TKD, medical stuff, movie
I had a rough week last week; I kept bailing on my Tues run, I still wasn't getting to my weights workout (fell off the wagon couple months ago), I was still upset about TKD - I quit, but I didn't want to quit. I didn't want to go back, but going to PA seemed ludicrous. I actually cried a little bit in my despair, which doesn't happen often. I just felt like I was never going to be strong again.
This week, I picked myself up. I did weights on Mon and Wed, and on Tues, I came to a decision: I was going back to my old dojong in PA, ludicrous or not. Texted wtih Master K's wife, who was delighted, and we made arrangements that I would come once a week - black belt class on those weeks, and whatever day seemed to work best on the "off" weeks.
Last night was black belt class. I was SO happy to be there, I can't even tell you. Back to people who teach standards, who correct your technique, who instill confidence. Back to my family. So. Much. Better. Next week I'm going on a Wed, at which point I'll officially re-register with Mrs. K and pay up for the year. Not sure right now if I'll go for the day - going for both noon class and evening class - or if I'll just go for evening class. Might depend on whether I can see my old librarian and/or Scott, as well, during the day.
I feel bad for being away from my family more, with this new commitment; it's at least a 90 min drive each direction, so even when I'm just going for black belt class, I'm gone, like, 5 hours. It would be less if I just go for a regular evening class (the class is shorter and I don't feel the need to be there quite so early for warmups). But still - it means being away more. Will is totally supportive, always has been whenever there's something I want to do, but I know it's going to bother the kids more.
I need to start thinking again about the kind of training I plan to do here, aside from running and weights.
Two has been on a pushup spree lately, including those difficult inclined ones, where you put your feet up on a chair or footstool or something, keep your hands on the floor, and THEN do push-ups. Since my pushups were getting worse, not better, I decided that every time I see him doing some, I need to do three. (Regular ones, not inclined.) Two's got some nice biceps by now, and hopefully I'm getting stronger, too.
Two also had his annual checkup a week ago. In the past year he grew a shade over 2"/5cm (he's *almost* 5'2"/156.7cm now!) and gained 10 pounds. He's still being measured against female growth charts, since it's not like there's a standard for trans kids, but he went from being in the 7th percentile last year to 21st, so that's progress. (I just looked up male growth charts - he's about 7th percentile for males, even including Asian males, but nearly 50th percentile for Asian females. For whatever that's worth. :P)
Brief update on the Unwelcoming Dermatologist Office: The office manager saw my Google review and posted a response, apologizing for my experience and giving her phone number. The next day, she called me directly, asked what she could do to improve my experience, assured me I'd get a different assistant next time, gave me the option of switching doctors if I wanted (I declined), and generally was solicitous and helpful without being oily. Went a LONG way toward my wanting to give them another chance. Hopefully my April appt will be better.
And speaking of doctors, I had a check-in with my gastroenterologist about 10 days ago. As before, he took a nice long, unhurried time with me - probably about 45 mins? The lab results that came in showed that my inflammation markers were actually improving, even if I wasn't seeing any changes in symptoms yet. Whatever it is that they're measuring, normal is 0-50, 50-100 is borderline, over 100 is problematic. People who are really sick with these sorts of diseases often measure over 800. Last time, I was 133. This time I was in the 60s, so basically a 50% reduction. Also, my hemoglobin went up slightly, although not really significantly (I think he said 11.9 to 12.4?) and my actual iron levels were fine. I'm kind of boggling at that, because (TMI) given the chronic blood loss, I really was not anticipating that but ... okay. I mean, I do take an iron supplement, but I didn't feel like that was going to be enough.
Anyway, because of the improvements in labs, he wants to continue the Entyvio another couple of rounds, and see if maybe things improve symptomatically soon. Normally, after the three loading doses, you switch to every 8 weeks for maintenance, but I guess at the doctor's discretion you can get in a few at 4 week intervals, so that's what he wants to do, for another 2-3 rounds, and then check back in. If nothing has really improved after that, we'll abandon ship and go to something else. Of course 4 weeks was 10 days ago at this point, and my insurance initially refused the every-4-weeks proposal, but the office resubmitted it and ... still waiting to hear. And he prescribed another medication that is applied more, uh, directly. I've been on that for a week now and I think I'm starting to see some improvements. Fingers crossed.
He also talked a lot about other steps that could be taken if Entyvio fails, and he additionally wants to do a capsule study, where you swallow a tiny camera and wear a data recorder for 8 hours (the life of the camera's battery) as this can reach parts of your body that cannot be viewed by either a colonoscopy or an upper endoscope, and see what the rest of my GI tract looks like. He hastened to assure me that after I pass the camera out of my body, "We don't want it back." LOL
So, anyway, still sick, still frustrated, but the doctor's not giving up yet, and it's good to feel like there's still plenty more options in his arsenal.
And in non-medical news, today we went to see Captain Marvel. Short version: I liked it but found it initially confusing. Maybe it might have made more of a difference if I'd known anything at all about the Captain Marvel story before I went? I mean, I know MCU was already switching things around by making CM female, so I don't know how much else they played around with, too. But the very first scene shows Carol with blue blood, clearly not human, so I was very confused by the flashbacks and references to her life on Earth. How had she spent her childhood on Earth if she wasn't human? How did she hide having Kree blood? It wasn't until pretty far into the movie that we see she WAS human, and only after she got blasted by the energy from the Tesseract that the Kree took her and altered her, so NOW she has Kree-blue blood. And what was that thing on her neck? I get what it's purpose was, to dampen her power, but not what she THOUGHT it was, or how it actually worked. I confess I'm also a bit confused as to how Mar Vel's light-speed travel invention was supposed to "end war". Will thinks it just means she would have been able to take the Skrull's far, far away, out of the Kree reach.
But aside from that, I liked the movie overall. I liked how the entire worldview takes a 180 midway. The special effects were largely done well. The cat/not-cat was cute, and funny. It was weird to see Samuel Jackson young again, but that was done well. I wouldn't say it's my favorite Marvel movie - it didn't really grab me the way some of the others have - but I enjoyed it, and I'm looking forward to seeing how she integrates into Endgame in April.
MiniPlu has had a couple of really grueling weeks, with avalanches of work and avalanches of post-school activities that cut into her work time, and busy weekends as well. I've stayed up late with her several times, either proofreading a paper, helping quiz her, or just making sure she's staying focused to make the most of her productivity. Poor kid. Does senior year get better?
This week, I picked myself up. I did weights on Mon and Wed, and on Tues, I came to a decision: I was going back to my old dojong in PA, ludicrous or not. Texted wtih Master K's wife, who was delighted, and we made arrangements that I would come once a week - black belt class on those weeks, and whatever day seemed to work best on the "off" weeks.
Last night was black belt class. I was SO happy to be there, I can't even tell you. Back to people who teach standards, who correct your technique, who instill confidence. Back to my family. So. Much. Better. Next week I'm going on a Wed, at which point I'll officially re-register with Mrs. K and pay up for the year. Not sure right now if I'll go for the day - going for both noon class and evening class - or if I'll just go for evening class. Might depend on whether I can see my old librarian and/or Scott, as well, during the day.
I feel bad for being away from my family more, with this new commitment; it's at least a 90 min drive each direction, so even when I'm just going for black belt class, I'm gone, like, 5 hours. It would be less if I just go for a regular evening class (the class is shorter and I don't feel the need to be there quite so early for warmups). But still - it means being away more. Will is totally supportive, always has been whenever there's something I want to do, but I know it's going to bother the kids more.
I need to start thinking again about the kind of training I plan to do here, aside from running and weights.
Two has been on a pushup spree lately, including those difficult inclined ones, where you put your feet up on a chair or footstool or something, keep your hands on the floor, and THEN do push-ups. Since my pushups were getting worse, not better, I decided that every time I see him doing some, I need to do three. (Regular ones, not inclined.) Two's got some nice biceps by now, and hopefully I'm getting stronger, too.
Two also had his annual checkup a week ago. In the past year he grew a shade over 2"/5cm (he's *almost* 5'2"/156.7cm now!) and gained 10 pounds. He's still being measured against female growth charts, since it's not like there's a standard for trans kids, but he went from being in the 7th percentile last year to 21st, so that's progress. (I just looked up male growth charts - he's about 7th percentile for males, even including Asian males, but nearly 50th percentile for Asian females. For whatever that's worth. :P)
Brief update on the Unwelcoming Dermatologist Office: The office manager saw my Google review and posted a response, apologizing for my experience and giving her phone number. The next day, she called me directly, asked what she could do to improve my experience, assured me I'd get a different assistant next time, gave me the option of switching doctors if I wanted (I declined), and generally was solicitous and helpful without being oily. Went a LONG way toward my wanting to give them another chance. Hopefully my April appt will be better.
And speaking of doctors, I had a check-in with my gastroenterologist about 10 days ago. As before, he took a nice long, unhurried time with me - probably about 45 mins? The lab results that came in showed that my inflammation markers were actually improving, even if I wasn't seeing any changes in symptoms yet. Whatever it is that they're measuring, normal is 0-50, 50-100 is borderline, over 100 is problematic. People who are really sick with these sorts of diseases often measure over 800. Last time, I was 133. This time I was in the 60s, so basically a 50% reduction. Also, my hemoglobin went up slightly, although not really significantly (I think he said 11.9 to 12.4?) and my actual iron levels were fine. I'm kind of boggling at that, because (TMI) given the chronic blood loss, I really was not anticipating that but ... okay. I mean, I do take an iron supplement, but I didn't feel like that was going to be enough.
Anyway, because of the improvements in labs, he wants to continue the Entyvio another couple of rounds, and see if maybe things improve symptomatically soon. Normally, after the three loading doses, you switch to every 8 weeks for maintenance, but I guess at the doctor's discretion you can get in a few at 4 week intervals, so that's what he wants to do, for another 2-3 rounds, and then check back in. If nothing has really improved after that, we'll abandon ship and go to something else. Of course 4 weeks was 10 days ago at this point, and my insurance initially refused the every-4-weeks proposal, but the office resubmitted it and ... still waiting to hear. And he prescribed another medication that is applied more, uh, directly. I've been on that for a week now and I think I'm starting to see some improvements. Fingers crossed.
He also talked a lot about other steps that could be taken if Entyvio fails, and he additionally wants to do a capsule study, where you swallow a tiny camera and wear a data recorder for 8 hours (the life of the camera's battery) as this can reach parts of your body that cannot be viewed by either a colonoscopy or an upper endoscope, and see what the rest of my GI tract looks like. He hastened to assure me that after I pass the camera out of my body, "We don't want it back." LOL
So, anyway, still sick, still frustrated, but the doctor's not giving up yet, and it's good to feel like there's still plenty more options in his arsenal.
And in non-medical news, today we went to see Captain Marvel. Short version: I liked it but found it initially confusing. Maybe it might have made more of a difference if I'd known anything at all about the Captain Marvel story before I went? I mean, I know MCU was already switching things around by making CM female, so I don't know how much else they played around with, too. But the very first scene shows Carol with blue blood, clearly not human, so I was very confused by the flashbacks and references to her life on Earth. How had she spent her childhood on Earth if she wasn't human? How did she hide having Kree blood? It wasn't until pretty far into the movie that we see she WAS human, and only after she got blasted by the energy from the Tesseract that the Kree took her and altered her, so NOW she has Kree-blue blood. And what was that thing on her neck? I get what it's purpose was, to dampen her power, but not what she THOUGHT it was, or how it actually worked. I confess I'm also a bit confused as to how Mar Vel's light-speed travel invention was supposed to "end war". Will thinks it just means she would have been able to take the Skrull's far, far away, out of the Kree reach.
But aside from that, I liked the movie overall. I liked how the entire worldview takes a 180 midway. The special effects were largely done well. The cat/not-cat was cute, and funny. It was weird to see Samuel Jackson young again, but that was done well. I wouldn't say it's my favorite Marvel movie - it didn't really grab me the way some of the others have - but I enjoyed it, and I'm looking forward to seeing how she integrates into Endgame in April.
MiniPlu has had a couple of really grueling weeks, with avalanches of work and avalanches of post-school activities that cut into her work time, and busy weekends as well. I've stayed up late with her several times, either proofreading a paper, helping quiz her, or just making sure she's staying focused to make the most of her productivity. Poor kid. Does senior year get better?