Suddenly winter

Sunday:

We had a very long hot summer, about one week of autumn, and now suddenly it’s winter. Only 10C when I got up this morning. Sydney doesn’t really get a lot colder than that!

I saw my doctor on Friday and she gave me a new script for two more months of Duromine. I didn’t lose any weight in the past month (I blame Easter!) but I already dropped half a kg in the past couple of days and I’m at a new low, but I’ll wait until official Monday morning to report. Even without that loss, though, I’ve been mostly feeling a bit thinner. My new skinny clothes fit better. My rings and watch are looser. I’m happier with photos. So maybe my shape changed a bit while my weight stayed the same. Nothing wrong with a bit of consolidation.

Very unusually for me, I had high blood pressure. The doctor checked it several times at the start and the end of my appointment because we both thought it might be a momentary aberration. If anything, my blood pressure is usually a bit low. But it was high each time, something like 140/100. I’m assuming it’s stress from work placement (just because it’s new and tiring, it’s not particularly stressful in itself) and I’m to revisit the doctor in a couple of weeks.

I didn’t mention it to the doctor (I will next time) but I’ve been having some pelvic pain on and off the past few months and it’s been quite bad since Thursday, especially at night. Lying down has always made it worse. I had fibroids removed from my uterus a year and a half ago - grape sized non-cancerous growths that are really common but don’t bother most people, it depends where they are - I know they couldn’t remove them all because of where they were. I think either the remaining ones have got bigger or more have grown. I’m not keen on having an operation every year, or a hysterectomy, and since those seem to be the only options my plan is to do nothing for the moment. I know the doctor will send me for another ultrasound and I hate them so much. Having to drink a lot of water and holding it for two hours is torture. There will be tears. And sneaky visits to the toilet when the pain gets too bad.

I’ve decided to fully embrace this National Simultaneous Storytime thing even if it’s not my assessment task (still trying for cataloguing) and I am full of plans. A giant clock poster (the book is a sequel to the Hickory Dickory Dock rhyme, with mother mouse looking for her baby who ran up the clock) and warming up the children by copying the clock and making clock time shapes with our arms, a colour-in and make your own mouse finger puppet activity after I read the story, and morning tea. If I’m going to do something I want to do it well and wholeheartedly.

Speaking of which, my friend Cathy from TAFE finished last year as she was studying full time and just had her graduation ceremony, and received an unexpected award for excellence. Congrats to Cathy! I didn’t even know there was an award, but now I want one! I know I’ve done well in all my classes, first or equal first in the ones you get told the marks for (but most you just get told “satisfactory”, which sucks), but a couple of subjects I know I wasn’t perfect. And Lauren already got that internship I wanted grrr.... I don’t know if there is only one award for best. When I did my Grad Cert in Editing I got the Dean’s Award for Excllence, that was for anyone with a Disctinction average I think so there wasn’t just one available. Feeling competitive!

Taming the grass

Friday:

I was planning to get serious about my food from 1st January, but then found two good reasons not to wait. On Wednesday night we were at Nick & Ping's and did a bit of a Just Dance game, and my niece Emma insisted on watching all the replay videos. Oh my goodness I'm still so fat. It always surprises me, especially since I've lost a bit of weight recently, that I am a lot fatter in reality than I am in my head. Mirrors, photos, and apparently videos all ambush me.

Then I weighed myself Thursday morning to find my weight, which had stayed pretty steady over the Christmas indulgences, had suddenly caught up with reality too and jumped up a fair bit. I was unhappy with the number. So I decided not to wait another four days to stop eating so much junk.

I spent an hour and a half at least in the garden, working on the garden beds that don't yet have an edging of rocks so the pampered lawn has really invaded. I turned bits like this:

 Into this:

It was quite hard sweaty work, the grass had put down lots of roots along the runners and took a lot of effort to rip out. Next cooler day I'll work on getting the rock edging in.

We had people over in the afternoon for a swim and Tim's dad also dropped in with Jo, and Jo's daughter and granddaughter, on their way home from spending Christmas with Jo's family. I put out lots of leftover chips and chocolates but only ate a little bit of cheese, a few grapes, and one Lindor ball. I call that a win! Calories good for the day.

I had a really bad sleep last night. That operation I had a year ago to remove fibroids fixed the heavy periods but didn't take away all the pain. It gets bad each month the week before my period, and I was lying awake in a lot of discomfort for quite a bit of the night. Still aches today. It's 34 C here so I'm tired and sore and hot and not feeling very happy. Still staying away from the bad food though. We still have some in the house but it should be all finished off on Sunday night. Anything left after that will go in the bin.

Ultrasound

Thursday:

Another ordeal over. Pelvic ultrasound. I drank the required water but then in the hour I was supposed to be holding it I went to the toilet twice, then at the clinic when my appointment was 40 minutes late I went twice more (trying not to empty completely). Seemed fine, the radiologist (??) didn't comment.

I've had two other pelvic ultrasounds over the past three years, the other two reports suggested adenomyosis (the uterine lining growing where it shouldn't), this time the technician told me there was a fibroid which is a different sort of growth that looks very similar. I haven't seen an official report yet. Obviously I need to know which it is before progressing with any treatment, I might need an MRI. I see my doctor tomorrow and I think she will refer me to a gynaecologist.

I'm back on my healthy eating today. I know from repeated experience that day three of strict low carbs is when I have my cravings, I have to brace myself for that and not just say "I feel terrible so I'm going to eat whatever I want". If I can get through a few days I'll be fine. Today for the first time in ages I'm going to achieve my water goals. Only two cups to go!

My brother had been trying to contact me for a couple of days. His phone is ancient broken rubbish but since he has no landline or email/internet it's the only way to talk to him. And if I call him it goes straight to voicemail, which I don't know if he ever checks, so I have to wait for him to call me. After lots of calls dropping out without us being able to hear each other, he walked up the hill today to get better reception and I shouted at him over the noise of the trucks on the main road. Probably quite funny, in a way. Anyway, he's coming over on Saturday. He couldn't hear any of my queries as to what time, so I eventually gave up on getting any details. Based on past visits, it will be "for lunch" but arriving long after we've eaten because he is late for everything, and staying through until the kids have gone to bed.

Hmm now there is a Christmas present idea. A phone that actually works. Maybe one he could use internet on if he's somewhere they have free Wi-Fi? But that might be a bit complicated for him. A phone that works would do.

That ongoing saga of Aiden's furniture may finally be resolved, the handyman guy called yesterday to say he'll be here on Saturday, with the correct part, to finish putting together the unfinished chest of drawers we've had since Christmas! I can always hope.