Monday, June 20, 2005
I believe "Jeopardy" would call this category "Potpourri"...
Getting over this heat exhaustion is taking awhile. My stomach is behaving now and the muscle cramps stopped sometime during the night, but I'm still getting spasms and feeling weak and wobbly. I went to aquacise today, but I had to take it really slow.
I still have yard work to do, but I didn't have any get up and go left after I got home from aquacise, so it will have to wait. Maybe Wednesday when it cools down a little. Bummer because I really used to love the warm weather before I got sick. And right now is tiger swallowtail butterfly season, my favorite. Those butterflies always remind me of my mom since I saw dozens of them the summer after she died.
Saw the ENT on Thursday of last week. He decided I should undergo a complicated regimen designed to eliminate some of my inflammatory responses to various allergens. It takes four months total to do. The first two weeks consist of Diflucan plus three nasal sprays. The next two weeks are antihistamines, more nasal spray and grapefruit seed extract. Then it's one month each of anti-mold and anti-fungal treatments. I'm not expecting to see any big changes from these treatments, but it would be cool if I could slow down the Sjogren's inflammation somehow. I am soooooo burned out on new treatments though.
Went to see "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" for the second time on Friday with a friend. Haven't gone to the same movie two weeks in a row since "Lord of the Rings". The movie still made me cry in all the right places even though I knew what was coming. And I still would really like to go to Greece.
Have been watching a TV show called "The Scholar". Yep, it's one of those dreaded reality shows. But I'm a sucker for shows where people get rewarded for having brains. The premise on this one is that 10 high school grads without the funds for college compete for a full-ride scholarship to the school of their choice. The first show was good because this guy who thought he was too good to study lost an important competition on a really easy literature question. Last week I didn't much care for because they had a team segment where basically they had to be cheerleaders. What the heck does that have to do with intelligence? At least that show ended well with the home schooled guy winning a $50,000 scholarship and a shot at the full ride scholarship ($250,000). Tonight's competitions were a bit better: the teams had to do commmunity service where they had to think up effective but inexpensive ways to help disadvantaged kids. And the final was about Africa. The girl who won a shot at the final is of Russian heritage.
I'm still going through my 2002-2005 pix and putting the ones I want prints of on a disc. I think I have enough from 2002 alone to make a whole album. That was a big year with my trip to North Dakota, my 20 year high school reunion, the Fibrohugs conference in Colorado and my trip to Florida. The grandaddy of them all, though, will of course be the Hawaii trip last year with the 900 pix to sort through.
I've been thinking about whether I should prepare some sort of statement to send along to Social Security when I apply as to how this illness is affecting me mentally. I mean, the neuropsyche exam I had in October hinted that I may have somatization problems, which I believe is totally bogus. The last thing I want is my long-term disability insurance company to start blaming my medical problems on psychological causes so they can get out of paying my claim. I think part of the problem is that because I appear cheerful, this is construed as meaning I must not be sick. But humor and positive attitude are part of how I cope. The past few weeks have been rather rough on my emotional state. How do I emphasize, though, that if I am depressed, it's because I am sick and not the other way around?
I need to contact the union president and find out the proper procedure for going on permanent disability as far as my job goes. I don't know how much to tell human resources since my bosses would love to eliminate my position so I no longer qualify for long-term disability insurance. It's still possible that the rheumatologist may say I shouldn't file yet, but I doubt that will happen.
Am almost done compiling my playlist for "Pop Goes the '80's". I've finished 1980-1988, and tonight I started going through the Billboard charts for 1989. This will probably end up being my biggest list. I DJ'd during the '80's, so I know the most songs from that era. The '70's list could be pretty big, though, although I might not have the funds to download any tunes by the time I get to it.
I'm still fighting with my health insurance company over the diabetes classes I took in March and April. I've called them twice already, and both times they said they'd take care of it because I should have been covered, but I just got two more notices from the diabetes center saying my claims were rejected. So I'll call the insurance guys again. I'm pretty sure that they have already paid the claims and the notices just crossed in the mail, but when it comes to stuff like this, it's always best to CYA.
My hands are gonna fall off if I type much more, so I'll stop here.
I still have yard work to do, but I didn't have any get up and go left after I got home from aquacise, so it will have to wait. Maybe Wednesday when it cools down a little. Bummer because I really used to love the warm weather before I got sick. And right now is tiger swallowtail butterfly season, my favorite. Those butterflies always remind me of my mom since I saw dozens of them the summer after she died.
Saw the ENT on Thursday of last week. He decided I should undergo a complicated regimen designed to eliminate some of my inflammatory responses to various allergens. It takes four months total to do. The first two weeks consist of Diflucan plus three nasal sprays. The next two weeks are antihistamines, more nasal spray and grapefruit seed extract. Then it's one month each of anti-mold and anti-fungal treatments. I'm not expecting to see any big changes from these treatments, but it would be cool if I could slow down the Sjogren's inflammation somehow. I am soooooo burned out on new treatments though.
Went to see "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" for the second time on Friday with a friend. Haven't gone to the same movie two weeks in a row since "Lord of the Rings". The movie still made me cry in all the right places even though I knew what was coming. And I still would really like to go to Greece.
Have been watching a TV show called "The Scholar". Yep, it's one of those dreaded reality shows. But I'm a sucker for shows where people get rewarded for having brains. The premise on this one is that 10 high school grads without the funds for college compete for a full-ride scholarship to the school of their choice. The first show was good because this guy who thought he was too good to study lost an important competition on a really easy literature question. Last week I didn't much care for because they had a team segment where basically they had to be cheerleaders. What the heck does that have to do with intelligence? At least that show ended well with the home schooled guy winning a $50,000 scholarship and a shot at the full ride scholarship ($250,000). Tonight's competitions were a bit better: the teams had to do commmunity service where they had to think up effective but inexpensive ways to help disadvantaged kids. And the final was about Africa. The girl who won a shot at the final is of Russian heritage.
I'm still going through my 2002-2005 pix and putting the ones I want prints of on a disc. I think I have enough from 2002 alone to make a whole album. That was a big year with my trip to North Dakota, my 20 year high school reunion, the Fibrohugs conference in Colorado and my trip to Florida. The grandaddy of them all, though, will of course be the Hawaii trip last year with the 900 pix to sort through.
I've been thinking about whether I should prepare some sort of statement to send along to Social Security when I apply as to how this illness is affecting me mentally. I mean, the neuropsyche exam I had in October hinted that I may have somatization problems, which I believe is totally bogus. The last thing I want is my long-term disability insurance company to start blaming my medical problems on psychological causes so they can get out of paying my claim. I think part of the problem is that because I appear cheerful, this is construed as meaning I must not be sick. But humor and positive attitude are part of how I cope. The past few weeks have been rather rough on my emotional state. How do I emphasize, though, that if I am depressed, it's because I am sick and not the other way around?
I need to contact the union president and find out the proper procedure for going on permanent disability as far as my job goes. I don't know how much to tell human resources since my bosses would love to eliminate my position so I no longer qualify for long-term disability insurance. It's still possible that the rheumatologist may say I shouldn't file yet, but I doubt that will happen.
Am almost done compiling my playlist for "Pop Goes the '80's". I've finished 1980-1988, and tonight I started going through the Billboard charts for 1989. This will probably end up being my biggest list. I DJ'd during the '80's, so I know the most songs from that era. The '70's list could be pretty big, though, although I might not have the funds to download any tunes by the time I get to it.
I'm still fighting with my health insurance company over the diabetes classes I took in March and April. I've called them twice already, and both times they said they'd take care of it because I should have been covered, but I just got two more notices from the diabetes center saying my claims were rejected. So I'll call the insurance guys again. I'm pretty sure that they have already paid the claims and the notices just crossed in the mail, but when it comes to stuff like this, it's always best to CYA.
My hands are gonna fall off if I type much more, so I'll stop here.
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