not my typical Durham trip
Apr. 13th, 2019 06:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kareina* Usually I fly into Edinburgh early in the day, spend the afternoon and evening with Stephanie and her family, and then take the train to Durham the next morning. This time I flew to Manchester arriving in the early evening and the train didn't reach Durham till almost 23:00
* Last conference I helped with setup and registration then spent all day both days at the conference and the evenings on the computer organising conference notes and preparing to be in the lab afterwards. This time I also worked registration/set up for the conference, but realised after I got there that I hadn't actually made arrangements to pick up the poster that my supervisor had printed for me. One of the organisers was heading over to the Archaeology building to get some other stuff, so she said she'd get it, but Karen wasn't in her office, so she came back without it. Therefore, at first intermission I hurried up the hill to get it, found Karen in her office, chatted briefly, and returned to the conference having missed the first couple of 5 minute poster presentations, but in plenty of time to get my poster up before it was my turn (they had organised us into mini sessions grouped by theme, and my group was the third to present). T
hat evening I was experiencing some discomfort with swelling at the left end of my left scar, so didn't really accomplish anything useful work related, but relaxed and took it easy. The next morning the swelling seemed possibly better, certainly no worse, so I opted to take the train to Newcastle for day two of the conference. (I had wondered if I should try to find a medical center and ask if this new swelling is a sign of infection, but since the swollen area was looking less on the pink/red end of the spectrum than the day before, I decided to stick with plan A).
I enjoyed the morning talks, but part way through session #1 the woman sitting next to me started coughing a fair bit, and even sneezed a couple of times, and all I could think was "oh, no, I don't have time for that, keep your viruses over there". I also became more aware of the discomfort with the swelling, and noticed that the right side was also feeling a bit uncomfortable (never mind that, despite normally hating the thought of "drugs" and not taking pain meds, I was taking Alvadon (Paracetamol) every 4 or so hours). Therefore when the first tea break happened I opted to take the train back toaryanhwy's and went to sleep for three hours. I woke up on time to have had lunch and started making baking powder biscuits before she arrived home from her teaching in Switzerland.
I visited a bit with her, Gwen, and Joel (when he got home from working on the other house, which is getting close to done). I went to bed early, not that long after Gwen went to bed and Joel went back out to make more progress on the house. Of course that meant I woke up early this morning.
Today is Saturday, and the final day of the conference. The plan is a tour of Lindisfarne,including a talk about recent archaeological excavations, something I have long been looking forward to. I am a little hesitant though--there is still swelling on the left side--it almost looks like I still have a (small, with no hint of sag) breast on that side, except that it is centred closer to my armpit than breasts normally are. If I go on the field trip I will have to be with them all day--the bus departs at 09:00, and isn't returning until 17:30. I still have an hour before I need to decide if I am going. I want to, but should I?
* Last conference I helped with setup and registration then spent all day both days at the conference and the evenings on the computer organising conference notes and preparing to be in the lab afterwards. This time I also worked registration/set up for the conference, but realised after I got there that I hadn't actually made arrangements to pick up the poster that my supervisor had printed for me. One of the organisers was heading over to the Archaeology building to get some other stuff, so she said she'd get it, but Karen wasn't in her office, so she came back without it. Therefore, at first intermission I hurried up the hill to get it, found Karen in her office, chatted briefly, and returned to the conference having missed the first couple of 5 minute poster presentations, but in plenty of time to get my poster up before it was my turn (they had organised us into mini sessions grouped by theme, and my group was the third to present). T
hat evening I was experiencing some discomfort with swelling at the left end of my left scar, so didn't really accomplish anything useful work related, but relaxed and took it easy. The next morning the swelling seemed possibly better, certainly no worse, so I opted to take the train to Newcastle for day two of the conference. (I had wondered if I should try to find a medical center and ask if this new swelling is a sign of infection, but since the swollen area was looking less on the pink/red end of the spectrum than the day before, I decided to stick with plan A).
I enjoyed the morning talks, but part way through session #1 the woman sitting next to me started coughing a fair bit, and even sneezed a couple of times, and all I could think was "oh, no, I don't have time for that, keep your viruses over there". I also became more aware of the discomfort with the swelling, and noticed that the right side was also feeling a bit uncomfortable (never mind that, despite normally hating the thought of "drugs" and not taking pain meds, I was taking Alvadon (Paracetamol) every 4 or so hours). Therefore when the first tea break happened I opted to take the train back to
aryanhwy's and went to sleep for three hours. I woke up on time to have had lunch and started making baking powder biscuits before she arrived home from her teaching in Switzerland.I visited a bit with her, Gwen, and Joel (when he got home from working on the other house, which is getting close to done). I went to bed early, not that long after Gwen went to bed and Joel went back out to make more progress on the house. Of course that meant I woke up early this morning.
Today is Saturday, and the final day of the conference. The plan is a tour of Lindisfarne,including a talk about recent archaeological excavations, something I have long been looking forward to. I am a little hesitant though--there is still swelling on the left side--it almost looks like I still have a (small, with no hint of sag) breast on that side, except that it is centred closer to my armpit than breasts normally are. If I go on the field trip I will have to be with them all day--the bus departs at 09:00, and isn't returning until 17:30. I still have an hour before I need to decide if I am going. I want to, but should I?