I basically stopped taking my dietary supplements a few months after I stopped breastfeeding. Thanks for the reminder everyone. I'll get back to that.
I’m barely hanging in there. This year has been, and continues to be, a shitshow for almost everyone I care about, and fairly crappy for me. Honestly, I’m sad almost all the time. I’ve thought about posting in the Rant/rave thread but no one wants to read all of the crap I have going on. But thanks for asking. I appreciate it.
before I started running again -- Texas winter is peak "get outside weather" time -- I got one of those SAD lamps. Made a massive difference just plugging it in whenever I was at the computer. Vitamin D supplements as well as others have mentioned.
2023 was a really shitty year. Had 5 funerals to go over the summer, including that of one of my best friends. I haven't really gotten over that yet and it's been a huge drag. That plus one of the people that works for me was diagnosed with terminal cervical cancer a week ago.
Post in there that is what it is there for. I should try and take Vit D, or a UV lamp. I live far enough north that when i go to work and when i come home from work it is dark out.
I have a sun lamp, too. I've only used it a few times this season though. I drive in the morning a few days a week and just being exposed to the outside skies for a few hours like that helps a ton, even if it's overcast or foggy that day. Also having a new hobby to be excited about, actually having gifts to give people instead of feeling like a failure during Christmas, has been a huge lift for me personally. I found an unopened bottle of 5000IU Vit D in my supply shelf and already took one. I'm interested to see how my next few weeks look with me taking one a day.
I highly recommend getting regular blood work done... it's really interesting to see what's going on. Since my cardiac issues, I get it done monthly, and the lab I go to has an online service so for $15 a year, I can see all the results and track how it's going. Not that I understand all that shit, but it is interesting to correlate some basic vitamin/mineral analysis to moods or general feeling of health. I'm not a big supplements guy, but I do take a few key ones based on some deficiencies that were noted... and they've now levelled off in normal ranges.
this is the biggest thing right here. So many people take a supplement -- or even the more general "multivitamin" -- without knowing which specific issue they're addressing. If you have a deficiency, which can only be truly diagnosed via a blood analysis, then you take a supplement or medicine to address that. You don't just go "oh, yeah probably some more vitamin c would be nice because I want stronger bones." That's not how it works, unless you just want very expensive urine. That being said, getting regularly scheduled blood workups -- first to learn where your levels stand vis-a-vis the "normal" range, then to establish a baseline of those levels during tests for you, and then to figure out how your body adapts to different therapies to address issues you might have -- is one of the single best things you can do for your health.
After my dad’s triple bypass at age 70, I wasn’t really embarrassed or disappointed to start taking Lipitor at age 38. I know it’s not really a supplement, but I don’t want to be one to put off regular doctor’s visits.
I started the year off by quitting my job (which took a while), moving across the country from a city of several million to a town of 300, living almost like a hermit, playing video games, hiking, and swimming, self-prescribed medication without a medical license, dropped 30 lbs, and am now leaning into the ski bum thing. ...and it's kinda working. I have zero stress, my brother recently answered my text of "are you busy at work?" with "it's Sunday", and I'm somehow going to come out ahead financially.
I can't remember the last time I slept through the night and my 2 year old has 1000% more willpower than I do. On the bright side, he has been insisting on sending videos to friends and family telling them that he loves them and is a fan of dressing up in his reindeer jumpsuit to give people presents. So that's making me significantly less grinchy. I'm super tired and unmotivated but I don't have my vitamin D level to blame. Inexplicably my labs are perfect... so I don't have anything to fix. Womp womp. Image is the little hobgoblin tree shopping. Merry Christmas to all of you & yours!
You're surprised that you moved from one of the top three expensive cities to normalcy and that you're going to come out ahead financially? lol
I think seasons are the worst. When it's cold and rainy for winter, I long for warmer days. Spring finally gets here and I get about 1-2 months of perfect weather and then it's summer where it's hot af. Fall arrives, great weather for another 1-2 months and then winter again. It's been ~25 years since I've been to the snow and I'm A-OK with that. I want my seasonal temps to vary from low 70's in winter to high 80's in summer. Perfect.
I hate winter and bitter cold is a psychological drain on me that heat just can't match. My year has been a yo-yo of health issues. Started it off headstrong to take care of some of them and it has all been hit or miss results. I took care of my exercise induced asthma and promptly blew my knee out going too hard on the elliptical. For about a month I was getting that runner's high and really evened me out the rest of the day. I switched up immunotherapy drops to shots to save money and hopefully help more with the exercise asthma. During the week off all allergy meds for my allergen retest for this I suffered my first real asthma attack, nothing like my exercise asthma at all, waves of lung pains, light head, difficulty breathing, etc. I have an inhaler and got home in time to use it (normally only used is prophylactically before working out). Since then Ive had two instances of this but have also had 4-5 bouts of what I think might be chronic bronchitis. Dull lung pain, major fatigue, reduced cognition, last 1-3 weeks a time. At first I thought it was covid and rebound covid but never tested positive. Just getting through another bout this past week and a half. Need to see my pulmonologist about this soon as it keeps kicking my ass every month or so. Next up was my sleep doctor which was a nightmare scheduling appointments with but my CPAP has changed my whole mood around. I am more wakeful than I used to be but my psychological mood had been lifted quite a bit. Something I hope it doubled once I can get back into lifting/working out. I haven't worked out since Ive got it. I went to a physical therapist for an elbow issue that has plagued me for 2 years. PT suggested an mri after 2 months of no real progress. Went to a new orthopedics practice I had high hopes for but couldn't manage to see the doctor I wanted. One of his underling doctor's, knowing I was there specifically to get an MRI, suggested I just get a cortisone shot right off the bat 2 minutes in the office suggesting it was probably just tennis elbow. When I explained was told by a shoulder specialist a few years ago that cautioned against cortisone shots for this because it mask the pain and doesn't fix anything and leads to further overuse damage. He admitted that was true and wheeled back and said he only suggested it because it's what all his patients request so they can just get back to their life as fast as possible (0_o). Got an MRI and it was bicep tendonitis not tennis elbow and he recommended a few things Im iffy about now given his track record. Still havent made up my mind but want a 2nd opinion by someone else at this point. My health insurance premiums shot up 200 dollars from 500 to 700 a month and Im finally going to have to break down and look for something cheaper. Price is just killing me. I hate to because I do like my insurance, ppo, covers a lot and lower deductibles and out of pockets, plus Ive never not found a specialist I want that wasn't in network. Cheaper HMOs Ive looked at Id have to either give up my family doctor pcp or my anxiety therapist as they aren't both in network. I have a bad feeling Im going to be in for a world of hurt switching to plans with a lot less options. Plus that gamble with much higher deductibles could end up fucking me and not saving me anything.
Other than the heart attack in January we've been good. Got the bad shit out the way early this year.
I was talking to a cousin last week and he was telling me his kid was 32 and his sister's kids were 27 & 22. I remember when they were infants. Fuck me.