School has been requiring lots of attention. Life has been requiring lots of attention. And I have been feeling pretty awful.

This guy is goofy and I’m in pain, so I guess it works even though I didn’t stub my toe…

I’ve been getting daily headaches. Daily bad headaches. I’m really not sure why. Luckily, some of them are going away very quickly (like, within the hour). But some are still present for HOURS, even after meds. I’ve been getting them usually after 4p and before 5p, and some of them will last until after midnight. I honestly have NO idea what is triggering them. I just get blindsided, then I’m out for the count as nausea tends to take hold rather quickly.

My nausea and stomach cramping has gotten more persistent. My nausea is just an ever-present thing, but it’s been getting bad. I’ve had chronic nausea for several years now, but lately it’s been so bad that I can’t even eat! I force myself to eat bland foods because not eating is bad, but I can never figure out what I want. Every night I seem to end up with lower stomach cramps, too. Well, lower intestinal is where they seem to be. I don’t know what it is, but every time I eat dinner I get cramps. No, it’s not that time of the month, I’m not pregnant, and it’s not my appendix since they are centered or on the left. Reading about pancreas things has gotten me worried though, so I’m trying to find a new doctor that lives closer to start getting tests done. When I had my echo, a while ago, the tech said he ended up catching a glimpse of my pancreas and it looked slightly enlarged. I do not recommend looking up pancreas issues if you don’t want to have a mild panic attack, since most of them seem to be kind of life threatening.

My dizziness is worse… not sure if it’s related to the headaches or nausea or both or neither. Could be the weather. Who knows at this point?

I’ve been making very quick improvements in my physical therapy and Pilates. Joleen thinks I can rejoin the group classes in two weeks! And my packing (in my ear) is getting removed at my post-op next week, so maybe I’ll be able to improve even faster.

My forensic anthropology class is a MAJOR disappointment. It really could be fascinating, but the teacher is terrible. At least I am pretty good at teaching things to myself. Luckily, my geography teacher is fantastic and I am definitely enjoying that class. Driving for about 45 minutes to get to school isn’t bad, since there really isn’t any traffic. My classes end at 4:15, however, which is the start of rush hour around here… which means it takes me a minimum of an hour to get home (only happened once because I got out at 4). Usually, it takes me an hour and a half or more to get home, which is a major drain. I ALWAYS have a migraine by the time I get home. (Note to self: really need to remember to mention these headache things to the doc, very troubling)

Allergy shots are slow progress. After stalling for a bit, my mold seems to be doing better (I can increase it). I did fine with a slight increase in the pollens for the first shot, but the next increase reacted a tiny bit, and the next increase reacted quite a lot. Probably going to have to plateau the pollen again, at least until winter makes things stop blooming.

Everything put together has me in a bit of a funk. A funk where I really don’t want to do ANYTHING. I have been playing a game called Dragon City on my phone, but that is about all I really feel the urge to do (the dragons are adorable). I haven’t been in the mood to write either.

Hopefully, exercise will help. Dan and I want to start going to the gym again, regularly. He is planning on doing “real” workouts (aka moderate intensity since he doesn’t have any Chronics), while I stroll about on the recumbent bike. I’m going to try to keep my heart rate below 130bpm until that feels really easy, then slowly move up (probably 5-10 bpm every other session or every third) until I am in the target heart rate zone for a “normal” person my age. Regular exercise makes my fibro way better. My goal would be to do some sort of workout about three days a week. I might move to doing two Pilates classes a week, so then I’d be doing one gym session with Dan. Or I might decide to stick with one Pilates class a week and do two gym session with Dan, or do one gym session and one Yoga session with him (the rec centers have Yoga and we both really enjoy it). We’ll have to see how I’m feeling and what Dan’s schedule allows. I really do think that the key to keeping my fibro under control is regular exercise, especially in transition seasons and over winter. The exercise helps with my depression too, which is always a plus.

I want to get back to writing, and I plan to get back to painting soon. I’m getting my painting stuff set back up downstairs, so hopefully soon I can get to it. I’m also really trying to schedule myself so I don’t just waste the day doing nothing. Hopefully that’ll give me a bit more motivation and time to get everything done that I want to. I’m hoping to at least get one post published a week until I get out of the funk and can get caught up with life.