Add Two More to the Stack

Yep, you guessed it. More medication for me. Yippee.

The family doctor visit on Thursday yielded another round of antibiotics plus some pills that are supposed to help with allergies, colds, etc. The doctor said that she doesn’t think that my sinus infection is dead yet. My nasal passages and throat were red, not the color that they should have been if the trouble was stemming from allergies.

I’ve spent the majority of the weekend sleeping. I had a migraine Friday and yesterday, but it’s gone now, thankfully. I took a nice hot bath last night. It takes less energy than a shower and feels better than one, too. 🙂 I might do it again tonight, with the wind and rain outside and my right shoulder all messed up. It certainly helps to relax me.

With the exhaustion and headaches, my stitching and computer time has been severely limited. I’m going to have to beg for an extension on my dragon RR mailing date and I have OSL work to do, too. First things first, though. I have to feel better. And I’m working on that. I may not have energy yet to do anything, but I don’t have a raging headache and face pain today, so things are moving in the right direction.

Time to log off now before the computer screen brings on a headache. Have a happy week!

Posted in Life in General | 11 Comments

Naughty Girl

As you may have already surmised, last night was a very late one for us. As in, we didn’t eat dinner until after 10 PM. After my two appointments, we spent over an hour pacing the floor in Best Buy, looking at flat panel TVs. This idea started a couple of days ago when we realized that the TV in our bedroom is really fuzzy. I never noticed it until I hooked up the new PS2 to it and saw how much ambient noise was on the screen. Not cool.

We briefly discussed looking at replacements for the TV, which devolved evolved into a discussion about replacing our TV downstairs. Because of the dimensions of our family room and where the furniture is placed, we are only about 10 feet or so from the TV. This limited our choices when we last bought a new TV for the room about 4 years ago. I’ve been thinking for a while that the only way to go bigger is to get a flat screen TV (LCD or plasma) and mount it on the wall.

So, we stopped at Best Buy on the way home last night to take a look at the demo TVs. We spent an hour staring from one TV to another, trying to discern small (and not so small) differences. The most informative occurrence was when the rain storm started to degrade the store’s satellite signal, so the picture was breaking up. With the signal dropping off and coming back in, some TVs were faster than others at catching up when they received bits of signal. Some were slower. And some TVs, much to our dismay, blacked out completely. They just couldn’t handle it. I’m talking high end TVs that cost a few thousand dollars here. VERY good information to know and not something that you would necessarily figure out until you had it home. Since we have satellite TV, this is actually a key finding.

I finally convinced Terry that I don’t want to spend half of our tax refund (which hasn’t arrived yet, since we just filed the other day) on a TV that we don’t really need because our existing set in the family room still functions quite well. However, I did have a real itch to replace the TV in our bedroom and we had been there so long that Terry said he felt obligated to actually buy something. So, we bought a 32″ LCD that was on sale at the time. The picture is nice and crisp (Terry, of course, had to put the stand together and install it in our armoire before we even ate dinner) and all is well. The money will come out of the tax refund when it arrives. I am so terrible sometimes with wanting instant gratification!

I really have no excuses left to not play DDR on the new PS2 and dance my way back into shape…

Posted in Life in General | 5 Comments

Here’s the Plan, Stan

All of today’s doctor visits went well.

My appointment with the psychiatrist was fine. I told him how I felt – that the depression seems to be leveling out and I’m feeling more “normal” but that I still feel like I am more anxious than I want to be. That the anxiety is not quite under control yet. Manageable, yes. Ideal, no. So, a change of medication is on tap for me. For those who are interested, I am currently taking 300 mg of Wellbutrin XL and 20 mg of Lexapro a day. The plan is for me to cut the Wellbutrin XL in half (literally) to take me down to 150 mg. At the same time, I am going to start on the Cymbalta. I will take 30 mg of the Cymbalta for 5-7 days and then go up to 60 mg of Cymbalta. I will stay on the same dosage of Lexapro (20 mg) for 3 weeks and then step down to 10 mg for one week and then discontinue the Lexapro entirely. The hope is that, by the time I stop taking the Lexapro, the Cymbalta will have had enough time to take full effect. If we have to, we can re-increase the Wellbutrin XL back to 300 mg, if I have any issues with the depression once the pendulum stops swinging from all of the other changes. I hope that won’t be the case.

My Dr. Steve appointment was fruitful, if in a different way than usual. I recounted my psychiatrist visit and he wrote down the medication changes for reference. Then I told him that my definition of “normal” has now changed and that I’m not willing to settle for where I’m at just now. He seemed pleased with that. We then taped a shorter, 15 minute relaxation tape for me to use that is customized just for me. I closed my eyes and went through the techniques while he was taping them and he was able to tailor his pauses and prompts to how I reacted. Very nice. 🙂 He had previously given me a 30 minute version that was too long for me to be able to use when I’m having trouble falling asleep. With any luck, I may not have to take any more sleeping pills. The psychiatrist was concerned a few months ago when I said I was having trouble sleeping, so he had prescribed Rozerem for me, but it didn’t give me consistent results, so he switched me to Lunesta when I last saw him in January. While I only take it a couple of times a month, it would be really nice to not use them at all.

And now for something (not so) completely different.

You may not know this about me, but I really don’t like being on medication. When it was just the Wellbutrin when I was a teenager, that was one thing. The addition of oral contraceptives when I was diagnosed with endometriosis didn’t bother me too much more. But now, between what I take every day and what I have to keep nearby in case of sinus problems, migraines, IBS, etc. is just driving me crazy. I don’t like it. I really don’t. I know that I need to accept the limitations of my body and the genetics with which I was conceived and that I should be grateful that there are medicines available to help me, but sometimes I really rail against it. I had a 1 quart Ziploc bag full of prescription bottles when we went to Utah. I felt like a traveling pharmacy. 🙁 The funny thing is that I’m really a quite happy and well-adjusted little thing. If you didn’t know me better, you would probably have no idea that I have so many stupid health quirks to deal with. I really don’t feel like I have any major health issues. I feel happy and healthy most of the time. And I don’t like to let on when I’m having problems, either physically or emotionally. Until recently, I think that I managed to hide it all very nicely.

I’m not sure what has changed. Or when. Maybe it’s just my strong desire to be open and honest in all of my relationships. Don’t get me wrong, most people still don’t know half of what goes on in my life. Unless you are a close co-worker who happens to know about my migraines because I’ve had to reschedule a meeting at the last minute or jump up from something to run to the bathroom with an IBS attack (and not many people even know that because I have an incredible strong will and muscles…) or you are someone I consider to be a close friend or a very immediate member of the family, I don’t reveal much. I don’t like to whine. I like to be positive. I like to live my life with passion, purpose and joy.

I just felt like I had to clarify that, because I feel like I’ve been moaning and groaning about this, that or the other problem on this blog lately. I know that it’s MY blog, but I don’t particularly want to hear it, either. And besides, no matter what impression I might give, I’m really not a spindly, weak person with failing health. I’m a strong, independent woman with a couple of chronic problems who desperately does not EVER want to turn into an invalid. I guess I just need to remind myself to stop dwelling on the stupid little things so much. Overall, I am really lucky and I live a great life. I guess there just have to be a few trade-offs to keep the balance. 😉

Posted in Journey to Self-Discovery, Life in General | 5 Comments

Meme of Twos

I was tagged by Angela in one of those random, if you read this, you are tagged, tags and I feel meme-y, so here goes:

Two …

… names you go by: Jenna, Jennifer
… wearing right now: Olive twill pants with a camel-colored knit top
… you must have in a relationship: Respect, honesty
… favorite things to do: Stitch, read
… you want very badly: Time, money
… pets you had/have: have Phoebe, had a tabby cat named (wait for it) Tabby
… people who will fill this out: Outi, Barbara
… you did last night: model stitched, wrote out bill payments
… you ate yesterday: BBQ cheeseburger, tuna salad melts
… people you talked to last: Terry, a coworker
… things you’re doing today: downloading/printing/perusing manuals, designing Lotus Notes databases
… longest car rides you have taken: Pennsylvania to Iowa in an old Dodge Omni (compact car) with no air conditioning in the middle of summer, impending drive from Pennsylvania to Saint John, New Brunswick in July
… favorite holidays: Christmas, my birthday (isn’t that a holiday?)
… favorite beverages: Water, lemonade

If you feel like doing this meme, then have fun! 🙂

Posted in Meme | 2 Comments

Crazy Week

Bottom line for this week? 4 doctors in one week. My checkbook is going to see some action. 😉

Today – orthodontist visit. I’ve been out of braces (my second time, for those who didn’t know) for a couple of years, but I’m still not quite happy with how the teeth are meeting up in my bite around my right canines. I figure that I’m an adult, I paid for it myself and I reserve the right to be picky. The doctor doesn’t seem to mind, but neither of us were deriving satisfaction from the tweaks that he was making via the retainer. So, today, he drilled the permanent wire off of the inside of my lower right canine, left the wire unattached at the end and took impressions for a second retainer. So, I’ll be wearing retainers on the top and the bottom for a little while. Once things have shifted into the desired position, then he’ll reattach the wire and hopefully I’ll be done. Hah!

Tomorrow – a double header. Psychiatrist, then psychologist. Back to back. My head will be well and truly shrunken by the time we’re done. I’m hoping for a change of meds from the psychiatrist. We’ve been discussing a potential change from Wellbutrin XL to Cymbalta. Cymbalta is a totally different type of anti-depressant and it is supposed to help with pain, as well. I’ve been on Wellbutrin in its various forms for approximately half of my life, so I think a change might do me some good. My depression feels fairly controllable at the moment, but my anxiety still needs some work. Maybe this would help.

Part of me is nervous to make any change when things feel almost normal at the moment. But part of me thinks that even what feels nearly normal to me really isn’t good enough. We’ll see what the psychiatrist says.

It will be good to see Dr. Steve again, since I haven’t seen him in nearly a month. Terry is probably going to be bored out of his skull by the time we get home from sitting around waiting for me so much, bless his heart.

Thursday – family doctor visits for both Terry and I. Terry is due for a medication check and I’m going to see if I can’t find out why I’ve been so tired lately, with stuffiness in my nose, sinuses and ears periodically through the day. It could be continued sinus issues, could be allergies, who knows what. All I know is that I’m not going on that darned Astelin again. I can’t stand not being able to drink water because of the after taste. And that taste lingers all day for me. I’m not giving up water. Anything strong enough to kill that taste is probably going to be loaded with sugars or whatever other things my body really doesn’t need. 😀

That’s it for doctors this week, then. I have one last appointment that I need to make with a gastroenterologist. For me and for Terry. Terry needs his annual checkup for his eosinophilic esophagitis and I need to talk to someone about my IBS.

Yeehaw! We’re in for a fun ride, aren’t we? 😆 Don’t expect to see any stitching pics this week. Sorry!

Posted in Life in General | 5 Comments

Quiet Holiday

I’m afraid that I have nothing to show, yet again. I didn’t really get to stitch while my parents were here and then I slept most of the day away.

The weather suddenly became cold this weekend, but we didn’t get any snow. My newly planted pansies are drooping a little bit, but if it starts to warm back up soon, I think that they will be okay. Some of the seeds that I worked on last weekend have already started to germinate. Ironically, the first ones to come up and had at least one seed per peat pod germinate were the broccoli seeds I had from 2004! I didn’t actually expect them to germinate, so it was a pleasant surprise. I’m also seeing some tomato seedlings, a couple of thyme and a handful of lavender seedlings poke up. Yay! I like plants. 🙂

I caught up on all of my accounting last night and, with the help of my Dad, filed my first quarterly sales tax return for the business this morning. I’ve decided that accounting work is definitely not my cup of tea and makes me tired. 😉 I’ve learned a lot this first month in business, mostly from my mistakes. So, my first quarter of accounting entries are ugly, but the numbers all add up and zero out just like they should. Dad helped me look over some reports this morning, so despite the difficulties I’ve had, I feel really good about everything right now. And I am SO relieved to finally be caught up! Bring on the next releases, Outi! 😆

On the stitching front, I’m afraid to say that I don’t expect to have pictures to share for a little bit. I need to finish this model, which will happen this week. Of course, I also have only a week before Spring Dragon has to be done and in the mail. Ack! So, I guess I will have a photo or two of that this week.

Have a great week!

Posted in Life in General, Stitching | 6 Comments

Uh-oh!

We had a major hardware failure on one of our servers last night. Terry was up until the wee hours of the morning trying to figure out how to bypass the corrupted hardware. Unfortunately, the hardware held the key to all of our data, including my blog, One Star’s Light, etc.

For whatever reason, the most recent data that Terry could pull from backup was from March 30th. This means that I’m missing a few blog entries. It also means that OSL is minus an order, but fortunately, I keep all of the order emails generated from the system, so I was still able to ship the order and manually reconciled the store inventory.

In the meantime, poor Terry has been dealing with aftershocks all day. We lost wireless connectivity for a while, my web mail is still down (but I can get into it in other ways) and other random things have been been working, then breaking, then working again. I think that Terry is fried. He slept in until I woke him up at 3 PM.

On the stitching front, I’m working on a model, so I can’t share anything. Again. I want to try to complete the model this weekend and get some serious time in on Spring Dragon, as well as maybe Barnabee’s Quest.

My parents are coming for a visit this weekend, arriving sometime tomorrow afternoon or evening. Hopefully, Mom won’t mind that I’m going to take my stitching corner from her (that’s where she usually sits). I’m going to try to stick to my normal weekend routine of sleeping in and stitching. So, I may or may not have some stitching to share Sunday night or so.

Have a wonderful holiday weekend everyone!

Posted in Life in General, Stitching | 6 Comments

April Stitching Goals

  • Stitch and send back model
  • Stitch Spring Dragon and send out for Round Robin
  • Start and complete one Christmas ornament
  • Work on Just Nan – Barnabee’s Quest
  • Work on Alma Lynne – Computer Wizard
  • Work on Dimensions – Bonsai and Buddha
Posted in Stitching | 1 Comment

March Stitching Goals in Review

  • Start and complete one Christmas ornament
  • :mrgreen: Work on Just Nan – Barnabee’s Quest
  • :mrgreen: Work on Alma Lynne – Computer Wizard
  • Work on Dimensions – Bonsai and Buddha

Doesn’t look like much, but I also did a lot of work on PIF gifts and stitched up some other miscellaneous items.

Posted in Stitching | 1 Comment

What’s on Tap?

What’s on tap for this weekend? Well, let’s see. There’s that mountain of yardwork that could be done. We’re going out tonight after work to buy fertilizer, temporary fencing to keep Phoebe off of the muddy areas in the back and a roller to try and regrade the backyard. You may or may not remember that we had a geothermal heating/cooling system installed last November. They had to dig up the backyard to put it in and the well drilling truck sank its wheels into the soft, muddy ground because it had been raining for days before. So, we have some huge ruts that will snap your ankle if you walk on them the wrong way and generally muddiness in the backyard. It’s like the first spring after the house was built, all over again!

So, we need to roll and dig and roll and rake and hope to get it back to some semblance of smoothness again and then sow some starter seed. A lot of that is going to be heavy and/or tractor work, so that will be Terry’s domain. I want to try to do it this weekend because the ground is nice and soft, so it should be more malleable.

Add to that mess the fact that Terry installed a sump pump (though I never see water in the basement) and the outlet has been making a nice, muddy pit a couple of feet from the foundation in the back and, well, he has some work to do. 😉 We’ll have to dig a trench, line it with stone, lay down black, perforated pipe and run the outlet pipe underground to meet up. Fortunately, there is an untouched section of yard for Phoebe to do her business. Hence the need for temporary fencing. I’m tired of her coming in with muddy paws!

I will probably weed, spray and put down some more mulch in areas. There are other areas that need to be cleared out, so some combination of pruners (hand or bypass) and shovels will be needed. And then maybe I will play with the tiller a bit. It’s so light that it tends to bounce on our clay and rock-ridden soil, so I have trouble keeping it down.

I also need to (more importantly) start some seeds in the house for vegetables in the garden and lavender plants that I eventually want to line the driveway. I know, I should have started them much earlier, but I didn’t want any seedlings to dry out and die while we were in Utah, so I do what I can. 🙂

Add to that, copious amounts of stitching. I want to finish my fourth (and last, at least for now) incarnation of Alegria and then I have to baste my RR fabric and work on Barnabee’s Quest and Computer Wizard. They are calling for rain on Sunday, which would be good, to keep me inside!

And so starts that time of year where my desire to stitch and my desire to be outside war with each other on a fairly constant basis…

Posted in Life in General, Stitching | 2 Comments