Filling the Jug

I'm feeling better, for the moment, and I am taking care of a few medical things from the never-ending list of medical things I have to do.

The most interesting of these is a urine histamine test, because it requires me peeing into a jug for 24 hours. It's a large jug, but I'm trying to ignore the fear that I'll fill it up by noon. What do I do then? Start filling jars? What if I run out of room in the fridge? Will the neighbors mind if I ask to store some of my pee until tomorrow? I was half-convinced my fears were irrational until I started filling the jug and it's already a quarter way up at 10:15.

I'll be fine, I have jars.

I'm also getting a lipid panel, so I have to fast for 9-12 hours beforehand. I get emotional when I'm hungry, and needles are not my favorite, so it could be a scene.

The mornings have finally turned cold in the redwoods, and I sense that my walks will start getting longer and longer. I was frustrated with my progress over the summer, I exercised more than I thought I'd be able to, but I didn't increase my time, my stamina, or my strength, and I couldn't help but feel discouraged by that, even though it was for perfectly good reasons, like I was coughing up my spleen for a month, and before that I could barely walk from the IC pain, and before that it was all explosive heat migraines, all the time. I was finally able to get back out on the mountain last week, and my struggle was real. Breathing hard, stressing my head, and taking rests felt like a step backwards, but three days in and I'm already starting to bounce back. I took our hill like a champ this morning, despite having interrupted sleep and a waning IC flare. Yay!


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The Sick Has Taken Over

I have been feeling like sheeeeeeeee-it.

The depression and anxiety are totally out of control, until they aren't and I'm nearly fine. It's very much hormonal, and very fucking frustrating.

I usually try to avoid swearing here, but since I haven't been around much, I'm not going to stifle one iota of this writing momentum I'm trying to build up, so if I drop a few fucks, shits, and assholes, well, I guess you're finally getting to know the real me.

I got the enterovirus, or something similarly coughtastic, and it's been mothercracking WEEKS of this shit now and I'm so tired. Actually this is the first day I've felt somewhat normal, singing and dancing while I clear out the MOUNTAIN of dishes in the sink. Now there's just a rolling hill, and I'll tackle that once the precariously piled clean dishes dry in the rack.

My head doesn't appreciate the coughing AT ALL, so that's been miserable too, except I can't medicate because smoking triggers what? COUGHING. SONOFAMONKEY.

Edibles are an option when we have the stuff to make it ourselves, but we haven't for the past few weeks and resorted to store-bought and guess what? It's all either too heavy to gag down while 'graining or inflammatory to my IC, so NO.

The IC has been a dick, too, but that's mostly my fault because in the midst of all the sick I wanted Chinese food so bad I didn't care about the repercussions and ate the hell out of some delicious chow fun and mediocre potstickers. I felt the pain for a week! The hell, urethra, I have no idea what I did to anger the renal gods but they hate me.

I got some bloodwork done, and got the results back but no comment from my doctor yet, so I'm going to share my abnormal results with you and we can all speculate.


Test - my number (what is normal)
Vitamin D - 22 (30-100)
White Blood Cell Count - 3.6 (4.0-11.0 K/uL)
Hemoglobin - 11.8 (12.0-15.5 g/dL)
MCH - 25.8 (27.0-33.0 pg)
Neutrophil - %39 (49.0-74.0%)
Monocyte - %13 (2.0-12.0%)
Abs. Neutrophil - 1.4 (2.0-8.0 K/uL)

So, the internet says these low blood cell counts could just be anemia, which I've had off and on for years, and I suspect being in the midst of the sick has also thrown off some numbers, but then it also suggests cancer, which is so damn rude, but that's what I get for googling instead of emailing my doctor.

So, I started taking vitamins again because I'm still too tired to properly cook for myself every meal, and that might be improving my energy, but it could also be that I'm only having five coughing fits a day instead of 16,000.

I haven't hiked with the puppies in ages, and I really miss working out, so hopefully I'll be able to reclaim that in the next week, but as soon as I feel well enough it'll be time to get my flu shot which knocks me down for several days too. Weeeeee!


At least I'm pooping regularly.







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