Category: Health

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I lost 2 pounds!

It’s Friday! How did that happen again??? Eric left this morning for his week on-call, and I’m currently in the process of being crafty. Sort of. I’m making t-shirts for a dear friend. Here are pictures of what I’ve made so far 🙂 The three upward arrows and blue and yellow ribbons signify Down Syndrome awareness. (Sorry, not the best pictures.)

I’m still reading The Craving Cure by Julia Ross, but happy to report I’ve been cutting carbs for the past five days. I’ve had less than 50g of carbs total each day. With is damn hard! But I’ve lost 2 pounds, so that’s a start I guess. I actually expected more, since all I was eating before this week was carbs, but I won’t get too greedy here. I think the book is worth the read, if you have time and some level of dedication to changing your eating habits. I will say, this is not a diet, but rather a complete lifestyle change in eating. Which is huge and difficult, but I also believe worth it in the end. Will I eat this way everyday? I’d like to say yes, but ultimately probably no. I assume I will cheat on holidays and perhaps special get-together’s with friends, as my will-power isn’t that great. There is a ton I’d love to share about the book, and maybe another day when I have more time, but for now I’ll say this, the book focuses on those five craving types I mentioned in my last post, and for each of those cravings, there are specific amino acids the author recommends to cure these cravings. I’ve been taking some of them, and I’m not 100% ready to say they cure my cravings. If anything, I think cutting the carbs and getting your body not to rely on sugar for energy is probably what cut most of my cravings. I’ve literally had no junk food, bread, pasta, white sugar, etc. this week, well, very small amounts of sugar. And while I’ve kind of wanted it, I haven’t missed it like I expected. I’ve been eating a lot of salads, my dressing is usually my carbs for the day, eggs, bacon, steak was dinner last night, cheese, and other full-fat dairy. I need to start looking at keto recipes as I’ve really just been trying to put meals together this week based on stuff I already eat that doesn’t have carbs, but that makes for sometimes boring meals. I’m not trying to reach keto, as that is closer to 20g of carbs a day, and I don’t think I can, or want to do that, not at this point anyway.

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The Craving Cure – Julia Ross

I think I’m getting fat. I’m 5’6″ or maybe shrinking to 5’5″, and about 150 lbs. I’d like to be 130 lbs. I basically never lost my baby weight from Nadia. Which is not the worst thing in the world, I mean, she is adorable and I love her dearly. She and Nora are worth every pound. But none the less, I know a healthier weight for me would be 10-20 lbs lighter.

I’ve tried counting calories with that myfitness app. But I ruin it every night after dinner, after the girls go to bed. I somehow find the tortilla chips and queso, or the monster cookie ice cream. Or even watermelon. A fruit I know, but probably still not healthy to eat an entire watermelon in an evening, as it’s a lot of sugar, even if ‘natural’ so called sugar.

I sort of tried Weight Watchers. For like a day. I realized everything I like to eat is as many points as I get in a day. For example, I can have my iced mocha, but that’s it, even if it’s, dare I say, only 400 calories.

Eric and I were at the library yesterday, and I randomly came across a book that looked interesting… The Craving Cure by Julia Ross. I’m only on page 75, but so far, it is quite something. Granted, she hasn’t really told me anything I didn’t already know, that everything I eat is horrible for me. The book is based on five different types of ‘cravings’ which prevent us from losing weight and eating healthy. For example, the book explains how white sugar is twice as addictive as cocaine.

No wonder my car drives itself to Starbucks every morning for my mocha, whether I like it or not!

You’ll find the Craving Type Questionnaire below, along with the Profile Graph for scoring. I’ve determined that I fall into 3 of the 5 craving types, Type 1 Depressed, Type 3 Comfort, and Type 5 Fatigued. For reference, the other two are Type 2 Crashed and Type 4 Stressed. I guess thank God I’m not all five, as apparently some people are!

 The_Craving_Type_Questionnaire

Profile_Graph

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I’ll update you again when I get a bit further into the book and let you know if it’s worth your time. On this topic though, do any of you have recommendations for books on cutting down on unhealthy sugar and carbs, or just healthier eating in general?

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ENT Appointment

The doctor was in our exam room for all of ten minutes. But.. being a doctor’s wife, I get it. He probably had 40+ other patients to see today. And technically I didn’t have any questions, in fact, Eric offered to do the surgery himself. Kidding, sort of…

The exam was quick, he looked in both of Nadia’s ears, confirmed one currently has fluid, but isn’t bulging, and the other looked okay. But… we did just finish antibiotics a week ago. Nadia’s pre-op is scheduled for Thursday, two days from now. Her regular pediatrician is on vacation, so we are seeing someone else at her office. I assume all will be well, even though Nadia technically is still being followed by cardiology at the University. Surgery to put in the tubes is next Tuesday, so a week from today. I’m not worried. I know the ‘surgery’ if you can even call it that, takes all of 90 seconds. There is no IV, no breathing tube, they just gas the kids for a minute and it’s over. Eric already has a 40+ patient clinic of his own scheduled that day, so he won’t be able to join me and Nadia. Which in itself doesn’t really bother me. I’m most nervous about getting both the girls up and getting Nora to daycare earlier than normal so we can be at the surgery center by 730am for our 830 time slot. You know how three year-olds are… they doddle around, take forever to get dressed, take even longer to eat breakfast, and lets not even talk about getting shoes on and in the car! Ugh…

In other news, I found out today that starting Monday Nora will have a new teacher, same classroom and students though, thank goodness! Her current lead teacher, who I love, took a position at another school. I’m sad, I was comfortable with her and Nora whines at drop-off as it is. Now she will probably actually cry all over again for a week or more 🙁

I also found out today that Nadia will be moving to the young two’s room on Monday, so two new teachers for her to get comfortable with. Ugh to that as well. Nadia is VERY attached to the lead teacher in her current room, so I assume crying at drop-off for a while for her as well. Nadia won’t technically be two adjusted until October 31st. I assume daycare doesn’t consider this, so she’ll be moving into a room with kids quite older than her. I’m not too worried though, as I actually think being the youngest has a way of speeding up learning, or so I’ve been told by the high-risk follow-up clinic at the University. Nadia will hear and see lots of things she might not with younger kids, so maybe she will pick up on new developmental activities sooner. Or so I hope!

I’m exhausted but both girls are finally in bed, and maybe actually sleeping. Good night!

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Viibryd

I’ve kept no secret of my struggle with (postpartum) depression over the years. I’ve been on several different medications but most recently have been taking Zoloft, 50mg a day.

Several months ago my general practitioner in Cedar Falls suggested I increase my Zoloft dose to 100mg a day, as I’d still been feeling a bit down, very overwhelmed with caring for the girls so much alone, and possibly experiencing what I think is anxiety most days. I tried 100mg for several weeks but honestly felt much more anxious, so dropped back down to 50mg. A few weeks ago I decided maybe it was time I see a doctor who specializes in depression and anxiety medications, at least to re-evaluate what I’m taking.

Yesterday I met with a psychiatrist here in Cedar Rapids. He was very nice and very open to helping me find a medication that would make me feel happy and ‘normal’ instead of ‘coping with life’ as I had described to him my current state. I wouldn’t say I’m unhappy, but I certainly still deal with depression some days and more recently lots of anxiety. My doctor assured me there is something out there to make me feel a bit better.

I started taking Viibryd yesterday. I have to slowly lower my dose of Zoloft while slowly increasing my Viibryd dose to 20mg a day. And it could take a month to really notice any changes, but I’m excited. Honestly, a part of me still hates to rely on medication to feel okay, but another part of me really wants to feel happy and a bit calmer. I’ll keep you updated on how I feel, and if anyone else is on this medication and willing to share insight, I’d love to hear from you, my email is stefscrazylife@gmail.com. I’m told Viibryd doesn’t really have any side-effects… so here’s hoping its the miracle drug it’s made out to be!

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Diarrhea

The title says it all… I don’t even remember when I updated last on Nadia’s illness.

Friday afternoon we were back at the doctor for another scheduled ear check. Yes, Tuesday was the only day last week we weren’t at the doctor. Thank God we have good insurance. Anyway, Friday they looked in her ears and she still had fluid, which prompted them to really, really encourage a third injection of the antibiotic Rocephin. Back up though, about an hour before our appointment on Friday I noticed a rash over most of Nadia’s body, actually everywhere except her lower legs. They had three doctors at the clinic examine her for multiple opinions, and all thought it was probably a reaction to the injections… but… since that was the worst of it, meaning she wasn’t having any breathing issues, they believed the benefits of another shot still outweighed the chance of the rash continuing. Ugh. So yes, we did a third shot. Seriously broke my heart to see her hurting so much.

So it’s Sunday night. Nadia does seems a lot happier now, even slept through the night last night. Her rash seems to be going away little by little, but she must still be itchy and a bit uncomfortable from it, as she’s scratching like crazy. The diarrhea though… it continues, and has now since Wednesday morning. At our appointment Friday they sent home a kit to collect a stool sample to test for C Diff. Apparently MedLabs has awful hours around here… so I’ll be collecting our sample tomorrow morning and dropping it off when they open. Hence, still no daycare for Nadia tomorrow. The diarrhea is awful, but what’s even worse is her terribly, terribly sore bottom. I’ve tried every concoction suggested to me, but it doesn’t seem to be getting much better. I assume we need to get rid of the diarrhea first and then hopefully the skin on her bottom can heal.

In other news… Eric is home! But… he’s still working… Patient notes, and studying for boards. This constant wanting his help with the girls, but either not getting it, or getting it but feeling like I’m pulling him away from work is really getting old. He leaves Thursday for Dallas for his test, but he’s made it clear he needs to study non-stop until then. Even though he’s been studying for months. I can’t tell you how ready I am for this exam to be over! I really hope once his oral boards are over we have a lot more time together and with the girls. This working non-stop is truly no way to live.