The Office weigh-in

Did anyone catch the season premiere of the Office? It was pure comic genious. If you missed it, please do yourself a favor and watch it online on NBC.com. I won't spoil it for you if you haven't seen it [or finished all but the last 15 minutes.. Drew, you are really putting a strain on communication in our marriage. please, finish it.] The episode was all about weight loss as an office and essentially that meant adopting a healthy lifestyle, but really the focus was on the pounds. Each person had some 'great' strategies for trying to shed the pounds.
As one of about five women in the US who wants to gain weight I am trying to brainstorm the opposite problem... how to put the pounds on. It's harder than it seems, well at least to do it in a way that is healthy, i.e. not just eating junk food. If anyone has any tips on how to gain weight feel free to pass them along. Otherwise, just don't hate me for asking and watch the Office for a good laugh to forget I even mentioned it.

K

Our Neighbor Skip

Digory and I made a new friend.. well, technically we made two. Skip and his dog Blue. Skip lives down the street and rules the neighborhood from his red truck or preferably from his riding lawn mower, which he frequently rides up and down our busy street. In either vehicle he prefers to be sans shirt and is accompanied by his shepherd mix dog with one blue eye. Blue walks leashed beside the mower proudly and Skip waves at everyone he sees. I wave too if I'm outside. It's a one-man, one-dog parade. He's probably in his sixties, retired and is extremely hospitable, honest, and kind. I have yet to meet his wife, but from the praises he speaks of her I am looking forward to it.

Blue and Digory are officially best friends. Really, while I've tried to get Digs to befriend my friends' dogs he just hasn't quite bonded as quickly to them as he has to Blue. He and Blue are both boys and about the same age and they run and chase each other and just have a grand 'ol time. Some days I walk by Skip's house and he is sitting out front with Blue and Digory drags me across to play. Skip pulls up a chair and we talk about dogs, birds, churches, and of course the neighborhood. Skip really does rule the neighborhood in my opinion because he seems to know everyone and everyone knows him. He's a great resource. I now know the ethnicity of most of my neighbors. I also know that one of my neighbors has a temper and I should be careful of upsetting him. I learned not to pet a certain neighborhood dog because it bit Skip on the hand and there used to be chickens and roosters living across from Skip, but someone complained [not Skip] and they're gone now. Oh, and I also learned that souring milk isn't bad for dogs to drink... Skip had some out for Blue and Digory decided it was his. That was fine except Digory is very furry and food tends to stick around his face. You probably see where I'm going with this...

So, after a lovely visit with Skip yesterday I saw a hummingbird, some swallows, learned a lot, and I left with a tired dog, four very muddy paws, and a very sour smelling dog in desperate need of a bath.

K

Movies!

My latest hobby has been making myself dizzy while doing internet research on POTS. It is loads of fun as long as I don't have to get up afterwards. I may have even found a specialist in North Carolina today, but I have some phone calls to make to see if it is accepting of our insurance. So yippy skippy.

If you feel inclined to watch, this two-part video gives a pretty good description of my current life. If you want to understand me better, this is a short [approx. 10 minute] way to understand more about what I have so much trouble explaining. I didn't make them, but I'm glad "chronicallyKyli" did.

Part 1
Part 2

K

Mystery solved??

Maybe this will be the last 'medical' post for a while and we can get back to posting about more interesting things, like Drew's new job or our cute little dog. But, for now, since I don't want to explain what my doctor said several times over the phone because I am still napping a lot.. here goes. I have POTS. No, they, aren't just on the cool pot rack Drew built me for Christmas last year..

Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome plus vestibular migraines. So, I was already being treated for the migraines, which can cause dizziness, but the POTS explains my low blood pressure, fatigue, inability to walk straight, and it also explains the randomness of the episodes. Well, that's the hope at least. I was told I had this a couple years ago, but then told maybe I don't, and once the migraines were treated it seemed a little clearer that I do have it. So I guess that makes me a winner. My prize? A new prescription AND just because I was so patient (pun intented), I also got a prescription for thigh high medical support hose. It is supposed to keep blood from pooling in my legs and help it flow to important places like my brain so I don't pass out. Fun. Feel free to google it yourself or check here for more info on POTS http://www.potsplace.com

I am really thankful that we are starting to get some answers and hopeful that this new treatment for POTS will work better than the last one I tried a couple years ago. My current doctor seems much more educated on POTS and willing to try the latest treatments for it. So, we will just continue to pray that I will be back to normal soon. Then I can stop posting about napping and start writing about looking for a job.

K

Naps

I don't like naps, but I took a two hour one today... a two and a half hour-er yesterday, a three hour-er on Saturday and on Sunday, the one day I think naps are pleasant, I had three. I don't know the duration of each, but I do know that I still am not sure if the US men won that water polo gold medal.
I'm not lazy... I'm just on drugs... prescription drugs to treat migraines. (If you really think I'm lazy & just want to fight or are curious, feel free to read a longer version of the story earlier in this blog labeled 'remembering normal'.) The naps happen to be a bit of an annoying side effect from the medicine I take which seems to help, but overall I've been feeling pretty crummy lately. Hopefully my naps will help me feel better, even if I don't like 'em.

K

We have a cute dog

Ever since I brought him home from the rescue place Digory has been especially attached to me. He likes Katie but he really likes me. If we both call him he comes to me. If she goes outside he wants to stay with me. When I leave he pouts. Now he has made lots of progress since she spends more time with him. He doesn't follow my every foot step around the house any more, not even to the kitchen. But he does follow me to the bathroom. There he sits on the mat by the tub and watches me pee. I still haven't decided how I feel about it. I'm just glad he's not tall enough to drink from the toilet.

D

Growing Veggies

The thing about growing your own veggies is scale. You need to grow enough so they actually make it inside to cook with. I tend to eat them pretty soon after picking (like before I get to the top of the steps). I bet my tomatoes would be great on a sandwich, but I guess I'll never know.

D

What not to Lick

I learned something very important today.

I made some salsa from a recipe off Good Eats (great show by the way). As I was chopping the chillies I wondered what kind of chillies they were since they were only labeled Chillies at the farmers market. How hot was this little green chili? Only one way to find out.

Yes I did lick the inside of what I now know is a Jalapeno.

Good thing Alton Brown informed me milk was the best thing to combat the fire that has no flame. I should have also followed his recommendation to use gloves. Even after washing your hands several times, and waiting several hours, the hot stuff can still burn when you pick your nose.

D

We don't want to grow up

It has occurred to us in the past couple of days that being grown up is highly overrated. We are currently renting our home and we enjoy it. It is a cute 1930's bungalow with a white picket fence, two bedrooms, a decent-sized kitchen, laundry room, two fireplaces, a big yard, and a front porch with a swing. Who cares that there is a bus depot that is just down the street... it is summer after all. And that loud rumbling noise? Yeah, we're used to the train tracks... we're a whole three blocks away.. almost. Really, it is a great house, in a good part of town, and the price is right. Our year lease will be officially up on this great house on Friday and we need to have a conversation with our landlord about what we are doing. But, please, don't label us as total slackers.. we had initial conversations...

Landlord: "We really like you two. Are you planning on staying?"
Drew&Katie: "We like it here too."

Then we had a tree fall on our house during a lightning storm which caused some damage to the porch and well.. we are getting a new roof tomorrow.. so needless to say this rental property is getting more and more expensive for our landlords.

So now the conversation in the past few days as interpreted by Drew...
Landlord: "Would you be interested in buying the house?"
Drew&Katie: "Uh... um... let me get back to you."

Drew [to katie] "are we interested in buying this house?"
Katie [to drew] "yeah, but we are probably more interested in continuing to eat on a daily basis."

Actually, the conversation between Drew and I was more serious than that, but it did lead to a similar conclusion. We even checked our credit scores tonight so we can have some facts to back us up when we turn down the offer to buy our cute little bungalow. In his conversation with our landlady, Drew mentioned that they might be trying to sell our home to buy another house on the market. While this is still not confirmed, it sounded like they were wanting to move quickly so I am preparing us for a quick move just in case we are forced out sooner than we expected. I have begun once more the dreaded search for the perfect home. Cheap rent, well-maintained, quiet neighbors, spacious, clean, and now dog-friendly. Did I mention that we don't really want to grow up?

K

Remembering Normal

Last week was fun. Drew and I were blessed with the opportunity to spend a week and a half in beautiful northern Virginia with my brother and his wife. We went so Drew could work, which he did, and I played. I am stopping the sentence there for emphasis... I got to play!
For those of you stumbling upon our humble blog you may not understand that this is really an impressive feat for me. For five years now I have been seeking healing & answers for unexplained bouts of dizziness & migraines that have progressively gotten more frequent. This past year I have had to pass on work opportunities because my health has been so unpredictable and debilitating. There have been other weeks when I have felt good and actually some in which I've felt better, but how kind of God to give me a week of good health while visiting my family!
Overall, I think I might be getting better... my doctor seems to have found a migraine medication that is helping, despite some annoying side effects. I am going to an acupuncture/massage therapist every few weeks. And, for good measure, while I have been too tired to cook [meaning about 300 of the last 365 days], 'Chef' Drew has prescribed a nearly organic diet [migraine diet]. (Have I mentioned how great my husband is? He is truly amazing!)
Oh, so, what did I play? Well, I played Wii, mostly Wii Fit, but also Mario Kart, although too much did make me a bit dizzy. While Drew wasn't working we both played tourist. We went to Mount Vernon and a Smithsonian exhibition on Jim Henson & the Muppets. We went to the Library of Congress and ate lunch on the roof of my brother's office which overlooks the White House. [the snipers weren't on the roof so we assumed Bush wasn't home] I also played softball! I didn't do anything that will get me a MLB contract, but I still ran and stood up for two hours! I even went to a jazz concert for a picnic dinner with my brother/sister-in-law and another lovely couple in the sculpture garden. What a great week to remind me that I may have sat on my sofa for most of the past year, but I still have the ability to carry on a conversation, play, and recognize God's kindness in my life.

K