Update on Kristin

Hello all,

So, Kristin is doing much better. However, yesterday was another rough day...

Kristin woke me at 1 am because her arms had gone from achey to incredibly painful. She tried taking some pain killers, but it just got worse. Another call to the 24 hour nurse hotline led to another trip to the 24 hour clinic across town.

At this point, it is early Sat. morning, and the clinic is full of triage patients that were overflow from the hospital next door. I had just read an article the day before arguing that NZ needed to raise the drinking limit, cause at 18 years old, the nation's ERs were being flooded every weekend with alcohol related injuries from 18-20 year olds. And here I was, witnessing it in person.

There was one whole group that had gotten in a fight at a party. One guy had busted his hand up pretty badly. Across from them was a boy that had a sever concussion from falling while drunk. And so on....

All in all, it was a 2 hour wait for Kristin to see a doctor, at which point the pain had gotten worse and her wrists became swollen. A rash had begun on her arms. I was freaking out... kept asking the receptionist every 30 minutes when she was going to be seen. Poor Kristin was just curled up on the waiting area bench with her arms curled into her tummy.

The diagnosis is that Kristin is having a reaction to a viral infection that was causing "target lesions." It is a rare reaction, but it can happen with a whole host of viruses. The only thing to do is to wait for test results to come back and manage the pain.

So, Kristin spent another day sleeping. Slowly the target lesions spread to her tummy, back and legs.

But last night we did not go to the 24 hour clinic. The rashes and lesions are slowly clearing. Kristin is feeling better. :)

In other news, I bought a car yesterday. A 1989 Honda Civic, with high miles but very well maintained. I will try to post pictures sometime, but it is very cute car.

Also, I have not heard back from a couple of wineries that were next on my list. I am not sure how to proceed. I might just head up there in my new car. Or head south.

~ matt