Summer hibernation

Well, as per usual, in the midst of summer I just kind of try to hide at home and avoid the heat. It's been brutal lately with several days of triple digits. One day I felt pretty good, so we went to visit with friends at their new home and sat outside for a few hours that evening. It was pleasant enough, but I paid for it dearly for the next two days with sinus and head pressure. So I'm just kind of laying low and waiting for fall. Haven't had the healthiest eating habits lately and definitely got out of the habit of any kind of exercise. :-P

The first part of July my daughter ended up in the hospital for 3 days with a ruptured ovarian cyst. Major pain and internal bleeding. So I was in mamabear-nurse mode.

She hadn't been home two weeks when my son ended up in the hospital for a week. He'd started a job and was working way too many hours, and when he asked for a reduction in his hours, the employer refused (even though he'd been hired through a program for the disabled!) He finally had to quit and go into the hospital to try to get healthy again. Argh. We're going to consult with a lawyer who has CF and is head of the CF Foundation in Houston.

So it's been a little crazy. Hopefully things will slow down a bit now.

Moderation begun

Wow, what a bunch of annoying comments by Anonymous. My blog is "rife with spelling errors" and if I clean it up you'll be sure to return? Really???? Please, don't bother. So I've changed my settings to get rid of the random anonymous commenters pushing their agenda or crap websites. Get a life, jerks.

Sigh. MIA - and up another 7lbs

It's been a frustrating time as I've struggled with the heat. Ugh. I really hate summer in south Texas. Have been a little out of control with eating. I think it's partly hormonal and this perimenopause nonsense. Weight is up and I've slacked off on the cardio. My waterproof heart rate monitor is on the fritz. Every time it does pick up my heart rate, it says it's over 200. And it's not. So I'm back to wearing my old uncomfortable one that is not waterproof, so I can't use it in the pool. Finally got into that when family visited. Need to get out every day to get that kind of workout in. Definitely felt it in the muscles, especially when I was lifting and playing with my 25+lb great-niece. Now THAT is a fun upper body workout! :-)

Had another gall bladder attack after walking around Sea World on Wednesday. I know it's because I've been eating some junk I shouldn't have. So I'm going to focus more on that and just getting out and MOVING! Or just dragging out the mini-trampoline when I'm watching TV. Had a fun time with my dad, sister and niece here for a visit. We went to the zoo while they were here, too.

My niece, Lydia and I got matching shirts at the zoo and wore them to Sea World. And we got soaked by the dolphins! She later got soaked by Shamu as she was selected to participate in the show. Such a fun day!

App't with cardiologist

I was dreading the cardio appt, but it went VERY well. Since the thyroid tests proved it's not my thyroid and the thyrostim is not drastically affecting those numbers, (I TOLD ya, doc!) we're back to looking at the heart. He's suggested 2 fish oil caps twice a day and a workout routine designed to strengthen the heart and get me down to a lower resting heart rate. The workout is 5min cardio followed by 10min cool down (not resting, just lower impact). Next week 10min cardio, 10min cool down and building up the cardio each week.

He said it can take 3-6 months to work, so he wants to see me again in 6 months. I can do the workout more than once a day, as much as I can tolerate. He said he had good results doing this with another patient who was actually passing out a lot - which I have not done. I'm just happy he didn't try to push meds on me. He did say that the one test was a possible indicator of heart disease so he also asked if I wanted to do a CT to check for calcification in the arteries and I'm willing to do that as well. Scheduled for Apr 30.

Hot baths - BAD!

I love my baths too much to give them up. They definitely don't like me, though. BP of 97/49, pulse of 173 when I got out of the bath a little bit ago. Sigh. Drinking water to try to cool off.

Wednesday Weigh in - 177.4

Spring in Texas is NOT my friend. Got over a cold, but the tree pollen has been VERY high for the past few weeks and it's kicking my butt pretty bad. Sleep is off, eating is off, walking when I can. Got blood work results (NO, autocorrect, I did NOT want to type bloodworm!) ordered by the cardiologist and thyroid levels were FINE, but another test which I didn't KNOW he'd ordered was twice the normal level.

The interesting part, it was something Kendall's doctors in Denver told Ken & I to get checked, but my senile doctor at the Academy didn't know what I was talking about. Hmmmmm, looking forward to asking him why he ordered that test and what it means. Research on WebMD showed that it's tied to high cholesterol, which I've NEVER had so it's a little weird. Wondering if it's related to the macrocytosis that has my family doc puzzled. I look forward to talking with her about it. (It was tied in with the clotting issues my son had, so I'm really curious about it. I asked his CF doctor today and she wasn't sure either, but said she would look into it and ask the cardiologist about it.)

Checkin' in

Weight has stayed the same. Being sick is getting old and I think it's moved from a cold to allergy problems and weather changes. Just feeling crappy is not fun. I've had migraines threatening and developed a couple times, but my meds worked eventually. Picked up my blood work results from the base and dropped the papers off at my civilian doc's office so hope to hear from her soon.