Up and running
Okay, a general health update.
I'm feeling pretty good most days. The uterine spasms still show up occasionally, but the fatigue, brainfog, and nausea seem to be basically gone. I sometimes get a bout of what I've identified as anxiety/depression from low progesterone, but I have supplemental progesterone on hand, and one pill seems to keep that at bay for several days. So I'm okay there.
I'm still concerned about the fact that I got a full period starting exactly at the end of the eight-week span which the Lupron was supposed to cover. My gyno says that it isn't usual (she hesitates to use the word "normal" in this context), but there isn't much she can do. So I get to go to Burning Man with contingency plans and hopes -- that I won't bleed until the eight weeks are up on the day after Labor Day, that travel will delay my cycle further, that I won't have bleeding at all... I have to remember that there's a possibility that I'll be fertile too, but I was planning on bringing condoms for other reasons anyway.
My stamina is starting to come back. I'm still kind of tired-brained on a regular basis, but that's probably just my inflammation level and general CFS. Physically I'm doing far better than a month ago. I fixed up my bicycle, and to get me on it to train for the Burn (where I tend to spend a couple hours on it during the day, and up to five hours on it at night), I downloaded Pokemon Go. Boy was that successful...
I've been going out once or twice a day for an hour or more; during the day on the bike, and at night on foot. Night before last I strapped lights on the bike and took it out after dinner, since I'd spent all day repairing a broken pedal, and with the help of Alex's battery pack I was out for two and a half hours. I did some walking in Martinez last night (more than I intended, as I had planned to take it easy yesterday). Today the servers are down, so I'm trying to get stuff off of my to-do list.
My feet, especially my left ankle, have been giving me grief -- they still aren't quite adjusted to my current weight -- but I've been fixing them regularly and they're starting to get better. My thighs are stronger than I expected. I haven't been falling over from exhaustion; I tend to come home because of a dead battery and sore feet (or seat) rather than being worn out.
Most notably, I haven't had a hypoglycemic episode in a week. I'm not eating huge amounts, and the composition hasn't changed... my body is simply handling blood sugar better than it had been. I already know that exercise makes my system more willing to break out stored reserves, but I hadn't expected to eat significantly less when I'm exercising two to three hours a day. My face looks a bit thinner, but that might be my current haircut; I forgot to weigh myself this morning, but I'd like to get a baseline reading. The exercise may be what my body needed to coax it to burn fat, which is what it's been so reluctant to do while my estrogen levels were screwed up. I wouldn't mind putting less stress on my feet and clothing.
I wouldn't have the spoons to do this if the hormone foo hadn't been largely ironed out already, so the timing is good. More so because I have five weeks remaining to get into good shape for the desert, where I'll have to rely on my own stamina to get everything done. So in that way, it all seems to be coming together. I just have to make sure I don't dump the bike or step in a hole at night and sprain my knee again (knock on wood).
I've signed up with Kitestring, which is a service which uses SMS to alert a contact if you don't check in on time. I may even spring for the $3/month paid service, since it's a cheap way to get unlimited uses and more than one contact. I can take care of myself pretty well, and I've been mistaken for a man on the bike at night, but it never hurts to have a backup plan. Especially if no one knows exactly where I'm going or when.
I've called Social Security and made an appointment to apply for SSI (on August 2). I expect that to be rough. If I don't get it started, though, it'll never get done, and in a couple of years I may be very grateful that I buckled down and got the process going.
So that's where I'm at. Hopefully things will continue to improve.
I have an account as Torquill on Dreamwidth, and that's where I posted this. You can sign in with OpenID to comment on the original post, or you can go ahead and comment here; either way works.
I'm feeling pretty good most days. The uterine spasms still show up occasionally, but the fatigue, brainfog, and nausea seem to be basically gone. I sometimes get a bout of what I've identified as anxiety/depression from low progesterone, but I have supplemental progesterone on hand, and one pill seems to keep that at bay for several days. So I'm okay there.
I'm still concerned about the fact that I got a full period starting exactly at the end of the eight-week span which the Lupron was supposed to cover. My gyno says that it isn't usual (she hesitates to use the word "normal" in this context), but there isn't much she can do. So I get to go to Burning Man with contingency plans and hopes -- that I won't bleed until the eight weeks are up on the day after Labor Day, that travel will delay my cycle further, that I won't have bleeding at all... I have to remember that there's a possibility that I'll be fertile too, but I was planning on bringing condoms for other reasons anyway.
My stamina is starting to come back. I'm still kind of tired-brained on a regular basis, but that's probably just my inflammation level and general CFS. Physically I'm doing far better than a month ago. I fixed up my bicycle, and to get me on it to train for the Burn (where I tend to spend a couple hours on it during the day, and up to five hours on it at night), I downloaded Pokemon Go. Boy was that successful...
I've been going out once or twice a day for an hour or more; during the day on the bike, and at night on foot. Night before last I strapped lights on the bike and took it out after dinner, since I'd spent all day repairing a broken pedal, and with the help of Alex's battery pack I was out for two and a half hours. I did some walking in Martinez last night (more than I intended, as I had planned to take it easy yesterday). Today the servers are down, so I'm trying to get stuff off of my to-do list.
My feet, especially my left ankle, have been giving me grief -- they still aren't quite adjusted to my current weight -- but I've been fixing them regularly and they're starting to get better. My thighs are stronger than I expected. I haven't been falling over from exhaustion; I tend to come home because of a dead battery and sore feet (or seat) rather than being worn out.
Most notably, I haven't had a hypoglycemic episode in a week. I'm not eating huge amounts, and the composition hasn't changed... my body is simply handling blood sugar better than it had been. I already know that exercise makes my system more willing to break out stored reserves, but I hadn't expected to eat significantly less when I'm exercising two to three hours a day. My face looks a bit thinner, but that might be my current haircut; I forgot to weigh myself this morning, but I'd like to get a baseline reading. The exercise may be what my body needed to coax it to burn fat, which is what it's been so reluctant to do while my estrogen levels were screwed up. I wouldn't mind putting less stress on my feet and clothing.
I wouldn't have the spoons to do this if the hormone foo hadn't been largely ironed out already, so the timing is good. More so because I have five weeks remaining to get into good shape for the desert, where I'll have to rely on my own stamina to get everything done. So in that way, it all seems to be coming together. I just have to make sure I don't dump the bike or step in a hole at night and sprain my knee again (knock on wood).
I've signed up with Kitestring, which is a service which uses SMS to alert a contact if you don't check in on time. I may even spring for the $3/month paid service, since it's a cheap way to get unlimited uses and more than one contact. I can take care of myself pretty well, and I've been mistaken for a man on the bike at night, but it never hurts to have a backup plan. Especially if no one knows exactly where I'm going or when.
I've called Social Security and made an appointment to apply for SSI (on August 2). I expect that to be rough. If I don't get it started, though, it'll never get done, and in a couple of years I may be very grateful that I buckled down and got the process going.
So that's where I'm at. Hopefully things will continue to improve.
I have an account as Torquill on Dreamwidth, and that's where I posted this. You can sign in with OpenID to comment on the original post, or you can go ahead and comment here; either way works.