"Take with food"

What exactly does that mean?

What constitutes 'food'? Honestly. Do they mean an all-out meal, or would a single oreo suffice? Could you have a handful of peanuts or a cupful of cadbury mini eggs?

Do you always need to take it with water? Why not pop? Or milk? Or juice? What about a smoothie? Or why not just throw the pill in ur mouth once ur food is mashed up, swallow it all at once and hope for the best?

Riddle me this one, people. Riddle me this.

As i am still in the early stages of Sporonox, I am in an on-going battle with myself as to what exactly constitutes 'food', seeing as i have to take this pill 3 times a day - you guessed it - with food. And seeing as i have a hard time actually eating 3 meals in one day (I prefer to graze like a cow), i find that my pill-taking times vary considerably day to day.

This probably is not helping the cause.

If anyone has any idea, let me know.

Onto other topics

Today was day 1 of having to get weekly bloods taken thanks to Sporonox and it's potentially horrific liver side effects. My arms are still shockingly bruised from Fridays hospital excursion. I must admit that the blown vein residing on the side of my right arm is pretty impressive: it's all black and purple like the vein exploded - puncture mark in the center included. I could probably get away with telling people I was bitten by a one-toothed vampire and they'd beleive me. It's smallish but it looks vicious and painful. It's not, but i will use it to get out of whatever strenuous activity is forced upon me if need be.

So anyways, i get to the MSD lab and sit down. I am taken to the back and take off my coat so they can take blood. I hold out my left arm and the blood taker-lady ties the plastic thing around my arm as tight as humanly possible and orders me to make a fist. I do.

"Squeeze harder" she says.
I do.
She takes her plastic gloved hand and taps a finger over the inside of my elbow.
She looks at me. Her eyes widen.
She feels nothing.
"Oh my god!" she says.

"I got IV's Friday," i explain. "My veins are bad; they tried twice. See?" I proudly hold up my right arm and display to her the bruise left by the altercation my vein got into with the needle.

"What did they do to you?!" she asks horrified. For some sick reason, i found this funny and smiled. I love my nurses and they don't do it on purpose; my veins just suck from years of use.

She holds the needle to my vein and i start to laugh. "Don't laugh till i've got it in," she says.

She finally feels a vein and holds the needle to my skin. It's massive and looks like a thick steel pin. It's gonna hurt; I know it. It's so big that i can see the hole in the end of it. She sighs and looks at me.

"Good luck," she says, "to you and me both" and proceeds to stick the needle in.

No dice. No blood return, no nothing. She digs around, tries different angles, and nothing. She pulls it out, and it hurts. She holds the cotton swab to it and looks at me.

"I'm sorry," she says. "You have to come every week?? Give me your other arm." She takes my left arm, finds a vein, cries 'eureka!' stabs me, gets the blood, and tells me she'll use that spot next week.

I'm not so thrilled about that. That's the spot they give me my IV's in. It's the only spot i have left. It's my secret weapon, and this fucking sporonox shit will all but deplete my only vein source.

FUCK!

Once again, i wish i could get a Picc or a Port but nooooooooooooooo my immunolgists won't have it.

GAH!

So that's all. Today wasnt a horrible day. I just did Tobi. I'm off to TO tomorrow. I'll write if it's eventful. If not, i'll stay completely silent until something interesting happens.

Which will be hard, b/c i never shut up.