Tag Archives: potsie

Just Keep Going and Going and Going: How I Wish I Could Do My Housework

Dan and I are working on some house stuff this weekend! We spent pretty much all day Friday and most of Saturday running errands… We got doors for the shelf unit that is holding the overflow kitchen stuff, because it’s been driving me nuts with how cluttered it looks (since it’s a functional shelf, not a pretty shelf). We also got wall shelving for the office and bedroom (the kind with the metal tracks on the wall that make adjusting shelf height really simple), figured out which air filter we would like to get (and noticed that we have a 20% off coupon for it, thankfully), found a tower fan we like, found a container for wallets and keys, new and low flow toilets for the upstairs bathrooms, and other such things. We’ve been cleaning and organizing the house, which is why we knew some of what we needed.

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Flare Week

My allergies have been so horrendous that my symptoms have been extremely flared up all week. There is a ton of pollen in the air 😥 I have been dealing with fibro pain, crazy POTS things, headaches, and my insomnia has decided to join the party too. This does not make for a happy Lizzy… ugh.

yes, that's 96 bpm and 85% oxygen... while lying down. and my wedding ring isn't on because my hand is swollen...

yes, that’s 85 bpm and 96% oxygen… while lying down. and my wedding ring isn’t on because my hand is swollen.

Have I also mentioned that my wrist has been extremely messed up since Monday evening? Not sure what happened, but if it’s still this painful tomorrow, I’m going to go to Urgent Care… otherwise I’m just going to wait until I see Joleen on Monday so she can evaluate it (so I don’t look like a druggy).

How This New Potsie Survived the Colorado Renaissance Festival

renfest titleimage

I did it! I managed to survive the Colorado Renaissance Festival this year! I wasn’t diagnosed with POTS until fairly recently, so I’m still discovering what I can and can’t do, and symptoms are still appearing. However, I have only missed one RenFest the entire time I have been in Colorado (the summer of my wedding), so I wasn’t going to miss it this year!!! How did I do it? Well, let me tell you!

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The Heat of Summer

I live in Colorado, the Denver area. People around here tend to rate how hot summers are based on how many days get over 90°F, so it doesn’t get very hot here. Before the POTS, I thought this heat was absolutely nothing. My car doesn’t have A/C (and hasn’t since before I got my license), and the apartment I lived in with Dan was my only residence in CO with A/C (the house before that had a swamp cooler, but it didn’t work too terribly well). So yeah, my house doesn’t have A/C.

I also want to replace the blinds with blackout curtains

I also want to replace the blinds with blackout curtains

My house, a townhouse, is oriented north to south (front door north, back is south). Well, the north side stays cool, well, cooler. But the south side gets HOT. We have a window in the kitchen, one in the powder room, one in the office, technically two in the master but they are connected to form one giant window, two venting skylights in the master bedroom, and a sliding glass door. Continue reading →

Weddings and POTS

I really enjoyed the wedding in California, but it ended up wreaking havoc on my symptoms, unfortunately. This was the wedding of the girl I’ve known since we were eight, and had asked to be my maid of honor, so symptoms were anything but “okay” during this wedding. They crashed the wedding, but I was completely determined to enjoy every minute, so I did. Why did my symptoms crash the wedding? The Los Angeles area gets extremely hot during the summer, especially the farther you get from the coast. As an example, my parents’ area is supposed to get to 105°F on both Thursday and Friday… and that’s the kind of heat I got used to while growing up!

Wedding Weather

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Vacation and Pain

So, the last trip I took wasn’t all that painful… it was exhausting, sure, but there were very few things that caused me pain. I was actually really surprised.

BRB Body Malfunction

Unfortunately, this time is a bit different. I’d been stiff and sore before we left for Cali… and it hasn’t gotten any better. I’ve been far more active this vacation than I have been in the past three months (well, probably more) and I can physically tell. Everything from the waist down feels like it’s been run over by a steam roller, and then my ear. I’m enjoying myself immensely, but, tomorrow is a necessary “rest” day (at least just hang around my parents’ house and take it easy).

One of my BFFs is getting married this coming Saturday, and I really need to get energy for that! I can’t wait! And I’m hoping I’ll have a bunch of photos to share from it (it should be gorgeous)!

Pain Level

The Big Allergy Hurrah! Seriously, it’s exciting!!!

I’m going to be getting allergy shots!!! YAY!!!!

So, yeah… if you knew me, you’d realize how crazy that sounds. Well, how crazy the level of excitement is… then again, if you knew me, then you’d also realize why I’m so excited.

For YEARS I have had atrocious allergies. I take three allergy medications a day (currently Nasacort, Singulair, and Xyzal), that all work in different ways… and that isn’t enough! Regularly I need to add Sudafed and Benadryl to the mix. Sometimes, actually usually, even the extra medications aren’t quite enough for people to stop asking me if I’m sick. Luckily, they’ve been slightly better recently, but it’s also not my main allergy season (and Xyzal is stronger than the Claritin I had been taking). Obviously, having allergy symptoms that constantly make people ask if I have a cold has been less than fun.

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Reader’s Choice!

So, I am fairly new to blogging. I was hoping that you, the readers, could tell me what you’d like to see 🙂

Post questions in the comments on this post, and I’ll try to use them as ideas for future posts! What do you want to know about my illnesses, my house, what I’m doing with the rest of my life, my family (husband and two kitties), my extended family (Mom, Dad, sister, grandparents, etc), well, you get the idea!

Ask away!

The Pilates Morning Conundrum

I absolutely love Pilates and my studio! As I mentioned in “Things That Make Me Smile,” my studio does both physical therapy (PT) and Pilates, which is a great combination. The PT is much more focused on a whole body approach to treat the issue, and the Pilates is done with an emphasis on proper form and tailoring to your specific needs. Some of the instructors are both PTs and Pilates trained, others are just Pilates trained. All of the instructors have undergone 500 hours of Pilates instructor training… which is crazy, but really good for the students.

I’ve been working with one PT, Joleen, there since January. My body has so many issues that it’s just significantly easier to stay with a single instructor for now. Once my body starts working kind of like a “normal” person’s body, then I’ll be comfortable trying other instructors. I’m getting WAY better though.

I'm on the MOTR, a relatively new Pilates device. It's extremely versatile. This was during an open house at my studio.

I’m on the MOTR, a relatively new Pilates device. It’s extremely versatile. This was during an open house at my studio.

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My Struggle with POTS

(To learn who I am as a person, please visit the About Me section. For summaries of my other chronic conditions, please see the “My Chronic Illnesses” series. There are three parts: one, two, three.)

So, POTS… yeah, it pretty much sucks. This one is my newest chronic invisible illness, and has been the most debilitating by far. Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome is a complicated beast. POTS is a type of dysautonomia, which is a malfunction of the autonomic nervous system (the part of your nervous system that controls everything involuntary, like blinking, breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, etc). As you can imagine, the autonomic nervous system malfunctioning is not a good thing. Now, let’s explain the rest of this POTS thing the best that I can.

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