Health – Page 5 – p i x e l s c r i b b l e s

In the rain

I had another bad night last night. A few hours I went to bed, I coughed so much I threw up, a lot. This is the third time that has happened in recent weeks. After throwing up I felt marginally better, but it didn’t last, and after awhile I was hungry again. Fearful of nausea, I had a Slim-Fast instead of food, which thankfully stayed down.

Later, I woke up in a panic, trying to breathe. I had stopped breathing in my sleep again. I haven’t had that problem since I started sleeping with my head inclined and using saline nasal spray and Flonase. But there it was. My nose was clear and it didn’t feel like my throat was stopped up. Instead, it just felt like I stopped breathing for no particular reason. I tried to go back to sleep but my breathing felt weird and I was terrified I’d stop breathing again, so I got up and messed around online for awhile.

I felt horrible. It was like there was a rock in my chest, and I kept having waves of mild dizziness, the kind of feeling you get when you take a sedative. I pondered going to the ER several times.

Finally I tried going back to bed and lying on my stomach. For some reason, this calmed me down and made me feel better. My breathing didn’t feel as forced. I wasn’t able to fall asleep, but I was able to relax, which felt great. Finally I rolled onto my side and slept until after noon.

Today I had a Slim-Fast for breakfast, again out of fear of throwing up. I still felt a little nauseated due to gunk in the back of my throat. And sitting there in 70 degree air conditioning, I started sweating and feeling overheated, which has been happening intermittently for at least the past week. My skin gets clammy and Sean says I’m freezing to the touch, but I feel so hot and uncomfortable I can’t stand it until I take a bath or shower. But I don’t have a fever; I’ve checked.

Another symptom I’ve had off and on is swelling/bloating in my feet, ankles, thighs, and hips, but thankfully I’ve had little or none of that today.

I wasn’t feeling too hot, but I needed to run to the store and pick up a few things, like laundry detergent. So I went. Shopping when feeling this way is not fun; there’s nowhere to sit down, and the cart I chose tended to roll away when I leaned on it, so the best I could do was stand still for a few minutes whenever I’d start to feel woozy or urpy. After a time I noticed that I was hot and sweaty again, from hardly any movement, in an air conditioned building. My skin was all pink and my clothes were sticking to me. Additionally, I felt very tired and run down. I wrapped up my shopping as quickly as possible and wondered if I should ask someone to help me get the stuff to my car. Ultimately I got everything loaded myself, returned the cart, and then just sat in the driver’s seat for awhile to recover.

It was 98 degrees out, but I left the windows rolled down rather than use the air conditioning, and it was nice. The heat evaporated the sweat (although it did cause more), and the breeze felt nice. As I drove home it started to rain, just a slight spatter here and there. I stuck my arm out the window to catch some of the droplets. An inexplicable emotion came over me and I moaned as if I was going to start crying.

The on again, off again rain continued as I pulled into the apartment complex. I stopped in a space and turned the car off and just sat there, watching the rain pelt my windshield and die away. I eventually opened the door and let some of it smack me in the arm.

After a time the rain got harder and harder. There was no lightning; it was just a downpour. I got tired of my left arm being the only part of me to get wet, so I got out of the car and stood full on in the rain.

It felt so good.

My clothes were drenched within seconds, but I stood there anyway. The air was warm enough that the rain felt very comfortable. I glanced over and saw a neighbor sitting on his porch, presumably staring at me, though it was hard to tell through the sheets of water. I shrugged and went back to enjoying the rain.

It wasn’t long, though, before I decided it would probably be best to get my purse out of the water, and also take the refrigerated groceries into the apartment. So I opened the hatch and grabbed all the perishables and lugged them up to the front door. Opening it, I set the sopping bags and my purse in the entryway and called Sean to ask him to put them away. “I’m going to stand in the rain for awhile,” I said, and shut the door.

I stood outside until the air temperature started dropping and the rain started to feel cold. Water washed over me and I considered sitting on the steps to enjoy it, but ultimately I just stood there until I thought I might be in danger of catching cold. Then, reluctantly, I opened the door, removed my shoes and left them outside, wrung out my shirt as best I could, and made a bee-line for the bathroom, where I stripped down and hung all my clothes in the shower.

Emerging with a towel on my head, I informed Sean, “That was awesome.” He looked pretty perplexed.

Honestly, I don’t know what it is with me and water, but it just seems to rejuvenate me. And I’ve always loved standing in the rain.

I can’t say I feel 100%, but I certainly feel better than I did when I was leaving the grocery store.

Well, I’m awake

My nasal passages seem clear enough, but I still kept waking up gasping for breath this morning. It just felt weird because I seemed to be breathing fine, so I couldn’t find a reason for that to stop.

Last night I slept in our bed instead of the guest bed, which felt great on my back, but I wonder if Mom’s right and the flatness of it makes my throat get closed off. I guess tonight I can try sleeping on more pillows or something.

I went to bed early last night to try and get myself back on the good schedule. I’m thinking about trying to go biking later. But I don’t know how that’s going to work out if I get out of breath as easily as I have been. It shouldn’t be exhausting to put sheets on a bed, for example. I’m frustrated and I want to just try it and see if I can work myself out of this, but if it’s some sort of problem with my circulatory or respiratory system I’m just going to antagonize it. So meh.

Rex is coming over today to take the desk away. I need to get all my junk off of it at some point. :> Once the desk is gone I can reposition the second bedroom as a workout area, or something.

Right now I feel like there is gunk in my throat–not at the start of my nasal passages where I had been feeling it before, but instead a little lower–and it is grossing me out.

Normalizing one’s environment

I decided that since the air conditioner is working again at the office, I will keep it on at home as well, to avoid putting my throat and nasal passages through lots of changes all day. At the moment my throat is dry and I’m able to breathe fairly normally.

When I got home I cleaned up a bunch of garbage, vacuumed, and started some laundry. I took all the bedclothes off our bed, intending to wash them, but with one load in the washer and another in the dryer I felt very tired all of a sudden, so I crawled into the spare bed and fell asleep.

I awoke vaguely when Sean came home, opened the door to the second bedroom, and looked at me, and I babbled something to him about thinking I was avoiding an allergen by being in a different room, but that it didn’t seem to be working. He looked at me some more and then left the room. I think he was more interested in “where’s my dinner?”, but I obviously wasn’t coherent at the time :>

It occurs to me that I still haven’t thanked him properly for yesterday. I’ll do that before I go back to bed.

After awhile I got up, brushed my teeth, folded the laundry in the dryer, and shifted the stuff from the washer into the dryer. Then I got on my computer and read manga for awhile, and ate some cottage cheese, which has really been a lifesaver lately. (I need to buy some more!)

Now I think I will give Sean a kiss and go back to bed. I have to be at the hospital at 9 to go to the ear, nose and throat clinic.

Dilated

I’m at home waiting for my pupils to, uh, de-dilate. It’s taking forever. Then again, it’s been forever since I’ve had an eye appointment, so I guess fair’s fair.

When I’m good to go again I’ll head back over to the eye place and see about getting my new glasses–it’s kind of hard to select frames when you can’t see them–and then go to my regular doctor to force him to figure something out about my allergies.

After that I’ll finally head in to work.

Bleh, I’ve had way too many doctors’ appointments lately…

Meds

In case you’re remotely interested, here are this week’s meds. Prescriptions, vitamins, the whole nine yards.

I swallow each day’s portion all at once.

The pink pills are Benadryl, to be taken before bed. I take the rest of them in the morning.

Next year I’ll be 30, but from this it looks like I’m two or three times that, doesn’t it?

4 o’clock fluke

On Wednesday I woke up at 4 o’clock. I was able to cook breakfast and dinner, as well as get in a workout and do some freelance work as I’d done the day before.

I tried to do the same yesterday, because I planned to go to my freelance job earlier and I wanted to get some sort of workout in before that, but I ended up getting up at 5:30, which didn’t seem like enough time to work out properly and still manage to feed Sean. I did go to the grocery store instead, though, and on my way back I got Sean a couple of breakfast biscuits from McDonald’s. But I barely had time to put anything away, I didn’t cook that night’s dinner, I was only able to pack a lunch because there were still some leftovers from Wednesday, and the kitchen was a mess.

This morning I woke up even later, at 6:30. I called the guy I’m doing freelance for and told him I couldn’t make it today. The purpose of getting up early was to get in a workout, get my meals prepared, and spend time with Sean, not to have time for a second job. While I will appreciate the extra income, the other things take priority. I’m still easing into this, as evidenced by my inability to get up ridiculously early on a consistent basis, but I don’t want to let the important things slide.

Disenhearteningly (which is apparently not a word), I awoke with that same raspiness (also not a word) in my chest and throat. Lovely.

(I’m enjoying Firefox’s spell-checker. But come on, I think it’s past time for spellchecker to be all one word.)

I’ve been feeling pretty good this week, overall.

I did get the lab results back from the doctor, and I’ll go and talk with him about them on Tuesday. My cholesterol is high. My thyroid is borderline. The endocrinologist called me back to ask that I add a complete metabolic profile to the labs she requested, which I will be having drawn sometime next month (I have to start the progesterone on the 1st, and then have the labs done on day 2 or 3 of my period).

In response to the cholesterol I am trying to figure out ways to include more veggies in my diet, and less meats. It turns out I can steam frozen veggies in the microwave at work pretty easily, so if nothing else I can always grab a bag from the freezer to put in my lunch. I’d love to eat more salad, but it seems like when I buy bagged salads they go bad before I eat them. Now I’m considering the tried and true head of lettuce method.

Today’s lunch is going to be a BLT, I think, because I have leftover bacon from Wednesday and I just bought tomatoes. No lettuce though…

As far as my productivity, I feel that it’s up, but there are still things I need to deal with, like getting the desk in the second bedroom disassembled so a work friend can take it, dealing with the weird smell in that room, finding a smaller desk to put in there, and assembling our second media cabinet for the living room. I’m also planning to rearrange my office at work soon, which has kept me thinking. It’s really an awkward space with awkward furniture; hopefully the idea I have in mind will work out.

Speaking of working out (har), I’d better get outside for my walk before it gets too much hotter.

New schedule

I woke up this morning at around 4 o’clock. Due to a combination of not really feeling tired and Sean’s talking and laughing floating through the door, I couldn’t get back to sleep. I’d set the alarm for 6, thinking that if I woke up earlier I’d go ahead and get up, but when I thought “earlier” I was thinking 5 or 5:30, so this seemed a little ridiculous at first.

Still, I got up, and went ahead and put on my workout clothes and put up my hair. (It’s long enough now that I can do those goofy pigtails on either side of my head, which I do in order to lessen the sweatosity. Sure, sweatosity’s a word.)

Then I cleaned the kitchen, which just involved getting everything in the sink into the dishwasher.

I asked Sean if he was hungry and if he wanted breakfast or dinner. Even though for him this would be his last meal of the day, he always wants to have breakfast in the Circadian morning. So that’s what he asked for. This sort of put a crimp in my plans to make a dinner and then pack up my half for lunch, but I improvised and cooked breakfast and dinner at the same time.

Breakfast consisted of eggs, bacon, and pancakes made from the batter I’d made a couple days ago. I thinned the batter out with some milk and the pancakes seemed to turn out better. Does my batter need to be left in the fridge for awhile and then thinned, or is this just due to the Bisquick being a little old? In any case, I also considered grits, but I decided the preceding was plenty of food.

For dinner, I found a recipe in my Taste of Home cookbook for meatloaf, so I whipped that up, even chopping an onion for it. I used part of the onion in the eggs and put the rest in a Ziploc bag in the fridge. Unfortunately I don’t have a loaf pan so the meatloaf went into a cake pan…hope it’s not too dry.

I also made some sour cream and chive scalloped potatoes a la Betty Crocker, starting them later than the meatloaf (they take less time to cook–though I guess I don’t really need to have everything come out at the same time when I’m cooking in advance. Habit, I suppose).

I’ll top all that off with broccoli. Sean says he doesn’t want to take his dinner to work, so I’m taking frozen veggies with me to steam in the work microwave, and I’ll make his veggies tonight when I get home so he’ll have them when he gets here at 11:45.

As soon as the sun came up I went on my walk. It was longer than I thought it was; I got back at 7:30, which meant either I would have to leave things unfinished or go to my freelance work late. Freelance took the hit because I wanted to have time to dress, pack lunches, and finish this post.

After the freelance work I’ll head to regular work, just like yesterday.

This seems like a pretty decent schedule. The rush towards the end isn’t great, but I’m trapped by the time the sun comes up and the time the freelance place opens. Then again, I won’t be doing freelance work every morning, so I suppose it’ll be okay every once in awhile. Weather.com says the sun rose at 6:55, which is later than the 6:45 I was assuming, so that explains the rush a little. I don’t guess this is going to work as well once fall gets here.

Another issue is that I’m really not all that hungry in the morning, so most of my lovely breakfast remained uneaten. Then again, I suppose that’s good for my diet ;> I think I’ll shift to cooking breakfast just for Sean tomorrow (it’ll be good to ensure he’s getting at least two square meals) and grab a bowl of cereal or Slim-Fast for myself.

Good news! You’re wearing contaminated clothes!

China – The leading exporter of biohazards

Scientists in New Zealand have found formaldehyde, which is used to give clothing a permanent press and to prevent mildew, at levels of up to 500 times greater than that considered safe for humans in woolen and cotton clothing made in China.

Research by the World Health Organization (WHO) indicates that exposure to concentrations of formaldehyde of 20 parts per million (ppm) can cause eye, skin and nasal irritation, respiratory problems, asthma, and cancer. Consumers normally are advised to wash and air clothing before wearing it for the first time.

That’s just a little scary, isn’t it? Would washing the clothes first get rid of the formaldehyde? I normally do that, but there have been times when I haven’t…

Sheesh, you can’t eat the food exports and now you can’t wear the clothes. Time to start paying out the nose for everything :>

I agree with James Brown (although I didn’t know that I would)

This morning I awakened with the distinct impression that I was about to have an awful Charley horse in my left calf. There are things you can do to stop them, or to lessen their impact, so I set about keeping my leg as still as possible while I attempted to get out of bed so I could stand with my foot flat on the floor. It was mostly successful, though there in the middle I had a huge jolt of pain.

Despite that, though, I noticed something as I was waking up: I felt good.

Not only did I feel like I had gotten enough sleep, but my heart wasn’t racing, and I felt like I could breathe–almost normally.

This good feeling carried me through my morning routine and out the door for a 25-minute walk around the neighborhood, during which I never once had to gasp for air. By the end of it I was a little winded, but I recovered almost immediately.

What the hell?

Not that I’m complaining, mind you, but this is so different from how I’ve been feeling. I’ve been essentially unwilling to try to do anything due to how horrible my chest made me feel. Yesterday I was so annoyed about it that I broke down and had McDonald’s for lunch, complete with sweet tea.

I can think of two environmental things that have changed recently that might explain this. First, I haven’t spent a whole lot of time outside since last Wednesday, when I took a brief walk.

Second, we’ve been keeping the door to the second bedroom closed the past few days because of a really weird smell in there.

I thought at first that another lizard had gotten in and died, but I’ve scoured that room, moving the furniture even, and I can’t find a damn thing. Plus, oddly, the smell occasionally goes away.

We’re keeping the door shut so we don’t have to smell it, but I think it’ll also help contain the smell and make it stronger so when I finally call maintenance they’ll know what I’m talking about.

Anyway, it’s possible I’m allergic to whatever I’m smelling in there.

Or maybe it’s neither of those two. I hope it’s not the outdoors thing, because I don’t want to seal myself away inside all the time.

Regardless, I haven’t felt this good since the day I decided to start getting up earlier, right before I got gastroenteritis. Hope it continues!

The hill just got a lot steeper

Yesterday I finally put my bike onto the stand so I can ride it like a stationary. (There has got to be a shorter way to say that.) It works great. I got a stand with magnetized resistance rather than air because the guy at Outspokin’ said it was quieter, but it’s still kind of noisy, so I’ll have to pick and choose when and where I use it.

At first I was thinking the front of my bike would fit under the bar table, so I had set the bike up over there, but the handlebars turned out to be too high, plus the front wheel hits the cross braces at the bottom of the table legs. I could probably jerry-rig something, but do I really want to dismantle my bicycle?

So I lugged it across the room to the dining area, so I can see the TV screen over the back of Sean’s couch while I’m riding.

And let me tell you, that was not easy. The stand is very heavy, to provide stability, and leaving it attached to the bike made the whole ensemble awkward to move. I couldn’t just shove it, because the stand’s folding legs kept trying to collapse. I basically had to lift the stand and then lean the bike to cause it to roll in the direction I wanted.

When I got it into the dining room, I had to stop and sit down. I was gasping for air. It was weird. I’m having that experience more and more often, where I feel like I can’t get air fast enough. My muscles never get anywhere near the point of feeling tired before I’m unable to breathe. I had thought maybe it was allergies, and the hope was that exercising indoors would help me avoid that experience, but apparently not. It looks like it’s something I’m going to have to deal with regardless of when and how I work out.

So I sat on the couch for a long time, sucking air in through my mouth and releasing it the same way, waiting for my heart to stop pounding and my body to feel ready to move again. Finally I was able to position the bike, which didn’t take as much effort. I tried it out and everything seemed good, but since I was afraid of being winded again I didn’t stay on the bike for long.

Writing about how pathetic this is, and thinking wistfully back to my kung fu days when I was in the best shape of my life, will do me no good. It’s a situation I just have to accept and deal with, unfortunately. Small steps.

Keep it up

I haven’t exercised since Tuesday; yesterday I felt terrible when I got up, and today I was just tired and got up too late. I did run around shopping during lunch yesterday, if that counts for anything.

But I have been eating fairly well. Yesterday I had a Slim-Fast for breakfast, half of a spring greens salad with strawberries (no dressing) for lunch, and then salmon-potato croquettes with grits and steamed veggies at Boll Weevil for dinner. Dinner might have been too much food. But at least I drank water, and I didn’t have a dessert…which is a miracle for me at the Boll Weevil.

I found yesterday that putting off my lunch until late in the day made me not feel hungry at all, and then eating a large dinner not too long after that staved off the headache. I just need to make sure I don’t eat a large, unhealthy dinner.

Today I didn’t have breakfast because I’m out of Slim-Fast, but when I got to work I discovered some leftovers from where the morning crew had made breakfast for one of the production assistants to celebrate her birthday, so I had four cocktail wieners. I also ate a mint from Olive Garden that happened to be in my desk…I need to watch that sort of thing.

I’m not doing anything mind-blowing in terms of lifestyle changes, but that’s how it should be: one step at a time. And I am feeling better. I’ve been pretty chipper lately…reading and posting more on my blog, for example. The next thing I want to get back into is photography. I was out at a party last night for nearly three hours and I didn’t take a single picture. That really shows how out of practice I am.

I think once I get myself into a decent routine, where I’m getting up at the same time every day, I will start looking more seriously at my meal planning and charting things out, but for now I’m just trying to gradually adjust.

The initial high is gone, of course

Today I have sinus pressure and a headache, and I wish I was still in bed. I don’t think I will be going outside to exercise. Truthfully I don’t want to exercise at all, but we’ll have to see.

Yesterday I felt pretty good for the majority of the day, but last night I felt like I was going to die of hunger. I had a horrible hunger headache. I ate a Healthy Choice frozen dinner, and when that didn’t satisfy me, I ate the three peanut butter crackers I had left over from my lunch, which also consisted of a Caesar salad from Publix (I didn’t eat the dressing) and a peach. Breakfast was a Slim-Fast shake. I’m not sure how many calories all that is, but it seems to have been less than I’m used to.

I’m drinking some water now, and I think that’s helping me to feel marginally better.

Gastroenteritis

So, I’m like really sick and stuff.

I always feel like I’m cheating when I take time off work when I’m sick. I really shouldn’t, especially this time, because I was told by the doctor to absolutely stay home the rest of the week. I have a highly contagious stomach virus, and I need to rest and rehydrate and take medicine that will probably make me drowsy.

But aside from the varying chills and sweats and constant diarrhea, I feel okay. That’s why I went to work yesterday (and came home after three hours when I saw how high my fever was) and also, like a dolt, went out to lunch with Wes and also went to see Order of the Phoenix again at 8 o’clock.

Spreading those germs everywhere was apparently my mission yesterday ;P

So I’m going to take this seriously. I picked up my prescriptions and some sports drinks and water at Walgreens, and I’m going to stay home and relax and watch anime and piddle around online and sleep for as long as it takes for this thing to go away.

I hope nobody I’ve been around lately caught the bug from me :( I honestly thought it was food poisoning at first, since it started while I was eating lunch, so I didn’t worry about possibly being contagious.

Fever

It’s been awhile since I’ve been seriously ill. I’ve had sluggish days which were probably the result of not enough sleep, and I’ve had some fearsome allergies, especially lately, but last night when I got home from work I discovered that for the first time in who knows how long I had a full-blown fever. I had that fever headache and that dizziness when I stood up, even.

This may be related to something I ate–I started feeling weird while I was eating lunch, which included a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, cheese, raw spinach, and a plum–or it could be a total coincidence. The odd feeling was accompanied by some digestive issues that point the suspicion on the food, though.

My temperature when I got home was 100.25, but I held off on taking medicine, thinking that if it was related to the digestive issues it would probably go down on its own. This was not the case; it went up to 101.67, and I became very cold. I popped three Advil, watched some Prince of Tennis, and went to bed.

Around 4 am I woke up and could not get back to sleep. My temperature was only 99.24, but I had the feeling it was going up again, so I went ahead and took more Advil. This turned out to be prudent, as I started freezing shortly thereafter, and my temp at around 5 was 100.79.

Sean was on the phone, and my discomfort paired with his talking from the other room made it impossible for me to sleep, so I pulled on some long pants and a sweater and came out into the living room to make some tea and settle in at the computer. I chatted with Brooke and took more Advil and sipped warm, throat-soothing tea.

Eventually Sean got off the phone. “I’m sick,” I said, and he chuckled because he thought that was cute. I asked him to pick up some orange juice for me, which he did even though he was tired and needed to go to bed. He also got me some Tylenol in case the Advil wasn’t effective.

My temperature just now was 99.79. I’m not freezing anymore; I had to change back into my shorts and get rid of my socks, and I feel like I would be far more comfortable naked. I’m completely drenched in sweat.

But the orange juice was fabulous. Plus, my head feels much clearer than it has all night, so I think it’s passing.

Edit 07/07/19 6:51 am: Okay, so it’s totally not passing. I’m going to Urgent MD as soon as they open ;P

Back on the horse

I’ve decided to try the early schedule again, so I got up at around 6:15 this morning. Sean went to bed not long after that, so it looks like if I want to spend any quality time I’ll have to get up earlier. But for now, I feel at least like I’ve rested.

Yesterday I went to Outspokin’ to see about a bike rack, but as it was Sunday they were closed. My bike does fit into the back of my car, but only if I jam the handlebars in (I haven’t figured out how to remove a wheel) and I don’t like doing that, especially since it rubs some of the handlebar material off. Plus, it’s just awkward; it’s easier to lift a bike off and onto a rack than it is to turn it sideways and roll it into a car. And if I have a bike rack, it means I don’t have to put the seats down in the back, which means more people can ride along with me even if I do have my bike.

In other words, I’m hoping that getting a bike rack will make it easier for me to ride my bike, which will mean I’ll ride it more.

My mom and I were talking on the phone the other day about how exhausted I am all the time, and she said I needed to go biking and walking a lot like I used to, because there was one time that I visited when no one could keep up with me. I’m pretty sure that was this visit, when I brought my bike to Kentucky. And I remember…I felt good back then.

So this week I’m going to try getting up early, which means I’ll have time to work out and run errands and also to pack a lunch and workout clothes for my lunch break, so conceivably I can save money while I’m getting back in shape.

I’ve tried this before, this getting-into-a-routine-so-I-can-lose-weight thing. But I’m feeling somewhat heartened by the fact that I was, at one time, in pretty good shape. I don’t think there’s any reason why I can’t be that way again. My problem is just a combination of laziness and an awkward schedule, which I can work through.

I really do love being awake in the morning. I feel like I have all this extra time.

Of course, I don’t anymore…I’ve spent it all writing this post, reading old posts, and chatting :D So I better get in the shower!