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!
Monday, December 31, 2012
December 31 - Life is good. And today was definitely a good day to be alive!
So, I've recently gotten a little perspective on the weight thing. I read that Christian Bale dropped down to 122 pounds in order to play his character in the movie The Machinist. And he's 6' tall!! Also, there's been a lot in the rag mags about all the weight that Matthew McConaughey has lost to play an AIDS victim in his latest flick. Lastly, Yahoo has been reviewing their favorite stories of 2012 and one of them was about an overweight chick who lost 100 pounds. She's now 5'4" (same as me) and weighs 110 and she looks fantastic! Based on all this, I've decided my problem with the weight loss (other than the fact that it's continuing) is that it was an unhealthy weight loss. I feel like a sack of skin with bones stuck in. Whoa. I just had deja vu. I swear there was a similar quote to that effect near the beginning of my blog. It was something one of my favorite heroines had said. Anywho, sorry, a little ADD going on there. So, I'm not waiting any longer for the weight to stop falling off before trying to gain back some muscle tone. As far as I'm concerned, if the chickie in the Yahoo article can make 110 look healthy and good, then I still have some leeway to play with and I should feel free to start doing stuff that burns calories. With that in mind........
Friday I worked on clearing out that incredibly heavy foot and a half of snow that got dumped on us, from the driveway. I had to make 3 separate trips for an hour each time but I managed it. I also posted an ad on Match.com on a whim. I haven't been on a date for 4-5 years now so I figured it would be fun. And I posted loud and clear about not only my cancer, but my accident too, and warned of my scars. I figured this would be a good way to distinguish the men from the boys. As it turns out, guys don't seem to really care. Within 3 hours I had my first date set up for Saturday.
So, Saturday saw me cross country skiing for the first time in 3 years. Match Brian and I did an hour and a half loop at Mendon Ponds Park. It felt so good! We were on the trail and he looked up at a flock of geese going over and he asked me if I knew why one side of their vee was longer than the other. I replied no, why? He said because there's more geese on the one side than the other.........I pushed him over on his skies (or attempted to but since I'm wussy girl right now, it didn't quite work). LMAO!
Yesterday I spent 3 hours non-stop cleaning my house, then I went outside and spent another 45 minutes shoveling our new snowfall, then came back inside and cooked up a big batch of seafood bisque and croissants just in time to have Match Neil over for dinner and a night of shooting zombies on the Wii. We had a lot of fun!
This morning found me up before the crack of dawn, puttering around, taking care of the animals. I then sat down to play Harvest Moon for a couple of hours until the sun woke up and started shining merrily. I then did a quick cleanup on myself and headed back to Mendon to put another hour and a half in on my cross country skis. It was so peaceful and pretty. I wish I had thought to grab my new camera from my purse!
So as you can see, I'm working hard on getting some muscle put back on. I'm currently trying to line up a snowshoe date for tomorrow with Match Amherst, I have a hiking date this Saturday with Match Steve, and I'm working on a snowshoe date with Match Tom for Sunday. Phew! I'm kind of forcing these men to combine exercise and dating. It makes for a win-win sitch for me! LOLOLOL!
Okay, the only improvement I have to report wasn't actually on my list. And it's probably a little TMI but I'm going to share any way. My girly thing finally came back after being MIA for over 3 months!! Mind you, I wasn't too torn up about it being gone, and normally I wouldn't be all that excited about it being back but any bodily function returning to normal HAS to be a good thing, right?
I've been staying away from the scale again but plan on weighing myself on Wednesday morning. I will have 5 days of exercising under my belt by then so we'll see how that goes. I believe that muscle weighs more that fat so maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised and my weight will be up from the 123.4 that it was on Christmas. Although....can you build muscle in a short 5 days. Guess I'll see.
So, I've recently gotten a little perspective on the weight thing. I read that Christian Bale dropped down to 122 pounds in order to play his character in the movie The Machinist. And he's 6' tall!! Also, there's been a lot in the rag mags about all the weight that Matthew McConaughey has lost to play an AIDS victim in his latest flick. Lastly, Yahoo has been reviewing their favorite stories of 2012 and one of them was about an overweight chick who lost 100 pounds. She's now 5'4" (same as me) and weighs 110 and she looks fantastic! Based on all this, I've decided my problem with the weight loss (other than the fact that it's continuing) is that it was an unhealthy weight loss. I feel like a sack of skin with bones stuck in. Whoa. I just had deja vu. I swear there was a similar quote to that effect near the beginning of my blog. It was something one of my favorite heroines had said. Anywho, sorry, a little ADD going on there. So, I'm not waiting any longer for the weight to stop falling off before trying to gain back some muscle tone. As far as I'm concerned, if the chickie in the Yahoo article can make 110 look healthy and good, then I still have some leeway to play with and I should feel free to start doing stuff that burns calories. With that in mind........
Friday I worked on clearing out that incredibly heavy foot and a half of snow that got dumped on us, from the driveway. I had to make 3 separate trips for an hour each time but I managed it. I also posted an ad on Match.com on a whim. I haven't been on a date for 4-5 years now so I figured it would be fun. And I posted loud and clear about not only my cancer, but my accident too, and warned of my scars. I figured this would be a good way to distinguish the men from the boys. As it turns out, guys don't seem to really care. Within 3 hours I had my first date set up for Saturday.
So, Saturday saw me cross country skiing for the first time in 3 years. Match Brian and I did an hour and a half loop at Mendon Ponds Park. It felt so good! We were on the trail and he looked up at a flock of geese going over and he asked me if I knew why one side of their vee was longer than the other. I replied no, why? He said because there's more geese on the one side than the other.........I pushed him over on his skies (or attempted to but since I'm wussy girl right now, it didn't quite work). LMAO!
Yesterday I spent 3 hours non-stop cleaning my house, then I went outside and spent another 45 minutes shoveling our new snowfall, then came back inside and cooked up a big batch of seafood bisque and croissants just in time to have Match Neil over for dinner and a night of shooting zombies on the Wii. We had a lot of fun!
This morning found me up before the crack of dawn, puttering around, taking care of the animals. I then sat down to play Harvest Moon for a couple of hours until the sun woke up and started shining merrily. I then did a quick cleanup on myself and headed back to Mendon to put another hour and a half in on my cross country skis. It was so peaceful and pretty. I wish I had thought to grab my new camera from my purse!
So as you can see, I'm working hard on getting some muscle put back on. I'm currently trying to line up a snowshoe date for tomorrow with Match Amherst, I have a hiking date this Saturday with Match Steve, and I'm working on a snowshoe date with Match Tom for Sunday. Phew! I'm kind of forcing these men to combine exercise and dating. It makes for a win-win sitch for me! LOLOLOL!
Okay, the only improvement I have to report wasn't actually on my list. And it's probably a little TMI but I'm going to share any way. My girly thing finally came back after being MIA for over 3 months!! Mind you, I wasn't too torn up about it being gone, and normally I wouldn't be all that excited about it being back but any bodily function returning to normal HAS to be a good thing, right?
I've been staying away from the scale again but plan on weighing myself on Wednesday morning. I will have 5 days of exercising under my belt by then so we'll see how that goes. I believe that muscle weighs more that fat so maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised and my weight will be up from the 123.4 that it was on Christmas. Although....can you build muscle in a short 5 days. Guess I'll see.
Thursday, December 27, 2012
December 27 - I had an improvement to report today but upon copying my lists from the last time I had reported on them, I discovered that I actually have a number of improvements to report. How bleeping exciting is that?!? So, here's what's happening:
Improvements:
- Mucusitis is gone!
- Diarrhea is gone!
- Gagging is happening only every other day!
- Water pik is only needed twice a day!
- I stopped using my humidifier every night! (Although not because I'm now producing spit but because it was making me damp at night which then gave me the chills and I was more afraid of catching pneumonia than worrying about waking up 3-5 times a night due to dry mouth.)
No Improvements:
- Sporadic sleeping still happening.
- I'm still losing weight.
- 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.
Cool. I added color. So, items in red I really have no control over. Items in yellow, I'm thinking I should be able to do something about....kind of.
The sleeping issue. As mentioned previously, the melatonin didn't really do anything for me. Although JT mentioned that he thought you had to take it for a week or two to get it to build up in your system before it would be effective. Unfortunately, I had already moved on. I bought a sleeping aid called ZQuil by the makers of Nyquil. It didn't seem to do anything either. Since I'm on vacation until next Wednesday, I'm not too wound up about this issue right now. I'll wait and see how cranky I start getting from lack of sleep once I'm back to work full time. Then I'll start researching other options. Jer thinks I should ask my doctor to prescribe some Lunesta or Ambien. I poked around on the web. Lunesta may not be safe if you have a history of alcohol abuse <ahem>. Ambien, on the other hand, can potentially cause sleep eating. How cool is that? That could come in handy in regards to item 2 on the list......
Have I mentioned I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed? Here's my blonde, female, Polish move for this week. I hadn't weighed myself since 12/17 because it was just too depressing watching the scale go down, down, down. On 12/17 I had weighed in at 125.2. I decided that since I was going on vacation, I should be able to really bump up my eating. So, for 4 days straight (12/21-12/24) I made sure I was eating every 3-4 hours. I basically kept my tummy constantly full. On Christmas morning I decided to finally weigh myself again, thinking the scale had to have gone up at least half a pound. Alas, it said 123.4 (This is less than what I weighed when I got married at age 21!). I was SO bummed. I kind of moped around all day because of it and then in the evening, the lightbulb went off. I didn't weigh myself right before embarking on the four days of stuffing my face. For all I know, maybe I HAD gone up a pound or so from whatever I weighed. Doh! So, slightly cheered, I hopped on allrecipes.com and started working on the third item on the list which will help the second item on the list......
I'm still limited to mostly liquid and some soft foods. So I did a search on creamy soups and bisques on allrecipes.com. I found 8-10 recipes that sounded interesting so I printed them out, made a list of ingredients and hit Wegman's yesterday. $160 later I was back home with a very large amount of fresh vegetables and what not. On a side note, I passed a display of eggnog in half gallon containers while shopping. Since I've been drinking the eggnog milkshakes, I thought maybe I should give actual eggnog a try. Once I saw that it has 280 calories in 1/2 cup, I was sold. Thank goodness I hadn't looked at the price before sticking it in my cart because that may have changed my mind right back to not buying it. It rang up at $7.99 and then discounted a $1. For a half gallon! Holy cow! Anyway, last night I got busy in the kitchen. I made a cajun pumpkin soup which was okay. I made a roasted eggplant/garlic soup which was really good. I made a spinach/potato/broccoli/cauliflower/cheese soup that was actually a bit yuck but it's got some hefty calories to it and a ton of good for me stuff (plus it made 12 servings which I will feel too guilty tossing in the garbage) so I'm going to try to force myself to eat it. And lastly I made a different pumpkin soup that called for molasses. Turns out I'm not a fan of molasses. The recipe went in the garbage but I can probably make myself eat the soup. So, the eggplant is definitely a recipe I'll be making again. I'm taking a break from the kitchen today but I still have a stack of other recipes to try (one of them is peanut soup!) in the next couple of days.
Lastly is the thrush. Today is day 6 of once again religiously dissolving 5 of these lozenges on my tongue throughout the day. I'm going to keep doing that for 14 days straight and if I still have thrush at the end of 14 days, I'm going to have to call Dr. A and see if there's anything else we can do. I have to think that some of the discomfort in my mouth and throat would be reduced if I could get rid of this darned yeast infection.
So, that's the health report this week. Nothing much to report on the "fun" front. Santa was VERY nice to me. Who says naughty girls don't make the list! Ha! Due to today's storm, I am not currently ensconced in Patilda's cute little house. My manservant has been a busy bee. I think we're just about ready to clear out the two downstairs bedrooms so we can start remodeling them. It will feel good to get that project underway. My happiness project has stalled out. I may be starting it in February instead of January. I've been a movie watching fiend for this vacation. The Avengers, Cowboys & Aliens, The Amazing Spiderman, Django Unchained, Dark Shadows, Quantum of Solace, Ted.........speaking of which, Kim said that the Bourne Legacy was really good so I think that's where I'll head right now.......
Improvements:
- Mucusitis is gone!
- Diarrhea is gone!
- Gagging is happening only every other day!
- Water pik is only needed twice a day!
- I stopped using my humidifier every night! (Although not because I'm now producing spit but because it was making me damp at night which then gave me the chills and I was more afraid of catching pneumonia than worrying about waking up 3-5 times a night due to dry mouth.)
No Improvements:
- Sporadic sleeping still happening.
- I'm still losing weight.
- 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.
Cool. I added color. So, items in red I really have no control over. Items in yellow, I'm thinking I should be able to do something about....kind of.
The sleeping issue. As mentioned previously, the melatonin didn't really do anything for me. Although JT mentioned that he thought you had to take it for a week or two to get it to build up in your system before it would be effective. Unfortunately, I had already moved on. I bought a sleeping aid called ZQuil by the makers of Nyquil. It didn't seem to do anything either. Since I'm on vacation until next Wednesday, I'm not too wound up about this issue right now. I'll wait and see how cranky I start getting from lack of sleep once I'm back to work full time. Then I'll start researching other options. Jer thinks I should ask my doctor to prescribe some Lunesta or Ambien. I poked around on the web. Lunesta may not be safe if you have a history of alcohol abuse <ahem>. Ambien, on the other hand, can potentially cause sleep eating. How cool is that? That could come in handy in regards to item 2 on the list......
Have I mentioned I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed? Here's my blonde, female, Polish move for this week. I hadn't weighed myself since 12/17 because it was just too depressing watching the scale go down, down, down. On 12/17 I had weighed in at 125.2. I decided that since I was going on vacation, I should be able to really bump up my eating. So, for 4 days straight (12/21-12/24) I made sure I was eating every 3-4 hours. I basically kept my tummy constantly full. On Christmas morning I decided to finally weigh myself again, thinking the scale had to have gone up at least half a pound. Alas, it said 123.4 (This is less than what I weighed when I got married at age 21!). I was SO bummed. I kind of moped around all day because of it and then in the evening, the lightbulb went off. I didn't weigh myself right before embarking on the four days of stuffing my face. For all I know, maybe I HAD gone up a pound or so from whatever I weighed. Doh! So, slightly cheered, I hopped on allrecipes.com and started working on the third item on the list which will help the second item on the list......
I'm still limited to mostly liquid and some soft foods. So I did a search on creamy soups and bisques on allrecipes.com. I found 8-10 recipes that sounded interesting so I printed them out, made a list of ingredients and hit Wegman's yesterday. $160 later I was back home with a very large amount of fresh vegetables and what not. On a side note, I passed a display of eggnog in half gallon containers while shopping. Since I've been drinking the eggnog milkshakes, I thought maybe I should give actual eggnog a try. Once I saw that it has 280 calories in 1/2 cup, I was sold. Thank goodness I hadn't looked at the price before sticking it in my cart because that may have changed my mind right back to not buying it. It rang up at $7.99 and then discounted a $1. For a half gallon! Holy cow! Anyway, last night I got busy in the kitchen. I made a cajun pumpkin soup which was okay. I made a roasted eggplant/garlic soup which was really good. I made a spinach/potato/broccoli/cauliflower/cheese soup that was actually a bit yuck but it's got some hefty calories to it and a ton of good for me stuff (plus it made 12 servings which I will feel too guilty tossing in the garbage) so I'm going to try to force myself to eat it. And lastly I made a different pumpkin soup that called for molasses. Turns out I'm not a fan of molasses. The recipe went in the garbage but I can probably make myself eat the soup. So, the eggplant is definitely a recipe I'll be making again. I'm taking a break from the kitchen today but I still have a stack of other recipes to try (one of them is peanut soup!) in the next couple of days.
Lastly is the thrush. Today is day 6 of once again religiously dissolving 5 of these lozenges on my tongue throughout the day. I'm going to keep doing that for 14 days straight and if I still have thrush at the end of 14 days, I'm going to have to call Dr. A and see if there's anything else we can do. I have to think that some of the discomfort in my mouth and throat would be reduced if I could get rid of this darned yeast infection.
So, that's the health report this week. Nothing much to report on the "fun" front. Santa was VERY nice to me. Who says naughty girls don't make the list! Ha! Due to today's storm, I am not currently ensconced in Patilda's cute little house. My manservant has been a busy bee. I think we're just about ready to clear out the two downstairs bedrooms so we can start remodeling them. It will feel good to get that project underway. My happiness project has stalled out. I may be starting it in February instead of January. I've been a movie watching fiend for this vacation. The Avengers, Cowboys & Aliens, The Amazing Spiderman, Django Unchained, Dark Shadows, Quantum of Solace, Ted.........speaking of which, Kim said that the Bourne Legacy was really good so I think that's where I'll head right now.......
Friday, December 21, 2012
December 21 - Today is just a purge of all the random tidbits that have been plaguing me. I'm hoping I can get them all out of my system and stop being a mopey whine ass.
Melatonin isn't doing squat and I even took it twice last night! Not sure I'm supposed to do that but I was getting a little desperate. Meanwhile, it didn't help and now I'm running on 3 hours sleep today. Bleah.
Jer was complaining that he usually gets me alcohol for Christmas and since I no longer can drink (tastes horrible!) he's at a loss. Went to the movies with Luke last night and he was complaining that he usually buys me gifts that revolve around food and since I'm not eating, HE'S at a loss. It made me laugh to have them complaining about how difficult I'm making the gift buying thing. Dorks! :-)
JBB has been riding my butt about my weight. Due to her efforts, I made a peanut butter and banana smoothie this morning that wasn't too awful. With a scoop of protein powder, it was 425 calories. I resolve to drink one of those every morning for the next week and a half.
And thank goodness, only 6 hours and 19 minutes until 11 wonderful days off from work. I am SO looking forward to it! There will be knitting, movie watching, Wii playing, and book reading galore. (Kim - I'm slowly working my way through The Passage so that I can get that mailed back to you!) (JBB - the book you lent me is next on the list after that!) I'm also going to buzz into the Syracuse area to spend a night with Patilda, barring any bad weather, just for the heck of it.
Since the start of my adventure, I've noticed I'm much more aware of every time cancer is mentioned, whether it's a magazine article, or in a movie, etc. And on top of that, it seems like a large number of people who have had cancer, also get cancer a second time in a different place. Kind of like once exposed, you're more susceptible. Is this true or am I being over sensitive??
The gagging thing is still going on. Usually twice a day. Every day I have to resist calling Nurse Jane and crying to her that I need (want!) more pain meds. They sure made life a much more pleasant place to be. I'm once again pissed that alcohol has been ruined for me. It would have made a good substitute for the pain meds AND added some calories into my diet. Empty ones I know but hey, I'll take whatever I can get.
In the movie theatre last night I wore a turtleneck, a sweatshirt, my coat, and my gloves and I still froze my ass off the entire time I was there. I had to permanently change my thermostat at home a couple of nights ago too. I usually keep it at 67 when I'm home and awake, 64 when I'm not home or asleep. Wednesday night I woke up in the middle of the night (for the third time) and even with a blanket, a huge down comforter, and being on the second floor (where all the heat rises to) I was shivering! So, it's now 70 when I'm home and awake, and 67 when I'm not home or asleep.
This morning I tried walking in a manner that allowed my thighs to rub together. Personally, I think your thighs are supposed to touch, at least a little. I think it's gross when I see the twig legs on women in magazines. They look like they've been riding a horse every day for 10 years straight. Anywho, I was unsuccessful getting my thighs to touch. On the bright side, I reenacted the exercise for Kunkel at work this morning which made her laugh so it was good for something. :-)
Yesterday I went to Dunkin Donuts and told the chickadee behind the counter that I'm trying to gain 20 pounds and asked her to make me the most fattening drink that she could think of. I walked out of there with a frozen mocha caramel latte something or other. And yes, the first couple of sips made me scrunch my face in disgust but I eventually got used to the taste of coffee again. I had forgotten that that is yet another item I have given up. I hope my k-cups stay good for a while! Anyway, when I got back to work, I used the rest of my lunch hour to create a spreadsheet of the most fattening drinks at DD as well as Starbucks to keep in my purse. The closest thing I could find to what she had made for me was 1050 calories. She rocks!
Luke mentioned that Flag's supposedly has a really good seafood bisque. He and I are going to try to meet up and go check it out sometime in the next couple of weeks.
Okay, I'm off to get something productive done for work. I hope everyone stays safe for the holidays and that Santa at least brings you something that makes you smile!
Melatonin isn't doing squat and I even took it twice last night! Not sure I'm supposed to do that but I was getting a little desperate. Meanwhile, it didn't help and now I'm running on 3 hours sleep today. Bleah.
Jer was complaining that he usually gets me alcohol for Christmas and since I no longer can drink (tastes horrible!) he's at a loss. Went to the movies with Luke last night and he was complaining that he usually buys me gifts that revolve around food and since I'm not eating, HE'S at a loss. It made me laugh to have them complaining about how difficult I'm making the gift buying thing. Dorks! :-)
JBB has been riding my butt about my weight. Due to her efforts, I made a peanut butter and banana smoothie this morning that wasn't too awful. With a scoop of protein powder, it was 425 calories. I resolve to drink one of those every morning for the next week and a half.
And thank goodness, only 6 hours and 19 minutes until 11 wonderful days off from work. I am SO looking forward to it! There will be knitting, movie watching, Wii playing, and book reading galore. (Kim - I'm slowly working my way through The Passage so that I can get that mailed back to you!) (JBB - the book you lent me is next on the list after that!) I'm also going to buzz into the Syracuse area to spend a night with Patilda, barring any bad weather, just for the heck of it.
Since the start of my adventure, I've noticed I'm much more aware of every time cancer is mentioned, whether it's a magazine article, or in a movie, etc. And on top of that, it seems like a large number of people who have had cancer, also get cancer a second time in a different place. Kind of like once exposed, you're more susceptible. Is this true or am I being over sensitive??
The gagging thing is still going on. Usually twice a day. Every day I have to resist calling Nurse Jane and crying to her that I need (want!) more pain meds. They sure made life a much more pleasant place to be. I'm once again pissed that alcohol has been ruined for me. It would have made a good substitute for the pain meds AND added some calories into my diet. Empty ones I know but hey, I'll take whatever I can get.
In the movie theatre last night I wore a turtleneck, a sweatshirt, my coat, and my gloves and I still froze my ass off the entire time I was there. I had to permanently change my thermostat at home a couple of nights ago too. I usually keep it at 67 when I'm home and awake, 64 when I'm not home or asleep. Wednesday night I woke up in the middle of the night (for the third time) and even with a blanket, a huge down comforter, and being on the second floor (where all the heat rises to) I was shivering! So, it's now 70 when I'm home and awake, and 67 when I'm not home or asleep.
This morning I tried walking in a manner that allowed my thighs to rub together. Personally, I think your thighs are supposed to touch, at least a little. I think it's gross when I see the twig legs on women in magazines. They look like they've been riding a horse every day for 10 years straight. Anywho, I was unsuccessful getting my thighs to touch. On the bright side, I reenacted the exercise for Kunkel at work this morning which made her laugh so it was good for something. :-)
Yesterday I went to Dunkin Donuts and told the chickadee behind the counter that I'm trying to gain 20 pounds and asked her to make me the most fattening drink that she could think of. I walked out of there with a frozen mocha caramel latte something or other. And yes, the first couple of sips made me scrunch my face in disgust but I eventually got used to the taste of coffee again. I had forgotten that that is yet another item I have given up. I hope my k-cups stay good for a while! Anyway, when I got back to work, I used the rest of my lunch hour to create a spreadsheet of the most fattening drinks at DD as well as Starbucks to keep in my purse. The closest thing I could find to what she had made for me was 1050 calories. She rocks!
Luke mentioned that Flag's supposedly has a really good seafood bisque. He and I are going to try to meet up and go check it out sometime in the next couple of weeks.
Okay, I'm off to get something productive done for work. I hope everyone stays safe for the holidays and that Santa at least brings you something that makes you smile!
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