I'm not dead!!!!

Ooooh, boy it’s been a while, hasn’t it. So sorry I’ve dropped off the face of the earth. School ramped it up into high gear from January to end of May. I took 23 credit hours spring semester, and something like 20 Maymester (that would be 3 weeks…). Yeah. Not fun. On top of that, we’ve had a crazy first half of the year, with the house (literally) falling apart (our 3-year-old house’s gutter fell off!!! SPLAT!!) , 3.5 months of looking for a car for me (pictures here), deaths, sicknesses, and weddings on both sides of the family, and me being quite sick for most of the semester.

That started with a very bad kidney infection, bladder infection, sinus infection, bacterial vaginosis, and a yeast infection, and then progressed to diarrhea, positional dizziness, and extreme (like really extreme) fatigue. I was diagnosed with orthostatic hypotension, which means that my blood pressure drops like a rock when I go from lying to sitting, or from sitting to standing, and was put on a high salt diet. I also had (and still have) bizarre bone pain, both in the joints and in the long bones and intestinal pain, and unexplained weight loss (I lost like 15 pounds total, which is a lot for someone my size. I’ve since gained it all back, but still). I’ve had all sorts of blood tests, fecal samples, diagnostic imaging (small bowel series – where you swallow barium and x-rays are taken of it going through your GI tract; ultrasound of pancreas, liver, gall bladder, stomach, and kidneys; and endoscopy and colonoscopy). They thought at first that it was Crohn’s, which can have all of these symptoms, then RA (rheumatoid arthritis) which is also autoimmune and can have all these symptoms, though the GI stuff is more uncommon, and lastly, when every single test came back negative, it was chalked up to my Irritable Bowel Syndrome freaking out from when I got sick in the first place.

SO. That means that I had to start all over figuring out what was causing all the irritation. I originally cut out all dairy and anything whole wheat or whole grain, because that’s what I ate the most of and also are the most irritating to the GI tract. Surprisingly, that helped both the GI stuff and the bone issues, but did not make them go away completely. After tinkering, I believe that my biggest problem is too much animal fat or animal protein and whole grain/whole wheat. I’ve switched to a mostly vegetarian diet and I’ve cut out brown rice, whole wheat pasta, whole wheat breads, whole grains, and (bulgur and wheat berries mostly). I’ve slowly added skim milk and oatmeal to my diet, and hopefully can get regular servings of yogurt back in. I’d like to occasionally have cheesy stuff and whole wheat bread or pasta. I’ve successfully eaten pearl barley, which isn’t considered whole grain, and I’d like to eat quinoa and other whole grains every once in a while. Most of the meat I do eat is fish (mainly wild salmon) and shrimp, which I feel is less irritating to my body at this time. When I eat badly, I get a lot of stomach pains, and my joint pain is actually worse.

Also, exercising helps. Too bad I’m still pretty darn exhausted all the time, though it’s (very) slowly getting better. I’m trying to get back into exercising because I have become extremely weak from not moving around very much, which is very bad for my profession.

School News: School’s done til mid-late August. Right now I’m in a full time 8-week clinical internship, which is both amazing and extraordinarily stressful. I’m only 3 days in, but I’ve learned and done SO MUCH I can’t believe it! Also, despite me getting sick, I made all A’s both spring semester and Maymester. Go me!!! That earned me expensive restaurant trips :D

Foodie News: Mostly I’ve been too tired to cook anything fancy, but I have been trying to eat more vegetables. One of my meals is always rice and legumes in some format. I’ve become addicted to Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food (damn you TP girl!!) and I recently bought a new cookbook, Mark Bittman’s The Best Recipes In the World, and I am madly in love with both. Fast, fresh, interesting recipes that can easily be adapted into one-dish meals. I also recently made Mark Bittman’s no-knead bread (actual recipe that I used here).

Knitting News: Haven’t really been knitting very much. Still knitting that plain Jane sock, but it’s long, because how ever many yards that ball had is pretty much going to make me knee socks, I believe. Faux-cable-y socks are on hold because I have to do a short-row heel and I have to pretty much only do that, and, well, I haven’t had time to do that since before Christmas. Thermal sweater is hibernating, and I’m debating frogging the 4 inches of sleeve that I have, and eventually casting on for the body, because there are no increases/decreases for a long time, so it can be rather mindless (also, I’d really like someone to tell me how to increase stitches in the sleeves in pattern the way Laura wants it because it’s way too hard for me to figure out…). Fingerless gloves are like 30 minutes away from being done (I dropped a stitch on the last finger on the last freaking row and it laddered down, so I have to pick it back up and then cast off, then weave in the ends for that glove), and I think that’s all I have on the needles. I bought some Noro Kureyon Sock (pictures here which I’m planning on using next for my first two-at-a-time Magic Loop socks (using the new Knitpicks Harmony Wood Needles (you’ll have to look that one up yourself)), and also some Claudia Handpainted fingering yarn, which is for some other pair of socks that I haven’t figured out yet.

Random News: I got a Twitter Account (here) and I am ADDICTED. Add me if you’re on it, and if you’re not, get an account. Major love! Better than Facebook!!

Goals This Summer:
1) Blog more!! (and get on a schedule)
2) Get on a cleaning schedule
3) Exercise more, regularly, and learn to enjoy it
4) Knit more
5) Learn as much as I can about my profession

I might have less to talk about in this blog about cooking and knitting, and more about life in general, but since most people who read this really know me, I figure that’s a-ok!

Alright, I’m done for the night. Bye y’all!