I can’t believe it’s already October!
School started for the kids back in mid-August, which meant I did lots of shopping and resting and shopping some more. Then PTA stuff started back up. I’m homeroom parent coordinator, so I’ve spent lots of time making a database of which parent is willing to help with which activity for which grade (as well as all the contact info, which flummoxes me a bit because the school already has most of that info in a database somewhere; why must I copy it?). I started volunteering a couple hours a week in the school library helping check in and out while the librarian teaches classes. I also help out with shelving (I bring in my own kneeling pad & am allowed to scoot around in the wheeled chair when my knees are bad) and in the computer lab. It’s more fun and life-affirming than you can imagine. My husband thought it might wear me out, but it actually has been energizing me because it gives me a couple hours out of my own head. Plus I get to talk to kids about books! What could be better?!
Let’s see, what else? My sinus CT came back normal (I was on steroids and antibiotics at the time; of course it looked normal) so I’m keeping the suggested surgery at bay for a while longer. I got a staph infection at the gym (I’m pretty sure it was there) the first day I went there. They now have bleach wipes for everyone to use after using the machines. Yay.
Once that was gone, I went back to my primary care doctor for a physical. He said I was the healthiest he’d seen me in ages and that we should go ahead and do those vaccinations he’d been holding off on for a long while. So I got a flu shot and a TDAP. I immediately started feeling weak and dizzy, but I HATE shots, so I didn’t say much. I told the lady doing my blood draw that I felt weird and she let me sit for a while first and eventually I was good to go. Three days went by and while my flu shot side (the nurse labeled them) stayed small and red, the TDAP side swelled and swelled and was very hot. I had a fever the first couple days, then it left and a stiff neck set in. I called my doctor’s office a couple times but my doctor was out of the office & there was a holiday weekend involved, so I finally saw the doctor about a week later. He said I’d had a really bad reaction to the vaccination and put me on another round of steroids. (Even now, a month later, I can still feel a marble sized lump under my skin on that site.)
Since I’m mostly doing all right lately, I’ve started a new food tracking program. I’m using LoseIt.com to track my food and exercise (I used to use SparkPeople, but it felt so competitive and just like too much to do). I’ve discovered a few things the past couple weeks (I tracked for a week without changing anything first, just to see what that looked like.): 1) After entering my age/weight/activity level and letting the program run its calculations, I found out that I apparently don’t eat enough, so my body’s been in starvation mode and b) once I started eating as many calories as I’m supposed to have, I started losing weight. So far just a week of eating more (and making sure that that “more” was a healthy more, not a candy bar or soda more) and I’m down 1.7 pounds. No extra exercise (although it counts weird things like housecleaning and music making as exercise) involved. We’re going on vacation this next week, so eating well will be trickier, but I’ll also be moving around more, so that’ll even some things up. Still, I’ll be trying checking out menus/nutritional values and trying to keep as close to on-track as one can while on vacation.
How’s the RA? It’s coming and going. When I’m being good and resting like I ought to it mostly stays pretty quiet. When I’m running around like a crazy person (the last couple weeks: friends came to dinner, we went out to dinner, my kids birthday party, book fair at school, field trip for MDO, PTA movie night, playing a duet at church, family dinner night out), then it creeps up on me and unleashes its wrath: hot swollen ankles, knees, and hands; a painful back, shoulders, and elbows. I’m hoping that this upcoming vacation week allows me to slow down a little and catch my breath and rest my limbs. 🙂
Lisa Holcomb 