January 20 - Every single day is incrementally better. :-)
The shingles are pretty much gone. My ear is still aching off and on but I expect that to be gone within the next week. The lump behind my ear has totally disappeared as well.
Alas, I still have thrush. Whatever. I will keep managing it the best that I can.
I've been being really good about sucking on things fairly often. Dr. K was right about the lemon flavored candies. They especially help. And I've noticed that even when I'm not sucking on things, it seems like there is more saliva flow.
In fact, last night for dinner I ate shrimp egg foo young. No choking. Still took a lot of milk to get it down but it went much easier than anything to date. And as a plus, it was actually kind of tasty! I did an "I ate solid food" dance in the middle of my kitchen. I also ate some more of it for breakfast this morning. Guess I'm a little excited about this development. ;-P
Improvements:
- Gagging has stopped!
- 30% of food tastes meh, 30% of food tastes okay, 40% of food tastes rotten.
-
No Improvements:
- Sporadic sleeping still happening.
- I still have thrush.
- Back of tongue still swollen.
- I'm still not producing spit.
- Garbled talking.
- Bullfrog effect still going on.
I've been to yoga twice now. Love it! I hopped on-line and joined two different Meetup groups here in Rochester. One is a casual group for 30 and 40 year olds. The other is an adventure group. Yesterday I went on an hour and a half long hike with the casual group. Fun stuff! This coming Wednesday I'm going to an orientation for Fleet Feet of Rochester. They have a 12 week program where they teach you how to run and it ends in a 5K at the end of April. I'm in, baby!
On the fun side of things, I've been on 4 dates with Scott. He's an absolute sweetie! Meanwhile, I took my ad back off the dating site after a measly 3 weeks. Dating is exhausting! I'm going to concentrate on all the other activities I have going on and see where things fall..........
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Sunday, January 13, 2013
January 13 - Have I mentioned my super powers? I have them you know.......
The first super power I lay claim to is having 9 lives. Between being run over by a van when I was 14 years old, to the emergency appendectomy a couple of years ago, to the recent tongue cancer, it would seem that life is trying really hard to rub me out but I'm refusing to cave to the pressure. And hey, if I've only used 3-4 lives at the age of 43, maybe I'll live to be 90 after all!
My second super power is sometimes being a little too intuitive about what a person is NOT saying. It can sometimes be awkward and sometimes really funny. Most recently a coworker was at my desk telling me that he and his girlfriend were heading to Tahoe to see his family for the holiday and he was crabbing about how hard it was going to be to find a flight, how expensive it was going to be, and he was telling me what his options were.....and I just looked at him while he was talking and out of the blue I said "Oh, you're going to propose?". He stopped mid-sentence, his jaw dropped, and his face turned pink. I have no idea how I knew he was going to propose, I just got a vibe. The look on his face was priceless! LOL! Meanwhile, she did, indeed, say yes. :-)
My last super power is having an above average tolerance for pain. As with all super powers, it has its pluses and its negatives. An example of a negative was the emergency appendectomy. All day long I thought I simply had some bad girly cramps. It wasn't until I was laying in bed at midnight and everything was quiet that I took a close look at how I was feeling and decided that medical attention would be a good idea. I took a taxi to the emergency room and less than 6 hours later my appendix had been removed because it had perforated. An example of a plus was the kidney stone I passed many years ago. I didn't know what it was so I took it in to the doctor to find out what was going on with me. The doctor took one look at the grapefruit seed sized stone I had passed and almost fainted in front of me. He couldn't believe I had passed it without seeking any medical attention whatsoever. He told me that people pass stones the size of a grain of sand and they're at the hospital screaming for morphine. I remember being a bit taken aback. Sure, it hurt. It hurt for over a week as I recall but it was ignorable. Hey, maybe that's my actual super power, I have the ability to ignore things like nobody's business! Ha!
You might be wondering why we're talking about super powers today. Well, it would seem that many friends and coworkers out there have either had shingles or know someone who has had shingles. And by the way, it was great hearing all of the stories, I had no idea how common this was, thank you for sharing! And I had to laugh because I suddenly noticed a sign at both Wegman's and Walgreen's yesterday announcing that you should get your shingles immunization today. Wonder how long those signs have been up? I'm so oblivious sometimes. Anyway, my boss told me to let him know if I needed any time off due to the pain, a coworker said they heard the pain can be absolutely debilitating, Sammy says her MIL was taking a double dose of codeine and then sleeping throughout the days because of it. So, I just wanted to state that yes, it hurts. It especially hurts because some of the blisters are inside my right ear causing a constant low grade ache. Not pleasant. But luckily, I have this awesome super power. So no worries, I'm ignoring this latest development, moving forward with life, continuing to be a dating machine, and am happy as a clam. And as a bonus, can you imagine how amazing I'm going to feel 2 weeks from now once this thing has run its course and I'm back to whatever my usual state of health is?? Ahhhh, I can already anticipate the bliss! Something to look forward to! :-)
The first super power I lay claim to is having 9 lives. Between being run over by a van when I was 14 years old, to the emergency appendectomy a couple of years ago, to the recent tongue cancer, it would seem that life is trying really hard to rub me out but I'm refusing to cave to the pressure. And hey, if I've only used 3-4 lives at the age of 43, maybe I'll live to be 90 after all!
My second super power is sometimes being a little too intuitive about what a person is NOT saying. It can sometimes be awkward and sometimes really funny. Most recently a coworker was at my desk telling me that he and his girlfriend were heading to Tahoe to see his family for the holiday and he was crabbing about how hard it was going to be to find a flight, how expensive it was going to be, and he was telling me what his options were.....and I just looked at him while he was talking and out of the blue I said "Oh, you're going to propose?". He stopped mid-sentence, his jaw dropped, and his face turned pink. I have no idea how I knew he was going to propose, I just got a vibe. The look on his face was priceless! LOL! Meanwhile, she did, indeed, say yes. :-)
My last super power is having an above average tolerance for pain. As with all super powers, it has its pluses and its negatives. An example of a negative was the emergency appendectomy. All day long I thought I simply had some bad girly cramps. It wasn't until I was laying in bed at midnight and everything was quiet that I took a close look at how I was feeling and decided that medical attention would be a good idea. I took a taxi to the emergency room and less than 6 hours later my appendix had been removed because it had perforated. An example of a plus was the kidney stone I passed many years ago. I didn't know what it was so I took it in to the doctor to find out what was going on with me. The doctor took one look at the grapefruit seed sized stone I had passed and almost fainted in front of me. He couldn't believe I had passed it without seeking any medical attention whatsoever. He told me that people pass stones the size of a grain of sand and they're at the hospital screaming for morphine. I remember being a bit taken aback. Sure, it hurt. It hurt for over a week as I recall but it was ignorable. Hey, maybe that's my actual super power, I have the ability to ignore things like nobody's business! Ha!
You might be wondering why we're talking about super powers today. Well, it would seem that many friends and coworkers out there have either had shingles or know someone who has had shingles. And by the way, it was great hearing all of the stories, I had no idea how common this was, thank you for sharing! And I had to laugh because I suddenly noticed a sign at both Wegman's and Walgreen's yesterday announcing that you should get your shingles immunization today. Wonder how long those signs have been up? I'm so oblivious sometimes. Anyway, my boss told me to let him know if I needed any time off due to the pain, a coworker said they heard the pain can be absolutely debilitating, Sammy says her MIL was taking a double dose of codeine and then sleeping throughout the days because of it. So, I just wanted to state that yes, it hurts. It especially hurts because some of the blisters are inside my right ear causing a constant low grade ache. Not pleasant. But luckily, I have this awesome super power. So no worries, I'm ignoring this latest development, moving forward with life, continuing to be a dating machine, and am happy as a clam. And as a bonus, can you imagine how amazing I'm going to feel 2 weeks from now once this thing has run its course and I'm back to whatever my usual state of health is?? Ahhhh, I can already anticipate the bliss! Something to look forward to! :-)
Friday, January 11, 2013
January 11 - And the cancer saga continues.....
This past weekend I noticed a lump behind my ear and a weird, painful rash spreading across my head. Saw my regular doc today, Dr. K, to find out what's going on. Turns out I have shingles. I had no idea what that was. I guess it's a form of chicken pox. She said even if you had chicken pox as a kid you can get shingles if your body is put under a great stress and your immune system is suppressed. Gosh. Can't think of anything like that happening to me as of late, can you? ;-P
Anyway, it's on the right side of my head. I asked her if that was normal. She said it's not unheard of but not usually where it happens. Figures. I guess there is an anti-virus they can give you if you catch it within the first 4 days. I've had it for 5-6 days now so I just have to wait the 2-3 weeks for it to run its course.
She also checked out the lump behind my ear. She said it's likely an enlarged lymph node. Probably trying to fight off the shingles and not succeeding since most of the lymph nodes in that side of my neck have been removed. She said to keep an eye on it and if it gets bigger, call Dr. C. I told her that it has actually gotten smaller since I noticed it over the weekend so all is well.
Meanwhile, I DID get another prescription for this damn thrush. It's the same med that had me throwing up last time but I got it in pill form this time instead of a suspended liquid. I have to take a pill today and a pill tomorrow and voila, hopefully the thrush is gone. And hopefully since it's 2 days of meds instead of 2 weeks, I won't be doing the throwing up thing. She said if the thrush keeps coming back she can put me on a continuous dose of this med every 2 or 4 weeks, whatever it takes. Although she wants me to start sucking on citrus lozengers and/or using the synthetic spit during the day to see if that helps keep it away.
I ended up not going bowling with Match Scott last week. We were e-mailing about our bucket lists and I mentioned that I want to go golfing in Scotland. So, instead of bowling, he took me to one of those indoor golf simulators and we did the Scotland course. How sweet is that?? Tonight he's taking me to a comedy club. I just had to text him and verify that he's had chicken pox so that I didn't accidentally expose him. Talk about embarrassing! Sheesh.
Weight is pretty much the same. I think the scale said 122.8 this morning. Now that I've stopped losing it, I can own my skinniness and feel good about it. Everybody keeps telling me how fantastic I look and it now makes me smile instead of shooting the look of death at them. :-)
Now that I'm back to work, the snowshoeing and skiing can only happen on the weekends. And heck, that's only if we get more snow. It's been raining all day today and it's supposed to be 56 tomorrow, so bye-bye snow. So, I have now taken up yoga. I figured it was a good way to strengthen muscles without burning too many calories. I've only been once so far but I really liked it!
That 7 hours of continuous sleep that I got the last time I blogged WAS a fluke. I'm still only sleeping 3-4 hours at a time. That's okay, I get lots of e-mailing, house cleaning, and reading done during the wee hours of the morning. Plus I was at my desk by 7:15, 4 out of 5 days this week. QED is definitely making out in regards to my insomnia. :-)
Improvements:
- Gagging is happening only a couple of times a week!
- Weight has stabilized!
No Improvements:
- I have shingles.
- Sporadic sleeping still happening.
- 10% of food tastes meh, 10% of food tastes okay, 80% of food tastes rotten.
- I still have thrush.
- Back of tongue still swollen.
- I'm still not producing spit.
- Garbled talking.
- Bullfrog effect still going on.
This past weekend I noticed a lump behind my ear and a weird, painful rash spreading across my head. Saw my regular doc today, Dr. K, to find out what's going on. Turns out I have shingles. I had no idea what that was. I guess it's a form of chicken pox. She said even if you had chicken pox as a kid you can get shingles if your body is put under a great stress and your immune system is suppressed. Gosh. Can't think of anything like that happening to me as of late, can you? ;-P
Anyway, it's on the right side of my head. I asked her if that was normal. She said it's not unheard of but not usually where it happens. Figures. I guess there is an anti-virus they can give you if you catch it within the first 4 days. I've had it for 5-6 days now so I just have to wait the 2-3 weeks for it to run its course.
She also checked out the lump behind my ear. She said it's likely an enlarged lymph node. Probably trying to fight off the shingles and not succeeding since most of the lymph nodes in that side of my neck have been removed. She said to keep an eye on it and if it gets bigger, call Dr. C. I told her that it has actually gotten smaller since I noticed it over the weekend so all is well.
Meanwhile, I DID get another prescription for this damn thrush. It's the same med that had me throwing up last time but I got it in pill form this time instead of a suspended liquid. I have to take a pill today and a pill tomorrow and voila, hopefully the thrush is gone. And hopefully since it's 2 days of meds instead of 2 weeks, I won't be doing the throwing up thing. She said if the thrush keeps coming back she can put me on a continuous dose of this med every 2 or 4 weeks, whatever it takes. Although she wants me to start sucking on citrus lozengers and/or using the synthetic spit during the day to see if that helps keep it away.
I ended up not going bowling with Match Scott last week. We were e-mailing about our bucket lists and I mentioned that I want to go golfing in Scotland. So, instead of bowling, he took me to one of those indoor golf simulators and we did the Scotland course. How sweet is that?? Tonight he's taking me to a comedy club. I just had to text him and verify that he's had chicken pox so that I didn't accidentally expose him. Talk about embarrassing! Sheesh.
Weight is pretty much the same. I think the scale said 122.8 this morning. Now that I've stopped losing it, I can own my skinniness and feel good about it. Everybody keeps telling me how fantastic I look and it now makes me smile instead of shooting the look of death at them. :-)
Now that I'm back to work, the snowshoeing and skiing can only happen on the weekends. And heck, that's only if we get more snow. It's been raining all day today and it's supposed to be 56 tomorrow, so bye-bye snow. So, I have now taken up yoga. I figured it was a good way to strengthen muscles without burning too many calories. I've only been once so far but I really liked it!
That 7 hours of continuous sleep that I got the last time I blogged WAS a fluke. I'm still only sleeping 3-4 hours at a time. That's okay, I get lots of e-mailing, house cleaning, and reading done during the wee hours of the morning. Plus I was at my desk by 7:15, 4 out of 5 days this week. QED is definitely making out in regards to my insomnia. :-)
Improvements:
- Gagging is happening only a couple of times a week!
- Weight has stabilized!
No Improvements:
- I have shingles.
- Sporadic sleeping still happening.
- 10% of food tastes meh, 10% of food tastes okay, 80% of food tastes rotten.
- I still have thrush.
- Back of tongue still swollen.
- I'm still not producing spit.
- Garbled talking.
- Bullfrog effect still going on.
Thursday, January 3, 2013
January 3 - Success! Woo hoo! {Insert image here of Q doing a little soft shoe shuffle of happiness} Got on the scale yesterday and it said 123.4. The exact same weight I was on Christmas! I've stabilized. Finally. Phew.
So let the exercising continue! Tuesday was a bump day. Match Amherst, who turns out to be Match Rich, seems to be a slow play type of guy so there was no outing with him. Yesterday I was once again a cleaning maniac. Tonight, tomorrow, and possibly the weekend, my manservant will be in residence so that we can clear out the two main floor bedrooms for the remodeling project. I imagine there's going to be lots of heavy lifting and manual labor involved. My non-existent muscles are gleefully looking forward to it! I've also got a full dance card for the weekend. Bowling with Match Scott tomorrow night, snowshoeing with Match Steve on Saturday, haven't heard back from Match Tom about Sunday so I'm now slotting in Match Chris instead for another round of snowshoeing. I swear dating is like having a part time job............
I'm also still trying to eat real food once in a while. Sandi, fabulous friend that she is, bought me a fondue pot for Christmas. I made a blue cheese/cognac fondue the other night. I managed to dip 4 cherry tomatoes, a stalk of celery, and 2 bagel chips. Granted it took me 2 glasses of milk to swallow everything and there may have been a couple of choking incidents..incidences...hmmmm... but whatever. I'm going to continue trying to eat real food and one of these days it will be possible to do it without it being hazardous.
Both Leo and Kunkel mentioned yesterday that my speech sounds MUCH better than before the holiday break. Yay! I always love to hear that. Most girls want to be told they look skinny or that they're having a good hair day. I just want to hear that my enunciation has improved and that I sound less like I have a cheek full of chewing tobacco. LOL!
I think I actually managed to sleep for 7 hours straight last night instead of the usual 3-4 hour bursts. Hopefully it wasn't a fluke and will continue.
Okay, that's all I have to report. 2013 is already kicking 2012's ass! Rock on!
So let the exercising continue! Tuesday was a bump day. Match Amherst, who turns out to be Match Rich, seems to be a slow play type of guy so there was no outing with him. Yesterday I was once again a cleaning maniac. Tonight, tomorrow, and possibly the weekend, my manservant will be in residence so that we can clear out the two main floor bedrooms for the remodeling project. I imagine there's going to be lots of heavy lifting and manual labor involved. My non-existent muscles are gleefully looking forward to it! I've also got a full dance card for the weekend. Bowling with Match Scott tomorrow night, snowshoeing with Match Steve on Saturday, haven't heard back from Match Tom about Sunday so I'm now slotting in Match Chris instead for another round of snowshoeing. I swear dating is like having a part time job............
I'm also still trying to eat real food once in a while. Sandi, fabulous friend that she is, bought me a fondue pot for Christmas. I made a blue cheese/cognac fondue the other night. I managed to dip 4 cherry tomatoes, a stalk of celery, and 2 bagel chips. Granted it took me 2 glasses of milk to swallow everything and there may have been a couple of choking incidents..incidences...hmmmm... but whatever. I'm going to continue trying to eat real food and one of these days it will be possible to do it without it being hazardous.
Both Leo and Kunkel mentioned yesterday that my speech sounds MUCH better than before the holiday break. Yay! I always love to hear that. Most girls want to be told they look skinny or that they're having a good hair day. I just want to hear that my enunciation has improved and that I sound less like I have a cheek full of chewing tobacco. LOL!
I think I actually managed to sleep for 7 hours straight last night instead of the usual 3-4 hour bursts. Hopefully it wasn't a fluke and will continue.
Okay, that's all I have to report. 2013 is already kicking 2012's ass! Rock on!
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