Tricia's Musings

Random Thoughts about life in general, living in the big city of Toronto



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An Update – Still not smoking!

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I quit smoking on October 12th after having smoked for more than 25 years. It was hard, but I’ve reached the two week point and I’m still not smoking.

I’m proud of myself.

Most days are fairly easy to get through, but every few days I’ll have a day where I get cravings several times and it puts me more on edge.

I’m still taking Zyban (Wellbutrin) to help control the cravings. I think it makes walking by people who are smoking out side stores and malls a lot easier. I certainly don’t like the smell as I pass by smokers.

I don’t think my body likes me quitting smoking though. I have Crohn’s and it’s actually supposed to be better for me if I quit, but I think the transition from smoker to non-smoker is wreaking havoc with my digestive tract. To put it mildly I had a couple of days where it was almost like I’d had a delivery from www.coloncleansingpills.net if you know what I mean. Luckily that side effect seems to be settling down, although my abdomen is still quite painful.

Any other former smokers reading this? Did your body rebel on you for a week or two or maybe longer after you quit?





Changing doctors

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Earlier this year I got a letter from my family doctors office stating that she was taking a leave of absence from her practice. The letter made me believe that the other doctors at the clinic would take over my care until she returned or else one of them would permanently take over my care.

Uh huh … wrong!

Luckily I only had to go to the family doctor once since I got that letter and then two months later I got a call from the head doctor at the clinic and she told me that it didn’t look like my old doctor was coming back and that none of the other doctors there could take new patients. Nice treatment for someone who’d been seeing that doctor for 12 years.

So I kind of feel like I’ve been abandoned by my family doctor and the clinic she assumed would take over my care. Oh and get this – My family doctor had made a movie two years ago – one that she tried very hard to get into the 2009 Toronto film Festival – I think she left her practice to keep trying to get her movie into smaller film festivals and fringe festivals. I even found some information on the internet that makes it look like she’s now turning her movie into a play. No wonder I feel abandoned.

So … I asked my pain doctor to be my family doctor. It works well for me since I see her pretty much once a month anyway and even better it’s walking distance from my home. The only problem is that now I have to get my medical records transferred over from the old doctors office. Naturally their going to charge me for document scanning and it won’t be cheap. Since my doctor pretty much abandoned me and the clinic that was supposed to take over my care refused I don’t think I (and my husband too since he was a patient there as well) should have to pay a fee to have my chart transferred to another doctor.

Do you think that’s fair?

It’s my wedding anniversary today

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It’s hard to believe, but my husband and I have been married for 16 years! It doesn’t seem like 16 years. Actually, my husband and I were together for close to 6 years before we got married so we’ve really been together for almost 22 years.

I guess it’s a good sign that it does feel like all that long?

Earlier this week we talked about going out for a nice dinner, but I’m not feeling very good today so I think we’re going to stay in tonight. What we might do is, or rather what I might have my husband do is, go to this great Fish and Chips place to get take out and then eat it at home. Yummy. It’s probably not the best meal for my upset stomach, but I know it will taste good.

If I feel better tomorrow I’d love to go out for a steak dinner. We haven’t had steak for a while and I know this might sound weird, but my Crohn’s, when it’s acting up, seems to do better when I eat red meat Strange, but it seems to slow my digestive tract down.

I think the in-laws might be coming down tomorrow though so I don’t know if my dinner plans will survive or not. If I know my in-laws they’ll be hitting the organics store for their vitamins, organic foods and all natural diet pills for my mother in laws neighbor. Then who knows what they’ll want to do.

I guess it doesn’t sound like a very exciting wedding anniversary, but it suits me just fine.

Taking my vitamins – trying to get healthy

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Approximately two months I started taking vitamins again. I’m not normally a vitamin or supplement taker, but because I have Crohn’s disease I do have malabsorption problems and I do have deficiencies that show up on occasion when I have blood work done.

I also started taking Biotin because the migraine medication I’m taking is really an anti-convulstant and anti-convulsants are notorious for making people lose their hair. Biotin helps with hair and nail growth, so I figured to be on the safe side I’d start taking Biotin and other B vitamins before a problem like hair loss started. Plus as I said I do have deficiencies like low folic acid and iron levels, and I’ve been battling vitamin D deficiency for 2 years.

I even talked my husband into taking vitamins again.

Now I just need to find a place to get vitamins and supplements at good prices. I’m currently checking out a site that sells vitamins online . I just have to find out if they ship to Canada.

Do you take vitamins or supplements? I know, if you have a good balanced diet you might not have to take vitamins regularly, but I have a chronic disease that affects my digestive tract so it actually makes sense for me to take vitamins.

I swear my body is falling apart

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It seems like my body’s been rebelling on me in the last few days. I don’t know if I have some kind of virus or bug, or if some of what I’m going through is still nicotine withdrawal. BTW I haven’t smoked for 9 whole days!

I have Crohn’s disease some my abdomen is quite sensitive to begin with and since Saturday I’ve had so much abdominal pain it’s been unbelievable. It’s all on the right side – a cross between what probably feels like appendicitis and either having a bad kidney infection or a kidney stone. Not good.

I’m actually feeling a little better today than I have most of the week. I do have one other major problem though … I seem to have tendinitis in my wrist as well.

I saw my doctor on Tuesday for a regular appointment and told her about my abdominal pain and wrist pain. The wrist pain has been going on for about 3.5 weeks now, but it’s been getting worse and worse. It even wakes me up at night.

My doctor says I have to rest my wrist. Ha ha … I write for a living these days. How am I supposed to rest my wrist? Oh did I mention that It’s my left wrist that’s hurting and I’m left handed? Uh huh.

I still have to do some writing but I am trying to rest it. It’s hard though. You don’t realize just how much you do with your hands and your wrists until it hurts terribly to do those simple movements.

I guess I can keep myself busy editing some of my husbands draft posts. He always needs me to reread his posts before they get published – otherwise they’d have grammar such as Weight loss pills best instead of saying something like the best weight loss pills. He also forgets words like and and but and switches tenses in the same sentence.

Have you had tendonitis of the wrist? Is it better now? If so, what did you do to make it go away or help it? In addition to trying to rest my wrist I’m also putting heat on it a couple of times a day. It seems to help.

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