Long update

Following on from my previous post…For the first time I noticed it was 16C at 16:16 and on another occasion it was 13C at 13:13. :D

September ended up being just another month of winter around these parts. The temperature barely reached 20C so hopes of anything warmer was a bit of a dream. So far October has been a bit more promising. We had a couple days last week where we reached the 20s but this weekend it’s wet and windy although not as chilly as it had been. This week is actually promising some real warmth with a 30C day forecast. It will feel like a heatwave after this mild start to spring, I think.

Last month I finally shook off some of the winter lethargy and started to get my act together with regard to my health. I’d been eating terribly and had barely been active so my sugar levels became seriously out of control. This caused me to feel even more lethargic and once I finally checked my blood sugar, I was motivated to do something. This seems to be a common issue every winter so I need to find ways to overcome this in the future. Anyway, I’ve been getting more regular exercise, mostly through walking and the treadmill. My eating habits have also improved. I’m not bingeing so much on garbage and I’m eating a bit more healthily.

I also managed to get around to getting a colonoscopy organised, something that I was referred for back in March. Plus I did a CT scan and blood tests that were overdue. I also saw my doctor who sent me for an ultrasound to follow up the CT scan because of uncertainty over a cyst-like mass on my ovary. The ultrasound clarified that and also showed another cyst on the other ovary. My left ovary decided to hide like it had on a previous scan. Plus I had a thickened endometrial lining much like I had a couple years ago. This was of some concern until I mentioned I’d had the biopsy two years ago which was fine. It is all in my records, I’m sure, but they go back 20+ years and I was seeing a different doctor regularly before so it wasn’t immediately obvious. I had the colonoscopy just over a week ago and that came out clear except for findings that confirmed an irritable bowel diagnosis. So I think I am a bit more on track for taking better care of myself.

On a related note, for some reason my gp had requested an ANA blood test again. This was back in March and I can’t really recall why she requested it because it wasn’t of any importance to anything related to my health as far as I know. I notice they no longer report how high the titre on the report now. Also, that same non-specific diffuse fine speckling that appeared on the last test showed up again. The discrete dot pattern was only listed as a second pattern. I am really curious as to how and why this pattern has changed. Previously it was the few discrete dots and homogenous on almost every test I’d had but this makes two tests with this non-specific pattern. It’s stuff like this that I find really intriguing and I wished I’d had more of a science background…but then I remember back to how much of a struggle I had with high school biology and got totally turned off the idea of going into that field. Not that I was ever that interested but I did like biology in junior high school.

I’m going to be working an extra nine hours a week as a carer for the family friend over the next couple of months. This guy’s other carer is going on holiday so I am taking over most of the hours. It’s going to be interesting taking over since it will be so many more hours per week than I am used to doing. Saturday will be the long day with four hours and I need to figure out some ideas of how to spend that time so that it’s interesting for both of us. It will bring in a bit of extra cash for the Christmas season this year too.