Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Husband wins

I've learned this week that feeling horrible can actually pay off!  If not in fun, at least it appears to be paying in material goods when my beleaguered and infinitely patient husband feels I need cheering.  Dear friends, I became the proud parent of a New iPad last Friday evening.  I didn't ask for it.  I have never owned one of these delightful little toys before.  While it is very much an overgrown iPhone, it's also beautiful, slick, fun, and very cheering indeed.  He really shouldn't have done that, but I'm enjoying it a great deal.  Yes, he will get a whole lot of mileage out of that one.  I can't get mad at him for at least three weeks.  Maybe longer.  Actually, it's pretty rare for us to argue anymore.  It just wastes time and really doesn't solve anything, so we don't bother much anymore. When we do, it's really ugly.

I know I said the blog wasn't going to become an RA blog because it's already well covered, but screw it.  I'm going to bitch about it some more anyhow.

NSAIDs cause your blood pressure to rise.  Or they can.  And mine has been hovering right around 165/90 which isn't quite gasket-blowing level, but mighty damned close.  I've been treated for high blood pressure for nearly a decade, but my cholesterol is normal and always has been, so I've taken the meds and not given it much thought until recently when I could feel it getting out of control --  Headaches, jangled and anxious feeling, you know how it goes.  Or maybe you don't.  Anyhow, I went to the regular PCP about it, and was told to stop taking the NSAIDs and triple my 10mg dose of lisinopril until it falls back into a normal range.  It's not going down and the sudden withdrawal of the NSAIDs is causing pain and swelling, not to mention extraordinary fussiness and fear imminent stroke.  I suppose I need to call the doctor's office again.  

In alternate news, I am utterly fascinated by this website of cool, overpriced South Korean things, and clearly need the Rabbit Toilet Paper Case because it would be so very useful.  I actually love the purse organizers, but they're absurdly priced.


Thursday, March 15, 2012

Things I've recently learned

Here's a list of random things I've learned recently - because one must never stop learning, right?

1)  People who say "Oh, I have a little bit of that in my knee," about rheumatoid arthritis make me alternate between the desire to educate them and the desire to whack them in the head with a blunt instrument.  I've learned to smile and walk away.
2)  Fake mustaches can be purchased in six packs at our local Hobby Lobby.
3)  My mother-in-law thinks that any nice thing I say about my husband is a direct compliment to her for having raised him.  It's not necessary to enlighten her regarding the truth.
4)  It is expensive when the head gasket in a car needs to be replaced.
5)  I might like to live (alone) in a place like this. (No, I'm not leaving home and family.  It's just that I sometimes crave solitude and the concept of living more simply is quite appealing to someone raised by a packrat.)
6)  There are eighteen different animal shapes in a standard box of Barnum's animal crackers.
7)  Enbrel:  that shit burns like crazy when injected.
8)  I want the new iPad - the first two versions didn't interest me that much, but I'm suddenly smitten with an inexplicable burst of consumerism and desperately want one.
9)  Cat pee glows when exposed to a black light
10) I really don't give a crap about March Madness or brackets.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

I'm a golf pro!

You've doubtlessly seen all the ads on TV for drugs that treat rheumatoid arthritis.  They make things look like one dose of this stuff will make your entire life so much better that people want to take it even if they've never had RA.  Then they give you all the warnings about the dreadful things that might happen if you take it.  Then they list the side effects which always seem to include seizures, coma, and death.

At this point, I'm willing to take all those risks and let my very nice rheumatologist run me over with his drug train.  Phil Mickelson takes Enbrel, so this means I should now be able to golf, right?  No, I've never had a lesson, but I'm pretty sure that if he can do it on these drugs, I should be able to as well.  Being a golf pro will certainly help out the family budget.  When do I go on tour?  Are they letting women into Augusta yet?

We'll see if this stuff helps.  Something has to.  The steroids are telling me to eat everything that comes within a grabbing radius and kill my mother-in-law, so I have to quit taking them.

I really thought I'd be blogging more, didn't you?

Friday, March 2, 2012

Nothing new here, move along...

OK, no more leftover chili in the microwave at work.  No matter what I do, it explodes.  Yes, I put a vented lid on it, but the instant I turn my back to grab a napkin, there's a soft thump and everyone else in the breakroom looks up to see whose lunch exploded.  It's often mine, although I've seen the product of some pretty spectacular messes others have left behind.  How can people just walk away from that sort of mess?  This doesn't count as blogging about work, by the way.  It's merely remarking upon my Dilbert-like workplace and its denizens in a generic way.  Totally different.

My darling Buddhist daughter has recommended an audiobook of guided meditations by Jon Kabat-Zinn to see if meditation can help me deal with RA.  I could quite possibly be the very worst candidate on earth for mindfulness meditation, but at this point I'm willing to try anything.  G wanted me to take a meditation class, but I can't quite see myself twitching and twisting and trying to get comfortable with a roomful of...well...anyone right now.  (My irritability is at an all-time high thanks to the pain, and I'm just not fit for polite company.)  I listened to part of it last night, and the man has a pleasant voice and some very good points as well as an amazing track record at helping others, so I'll give him a shot.