Category: Health

Caught by the balls

#nerd, Fandom, Fitness, games, Geek, Health

Yeah, it happened. I hate Pokemon but I wanted to get involved in walking like my husband has been with this new Pokemon Go craze (and I wanted to walk with him), but I couldn’t find an augmented reality app that I liked that I could use while we went walking. So there it is. I have a Pokemon Go account. I’m level six. I gotta admit, the avatar’s pretty cute.

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Last night we went on an hour-and-a-half long walk, mostly spent searching for “points of interest” (or whatever they’re called) and catching different Pokemon.

Am I addicted to the game already? I’d like to think I’m not; I mean, I’ve only been playing for half a day. And it’s not like I’m going outside at 4:30 in the morning because I’ve got a wild urge to catch Pokemon. Sure, if one shows up in my apartment I’ll grab it, but I’m not going to go looking for them this early in the morning. Yeah, we went out late last night–“late” being around 8:30 to 10:00 pm–and spent the time searching for and catching Pokemon. I probably got more exercise in that hour and a half than I have since Phoenix Comicon. I certainly got the most number of steps in a day since then.

It was kind of funny…as my husband and I were standing on a street corner next to a church in the dark, with another Pokeplayer next to us, a car full of young guys–probably early to mid 20s–pulled up to the corner. When one of them leaned out the window to holler at us and ask what we were doing, I half-expected some jeering or taunting or at least him yelling “Fucking nerds!”…but none of that happened. He simply asked what we were doing…so, being the proud nerd that I am, I said, “Pokemon, man!” His reply? “Pokemon Go? Hell yeah!” That’s right. The quasi-thug hanging out the car window was a Pokefan. Who knew?

I was surprised by the sheer number of people in our small town who were wandering around late at night to play this game. Given that there isn’t much of anything in the area we were walking–especially nothing that was open for business–there were still random groups of people walking and chattering. Occasionally we’d find a car full of people playing, driving around to the different points of interest or “gyms” and playing there (one car had small children in it, so I assume the parents didn’t want them walking around that late at night), but most of the people we passed by were walking.

Good for Pokemon. They got nerds to get out of the comfort and societal safety of their homes and go out into the world and be active. We even chatted with one or two people briefly (not counting Car Guy).

Will this interactive motivation to get moving stick? Will I continue to play and get more exercise? I’m not sure. I tend to lose interest in things like this relatively quickly, but we’ll see.

For now? I gotta catch ’em all. Or something.

Visions of Sleep

Health, Poetry, Sleep

Early in the morning

Ere the sun has shown his face

My lids feel heavy

My eyes cross paths

So hard to stay awake

A mere hour before I have to get ready

For the busy day ahead

I need to wake up

To be alert

But my eyes have different ideas

They try to force my hand

To make me sleep again

I can’t let them succeed

I can’t give in

I have a job to do

No time for sleep

No time for resting those eyes

Raise those heavy lids

Force the eyes to stop crossing

My lids will meet once again in slumber

But not until the night

Not-So Sweet Dreams

Health, Sleep

So there I am, trying to behave myself during a Medicare inspection, when the Medicare auditor tells me I have to get an MRI. Okay, seems legit, right?

I go to get my MRI and almost forget that I have my keys in my pocket. Oops. That would’ve been bad. Then I play the waiting game==gotta bide your time until the radiology department decides to let you know what’s what.

I finally call them because it’s getting late and they haven’t called me yet. They tell me I have cancer in my back & I need to come in to the hospital to get it taken care of. Sure, why not? Again, it seems legit.

Once I get to the hospital, I find myself waiting and waiting and waiting to see a doctor. When are they going to have a doctor go over the results of my MRI with me?  I decide to go to a nurses’ station and ask whats up with that. Turns out the surgeon had just gotten there, so they took me to another room to discuss my results.

Imagine my surprise when my surgeon was not an oncologist but rather the cataract surgeon that I work with. Totally legit. Apparently they called him in because he ordered the MRI. And he was totally cool with it. He showed me where in my back the cancer was (right in some offshoot of my spine–no biggie) and told me he’d do the surgery.

Some other patient interrupted and came over telling some stupid story about his own cancer experience, talking over the doctor so I couldn’t hear when I was going to have the surgery. I got the impression that it would be soon, but I didn’t know what time exactly. Would I be able to eat anything, or did I have to wait until after the surgery? The surgeon left before I could ask, though, so I tried to ask at the nurses’ station but again they were pretty much useless.

I went off to see my husband & there with him was my best friend Crystal and her family. There were lots of hugs and well wishes, but still I couldn’t eat.

I woke up starving.

Stupid brain.

Burnout

Health, Stress, Work

I’m so tired. Granted, it’s 3:45 in the morning, but that’s not why I’m tired.

I’m tired of being up so early every morning. I’m tired of being the responsible one. I’m tired of giving a shit. I’m. Just. So. Tired.

Take today, for instance: a long work day with a short break. A long work day in a long line of work days. (I picked up a couple extra half days over the weekend). Now, I’m not complaining about working. I like my job, and even though I gripe about overtime the pay is nice.

But why is it so often? Why does it feel like I’m always working?

It very well might have to do with the other people who call out all the time. I’m scheduled for a half day to relieve some of the OT? Nope, someone called out, have to work the whole day…and when do I get a whole day off? Unless I request off months in advance or there’s a holiday where the office is closed, pretty much never.

I get so sick of other people being “sick.” Okay, so I don’t really know if they’re sick or not. They could have the sniffles–or they could be really, really sick. It’s just frustrating that I go to such lengths to come into the office even if I’m not feeling well but other people call out time after time. It’s exhausting, and it’s disheartening. I try not to pry into my coworkers’ lives, but what’s the deal? Are they really that sick? Are they just feeling under the weather, or not feeling like working? What gives? Do they even know how their constant calling out affects others? The stress of being shorthanded is enough to worry about without knowing I’m going to be working overtime yet again when my body sometimes can’t really take it.

I try to tell myself that it’ll be okay. Eventually, the ones who don’t want to work weed themselves out. Eventually.

Until then, guess I gotta buck up and take it like a woman.

The eyes have it…or do they?

Health, Insomnia, Sleep

As many of you know (probably from the timing of these posts), I tend to wake up on the early side of early. Sometimes it’s due to my cat being a dick, sometimes it’s weird dreams, and sometimes I just wake up because my body thinks it’s done sleeping.

But is it? I thought my body was done sleeping when I woke up at 2:45, eyes wide open. This morning I keep dozing off at the laptop, hands hovering over the keys, eyes drooping of their own accord. I could put the laptop away and go back to sleep–or rather could have gone back to sleep…now it’s about time to think about getting ready for work anyway. I’ve even had most of an energy drink and my morning Adderall. This will make for a very long day at work today.

It’s weird how I ended up being such an early riser when I used to sleep in as long as possible. It all started when I got a bout of insomnia, and I’d wake up between 1:30 and 3:00 every morning.

Enter Rory, the cat that’s as much a joy in my life as a pain in my ass. He’s a smart cat…sometimes too smart. He taught himself to play fetch. He taught himself that getting in the carrier and going in the car 95% of the time means a trip to visit the other animals at my parents’ house. And he taught himself that I’m “supposed” to be up between 1:30 and 3:00 every morning.

Since we adopted him while I was having my insomnia, he assumed that being up that early was my normal state. When I finally started being able to sleep until “normal” times, he decided that this was not right and proceeded to wake me up every morning between 1:30 and 3:00.

Hence the cat trained me. Thankfully, I now usually don’t wake up until around 2:45 to 3:30, so I guess that’s a bit of an improvement. I go to bed much earlier than I used to, so it kind of balances out. I get roughly 7 hours of sleep a night, even on nights when I have to work super early the next day. Not too shabby. Still, it makes for some long days.

Usually I’m active in the mornings, either writing or sewing or doing some other such semi-productive thing. This morning, however, I just could not muster the energy to walk across the apartment to the craft room to sew on the final touches of my husband’s next pair of cosplay pants. All I have to do is hand-sew some belt loops on (I’d machine-sew them, but my husband tends to be rough on belt loops and I’d rather not have one of them rip off in the middle of a con–best to sew them on by hand where I can put extra stitches in places that a sewing machine just can’t get to), so one would think I’d be eager to get them finished so I can move on to the next thing. One would think.

Since I’ve started typing this I’ve woken up a bit. My eyes no longer droop, and I’m just about ready to start getting ready for the day.

Bring it on, world!

A pre-Mother’s Day adventure

Convention, Cosplay, Exercise, Health, Interview

It’s off to some historical sites today as we take my mom & dad out of town to celebrate Mother’s Day a little early. Since my husband works tomorrow, we’re doing our day with my parents a day ahead of time.

I’m trying to mentally psych myself up for a day of walking, walking, walking. I considered exercising in the apartment “gym” (translation: about 3 or 4 different exercise machines) early this morning since I was up, but then I reconsidered after remembering that I haven’t really exercised in months and months and I’d likely end up sore beyond belief tomorrow…hell, I still might end up sore as hell.

Gotta get my stamina and fitness up at least a little bit in the next few weeks, though, because Phoenix Comicon starts June 2! There will be so much walking to do as we traverse downtown Phoenix to see all the sights (and be seen in our cosplays). I’ve also potentially got interviews to do; as a media member, I get to fill out a form letting the con know which guests I’d like to interview. The con organizers will forward my info to the various guests, and then they (or more likely their agents) will be in touch with me to set up interviews.

I’m super excited about this–more than just normal con excitement. I’ve only done one live interview, and that was a disaster. The band (I won’t name names) was so preoccupied with being late to the venue that only two of the five did the interview while the others started setting up for the sound check, and one of those two obviously did not want to be there. He was squirming in his seat, not making eye contact, and giving short answers to the questions. When I asked if they had a message for their fans, his response was: “Come see our shows. Buy our records. Buy our shirts.” Classy.

These interviews should hopefully go much better. I’ve got to figure a good way to keep my questions with me as we walk around, because I won’t have much storage space in my cosplays (just a tiny purse for the Jedi TARDIS and a small hidden pocket for the Temari cosplay). Maybe I’ll grab a small, small notebook at Wal-Mart or something sometime before the con so I can have my questions all written down. Or notecards. I have a shitton of 3×5 notecards…but my purse/pocket are so small I might still have to fold them up to get them to fit. Hindsight, I guess…

Bang my head against the wall

Anime, Convention, Cosplay, Crafting, Geek, Health, Sewing

Oh…my…Goddess. I’ve had recurring headaches the past couple of weeks, nearly every day, usually in the evenings. It’s getting annoying.

As long as I catch them early and take some acetaminophen within the first half hour, they stay under control. I know from experience, however, that if I let a headache go without taking something it’s going to end up at near-migraine levels, if not a migraine itself.

This afternoon I had to stop working on my Naruto cosplay because a headache reared its ugly, well, head. I took something, but it’s still lingering.

It doesn’t help that I keep noticing little things that I need to make for the cosplay. Gotta make gloves, gotta either find cosplay shoes online or buy some sandals & modify them to match, gotta make some straps of fabric to go around the shoulders, gotta make sleeves for the kimono (because the pattern I found didn’t have sleeves)…lots of little things, but things that make the character.

I still haven’t started on the hardest part–the coat–and the vest that I need to pretty much design from scratch. Then we’re going to use some hot-glue cosplay magic to make my husband’s sandals, because the only ones he can find online that match his character don’t come in his size.

Oh yeah, and there’s the painting of the gourd, making some kind of sling for him to carry it, and figuring out some way for us to carry our things (because the patterns I have come sans pockets). All this with barely 5 weeks until the con.

It’s no wonder I’m getting headaches.

OCD or Mania?

Health, Mental Health, Thoughts

So I’ve been organizing my closet for much of the morning, something I normally don’t do. Part of it stems from my husband insisting that I get my junk cleaned out.

Part of it, though, either comes from OCD–the obsessive-compulsive desire to straighten and organize things–and part of it may or may not come from mania. Am I manic, or am I just normal me getting things cleaned up?

It’s hard for me to tell. The depressive episodes are usually pretty clear cut. I can tell when they’re coming on. The manic ones? Oftentimes I have no clue until I’m well into one. I guess that’s the trouble with manic episodes. The euphoria and energy that come along with that feel so good sometimes that you don’t realize something’s wrong.

Don’t get me wrong. Sometimes–note I say sometimes–it can be a good thing. I get things done that have been tossed to the side for months. But the “I can do anything” part of mania is rarely a good thing. Reckless driving, risky sexual behavior (thankfully I’m married and don’t need to worry about that part anymore), etc. For every good, there’s a bad.

Now that I’ve started typing this, I think that I’m just being OCD. Maybe not even that. Maybe *gasp* normal. I finally let the piles of crap get to the point where it bugged me enough to take action. I want to get things into their rightful places. It’s not a massive desire to go through every single thing I own (which is evident by my husband doing the folding of sheets and blankets right now, something I hate to do and would surely have done had I been manic). And I’m not really cleaning, per say. Just organizing. Sorting.

Sometimes I guess it takes a little outside introspection to figure things out.

For Lack of a Bitter Pill to Take

Health, Sleep

Oopsie. I forgot when I refilled my Adderal that I was completely out & needed at least one for this morning. I should’ve picked it up last night when it was ready.

It’s  not ADD or ADHD that I take it for, though. I take it to stay awake during the day. Without it, I’m asleep off and on the whole day. Work should be fun.

I’m going to get another energy drink in a minute here…I’ve already had my usual one for the morning. (Yes, I know I’m at risk of my heart exploding or something equally bad happening to me by mixing the Adderal with an energy drink..most mornings I simply don’t care.)

Kids–and adults–take your pills as prescribed. Unless you have some crazy bad reaction or allergy to them, take them. There’s a reason the doctors prescribe things for you. Don’t think you have to man up and not take them.

Good Morning, My Old Nemesis, We Meet Again

#dreams, Health

Ah, there it is. The arthritis. I haven’t had morning aches/stiffness like this in quite some time. Guess I overdid it at work yesterday? That or I slept wrong. I even dreamed about having back pain. Sheesh.

I’m hoping the stiffness and soreness goes away after a little while. Sometimes it takes a half hour or more when I’ve got a bad day, so we’ll see. A little Tylenol might kick it in the nuts, too.

Some days the RA is under such good control that I forget I even have arthritis. I kinda get up, get going, and maybe have a twinge in my back here or there, maybe some aching in my fingers or something. So far today is nor a forgetting day, but then I only just woke up. It could easily get better once I’ve been up a while.

I guess that’s life. You have your problems and you deal with them, but sometimes they’re harder to deal with than others.