I’m a happy gal today. I went to the doctor for my checkup and was declared in “excellent health for a woman your age.” Thanks, I think. Some more lab tests got done and I have to get a mammogram tomorrow (making me wonder if she found something).
But, yay, I was so happy I got the happy salad for lunch!
It was happy, though I put on too much dressing.
I also couldn’t help but be cheered up by the weather today. In this part of Texas, February 1 is when you start to see the sweet-smelling flowers blooming. When I stepped out of the work building for my daily walk, I was hit by the smell of these little power-houses of smell.
Then, just around the corner I smelled grape Kool-Aid! The Texas mountain laurels have started to bloom!
While the knockout roses were pretty, they didn’t smell, but that’s okay, the sweet alyssum and phlox made up for it.
They remind me of me, perhaps a bit too colorful.
No wonder Imbolc (celebrated on February 1 in the Celtic festivals) is my favorite holiday. It symbolizes light arising from the darkness, and here that means flowers! I’ll give some to my Brighid statue today (it’s St. Bridget’s Day on February 1, too). (Note that Anita’s favorite holiday is Groundhog Day, so we have two days in a row to celebrate.)
Anyway, remember to take care of yourself, turn off the news, and look around you. There’s always something out that that will lift your spirits.
So glad you asked, self! You may recall that my health checkup last fall didn’t look so good. My waist measurement and my triclycerides put me at risk of something bad, I’m not sure what. The new doctor I went to back in November told me to go home, eat less sugar and fewer carbohydrates and come back in early February. And losing ten percent of my body weight would be just great.
If you haven’t seen it on social media, I wanted to share this photo of the sunrise today reflected in my car. No filters!
I was trying that positive body image and eat what you want method, but I had to concede it wasn’t working out too well health- or pants-wise. So I did what I could without going into some unhealthy fixation on food or weight.
It’s early February, and I go in tomorrow. I got the bloodwork done last week (and the lady tried to gouge me to death). The results are IN!
I’m still eating eggs. You have to eat SOME cholesterol! Image by @clarebevanphotography via Twenty20
Happy day! I have knocked those bad ole triglycerides down to 129 from 203. I am back in the healthy range, though I was 116 in 2018, so I’ll keep working on it. Since I can’t change the other types of cholesterol (HDL 63 – unchanged, LDL 104 – slightly lower), I’ll try to eat the stuff I like better, anyway. I was pleased that my total cholesterol is now even lower than in 2018.
An Aside
This image is entitled “tasty muffins” on the royalty-free image source. Rub it in! Image by@melanie_thedreamer via Twenty20
While I’m trying my best to avoid refined sugar and white flour, rice and such, every time I get home to the ranch, the house is MORE full of loaves of bread, muffins, sweet rolls, chips, cookies, cakes…wow. It’s really been challenging to be moderate with that stuff, but I’ve done okay. Lee’s in heaven, since Chris and Kathleen eat the way he does! But hey, they live at my house full time, and I’m only there a few days a week. They should eat what they like. I can find veggies and fruit, because Kathleen does get that, too!
Back to Health
One of the things I did for the past few months is up my exercising a bit. I showed you earlier how well that was going, and I am happy to say all trends are on the rise! Thanks, Apple Watch.
I know I shouldn’t compete with myself, but I am glad I’m improving.
The exercise increase didn’t start until last month, but it sure shows!
The amount of good ole movement I’ve been doing has also increased by enough to get me healthier.
Notice how much farther my walking average is in the past three months.
This shows I haven’t missed my movement goal since I started trying to do better, and that includes raising my goal in December.
And yes, I have lost weight. I can see it in my face. Not 10% of my body weight, though! With just changing to healthier eating and additional exercise, it’s coming off in a nice, slow way.
If I can’t get balanced, I’ll drop all my stuff. (Robin Wood tarot, 2 of Pentacles)
For the past few weeks I knew I had been filling my time with too many things that take away energy and not enough things that build it back up. I know perfectly well what those things are, and usually I am able to keep a good balance, even with all my jobs, volunteer positions, and social/family stuff.
But, hey, as we all know too well, life happens. So, even though I have my nature walks, dogs, horses, chickens, and good friends to build up my reserves, some of these new things that have popped up have tilted the balance. I’m just worn out.
What’s Draining My Energy?
Well, some of the things are small and some are large. Some are at least superficially good, and some are plain irritating.
That’s my energy, serenity, motivation, and essence, just going down the drain.
I got a new job responsibility in Austin that seemed like it wouldn’t be too much, but has put at least half a day per week of meetings on my schedule. Meetings drain me (the new people I work with are great, though, and I actually want to contribute by doing this work).
Some new management strains have surfaced, too. Yet another initiative for “creating a mentoring culture” and “celebrating wins” has arrived. These things are all well meaning and “just” take a few minutes. For each direct report and your own self. And then you need to schedule some one-on-ones, which will add another few hours of meetings (with people I like, for sure, but still…I want to do actual work). And corporate initiatives drain me.
I try to schedule just two nonprofit meetings a week, but with the Master Naturalist class going on every week, there ends up being more many weeks. I thought I had it all straight this week, with one MN meeting and one day of volunteering for MTOL and all the animals at the thrift shop, but, suddenly a house closing, in Austin, popped up. ACK. I wanted to do it, but that would mean going to Cameron for a Thursday night meeting, then to Austin for a Friday afternoon closing, then back to Cameron for the thrift store in the morning. I want to do all the things…but wow. Too much driving drains me.
Many of my friends and family members, near and far, haven’t been well. I want to be there for them, too. I can’t let that go to the wayside. Sending out good energy drains me.
And I want to help Anita get her Cameron house ready for a tenant who’s going to help her fix it up. Watching her work so hard with no help drains me by proxy.
Consequences
So, I find myself having a hard time getting through days. I was just sure yesterday was Thursday. It was Tuesday.
Yesterday afternoon, after work meetings for both jobs, I was all nauseated and had one of those squeezing headaches, but powered through a 2-hour meeting. Today I had allergy symptoms and my throat has that weird feeling like it’s sore, but not like I have a cold or flu. I get it when I am physically run down. DING. I can’t even keep my eyes open.
Things, even pretty things, can overwhelm if there are too many of them. Photo by @lostintimeline via Twenty20
Hey, that may mean I need to STOP WRITING and go rest. Gee. Quit yelling. My head hurts. I need to be kind to myself and remember that if I don’t get my balance back, I can’t be much use to anyone.
Gonna make a few schedule changes and re-balance. Lee already changed the closing to doing it from Cameron. Now to meditate. Om.
If you are healthy the US health care system works just great, because you don’t have to deal with any insurance or bureaucrats.
If you are sick, your doctor is not in charge of your care. Oh no. Some company is going to second guess them, delay your authorization, or deny you.
At least they have lovely decorations.
And if you are on Medicare, good luck. Even if you go to the hospital ahead of time, meet with the people, schedule your necessary procedure, etc., you can end up just sitting around hoping your heart doesn’t give out before you are graciously granted your authorization.
At least they have free valet parking.
That’s where I am now. Waiting with my sister, who foolishly believed she had an appointment this morning. The numerous agencies that have to communicate about it seems to have missed talking to each other. Argh.
Really. The woman needs her procedure. We all wouldn’t have driven to Temple and camped out at a hospital full of germs if it weren’t necessary.
I don’t get it how anyone thinks the system where huge insurance companies control the lives of innocent people and you have to pay a third of your salary for the privilege.
Nope. I don’t like hospitals.
Doctors don’t like it either. Nurses don’t like it. They’d love to actually help people with health issues rather than coding and paperwork.
Rant over. I just want my sister to get treated, not get apologies about how badly the new system works. I know it’s hard to disappoint people. I don’t blame the staff.
Well. It turned out “someone” had sent her info to the wrong third-party processor. I do believe the hospital figured out they messed up, because approval came only a half hour later.
I’m all confident now, because the medical team seems great. We will have a healthier and happier family member soon!
Time for a ramble! The things my eyes have been seeing…and not seeing. First off, my eyes are on my mind. Yesterday was my annual eye doctor appointment, which I generally view as all those annoying things I have to look at so that I can later have lots of fun looking at frames. I do so love me some eyeglasses frames, and Helen and Gloria at the Far West Optical Land of Fancy Frames are happy to indulge me. (I know there are fancier frame shops in the area, but you could never get me out of them.)
Yesterday, though, the new-to-me young man who did the preliminary stuff was all solemn, and informed me that my exam counted as a medical one, so my vision coverage wouldn’t accept it. He was really worried I couldn’t pay, or something. I never could get it out of my mouth that I had enough in my Flex account for it.
The exam took 1.5 hours! Mostly Barbara, the eye doctor/friend from church, was looking for some drusen in my eyes. However, she could not find them. I had no idea what the big deal was until I looked it up and found that drusen are the first stage of macular degeneration. They are also fatty deposits. Probably my recent diet change has positively affected them. Yay, I’m not going blind.
Future eyewear. The orange is more of a coral and according to the gals, made me look like Sharon Osborne.
Also I picked out some new sunglasses and regular glasses, and got a good deal on them (a rare thing in this place). The sunglasses have Liberty of London fabric in them, though Helen kept calling it Lloyd’s of London. It gave us all a chuckle. I do enjoy that place.
Other Things My Eyes Saw
I’ll just share this one other thing that made me laugh. I was trying to get holiday pictures taken for our real estate and personal assistance services companies today. No one dressed for it (because I hadn’t asked them to), so we held our packages from the float.
It was really, really hard to get us looking good, but Mandi got some really funny candid shots of the Hearts Homes and Hands team. I cannot un-see them.
I’ll be putting the GOOD pictures up on Facebook, but here is the Hermits’ Rest Enterprises team looking as good as we can:
The real estate team
And here is the HHH team:
Doing our best. I could perhaps have found a more flattering ensemble, but, hey, it has a donkey on it.
What in the world would lead me to say this? Well, things have just been a bit…unbalanced this week. I’ve felt a little “off” all week, and have done some really goofy things that aren’t like me.
This is the can of delicious water that didn’t want to go in my mouth.
The biggest example is suddenly forgetting how to drink a beverage. I was sitting in my living room, watching television or reading, and I was really thirsty for that cold, fresh lemon-flavored water I’d gotten out of the refrigerator. So, while still focused on my other task, I picked it up and briskly poured it into my lap.
That certainly surprised the dog. But, really, I forgot how to put a drink to my lips? It’s like my body had a glitch. Of course, once that happened, I’ve been alert to any other motor-skills issues, so when I trip and almost fall on a tiny raised part of a sidewalk, drop what I’m carrying, etc., I think, “Oh no, I’m getting some disease.”
Vlassic took to his (my) bed to recover from my oddness.
TW: This is about medications and managing the types of food I eat.
The doctor I’d been going to since I moved to Texas retired recently (and somehow I missed being informed of that…guessing it went to some old email). She was a really nice, calm woman who never got excited about anything. She’d say we could try this, we could try that…what do you feel most comfortable with?
I’d been to other doctors in that practice, and all were fine, but since I have moved closer to another affiliated clinic, I decided to try one closer to home. Argh. Changing primary care physicians is NOT easy, since so few of them are taking new patients. I finally found a couple who didn’t have horrible reviews and chose the woman, just because, I guess.
My “Drug Habit”
I don’t like to take pills. Only if absolutely necessary. Photo credit @erimar via Twenty20
Yesterday at 7 am, minutes after I woke up, her office called to brightly ask what medications I need refilled and to inform me that “the doctor doesn’t do refills of alprazolam, just so you’ll know.” Well, huh. That drug is Xanax, which I’ve had as an “emergency backup” for decades. I generally take about 6 a year, maybe fewer, especially now that my panic attack issue is much better. So, I was interested in finding out more about that, perhaps when I was more awake. At least she didn’t say they were taking away my fluoxetine (Prozac), which makes me feel like a stereotype, but also makes me able to cope with stuff like a pro.
This is the Blue Fish brand I still wear from the 1990s.
Everyone has some patterns in their life that could be tweaked, changed, or eliminated. For me, one I’ve been thinking about a lot is clothing. The number of times I have had to clean out my closet recently tells me that a) I often buy trendy things that actually don’t work out for my body type, and b) I keep gaining and losing weight, so I can’t wear half of what is in my closet at any one time. Then, things change, and I wish I hadn’t given all the previous stuff away. Now that I am just enjoying who I am and not stressing over my size, I do hope I’m stable.
I do try to buy clothing that will last a long time. I have been reading a lot about the “fast clothing” concept, and while it does provide some jobs for people overseas, I’d just rather conserve resources by buying things that will last me a long time, or can be re-used by someone else. That’s what I do with things that are way too small or way too large (depending on my current size).
Some days I get quite annoyed with the exercise tracker on my Apple Watch. There are days when I KNOW I have gotten a lot of exercise but the watch stubbornly displays the “fact” that I just got a few minutes. Take last weekend as an example. On Friday I went on a long hike and my legs could feel it. Then I walked all over the Hilton. The watch did not agree.
Yep, looks like on Friday I got about 8 minutes.
Every morning, it gleefully informs me that I get two minutes walking the dog. And it does believe I’m exercising when I walk up and down the parking garage. But, when I walk around the pasture? When I take the dogs on a longer walk? Not so much.
How come?
GOOOOOOAL.
It’s because of Nature, that’s why. These days I am completely incapable of going on a nice brisk walk, arms swinging merrily (because that’s how the watch knows I’m moving, as I’ve probably mentioned before), for numerous consecutive minutes. I was proud to do it yesterday for enough minutes to reach my goal, but that’s because we didn’t let ourselves or the dogs be distracted.
Usually, though, something distracts me, and not just the dog needing to sniff or do his business. I just see things or hear things that I have to investigate. There seems to be a bird, a bug, or a flower every few feet, and this nature gal just has to check them out, and most likely take a picture. I mean, heck, iNaturalist is always there, wanting me to add stuff and make my number larger.
Greetings from my sick room. I’ve been sleeping off the medication I got when my coworker Maggie guided me to the ER, because I got all disoriented and weird at my 10 am meeting.
Huh?
It just wasn’t a good morning. I was very happy to get to work without incident, because I was still exhausted from the weekend. I was almost to my exit when eek! A large piece of something…perhaps fiberboard, came out of the sky over the truck in front of me. No time to react, I just watched it smash down on the hood of my car. It then flew off, and I hope didn’t hit any other car!
The Hermits' Rest 