Tag Archives: B12

News from the doctor

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Okay, good new first, I do not have a lifelong vitamin B12 deficiency that needs monthly injections, that is a relief. But I wonder why my values were so extremely low that one time when I did the tests the first time in Sweden?

The bad news, and I don’t how to rank these two according to badness, but the first thing; I have mono. Again! How is that even possible? I have no idea, but I definitely have it, and it sucks monkeyballs! This means no sports that could potentially hurt my stomach, and more specifically my spleen and liver. So no beach volleyball, no volleyball for four weeks. It is a good thing that spring break is four weeks away so I will be able to play down in SD at least. But I am still very bummed about this. I don’t have any symptoms once again (except for my tiredness lately). Ugh!!

After I stopped being surprised on the phone very early this morning, the doctor told me she had more bad news. What?? Apparently my blood is showing an allergic reaction to something. They couldn’t see what kind, just that I had it. I did those tests years ago in Sweden, I am not allergic to anything except bunnies and Erythromycin (a type of penicillin). What could it be? Nothing that makes my nose runny or eyes itchy or anything like that. She told me to get Allegra for allergy relief. But I hate taking medicine if I don’t know what for. So tomorrow I am gonna call the allergy place here in SLO and ask how much those tests would cost. If I am allergic to something I really wanna know what it is.

Everything is going so well for me right now, I’ve never ever had as good grades as I have now, I might have an internship, I have a great apartment down in San Diego waiting for me if I get the job, spring is coming, and I have spring break coming up with fun plans, and an awesome last quarter in school with fun classes, surfboard crafting class, scuba certification class and just amazing California in general. So why do I have to pay for all this with my health? It’s not fair :(.

I guess, as long as I don’t have symptoms and am lying half-dying in bed I should be glad.

And speaking of bed, it is time to join it under the covers. I am done with studying for the quiz tomorrow, I finished my German homework and I’ve had my fair share of ice cream tonight. Definitely time for a date with my pillow. Goodnight!

A good Monday

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This day started with a couple of blood tests to determine once and for all if I have a B12 deficiency that needs to be treated for the rest of my life. The two doctors in Sweden have so far told me two different things, so I’m hoping this will help me. I will hopefully get the results by the end of the week and we will deal with it after that.

I went back home to bed for another three hours after first skyping with mom for a while. Before class I went to a popcorn test for one of Julianne’s classes and then I had my two classes and ended the day with four hours at the library. I was done by ten, came home, and had nothing to do. I was so happy. I sat down, watched an episode of Arrow while painting my nails and just being happy. A big part of my happiness was the apartment I found in San Diego available for me right when I am done with school. Three Swedish girls are leaving in May and needs three new people moving in. I told them I was very interested and that I could come down and look at the apartment on Spring Break. She was also gonna talk to the building manager or whatever and get back to me with more details. $860/month, everything included, two pools in the apartment complex, parking spot for $55. And it is down in southern San Diego, close to beach volleyball. It is too good to be true, but on the other hand, everything seems to go my way right now :).

I had way too much energy tonight, so at midnight I started to clean my room, then I fixed my ripped jeans, and now when there is nothing more to do, I guess it is time to go to bed.

Career Fair

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This post used to contain pictures, but due to new storage limitations from WordPress, I had to fix the problem and decided to create a new blog that works as an archive for all the posts from my two years in California. This full post can be found here.

The past couple of days have been very interesting. Last night I went to the career fair for architects/planners/project managers/and whatever. I had looked up a few companies beforehand and talked to a lot of them. I was nicely dressed in Rachel’s clothes and felt more professional than I ever have. I think I did pretty well actually. There were especially two companies I was very interested in, both in North County San Diego and they both offered internship which then could turn into a fulltime job. Project Engineer Intern was the title and I was gonna help on construction sites and stuff like that. What I have done before pretty much. I am gonna email them both tomorrow and tell them I will be going down to San Diego again in the end of March. One of the companies specifically told me to come down and visit the office to say hi to people and go out and see some construction sites. I have a good feeling about this! I am very excited about this and hope I will get an internship for the next 9 months.

I talked to more companies and will apply for more internships than just these two, but those are the most interesting to me.

Today I talked to the visa specialist at the International Center and I got a lot of information there too. I learned last night that there is something called Visa Sponsorship (which basically just is when a company wants to hire you and give you an H-1 visa), and I asked this lady about the specifics about all of this. I have this 2-year rule that says that I have to be home in Sweden for the next two years after this visa expires. There is a way to waiver that thing. Which I would have to do before applying for the H-1 visa. And you can only apply for that once a year, April 1st, and that is way too soon for me. If some miracle happened I guess it could happen (I am gonna email an immigrant attorney tomorrow and ask about this). So I guess I have to wait for that until next year, but I can’t start working until October 1st, so that means I would have to go home to Sweden in March and then stay there until October. I wonder if a company would still want me if that would happen. I guess I will have to do a really good internship and hope for the best.

So for now my only option is to do an internship. It doesn’t sound too bad to be honest. It would be nice to spend next summer at home, working at Liseberg, living with mom again (because I guess I would have to give up my apartment pretty soon).

But one thing at a time, first I need to get an internship. Cross your fingers for me! 🙂

 

This morning I actually had an interview with another company, it went okay I would say. It wasn’t with one of the two companies that I really want though. This was the first trip I made to campus.

My second trip to campus today was to talk to the International Center (but no one was there at 3pm) and then discuss my B12 deficiency with a doctor at the Health Center. I explained my situation, that my first doctor in Sweden told me this is something that will never go away and that I will need injections for the rest of my life. The other doctor said I didn’t have a deficiency. So I will do all the test once again to determine what is going on. I will have to do that on Monday morning though, one of them was a test that needed to be done while fasting. Three tests in total, $50, but it will be worth it. If it turns out to be what the first doctor said and I will need injections every month for the rest of my life, the pharmacy will order a 25 pack of those doses just for me. $60 for that is not too bad. I think 5 doses in Sweden was like $10. They are also gonna teach me how to take them myself so I don’t have to go to a clinic every month.

My third visit to campus was at 6:30pm when I joined an intramural indoor volleyball team for their practice. One of my neighbors invited me and it was really fun. Not nearly as fun as beach volleyball, but definitely a good way to spend a Friday evening if nothing better is offered. Not as much ball contact as in beach volleyball, and I didn’t really get exhausted from the workout, but I still enjoyed it and might go next week to. Maybe I should even join a team myself next quarter? Unless they have intramural beach volleyball in the spring quarter which I have heard rumors about.

When I came home I took a shower, baked some cornbread and now I will take that cornbread with me to bed and watch the latest episode of The Flash and then pass out.

Career Fair outfit I had my hair down at the career fair, I felt pretty. It is kinda unbelievable that I am graduating in four months. I will have a Bachelor of Science in four months!! Crazy!Indoor vball German midterm 1My German midterm, these are the only marks I had on the test, and there were two more pages. Go me! (why not post random pictures when I have 13GB on this website to fill?)

Job interview and the doctor

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Yesterday I went to the doctor about this B12 problem of mine. A new investigation was put to action and I took a lot of blood tests. Big bruises on the insides of my arms now. I hope I will find out why I have this deficiency once and for all. And I also want B12. It is getting to my head and I am ridiculously tired all the time.

Today I had another job interview. This time it was at Burger King. I think that sounds more fun than at Home services. But it is only a part time job and I think I will get much more money from the old people job. That is a dilemma… I think I need to wait and see if I get any of them and then compare salaries or just take whatever I get.

What was so funny about this interview though was that the interviewer recognized me. I had no idea who he was. But then it turned out that we were in the same class in middle school! How small isn’t the world? Back then he was a tiny guy who didn’t speak Swedish very well. Now he was tall with barely no accent at all. Wow! I still think it is cool that I was being interviewed by a former classmate.

In the afternoon I was working with my thesis partner at Chalmers on our report. I hate writing. But we have come a long way and I hope that we will be done sometime next week. I won’t be able to do anything  else this week, maybe Sunday. But I have a lot to do. Structural Engineering studying tomorrow at school, baking a birthday cake for mom, yoga, working at Cultural Care, thesis meeting, London trip planning, visit from a cousin, BBQ in Slottskogen… Lots of stuff to do all the time. No wonder I am so exhausted.

Today was the opening of the City Library here in Gothenburg. I didn’t have time to go there today, but since the opening is going on for the rest of the week I am planning to go there on Sunday and listen to the architects of the building giving a presentation and take a look at my beautiful plaster and glass walls.

Yesterday I decided that it was well overdue to clean my earrings. Silver tend to get a layer of something on it after a while. So I searched online and first tried toothpaste, which didn’t work. My second try with aluminum foil balls in salty boiling water worked! A few, not to tight, foil balls, salt in the water, get the water to boiling point and then boil the silver earrings for five minutes. Almost as clean as new ones. Perfect! I like these household remedies :).

 

The last thing I want to write about before passing out on my bed is that I’ve gotten a lot of emails from CalPoly lately. I accidently turned off the email function on my phone and realized that today. I got a welcome email from the international center giving me my account information and CalPoly email. Of course my username is HBEMM (Hanna Bemm). I think I will get used to everyone calling me Hanna next year.

Another email was from University Housing telling me that they were happy to offer me space in their beautiful campus apartment for the upcoming academic year. That is great news! The problem is that I don’t understand what I am supposed to do now. So I sent a long email to that international center asking a lot of questions about everything. In a week I will have to sign up to the classes that I submitted in my application to the exchange program several months ago.

This thing is complicated! It is so much easier here where you apply for schools and programs and then get accepted to all the classes that is included. You sign up on a webpage and there you get a list of apartments you can apply for. So much easier!

This CalPoly thing is getting really real now. About four months until departure!! It will get even more real when I get my welcome package with all my legal papers (so I can apply for a visa) and tons of information from the school. Excited, oh yes! But at the same time, I wouldn’t mind staying here in Sweden either… I love my new  life here!