How do you feel when you return home at the end of the day?
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Health, Home, NaBloPoMo
The NaBloPoMo prompt for today:
How do you feel when you return home at the end of the day?
I’m not sure I should have answered this one, as I doubt that my answer will be in sync with the intent of the question. I don’t leave home every day to go to work, or leave home every day, period.
However, when I do leave home, how I feel when I return depends on many factors. How did I feel before leaving? How long was I gone, and how much physical, intellectual, and emotional energy did I have to expend while I was out? Did I have to deal with anything unexpected, good or bad? How many people was I around? Were they strangers or people known to me? Did I encounter them all at once, or in small groups of one or two at a time? Was Sam with me as a buffer? fHow’s my blood sugar? Am I well hydrated? What was the weather like? Did I remember to take my regular medications? What about taking breakthrough pain medication, anxiety medication, or a muscle relaxant before I found myself in a state where they wouldn’t work very well? Did I use my scooter if there was much walking? How noisy was the environment? Was it drafty, or overly hot or cold? Did I have to drive? Was I out to do something I wanted to do, or was I doing something I had to do?
Frequently, I’m so dog-tired that I can barely drag myself in the door. I have actually fallen asleep sitting in the car, in the driver’s seat, more than once. (There are plenty of reasons that I do not drive much any more.) Dealing with the security system seems an intellectual challenge designed for Einstein. I’m easily confused and my memory is beyond poor. Even if I am dehydrated or I need to eat, I’m too tired to be interested in food or even water. If I was out for too long, or if it was a particularly stressful period, I get a fever and my body reacts as if I’m in shock. I feel like I’m freezing, no matter what the actual temperature around me is, and I start shaking badly.
So that’s how I feel most days when I return home at the end of the day, if I’ve had to leave home. I think that should go a long way towards explaining why I’m such a homebody these days! I am fortunate in that I have Sam, Katie, and others in my life, so I am able to have a fulfilling life without being very adventurous.
Tags: chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic illness, fatigue, Fibromyalgia, Health, Home, myalgic encephalomyelitis, NaBloPoMo
Female Heart Attacks Are Different: A Nurse’s Heart Attack Experience
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Health
The following was posted to a mailing list I’m on. Of course, it was surrounded with the usual “send it to everybody you know!” admonitions. I don’t do that, and I usually delete anything so marked. But I did find the information useful, so (after editing a bit, I admit), I am reposting it. I made no material changes, and take no credit for the information therein. I’d be happy to give credit to the original author if I can find any creditable attribution.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Health, heart attacks, myocardial infarctions, warnings
An Update Instead of a Book Review!
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Health
I looked back at my recent entries and realized that it’s been a really long time since I posted much of anything substantive. I’m coming out of a long period of being nearly zombiefied thanks to one of my medications. I didn’t realize that was happening, as I’d been on that drug for years without that problem. Apparently, the problem was a combination of my dosage being increased last fall and interaction with other meds. Unfortunately, I found this out because of an irresponsible doctor who refused to see me as scheduled when I was due for refills, and wouldn’t give me refills without seeing me. Crashing off the maximum dose caused insomnia and seizures.
Yes, seizures. Something I have never experienced before, and I really didn’t need to add yet another square to my personal Symptoms Bingo Card. I fell right out of the bed during one bad seizure last week. We have a captain’s bed designed for a water mattress, but have a regular mattress and box springs on top, so the whole thing is much higher than most beds. I have to use a stepstool to get in and out of bed. So falling out was much more painful than falling out of most beds. Hitting my foreheard on the wheelchair and whacked my chin but good on the lapdesk didn’t help. I have no idea what I hit with my right forearm, but it still looks like a person bit me. My left arm has funky bruising and a cut, both knees are bruised and carpet burned, and my torso is also bruised and sore. Lots of fun! Now my chin is actually black, making me want to wash my face every time I see a mirror. I’ve never been able to feel the swelling in a bruise as distinctly as this one, either.
I’ve seen a new doctor, who switched me to a better medication. It’s helping to slow down the seizures, but I’m still having some. I’m still sleeping a lot less than I was, which is good. What isn’t good is that I’m having trouble sleeping well, period. Hopefully that will go away soon.
Social Security is still messing around with my case and hasn’t paid out a dime yet, or sent me a Medicare card. If you ever have trouble with the SSA, don’t even bother trying to find anyone to take responsibility for straightening anything out. Just go straight to your Senator or Representative’s office. I’d been trying to get a straight answer from somebody, anybody, in the whole organization for about a month without luck. Less than 48 hours after contacting a Senator’s office, I got a message that my file is at the Baltimore payment office, that they have all the information they need to pay out the claim, and that we should see money very soon now.
I was really hoping to get the Medicare thing started in time to maybe have a powered mobility device before Dragon Con, which would let me go and enjoy the con for the first time in years. The last time I went, we rented a scooter, so if the money comes through before the con I suppose we might try that again.
In more fun news, we finished watching Torchwood: Children of Earth last night. Talk about depressing! Gwen and Rhys were the only ones who came out of that as heroes. And now I read that there’s going to be a fourth season? Who the heck will be in it?
I’ve slowed down on reading books, partially because I can actually do some other things for a change. The house is slowly improving! I’m hoping we can even entertain again before long.
I haven’t been keeping up with most people’s LiveJournals or anything else, so if there’s something I should have seen, I’d appreciate a poke in the comments here.
Tags: Health, medications, Reading, seizures, Torchwood
Linky Linky
Posted by Cyn | Filed under News
You know all those stories and worries about immunizations contributing to autism? Forget them. The doctor who wrote the study that started the scare back in 1998 has been charged with “fixing” the data. What’s more, the “study” only involved twelve patients!
The second story is a very good article about how the obesity scare is just leading to more health problems, especially for young girls.
Tags: autism, bad science, Health, obesity
Europeans Continue Coming to Their Senses
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Health, Size Acceptance
About models and the effects of the media on body image in their populations, at least. Following Spain’s move last year that banned ultra-thin models from catwalks, France is acting. The “French parliament’s lower house adopted a groundbreaking bill Tuesday that would make it illegal for anyone — including fashion magazines, advertisers and Web sites — to publicly incite extreme thinness.”
British researchers are also recommending action. “With constant images of stick-thin, size-zero models, tiny-waisted pop princesses and actresses is putting young girls’ health at risk and fueling the rise in eating disorders, according to Professor Janet Treasure of the Eating Disorders Research Unit at Kings College London.”
It’s a relief to know that, somewhere in the world, people are paying attention to this stuff. It’s tiresome to hear the constant folderol about the “obesity epidemic” here in the U.S., with almost no balancing coverage.
Tags: body image, eating disorders, fashion, Health, women
Steroids for FMS/CFS/ME?
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Health
Today’s post is at Fibrant Living.
Tags: chronic fatigue syndrome, Fibromyalgia, Health, steroids
The Insanity of BMI
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Health, Size Acceptance
Kate Harding created this very cool slide show to show just how absurd it is to rely on body mass index to determine whether or not people are at a healthy weight.
BTW — I did not “miss” blogging yesterday. February 29 was the only “day of rest” for Blog365, so I took it 🙂 It felt odd, though!
Tags: BMI, Health, Kate Harding, obesity, weight
Further Prof of Insanity: Blog365
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Blogging, Family, Fun, Geekery, Health, Holidays, Home, Homeschooling, Music, Reading, RPGs, Writing
I got through NaBloPoMo, as ridiculous as it was to commit to posting at least once a day for a month. So of course that small success has led me, in a moment of more-than-usual-lunacy, to sign up for Blog365 (otherwise known as “Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Fire”).
The purpose is fairly clear: to post at least once every day of 2008. February 29 is a “rest day.” Posts may be written on any site, rather than sticking to just one blog, so I’ll try to spread them around on mine/ours. If I can’t get something on the actual site on a particular day due to net connection issues or whatever, I have to write (yes, write! like, cuneiform or something!) a journal entry and transfer it to a blog as that day’s entry.
It would be far simpler to have a system of some sort. Maybe I’ll create a rotation:
- Fibrant Living — health, living with a disability, podcasts
- Academy Caritas — homeschooling, education, college
- House Fireheart — polyamory, particularly my and Sam’s approach to it
- Heartsong Handicrafts — home of my original needlework patterns, and soon to be home for the rest of my stitching information
- Cyberstalked! — internet safety and privacy issues
- Cynthia Armistead — my professional portfolio, where I put the geeky stuff
- Enemy of Entropy — here, of course, where I put general stuff, book reviews, and the like.
Hopefully there will be new podcasts up soon. There will definitely be more music, as we have that lovely concert piano we received via freecycle all repaired and put together. It’s beautiful and sounds great! Not at all bad for one drive to pick it up and less than $200 in repair fees! (Sam wanted to just take it to the nearest authorized repair center rather than doing it ourselves.)
2007 wasn’t a stellar year, but neither was it terrible. Sam has a steady, secure job that he enjoys, in an organization that’s allowing him to advance. , Katie had a lot of health problems, but I’m hoping that we’re on the right path to resolving them. Shelley passed away a little shy of her 18th birthday, but since we’d been told in 1999 that she only had a year (at most) left, we felt that we’d gotten an “extra” 8 years with her anyway. Kioshi has grown into a nice companion, too.
We really kept to ourselves a lot through the past two years. When you’ve been betrayed and hurt as deeply as we were by our former housemate’s sudden craziness in 2006, there’s a lot of healing to be done. I don’t know if I’ll ever approach Thanksgiving without trepidation again, but we had a good one anyway. The stress did contribute to the deterioration of my health, and that does make it harder to get out. We’re working on it, though. We certainly learned who our true friends were, and we’ll never forget that.
So on to 2008, which we hope to be full of more time with friends, better health, much more music, Katie spent last night and almost all day today with friends from the school she was attending as well as her new beau. Sam and I spent the day gaming, upgrading some web sites, eating good food and watching movies. If it’s true that whatever you do on January 1 indicates how your year will go, we should be just fine.
Tags: actual site, Blog365, Blogging, Cynthia Armistead, Design, Disability, food, Friends, Gaming, Health, internet safety, Katie, Movies, Music, NaBloPoMo, Piano, Podcasts, Reading, Sam, Stitching, thanksgiving, USD, Web Sites, Writing
Planned Parenthood of Georgia Offers Free Emergency Contraception 12/6/06
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Civil Rights, Feminism, News, Sex
From Planned Parenthood of Georgia:
Free EC! December 6, 2006!
We’re celebrating increased access to emergency contraception (EC)!
EC can safely and effectively prevent pregnancy if started within five days of unprotected sex. Everyone, regardless of age, can get EC at Planned Parenthood — and now, for people 18 and older, EC is available over the counter. Stop by one of our five Georgia health centers on December 6, 2006, and receive FREE EC (one per person) to keep at home — just in case.
Planned Parenthood of Georgia, Inc.
Atlanta ~ Lilburn ~ Marietta ~ Augusta ~ Savannah1–800-230-PLAN
————————————————–
Visit the web address below to tell your friends about this.
http://www.ppaction.org/join-forward.html?domain=ppga&r=x11er3n1SSQw
If you received this message from a friend, you can sign up for
Planned Parenthood of Georgia Action Center at:
Tags: 1-800-230-PLAN, Atlanta, emergency contraception, Feminism, Georgia, Georgia Action Center, Georgia Inc, Health, Planned Parenthood, pregnancy, Sex, web address
Have you bought emergency contraception?
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Civil Rights, Feminism, Health
I just read about it at Sex in the Public Square. I haven’t thought about it before, but what she says makes sense. If you’re a sexually active adult who could technically conceive, but you don’t want to have a child right now, it’s a good thing to keep on hand.
I’d be interested in hearing about your experiences in buying it OTC, if you do so. It isn’t an issue for us, so we don’t have a reason to buy any.
Tags: emergency contraception, Feminism, Health, Sex in the Public Square, women