I have a theory about how tired I get in the evening. I think it’s the second dose of Effexor that I take with dinner! The tiredness seems to happen pretty soon after I eat dinner, which is when I take my evening meds. So tonight I am testing this theory by waiting to take the evening meds until later.

So far I feel a little sleepy but not dead tired, and it is 8:40. Woo!

This morning it was raining when my alarm went off. It hasn’t rained in something like two months here, so it was very welcome! I snoozed for a full hour just so I could enjoy the warmth of my bed and the sound of the rain in the trees.

Yet again I had Starbucks for breakfast/lunch. I took a laptop to work so that I could work on a story during my lunchbreak, which I did. I didn’t eat lunch, nor did I have any vending machine food or anything in the afternoon.

I was in kind of a giddy mood today, giddy and excited and easily bored. I bounced around from thing to thing.

As soon as I got home I took Sean to bed. (Normally I say “Sean and I spent some time together” and now you know my Secret Code.) After that we went to Sushi Huku, where I had a Lambada Roll, a tuna roll, some salmon nigiri, and some eel nigiri. I did not finish the tuna roll, nor did I eat the eel nigiri (I got full!), so they are in a box in the fridge. Sean also had a Lambada Roll, along with a bagel roll. He at least finished his food. (He also ate most of the edamame.)

~

It is now 11:25 and I did not get sleepy until just a bit ago. I took the medicine at around 10:30. So yeah, I think that’s it!

I got up as soon as my alarm went off, feeling pretty rested. I showered, had my protein shake, and took my morning meds. I’d hoped to get some writing done, but I didn’t really have the time to get into it before work.

I picked up Starbucks on the way in, because I still haven’t worked out a good system for packing breakfasts and lunches, sigh.

For some reason I was extremely bored all day. I did not take a lunch break; I sat at my desk and ate a single-serving bag of potato chips and four Dum-Dums suckers. Very healthy!

On the way home I picked up Wendy’s for dinner: spicy chicken sandwiches, salads, and potatoes. Only when I got home I only had one potato. Sigh. I asked Sean if I could have it and he said I could.

I played a couple rounds of Cards Against Humanity with some Star Wars fan friends, which was really fun. Then I was suddenly exhausted, so I napped from 7:30 to 10:30. When I got up I ate Nutty Bars for a sugar hit (again, so healthy).

Someday I’ll be able to name a post “CHF Recovery: Final Update” because my heart function will have been restored. That’ll be pretty awesome.

But to get there I seriously need to find a way to incorporate exercise into my day and plan meals better.

• Got up at around 6:30
• Had protein shake and morning meds
• Wrote a ficlet that has gotten a pretty positive response!

I have a bunch of prompts, a few WIPs, and a reward fic for a giveaway that I need to work on, but instead of doing any of that I wrote a whole new thing inspired by a picture. Whatcha gonna do? But hopefully that won’t be the only thing I write today.

~

Update: I wrote two other things. I did not exercise or do any chores. Dinner was some roast chicken and dressing that Cheryl sent home with us yesterday.

Happy Thanksgiving :)

My alarm went off at 6, but I had already been lying there awake for quite some time. I laid there for awhile longer, then finally got up. I had my protein shake and meds and poked around online, then took a shower.

We won’t be having Thanksgiving until around 2, so I knew I needed to eat something. I ended up going to Starbucks. I felt bad that people had to work on Thanksgiving so I tipped $10, and I also thanked them for being open. I got myself a protein bistro box, and I got a sausage and cheese breakfast sandwich for Sean.

I got back and gave Sean his breakfast and then got on the computer and ate while reading and chatting (I feel like this is my life in a nutshell).

I’m missing my family today. I’d love to go to Thanksgiving dinner in Kentucky. It sounds like it’s going to be really nice, as usual. But Thanksgiving with Sean’s parents will be good too.

~

Update: Thanksgiving with Sean’s parents was lovely. We went to their friends’ house with them and had a fantastic meal and met a bunch of really nice people. Everyone was so friendly. There was an adorable little girl there, maybe about three years old, and there were four dogs. It was heaven.

After that meal we went to Mema and Papa Stan’s, and it was so good to see them again. They hadn’t seen me since the weight loss surgery; Papa Stan said “Sean, what do you have here, a model?” and Mema called me “skinny mini”. I was a little embarrassed (Papa Stan asked “What happened?” and I said “Got lucky, I guess”) but also very flattered, especially by the “model” bit :D

Going to Augusta and back in a day is kind of rough, but we managed it, and now we’re home safe with some leftovers in the fridge. It was a good day.

Hopefully I’ll put up the Christmas tree tomorrow…

This is the update for Wednesday, November 23, 2016.

I had heard rumors that we were only working a half day, so I got Starbucks breakfast as usual and thought happily about having lunch with Sean once I got off work. Unfortunately it didn’t go that way and we didn’t get dismissed till 3, and I ended up not taking a lunch break at all. Alas.

When I got home I did some reading and chatting online, then around 6 asked Sean if he wanted to go get Thai. He said yes but he was worried about traffic. I said, “Eh, let’s just go,” so we did. I drove, just in case traffic was bad and it would agitate him, but it turned out to be very light; I guess everyone had already left for Thanksgiving ;)

Dinner was nice. I tried the Thai iced tea for the first time. It was spiced and creamy and rich, and I enjoyed it a lot. For my meal I had panang curry instead of massaman, and it was good as well (but I’ve had it before. I pretty much always get some kind of curry).

After dinner I poked around online until around 9:30, then went to bed.

Today I woke up naturally at 5:20, and since I had slept since 9, I decided to go ahead and get up. So I did. Since I showered last night, I didn’t take a shower this morning; I just got dressed and got on my computer and had my shake and medicine. I spent the extra time writing a ~400 word story, which was fun. It was fairly silly. Then I packed a lunch and went to work.

Work was fine; more proofing print catalog. I was supposed to have a lunch meeting with someone to help them out, but due to some confusion we did not find each other. That was kind of embarrassing. But I finished all my catalog pages, and that was good.

After work I picked up Mexican for dinner. As I was driving it occurred to me that I should try to eat very little sodium for breakfast and lunch, and then at dinner I can have fairly normal food. I think this should be doable. And that way I won’t have to feel like I have to cook dinner after a long day. So I’m going to make up a cheat sheet of low sodium foods, and also the sodium in my usual meals from restaurants, and go from there.

Sean and I ate dinner and watched That 70s Show, and he rubbed my back and it was awesome. Then I got on my computer and did some reading.

There’s a lot to be anxious about in life and in the world right now. I got really anxious yesterday. Today I managed to stay mostly calm.

I’d like to do some more writing, but I already feel sleepy. Alas.

Getting a head start on this today, so at least the post will exist to edit later.

Snoozed for 15 minutes this morning, then startled violently when my alarm went off again. I was half awake and thinking about a short story idea.

Got up and dressed and turned on the car, as it’s in the mid-thirties this morning. Then had my meds and protein shake and did a bit of reading online.

I did not exercise or eat properly all weekend, nor did I come up with a meal plan. Sigh.

This is Thanksgiving week; I’m only working through Wednesday. Sean is off entirely, and I am the personification of Envy. Ah well.

~

I got really stressed out today. Came home at lunch and cried in Sean’s arms for a bit. Picked up unhealthy lunch on the way back to work and ate it at my desk. Stressed so hard my chest started hurting, then tried to force myself to stop stressing. I was marginally successful.

When I got home from work I told Sean that food stresses me out and I had chest pain and I did not want to think about food ever again. He said we would go out to eat. I had already put on pajamas, but I put clothes back on. He asked me to drive because he hadn’t eaten all day and had a headache. I drove. He got vertigo. I got very grouchy and thought, but did not say, many unkind things.

We made it to the restaurant (Muss & Turner’s) and ordered and I spent most of dinner reading stuff on my phone. I had wagyu steak with gnocchi and mushrooms and it was pretty good, though kind of rich. Sean had a burger and chicharrones, which is a fancy way of saying pork rinds. We did not have dessert. On the way home Sean almost got sick. His allergies/sinus issues had combined with his headache and vertigo to form Super Unpleasantness. I drove as carefully as I could over the ridiculous number of speed bumps in our apartment complex. Pretty much as soon as we got home, he went to bed. I decided to take a shower, since I didn’t take one this morning.

I asked for writing prompts earlier in the day and I have several. I was eager to start working on them, but I feel tired. I guess I’ll try and see what happens.

(I did not write. I went to bed at 9pm.)

Saturday, November 19

Sat in bed on my little laptop reading and such. Moved to my office when William got up. Went to therapy at 1, and it was good. I also took some nice pictures of fall leaves and trees. Came back and made myself lunch and goofed off online until dinnertime, then went and got myself some chicken strips. However, I was only able to eat one of them before I started feeling icky. I moved back to bed for a few hours, finally going to sleep at 10:30 or so.

Sunday, November 20

I woke up at 3:30am and could not get back to sleep, so I stayed up. Did some reading and writing, and ate cheesecake and my leftovers from last night. Moved to my office when William got up, then loaded the dishwasher and started laundry. William left around lunchtime. For lunch I had leftover spaghetti from Friday night.

I basically stayed on the computer and read all day. I finished the laundry (three loads) and picked up Jimmy John’s for dinner. It’s 8 o’clock now and I’m very tired, so I may well go to bed.

(In personal news I made a mistake that really hurt someone’s feelings, and I am trying to learn from that so it doesn’t happen again.)

Whoa, so yeah, I’ve been pretty neglectful with these updates! Let’s see if I can remember what I did all week.

Wednesday, November 16

I worked a half day because I had a doctor’s appointment. Work went fine. My doctor said I’m looking good (no swelling, blood pressure is good) so she doubled my dose of lisinopril. I am to also double my dose of coreg, but not for two weeks, to give me a chance to adjust to the lisinopril.

After the doctor, Sean and I had couples therapy. This went pretty well; I shared all the developments for me, and Sean talked about his worries, and we discussed Celena’s visit. Afterward we decided to go to AJ’s Famous Seafood and Poboys for dinner instead of going somewhere near therapy like usual. I had a ton of fried food that probably contained all my allowed sodium for the week.

I wrote a ton of ficlets on this day and one of them ended up being really popular!

Thursday, November 17

Only managed to write two ficlets on this day. Full day of work with several meetings, and I had lunch with my coworker Kathy so there was no time to write then. Lunch was really nice; we went to a nearby Indian buffet and they have really expanded their selection! They had two kinds of dessert. One was barfi, which I recognized from middle school when I made some as part of a project on Bangladesh; it did not taste the way I remembered, though. The other was sooji halwa, which I guess is kind of like a rice pudding except with semolina flour, and it was delicious. I loved it!

This was also Faye’s birthday, so I texted her and left her a note on Facebook <3

For dinner I picked up Taco Bell, and Sean and I watched The Daily Show. I ended up going to bed shortly after 9 because I was dead tired.

Friday, November 18

I managed to shower today, unlike yesterday. I also skipped my normal Starbucks breakfast, but this just meant I was half asleep until lunch. I need to find something with a little less sodium to eat in the morning.

Lunch was a company “tailgate” party; we had barbecue catered by Jim ‘n’ Nick’s. It was delicious. I had a small serving of both baked beans and mac and cheese, because you gotta. I also had a huge piece of pecan pie because I am incorrigible.

Even after all that, I was starving by the end of the day. If there’s one thing I miss about Wellbutrin (and I really do think it’s just the one thing), it’s the appetite suppressant. Oh well.

I forgot William was coming over this weekend, so I picked up dinner for two on the way home. Oops. We ended up splitting our entrees among the three of us, and I steamed some veggies for a side. I think it turned out to be enough food. Gotta love American portion sizes.

• Got up at 6 for a change!
• Got dressed and had my protein shake and pills at my desk
• Preheated my car (yay) and went to work, picking up Starbucks on the way (venti chai, protein bistro box, gingerbread loaf)
• Finished a work project that had been annoying me and moved on to other stuff, which I finished faster
• Went to get my eyebrows done at lunch (it had been way too long)
• After work, went to Costco to gas up my car and then to Sushi Huku to pick up takeout
• While waiting on the takeout, went into Publix and bought:
  • Christmas wrapping paper
  • tampons
  • cordial cherries
  • pumpkin spice Lindor truffles
• Ate dinner while watching YouTube videos with Sean
• Napped on top of Sean
• Poked around online a bit
• Went to bed around 10

I also wrote several five-sentence ficlets today; it was a lot of fun, and I got some nice comments, including “how is this so good while being so short?” which was a delight :)

• Got up at 6:45
• Took shower and got dressed
• Packed up pills and protein shake to take to work
• Picked up Starbucks on the way in
• Realized the new Starbucks had opened inside our building, but the line was really long so I was glad I went to the drive-thru instead
• Worked on product descriptions and had a couple meetings
• Went home at lunch to wrap a present for Celena
• Sean texted to offer to get dinner from Jimmy John’s, which I took him up on
• Got home around 5:20, the food arrived shortly thereafter
• Spent the evening reading online, eating dinner, and poking at a story
• Sean and Celena watched some Chappelle’s Show (they’d watched Dave Chappelle on SNL yesterday, which was awesome) and then Sean took her to the airport

It was a nice visit with Celena, but too short. I hope it isn’t too long before I see her again.

• Messed around online
• Went to bed at 9:15