The Let's Help Each other Get Healthier Thread!!!

[Sir_Winston54]

Well, a couple more hours before I see the NP and see what *she* thinks is the issue. I'm *really* hoping that option #1 (need a different anti-depressant) is the answer. Option #2 would be acceptable if it just involves a diabetes med change; options #3 and #4 both suck. Y'all keep your fingers crossed, k?

Oh... 13. After tomorrow, I'm just gonna keep track by weeks. I think I've actually gotten back into the habit of taking the damn things!

 

[Sir_Winston54]

Okay... she's doubtful it's the anti-depressant, *unless* it's because I'm taking it in the morning, so she's switching it to before bed. *And* she's requesting a sleep study, to see if maybe I have sleep apnea that's bad enough that I'm getting plenty of sleep *time* but not enough rest. *And* checking thyroid levels, but doesn't really think it's an issue - just checking it because it's been a few years since the last check. Good things - she's almost positive it's not blood sugar, since my readings the past 5 days have been well within the margins and consistent; and she's pretty sure it's not heart-related, because she thinks that would have more effects than just the constant sleepiness/tiredness.

Maybe it's just that I'm a tired old man. <Sigh> I'm gonna go take a nap.

 

[HottieMama]

Sir W...i am SO GLAD it's not your heart or your diabetes. Hopefully switching the med times will make a huge difference!!!

 

[reignophelia]

Okay... she's doubtful it's the anti-depressant, *unless* it's because I'm taking it in the morning, so she's switching it to before bed. *And* she's requesting a sleep study, to see if maybe I have sleep apnea that's bad enough that I'm getting plenty of sleep *time* but not enough rest. *And* checking thyroid levels, but doesn't really think it's an issue - just checking it because it's been a few years since the last check. Good things - she's almost positive it's not blood sugar, since my readings the past 5 days have been well within the margins and consistent; and she's pretty sure it's not heart-related, because she thinks that would have more effects than just the constant sleepiness/tiredness.

Maybe it's just that I'm a tired old man. <Sigh> I'm gonna go take a nap.

I sincerely hope they figure out what it is; and expediently at that. I'm glad it's nothing so serious as your heart. Hang in there.

 

[neonflux]

Okay... she's doubtful it's the anti-depressant, *unless* it's because I'm taking it in the morning, so she's switching it to before bed. *And* she's requesting a sleep study, to see if maybe I have sleep apnea that's bad enough that I'm getting plenty of sleep *time* but not enough rest. *And* checking thyroid levels, but doesn't really think it's an issue - just checking it because it's been a few years since the last check. Good things - she's almost positive it's not blood sugar, since my readings the past 5 days have been well within the margins and consistent; and she's pretty sure it's not heart-related, because she thinks that would have more effects than just the constant sleepiness/tiredness.

Maybe it's just that I'm a tired old man. <Sigh> I'm gonna go take a nap.

I'm glad that it doesn't look like the serious stuff it might have been - heart, diabetes, thyroid. Here's hoping for your getting a quick and definite diagnosis. Neon

 

[Yang4yin]

Maybe it's just that I'm a tired old man. <Sigh> I'm gonna go take a nap.

Did you tell the NP that you're getting lots of stimulation here?

 

[Sir_Winston54]

'Twould be nice if it were something so simple as changing med times. We'll find out in a few days, I guess.

 

[myinnerslut]

lunch today at camp was grilled cheese. i had some salad, one grilled cheese sandwich, and pretzels instead of ice cream for snack. i really feel like having to be responsible to someone about what i eat (in this case, the get healthier thread) has helped me be more careful about what i eat.

 

[graceanne]

I lost one pound. I think that slim fast and good caloric intake works best.

That said, I won't make my goal today. I had an odd reaction to my meds today (I'm fine - just shakey and tired) and spent most of the day sleeping.

 

[Sir_Winston54]

I lost one pound. I think that slim fast and good caloric intake works best.

That said, I won't make my goal today. I had an odd reaction to my meds today (I'm fine - just shakey and tired) and spent most of the day sleeping.

Good for you on the weight loss, and finding a combo that seems to be working for you - we're all pulling for you, ya know!

As far as spending most of the day sleeping, I'm with you After I got back from the NP a little before 3, I immediately hit the sack and took a 3 1/2 hour "nap," and somehow managed to stay awake from 6:30 until now (just after 11), so I could watch Big Brother and 48 Hours Mystery. Back to the sack for me, need to work my butt off tomorrow before my weekly bowling night. I might have to restrict myself to a mere 1-hour nap tomorrow! :yawn:

 

[brioche]

My physiotherapist is also weight training, and she will be giving me some literature on some safe fat-burners to use in conjunction with my weight training and cardio program. I have low blood pressure, so hypertension isn't a problem, and I have no heart trouble either. She's used these herself, so I don't have to worry about taking something unsafe. I've often wished I knew which ones were effective and safe and which ones weren't, so I'm cautiously happy about this. Basically, the deal is that you have to keep working just as hard, but this will optimize your body's ability to burn fat while you do it. She wouldn't be willing to do it at all if I wasn't so committed and on Weight Watchers for my diet.

On another note - I DID NOT want to go in today, so before my appointment she evaluated my progress. I can squat more and much lower, I did two pushups, though my core went up slower than the rest of me (she only asked me to do two), and I am much more stable when balancing on one hand and knee while trying to touch the other two together.

When she did this before, I couldn't squat very far before my knee hurt, I couldn't do a pushup at all, and I wobbled so much I nearly fell over doing the hand and knee touches!

She said to wait three months to see if the program was working, and we already know six weeks in that it is!

 

[Sir_Winston54]

She said to wait three months to see if the program was working, and we already know six weeks in that it is!

Outstanding, brioche! Keep up the good work - every step one of us takes forward is an encouragement to the rest of us! (And when one of us falters, the others are still there to support us and get us back on track - I like that.)

 

[neonflux]

Well, I've been doing the same set of exercise videos for a while - they are the ones that helped me to lose that 40 pounds last year. But they say that your body can get too accustomed to a routine and that certainly seems to have happened during my last round of everyday exercise - between 1.5 to 2 hours per day, 6 days per week for 3 months and I didn't lose any weight. Soooooo.... I am going back to dance-type training (studied modern and jazz through college and the first several years after)...

I ordered this today, based on an infomercial. Was I foolish? We'll see after I get back from moving my sis across country. Neon

 

[myinnerslut]

i have a doctors appointment in the city today. ugh.

its actually agood thing, a check to see if i can reduce the amount of medicine im on. as most of you know im bipolar, diagnosed and have been medicated since i was 11. for the first time in three years im at the point where i can go down on meds instead of up. i went off the first pill two months ago, the second one last month and this check is for the third one (there are still four others).

im just a little frightneed about the process. basically i go off of something and hope to god i dont have a bad reaction in a month. if i dont, i can try lowering the medicine another dose. i hate playing russian rullete with my body.

 

[Sir_Winston54]

Okay, 14 - just weekly updates now, no more daily reports.

On the flip side, the long nap yesterday afternoon after getting back from my NP screwed me up for sleeping last night. Went to bed 11-ish, didn't *actually* sleep (though I dozed briefly a few times) until somewhere between 4:30 and 5, then got up late, headed out for my EKG/cardio consult (approximately 185 miles one-way), drove 45 miles that direction before I figured out there was no freakin' way I was going to make it within 45 minutes of my appointment time. Ended up calling them and asking for a reschedule. Three gallons of gas (90 miles) and two hours of time wasted, plus I'm pissed at myself, stopped and bought a 10-ounce bag of Reese's Pieces and four BIG Tootsie Rolls. Ate one of the Tootsie Rolls on the rest of the drive back - almost sickeningly sweet http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x95/Sir_Winston54/YYicon15.gif I'll still probably manage to finish off the Reese's before I go to sleep tonight, lol. Sorry, girls. And I'm tired from only three and a half hours sleep for the night-time hours, so I'm going back to bed, and may not get up until time to get ready for bowling. Chit.

 

[SubKekiLee]

Checking in from my side..

Hey all..
I must be toning down cause I noticed the last couple of days that GUYS are breaking thier necks to check me out... Long lean torso coming and I am so proud of myself ... This is gonna be a hard road and I am here for support for yall as much as yall are here for me. I am staying under 1700 calories most days and I am doing cardio 3x per week for 30 mins. and Im working on swimming 2x per week. to see if that helps.. as of now 7 lbs and 4.5 " lost..

 

[myinnerslut]

doctors appointment results were very dissapointed. no more reducing what im taking. i actually have to increase it. blah. i'm mad at my body for not being healthy. im nineteen years old and i have taken more pills in the past 8 years then most people take in a life. right now im at 6 a day and thats the lowest ive been in years. if i want to lose wieght i can do something about it. if i want to change my hair coloar i can. if i want to tone my stomach, i can. i cant control this. nothing i can do can control this. i feel absolutly helpless right now and not in a good way. *tear*

 

[reignophelia]

doctors appointment results were very dissapointed. no more reducing what im taking. i actually have to increase it. blah. i'm mad at my body for not being healthy. im nineteen years old and i have taken more pills in the past 8 years then most people take in a life. right now im at 6 a day and thats the lowest ive been in years. if i want to lose wieght i can do something about it. if i want to change my hair coloar i can. if i want to tone my stomach, i can. i cant control this. nothing i can do can control this. i feel absolutly helpless right now and not in a good way. *tear*

Hey, hang in there. It'll be ok. You're lowering meds can be really anxiety inducing, I understand.

*hugs*

 

[reignophelia]

My physiotherapist is also weight training, and she will be giving me some literature on some safe fat-burners to use in conjunction with my weight training and cardio program. I have low blood pressure, so hypertension isn't a problem, and I have no heart trouble either. She's used these herself, so I don't have to worry about taking something unsafe. I've often wished I knew which ones were effective and safe and which ones weren't, so I'm cautiously happy about this. Basically, the deal is that you have to keep working just as hard, but this will optimize your body's ability to burn fat while you do it. She wouldn't be willing to do it at all if I wasn't so committed and on Weight Watchers for my diet.

On another note - I DID NOT want to go in today, so before my appointment she evaluated my progress. I can squat more and much lower, I did two pushups, though my core went up slower than the rest of me (she only asked me to do two), and I am much more stable when balancing on one hand and knee while trying to touch the other two together.

When she did this before, I couldn't squat very far before my knee hurt, I couldn't do a pushup at all, and I wobbled so much I nearly fell over doing the hand and knee touches!

She said to wait three months to see if the program was working, and we already know six weeks in that it is!

You rock!

 

[Sir_Winston54]

doctors appointment results were very dissapointed. no more reducing what im taking. i actually have to increase it. blah. i'm mad at my body for not being healthy. im nineteen years old and i have taken more pills in the past 8 years then most people take in a life. right now im at 6 a day and thats the lowest ive been in years. if i want to lose wieght i can do something about it. if i want to change my hair coloar i can. if i want to tone my stomach, i can. i cant control this. nothing i can do can control this. i feel absolutly helpless right now and not in a good way. *tear*

Most of us have something in our lives that we can't control. We learn to manage that something to survive. While you're not controlling your bpd, you are able to manage it through the meds - and that's a good thing. It's rough on most of us, I believe, the first time that it really sinks in that some portions of our lives have a life of their own, so to speak.

However, in your case, if you can try to think of it not as something to control, but something to manage - to learn to work your way around it through medications, therapy, transcendental meditation, or whatever means - then it simply becomes one of those things that are beyond our control, but not beyond our surviving and thriving despite them. As a chronic depressive - though I didn't realize it until my forties - I've learned that it's something my body does that I don't like, so I manage it through medication and through having learned to recognize the signs that it's affecting me "worse than usual" so I can get with the medical professionals to re-manage it.

That's one reason my recent difficulties regarding sleeping bothered me so much: first the chronic insomnia for a couple of months, then the sudden reversal to wanting - needing - to sleep so much. While depression can and quite often does cause a person to take to their bed much more than their normal pattern, there are other symptoms that usually accompany this - a feeling of hopelessness, or not caring about things, etc. - and I wasn't experiencing any of that. That's why it pleased me - and made me hopeful - that my NP's thought concerning the *timing* of my taking my anti-depressant could be the issue... not that the med wasn't working, but that I was reacting to it in a somewhat unusual but not unknown fashion - and in a way that I can manage.

mis, while you can't control your bpd, you CAN *manage* it, deal with it, and assign it a priority in your life only just high enough that you keep up with your meds. Don't let it manage you - manage it so that you can be who you want and need to be.

 

[neonflux]

doctors appointment results were very dissapointed. no more reducing what im taking. i actually have to increase it. blah. i'm mad at my body for not being healthy. im nineteen years old and i have taken more pills in the past 8 years then most people take in a life. right now im at 6 a day and thats the lowest ive been in years. if i want to lose wieght i can do something about it. if i want to change my hair coloar i can. if i want to tone my stomach, i can. i cant control this. nothing i can do can control this. i feel absolutly helpless right now and not in a good way. *tear*

{{{{{{{{{{{{BIG HUGS FROM BUFFALO}}}}}}}}}}}}}}


It is horrible when your body betrays you that way. I know it's different, but felt the same thing when I first got herpes (really, really nasty strain). My thoughts are with you.

Neon

 

[myinnerslut]

thanks all. im feeling a little better now. A let me rant for a bit and then reassured me that he wouldnt leave me even if my bpd got really bad agan and i was in and out of hospitals with an almost unrecognizable personality (one of my big fears). it has only ever been that bad once but the once lasted for a perio of a few years. to the point where i was homeschooled for four months of my sophmore year of high school becuase of it.

 

[brioche]

I'm going to get to eat fast food if I want!

My physiotherapist had me make up a list of all the activities I might do. At the bottom is a section of punishments and rewards. The rewards are supposed to be things that aren't really that good for me (say: a Quarter Pounder with Cheese or something of the sort). Every time I come in and do cardio for 30 minutes or more at high intensity 3 times per week, or go in on my own and do my training session myself as an extra session, I get to choose a reward from the list. The punishments are withdrawals of things I like. Like, say, if I don't come to the gym a certain number of times during the week, I don't get to have a fruit smoothie that week, I guess - we haven't covered the punishments yet.
I like this. This is plan I can get behind. Besides, if I fall off track, I can redeem myself by working out 3 days to recoup the loss. This is good.

I don't know if I will actually pick fast food - foot long subs and other options beckon - but having the opportunity cheers me up.

On the "Isn't it always something?" level, I have strained a tiny muscle in my hips. I now have to treat it with heat and cold and stretching to avoid having the physiotherapist poking around in there with ultrasound and her finger, which she assures me would hurt. Then we have to work it because it's weak. How do people get it shape without physios? No wonder I hated it before!

 

[brioche]

thanks all. im feeling a little better now. A let me rant for a bit and then reassured me that he wouldnt leave me even if my bpd got really bad agan and i was in and out of hospitals with an almost unrecognizable personality (one of my big fears). it has only ever been that bad once but the once lasted for a perio of a few years. to the point where i was homeschooled for four months of my sophmore year of high school becuase of it.

I take 7 or 8 types of pill daily, as well as a number of vitamin supplements (calcium, omega 3-6-9, multi, vitamin D and C). All in all I take 17 pills and an inhaler before I go to bed . It's not fun, but neither was all the drama when I wasn't taking them. Here's the deal - if I go to the doctor, she won't lessen my pills, because they're all things I need, and I have this complex melange of 3 antidepressant and antianxiety meds controlling the depression and anxiety disorder. It took a long time to work it out and I'm not going to fuck with it now. I dislike taking pills, but eventually one leads to another and it all snowballs. None of the pharmacy people need to ask my name and my fondest wish is that they'd all run out at the same time instead of dribs and drabs like they are now. I may eventually get a Dosette, though I can do it myself, I don't need them to.
If your doc stays to stay on the pills, listen to her. She'll let you know when the time comes to go off. If ever. *hugs*. I know how you feel.

 

[graceanne]

I have to say I once again have no clue what my caloric intake was today. I know it was at least semi-ok cause K made me breakfast this morning (eggs, bacon, toast and orange juice), and we had meatball subs for dinner. I also ate a couple slices of provolone cheese as a snack.

As I said I have a double ear infection, and I spent the day helping my sister pack her kids' room. In between all that, filling scripts and spending time at the urgent care I was home a total of two hours today. whoopeee