I gave up all my friends I had when I left my old life. So friends now can be counted on one hand. Which is fine with me. It’s quality not quantity that counts. Less friends means there is no gossip or back stabbing. I hate drama. It also means that my days are quiet, since most people work during the day. I find things to do at home. I also have Duncan to amuse me.

So what have I been doing? Well… I have started to see a new Chiropractor. My Mom is always trying to find a way to help me get better ever since my neck injury (my neck was snapped by a Chiropractor 10 years ago). Ever since then I have seen many Doctors and a few different chiropractor just to help with my lower back pain. No one has touched my neck since that last time all those years ago. Well, this new guy says he can help me (they all say that). I wasnt too sure, but I told Mom I will give him a try since I heard from a few people who see him that he has helped them. I have committed to 6 months with him. If there is no change in that time I quit.

I’ve been seeing him for 3 weeks now. The first 2 weeks were torture. I spent many days crying and about 10 days on the couch. But every time I saw him he would tell me that I need to feel the pain before I feel better. I guess he was right. I have been off the couch now for about 4 days. I can move around without wanting to scream from the pain and I have taken no pain killers. That is a huge plus for me. I have been on prescription pain meds for the last 10 years. I’ve been letting him work on my neck and head, but no adjustments. There is no twisting the head. He uses a toy called the Activator. Its more like doing acupressure points. Less stress to the body. It seems to be working so far.

I have been having more dizzy days but that could just be me having a bad week. So hard to tell when being dizzy is normal for me. I will keep going and hope that he will help me improve my mobility. At least now I can start walking and some light yoga stretches. I want to be in shape again and that means I have to start from scratch. My body has become so weak. baby steps!

What else? We gave up on the low carb eating plan. I gained from it and Gregg didnt lose anything. I wish we could afford to join a diet center somewhere. I know when Gregg was doing the L.A. Weight loss plan he did great. Lost a lot of weight. I think having to check in, makes a person more accountable. I want us both to be in shape. I don’t really need to lose weight, just need to tone up and strengthen the muscles. Would be nice to not be winded after walking a flight of stairs. Plus I want to be able to wear a bikini next time we are in Mexico.

So there, that’s all the exciting stuff around here. LOL…yeah its not much. Gregg is still doing his courses which will be at least another 18 months before he is done. Sure eats up the money, but it will be worth it in the long run. I guess now its time to start thinking about Christmas shopping…lol.

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Well, today Gregg and I are starting a low carb eating plan. I dont really want to say diet since this will not be just for weight loss.I realize that I cant eat most wheat based foods and eating low carb will become more of a live style for me. So I am taking Gregg along with me for the ride…lol. There will be some major changes to the way we eat. Especially at family functions. No more baked goodies. No breads, some fruit but mostly just berries. Low carb is more about vegies and meat.

We tried the Atkins diet many years ago and it did work, but this time I am going to go more of atkins/south beach style. I am doomed to fail is I have only 20 carbs a day. This week it will still be a bit higher since there are some foods that need to be eaten first. There is no way I am throwing out food.

Eating low carb will also make me feel better by leaving out my allergy foods. Which is mainly starches and grains. No wheat, corn, potatoes or rice. As for fruit, well I already know that apples, bananas and oranges dont agree with me. I do have a weakness for summer fruits like watermelon and berries, but I can eat those on CL since they are lower in carbs. I dont have a problem eating my greens, I love vegies. Meat, easy, love meat too.

I’m sure Gregg and I will adjust to this way of eating over the next few weeks. I know my starting weight isnt that high, but Gregg has gained some back again. Not sure how much and if he would want me to post it here. I have kept most of my weight off that I lost a few years ago. Tho I had started out at 175lbs I am now at 152. I want to be around 135 if I can, but 140 is fine too. It would be great to see Gregg at 200lbs, but I think it will take some time to get him there.

With the nice weather starting, we will be going for walks in the evenings and I have many Wii games for us to play. Latest addition is Zumba and Just Dance 2. I plan to try them out this afternoon. As long as my back is feeling up for it.

I will try to do a weekly update. Maybe even start a new page to post LC recipes and post our weekly weigh in. Might help keep us on track better.

The first time I did it, I could eat wheat for about a year after that. Now it flared up in August, but I didnt really thing about it being an allergy. I should have gone through my “bad” list. Instead I went to the doctor and he gave me Zantac for the itchy rash I had developed(remember how itchy I was). The pills helped with the itchiness. Just before Christmas I realized I couldnt eat anything with wheat in it. I would get such a bad tummy ache and I would feel awful all over. My body was ill and trying to reject the wheat.

It’s been almost a month with no wheat and I feel so much better. I stopped taking the Zantac about 8 days ago and no itchiness! So I thought I would have popcorn on Thursday evening. Big mistake. Corn is also on my bad list. Seems I cant have popcorn. My tummy got upset and by morning my IC had flared up. Looks like I will be leaving corn off my diet for 3 months.

Anyways, yesterday we went to Vancouver. Gregg had a dentist appointment. After that we went to Choices food store just off 16th ave. It just so happens that Gregg found out that they have a Rice Bakery. Since he didnt bring the address with him we ended up at Choices only. We needed to drive one more block down the road. Oh well. Choices had stuff too.

I got some Rice bread and rice butter tarts,poppy seed lemon cake and a carrot muffin. I nommed the muffin this morning and it was good! I bought some rice flour, but when I got home I thought about it and figured out that I can make my own rice flour. I have mom’s grain  mill. I’m going to try it out later today.

So here is what I got.

Muffin not shown since I nommed it already.

Been a while since I blogged. Let’s see, we found a new home for Yas. Duncan has been busy getting hurt and sick. Poor little guy. Last week he ripped off the nail of his dew claw. and then this week he did the other one. Then last night he was sick, puking for a few hours and today he was scared to death of the fire alarms going off all day.

Other than that there really hasnt been much to blog about. I’ve been sick a lot, but that is nothing new. I did have my wrist surgery last month. Had a ganglion cyst removed. It’s still healing. I think it will take a few months before I will be able to use it properly. Still dont have all the strength back and I cant bend my wrist too well. It was a challenge to walk 2 dogs..lol

Gregg started his new job and he seems to really like it. It was a bit odd getting use to him gone everyday again. At least I have Duncan and the cats to keep me company.

As soon as the weather getting better, Duncan and I will be doing a lot more walking. I can feel that my back has gotten very weak from all these months of doing nothing. Would be nice to try to get him to run beside my bike this summer.

Anyways, that’s it for now.

I do have to say that having Skeeter here has made my dizzies a lot less. I had a couple days this week that were rough, but since he has been here I think I’ve only had about 10 dizzy days in these 2 months. I still have the daily dizzies that I cope with. I can only hope that it will keep getting better.

With the weather getting warmer and the sun setting later, we can now go for walks in the evening. This will be great to help Gregg loose weight and for me to get in shape. All these years of dealing with my dizzies and back pain and so many other health issues, I am starting to feel a bit more in control and able to start doing more. I do have to get my wrist fixed soon. Once that is done I will be able to do so much more. I have an ultrasound on April 30th.

I did start a new project that I have been wanting to do for a while now. I started scanning all the photos in the house. This will be a huge job. It really needs to be done so that I can get rid of all the printed photos. I will keep some and put them in albums, but the rest are going. Once all that is done I have some old VHS tapes that I need to copy to my PC and put on to dvd.

Well I better get to some cleaning. Need to make room for the new dog and have to stay on top of the vacuuming and dusting since Skeeter has a thing about dust. Oh yeah, I cut all my hair off. I wanted to have it short for the summer.

Anyways, I got busy and uploaded all my videos, finally. I want to get Skeeter on vid and put it on the blog. He looks so funny when he plays with his stuffies.

So my next project is to get all my photos scanned. I want to do all my childhood photos. I also have to redo some of Mom’s pics. Then I need to get a shoebox full of negatives scanned. I have no idea what all is on those. Might find some interesting pics.

What else? Well my IC is finally getting better. I spend most of January lying around in pain and jacked up on meds. Not fun. I hope that some day there is a cure for IC. Until then, I have to suffer when I get a flare-up. The part I hate is after wards. I feel so weak. I cant do anything and all the lying around just makes me weak and lazy. Now I have to start walking and doing yoga and then hopefully I can use my bike soon.Would be nice to take the bikes into Vancouver this summer and ride around the Seawall. I also want to try rollerskating this year. I use to love it. I dont like Rollerblades. Plus I dont think I will be able to balance on them with my dizzy spells.

I guess Mom, Rudy and Gizy will be home this coming weekend. Wonder what all Mom found at the flea markets in California? I know she said she was Bra shopping again….lol. I’ll do a post and let you know what she brings back. Well, I think that’s it for now.

Anyways, we decided to do nothing else for now. Don’t want to go poking around unless we really need to. I’ll try to get my IC under control again now that the infection is gone. All I need to do is watch what I eat and drink. Hopefully everything will be back to normal soon. If not, then I need to go see him again and he will take me in and put a scope in my bladder and take a peek.

So thats it! I am feeling so much better today. I almost feel human again.

I finally told Gregg that I needed to see the Doctor or go to the E.R. The pain was horrible. If you have ever had any kind of a burning pain when you pee, you understand what I mean. Now just triple that pain. I think giving birth was less painful.

I saw my Doctor at 4:30pm. I told him that I have a bacterial infection or maybe a bladder infection. He gave me a script and I went to the lab to do another urine test, it was 6pm before I got the first pill down. The pain lessened slightly at about 10pm, but I did take painkillers. This morning I am feeling  much better. I can actually pee without wanting to pass out from the pain. My back still hurts though.

Tomorrow I finally see my new Urologist. I hope he is well educated with IC. If not, I guess I will have to teach him a few things…lol.

Anyways, With all the pills and all the liquids I have been drinks I feel like a drunken beached whale sloshing around in waves. I think I am on my way to getting better. We’ll see what tomorrow brings. It would be nice to be down to 2 pills a day again instead of 10.

Sometimes I feel like a drug addict with all the pills I take. I don’t have that many, but it sure seems like it at times. They all do different things and I take them only when I need them. I only have one that I take daily. The others are when my daily pill doesn’t work. Does that make sense?

I’m actually trying something different with my pills. Normally I would take my greenies every morning and every evening, which I am doing, but I am adding in my tramacet every 4 hours, one pill to see if it relieves any of my bladder pain. So far it does seem to help. If you don’t have any kind of medical plan these pills will cost you an arm or a leg.

Anyways, my Doctor says I will probably need to get a cystoscopy done again since the last time I had it done was in 2004. I’ll find out once I see my new Urologist. He will probably want to do one. Its not fun. Lots of pain for a few days afterwards. We’ll see what happens.

So, this week will be me sitting around working on my blog, reading books, watching TV and not much more. I have to take it easy. My life is at a slow pace at the moment since doing anything strenuous can bring on a world of pain. Which I really don’t want to have.

As for me, well I am in pain once again. I have an appointment this afternoon with my Doctor. Hopefully he will be able to help me. I need him to refer me to a new Urologist since mine retired last week. Hope he knows of a younger one in town.

My IC has gotten to a point where I can’t control it anymore. I have gone back on my IC diet and eliminated some foods in hopes that it will help. Basically I’m low carbing it. Veggies and meat is about all I can eat. Anything acidic and I run screaming from the table.

Well I am off to see the Doc now. I’ll update more when I hear what he has to tell.

I’m careful with my food and drinks. I’m not using any makeup or lotions. The only thing I can think of that I have changed is my body wash. I switched to Dove instead of Ivory cause it was on sale. Maybe that is what the problem is? I’ll put it aside for a few days and see if that helps.

This is so frustrating! I can’t do my yoga or do anything that will cause my back to get sore. As soon as my back hurts, my IC gets bad. All I can do right now is lay around. Even sitting in this chair for too long will make my body scream. I really wish there was a cure for IC. I hate it!

OK…let’s relax…calm down. Stress is the killer. No stress. I’m going to get over this. I’m lucky, my pain can be controlled. I just need to figure out what is causing it. So it’s either the Dove body wash or ? Or what? Food? Hmmm…

I think it’s time to go back on my allergy diet. It made a big difference the last time I did it. I had gone 6 months with no pain. I guess I’ll start it again. Not easy to do, but worth it.

Well, thanks for letting me vent….lol

Image by ___federico___ via Flickr

I finally talked to Colby. He has just been too busy to call. When I asked what he was doing, he said “not much”. LOL, ok so he hasn’t been too busy. He just never remembers to call me. Typical for a growing Boy. He wants to come down for a visit, but doesn’t want to miss out any work. He will try to come down for a weekend next month and I told him he has to come down for his Oma’s 75th Birthday in May.

What else? Oh, as you know Gregg and I went to Matt & Bree’s for dinner on Sunday. We had a very nice time. dinner was good and I brought over some leftover Christmas baking that I had in the freezer for dessert. Their place may be small, but they have it organized well. I guess its our turn to have them here for dinner soon.

As for me, I have spent all yesterday afternoon and still now in a bad IC flare-up. I had a a rough night with all the pain. Even been doubling my meds. I’m not sure why it has started up. I think it might be either the ice tea I have been drinking too much of, or the new lotion I have been using, or just the stress of wondering where and what Colby was doing. Well I don’t have to worry about Colby, he is fine.  I’m not drinking any more iced tea and the lotion was returned to the store yesterday. Now I just wait for the flare-up to stop. This could take hours or weeks.

On a happier note…. I have lost a total of 5lbs this month. Gregg has lost 8lbs. Slowly going down for both of us.

Before our dinner I had to go see my dentist yet again. I am having problems with one tooth out of the 4 that I had veneers done on. Its amazing how much you really use your front teeth. Even when you are chewing with your molars you still use your front ones. Anyways, I have to get a root canal done. I’ll be going in on March 16th. I will be doing oral sedation again. Why? Well, I need to have a small filling replaced and I need a cleaning. Since I have such a low tolerance for any kind of pain in my mouth its better for me to be doped up. Plus I have the T.M.J. problems and I can’t keep my mouth open for 3 hours. I really don’t want to bite my dentist.

At least the root canal and cleaning are covered by medical. I will have to pay for the sedation which costs about 325.00. Its not that much when you think about it. I’m getting everything done in one sitting instead of having to come back for more visits. After this is all done I will just have to get my night guard made and then do a cleaning once a year. The night guard might have to wait. Medical won’t cover it and I think the whole cost will be close to 500.00. After all that with the dentist, my IC started up. That little bit of stress, thinking about the money and the dental work and what all I will have to do, actually stressed me enough to put me in pain.

So until then its all about the happy thoughts. Happy that I will be free of this tooth pain soon. Happy that is won’t cost too much. What else? Happy that I am feeling better today. The IC is better , but not gone. I had to take my pills yesterday and this morning too. I’m happy its sunny outside. Even though it’s cold. I’m happy I have a comfy bed to go climb into when I am done with this post.

And now I am done!

So in the mean time, I have been reading to keep my mind busy. Doing stuff around the condo. Playing on my Wii. I’m not able to to the Wii Fit since the back pain, but I will start again soon. Gregg and I are both back on the diet. I have lost 2 lbs this week so I’m happy about that. He has joined at work, the Biggest loser program. I’m hoping that it will help him keep motivated. Soon as the weather is better and warmer we can start riding our bikes again.

On other news, Mom is having a great time in California. Says the sunshine is nice and toasty. I sure hope she brings the sunshine back with her. We need some! What else is going on? oh! I talked with Matthew and he has decided to stay in town at his job and is working things out with his girlfriend. I was so happy to hear this news. I really hope that things work out for them. I think she is good for him

As for Colby, haven’t heard from him in 2 weeks. He did tell me that he had to put his dog to sleep cause he was very sick. I’m sure it was hard to do. He was my dog and when I had to move out I left him there for Colby. They were best buddies. I guess we all have to deal with live and death through out our lives. Its just hard when the decision is put on your shoulder to decide your best friends fate.

Well, the day goes on….

Anyways, I crawled out of bed this morning to see if you all missed me. No, really! I know I miss all of you. I hate being away from my computer. The internet is kind of my life line to the world. I’m at home all the time since I don’t work and we only have one car. I don’t mind it. I like my home. I have gone as long as a month without ever leaving the condo. I really have no problem staying in my cozy home.

So, we had our yearly Christmas family dinner this past Sunday. It all went well. 39 people showed up. It would of been more but a few just couldn’t make it. It was really nice to see the family. There were some that were new this year and some that I hadn’t see in a long time. The food was yummy as always. I even tried out a new recipe and made the family my guinea pigs…hehehe

Mom and my cousin did well and held their heads up and spread the Christmas spirit through the family. I could see it wasn’t easy on them both without their husbands by their sides. It was still a happy time. We laughed and enjoyed the day. Even though I was sick and doped up on cold pills.

We got home just before 8pm and I climbed into bed for the night. I was done. Yesterday I was in bed all day. So today I am up, but not feeling much better. I think I will be heading to bed soon. If you don’t hear from me in a few days then I am probably still in bed sick. I’ll blog when I am feeling better.

So that’s it! We are low carbing it until Christmas. Not too low. About 20-50 carbs a day. I don’t want us to starve! We will be following the south beach plan, more or less. Low carbing is actually very easy. No rules really. All you need to do is cut out all the “white” foods.

Stop eating white flour. So, no more white breads, no crackers and no more baked goodies. Cut back on fruit and have berries. Eat lots of veggies, but not the starchy ones like potatoes and corn. Rice is ok as long as its brown. No milk, which I don’t drink any ways.You can eat as much meat as you want, but I try to stay with normal portions. Cheese is good too. And you can have real butter and cream.

That’s about it. Pretty simple. Just need to read labels and make sure the carb count is low and if the fiber is high that is great. You can subtract the fiber from the carb count.

The best part I like about low carb, my tummy feels better. Not so bloated anymore. I guess we’ll see if it works. Last time we didn’t stick to it cause there was too much going on. I hope we can this time.

Image by nutmeg66 via Flickr

I have been lost in the Wii world.

My back is sore.

My IC has flared up.

Go back to what you were doing.

Image by The Gordons via Flickr

Friday and I am still feeling crappy. I had hoped that this flu would almost be gone, but it seems to want to hangout with me. So I will be cuddling Mr.Flu all weekend. I will hug him, and love him so much that he will WANT to leave. I will smother him with my blanket! (Mahahaha!)

Then on Monday I will feel great and have a perfect birthday!   Monday is also going to be a bit sad for me and Gregg too. Last year we were in Mexico. I wanted to be on the beach having a drink on my 40th birthday, and I did just that. We flew out that morning from Seattle and were on the beach by 5pm. It was the best!

It felt so good to have that white soft sand between my toes again. I felt all my worries and stress wash away. I know that I will never forget those 3 weeks we spent there. It was the best holiday I have ever had.

We met a lot of great people down there that we now are friends with. Some live there and others wish they did, just like us. I hope that we will all meet there again in the future. I enjoyed hanging out with all of them. I miss that afternoon beer at La Ranita.

Anyways, I feel bad that I never got around to doing a trip report about our vacation. So I will work on it this weekend.Yes its a year late but oh well!

Oh yeah, I got my 4th sample of makeup. I’ll be doing a review as soon as I feel better. Wearing makeup while sick in bed doesnt work very well.

I’m still waiting for that final makeup order to arrive. Hopefully it will get here this week so that I can make up my mind as to what I will be buying.

On a sad note… My cousin Doug died this weekend. He was suffering with cancer and it finally took him. He was only 47. He will be missed. My heart goes out to his family. It’s really tough having to lose a family member again so soon after Dad. We will get past this too and life will go on.