The LA County Fair

My labmates (aka people I work/slave away with) took a fun trip to the LA County fair last week with our PI (aka boss) - my lab is just too cool. This was my first time at a fair and I was kind of excited, even though I was still dealing with shingles pain, uh. Overall, it was a great day.

Here are some shots from our day:

Note: I didn't go on that ride. I enjoyed having my feet planted firmly on the ground.

Fair food may look amazing, but it definitely didn't taste amazing, sadly.

Bee exhibit

 Can you find the Queen? She's larger than the other bees and has a circle of worker bees around her that pet and groom her all day long. Here's a hint: she has a red dot on her head - the dot is not natural. It's for the bee keepers to identify her.

Pig races. My little piggy won the first 2 :)

 I won a chocolate covered banana for it (courtesy of the person I bet against, haha!). It didn't taste good.

Clydesdales

Fried Oreo

Shingles

I guess it has been over a month since I posted on my blog and I'm sorry for that. I've received the many complaints and emails but it's been hectic and crazy this last month and I'll tell you why...

Now, before I write this, I want to let you know that the sole purpose of this post is not to complain and revel in my bravery as if I'm some war hero, but to let people know that it's serious and there are many different symptoms that are not clear textbook cases. My case was not as bad as some that I've read about, and I got lucky, thank God.

With that being said, yes I got shingles !@#$%. It's been a week now that I am symptom free (my main reason for being absent) and although I didn't tell anyone really of this, I am writing about it now, in the hopes that I can help someone. My symptoms were NOT textbook case and the only reason I ended up going to the doctor's to being with is because nothing with me is ever textbook. And, I knew it was shingles, I'm a googler and biologist...we know these things ;)

I'm a 29-year old female who thought she was relatively healthy (ha!) but somehow managed to get shingles. I had chicken pox as a kid, and as most people know, the chicken pox virus lives dormant in our bodies for eternity and only manifests itself when we are weak. Why was I weak, don't know. I think emotionally my head was not in the game of school and with lots of ups and downs with family and all that fun stuff, I got sick...who saw that one coming?

Anywho's...here's my story. Read it with a box of tissues...just kidding!  :D

Non-Textbook Case Shingles:
1. All week I was feeling really tired and weak. It was right before my period so I assumed it's PMS, but it was weird this time around. I was unusually sleepy and slept in all week and got to work around 11, sometimes 12 (yikes!). A few days before my period, I started feeling as though I had a fever. Chills, body ache, but no registered fever. Again, I attributed this to my period, because this is usually quite normal for me to feel like i'm getting sick before Charlie visits.

2. I didn't think much of it, meanwhile, I woke up one morning with the strangest itchy feeling on my back and didn't think much of it. It was right under my bra strap, so obviously I assumed it was my bra annoying me (all you women know what I mean). So, naturally I ignored it.  All day it drove me crazy. This incessant itch that wouldn't go away. I took a shower that night and itched the heck out of my back and it felt better, but come the next day, the same thing. Finally I had my husband take a look, and he said I don't see anything. At this point I remember thinking to myself, I'm going crazy and started to remember that a few months back (~5-6 months ago) I had this weird itchy feeling all up and down my left arm (same side as my outbreak), and it lasted for 2 weeks. I would try to find anything to itch up against as if I was a cat. I did go to the doctors for it because I thought I was going nuts and the doctor said it was probably stress related or shingles, but without an outbreak they didn't medicate. Well the itching went away and there was no outbreak until now, 5 months later.

3. Small red bumps appeared a few days after the itching, as though I was bit by a mosquito, but it wasn't just one, it was a cluster of 7-8, some large, some tiny (hard to tell from my crappy pic).  I first thought it was a spider bite (but what spider bites in 8 different places) because the bumps didn't bother me. It never spread, it didn't get bigger or worse, they never blistered, they were just there.

 Best pic I could take. I couldn't find any pictures on google that looked like this - this is why I'm posting it. Gross I know. This was a few days after the break out, the bumps are drying up. One of them looks like it's a small blister, but you really couldn't tell looking at it.  My husband couldn't.

4. After the bumps appeared, 2 days later, I woke up with extreme soreness on my entire left upper torso that wrapped around under my armpit. My lymph nodes were painful to touch and it was at this point I realized something was wrong, but based off my reading, shingles manifests itself with blisters AND I didn't have any. I'm also 29, not 59, so I thought to myself, impossible. So, I ignored it and thought maybe I lifted something or my bag was too heavy when I was biking. I popped a few advil and dragged myself to work. The soreness was so bad, I couldn't even lift my arm, let alone sleep on that side.

5. The next day, the soreness was still there, a bit less intense, but now the pain started. Excruciating, radiating, needle like pain. Some medical posts referred to it as burning, but it was more as if needles were being shot through my back and up my nerves. It was too sensitive to touch, and sitting back in the car while driving drove me crazy. Worst pain ever. Nothing helped except taking a deep breath during the intervals where the pain would disappear, waiting for the next round. At this point, I knew it was shingles. Mind you, I still went to work (bad idea). I dragged myself to urgent car, got checked out, told the doc I have shingles and needed something, at which point he laughed and said yes, you do and then he asked me what I did for a living (abusive googler)...anyways...long story short, got Acyclovir (aka Zovirax), and took them 5 times a day for 10 days (whoever came up with this regime was insane...do you know how complicated it was to remember this) and I totally told the doctor I could do it. Yes, they have a 3x a day option, but Acyclovir (from my research) was the better option...idiot! Note: make a chart for yourself, it really helps. By the way, my doctor had shingles when he was 15.

6. It took me about halfway through the meds to lose the pain. By day 3 of the medication the pain had gotten worse, and the bumps had slowly dried up, but the pain...my God!  The sensitivity...my god and it still itched. At this point, my husband had a new title: The Master Itcher. He would itch around the breakout spot and it was like heaven...oh...blissful...

7. By about day 7-8 of the pills my pain was gone and the only pain left was having to remember to take the meds 5x a day.


My tale is epic, let me tell you ;) but out of all seriousness, it's not a joke and the pain isn't either. Those who have been through it know it's one of the worst pains, worse than any surgery rehab pain. It's excruciating. The key however with all of this is to get checked out IMMEDIATELY. The sooner you take the meds the better. My case was far from textbook and had I known, I would have gone sooner.  Now, don't be paranoid like me: any itch I start to feel drives me crazy and I freak out thinking it's going to come back. It might, but probably not now.

Anyone who has had chicken pox can get shingles at ANY AGE. If you've had shingles, your immune system is stronger against it, BUT you can get it again. Even if you've had the shingles vaccine, you can get shingles. If you are young, stressed, depressed, stressed, bla bla bla...you can get it. If you are healthy and active and eat right (not a graduate student, haha) you are probably safe. Now my eating habits don't consist of fried foods or junk food, yet, I still managed to screw up my immune system with stress so that my body couldn't fight it off.

Hope this post helps anyone looking for answers.  And shingles is NOT syphilis...do you know how many times I vocally confused the two...sheesh...

Deezy - Traditional Iranian Dish

This past Friday (yes, my post is extremely late...it's already Wednesday) was the 6th anniversary of knowing my husband - August 16th was the first day we met :) I remember that day for so many reasons and 6 years later, it still feels like yesterday. We had a short (I say short because we both got home at 8:30 that night) dinner date and got one of my favorite foods ever at this new joint (Hen House Grill) that opened up near our house. Actually it's been there for over a year now and we just never got around to going, haha! But oh my gosh, the food is fabulous. There is this one dish that we used to get during the summers when I was small and visiting Iran, called deezy. It's basically a stew of potatoes meat and beans, cooked in individual portions. You separate out the juice from the stew and eat it like soup and mash up the meat, beans and potatoes and eat that with bread. It may not sound that appetizing with the way I'm describing it, but believe me, something about the way it's prepared and cooked is so good (and I normally don't like stew) that I crave it and have been craving it for some time now.  Craving it in this style...it's a dish that most can make at home, but not this way! I think for me, deezy is somewhat nostalgic, reminding me of my summers with my family back in Iran sitting by a fountain or river having deezy with handfuls of freshly baked bread, laughing and telling stories late into the night. 

Don't mind the pony clamps, its so one could handle the metal pots. 

So, I had flashbacks of summers ago and enjoyed the deezy so much. I was hoping that I would get a chance to have it for the first time with my hubby in Iran, but this is good enough :) 6 years and counting!

Here's a link I found that talks about deezy (also known as ab-goosht) for those interested: Deezy explained.

I'm hungry...this totally beats the PB&J sandwich I had today!!!

Banana Bread Avec Chocolate Chunks

I love banana bread and zucchini bread and pumpkin bread and sigh...all kinds of bread. I could never go on a low or even no carb diet. I came across this recipe and it was a twist on the regular banana bread that I am used to making. I decided to try it, even though I'm cautious about adding chocolate to anything but cookies and brownies, but it came out delicious!!!! It's a very moist and dense cake filled with flavor.

Here's the recipe!! The only thing I changed was not adding Bourbon - no alcohol in this Muslim household.  For every tablespoon of Bourbon I added 1 part vanilla extract and 2 parts water.

Recipe by Joy the Baker posted at A Cup of Jo.

Ingredients: 
Makes 1 loaf


2 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 ½ cups mashed ripe bananas (from about 3 bananas)
1 tsp lemon juice
2 tbsp water + 1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
Almost 1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chunks



Directions:

• Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour an 8x4-inch or 9x5-inch loaf pan. Set aside. 
• In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt. 
• In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. 
• Add eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute between each addition. Stop the mixer, scrape down sides of the bowl, and add bananas, lemon juice and vanilla extract. Beat until well incorporated.
• Turn the mixer to low and add the flour mixture all at once. Beat until almost incorporated. Stop the mixer and remove the bowl. Add the walnuts and chocolate chips and incorporate the last of the ingredients with a spatula.
• Batter will be thick. Spoon the mixture into prepared loaf pan. Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
• Remove from the oven and allow loaf to cool in the pan for 20 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack to cool completely. 
• Serve with milk or tea or coffee and enjoy!

I used very very ripe bananas that had an almost brown skin and really mashed them well. Actually let me take this time to give credit where credit is due, the hubby actually mashed them :D 

Bon Appétit! :)

Cabinet Organization

I really got tired of the mess that had become my pyrex and tupperware cabinet. Every time I wanted to get something, things would get moved around, I had to remove all the pyrex to get to the bottom one...and the complaints go on. So, I figured I needed a better way to get things. I use a wire rack to organize my platters and I figured it would work for holding pyrex  well, why not use a wire rack (similar to this) to organize the pyrex and a basket to organize the miscellaneous items that have become annoying to manage.

Voila...things are now easily accessible.
 

After

 Before

 

Ya I know, the mess isn't that bad, but it was enough to annoy me when I needed to get something out quickly.

:) It's more manageable now and it makes me happy. Yay!

Time-lapse of San Francisco - Adrift

I came across this amazing time-lapse film by Simon Christen of photos taken in San Francisco amist the wonderful fog that really makes the city what it is. It made me miss home so much...I almost started to cry (get it together, you're at work and your boss just walked in). This has been a crazy month for some many reasons (hence the absence) and Ramadan is also almost over and I feel as though I am missing it already. Sadness overload today.

 

 I wish I was sitting in my favorite spot with my favorite people overlooking the bay right now.