The century is bending—have a very happy ending

[sovay]

We are still dealing with Schrödinger's plumbers, but last night I was in bed for almost twelve hours and may have slept for as much as ten. The previous night I slept none and had an urgent care appointment even later in the day than it had been scheduled for: who needs a functioning health care system when a pandemic is no longer a national emergency? It turns out I have a sinus infection. I curled up with spatch and cats and read Gwynne Garfinkle's Can't Find My Way Home (2022), which I loved with its varyingly figurative degrees of haunting and its never simplistically shifting definitions of art and friendship and revolution and its own questioning, exhilarating soundtrack as it spirals in and out of time, which I impractically wish could have been included as a mixtape with the text. I have a better grounding in protest music of the Vietnam era than in American daytime drama of the same decades, but Garfinkle makes a strong case for caring just as much about the soap operas. With any luck, coming a year late to this full-blast first novel only means less of a wait to its follow-up, whatever form it may arrive in. This one takes several by turns: an unmissable kaleidoscope.

Comments

[minoanmiss]

*sends your body strength for evicting the infection*

[sovay]

*sends your body strength for evicting the infection*

Thank you! I figure the sleep can't have hurt.

[yhlee]

*support support* I hope the plumbers finish up soonest and that you get more sleep and that the infection goes away!!

[sovay]

I hope the plumbers finish up soonest and that you get more sleep and that the infection goes away!!

Thank you! We have most of a pantry again!

*hugs*

[gwynnega]

Thank you so much! This made my day. (There is a Spotify playlist for the novel, though I created it before Joni Mitchell yanked her catalog from that service.) Revisions of my next novel continue apace; it also has its own soundtrack.

I hope your sinus infection vanishes soon.

[asakiyume]

Wonderful review--I have this on my pile to read and am very much looking forward to it--even a year late.

[sovay]

Thank you so much! This made my day.

You're welcome! Your novel was a highlight of mine and would have been even in a week without plumbers.

(There is a Spotify playlist for the novel, though I created it before Joni Mitchell yanked her catalog from that service.)

Yay! I will supply the missing track.

Revisions of my next novel continue apace; it also has its own soundtrack.

I really look forward. Is your next novel already placed, if you don't mind my asking?

I hope your sinus infection vanishes soon.

Thank you. The plan is to treat it aggressively without oral antibiotics or steroids, which means I am putting a lot of things up my nose right now.

[sovay]

Wonderful review--I have this on my pile to read and am very much looking forward to it--even a year late.

It's an achronic novel, so it all works out.

[gwynnega]

My next novel doesn't have a home yet; I'm planning to query agents when I'm done revising. (I had an agent when I was writing Can't Find My Way Home, but then we parted ways and I ended up selling it myself. The new one is, among other things, about reproductive rights, which I wish hadn't become even more relevant since I wrote the first draft, but perhaps its topicality may be helpful publishing-wise.)

[sandrylene]

Oh no, a sinus infection in the middle of the plumbing saga sounds like an awful combination! :( I'm glad you at least got some sleep.

I hope both health and plumbing improve promptly!

[sovay]

My next novel doesn't have a home yet; I'm planning to query agents when I'm done revising.

Check. I didn't know if you had a deal with Aqueduct or something. (I just think people should be buying your books. I hope this one has been receiving suitable critical attention.)

(I had an agent when I was writing Can't Find My Way Home, but then we parted ways and I ended up selling it myself. The new one is, among other things, about reproductive rights, which I wish hadn't become even more relevant since I wrote the first draft, but perhaps its topicality may be helpful publishing-wise.)

Seriously. Fingers crossed. I love seeing your posts about the music you write and revise to.

[sovay]

I hope both health and plumbing improve promptly!

Thank you!

(I do consider the sinus infection wholly superfluous.)

[pameladean]

Sinus infections are such a very bad idea. I would like to speak to the management.

I hope the plumbers will depart soon, leaving your wall in better trim than when this all began.

Also I now have a whole lot of CSN and CSNY earworms at once, but of course I already had some because of the departure of David Crosby recently.

P.

[gwynnega]

Thank you!

[sovay]

Sinus infections are such a very bad idea. I would like to speak to the management.

Please! You are cordially invited to.

I hope the plumbers will depart soon, leaving your wall in better trim than when this all began.

Thank you. It's kind of amazing how much plumbing (and carpentry) there has been.

Also I now have a whole lot of CSN and CSNY earworms at once, but of course I already had some because of the departure of David Crosby recently.

*hugs*

[thisbluespirit]

<3

I'm glad to hear there was some sleep, even if the plumbers are ambiguous. I very much hope you recover soon - and have a break from all these infections as well! *hugs*

[shewhomust]

I played 'Taoe from California' last week, and had just cleared out the resultant earworms ...

But I'm glad you found the right book for your week.

[kore]

I never get antibiotics for my sinus infections (altho that's what fixes them, lolsob) and only OTC type steroids, do you mind me asking what the aggressive treatment is? I am having a sinus infection right now (teeth and eustachian tube also involved. Ow).

[sovay]

Do you mind me asking what the aggressive treatment is?

As part of my normal regimen, I rinse nasally with saline twice a day; we have added the topical antibiotic mupirocin to my evening rinse and the topical steroid budesonide to my morning rinse. If I don't show significant improvement over the weekend, we add a blitz of Afrin which I am hoping to avoid because I haven't used it in years because I hate it. (I can't tolerate oral decongestants like Sudafed.) If I don't show significant improvement after that, I'm on oral prednisone and I don't want that, either. The budesonide is anti-inflammatory, to give my head a chance to drain while the mupirocin works on the infection. Topical antibiotics for sinus infections are slower to work than oral antibiotics, but don't come with the side effects that I can no longer risk.

[edit] From my perspective I am showing significant, in the sense of statistically meaningful, improvement in that while I am still in a great and distracting deal of pain, I have slept a normal amount two nights running after being in so much pain that I couldn't sleep, even dozing, at all.

[sovay]

I'm glad to hear there was some sleep, even if the plumbers are ambiguous. I very much hope you recover soon - and have a break from all these infections as well!

Thank you!

*hugs*

[sovay]

But I'm glad you found the right book for your week.

My apologies for the earworm! Thank you.

[kore]

Oh that's really interesting!

we have added the topical antibiotic mupirocin to my evening rinse and the topical steroid budesonide to my morning rinse

Ah I see, I was kind of hoping for non-prescriptive stuff because the clinic I go to refuses to prescribe anything for my sinus infections, period. How do you add the antibio to your saline rinse? Is it a neti pot or one of those saline rinsers? (I'm sorry if I seem overly interested etc. but sinus infections have just made my life hell for forever, and they're getting worse as I get older, with the inclusion of my eustachian tube which means temporary? hearing loss, tinnitus and vertigo.)

[kore]

And yeah, Afrin really clears out my sinuses for a couple of days but the rebound is always so terrible it's typically not worth it. (I tell myself that every time I get terribly sick, until I just can't bear having the sinus infection with no antibios for another month and go for the Afrin anyway.)

[sovay]

How do you add the antibio to your saline rinse? Is it a neti pot or one of those saline rinsers?

I don't have a neti pot; I use a NeilMed bottle which I bought for the purpose. The mupirocin is a roughly inch-long ribbon, added first with the saline mix (packet or homemade) and then about half the water, heated to a slightly higher temperature than usual because one shakes the bottle like a glutinous cocktail until the antibiotic ointment is dissolved, after which the rest of the water can be added and the whole concoction shot up the nose per usual. The texture of the treated water is fine, its smell and taste are medicinal, but I have found that it doesn't linger unbearably. The budesonide is a slightly acrid liquid and just gets dropped in with the saline and water; the trick there is to wait ten to fifteen minutes after rinsing with it and then rinse again with plain saline, to wash off the excess once the steroid has had a chance to be absorbed into the relevant tissues. Leaving it in predisposes nosebleeds, which characterized my previous experience of budesonide and made me highly reluctant to include it in this round of treatment until the doctor explained the use of the second rinse, of which no one had heretofore informed me. Your clinic is treating you inappropriately, which I am sure you know. It may still be worth asking them for this kind of treatment, if the oral antibiotics are their sticking point. While the combination of topical antibiotic and topical steroid is considered aggressive, neither of them is controversial to prescribe.

[sovay]

(I tell myself that every time I get terribly sick, until I just can't bear having the sinus infection with no antibios for another month and go for the Afrin anyway.)

I was recommended it constantly in college and grad school, which in hindsight feels like one of those weird medicinal pushes that pass through the medical profession—I had some unpleasant reactions even before reaching the rebound and developed a distinct antipathy. Budesonide does not have a rebound in my experience. It does need to be tapered, but not dramatically: every other day for a week, sort of thing, and then stop.

[kore]

OK, "glutinous cocktail" really cracked me up. Thank you SO MUCH for going into so much detail -- I'm going to try to at least test some of these ideas with my doc at the clinic. Right now we have to run check in with the vet because Shakti's health is crashing again --

[sovay]

Thank you SO MUCH for going into so much detail -- I'm going to try to at least test some of these ideas with my doc at the clinic. Right now we have to run check in with the vet because Shakti's health is crashing again --

You're welcome! Good luck! Godspeed!

*hugs*

[ethelmay]

I have been working on getting used to a CPAP lately, and the key seems to be treating congestion that is slight enough I could previously ignore it (could still breathe through my nose, just had slightly swollen tissues). Nasal decongestant works but obviously I can't keep doing that. Tried generic Flonase and Breathe-Right strips last night, which worked, and mean to try each of them separately. Why even are noses, grumble.

[skygiants]

Thanks for mentioning this book, it sounds phenomenal and I'll definitely be seeking it out! (But I am sorry to hear about the sinus infection...)

[sovay]

Thanks for mentioning this book, it sounds phenomenal and I'll definitely be seeking it out!

You're welcome! I hope it treats you just as well. I recommend the playlist linked by gwynnega.

(But I am sorry to hear about the sinus infection...)

(Thank you.)

[thisbluespirit]

I don't know what you might be able to handle right now, but if you might like another small Martin jarvis-related audio distraction, I just listened to Craddock and Co (1993): https://archive.org/details/craddock-and-co-01

There are only 3 eps (*sob*) and it was really sweet and fun - features Martin Jarvis as a Victorian bookseller turned detective by night, who is joined by his resourceful and down-to-earth niece from Lancashire, Lucy - And Together They Fight Crime! I feel like someone mashed up Adam Adamant Lives! with the Eight and Lucie run from BFA and therefore I loved it. You might well enjoy it too, especially if you could use something light and easy (but not without a bit of heart) - if audio is still working for you. But ♥ anyway!

[sovay]

Martin Jarvis as a Victorian bookseller turned detective by night, who is joined by his resourceful and down-to-earth niece from Lancashire, Lucy - And Together They Fight Crime!

That sounds delightful! Thank you for thinking of me.

[thisbluespirit]

Heh, my pleasure. <3