Sunday, March 29, 2009

Sunday Update

I managed to get an earlier appointment with Huckell, which means a much greater chance of getting the hip replacement in soon enough. I'll know more on Tuesday, but Colleen's wedding is May 16th, and I must be able to get to that.

My diet has improved enough that I'm sure I'll be able to do what I need to do in that department. Obviously, eating sweet would slow down healing too much, but I'm going to be able to eliminate that. I haven't had sweet (except for the minimal amount in my granola) for days.

I'm feeling better. I know the yeast problem is still serious though, and am worried that I haven't been able to get more FiveLac in time. I'll be ordering it soon, but as of today, I'm out of it.

The money situation is bad this month. Between having to replace Daughter's laptop, sending money to Son, Hubby not having overtime, getting the fancy tub for Hubby, spending a lot on supplements - we're shorter on money than we've been in years.

I want to build a carport. We need it, both to eventually be able to park the car in it in the winter, and to store building materials now, to get them out of the way of fixing the back room. Time, money, health. I have some 2x4s and cement blocks, so I will get started as soon as I can persuade Carlos to do some digging. But I'm not sure when I'll be able to buy the plywood.

The living room is sort of clean, the kitchen is staying organized enough, and the dining room table is available. The tub is taking up most of the back room, though.

Friday, March 27, 2009

Progress

Is it finally beginning to pay off? MUCH less mucous this morning. My eyes are not bleary and running, my nose isn't congested. Not to say that the yeast is gone, but this is progress! And now I'm all but out of FiveLac. I have to order some, but I'm also out of money. Life is like that.

I expect to get some gardening done today, if Carlos doesn't fail me. Have to go grocery shopping. No, don't talk about grocery shopping; that is not progress, just drudgery.

Made more progress on my book.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Evaluation

I am realizing that I need to take the FiveLac more at night. I've been doing two units of it in the morning, but I wake up with worse yeast every day than I had going to bed. I need to kill it overnight.

Sleeping pretty good. Got up once last night, then slept like a log until 9:30.

I've been ingesting very little sugar, so the results are disheartening. I'm going to have to get down to raw eventually, I think. I just can't face it right now.

In other news, the writing group is doing it's job. I'm actually working on my book.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Sunday Update - On Sunday!

Can't say I've exactly shaken up my life yet. I *do* seem to be actually losing weight though. And I *have* made doctor's appointments.

New discovery: I haven't taken any pain reliever for quite a while, probably not this year at all. Without being able to actually *do* anything, I didn't feel much in need. And since I've been using the two crutches, my hip hasn't hurt suddenly out of the blue while I'm sleeping.

On Friday night, I decided that I really wanted to sleep and took an aspirin and an Advil (ibuprophen). I not only slept well, on Saturday I suddenly had more ambition and my hip didn't bother as much as it had been. I even used only one crutch for much of the day.

So on Saturday night, I decided to take pain reliever again. This time I took acetominophin and ibuprophen. And I woke up about 4:00 am with terrible pain in my hip!

I expect I won't be taking any more acetominophin!

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Sleeping

Okay, here I am again. Can't seem to get here more than once a week. Haven't posted on LJ in forever. Ooops! I was supposed to today! It'll have to be good enough tomorrow. I forgot ...

I forget everything!

But I've basically decided that the truest test of how I'm doing is how I'm sleeping. Lots of things can get in the way of a good night's sleep. If sugar is too high, there's getting up 3 or four times for urination. If the brain is too active, I toss and turn, and end up getting up. If the hip or other things hurt, then I can't stay in one position long enough to rest properly.

So. Last night was a success. I got up only once and the rest of the night I slept like a log. Right through the alarm this morning. Okay, it was a qualified success. Especially compared to the previous night in which I got up twice and tossed all night.

Today made the third sugarless day in a row.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Okay, this wasn't supposed to be just about my physical health. What about everything else?

The sad fact is that I can't really do what I want until the house is in order. I'm really pushing on that, and Daughter is helping. The living room is now pretty decent, for the first time through, as is the sewing room. The kitchen isn't bad, though it needs work. The dining room is coming along. We worked on it a little today. Being on crutches does inhibit rapid progress.

*sigh* So it *does* come down to physical wellbeing.

My personal psychic, Rev. Patti, recommended the following daily:
4 oz Georges Aloe Vera juice
4 tsp Liquid Chlorphyl
4 drops Oil of Oregonal

I've actually been using only half that much, for various reasons: money, squeamishness over bad tastes, and the fact that things usually work twice as effectively on me.

So I'm taking this in conjunction with the probiotics. It appears to be working very well. TMI - but no one is reading this anyway - the bowel movements have drawn *much* closer to 'normal'. And I feel a whole lot better. This is not a help to the hip, but in terms of ambition, positive outlook, and general wellbeing, I feel much better.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Pain in My Neck

Literally.

I actually have an excuse for not documenting for a week. I've been in waaaaay too much pain!

It started on Monday with arthritis/bursitis in my left shoulder; bad enough that I couldn't raise my arm. This continued through Tuesday.

On Wednesday I woke up with a 'crick' in my neck. It was very bad, but I tried to not let it keep me from doing things. I slept carefully, and it was better Thursday morning.

During the day, I helped Daughter get ready for our Writer's Meetup, which was being held here. By the time the meeting was over, I was in agony. Both Hubby and Daughter worked on it, but without real success.

Friday it was better, then awful again in the evening. Saturday the same thing, so that I could barely function for A's game night. And better Sunday morning, awful by night time. Sunday I did grocery shopping, which I could barely get through, even though I was using a Mart Cart. And Sunday night it was so bad that I couldn't sleep it better.

Monday I stayed in bed late and didn't do much of anything all day. Monday night I slept. I got up after 3:00 pm on Tuesday.

It's much better. As Prim (internet friend) pointed out, using the crutches is hard on those muscles. Staying off my feet is helping a lot. In fact, I actually thought this morning that it might be gone. It isn't, but I have hope that it may be tomorrow.

I'm counting myself incredibly lucky that Hubby is off work this week, so that I don't have to do my usual running.

Other things which may be helping: The nutritional formula that Rev. Patti gave me; lots of calcium and magnesium; lots and lots of nsaids, both by mouth and topically; staying off sugar.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Sunday Update! Ha!

It's pretty much a sure thing that when I forget/neglect to post it's either because I'm feeling very bad or feeling very good.

It's been very bad.

The '10 teaspoons of sugar' was a very bad idea. That alone would have been bad, but I escalated. Yesterday I had a Boston Creme doughnut, a banana with sugar and cream, and 5 chocolate creme candies.

And this morning I had congested throat, runny nose, blurry and sandy eyes. Even my teeth were coated! Also, arthritis/bursitis in my shoulder so that I could hardly move my arm all day.

On the up side, using two crutches almost all the time has indeed lessened the pain in my left hip.