Ouch!

Woke up yesterday with a sore foot, major hot-spot on the side of my heel (from my work boots I believe).

Went for my daily walk anyway, despite the pain...but had to walk slower, and didn't get so far. Walking whilst favouring my left foot was definitely having an impact on my right leg and lower back, so I backed off and just concentrated on working up a sweat without doing too much more damage...but pleased that I made myself do it, although perhaps in hindsight it was a little foolhardy.

However, this morning I can't put any weight on the foot at all. So I'm absolutely not going to force myself into my walking boots.

But I don't want a rest day today either. I have a busy weekend ahead, and had hoped to bank a rest day for the weekend when I'd struggle to find time to get away from my social commitments.
This weeks self-imposed exercise goal was to do a minimum of 20 mins per day, my preference is walking.

For heaven's sake - I'm just *WALKING* - why is this SO difficult?

Second Endo Appointment

Well I have to say that I wasn't waiting around very long this time. If anything, they rushed me through as if scared to leave me waiting at all...perhaps throwing a tantrum is the answer to getting seen on time?

They sent me for another ECG, because although I was assured the last one was in the 'OK' range...it must also have been in the 'check again' range.
This time I knew exactly where to go, I was definitely less stressed, and took time out to pause and do some deep breathing exercises before entering the hallowed ECG room. This time my results were deemed 'excellent'! :-)

Upon returning to the outpatients waiting area I was ushered in to a consultation room almost straight away.

I was with a really friendly young intern, and very impressed with her. The appointment went OK - we discussed how I was feeling, if I feeling any different to last time I was in, and why that might be. She suggested a slight dose change because, despite my TSH being within range,, albeit at the high end, my T3 and my Free T4 have gone from being too high to too low. So we dropped my Carbimazole from 40mg/day to 30mg/day.

The consultation all went well, until she checked my blood pressure...she went white with shock, and spent ages peering into my eyes, presumably checking them for any damage. She reckoned that my blood pressure dangerously high, and didn't believe me when I kept insisting I felt totally fine. She claimed that she was almost tempted to admit me there and then, and expressed concern at allowing me to drive home. I continued to insist that I was fine, and that it was most probably White Coat Disease, but she wasn't having it. She conferred with the senior consultant, and they were querying my blood pressure medication...to which I sheepishly had to confess that I hadn't been taking it. Felt pretty stupid, having to confess that if I'm honest. I explained that our money was extremely tight at the moment, and the extra prescription costs were more than I could cope with right now. They gave me some freebie samples of the Centyl-K to go home with, and made me promise to fill that prescription before they ran out. And do you know, something about the abject fear in that young interns face as she checked and re-checked my blood pressure, made me determined to find the money somehow....she was really truly scared by what she was seeing, and was acting as if expecting me to drop down dead any second. That made me feel very bad for ignoring their advice.

Pillow Talk

I don't have any trouble getting to sleep, its always been a running joke in my family that I could fall asleep on a clothes line.

But for the last 3 weeks or so I have trouble staying asleep. I wake up constantly, all night long....1am, 2am, 3am, 4am
I drop back to sleep almost immediately...but still seem to wake up on an almost hourly basis.
The longest stretch of uninterrupted sleep I've had in the last 3 weeks or so was *once* when I managed to go from around 2am to 8am...bliss!

This may or may not be thyroid (or thyroid meds) related in my case...but if anyone has come across this before and has any ideas how to restore my sleep pattern I'd be extremely grateful

Ups & Downs

I'm just frustrated.

Through the month of January I lost 6 lbs in weight, without even trying. No honestly! The only reason I know I made the loss was due to some swanky new digital scales that my mum bought me...so, whilst making absolutely no effort to lose any weight I religiously jumped on them once a week, just to see what was going on. The weight was dropping off, with literally no effort at all on my part....wonderful! Losing weight, whilst finishing off the Christmas indulgences.....as well as having a January birthday, involving far too much of the wrong types of food and alcohol, whilst still losing weight....hurrah! (got to love the vagaries of Grave's Disease!)

So then I decide to make an effort. In the firm belief that I'm doing everything right I spend a week dutifully going for daily walks, working up a sweat, getting out of breath, drinking water until its coming out of my ears (just running to the loo every half an hour was surely an exercise in itself!), and really, really watching what I was eating.

Hubby had a 'cholesterol' warning at his last health check, so we've cut out as much fat as physically possible, dropped all salt, and we're both really making an effort to do things right. Eating oily fish, bulking up on vegetables, white meat, omega 3, 6, & 9's, cutting out the cheese, going for low fat options.

For the first time in the 10 years I've known him he's willingly drinking his coffee with low fat milk, and reaching for my Flora No Salt spread for his morning toast, when he's not doing himself up some porridge in the mornings, that is.

He doesn't need to lose weight...he's a total string bean, but I'm delighted to see him taking more of an interest in what he actually eats....the fact that he could eat tons of crap and not put on weight has always made me jealous, but watching him lay into the butter and grease has always worried me too.

So, we're making a concerted effort to eat properly, reading labels, avoiding processed food as much as possible etc etc etc.

After the first week of "Brand New Me"....I was a little disappointed to find the scales recorded a 3lb rise....wtf?

Unperturbed, I made some 'TOTM excuses'....ignored it and carried on with my new regime. 'TOTM' was late anyway, so can't honestly use that excuse for the first week of weight gain.

Then yesterday, after another week of walking (longer and further distances this week), getting sweaty (even sweatier than last week!) and out of breath (more huffy puffy than last week too!), with a 2 litre water bottle permanently fixed in my hand throughout the day, and not being put down until its empty in the evening, eating properly, breakfast, fruit, veggies, white meats, making my own wholemeal/wholegrain bread, wholegrain pasta, blah blah blah....and the scales show ANOTHER 3LB GAIN!!!! Now I'm seriously pi**ed off!

In actively trying to sort myself out and lose weight I've actually gained *all* the weight I lost, without trying, and I'm back weighing what I weighed on the 1st January this year!

So what the hell am I doing wrong?

I refuse to blame this on my thyroid, I can't keep going "oh its my thyroid" when my body doesn't work the way it should. I'm starting to believe I use that as an excuse all to often. Perhaps I'm in thyroid-denial?! Ha ha! I just don't believe that the simple fact of my blood levels going into HypOt are sufficient for me to add 6 lbs in 2 weeks, whilst actively trying to LOSE weight.....???

Yesterday's walk was really hard work, for the first time in two weeks I just couldn't get into it...my feet hurt from start to finish, my lower legs got too tight too early, my legs felt heavy, and I just found the whole thing a struggle. I forced myself to keep going, but slowed myself down and took it a lot easier....determined to keep going at all costs, but recognising that pushing myself too hard would be potentially more damaging, both physically and psychologically. And then around 10pm last night I suddenly felt really drained, and it was all I could do to sit in the armchair and hold my head upright....I said to hubby it just felt as if suddenly my engine had run out of fuel! There was still loads to do before I headed to bed, but I just couldn't get up and do them.

However, its not all doom and gloom! This morning's walk felt brilliant, everything went right, and it felt good to push myself a little bit harder than before. Maybe yesterday's walk was just a blip?

Oh, and one of my foster dogs *might* be off to a new home this weekend. Its very bitter-sweet, and the hardest part of being a foster...letting them go to their new homes, especially this one, he's the nicest lad and he's been here almost 2 years with absolutely no one showing any interest in offering him a new home....so we're thrilled to have finally found him his ultimate home (rural, and with three young boys to keep him amused), but he's been here so long he feels like part of the furniture, and we've watched him grow up and mature into a delightful well-mannered dog, from the total hooligan we took in all that time ago. Will be very sad to say goodbye, but he's going somewhere local, so once he's settled in to his new home we're really looking forward to being able to visit him and see him around locally.

Frosty the Snowman

Quiet enough weekend.

Very cold over-night temperatures have kept me up at night, worrying about the two outside dogs...so I went on the scrounge around some local businesses on Saturday morning, begging for some freebies and offcuts, and came home with loads of polystyrene boards, thin ply, nails, and some rubber cow mat. And, after my now regular walk across the fields, we spend the morning insulating their kennel. Polystyrene slabs under the floor. Fixed the broken bit of the floor. Then polystyrene insulation up the inside wall and roof area, secured and made dog-safe with the thin ply. Then cow mats cut to size and laid on top of the wooden floor, and the final touch, put the kennel securely up on a pallet to get it off the ground.

I slept much better the following night, knowing that despite the sub-zero temperatures, the two outside boys would be much, much warmer now.

We settled in for an afternoon in front of the television for the first two matches of the 2009 Six Nations rugby....England vs Italy in Twickenham, followed by Ireland vs France in Croke Park, Dublin.

Delighted to see England win, although I don't think they played convincingly. I wish the media would lay off giving Bergamasco such a hard time though. I actually would have preferred France to win the 2nd game....yes I know I live in Ireland, but I'm not Irish, and the sycophantic Irish media irritate me whenever the Irish team do anything even half right. If Ireland ever did win the RU World Cup I think I'd have to leave the country.

Sunday's game between Wales and Scotland, up in Murrayfield, was another good opener for both teams, although a seemingly excessive amount of players being knocked unconscious, bordering on carnage! For a while it seemed there was a player out cold on the pitch every couple of minutes. Gutted for that poor lad Cross, his very first international cap, and he went off, out-cold on a stretcher. With the ref bleating on about giving him a yellow card (sin bin) but not wanting to award him to it on the stretcher, and the ref telling the medical crew that they may as well remove him from the pitch as he was being sent off anyway...to be honest I think that was a harsh penalty anyway, he'd committed to the try, and I don't believe he had time to pull out of it, but sure, what do I know. Hope he's doing OK anyway. Either way, I don't think the final score was a fair reflection on Scotland's performance over all, they had the seemingly *almighty* Wales running scared a few times, and deserved a better score out of it IMHO.

Anyway, still off the smokes (woo hoo!)

And still getting in the daily walks. Although had a day off on Sunday, loads of snow, very slippery, and nursing a few hot spots on my right foot, and calves feeling a little tight...so I figured a rest day was in order.

Felt the difference today though. Feet less sore, but the walk was harder work initially, assuming that's a by-product of having a day off, will know more as I do more - but I went further today, worked harder, and felt better about it all once I'd finished.

Almost felt restless yesterday that I wasn't strapping my boots on and heading out...but really think my feet and calves benefited from a rest day.

Weight has only dropped a lb though, which I find odd, expected more, but that's life I guess. And a loss is a loss!

Cycling, without a bike!

Monthly cycles again, this time an observation....

Been splitting my carbimazole for the last week, half dose in the morning, half dose in the evening - and not noticed any major change in the way I feel....BUT, the hugely maddening (driving me insane) 14-day cycle appears to be on the blink, however, SSSHHHHHHH! Don't tell it, I don't want to wake it up!

So, the way my cycle has been behaving in the last couple of months I should have started in the middle of last week, and currently be in the middle of hell on earth, and be house-bound to all intents and purposes....but I'm not, its late, its nearly a week late (and NO, *that* is not even worth considering, my libido has been through the floor for weeks, it'd be an immaculate conception ha ha!)....
So...is it possible that something as simple as splitting my dose to 12 hour intervals was enough to scare my cycle back into *normality* ??? (yay if its true!)

Does anyone like this theory? Experienced something similar?

Or is it possible that my cycle likes to keep me guessing and is simply changing its own rhythm yet again, ho hum :-(

Walking Log

So I finally went out for an official walk this morning. Timed. checked heart rate, everything. I'm getting very wrapped up (read: confused?) in resting heart rate, maximum heart rate, training 'zone' or training 'rate.

I'm aiming to keep my understanding of all this simple, follwoing the KISS theory, but at the same time I'm trying to get a basic handle on all these things so that if I am making the effort to get out there walking that I am working/walking hard enough to make a difference, to achieve my goals if you like.

For the record, and for me to be able to check back in the future. Anyone who *does* know about these things, please feel free to comment and/or point out any obvious errors I'm making.

Resting Heart Rate - usually between 78-82 bpm (clearly unfit)

Maximum Heart Rate (=220-35) - 185 bpm

Training Rate 60-80% of MHR - between 110 and 148 bpm

Do I have that right?

So, today, after 10 mins** of moderate pace walking; on gentle, undulating farm tracks; getting out of breath but not uncomfortably so; leg muscles feeling tight but not painful; still able to call out ot the dog that accompanied me.

Heart rate after 10 mins was 112 bpm.

So I've just about edged into the heart rate training zone, but should I try to work myself harder for better benefit....or keep it at the lower end of the training 'zone' for now while I ease back into a regular exercise schedule? Decisions, decisions, and I wish I understood enough about all this to make a more informed decision.

Alright, so 10 minutes isn't a huge feat...but heck, I'm a big girl, and baby steps are a good way to start I reckon. I plan to do 10 mins for a week, then up it in 5 min increments, a week at a time.

Oh...and I'm still smoke-free :o)

Walking In A Winter Wonderland

Got up extra early this morning, to get out there in the snow, with the dogs...and I wasn't disappointed, man I love snow!

Its melted a little since this morning....but we're still getting heavy snow showers on and off, so lots of the melted bits are slowly getting replaced with new, fresh snow.

Still off the cigarettes (woo hoo!) and looking forward to this afternoon's walk...in my very own winter wonderland!

Let It Snow

Woke up this morning to a sprinkling of powdery snow. All the cars and outbuildings looks festive and Christmassy, albeit over a month late. We've had light snow showers and flurries on and off all morning, and its meant to continue doing the for the rest of the day. Its forecast that we should get a proper dump of snow overnight tonight, and I can't wait! OK, so a 'proper dump' is meant in relation to Ireland....where a proper dump could be considered a few inches, that may or may not last until lunchtime before melting away completely....conditions that wouldn't even cause comment in snowier parts of the world...but heck, we get so little of the white stuff over here, that any hint of it and I regress to a 5yr old child again! I plan to get up early tomorrow morning, assess the snow conditions, and if all is well head out for a good old romp in the snow with all the dogs! And if the white stuff chooses to stay around for a day or two then I'll be beside myself with joy!

Planning to head out for a good, bracing walk this afternoon with a couple of dogs, and if we get to walk through a snow shower or two, then it'll be all the better and I'll be all the happier

Easy Like Sunday Morning

So far so good on the 'smoke-free' front...its been a whole, whopping 6 hours Not quite long enough to officially call myself a non-smoker ha ha!

But I was almost tempted to throw in the non-smoking towel this morning, after an interesting meeting with an unspeakably rude and arrogant microchipping client...a real 'Lady Muck' character, who really made me boil with her superior attitude.
In the end I just drove home, and didn't 'chip the dogs. I was fuming. I do this as a volunteer. I gave up my own time, on a Sunday morning, to accomodate her oh-so-busy-and-oh-so-important life. I'm a volunteer. No-one reimburses me for my petrol (gas). No-one reimburses me for my phone calls. No-one reimburses me for my time. All these things I give freely and willingly. I don't want to be reimbursed for these things. These things, and my expertise with dogs, are my donations towards the SPCA if you like. However, I do expect to be treated in a civil manner. I don't expect to be treated like a common scivvy, nor spoken to like I'm some horrible, inconvenient, piece of dirt on the bottom of her shoe. Grrrrr!
However, rather than having a huge blow-up row with her, I just turned around and drove home, seething and muttering to myself as I drove down her drive......but I didn't rush to the nearest shop and buy a packet of cigarettes, instead I drove to the nearest shop and bought some lovely looking whole-meal baps (bread rolls) for lunch instead.

Oh, I also bought a big fat 2 litre bottle of water....so there's no excuse for not drinking today's water allowance, and then having an emtpy 2 L bottle to fill each and every morning from now on. I'd like to think I turned my negative feelings, after I drove away from the rude person in anger, into a positive outing this morning after all.

Been getting the occasional headache the last couple of days, but I think that's directly connected to that fact that I've been caffeine-free since Thursday evening. I think I read somewhere that headaches were a common withdrawal symptom, so I'm just riding them through, and enjoyng my caffeine-free tea!

Plan for the rest of today.....hubby and I have planned to do as little as possible, and just chill out for the aftternoon and evening. I might even slip back into my pyjamas, then curl up on the sofa with a duvet and a good book...but I'll feel less guilty, because I have at least been out and about, and active this morning.