30 Days of Creativity – Day 25

We’re coming around to the home stretch of 30 Days of Creativity.

Not a typical “30 Days of Creativity”. I have my good days and then there are not-as-good days. Recently I had my annual checkup, and my doctor couldn’t be happier with me – steady weight, great cholesterol numbers, light exercise, fair diet (still love good food). But, some symptoms were bothering me, my doctor and I talked, and now I’m researching fibromyalgia. I sort of suspected it – achy muscles from a little horseplaying with the kids and pain from simple activities. Like, you know you don’t feel well, but you ignore it, and then one day you wake up and think, “What happened?” I guess I would have chalked it up to aging, except, I keep thinking I’m doing all sorts of things to stay active and healthy, but still feel like… crap. On the flipside, my acid reflux issues are under control.

Unloading this right now seems so anti-holidays. But, really, the symptoms are manageable, and I’m thankful, so thankful, for my health when it could be so much worse.

Day 25: Write a simple Haiku. (5-7-5)

Getting older, my
Body betrays my spirit.
Hypochondriac.

 

Doughy and Soft

Last night we made homemade pizza for dinner with homemade dough and sauce, alongside store-bought (We’re not that good) sausage and cheese. I have a horrible track record with baking anything with yeast, so you can imagine my hesitancy about making our own dough. Husband wanted to use a recipe that was in the newspaper and it turned out just fine with a nice bready crust that our daughter ate up like there was no tomorrow. But note to self: store-bought, fresh pizza dough… only 99 cents!

While I was eating my little slice of ‘za, I said, “Huh, this is good. Doughy and Soft”. Husband, not sure what I was referring to, said, “What exactly are you talking about?” And I replied, “My stomach.” You may grimace and wince now. Also you can be thankful I did not post a picture of my stomach.

I will admit, I am not athletic, never have been… and working out regularly has only been a recent activity, only the last two years. Even then it’s only once a week. Here, let me put it this way, and my husband will attest to this. I am soft. This is not an overstatement, and this was before I had two kids by c-section. The c-sections just make it more difficult to get back any strength in my “core”. And, I emphasize the words “ANY strength”.

It’s not that I’m upset about it or freaking out about being overweight… I’m not. I’m just a little less than fit, and there’s a little extra softness around my mid-section. Not my favorite part. So here’s the thing – I’ve been doing sit-ups every day since New Year’s. It innocently started out as a joke with someone asking if I could even do a sit-up, ONE sit-up. Yeah, very funny, but I got down on the floor, Jaunary 1, and did one sit-up. So, to continue the “joke”, I did two sit-ups on January 2. For every day that has gone by this month, I’ve done exactly that number of sit-ups.

Sit-ups may not be a very big deal for a lot of people, but it’s movement in the right direction for me and as much as I despise sit-ups, it’s probably a good example for my daughter to see me do something somewhat active at home. She’s even joined me with my little exercise experiment, so my husband and I told her that once she gets to ten sit-ups a day, she could stay at number of repetitions if she wanted to. (She wants her reps to start over at February 1 with one sit-up.)

I’m planning on continuing this for the rest of the year, so by the end of the year, I’ll hit 365. Crazy? Probably. Possible? Yes. Who’s on a journey with me?

Acid Reflux and Health Update

Last April, I wrote about my acid reflux problem. It’s been an on-and-off again sort of relationship where you’re not sure where it’s going, sometimes it gets a little worse and some days are actually okay. My self-diagnoses and self-medication with over the counter choices just wasn’t enough. My symptoms were getting worse and I was drinking Maalox too often, on top of taking pills. I’m not a doctor. Who did I think I was kidding? I really should have seen a doctor last October or November, but when my uncle passed away early December, I thought, he would’ve never let this go on so long. I was doing my own family an injustice by not following up, because (as many of us parents know) what good am I if I’m not well.

So, friends, I went to a skillful gastroenterologist (GI doc!) who gave me a look over, asked lots of question about my lifestyle and ordered up some kicked-up proton pump inhibitors (think Prevacid/Prilosec) and an endoscopy. Wow…cool. They were going to sedate me, stick a camera down my throat and take a look. I had it done over the holidays while my husband was home on Winter Break. Talk about loopy! They had me in a “twilight” sleep. Julie, we’re going to administer the sedative now, don’t be nervous, you’ll feel a little tired and… I was OUT. About 20 minutes later, I awoke in recovery. Eastman told me I was mumbling about going to Crate&Barrel to buy something. He was quite amazed at what was floating around in my head. Good thing I wasn’t talking about some hot guy!

Glad to report that they found nothing serious, just a few areas of question and totally manageable. Thank you, Dr. Yoon. I was going to post pics of their findings, but I’ll spare you. Who needs to see down my esophagus and inside my stomach? Ewww. Along with the medicine I may need to take for the rest of my life, I started attending yoga and spinning at our local park district. Just once a week, both have been a welcome change.

My husband was cool enough to loan me his roller, so we moved my bike inside our home so I can ride a few more times a week. While I have no intention of making this a spot to hang clothes as so many people do, I’ve used the bike once since we moved it (it’s been a week). I’m hoping to change that this week. Maybe this will make me feel more accountable by telling my cyber-friends.

Here’s to health in 2010!

My Purple Pill

Remember the commercial for “the purple pill”?

“The purple pill. Do you take the purple pill? Maybe you’re a candidate for the purple pill? Ask your doctor if you can take the purple pill.”

It’s Nexium. Purple “crack”. I’ve been taking it for a little over a month now.  40mg, twice a day. For acid reflux or GERD (Gastroesophageal reflux disease). Sounds gross, doesn’t it? That’s saying I have stomach acid going up my esophagus and up my throat and irritating the heck out of my vocal chords and sometimes making my chest and upper back hurt. It’s so… annoying! My throat hurts right now, and I’m not even sure what triggered it. I know that it’s partially my own doing. Stress. I’m a wound-up person (not all the time, but a lot), but I mask it and parade around like I’m a totally put together, easy-going gal.  I can be. Hey, fake it ’til you make it. 🙂

Back to my medicine cabinet. I also have Pepcid, 20 mg, twice a day. Sometimes I have a little super-extra-strength Maalox cocktail in between if I’m feeling crappy like I am now. I don’t even get heartburn! Just a weird burning sensation in my throat and in between the shoulder blades. Sometimes it feels like I have something stuck or something sharp in my throat, but it never feels like my breathing is blocked.

I know I’ve rarely talked about my little acid problem. Had a bout of this 3 or 4 years ago, and actually weaned myself off of Prevacid (another medication) through stress management and diet.  (Update: my ENT doctor diagnosed me with LPR back then, laryngopharyngeal reflux disease. Go ahead, google it.) I took 30 mg of the pink and black capsule twice a day, and then down to once a day. Can’t tell you how excited I was when I stopped. I took the occasional Tums here and there.

So, of course, I totally think I can do it again. That is, wean myself. But, maybe this time won’t be as easy? I totally want to. Nexium: It’s SUPER-EXPENSIVE, like over $150 for 30 pills (that’s with insurance)! For this reason alone I want to better manage my acid. I bought a wedge pillow to sleep on; a nice $24 investment.  Here are the kids testing it out. Think it’ll last long? I’ve used it for a couple of weeks now. I always end up sliding down in the middle of the night. Have to work on that.

Testing out the wedge pillowWedge Pillow for Acid Reflux relief

In the meantime, I’m looking at some interesting book titles: Tell Me What to Eat If I Have Acid Reflux, Spurn the Burn, Digestive Wellness. Some of you know, I really find alternative medicine (or complementary medicine) completely fascinating, so if you know of homeopathic strategies, websites or books, pass them along.  For instance, I started taking an organic multi-vitamin with an herbal stress and immune support blend, as opposed to the one-a-day multi-vitamin. I’ll report on this after a month. I’m also on the probiotics kick and digestive enzymes.  The digestive enzyme pills are more for anti-inflammatory use because I have a rough time with ibuprofen which exacerbates the acid problem. And, it works!

Alright, enough medical talk with Julie. Enjoy Earth Day… I’ll be chiming in on this later! We had a nice celebration in town, and we were greeted this morning with something funny.

Related Posts with Thumbnails