Purple Toe Syndrome

       That sounds far more entertaining that the reality is.  What it is: a symptom of some problem, circulation to extremities slows, causing the platelets to start sticking together, forming bruising and blood clots.  It is unusual and the first questions are if you are grossly overweight, diabetic or have been on warfarin for an extended period of time, like several years and are elderly and usually male.
        Since it's easy for the crew at SIU Dermatology to see that I am not overweight, and I am not diabetic, and have never been on warfarin, we look for other causes, lupus, rare genetically linked diseases, and the blood work was done last week and they will call with results and everything goes to my primary care doctor here in town, who also got a hand carried hard copy of the lab work ordered.  I have NO clue what the tests are, but knew he would.
        If all are negative there is 1 more blood test to run, but all are for very rare, very uncommon diseases and there is NO cure for them.  Lupus is an autoimmune disease, but mine has never flared much and I've probably had it for 30+ years.  That genetic stuff is where I have NO idea of what or who or when, and my doctor says that is very normal, especially with diseases that show up so very rarely.
     For now, it's more water and aspirin every day to help reduce the chance of a blood clot causing problems.  I see him again the 14th and he expects to have the results of the lab work SIU had done.  And we hope we have answers and can start a plan of action to help keep me as healthy as possible.
      In the meantime, I have fabric coming from Farmhouse fabrics, for doll sewing and I have 4 doll dresses to do the hand smocking on, socks going for Ben, a full time job at JBS, 3 Vespa scooters wanting time, money and work before riding season and a very tight budget because I have been very careless with my spending and with credit.
     But the tax returns are filed and accepted so in time, and we have NO idea this year what that 'time' thing will be, but I will have both state and federal to help fix some of my financial 'be stupid' stuff.  And since my refunds are nice sized, I went into h.r. at the plant and filled out the form to reduce the amount extra I have held out on both federal and state so in a week or 2, or once they get it done right, I will have $17 more every week in the paycheck.
     And after finishing David Weber's newest Safehold book and griping and whining, I am starting the whole series over, he will Not have the next book in this series available for pre-order for months and I expect a January 2020 release date.  I did tell Jake, when he was trying to reason with me that I need those books to entertain me while I knit his socks, that his getting socks depends on my having some really good and entertaining reading  while I knit.
     We had some really cold weather and snow, now we have rain, in fact just a few minutes ago the skies opened up and it dumped a lot of water or so the roof sounded.  But I am tucked in my studio in my warm and dry house and  despite stupid health issues, a very tight budget, cold and wet and tired of winter gripes, life here is doing ok.