Category Archives: medical/health

Jun26

South Beach…

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South Beach…

I’m completely and unabashedly an emotional eater. I feel stressed; I want to eat. I feel sad; I want to eat. I feel frustrated; I want to eat. Considering that I felt all of these emotions the vast majority of the past year, I discovered that the weight I am at was not what I wanted to experience.

But it’s hard to retrain your body when you have gradually built up a response system the whole previous year. It’s like how I have to go to bed by a certain time every night, or else the next day is absolutely miserable for me. I’m a junkie for my sugar and carbs. I know it’s not healthy for me, (especially because my myriad of health problems make physical workouts hard to do,) and it definitely hasn’t done anything nice for my vanity, either.

Enter: South Beach Diet.

Principle 1) Eating food that are lower on the glycemic index (essentially, low on sugars- natural or added). First two weeks, no sugar or carbs–mainly veggies and low fat dairy and proteins.  No fruit (too much sugar), no bread or grains (cutting out both sugar and carbs), and not even some veggies (carrots and beets are high on the glycemic index).

Essentially, I’m going cold turkey.

I am hoping that by sticking to this, it will help me break the “addiction” my body has to the bad stuff. I’ll eventually add whole grains and fruit back into my diet. When I did the diet several years ago in college, it was amazing how much it helped me feel better about myself and my weight. I’m hoping it will happen again now.

It’s been one whole week, and I am happy to report that I have already lost 5 lbs.

That almost makes it worth not having my daily dose of bread and sugar… right?

May10

Work Transfers

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Work Transfers

For those of you who haven’t heard yet, I recently found out that I am going to be going to the new middle school that is opening up in the school district. I tried once again to go to a high school, but had no luck with my attempt. It was a rather frustrating process, but I think that the move to a different school will be a nice change of scenery.

I like several of the teachers that I know that will be moving over soon, which is good, and the school is going to be significantly smaller than my current one. I will be teaching the same grade and stuff again, but I will be the only teacher at the school with previous experience on the writing TAKS test that happens during middle school (just 7th grade), so they actually needed me to be there to help. That’s kind of complimentary, to be needed! I definitely am not listed in a similar position at my current school.

I also will have lots of opportunities for growth and extra trainings. I was invited today to think about being part of a team that can go to Dallas for a week long training, paid for, that has a lot of cool strategies. I am excited about the new opportunities that are coming up. I will miss those I have been working with, but I have a good feeling about going over to the new school, all in all.

It also doesn’t hurt when my kids who are being zoned to the new school keep on asking me to try and teach their 8th grade LA classes… 🙂 It makes me feel like maybe I am not the Grinch I have to pretend to be sometimes.

As for health- I remain about the same. There seems to be no benefit from the nerve block shots, and I didn’t have good, caring vibes from the doctor, so I won’t be going back. I have yet to take the next step, but I will be trying to get an appointment with an endocrinologist to try a different approach to the problem.

I have much that I have to prepare for next year, and to finish out this year. I am trying to look to a new beginning with this school, a new chance, to grow and become a better teacher and person.

Apr21

Bad results?

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Bad results?

So, I just had the second nerve-block shot for my head yesterday.

My experience between the two shots has been terrible.

Last week,  a day after my first shot, my head was tender to touch and overall, more painful than before the shot. This and persistent nausea persisted for about 4 days.

Last night, I couldn’t sleep because I was freezing- but every time I woke up, I was covered with sweat. Sorry for the not-so-pretty image. Don’t dwell on it. It’s just like my body lost its ability to maintain temperature control.

Same sort of head pain and nausea, plus just overall exhausted by the lack of sleep.

I am very worried that I am not going in the right direction. One thing that people have hinted at is a potential thyroid problem.

Shout out to my blood relatives- any of you know of someone in the family with migraine or thyroid issues?

On a happier note, I found a snake in the house this morning. I think he’s an Eastern Worm Snake, but generally they are found in Southern Carolina. Apparently, NOT ANY MORE!!  This is the third one I have come across (the others were outside, thankfully) which I think helped me NOT flip out as I saw it slither it’s 5 inch body across my tile floor.

Snake

Kinda cute, for a snake. Apparently they only grow up to 15 inches long and are harmless to humans.

I think he’s growing on me. Maybe Jared will let me keep him and call him Pinky. 😉

Apr13

The head, the yard, and Misc…

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The head, the yard, and Misc…

1) The Head:

I finally went to see a specialist yesterday for my headache issues. I figured since I had been to three previous doctors and still had the problem, it was time.

It was okay, except for the part where after consultation, I had to get a shot. IN MY HEAD.

Basically, I think he told me that I have some version of occipital neuralgia (according to Wikipedia: Occipital neuralgia is a medical condition characterized by chronic pain in the upper neck, back of the head and behind the eyes. These areas correspond to the locations of the lesser and greater occipital nerves.) He’s guessing that this is causing most of the every day issues- except for the occasional TRUE migraines. And the best treatment? Nerve blocker shots.

Here’s a diagram, because I know you’d love it.

Nerve Block pic

Oh! Did you NOT notice that needle thing before you clicked on the picture? Sorry… Anyways, he added a little local anesthetic that lasted a whopping 45 minutes, and the whole right side of my head been hurting WORSE ever since! Is that what should happen? I didn’t think so…

If it’s still bothering me tomorrow morning, I’ll be giving them a phone call. Hopefully though it’s a little pain now, a lot less pain in the future!

2) The yard.

Jared and I are finally tackling our yard. I have some pics I took with my cell phone- they aren’t perfect, but they aren’t too bad either. I am really happy with how things are progressing, especially due to the condition the yard was in when we FIRST got the house.

I’m not complaining… the yard being less than great knocked a good $10,000 or so off the overall price of the house, helping us GET the house. It wasn’t like a messy yard was going to intimidate US though.

So, here’s some small things that I’ve been doing to whip the yard into shape. And we have had a lot of rain too. Good teamwork is happening between Jared, the rain, and I. 🙂

The front:

Front Flowers     Front Flowers 2

All of that was dead. Except the bushes. So all the pretty colorful stuff was either 1) non-existent or 2) died from the lack of water last year. Those bushes are prolific growers though… I have to trim them every couple of weeks! The little tree in the front will be really pretty soon- crepe myrtle is amazing when it blooms!

Then the backyard:

Autumn Sage     Roses

The first picture there is autumn sage and our little fountain. It’s really gorgeous right now. The second pic is of a rosebush and these pretty purple flowers (Irises?) that just popped up. Didn’t plant them, but we’re glad they’re there anyway!

The biggest thing in waging our battle against the chaos of the yard are The Oak Trees. Live Oak trees. And their pollen, which is causing KILLER allergies. If they aren’t shedding leaves, they are blanketing the ground with yellow little pods that cover cars and anything else outside with a fine yellow dusting.

The weather people say it should only go on to May. Only. Not like we’ve been dealing with it since the beginning of March or anything. Though, for all you Utahns and cold weather people are probably WISHING for the weather that tempts the Oaks into spreading their pollenific joy with the world!

Got to count the blessings, I guess.

 3) The Miscellaneous

A)  I get to teach The Lightning Thief and mythology in the final weeks of school! I mean, I am getting around to it this year, and my dream job would be to teach mythology classes at a high school year around! 🙂 I am stoked, and a lot of the kids love the book, so it should be kinda a “Fun” way to end the year.

Which leads us to

B) I’m on the home stretch for year TWO! I am SO loving life right now when I think that I made it this far. I know that part of me is panicking that I ONLY have seven more weeks with these kids… but then I think… SEVEN MORE WEEKS TIL SUMMER!

C) I hate filing taxes. Why would anyone even want that kind of job, where you deal with other people’s finances all the time? Yuck.

D) I can’t wait for summer so I can do more yard and house projects. I don’t know if that just reflects on how pitiful my life is that I am excited to have a break from work to work on my house and yard?

Anyways, that’s what’s up with my life in a nutshell. Gets more exciting, but I won’t bore you with the details.

Told you it was the miscellaneous section, right?

Feb11

On insanity

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On insanity

Being a teacher of 7th grade is insanity.

Duly noted.

Adding on top of it the accepting of the church calling Bear Den Scout Leader and having to deal with 8 rambunctious and excitable little nine year old boys DOESN’T HELP ANYTHING.

Especially when they start singing songs from “Enchanted” at the top of their lungs… mostly on key. Yeah. Really.

Last night I told the bishop of our ward that it wasn’t like I was busy enough spending over 40 hours of my week with a bunch of 11-13 year old kids. Why not add a couple hours of nine year old boys in there too? I definitely wasn’t making productive use out of my free time, so I got a second calling on top of that too.

So now, I am officially The Bear Den Assistant Scout Leader AND Assistant Something of the Committee Formally Known as Enrichment.

I’m mostly joking about not liking all that. Mostly. Most of the time it doesn’t bother me at all.

Most of the time.

But I can’t help but wonder if maybe that is why I am home sick yet again for the 100th time this year.

Aren’t you supposed to get some sort of blessing or intrinsic reward from all these niceties and service?

I’ll be more cheerful tomorrow. Promise.