'Sup, 'Slices!?

So, it's like summer or something. And I felt I needed a new theme on the page. I put one on *reveals like Vanna White*, but I'm not in love with it. I'll find something soon, I'm sure. But until then, it may be a little schizo up in dis here page. I don't really have much to add. I don't know why... cuz it's not like I'm not a talkative sort. But, whatever. I shall ramble or something.

So, I got a major hair cut. I literally decided to do it on my way to my stylist. I thought I would have to scream & cry the next day, but oh-no! I adore it! I even have to "style" it, and I still love it. WHAT?!?! I know, it's so crazy.

I'm not sure you can tell from my post so far, but I'm still in a pretty good headspace since the last time I mentioned being, yanno, happy and shit. Still am ... LOOK! Goofy grin. But a grin.

Going camping/cabin'ing this weekend with my bud Sarah and her fam, and Mike of course. Hopefully I will remember to actually take pictures. I doubt it. But I do have my iPhone now.

Oh yah.. I have my iPhone now. So, I promise you won't hear me bitching about not having one. Heh.

Got a Kindle 2 for my bday. I honestly think we're in love. Well... I love it. I call it "Hamlet" and my iPhone is "zazzle". Just go with it, I do.

So, here's another hair pic, cuz I know you were just DYING for another. TADA. This one is from when my stylist did it. See, cuz she knows how to do such things. I am not quite as fortunate, YET.

Hmmm... I feel like I need to write more. Mainly cuz the design aesthetic of my post will be all screwy unless I put enough text to go around this last image. Is this enough yet? Nope.

Dangit.

OH! How could I forget the eventful weekend I just had?!?!?! So, last Thursday afternoon I started to get a headache. It wasn't too big a deal, but it just had this feeling. I knew it was gonna turn into a migraine, but boy I had no clue really. So, later Thursday night it turns into a migraine. Shocking, I know. I kinda get rid of it. Well... tamed enough to work the 2nd half of Friday. But then by the time work was done. Yeow. Back to migraine. Then on Saturday, I pretty much couldn't get rid of it. I had an ice pack on the back of my head pretty much the entire day/night of Saturday. It was the ONLY thing that would do anything for me. I really hate taking my migraine med - Imitrex - cuz it tends to make me feel twice as bad before it makes me feel better. But I did end up taking it Thursday night and then Saturday at some point. GAW. I hate that stuff. By Sunday early evening, I was actually starting to feel quite a bit better. I chilled out and took a bath, read a little. That might have been a mistake. You know.. the whole using of the eyes thing. I dunno... but whatever it was... SLAM! Migraine came at me faster than a speeding jackhammer and I was in tears. I go back to my trusty ice packs, but even then, I can barely breathe the pain is so bad. At about 10:30pm, I finally ask Mike to take me to the ER.

We get to the ER, and they see me pretty quick. I fill out my paper, sign it, as Mike is coming in from parking the car, they have me back there starting with stats and whatnot. From there they put me in my little curtained area. AND the nurse was so incredibly thoughtful because she left the lights off in my area. Another nurse was telling Mike to turn on the lights, and she corrected him real quick. I strip the upper body, but on my nice hospital nightie and a few minutes later the doctor comes in. Young-ish guy that had a bit of a military-ness to him. But I'm simply speculating. And I was half nuts by this point. So, it could have been a female for all I know. He tells me what he's going to do. He's gonna give me 3 meds and some fluids. YahYahYah... just STICK ME already. First comes the fluids... ooh nice and cool, I likey. Then comes the Benadryl (in case I'm allergic to anything they give me)... oooh, trippy. Then they piggybacked that with Toradol and Compazine. After about 15 or so minutes, I go from my nice trippy la-la state to OMGOMGOMG I must move, I can't sit still. But since I'm hooked up to an IV, my only option is to rock back and forth. I kid you not. I finally let Mike go find someone cuz it's getting bad. I start pulling on my toes while I'm rocking back and forth. It's just nuts. The nurse comes, he calls the doc, the docs says he'll come back soon. Like what seemed like forever to me, 30-45 minutes, the doctor finally comes back and says "So, how's the headache?" (headache? douchebag, it's a migraine, it's so very different). I tell him, what headache? No ache in the head at all. Now, what about this weird antsy anxiety thing I got going on. Him - "Yah, looks like we traded one problem for another. But at least the pain is gone." ha ha NO. He tells me they will give me some Ativan and it might help, but I should just keep taking Benadryl every 6 hours, cuz it's all basically an allergic reaction to Compazine. And off ya go... BuhBye.

I think the Ativan helped, cuz I don't really remember the drive home, and the next thing I do remember is waking up like EONS later it seemed. All in all, we were at the ER for 2-2.5 hours. I was pretty impressed by that. I come from an Army brat background and if you aren't in an ER for at least 8 hours, you just had a lengthy doctor's appointment.

So, next day I take my Benadryl every six hours (I added some Valium in there too, same crap as Ativan), and slept all damn day. If I didn't sleep I would have gone nuts with the constant need to be moving. By Tuesday evening, I was finally feeling this || short of normal. For me, anyway.

Wow, look at that. I didn't have trouble filling up that space after all. Toodles. It's late now. I have a really early laser hair removal appointment (the whole shabang baby! :D) in the morning and then off to the campin'.

I hope everyone has a great, fun, safe, Independence Day weekend!

P&M Myofascial Release

For about the past three weeks, I've been really incredibly uncomfortable.

It seemed to start while I was working out. I was doing my usual lifting of weights with my trainer and I had some seriously major pain shoot up the right side of my neck and explode inside of my head. I shake it off, try the exercise again, and bam. Same thing. My trainer feels my neck and presses around in the muscles and he actually can't believe how tight my neck & shoulder muscles are on my right side. He says the left side feels absolutely relaxed, but the right is like a series of rocks. He helps me stretch it for a bit, and we try again, and happens again.

So, this happens on certain exercises for a couple weeks, but it gets to a completely unbearable point. My neck is also so tight it gives me headaches everyday for 3 weeks. I just couldn't take it anymore. So, I do the unthinkable. I get a full body massage at my gym. Yes, I did get a massage in Hawaii for the first time, but I still don't consider myself a person who gets massages. You have to understand how uncomfortable even the thought of massage makes me, so I had to be in some serious discomfort to end up getting one. Well, i did. It was great during, and even for a couple hours after. But then boom, I feel it all coming back.

The only thought that crossed my mind at that time was "Motherfucker!". I hate to be so crude. Ha! You know me, I lie. I love to be so crude. At this point, I know Mike has had a type of massage that helped some weird problems he's had in the past... numb/tingly elbow and other weirdness. It's a seriously painful type of massage but in the end it seems really helpful. Since a really painful massage is hard to .. you know.. get excited about and all that... I finally came to a point where I was willing to give it a try. I make an appointment at Therapy Central of Round Rock.

My appointment was yesterday, and I absolutely loved the therapist I had. I knew I adored her from the first 90 seconds. Which I guess is kind of important in someone that is going to make you feel intense pain. Mike's friend actually works there, but he just had some knee surgery, so he couldn't see me. But while I was there for my appointment he was also there to get seen for his knee. Before my session started he came in and said hello and whatnot. He had joked to not worry about all his screaming, but that turned out to also be true. He did scream quite a bit. My therapist, Susan, and I were laughing about it. Well, I joined her in laughing when I had the breath capability to do it.

The method they use is P&M (Pin & Move) Myofascial Release. They pin the muscle, and that alone can hurt, and other times hurt so bad you don't want to breathe. However, when they start moving that muscle as they have it pinned, you really want to slap yo mama. Yowza, Holy Crap, and Kill Me Now... all in one go. She worked on my chest, my shoulders, shoulder blades, and neck/head. Some of the places on my head hurt in that "OMG, this hurts but I love you so much for finding that spot". She also suffers from migraines so she knows all those sweet spots.

Right after I felt fabulous. All loosey goosey, and just high on life. A few hours later some of the soreness started to set in. It made me not look forward to today... cuz OMG. I am so sore today. And what do I have to do first thing this morning... go work out with the trainer... on my Chest/Back/Shoulders. All the spots got worked on. Man, i cannot believe I made it through. I hurt just having my t-shirt on. Holy moly. I was expecting to be literally black & blue everywhere. But I wasn't. If I had been I would have taken pictures for you. Cuz it would have been gross, and you'd need to see that.

Anyway... even though, I've gone on and on and on about the pain (I mean, look at their logo for Pete's sake, they advertise the pain!!)  I would highly recommend this to anyone. Even if you aren't suffering from something major. I think it would be good for anyone to get your shit all worked out.

Up next... Monday... where we work on my lower half. I'll keep ya posted on how much fun that ends up being :D

My life with a fuqd up achilles

I always seem to have such a hard time figuring out what to post. There are random times while driving or doing some other mundane thing where 15 things pop up in my head that I could write about. Of course, I forget every one of those things when it comes to sitting down and writing. So, kinda random, but at least it's something. I have an injury. It was diagnosed as calcified achilles tendonitis. Sounds gross to me. But apparently it's nothing that can't be made better with some expensive Physical Therapy. I guess a few bucks are better than needing surgery or something. My Physical Therapist said it's like having toothpaste in the tendon. Yah, that makes it sound less gross, blech. I'm on my second week of PT and it's a lot easier than I was expecting. I was thinking of having some sort of personal drill sargeant telling me everything I was doing wasn't good enough, not hard enough. Wow, I could not have been more wrong. Apparently, for tendons/ligaments, you don't want a lot of weight involved at all. And as soon as it hurts, you stop. See, this might be where I probably made the issue worse. I originally started having an issue with this after a Body Combat class. I just thought it was from that particular area not being worked out in that manner before, so I kept going to Body Combat thinking it would eventually "stretch" out. I got sick with bronchitis, and that gave me a 2ish week break on Body Combat, and my heel started feeling better. I went back to Body Combat, and as soon as it was over, it hurt like hell. This is about when I realized that Body Combat was causing issues more likely than it was helping issues. I still went a few more times, cuz it might be crazy hard, but it is really fun. The instructor is also insanely awesome. LOVE her! Now I've been told I can't do that, or the treadmill, or upright bikes. I can only do the recumbent bikes and elliptical for cardio stuff. AND no longer can I do an hour of cardio like I used to. I can only do a max of 20 mins or until it starts to hurt, whichever is first. There are some leg weight exercises I can't do anymore either -- calf extensions (which I was doing quite a bit cuz I thought it would stretch out that achilles, heh) and leg press. I was given a sort of modified leg press I can do. Kinda sucks, cuz I liked the leg press. The only strong thing about me is my legs, so I can rock out on some leg press. Not anymore, though. I was also given things to do a couple times a day on my own, and I've not been so good about that. Before I even get out of bed in the morning, I'm supposed to do these stretches with a towel. I think I've managed to do them about half the time. Most of the time when I wake up it's cuz I have the raging urge to pee, so it's a little difficult to stop and do 3 minutes of stretches. I need Mike's help with this one stretch I have to do, so I only seem to do that at night. I'm also supposed to use a rubber ball to do these stretches about a minute before I get up out of my chair. I ask you, do you know about a minute before you are going to need to get up out of your chair? It's just weird. Anyhoo... boring, but an update. .

*results not typical

Dude. Seriously. I'm in awe. But we'll get to that part later.

I went to the gym yesterday and worked my patooty off. According to Google Maps, the closest Gold's Gym here is 16 miles away. It's a trek, that's for sure. The next closest one is 30something miles away. Makes me appreciate the abundance of Gold's at home. Anyway... the gym I went to is pretty new and HUGE. I'm guessing it's so big since they don't seem to have any others in the immediate area. It's so big that one of the employees couldn't remember where the elliptical machines were. I eventually found them upstairs with a stellar view. I could look down to the first floor where all the bikes and treadmills were. Perfect for people watching. My goal was just 20 minutes on the elliptical. I tend to go overboard when I haven't been to the gym in awhile, and then get so sore it's hard to go back soon. I ended up doing 32 minutes, 2 minutes going backwards. Seems so easy, but damn, my thighs were burning during those 2 minutes. I'll have to work on that. Afterwards I headed to the locker room, and whoa, it was beautimous. Insanely awesome. Washed my hands and rinsed my face, and turned around and dum-dumdum, a scale. A real medical type scale. Ooooh, I have an opportunity to see if mom's scale is whacked. It was a couple pounds more than mom's but then again I had just finished guzzling 2 bottles of aquafina. So, mom's scale is actually accurate. 

We have now arrived at the part of awe. I have actually lost about 10-11 pounds in 2 weeks. Crazy. Never happened before. I'm shocked. I'm super pumped. I still don't know what I'm doing different, but maybe it's just cuz I'm not paying much attention to it. So, I will try to continue to not think of it.  Ha, yah, let me think about not thinking about it. Loverly dilemma.

ER Photos

A few pics that Mike took of me on his camera phone in the ER.

how not to spend the day on your spouse's birthday

I get allergy shots. They are shots filled with stuff that I'm allergic to, like grasses, trees, molds, nuts, etc. I've been getting them for about a year and a half. I'm in my last series of bottles - maintenance - but I'm still creeping up to the maintenance dose.

After getting back from Raleigh last night, I crashed really early. Woke up this morning to go get my shot and to do some shopping for a present for Mike's birthday (which is today). After getting my shot, I went over to Encore Records and got him the KGSR Broadcasts volume 14. I then proceeded to Crate + Barrel to look for something I had in mind. While walking around the store, I started coughing a lot. This is odd, as most people who know me can attest to. I do not cough cuz I really really really hate when other people cough - don't ask, it's just a weird peeve of mine. I thought, hmm weird, but no biggie. Maybe I inhaled some dust or some raunchy old lady perfume. And then it starts to get really difficult to breathe, so I'm coughing a bit more. I also start itching the inside of my ear. I didn't find what I was looking for so I left the store, and started leaving that shopping center. I realized my breathing was worse and my throat was feeling really constricted. I called Mike at home and asked him to have an allergy pill ready for me when I got home cuz I thought I was having a reaction. Of course, Mike, the ever sane one, told me to screw that and go to the ER. I say nono, I just need a Zyrtec. So I zip home at lightning speed, and he's at the door waiting for me. Upon seeing me, he says "oh shit! fuck that, I'm taking you to the ER now!"  Apparently I looked like one of those people in movies who gets stung by a bee and swells up beyond belief. Or, like Will Smith in Hitch after he ate something I think.

We get to the ER, Mike drops me off at the front so I run in and tell them what's going on, and at this point I'm crying cuz it's just starting to hurt so bad. I do not joke when I tell you, they made me fill out forms before doing anything. I was having more and more trouble reading, so once Mike got inside with me he helped me fill them out. Luckily as Mike was finishing that up, a nurse came up behind the admin chica, took one look at me and came running around to get me with a wheelchair. They did all the prelim stuff, blood pressure (crazy low), pulseox (crazy low), heart rate (kinda high), etcetc. Then they took me to another main room. I think they called it the "Crash Room". Dunno what that meant, but I sure got seen quicker than ever in an ER. There was a dude in an area beside me bleeding all over the place, so it must have been a pretty important room. A nurse gets me to take off my top and put on one of their lovely fashion pieces, and in doing so, everyone can see I'm covered in ginormous hive-type things. I start to notice them on my arms too, and they are swelling up like mad crazy too. They give me an IV, take some blood, pump some saline, benadryl, pepcid, and I think a steroid too. Since my BP was so low, they were going to give me epinephrine, but they kept taking it and it was on the rise. The doc said he would like to avoid giving me that cuz it would make me feel like complete ass. A considerate doc, who knew. 

After waiting for a bit, a new nurse comes in and tells me she'll be giving me a breathing treatment. She hooks me up with that. Too bad it wasn't the happyfun breathing stuff. No such luck, just air laced with meds or something.  Doc comes back, declares I look SO much better, but he wants to keep me a little while longer. Wait a bit, more checking, apparently I no longer look like a victim of Rocky Balboa (or even Rocky himself), so I'm told I can go. They give me my scripts and a paper that tells you all these wonderful things about what was wrong with you and what to watch out for and expect. It would apparently be very common if I had another occurrence, but unless it gets as bad, I should be ok. All said and done, we were in and out of there in exactly 2 hours. Excellent, if you ask me. I love Seton Northwest!

Afterwards, I got home, ate a bit, watch a bit of TV next to the fire, and then napped. I feel much better. Not 100% quite yet, but definitely a major improvement.

Um, Happy Birthday Mikey!

Too Much Food

I've kept meaning to mention this, but I've just not gotten the chance to. On September 17, 2006, I started a diet. OOOh, *gasp*, shocker, I know. But, I don't start diets on a whim. My desire to lose weight is so strong that when I decide to start a diet, I commit fully.

I was on Weight Watchers for a year, and Jenny Craig for a year, and in those two years I only lost 17 pounds. So, I feel like most diets just don't work for me like the average dieter. One thing I did try for 4 months in 2005 was a low-glycemic diet on my own. I did it to the extreme though. No bad carbs at all - no rice, no pasta, no bread. I lost around 20 pounds doing that but that gets tiring quick. I consider myself extremely successful for managing that for 4 whole friggin months. One thing that did teach me is that out of all the different programs I've tried, the whole low GI was by far the most successful. So, recently while cruising online, as we all do, I ran across some stuff about Nutrisystem. They had recently redesigned their entire system to low-GI. OMG, I thought. So I looked some more. I was most curious about price, mais naturellement, and was still interested. For about $300, I could get food for 4 weeks. That includes three meals and one dessert. The fact that I hate to cook, and would by far rather not eat than have to worry about actually having to deal with the whole thing, this was looking mighty interesting.

I figured I'd try it for at least one go around. When you first purchase it, you get an extra week for free. So I got 5 weeks for just under $300. One of the shockers upon receiving it all, was that none of needs refrigerating or freezing.  Wow, another reason to love it. It's not like I have a ton of room in there. I took some pics of all the stuff after unpacking. My main goal with this was not to lose weight, but to simply eat more regularly. With this, I just have to add stuff like salads, veggies, diary/protein. I did a breakdown of what that's costing me daily versus the way I'd been eating out, and the difference is crazy. The NS stuff alone costs me about the same, if not less, than what I was spending on going out to lunch everyday. Throw in some veggies, yogurt, salad stuff, and it's still nothing. I can already notice the difference in the bank account. Now I just gotta get Mike to stop eating lunch out everyday. HA! We shall see.

Another thing about me and diets is, I can tend to get a wee bit obsessive. In the past, I would weigh multiple times a day and store it in a spreadsheet along with every bit of food I would eat and all it's nutritional info.  It was crazy. The only way I got over this was to stop weighing completely. I even started telling my doctors to not tell me what I weighed. I'm not that bad anymore, the only place I will weigh is at the doctor, and I don't mind seeing that anymore. So, I've gone to the doctor a couple times recently. Once a couple weeks before starting NS, and another time the other day. So, from those weigh-ins I have lost 5 pounds. That is so astonishing to me! I find it hard to eat so much frickin food sometimes, but I'm so excited. I'm totally diggin' the Nutrisystem thing, and am gonna keep it up. My next order from NS ships any day now. I know it sounds expensive, but it's actually saving me time and money, and I'm actually losing weight. Craziness.

So, I'm gonna try to keep y'all posted on my progress. Wish me luck!

(oh, and if anyone is interested in NS themselves... email me. as a member, I can give out $15 off referall coupons)