Archives for September 2010

The dizziness is back

September 14, 2010 by Tricia

I’m feeling kind of crappy today. Well, not just today … maybe the last five or six days.

Sigh …

Other than all the weird side effects from the new medication I’m taking for my migraines I thought I was feeling better. I mean, my Crohn’s has been doing a lot better for most of this year, and with this new drug my migraines and the accompanying dizziness seemed to be under control … until a week ago that is.

Big Sigh ..

I was feeling so good that I was actually starting to think that if it continued that maybe I’d be able to get back to work in a few months.

Now I’m not so sure.

The dizziness has come back. Big time. I’ve spent the better part of the last few days feeling like I’ve just got off a ride at the exhibition or something. My head is spinning. I get dizzy if I’m fast forwarding a show on the TV or scrolling to fast on the computer or even just turning my head slow or fast.

I’ve also had a couple of migraines. Not as bad as what I was experiencing in June, July and August .. but still, it’s disappointing.

I have thought of one possible cause for my symptoms coming back. It’s my time of the month and I almost always get headaches or migraines during this time. So I was half expecting to be a little more headachey or to possibly have a migraine this past weekend … but I didn’t count on the dizziness. Maybe my hormones made the dizziness come back. Maybe if I’m lucky when my period is over and my hormones settle down the dizziness and the extra headaches and migraines will go away again.

Sigh …

If it doesn’t and if this is all starting up again I guess my idea of going back to work soon might not work out. Too bad as we kind of need me to get back to work. Our finances are shot. We have to watch every penny. Literally. Hmmm maybe I could look into online schools and see if I could find a career that I could do from home, so if I continue to feel this bad for the foreseeable future I can at least start earning a better income?

In the meantime … Do any of you suffer from periods of dizziness? I mean truly disabling dizziness? What do you do about it? Maybe I should talk to my doctor and see if there’s any other kind of medication I can take for it? From the research I’ve done over the last few days it seems medication is pretty hit and miss and the medication that I’m taking for my migraines (Topamax) might eventually help the dizziness however dizziness is also one of it’s many side effects too.

Have to complain about the letter carrier

September 11, 2010 by Tricia

I don’t know what’s going on with our mail delivery service this summer. We’ve lived in this neighborhood for almost ten years and for most of that time we had the same mailman.

Actually our mailman ended up being a friend of ours as he was seeing (and living with) a close friend of mine from work (they even helped us put in our skylight) so it was always nice when I’d see him delivering our mail.

I haven’t talked to him lately, and I haven’t seen him delivering our mail either. Perhaps he got a better route or a big promotion? It seems that over the last few months we’ve had a series of temporary mail carriers.

The lady that’s been delivering the mail the last couple of weeks is the worst. I hope she doesn’t turn out to be our permanent carrier! I think she’s afraid of our dog barking. Yes, even when the door is closed and there’s no way our dog can even see her or you know … get to her. Of course if our dog could make contact with the mail carrier it would only be to say hi and probably give her a lick since she’s the absolutely friendliest dog in the world. She just likes to bark when she hears someone at the door.

It doesn’t help that this woman who delivers the mail has big heavy mail bags on both sides of her body and she bangs into our screen door every time she enters our front porch.

Anyway I guess she’s afraid of the sound of a barking dog because she certainly never even sees our dog. So now, when she hears Midnight barking she just drops the mail and runs!

The mail doesn’t even get into our mailbox. It’s often left scattered all over our inner front porch and sometimes it doesn’t even make it to the inner front porch – sometimes it’s outside on the steps! That’s not good.

I’m picturing soggy, ruined mail in the winter if this keeps up.

Oh and yesterday I found not only our mail but our elderly neighbors mail in my rose bush! It was our neighbors social security disability check! Imagine if I hadn’t found that mail or if it had blown away? Then my neighbor wouldn’t have received the money she probably needs to make it through the month.

I think on Monday I’d better remember to call the Post Office and make a complaint about this letter carrier. I hate to do it, but this kind of poor mail delivery has been going on for weeks. It’s not right.

Halfway Point – Activia 14 Day Challenge

September 9, 2010 by Tricia

Last week I took the plunge and decided to take the Activia 14 Day Challenge. Over the last few months I’ve been stepping up my efforts to improve my health and adding yogurt to my diet certainly seems like a good idea.

If you read my post last week when I started the Activia 14 Day Challenge you’ll probably remember that I stocked up by buying two flavors of low fat Activia Yogurt.

I bought two 8 packs – one of Raspberry and another of Strawberry and Rhubarb and I have to tell you that they’re delicious! I like that they have chunks of fruit in them. Yummy.

Activia advertises their yogurt as being very creamy. Now prior to taking this challenge I didn’t eat yogurt regularly or have a favorite brand so I can’t say it’s the creamiest – but it is creamy and smooth and I like it.

The television commercials that I see for Activia often talk about how Activia will make you regular and their website says “feel the difference in your digestive system.” I don’t feel any major difference so far, but then I’ve always been regular so I don’t really need any help in that area.

What I’m hoping to get out of taking the Activia 14 day Challenge is simply a step towards better health. As I said in my first post about the Challenge this yogurt has live bacterial culture in it (BL Regularis) and we need “good” bacteria to help us digest our food properly, and if we’re digesting our food properly and getting all the nutrients out of it that we should be we have a better chance of being and or staying healthy. That’s my reasoning anyway.

Anyone else taking the challenge along with me? How is it going? What Activia flavors have you tried?

Wants versus Needs – particularly when there’s no money to spare

September 7, 2010 by Tricia

Every few months I keep going over this mental list of things that I want.

The list keeps growing of course because the needs outweigh the wants in rank of importance or at least that’s what I keep trying to tell myself. Yet that list keeps growing.

I’m sure you know what I mean. On the list of needs are things like groceries, utility bills (heating, electricity, phone, cable) prescription medicine, mortgage payments and so on.

On the list of wants are things like occasionally ordering in for dinner, buying a new computer or laptop, maybe getting an iPad, getting a new cellphone (I’d love an iPhone) oh and I’ve been saying for years that I can’t believe we’re pretty much the only people on the block without MP3 players. LOL

I’m sure I could list a lot more needs and wants – especially wants – like walking through the grocery store and “wanting” to pick out a lot more of the often higher priced items that I really like, but don’t because we’re on a tight budget … but you get the drift.

One thing that’s kind of halfway between a want and a need is new clothes. A lot of my clothes are on the old side. I haven’t been on a shopping spree for quite a while and there’s definitely a few items that need replacing.

There’s also the fact that the new medicine I’m on for my migraines, Topamax, sometimes has a side effect of making people lose their appetite and thus makes them lose weight. That’s already happened to me (three weeks in) and while I haven’t weighed myself, I think I’ve lost at least 5 pounds if not closer to 10 if the looseness of my clothes is any indication. If this keeps up I’m going to need to get new clothes soon whether I like it (or can afford it) or not.

Do you struggle with wants versus needs? Particularly if you are on a tight budget?

We had a fantastic long weekend

September 7, 2010 by Tricia

You know what? I had a really good weekend!

I had sort of been dreading the long weekend because I’d started a new medication for my migraines about three weeks ago and it’s making me feel really odd (spacey, forgetful, mixing up words, tingling hands and feet etc) and on top of that my nephew and niece (and her fiance) were coming in from Chicago for the weekend, and my in-laws were coming in to town for a day or two to see all of us.

When I’m not feeling all that well I don’t really like having other people around or worse, I don’t like having plans to go out, especially when I’m not sure if I’m going to be feeling up to going out.

Luckily everything turned out ok.

My husband picked up our niece and nephew t the airport and took them to our family friends house where they were going to stay for the weekend. Oh and on the way there they stopped off at a restaurant bar and my husband bought my nephew his first legal drink. He’s 19 and thus it was legal for him to drink in Ontario. Our nephew was thrilled … oh and he’s the one who asked Chris to buy him his first legal drink. LOL

The next day my husband went over to the house with our dog to see the kids and to drive them to where ever they wanted to go in the city. He did that every morning – Saturday, Sunday and Monday so he got to spend a bit more time with them and they got a lift to where ever they wanted to start there day.

Surprisingly – for a 19 year old and two 23 year olds they didn’t spend a lot of time going out and partying. They did hit a few bars, especially on Saturday, but they didn’t go out clubbing like we thought they would. Instead they did things like taking a tour of the Rogers center, walking around the CNE (Canadian National Exhibition), touring a micro-brewery (SteamWhistle) and tasting their beers, going to the CN Tower, shopping, and going to the Hockey Hall of Fame.

I stayed home on the Saturday and just rested up.

On Sunday my in-laws came into town and we got together in the late afternoon with them and the kids at an Irish restaurant called Murphy’s Law and had dinner. My father in law usually doesn’t drink, but when he does he normally only has one drink. That night he had 4 double Bailey’s! It was interesting!

After dinner the in-laws went back to their hotel. Usually they stay at our house, but we’d warned them that with this medication that I’m on I’m feeling really off and that maybe staying over wouldn’t be so great. Usually they come in threes – Chris’ mom and dad and his aunt (although this time Chris’ aunt didn’t come) … so that’s a lot of people to land on someones doorstep when you’re not feeling so hot.

I wasn’t feeling too bad after dinner – a little wonky … I’ve found if I don’t drink enough water on this new medication (Topamax) I kind of feel drunk (and no I didn’t have any drinks with dinner) so we drove the kids back to the house and sat with them on the back patio for an hour or so talking. They were kind of tired. The day before they had walked everywhere they went .. we worked it out and we figured that they walked over 15 miles!

The next day, yesterday, was Labour Day Monday – my Birthday. So we all met up at Cora’s downtown for brunch. Well … ok breakfast … but it was 1 pm. I haven’t been to a Cora’s for a long long time and man – it’s delicious! I had French toast Brioche covered in a mound of assorted fruit, and a sunny side up egg and a few slices of bacon. I think it’s called “1990’s Harvest” on the menu. Delicious!

Shortly after we finished our meal at Cora’s it was time to take the kids to the Island Airport for their flight to Chicago. However, since there was a little bit of time before they had to board the Ferry to the island we walked over to an Irish Memorial.

I have to admit that I only glanced at the huge black stones at the Irish memorial at the port because just as we reached the memorial area jets flew overhead and I realized that the airshow was starting.

I’ve never been to an airshow! So while most of our relatives looked at the Irish memorial my husband and I stood by the waters edge and gazed up at the sky as jets and the famous Canadian Snowbirds did amazing areal feats overhead. I never thought I’d enjoy an airshow that much, but I loved it.

As we walked back to the Ferry area and airport check-in the airshow was still going on, so I was a little distracted in those last few minutes with our nephew, niece and her fiance. I actually almost tripped as I was walking along. Someone had stopped right in front of us to watch the jets do a fly by and I just missed tripping on the wheels of one of the most unusual baby strollers I’ve ever seen. I stopped long enough to ask the lady what it was and she said it was called a phil and teds explorer. I couldn’t help laughing at the name – do you remember the movie – Phil and Ted’s excellent Adventures?

Anyway … The weekend that I thought I’d struggle through because of in-laws and relatives being around turned out to be quite nice. I had two fantastic birthday celebration meals and seeing the airshow just topped off my birthday. I loved it.

How was your long weekend?

The dizziness is back

Have to complain about the letter carrier

Halfway Point – Activia 14 Day Challenge

We had a fantastic long weekend

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