Friday, December 30, 2011

Picture Of The Day

berry-break-28.7 : theBERRY

Random Thoughts

Doing good so far. The past two days I have had to, with much difficulty, restrain from taking my blood pressure so much. Normal was around five times a day, much more on a particularly bad day. Wednesday I took it three times. Thursday, I managed to cut down to two times. If I can get down to once a day, it would be great. It may be a long time before that happens though.

I have also not been spending as much time in front of the mirror. I still have to look whenever I go by one, though, and whenever I am watching TV, or just standing around, I start to find myself pulling my sleeves or pant legs up and looking over areas. Also another compulsion that I hope to diminish, but will probably not go away for a while.

While I would not want to resort to it, I have seriously considered applying for disability. Not as something for the rest of my life like some people, but just until I can get this goddamn disorder under control. When I sit and think how much fixing I need, it seems like it would be something that would pretty much be a full time job. My mind needs a lot of fixing and until it gets fixed somewhat, there is not much I can really go forward with.

I can't finish school because the need to be absolutely perfect gets so overwhelming I end up getting stressed out and ultimately burned out. It should not be the end of the world to get less than 100% on my work. But to me it is. I have gotten 98% on exams and spent hours belittling and beating myself up over it. When I take tests or do homework, I have to check over my answers repeatedly to make sure I didn't fill in or circle the wrong answer and even after 5 or more times of going over them, I still feel less than confident when I am handing them in.

Relationships? Completely out of the question right now. My self-esteem and self-worth are so low, that being in a relationship with me would be a complete and utter nightmare. All I would do is question why the person is with me and that I am not good enough for him and it would just be one big tumultuous mountain of insecurity. And the fact that I just turned 28 years old and have yet to ever have a relationship, first kiss, or sex just makes my insecurity even worse. I dread my first relationship because having to admit that all is going to be extremely embarrassing. I hope to God I find someone who will be understanding enough of it.

But back to the disability, it's certainly not something I would do, but it would leave me to be able to focus completely on getting myself back together. And I would certainly not be on it forever. The only problem is that it takes so fucking long to get an answer!

And you know what the funny part is? SSD takes their good old time approving or denying applicants, but when they demand medical records, they want them yesterday. I did records requests at my old job and used to get requests from the state and hand to God, within a week of the first request letter, a second request letter would come demanding to know where the records are. They take like 400 years to respond to applicants! What's the big rush?!

I don't understand government workers. Why in the hell does it take them so goddamn long to do anything? The last time I went to the 7th level of hell known as the DMV, it took so long for the fat ass bitch to take my picture and give me my new license, I was about to climb over the counter and do the damn job myself. It would have taken me 1/3 of the time.

On to a new subject- New Years Eve is coming up. Huzzah. I am not excited by any means. I dread when that fucking ball drops, because I just know I am going to end up in tears like pretty much every other New Years, with the exception of last year when I was apparently going through some kind of manic phase. I don't even bother with resolutions anymore. Well, last year I made one to floss my teeth more. But none of the exercise more or lose weight or anything like that. I faithfully work out 5 days a week and I have already lost the weight I needed to.

My sister is semi-friends with a former co-worker who is apparently going to be on some upcoming weight loss show. And this person told my sister what they do to lose weight and my jaw almost hit the floor when she told me what they do. It is so unbelievably unhealthy. When are people going to learn that rapid weight loss generally always leads to weight gain? Not that you can't gain it even losing slowly, but this show's methods are just unsafe. It's amazing no one ever drops dead on those shows with the methods they use. You can't starve your body.

Do you know how long it has taken me to lose 60 pounds? Four years. Four freaking years. I started in April of 2007 and I don't think it was until about March or April of this year, maybe a little before that, when I finally saw that scale hit 120 pounds for the first time. It's been a long, extremely slow weight loss and so far I have been doing okay with maintaining. It does take work, though. A lot of work. We have candy and cookies galore in the house and I can't tell you how bad I just want to sit down and plow through it all. And this year, I finally discovered the genius behind ham on snowflake rolls and a monster has been created. It's soooo good!

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Quote Of The Day

From "Godfellas", after Fry and Leela lock the monks in a laundry room:
Monk #2: [from laundry room] Let us out! We cooked our shoes in the dryer and ate them. Now we're bored.
It's probably a lot funnier if you actually see the scene. I have seen this episode a hundred gazillion times, so I can play the scene in my head, and laugh my ass off.

Random Thoughts

Was everyone's Christmas good? Mine was low key as usual. Did the usual- go over the grandparents on Christmas Eve, stuff our faces and have my birthday cake, everyone comes over on Christmas, presents are exchanged, and everyone stuffs their faces even more.

I overate so much on Saturday and Sunday, and then my sister and I went shopping on Monday and we decided to pay Friendly's a visit for the first time in over 6 months (I think they have redeemed themselves, since I was still able to get the chicken parm supermelt, although they're still cheap with their ice cream and my clothes still stink ungodly of fried food when I leave), so that was another day of overating....I am afraid to get on the scale.

I will never EVER go shopping the day after Christmas again. Or at least to a mall. It was terrifying. We went to the Deptford Mall and it was packed to the gills with loud obnoxious kids and teenagers everywhere. Basically the stuff my worst nightmares are made of.

I made out okay for my birthday and Christmas, despite not having a list of any kind for either. It's getting increasingly aggravting every year not being able to come up with a list, but it's hard to come up with one when you don't want anything because clutter makes you anxious (I am the complete opposite of a hoarder; I don't even really own that much, but what I see when I look around my room is is basically equivalent to what the rest of the world sees on one of the many hoarding reality shows. It makes me so anxious, that I will literally spend hours dwelling over it. If I could take 98% of the stuff I own and get rid of it, I would. And I would be entirely happy not owning a lot) and the stuff you do need cannot be brought, and then I end up getting a bunch of things that I do really and truly like, but really have no use for. And I am always racked with way too much guilt over everything to ever return anything I get.

I'm kind of all over in this post, so now I am going to go on and on about my health. I am going to discuss this, despite the fact that I really and truly am worried about jinxing myself, but over the past few days I have actually felt a lot better than I have in a long time. And my blood pressure has actually been running a lot higher, but still normal than it has in a long time. And I am wondering if it has anything to do with the fact that I have stopped eating my usual Monday through Friday lunch of 2 yogurts. I have been off and on wondering if there may have been something in the yogurt that my body was reacting to. Although now I am hesitant on that, since I took my blood pressure at 9PM and it was 102/61. Which is still normal, but a lot lower than it has been running. It would be nice if a simple allergy was what was causing all of this trouble and not the dreaded Addison's disease that I am still fearful and worrying over.

I don't think I have ever brought this up, but whenever I go through one of these "disease crises", much of the reason I get upset over it is because if I were to actually be diagnosed with said disease, I would blame myself for developing it, even if nothing could be done to prevent it. I would sit and find every thing I did wrong (unhealthy diet, losing weight, whatever) as a possible cause for getting the disease. If I did actually have Addison's, I could write a list about a page long of all of the bad habits I have that I would believe had a hand in me getting it.

And I won't admit this out loud to anyone, but it's not even the actual disease I am afraid of as much as the treatment. I am terrified of steroids and the idea of going on them for pretty much ever terrifies the ever living shit out of me. Even though the steroids taken for Addison's disease are normally made naturally by the human body.

The Bitch Please! Of The Day

Michelle Hickman, Mom Organizing Target International Nurse-In To Take Place December 28th

Wow, I guess you are showing Target, now, ain't you?!

I read part of this article and I couldn't even finish it because all I heard was WAHHHHHHH!

*face palm* Go find something truly important to whine about, you stupid nipple nazis.

Hey, sex is a natural part of life. Does that mean every time I see a hot guy and I want to push him on the floor, rip my clothes off, and screw him right in the middle of the store, I should do so? I've been repressed too damn long, dammit!

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Video Of The Day 2

I feel horribly guilty admitting this, but I almost forgot that today would have been my friend's 28th birthday. I mentioned before that she was a huge Oasis fan and although I think it was Liam that she liked, I think of her every thing I hear this song:



I miss my friend. I really do. I still have text messages and her phone number programmed in my cell phone because I just can't bring myself to get rid of them.

Video Of The Day

I heard this song in a Charlotte Russe store one night (my sister is a big fan of that store, I don't shop there because, for some reason, I never can seem to fit into anything in there despite constantly seeing people much bigger than me shopping in there) and was never able to find out who sang it and thank god for Beavis & Butthead for finally giving me a name! It's kind of WTF, and very out of my normal realm of music to like, but....this song is fucking fun!



Lil Wayne gives me a nightmares. Doesn't he have like 100 baby mamas? He puts me in the mind of one of those people that is incredibly fertile. Like if a woman even so much as looks at him, they become pregnant. I feel the need to cover my lower abdomen.

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Huzzah!

Merry Christmas!

internet memes - Brace yourself  Presents are coming
see more Memebase and check out our Troll Face lols!

Friday, December 23, 2011

Quote Of The Day

From this cracked.com article, DOB on the War On Christmas:
I think one year, in one town, in one store -- years ago -- employees were instructed to say "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas." And we, as a nation, have been paying for it ever since.
Ah, yes. The good ol' War On Christmas. I could think of a bazillion things that are taking Christ out of Christmas, yet somehow saying "Happy Holidays" seems to be the only thing.

Fuck you Bill O'Rielly, for ever starting this shit.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Random Thoughts

Update on my doctor's office visit. I was pretty much up front with my doctor on things and somehow managed to not end up in tears like I normally do, although I did come pretty close to it at one point. Of course, later on that night, I thought of a couple of things I wanted to discuss and forgot to. Whenever I go to the doctor's, I get so nervous and usually have so much running through my head, it's like every thought is trying to get through the door at once and gets stuck.

My doctor suggested checking my cortisol and aldosterone levels to rule out Addison's, much to my surprise, even though he highly doubted I had it. And not surprisingly, they did come back in range. I don't know what my aldosterone levels were yet, but I am still a little unsettled by my cortisol levels (9.4 ug/dl, normal range 2.3-19.4) . I would have liked to have seen them higher, but then again my blood was drawn at noon and supposedly the best time to draw is 8 or 9AM, when cortisol is at its highest. Since I am still not fully accepting of my results, and probably will not be for some time, I either have to just ride it out or push for further testing, but with my health insurance ending soon, I probably would not be able to do so. I mean, I could push for the test that can only be done by an endocrinologist, the ACTH stimulation or whatever it is called, but I think at this point if I decided to push further, I would just ask for my blood to be drawn early in the morning and see what my results are. If you look at graphs on the internet of what a normal cortisol rhythm looks like, and this one, it appears one of the biggest drops in levels occurs between early morning and noon. So maybe I am okay. I don't know. It's all a matter of convincing my scumbag brain of that. And there is also the trouble of my scumbag brain convincing me that if I let go of the fear and not worry anymore, I am jinxing myself.

I don't really want to have to resort to further testing. The last time I went through this, I pushed for an x-ray of my foot, was told it was normal, discovered that an x-ray would not show a stress fracture, pushed for a bone scan, only to be told that was normal as well. I am starting to get a bit tired of subjecting myself to testing that always ends up being unnecessary. And frankly, the ACTH test freaks me out. I prefer to not have to be injected with stuff.

So, if it's apparently not Addison's, and I certainly did/do not want it to be, I still have no answer why I feel so lousy. My blood pressure has constantly been running borderline low, and it seems more often than usual it has actually dropped below the hypotension level, usually the bottom number. Not a huge drop below, but enough to turn my anxiety up. Earlier I took my blood pressure and it was 87/66. I didn't really feel bad or anything, but it made me nervous. I am on that time of the month, which I am wondering if it has something to do with it. I have said before that I tend to get orthostatic hypotension right before it comes on, the worse always the day before it comes, and I had it kind of bad this time around. Nearly every time I stood up on Friday night from sitting, I felt like I was going to black out. It's such a scary feeling.

And not having an answer why is even scarier. What is going on in my body that has been making me feel so lousy? I don't understand what is going on. Someone suggested POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome), which could sound reasonable in that I have never actually seen my blood pressure drop but did have a heart rate increase upon standing, but I have never seen it increase by 30 bpms nor have I ever seen it go above 120. And like I said before, the heart rate increase could very well be due to my own anxiety, because I am starting to become very anxious every time I have to stand up that I am going to pass out.

I still have yet to let go on the theory of this being a vitamin deficiency, and I was supposed to ask my doctor if I could possible have a B-12 count, but stupid me forgot to do so.

ETA: My aldosterone levels were 2.1 ng/dL, normal range from 0.0-30.0.

Yes, it's still normal, but it's still pretty damn low. Enough to make me feel even more unsettled.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

ARGH

I really, REALLY do not want to go to bed right now.

I am so nervous about going to the doctor's.

Picture Of The Day

Best album cover ever (after Green Day's Dookie):

Amazon.com

Monday, December 12, 2011

The Stupid Of The Day

Driver was texting in Missouri traffic pileup - Yahoo! News

I don't remember hearing about this case from over a year ago, but I'm glad the driver died. I don't feel one bit of sympathy for him. I guarantee he was one of those little smart ass kids that insists that oh texting and driving is so easy you just don't know how to multitask!!!!!!!!!!

And don't give me that crap that oh you did stupid things at that age. Because I didn't.

NJ and a few other states have bans on it and yet this past weekend, there was an article that texting and driving is actually up, particularly among young drivers. Do people actually find this funny? Do they really think it is funny that they are distracted and not paying attention to the road and putting other people on the road at risk for accidents? Because I don't. I don't think it's funny at all. And some people give excuses like oh I didn't know there was a ban. Bull. Shit. You were not texting because you were not aware of a ban. You were texting with full awareness of the law, but think you are above it because America is turning into a land of arrogant, self-centered, nothing can ever happen to them, fuck everyone else's safety ASSHOLES.

God help someone if they ever hit me while texting and driving.

Picture Of The Day

An entire page of some of Andrew's best faces:

Oh No They Didn't! - MGMT add new Date/Opener Announced

I like the first one. He looks like "What are you looking at?! MY DRINK!!!!".

Make sure to look at the one of him in the pink leotard and silver shorts. A little bit too much to drink there, eh, Andrew? It was booze, right? That last one (the double picture) where he looks like he is holding a banana, he looks pretty drunk (or stoned or whatever) as well.

ETA: WTF. And O FACE!!!!

God, sex with him must be absolutely incredible. I would probably cry for at least 40 minutes after it was over, because 1) uh duh, it's over and 2) it was so fucking incredible!

Anyway, I am completely convinced that the person dressed as Waldo in this picture is Andrew. One, it looks like something he would do and two, that sweater screams him.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Random Thoughts

As pretty much expected, going to NYC sucked. Big time. Mostly because it was freaking pouring pretty much the entire time we were there. Stupid anxiety didn't help to make the day any more pleasant. By the end of the show, I was so miserable and annoyed I wanted to scream. Then we go to dinner, which ended up costing a fortune. Look, I know we were in NYC and everything is insanely expensive, but for god's sake, $18.89 for a goddamn bacon cheeseburger at Friday's?

It's a shame, because for the past couple years I have been pushing to go to NYC at Christmas and for some reason or another, we never would get there and the one year I finally get to go, I am so fucking miserable and have absolutely no Christmas spirit.

I don't know if it's womanly hormones or what, but my anxiety levels have really been flaring up bad the past few days. On Friday, I took my blood pressure and it came up 98/63, so I was a little freaked out and decided to wait a few hours and take it later. Took it later and it came up 97/60. Needless to say, I had to demand the keys to go to the car because I was about to have a meltdown in the middle of Wal-Mart. Luckily, I managed to hold it back until I got to the car. I started crying so hard I almost was at the point of hyperventilating, so I decided to call my sister to try and calm down. She had a headache and apparently could not be bothered.

That's the thing with my family. It infuriates them when I won't talk to them, but whenever I actually make an attempt to, they either can't be bothered or like the past few times, I have attempted to talk to my sister, somehow the conversation ALWAYS ends up on something completely different. Like one time I was trying to make an attempt to explain what I think is wrong with me (look, I suck at telling people my problems in person, mostly because I am so embarrassed and ashamed of it all) and next thing I know, she is talking about making an appointment to get waxed. It was as if to say, I don't really want to hear your problems. And with how I have been feeling, I have really been needing someone to talk to.

I feel bad for my doctor when I go this week.

I am seriously about to take the damn blood pressure cuff and break it. I am so sick and tired of having to take it. But it's even worse if I don't. And every morning, I am in front of the mirror, looking over everything. It is taking me forever to get done. Even when I go into public bathrooms, I am starting to look all over my face in the mirror. As long as no one is in there. If people are in there, I get very agitated that I can't do so. But if I were to stand around and look over my face in the mirror, people would probably assume I am some overly vain cow.

But what I am supposed to say? No I am not vain, I am just convinced I may have Addison's disease and need to look over my skin every day, several times a day looking for signs of hyperpigmentation, otherwise I freak out, and if you want to know the truth I can't stomach having to look at myself in the mirror so much and want to bang my fists repeatedly into the mirror until it breaks because I hate looking at myself so much? Yeah, it would probably be better to just say yes, I am a horribly vain bitch who adores looking at herself.

I am almost at the point of getting a camera and taking close up shots of my skin because every day I look down on my arms or whatever and I see something and I start to wonder if it was there before and then I can feel the panic starting to rise in my chest as I stare at it. Just tonight when I got out of the shower, I sat down on the toilet and was looking at these small spots on my arm and I keep trying to remember if they were there before and I started to cry.

Every night I lay in bed with the horrible scumbag brain that like I said before, just mentally and emotionally assaults me over and over and over again. I'm so sick of it. And every night that same scumbag brain goes "why can't you just get the guts to kill yourself already?!" over and over and over again until I finally break down in tears. I feel like I have this terrible monster in my head and I just want to reach in and rip it out because I just can't take it anymore.

The only good thing that has come from this is it finally got rid of That Thing. For now.

The Awesome/Quote Of The Day

In the Philadelphia Daily News every Friday, there is a column written by two people named Steve and Mia. On Friday, this letter was sent in:
I got drunk at a party and got involved in a threesome. I was more of an observer than anything. But now I can't get the image of my boyfriend having sex with my friend out of my head. He says nothing has changed and that he still loves me. But I'm still feeling weird.
Mia's response was so awesome, my head almost exploded from it:
I don't feel sorry for you. You acted like a fool. You got plastered at some party, took your clothes off, had three-way sex and now you're having regrets. There's nothing you can do about it now. Next time, think first.

Saturday, December 10, 2011

A [Non] Angry Letter To Longhorn Steakhouse

Dear Longhorn Steakhouse:

I love you so fucking much.

That is all.

No, wait, just one little complaint- if I say I do not want lettuce, tomato, onion, or pickles on my burger, just cheese and bacon, that means NO LETTUCE, TOMATO, ONION, OR PICKLES.

Now that is all.

Sincerely,
S-Cubed

Thursday, December 8, 2011

The Awesome Of The Day

Behringer unveils 8-foot iNuke Boom iPod dock, goes consumer with Eurosound brand -- Engadget

Whhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhoooooooooooaaaaa......

The Awesome Of The Day

OMFG I WANT THIS:

OREO® Cookies 'N Cream Waffles - Outback Steakhouse

Here's more Oreo goodness.

If I could put into words how much I love Oreos and any dessert containing Oreos. Especially mint ice cream. Whoever decided to combine mint ice cream and Oreos is a freaking GOD.

Monday, December 5, 2011

Random Thoughts

Well, five days into December and I still have not gained a single ounce of Christmas spirit. I am not feeling quite as bad as I did after Thanksgiving, but I am still lacking it big time.

I have an appointment with my usual doctor next Wednesday and I don't know what is going to happen, but something needs to happen. I can't go on like this anymore. I don't know what is going to happen with getting medicine, because I really and truly do not want to go back on it. And I'll admit it the main reason why I don't want to- the weight gain. Body image is a HUGE part of my problem and any weight gain is going to cancel outany of the benefits of the drug.

And the one drug I want to try again seems pretty likely to cause weight gain. I think my weight stayed pretty stable when I was on Prozac before, but I do remember it being very difficult to try to lose weight and if I overate even a little too much, my pants got tighter. I don't recall gaining significant, if any, weight with any of the antidepressants I was on, just the antipsychotics. Ten pounds within a week of 5 mg of Abilify, 15 pounds after 2 weeks of 100 mg Seroquel- all without any diet change. But when I dropped back to 50 mg of Seroquel, it came off in no time. As long as I stayed at 50 mg, I was fine. Any higher- BAM! Weight gain.

As for getting to the bottom of the Addison's fear, I don't know what is going to happen with that either. I don't like giving in, but I need to know whether I am okay or not. And the sad thing is, if I hinted to have a test done, my doctor would probably give right into me. Thanks, malpractice (I'm being sarcastic, by the way).

There's times I can look in the mirror and think I look okay, and then other times I look, see something abnormal to me, and freak out. My mother keeps insisting I look no different than normal. I have been taking my blood pressure several times a day and it always seems to be above the 90/60 mark (which is what Mayo Clinic considers hypotension). The lowest I have seen the top number was 101 and a couple times, the bottom fell below the 60 mark, one of those times I stupidly took it after a really hot bath. But I flipped out, of course.

Out of curiosity (and taking it all with a grain of salt because what do I know?), I have tried a couple times of taking my blood pressure sitting down and then taking it when I got up, and within a few minutes. All times, the numbers were lower on the first taking after getting up, but maybe within a 5 point difference at the most and raised a little after the few minutes. My pulse seemed to shoot up some, but that may be due to anxiety over what the results will be.

Now earlier, I tried something a little different. After lying down for a little bit, I took it and it was 124/69 with a pulse of 100. Then I stood up and took it and was surprised to get 128/77 with a pulse of 115. So that would indicate that maybe I do not have orthostatic hypotension. And last night I took it after getting up off the couch (the time I seem to experience lightheadedness the most after getting up is when I am sitting on the living room couch with my legs up) and it was 110/69. So if my numbers are normal and not falling, then why in the hell do I feel so lightheaded when I get up sometimes? I don't understand it. Anxiety? I can always feel my heart racing when I have to get up. Maybe my doctor will do a [more reliable] test.

On another note, I broke down and had my first cup of coffee since last Sunday (the 27th) because I just can't take it anymore, since due to stopping coffee, other parts of my body have decided they feel they deserve a much needed vacation as well. Well, the coffee didn't help. And instead, it has made me very jittery (I seem to have a very low tolerance for coffee sometimes; I can drink glass after glass of soda and feel fine, yet have one cup of coffee and feel like tearing my skin off). And surprisingly, I found I did not miss the taste of coffee at all.

I just miss its other effect! Goddamn scumbag stomach. It doesn't help that I also started taking multi-vitamins, with 100% of my daily value of iron. And the past week, those orange horse pills have nearly torn a hole in my stomach. I have been nauseous and have had heartburn through the roof and I assume the blame is pretty much all on the vitamins, because none of it started until I started taking them. Yesterday was the first day I did not feel nauseous and have heartburn, so maybe my body is FINALLY starting to adjust to the vitamins.

I'm going to be going to New York City this week and I am not looking forward to it by any means. NYC plus sky high anxiety levels is not a good combination. I don't want to go. My family pulls shit like this all the time. They decide they want to do something, I never agree to going because generally I don't want to go, and next thing I know I have to pay for a ticket to do something I don't even want to do. My sister got my mom tickets for her birthday one year to see Cher. I didn't want to go. But she went and brought me a ticket and I had to pay $80 for a ticket to see a show I didn't even want to fucking go to!

Same thing with this- I NEVER said I wanted to go with them, yet next thing I know an envelope comes in the mail for the bus tour and I am expected to shell out for a $115 ticket for a bus trip to NYC to see the Christmas show at Radio City. And I am pissed.

Picture Of The Day

I can- very sadly- appreciate this:

berry-break-27 : theBERRY

And Mayo Clinic....and Medline Plus....and Merck Manuel....and Medscape....and Family Practice Notebook....and Wikipedia....and Google when I get really desperate

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Quote Of The Day

From this D-Listed article, by jerseygirl17, on the Grammys:
There should be separate categories for "Singers" and "Autotuned Beyond Recognition But Hey Look At My Rack".