Living ~400lbs

Category: health

  • Doctors and dentists and blood, oh my!

    Last week I noticed my jaw was hurting a bit. Always in the same place. Was something wrong? It went away over the weekend, but came back on Monday. It was bad enough on Monday that I called the dentist. I soon had an appointment for Wed afternoon. In the meantime, I took a Tylenol […]

  • Day in the Life: Shower, Chafing, & Jock Itch

    These days I use the blow-dryer on crevices and wear tummy liners from More Of Me To Love instead of baby powder. (Yay not getting baby powder everywhere.) I like their bra liners too. I continue the use of antifungals as needed, usually in other crevices. Ah, the morning shower.  Warm water to get the […]

  • Day in the Life: Aerobics

    Day in the Life: Aerobics

    Since I wrote this there’s been a bunch of changes. I got an adapter that let me feed video from VHS to my computer. I made digital video copies of the various segments from the VHS tape. This lets me customize things a bit, such as doing a segment multiple times to work out more. […]

  • Day in the life: Thyroid pause

    Day in the life: Thyroid pause

    This post was originally written in 2015. These days I’m much more aware of what I call the “thyroid pause”, the 30-60 minutes that I to am wait after taking the thyroid pill, before I eat breakfast or take other meds. I often wake up, check the time, take thyroid, and go back to sleep. […]

  • Day in the life: Stretches (updated)

    I still stretch in the morning and evening, though not this full sequence. Usually I stretch whatever feels stiff and I bend over to touch the floor a few times. Last year we had a plumbing problem under the kitchen sink. Himself knew how to fix it, but didn’t feel up to the bending. I […]

  • Day in the life: Waking up (updated)

    This post was originally written in 2008. It’s one of the first I wrote for this blog. And it’s still pertinent! I’ve been using a CPAP for over 10 years now. I have problems falling asleep without it. Not because I snore or otherwise sleep poorly without it – because I’m so used to having […]

  • On Hold

    Some doctors send me a post card asking me to make an appointment. Others send me a text message, or has a robocall tell me it’s time to make an appointment. So now I’m on hold waiting to make an ob/gyn appointment. I’ve got a sleep doc appointment for next week, presumably to check I’m […]

  • Medical Crap

    Nothing like a call from the service-that-provides-CPAP-supplies saying “Hey, your insurance said you’re not covered” on a Monday. I have checked websites and made calls; yes we have insurance for the next year. Then called back about CPAP supplies and also sleep doc appointment. I wish the US didn’t insist on letting everyone involved in […]

  • Importance of Comfort

    If you’ve played The Sims, you know each Sim has various needs: Energy, Bladder, Hunger, Social. The one that surprised me was Comfort. Sims want to be physically comfortable, and get grouchy if they’re not. More expensive beds filled the Energy and Comfort needs faster than cheaper ones. Are you comfortable where you are? Comfort […]

  • Year In Review…Kinda

    We don’t quite have one “lockdown now” date. Hubs went to the Seattle Sounders Opening Day game on March 1, 2020, and the next home game on March 7, 2020. The programmer (along with Microsoft, Amazon, and other tech employees in the area) started working from home March 4th, 2020. Our last eating out day […]

  • Happy Saturday

    In no particular order: My household continues to abide without strife, hooray. I appear to have hit on a balance for strength training and stretching that keeps my knees happy and doesn’t disappoint my back or hips or anything. else.  Yay. My state, Washington, has decided to start vaccinating more non-frontline workers who are under […]

  • Who thought knees were a good idea?

    You may remember that I can’t take NSAIDs anymore. I’ve also written about knee issues, and that recently I wasn’t having them. Apparently I tempted the fates or something, because last weekend I managed to do something to my left knee. The good thing is that I have been able to treat it with using […]

  • Life Without Ibuprofen

    I became aware of ibuprofen in high school, as a reliever for period pain. I used it with happy abandon for assorted cramps and pulled muscles. When my knees started hurting, I used ibuprofen. Headaches weren’t much helped by ibuprofen, but that’s what acetaminophen is for. Eventually I had knee issues that ibuprofen didn’t handle, […]

  • Yoga revisited

    I never really stopped stretching, but now I’m starting to do a few yoga poses again.  I stand in a “warrior” pose and marvel at how my mat holds my feet still, and I remember being able to have my feet further apart without any of the balance wobbling I’m doing. I remind myself I […]

  • Review: The Relentless Moon

    The newest Lady Astronaut book from Mary Robinette Kowal is fun. It features a 50ish woman, Nicole Wargin, who finds and defeats bad guys in an alternate world where the space race started in the 1950s; by the early 60s, there’s a moon base and a mission to Mars. Nicole is an ex-WASP who admits […]

  • Disabled or not?

    A person with a disability is defined as: A person with a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities; or A person with a record of such a physical or mental impairment; or A person who is regarded as having such an impairment. – NW ADA Center “Disabled” is […]

  • Medical Tests of the Itchy Sort

    In May 2018 I was short of breath. I thought I might have pneumonia.  Turned out they  found a pulmonary embolism and I spent 4 days in ICU. I was finally discharged to go home and rest. This also came shortly after a kidney stone and high blood pressure diagnosis, and I was really, really, […]