise: spiderwebs!  Lots of glistening (but not dewy unfortunately) orb weaver webs everywhere!  The first one I saw had a milkweed fluff in it:

Way up high in the trees!

Then I saw some that I didn't have to crane my neck to see:

Bowl & Doily Spider

Assassin Bug

Orb Weaver

Hover Fly caught in a web

Now this was a head scratcher.  A leaf all rolled up and there was silk on it.  If I'd had a big ziplock I would have brought it home to see what was inside...

We continued on to the beach once Autumn got sick of me stopping every 5 steps to take pictures of spiderwebs.  

How nice to see another Heron!  I think that makes 6 I've seen this month!

Vulture

Autumn and I hopped across the little river that separates a big chunk of the beach from a small one and had a little picnic of goldfish crackers and cheerios.

Perfect day for fishing or just sailing.  Nice warm breeze, not a cloud in the sky, 70ish degrees. I could have stayed all day!

Autumn and I explored the beach a bit.  The water had an algae warning even though there was none present, but still it made it less fun.  The water level was also extremely low just like everywhere else.  I hadn't been there since Spring so I was kind of amazed at how much beach there was.

There is usually water where these are growing

Huge dead June beetle

Beetle or fly? 

You can see how low the lake is.  All that green stuff usually is under water.

Poplar-like plants growing where there should be water

Autumn digging in the mud with shells:

I was walking along in the mud when one of these fluttered up at me!  Is it one of my babies?  I am definitely going to tag the ones I raise next year.  You can get a kit for it online:

I tried so hard to photograph a butterfly in flight but it was next to impossible to get a clear shot.  They are not very predictable hahaha  This is the best shot focus-wise that I got, and of course it had to be only a partial:

Most of the pics look like this:

I'm sure those fishermen enjoyed watching me make a dork out of myself chasing Monarchs in the mud.  OH well who cares!!!

He's toying with me here.

Nothing about this looks like fun to me^

Autumn looking for me

I tried getting closer to the heron, and this was him before he decided I was too close and took off!

Yay more Narceus americanus millipedes!  They are all over this year.

Autumn thinks they are adorable.  I love her so much! 

I just love their funny little down-turned faces!

Haven't figured out what this is yet.  Anyone know?  Please leave a comment if so!

Bug's eye view of the beach :)

After about an hour Autumn had had enough beach and wanted to go home.  So we started back on our .5 mile trek.  She was very excited that she had found 2 giant acorns (couldn't get a clear picture of them today because she was clutching them tight).  She declared "Its my Lucky DAY!" Man, I wish finding 2 acorns would make me that happy!

We found another millipede and I tried desperately to photograph it without it being blurry.  Those things like the shade and move around a lot!

Onto the real disappointment of the hike and the point of the intro story that you probably already forgot about!  I looked down and saw a huge fat green caterpillar in the gravel on our way out.  I got all excited because I'd been wanting to find one for so long so I snatched it up only to find upon inspection that it has been parasitized by something.  It doesn't look like the traditional braconid wasp parasite eggs, more like something that WAS there but is gone now.  It's back is full of holes and there are strange white egg shaped things clinging to it's face:

It is some kind of sphinx moth caterpillar, but I'm not sure which one exactly.  Maybe the One-eyed Sphinx or the Blinded Sphinx.  Again, if anyone knows what it is and what those holes on it's back represent please let me know!