Shiver Me Copper Timbers

On Sunday, I helped my mom (and dad) unload the pieces for a garden shed that will be put up on Thursday. I wound up (mostly) being the one in the pickup bed, moving stuff out to where Mom and Dad could reach it, likely because I'm the only one who doesn't mind climbing up and down from there. That was enjoyable. Then since Dad's pickup was there anyway, he decided he wanted to pick up the remnants of Mom's pear tree. She'd had it cut down the week before. I'm honestly not sure why. Partially it was because it had gotten too tall to actually get to the pears, but that seems an odd reason to just get rid of it.

Anyway, once the pickup was empty of shed pieces, we all began carrying the chopped up tree to it. Not as enjoyable as unloading the shed, but still sort of fun. Until I got done, and lay down in the grass, waiting, and noticed that my arms were starting to itch. Worse, they were starting to break out in little red spots. As far as I know, I'm not allergic to pear trees, but I looked around and suddenly had a good idea what had happened. My mom confirmed it. The people who cut up the tree had trimmed the pine bushes in front first. I'm allergic to those bushes. We found that out the year Grandma had me help pull up a vine that was growing around the one in back (likely Virginia Creeper). So I was a bit annoyed. Luckily we were done then and I could go home and spray some Benadryl onto the hives. They went clear up and down the inside of my forearms, a bit on the outside, and a few on the back of my right hand. I've still got remnants of the hives, but today they just look like little scratches.

Entirely unrelated, I've been having some odd symptoms lately. Bad taste in the mouth. Nausea. Mild stomach pain. After much hunting and many false leads, I finally found that they matched the symptoms of mild copper overdose. More telling, the protein associated with regulating copper absorption (as well as other metals) is also implicated in gluten intolerance. It's called metallothionein. The protein has also been connected to schizophrenia and ADHD (header: Schizophrenia). Incidentally, I suspect that my dad is one of the 4% of schizophrenics who would be cured if he went gluten-free. He'll never do it, unfortunately.

The nice thing about figuring this out is that I know exactly where the extra copper has been coming from: a copper-bottom teapot that I got this summer. I didn't use it too much in the summer, so it makes perfect sense that the symptoms would begin showing up as it got colder outside and I started drinking more tea. So I now have a brand new teapot. I got a nice, pricey steel one this time, that whistles when the water boils. What I found indicated that the symptoms should dissipate once the extra copper was removed, and they do seem to be fading. Too early to be certain, but I'm pretty sure I've hit the right solution.

Let's see... non-health-related news? Well, I actually got midterm grades submitted on time. I usually don't. I usually just give students their grades in class at some point during the appropriate week. Every class but one had a test last week, too. *mutters to herself*