We write to taste life twice

After my doctor appointment (which ran long because I waited almost 45 minutes after my appointment time until the doctor saw me) and a quick lunch here at home, Lance and I ventured out to McChord. He wanted to take the Mazda. So I let him drive it for the first time. He test drove one when we first went to the dealership. But he has never driven MY Mazda.

I think he was enjoying it almost a little too much. Except for the traffic. The traffic was horrible. So he never did get to really test the cruise control all that much. Too much stop and go.

Fortunately, our exit was about half a mile down the freeway from the jack-knifed semi that was jamming up traffic, so we were able to make an escape. My car is now registered at the base. And even though our entire reason for going there proved to be fruitless, we at least picked up a few groceries that I had need of and we got all the mail that accumulated in our box since last weekend.

So now...will start dinner here shortly. Then an evening stripping wallpaper. Then maybe some reading and some paper journaling and some television watching.

As for my doc appointment, that seemed almost pointless too. She upped my dosage of the anti-anxiety meds that I'm on, since the current dosage did absolutely nothing. She said if the double dose works better, then just save the pills only for high-anxiety situations (job interviews were the specific situations we were concerned about). She also put me on Elavil (again) to help me sleep. I told her about my issues with Elavil last time, but she put me on a very low dose. So we'll see how I do with that. I'm paying this time to experiment with these pills, so these better work.

It's not even 3pm, and I accomplished all the tasks I set out to do today. I not only started the Gottingen guide, but I FINISHED it. That's the first time I wrote an entire travel guide in one day, and it took around 4 hours. So after dinner, I'm going to proofread all 4 guides I've been working on, and send them to my client. Then hopefully I will get paid before we leave for our cruise.

Both floors are vacuumed. Lance helped me with this (he came home really early from work). He dry mopped the stairs and the tile floors downstairs while I vacuumed upstairs, and then all I had to do was vacuum the downstairs carpeting.

Now I can actually take a bit of a breather. Still not motivated to work on the Valkenburg article though.

***

In health news, I find it a bit interesting that Lance has actually noticed the extreme amount of hair I've been losing. Since about the end of June or so, it has been coming out in CLUMPS. I literally run my hand through my hair and come out with a handful of it. This happens several times a day. I thought I lost a lot of hair before, but this is more than usual. Lance noticed because of the amount of hair that the dry mop picked up. I don't have bald spots or anything. Yet.

Lance thinks stress is the cause, but I don't think so. Stress usually manifests itself in my gut, making me feel nauseated on a rather frequent basis. This is another sign that my thyroid could be going wonky, but I just had my last thyroid test about a year ago, and as always, it was normal. I know blood tests aren't conclusive, but my insurance won't cover more comprehensive tests (and I'm not too worried about it, because I still managed to lose weight, even though I had to fight for every pound after that first month).

An online acquaintance (someone who used to read my English Culture site and post in my discussion forum) sent me a private message the other day, because she had seen some of my posts in the Holistic Health forum on BellaOnline. She told me that she has the exact same symptoms I have, and she thinks it's Candida Yeast Overgrowth, so she's trying home remedies to take care of it. I went to the website she linked and took the test and scored a 23...a score of 10 or higher indicates a strong chance that you have it. So I don't know what to make of this...a lot of doctors apparently think that it's a bunch of hooey, but then again, a lot of doctors also think stuff like acupuncture is stupid.

I'm also not ruling out that I could be gluten intolerant. I haven't been tested for that yet, but the symptoms I have (which could be any number of different things) are also indicative of that. I'm almost afraid to find out. I would have to change my entire way of eating. And nobody else in my family has it (or if they do, they don't know it). From what I understand, it's hereditary.

Right now, I'm not really worrying about anything. I'm not feeling so bad. And this isn't anything I want to pursue right now. I may address these issues later, once we move. I have too many other things to think about right now.