| ooh eee ooh (44 years, sheesh) |
[Nov. 23rd, 2007|09:37 pm] |
I can't let Doctor Who's anniversary go by without making a post! Unfortunately, the first producer of the series has died.
RIP Verity Lambert.
In other news, how do I sum up everything that's been happening in the last year or so? Hmm... new house, some changes at work (for the better), and a few trips in between (special thanks to Skybus for some cheap fares).
I guess I'm not the type to post a novel on here on a weekly basis. Sowwy to those who think I should be doing this :P |
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| the big 3-0 |
[Jun. 20th, 2007|11:51 am] |
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I'm twenty-ten... err, 30 today. Time to break out the Depends and Super Poligrip! |
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| Oh Canada! |
[Aug. 1st, 2006|06:57 am] |
Right now I'm at the University of Guelph in Guelph, Ontario (about 60 miles west-ish of Toronto) for a work-related conference. I see some similarities to Bowling Green in terms of the size of the university and the surrounding area, except it's much prettier up here! I came up with a busload of coworkers on Sunday, and we're going back on Wednesday. In between, highlights so far have been gawking at all the hot guys working for Desire2Learn (aka Carmen at Ohio State) and finding some lovely President's Choice "The Decadent" cookies at a nearby No Frills grocery store. (If you haven't had PC cookies before, your next best choice would probably be Private Selection chocolate chip cookies at Kroger or the fancy chocolate chip cookies at WalMart.) Of course, I'm also networking with other Desire2Learn users, and we've had the right combination of workshops and social activities. This is my first time up in the land of Celine Dion and poutine, and so far I've been impressed. We'll see how things go when we venture over to Toronto tonight for an evening of eating, shopping, and drenching in sweat (did I mention it's been 90+ here? Of course, it sounds so much nicer in Celsius...)
Oh yes, Brian, I won't forget to bring you some Swiss Chalet. Then again, it might be confiscated at the border by some hungry customs agents! ;) |
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| What the HEC is going on? |
[Jul. 10th, 2006|10:32 pm] |
Our college at OSU (Human Ecology, aka HEC) has merged with Education. We are now known as EHE (Education and Human Ecology). Check out our new website! Well, it's literally more like a web page, as all we have at the moment is a letter from our dean and links to the existing college websites. Figure we'll have a new website ready in the next couple of months, maybe longer.
I was going to write about what I did this past weekend, but Geoff already took care of it. |
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| spam spam spam |
[May. 30th, 2006|05:23 pm] |
I got my shits and giggles for the day when I checked my bulk email folder in Yahoo Mail. The subject of a particular spam was "female free orgasms". The last time I checked, my orgasms have always been female-free!
Thanks to my new friends Paxil and Xanax, my mind has been starting to return back to normal (or as close to normal as I usually am). I'm still not entirely convinced that what I went through in the last few months was all in my head, though, but it sure had something to do with it. I still feel fatigue here and there, and my vision plays the occasional trick on me, but I do feel a LOT better than I did a month or so ago.
I went to Toledo this past weekend for my niece Kaelie's first birthday party. (I also met up with Geoff for a late lunch and some other shopping in BG beforehand.) The trip was pleasant enough overall other than the fact that my brother-in-law is really stingy with running the air conditioner. He and my sister live in a rather large house (that happens to be for sale *cough* shameless plug *cough*), and money is a bit tight, especially with them spending quite a bit to send my nieces and nephew to private schools. But, when it's 90+ and humid outside, and you have 20 or so guests coming over for a party, you think he wouldn't have much of a problem turning it on the night before to make sure the house would be cooled off in time. Nope! He decided to wait until about 3 hours before the party started, and even then, he had it set to around 76 degrees. While he wasn't looking, I turned it down to 70 (which still didn't help out much).
Speaking of heat, I have some friends out in the Palm Springs area (including Mr. Jim) that want me to visit sometime. Being the fool that I am, I plan on going out there toward the end of August when it'll be 110+ out. "Oh, it's a dry heat," they say. I guess I want to experience this whole "dry heat" thing at least once in my life. Bring it on! |
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| some answers... or even more questions? |
[May. 2nd, 2006|09:58 pm] |
Tomorrow morning I have an MRI, and in the early afternoon I'm seeing a psychiatrist. Then on Thursday it's off to the neurologist. I'm very thankful that my mom has been able to stay with me the last few days. There's only so much I can do on my own, so she has been very helpful to me. I just hope that we get a better idea of what's been going on, as I'm going to guess there will be even more questions to ask once all these appointments are over.
I was able to go into work for a while today. My coworkers have been very understanding of what I'm going through. While I don't think stress at work was the original cause of what I've been going through, it might be a contributing factor. I suggested to my boss earlier that we should get a motivational speaker to come in and talk to the whole office. I think there's one who lives in a van... down by the river...
I think I've said it on here before, but one of my issues is a resistance to change. Believe it or not, though, I made a change that I think I can be happy with -- I bought a new monitor! Geoff had one that came with his recent computer purchase, but he was still happy using his old one. So, I made him an offer. It's a CRT, but I'm not in a big rush to get an LCD, at least not until the Dell 21" widescreen I have at work comes down in price...
Off to bed I go. Tomorrow will be a long day. |
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| update |
[Apr. 28th, 2006|09:55 am] |
I felt so miserable yesterday and the day before that I decided to go to the ER. I was feeling really tired, felt lightheaded, had some skipped heartbeats, and had more short term memory and concentration problems. I almost felt like I was going to drop over dead.
I probably should have gone sooner, but I had already been to my regular doctor and my optometrist a few times, plus I had a neurologist referral, so I thought I could wait it out. It turns out I couldn't.
Of course, going to an ER usually means waiting, and yes, I had to wait for about 4 hours. That gave my mom enough time to drive down to be with me, thankfully.
Once I got in, I have to say the OSU ER nurses and doctors were very friendly, professional, and (relatively) prompt. The first nurse (Dana) said I was doing all the right things earlier by going to my doctors, but she did wonder why I waited as long as I did before coming in to address my later symptoms (saying she was glad I was there). The other nurse (Cynthia) had lots of fun trying to draw blood, but considering I hadn't had much water to drink the last 6 hours or so, I guess this was to be expected.
The doctor also ordered an EKG and a CAT scan. I was amazed at all they were able to do at such a late hour too (the CAT scan was done around 11:30). The CAT scan showed an "arachnoid" cyst on the right side of my head toward the back. The doctor thinks it's not causing any issues, though.
The doctor also is helping to arrange an MRI before I go to the neurologist on May 11.
Like I said, my mom is down here now, and she will be here for a few days (maybe even a week).
I feel sooooo overwhelmed, especially in the mornings when I first wake up and wonder what I'm going to do that day. While I'm sure stress is playing a role in what's been going on as of late, I still think something else is happening. I just hope we get down to the bottom of it and that it's nothing that can't be controlled.
BTW, I'm going to see a psychiatrist on Wednesday -- up in Findlay out of all places. My mom has been seeing this guy for a while, and we think it's the best place for me to start. (I figure he'll be able to give me a few names of psychiatrists in Columbus as well, so I don't have to drive up to Findlay all the time.)
As a favorite fortune from a fortune cookie says, I need to "keep on keeping on". I still plan on hanging out with my friends, going to see family, and even try to work (but I might have to take some time off depending on how things go). Some of you may think I'm turning into a hypochondriac, and maybe I do have a touch of that, but there really are some issues here that need to be addressed, both physical and emotional. Depression and anxiety run in the family -- so it's my turn to face it now. Do any of you have any tips on how you deal with it? (Please, no suggestions about drug habits!) |
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| follow-up |
[Apr. 22nd, 2006|11:33 am] |
I'm still here! My regular doctor is referring me to a neurologist (the appointment is on May 11). In the meantime, I've been trying to keep myself busy hanging out with friends. I feel so overwhelmed right now, and I'm not quite sure where to start to put all the pieces back together. Today I'm attempting to do some laundry and also try to tidy up the apartment, but there's only so much I can do. I guess I've been so pre-occupied by the symptoms I've had that it's difficult for me to do anything else. My mind feels a bit blank otherwise.
I probably should have done this sooner, but I did go see a counselor at OSU yesterday. He seemed a bit odd to me (going off on a few tangents that I don't think had much to do with my issues), but I figured it was better than not having any professional help at all. My doctor did say to see a psychiatrist, so I'm on the lookout for one to go along with (or replace) the regular counseling.
I also went to a Doctor Who Columbus meeting last night at Lido's (a nice Italian restaurant by the cheapie theater at Carriage Place). Andrew and Jason were there, and they were nice enough to talk to me about what I've been going through.
Geoff is coming over in a few hours, and we're heading over to Aaron's for a nice potluck/gathering. Then tomorrow I'm going to help my friend Joe get the rest of his stuff from Geoff's and over to where he's staying now. |
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| Is there a doctor in the house? |
[Apr. 9th, 2006|03:02 pm] |
The last month or so has been pretty crazy for me. We had a health screening at work in late January, and I figured it would be worth going to. The numbers weren't so good. My blood pressure was high (160/100, I think), and my cholesterol was pretty bad (240). I weighed in at 277 lbs. My blood sugar was ok, at least (109 fasting -- could be better).
So, I figured it was time to make some changes. Time to eat better, time to cut out all the snacking, time to cut back a little at meals, and time to get some exercise.
All seemed to be going well for the first few weeks. I was indeed eating better and walking more. But I had some digestive issues that started to concern me. Unrelated to eating more fruits, veggies, and fiber was some blood on my stool. It went away after a few days, but I was a bit freaked out. I went to see the doctor, who said that he thought it wasn't anything major, but he would order a colonoscopy if there was more blood. This visit was in the middle of February, and my weight was down to 266 lbs. My blood pressure was down too (around 135/85). I told the doctor about my recent diet changes, and he was impressed and said to keep it up. We set a check-up for sometime in May.
The only problem, though, is that I was still worried about the whole blood issue.
I carried on with my healthier habits, but I think I had jumped into the fruit, veggie, and fiber bandwagon too quickly. I had occasional upset stomach and some other (non-blood) digestive "issues". I figured that my body was trying to adjust to eating better and that it would go away in time.
I noticed in early March that I was feeling colder than usual, especially at work. I was also waking up occasionally at night feeling chills. My body temperature wasn't high at all, though. In fact, it was relatively low (around 96 or so if I took it in the middle of the night when feeling chilled -- and my normal temp is 97-98).
I also noticed that my resting heart rate seemed to be a bit lower than usual (around 60-65 when it's normally 75-84). I didn't think that my changes could have affected this that quickly.
About a week later I noticed my vision was slightly blurry. I went to the eye doctor, who said it was probably from the weight loss and change in diet. We made an appointment for a month later to check up on things.
Around this same date, I started to feel really fatigued and out of it. Some of it felt like when I had mono a few summers ago, but it also felt different at the same time.
I was having major issues sleeping. I couldn't go more than an hour or two without waking up. When waking up, I didn't feel out of breath at all. I would just simply wake up. Even if I could fall back asleep, I would end up waking another hour or two later.
My other symptoms around this time included frequent urination (I wasn't thirsty, though, but drank more on purpose to make up for peeing so much), a lack of appetite, and some numbing/tingling in my extremities. I would also feel a bit jittery, almost nauseous, about 3 hours after eating for a period of about 20 or 30 minutes.
Based on these symptoms, I thought that I might have diabetes or even a thyroid issue. I went to my doctor, and various blood and urine samples were taken. My blood sugar was fine. My thyroid levels were normal as well. (I've also had chances to check my blood sugar at work, and it was fine each time.)
BTW, my weight at that doctor's visit (around March 17) was a little bit under 250 lbs. I had lost close to 30 lbs in under 2 months, which is way too fast. Most of that was probably from just not being very hungry for a few weeks -- and then the rest could have been from getting kind of dehydrated from peeing so much.
I ended up asking the doctor to give me something to help with my anxiety, and he gave me a prescription for Zoloft. Now, this stuff takes 3 or 4 weeks to kick in, but you can still get side effects early on. In my case, it made me really jittery, and I also was seeing halos around objects in bright light. So, I quit taking it after only 3 days.
Around this time, I was waking up feeling numb in my extremities. I also had some issues with having a normal conversation with others. I almost felt like I had some sort of mental block. What's weird is that most of the nauseous feelings hours after eating went away, only to instead appear during some of those times when dealing with the whole mental block issue. (For example, a grad student at work asked me to help her with something I haven't done before, and I started to feel all jittery trying to help her out.)
Now, for a while I've been told that my hands shake a little, and I do have issues forming the right words at times. Maybe the Zoloft and/or the anxiety were making this worse -- I'm not really sure. It could be a coincidence for all I know.
I ended up going back to the eye doctor again because I was still seeing halos under bright light. Some of this could been from my contacts going dry, but even if I took them out, my eyes were still sensitive to light. Based on the symptoms I brought up, and due to the fact they couldn't find anything wrong on their end, I was told that maybe I should see a neurologist. So, my regular doctor is going to refer me to one.
Back to eating better, I did talk to a nutrition expert at work, who thinks that I wasn't eating enough calories the last few months. I suppose that could have had something to do with some of my symptoms. I have a better idea of how many calories I need now (around 2500 a day instead of the 1500-1700 I estimated I was eating before).
As of the past few days, my vision has been playing more tricks on me. It's almost as if certain colors have changed a little (red seems a bit more like a bright orange-red, dark blue looks darker, etc). I'm not really seeing halos, but I do seem to be sensitive to light in general. My pupils appear to be normal, btw.
I'm seeing both my regular doctor and optometrist on Tuesday, and I hope to have a better idea of where to go from here once those appointments are over. This can't all possibly be stress or anxiety, although certainly that could have brought out something that maybe I've had all along to begin with.
I'm guessing, overall, that this is either some auto-immune issue (diabetes, multiple sclerosis, etc) or possibly even some sort of infection (probably not Lyme -- and definitely not HIV or syphilis because I've been tested for both recently -- but it could be related to mono). Or it could be my thyroid (as you can have thyroid issues and still have "normal" blood test results) or some sort of nutritional deficiency.
Combine this with stress and anxiety over trying to take better care of myself, and voila, there's some lovely irony that my good efforts actually made some things worse than they were before.
So -- does anyone have any thoughts as to what is happening to me? I know I need to take it easy, make sure to eat enough healthy food, etc, so don't taunt me too much about that, ok? ;) |
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| Doctor Who... |
[Nov. 23rd, 2005|11:52 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | Delia Derbyshire - Blue Veils and Golden Sands | ] |
...is forty-two!!!
I'm off to Toledo tomorrow for Thanksgiving, and then Friday night I'm going to a friend's housewarming party. I thought about driving to Chicago this weekend for Chicago Tardis, but I don't think I'll be able to go. I'm not really in the mood to do all that driving, and my mom and stepfather are going to start moving to another house this weekend anyway (meaning I want to stick around and help them if they need it). Family first! There's always next year...
Maybe Andy or Jason will be able to convince me to go to Chicago after all. You guys have a day or two to come up with a good reason ;) |
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| la Choix du Pryba-dent |
[Oct. 7th, 2005|07:01 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | Oh Celine Dion, you soft rock my world... | ] |
Who needs to go to Blahblah's in Canada when you can pick up President's Choice products (well, 2 kinds of cooking spray to be exact) for a buck each at Deal$ right here in Columbus instead?
Sexy-sounding French on one side...
la Choix du President
"Bon au Possible" (B.a.P.)
La Vertu Meme
Huile de Canola
a Vaporiser pour la Cuisson
(I'm too lazy to look up the keystrokes for the accents and such, sowwy...)
Then the truth is revealed on the other side...
President's Choice
"Too good to be true" (T.G.T.B.T.)
The Virtuous
Canola Oil
Cooking Spray
Now, if Deal$ had P.C. brand cookies, then I might finally get Aaron to head there with me sometime. Hmm... |
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| October damp on down the street: remember? |
[Oct. 1st, 2005|12:38 am] |
Anyone interesting in seeing The Fiery Furnaces with me at the Wexner Center next weekend? :)
This particular weekend I'm heading up to Toledo (dropping Geoff off in BG on the way there). One of my stepsisters has a few computer issues, so I'll see what I can do for her. Then I'm going to celebrate my niece and nephew's bdays (11 and 7 respectively -- they grow so quickly!). |
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| oh dear... |
[Aug. 25th, 2005|12:07 am] |
I feel like a good little Catholic boi tonight...
| Your Ideal Relationship is Friends with Benefits | 
You're not looking for anything serious... just something hot!
And you're little black book (or cell phone) always hooks you up.
You want nothing more than friends with benefits. No strings.
You also don't mind benefits without the friendship! |
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| gravy gravy gravy |
[Jul. 30th, 2005|11:01 am] |
Gravy gravy gravy Geoff gravy gravy gravy gravy gravy Michele gravy gravy gravy gravy gravy Tee Jaye's. Gravy gravy gravy gravy gravy gravy gravy.
(I suppose if you've eaten at Tee Jaye's before, you would get my joke...) |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 10th, 2005|01:10 pm] |
Yesterday I hung out with a friend of mine (Nick) visiting from Youngstown. We joined Geoff for some dining and shopping excitement in the Easton area. First stop was Cici's for lunch. I'm still amazed how they make money off of us. I don't think I could make all that pizza and salad for $3.99. Of course, Apple certainly made money off of us after Nick bought an iPod. I suppose I should get one as well, but after playing around with the one we have at work, I'm not in a big rush. I can listen to music on the computer at home, the computer at work, and then create a few of my own custom CDs for the long commute each day... so I can't think of any other time where the iPod would really be needed.
We also went to Goodwill, where I picked up some nice shirts, and then to Deal$, which for those who don't know is a really cool dollar store that also carries frozen food, dairy, and produce. I'm a bit obsessed with it, I guess. Maybe they should hire me as their spokesman :)
After dropping Geoff back at his place, Nick and I went back to the apartment and lounged around for a little bit. He was thinking about going to Piercology that night (to pierce his "ear" *wink wink*), but we ended up just going to An Open Book and then Mac's to eat instead (no relation to Apple in this case). Nick wanted to check out a bear-ish little bar called Woof's. I didn't really want to go, but he convinced me somehow, and off to Woof's we went. I wasn't sure what to expect after hearing about it so much on Bear411, but I actually had fun. It turns out they were having strippers that night (I think they do this every Saturday night), and I was kind of surprised that only one of them was actually kind of bear-ish. Another was tall, thin, and didn't have much in the rear ("butt" he made it up for what was up front hehe). The hostess for the evening (I forgot her name) was hilarious. I'll definitely go back for more sooner or later. |
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