Thursday 27 December 2012

Anime and IKEA

It's been a busy few days. We've had cooking and baking and meeting with family and eating...so much eating...

But it's been nice to see Bran's side of the family :). I'm actually going to IKEA tomorrow with some of the women.

I'm feeling very tired though. I'll likely go to bed early so I can head off to meet them all at Sarah's house (which means public transport at peak morning hours).

Poor Milo has been alone more often, but we've made sure to give him extra treats and walks.

I finished re-watching neon genesis evangelion. Still crazy. If you watch the movies afterward it makes more sense. Although in this case I watched the last movie (in that series  then was confused and went back to re-watch the anime...a bit backwards XD

I bought some nice clothes that were on sale :D no less than 50% off! Huzzah!

I'm soon to get my Australian driver's license. Although we wont be getting a car anytime soon. It's more to have rather than carrying around my passport. Plus then I can start the process of changing my name legally.

Does IKEA stand for something? Am I just writing it in capitals for the heck of it?

Monday 24 December 2012

The Night Before Christmas

Christmas.

For me, it's almost always been a little bittersweet. I have very fond memories of christmas as a kid and into my teenage years. My parents really tried hard to give us everything we wanted on christmas. After my mum died, a lot of the magic left. Now i'm over on the other side of the world, working to create my own family traditions. I miss my family in the USA, I miss my mum. I'll try to write a happier post tomorrow. Happy christmas eve.

Sunday 23 December 2012

Phone-y Update

I'm updating from my phone! Aren't I advanced? Not really. I'm actually just very tired so I'm in bed playing with my phone until I fall asleep. We've had a busy day here. We spent a good part of it out at Toombul buying some last minute gifts as well as having some time outside of the apartment together. In the afternoon we made some cinnamon rolls for Bran to bring to work tomorrow, they are good if not a little flat. I'll use a different pan for the ones we make for Boxing Day. I've had a bit of a hard time doing things today, been very foggy and my hands haven't been gripping well. I'm so thankful I have such an understanding and loving husband :). Started having chest pain (costochondritis relayed) about an hour ago. Not so much fun.

Saturday 22 December 2012

MiLs and AiLs

Tired.

Went out shopping with MiL and Aunt in law today. It was lovely to see Sue again (AiL). Later on we took Milo to the park. It's nice watching him run around like a mad hatter :D but there were lots and lots of mosquitos and I don't really feel like getting ross river virus, so we ended up walking home as soon as he started to take breaks. I need to make lots of cinnamon rolls, both for boxing day and as Bran wants to bring some in to work on christmas eve (he is working during the day). Pain is a bit better today, right foot was angry at points though. Still tired. Mtx is not so much fun to go back on.

Friday 21 December 2012

Short Stack

Not too much to write on today.

Watched anime and rested mostly.

MTX hangover wasn't too bad, just tired.

Still in pain, increased in wrists and R elbow.

Took some pain meds.

World didn't end.

Thursday 20 December 2012

Grumpy

I'm feeling quite sore today, so I wont type much.

Centrelink will not provide any help. The other places that are meant to help people with disabilities find work go through centrelink, so they are out too. I'm on my own.

Look, i'm thankful that my husband makes a good wage, and that we are able to live on it. But I want to study, and I can't get a government loan. I want to work, but it's hard for me to find a job that I am capable of doing. I wasn't looking for a pension, just some assistance with finding suitable work. Ah well...i'll just keep at it I guess...

Bran and I have talked it over though, and i'll keep going to school as much as I can. We'll work out a loan with the bank since i'm not eligible for the HELP debt.

Goodnight

Wednesday 19 December 2012

BC and GP

Ah dear, what a day it's been.

We've had a bit of a tiff in the body corporate over what trees were meant to be cut down along our side yard. It was generally understood that tree which could cause damage were to be cut down and poisoned  I have no idea which trees can cause damage here, so Bran and I left it up to the tree lopper and other people in te BC. Well, I woke up this morning to the people cutting down almost all of the trees on the property. Again, maybe they were all potential damage inducers? I wouldn't know. But now we have some of the other owners very upset about it. It's sad to see the beautiful big trees being cut down, and I feel like I should feel worse about it...but I also feel that we need to protect our home, and it was decided that we would plant more suitable trees there once things are settled. Anyway, upset on the homefront is never nice...so thats been part of my day.

The other part of my day was going to my GP and taking care of some paperwork that I need to deal with centrelink. I've also got a new six month card for blood tests and we've decided which path to go with for the psychologist i'm seeing. I also got a big thing of good olive oil for half price :D. Tomorrow i'll need to go deal with centrelink and see of they can actually be of any assistance, if not i'll have to try somewhere else...

Overall i'm alright today, my mood has been better since I had a nice cry over labs testing on beagles yesterday. Painwise was meh, my right arm is still sore and my muscles are more tender than normal. I'll start back on my DMARDs tomorrow, but i'm glad I got a blood test done while i've been off of them for a while. It'll be interesting to see what they say.

I will also say i've taken a tramadol, I need a bit of pain relief. Goodnight

Tuesday 18 December 2012

Supplement Update

You would think i'd learn to write in the middle of the day when i'm trying not to do too much since it's so hot....but no. Somehow I write before bed. Eh, maybe it's a good way to de-stress? I seem to recall hearing that somewhere.

Today was a quiet day at home. I got some laundry done but that was about it. Made a salad with bbq chicken on it for dinner. Bran and I are really digging salad with chicken on it now-a-days. I started taking my new animo acid supplement today as well. It's too early to notice a difference, but I can say I was able to do an extra loop around the park on our walk. I haven't really had stable energy though, going back and forth between wanting to be up and doing things to desperately trying to make some coffee so I can do something useful.

Pain wasn't too bad today. R wrist and elbow mostly. Shoulders are back to being stiff. My back is getting sore when I sit too long. Speaking of which i'm also back on the InflamEze Activ which is a mix of devil's claw, cat's claw, and a tumeric extract. In the past it did seem to help my back pain so i'll see how it goes as the saligesic didn't really help at all. At least I can say i've trialed some of the things i'll be prescribing ;). I'm still on the valarian complex, Remotiv, vit D,  activated vit B's, and the withania complex until that runs out.

GP tomorrow to talk about centrelink stuff and mental health plan.

Monday 17 December 2012

Biochem and Panko

Here is to getting back into the swing of things. Today I went to go see my Naturopath. He's been a real trooper with helping me deal with all off the symptoms and emotional problems that go along with being chronically ill. We've found some things that work (in this care, very well for anxiety) and lots of things that haven't. But that's life I suppose. We are trying to raise my energy from a different path this time, utilising a specific amino acid that I forgot the name of and will tell you about tomorrow. He went on about how it assists with mitochondria producing more atp and allowing acytle-CoA something something science biochem......I actually did understand it at the time thanks to my biochemistry course.

On a completely different note, i've found a really good way to panfry chicken. It uses panko instead of flour or bread crumbs :D. Turned out nice and crunchy to go ontop of our salads. Yay sort-of healthy!

Sunday 16 December 2012

Tall Stack

It's been almost a month since I last updated. Oh, and what a month it has been!

I ended up getting food poisoning and being quite ill for two weeks, this ended with me deferring one of my exams. I also ended up going off my meds because obviously there is no point in taking them if they just go through you (or potentially make your immune system even less able to help).

Being off my meds has brought on some interesting symptoms though. I've found i'm much more cognitively impaired at times (brain fog) which would mean that is an autoimmune aspect and not a mystery fibro symptom. I've also started developing psoriasis plaques again. Which would mean I do indeed have psoriatic arthritis and no sero-negative rheumatoid (though it's possible that could develop at any time). I've kept off my pharmaceuticals so I can show this to my doctor on wednesday.

I have gone back on my naturopathic medicine, and while I definitely see the benefit in the anti-anxiety and anti-depression herbs (St. john's wart, hops, and valerian with passion flower extract as an emergency for panic attacks), I don't think i've had much help with the saligesic or the herbs that are meant to help with energy. But considering most of my pain is fibro, i'm not too surprised. I also tried taking some magnesium, but it caused stomach upset. My next course of action is to go back to Mark the acupuncturist and see if that will help.

In other news, I am a permanent resident. That actually doesn't mean so much...they can't kick me out as easily. In a year I can apply for citizenship. I can access centrelink if need be (although Bran is thankfully earning a good living, thus I cannot access anything). And I pay domestic prices for uni. But I am not able to get the HELP debt (which is a gov't loan for school which you start paying back once you earn a certain wage). Which I thought I could get... So i'll likely only be going to school part time this year and hopefully finding a job.

I got a new phone. It's shiny.

Finally, i've gone to a few more meet-ups. One of my usual pagan ones, one for a fibromyalgia group, and one for a different pagan group. The fibro one was nice, it was good to be able to talk about things with people who understand a bit more. The other pagan one was quite fun and i'd like to meet up with them again. Quite a lively bunch! We had a nice discussion about crystals, contacting the other side, and a bit about older magic systems. I also had the opportunity to try mead, which I quite enjoyed.

Thats about it for me. I'll try to get back in the habit of regular updates.