Tag: vitamins

Random Thoughts

The last few days have put me into a prolonged, slow burning state of freak out. Fun.

My friend’s father passed away on Monday. My father went into the hospital on Tuesday. No details on either situation will be forthcoming. We just got clobbered by a thunderstorm which, it turns out, was rough enough to knock out the power in the hospital. The backup generators kicked in a second later, but woah.

I am planning to go to the hospital after work tonight. I need to make dinner first but then I’ll go for a quick visit before visiting hours end. Tomorrow morning is the funeral. I’ll go to the hospital afterwards. How’s that for a tough day? The last few days have been bad, but tomorrow… woah.

On less important (re: not important at all) topics, I have one more episode of The Umbrella Academy’s final season to watch. I strongly suspect that once I finish that final episode I will immediately start a rewatch of the entire series from season one episode one. I think that is going to happen.

Earlier today I was looking at Threads (the twitter alternative social network made by the same assholes who make instagram and bookfayce which begs the question why the fuck am I giving this new social network site the time of day) and I posted that musically speaking, today is a Porcupine Tree kinda day (from a mental health standpoint, of course… meaning heavy and complicated and confusing if you’re not paying close attention). TWELVE MINUTES LATER I got a notification that the Porcupine Tree instagram account had been ported to Threads. They haven’t posted anything yet but I guess I should say you’re welcome?

I don’t know what the dad situation is going to be like this weekend but I do know that Bellana, my step daughter, is coming over for a visit. All the bad, scary stuff going on feels a little more bearable when the kids come by. I am really looking forward to seeing how she did at her conference this week. I want all the sciency details.

Speaking of science, from a nutritional standpoint I screwed up yesterday. I spent the whole day at the hospital with Dad and when I left the house I forgot to take my pill case with me. I took my breakfast vitamin pills before I left, and took my lunch vitamin pills when I got home for dinner. I was going to take my dinner vitamin pills before I went to sleep, but I fell asleep earlier than expected and missed that dose. Dummy. Note to self: bring the friggin’ pill case tomorrow. Dumb ass.

What else? Word from the hospital this afternoon is that Dad is starting to show early signs of coming out of whatever was wrong. My fingers and toes and eyes are all firmly crossed. Again, I am not sharing details beyond a small hint of optimism. Enjoy it while you can.

Okay, Robert. Stop stressing and get back to work. You have stuff to do. Do it.

Done with Magnesium

My doctor said magnesium can help with migraine headaches. I started taking a supplement last week. On the fourth day I was seriously sick. I was nauseous all day. Nothing helped. I suspected the magnesium might have played a roll so I stopped taking it for a few days.

I tried starting it again yesterday. Today I have been nauseous all day. Nothing helps. I feel absolutely horrendous.

Coincidence?

I don’t think so.

Another Absurd Day

This week… I just can’t win. What the hell?

TMI is on it’s way. You’ve been warned.

I mentioned earlier that I woke up with a stomach ache today and didn’t really know the cause. By the time the clock was approaching noon that issue was more or less resolved. I wasn’t 100%, but I was okay.

At 12:02 I started the process of taking my afternoon Calcium Citrate dose. Two pills. I had eight ounces of grape flavored water in my water bottle. The plan was to take the two pills but spread it out over 20-30 minutes or so and to drink that whole eight ounces. I had the last sip of water at 12:38 and all was well.

Or so I thought.

A couple of minutes later the foamies started. I was spitting up left and right. I feel so sorry for the little trash barrel next to my desk. There were bigger nightmares to come though.

The spitting up kept getting worse but it was topped by the gagging. Really. Gagging. I started yacking up grape juice. Not a lot, just a bit here and there, but it was awful and it was gross. The longer it went on though, the more grape juice was coming up. Make it stop, please! I don’t know how much came back up, and I’m sure it wasn’t the whole eight ounces, but what the hell, digestive system? It was water. Water!

It stopped around 1:10 or so. It lasted about half an hour. It’s not the first time something I ate came back up after a little while, but it was very much the worst experience yet. I know this post is living in TMI land, but I just had to vent. I was well enough to start lunch at around 1:45. I had another short foamies episode an hour later, but it cleared quickly. Maybe my rebuilt stomach just had mercy on me.

What a day.

What a week.

I need a vacation.

My Stomach is Having a Weird Day

I was finished with breakfast by about 7:30am. I have felt uncomfortably full ever since. I haven’t even hit 20 ounces of liquid yet today but I just don’t feel like I can drink anything because my stomach has felt so full. I took my two calcium pills at just after noon and just that little bit of intake made me feel a little sick. Huh.

That was half an hour ago and I am starting to feel a smidge better, but it’s weird. Just weird.

On an unrelated note, the ant kingdom was slaughtered by an exterminator a few months ago. Dead ants galore. Today the final termination is happening. There is a contractor upstairs ripping up our bathroom. The walk in shower is gone. It will be replaced by a closet or some shelves or some shit. The toilet and the sink have been removed, temporarily, and the floor tiles are coming up as we speak. The tiles will be replaced by something that doesn’t need grout and the sink and the toilet will be put back. There should be some cleanup on the back wall too. No clue how long this is going to take, but I will miss our shower. I won’t miss the leak that caused the rot that ruined the wall and lead to the ant invasion though.

Back to the original point of this post… not sure what to do for lunch today. Not sure if I can handle food. I’ll probably just go the protein bar route again (that’s what I did for breakfast though so maybe that’s bad luck today?). We’ll see.

Monday Monday

Monday morning, back at work. The day’s exercise is done, breakfast is done, I’m punched in. All is underway.

I failed to do car music again. I think we can assume that the faux 50 songs in 90 days project ain’t happening this year. I’ll try to keep picking away at it, but there’s zero chance of me hitting 50 songs. I will try car music again tomorrow. We’ll see.

I forgot to fill my pill caddie yesterday. It’s totally empty. I had to take this morning’s vitamins/antacid pills the old fashioned way, straight from the bottle. Let’s not make a habit of that, shall we?

Okay, that’s all for this life update. I need to get busy with work now.

Until later….

In the Office: July Edition

I am in the office in Westwood today. Jen took the day off to hang out with Bellana, but I had to go into the office. Covid is surging, so let’s all get together. End Rant.

The last time I came here I forgot my headphones and it was borderline nightmarish. I did not forget my headphones today. Thank The Force for that one. No, today I forgot my Thursday pill caddie. I guess I am taking my lunchtime vitamins at dinner, and my dinner vitamins before bed. It’s okay. It won’t be the first time.

The real downside today was the traffic. A year ago, when we first started experimenting with coming into the office, much of the world was still locking down and there wasn’t a lot of traffic. Not so today. I got in the car at 7:30 and Waze told me I’d get to my destination at 8:50. I actually got here at 8:48, which is nice but still really crappy. There were traffic jams everywhere. My favorite one was right at the spot where I first pull onto the highway. It really set the mood for the drive.

Absent Minded Doofus

I am in the office today. It’s the first time since before the surgery. The traffic was really bad. Another sign that the pandemic is over, even though people are still getting sick in droves. Hooray.

I was 10 miles down route 93 before I realized that I forgot my headphones. Damn it! Fortunately I had an old set of ear pods in my desk, so we’re good to go for today but… dumb ass.

It’s my first attempt at monitoring liquid and protein intake from outside of the house for a full work day. I will also be taking my meds (just vitamins, actually) at work today too. What could go wrong?

Less Than One to Go

On February 3rd, two months and one day ago, I was told to lose 5% of my weight in preparation for the weight loss surgery. I weighed myself this morning. I have 0.4 pounds to go. I would do the math to figure out what percentage I am at with 0.4 pounds to go but then you could use that to figure out exactly how much I weighed on that first day and I don’t want to let you do that.

I just drank my morning protein shake and had my morning vitamins and supplemented it all with a fist full of Tylenol because holy shit my back is killing me. I don’t know that my back has ever hurt as much as it does at this moment. Oh my shit, my back hurts.

Today’s plan involves going to my parents and picking up my mother and taking her to a doctors appointment. We’re going to get the results of her last blood test and see how her cancer numbers look. They’ve been pretty much perfect for the last year-plus and I am very optimistic that those results will continue.

After that I will come home and find some demo happening in the cellar. First on the list is the grid that until recently held the drop ceiling. After that it’s the rest of the ugly paneling on the walls. Most of the paneling came down during the flood clean up last year. You might recall me bitching about the paneling in the dining room recently. Suffice to say that the paneling in the cellar is 100 times uglier. Tomorrow the electrician is coming to replace the existing fluorescent lights that don’t really work anymore. There used to be six banks of lights with two tubes each. Only two of them still work, (it’s not the bulbs, I replaced the bulbs and the lights stayed dead) and one of those two only works some times. It’s been good the last week because it knows its end is coming and it wants to stay alive, but more often than not it doesn’t work when I flip the switch. Replace ’em all!

On top of that there is something going on at work that I am not going to be around for and I am feeling pretty shitty about that. I feel like I am dropping the ball. I don’t think anyone else feels that I’m dropping the ball, but I do so that’s that. Hopefully it will be quiet today. Fingers crossed.

Did I mention my back was hurting?

0.4 pounds to go. Oh yeah, and the surgery happens one month from today. Yikes!

Non-Lunch Post

We’re coming to the end of another work day spent in the office. How many more will there be at this desk? I don’t know. A few, probably.

It’s been a hectic and stressed out day. I’m not sure how, but I managed to do everything right as far as the weight loss surgery prep steps are concerned. I’m up to date on my vitamins (still have one more to take with dinner), and I tracked all of my food, and I stopped drinking more than 15 minutes before eating, and I didn’t drink again for over an hour after eating.

My exercise ring is half closed. That’s due to the long walk from the car to my desk, and the long walk from my desk to the kitchenette and back, and the long walk from my desk to the bathroom and back. I think wearing a mask contributes to the increased heart rate as well, but I don’t have proof of that.

The building recently switched from masks required in all common areas to masks optional for vaccinated folks. I think it’s too soon for that, but I have to deal with it. My mask was on in all common areas but I was in the minority. Will peer pressure eventually remove my mask? I don’t think so but I can’t say for sure. The Covid numbers are way down for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. I would like to take approximately 1/6,893,000th of the credit for that. At least that much. I kept my mask on and kept those around me safe from the virus that I don’t have. That’s not sarcasm. That’s honesty. Wear your effing mask.

Anyway, I was able to eat lunch today, but I was not really able to take a lunch break. That’s why there’s no lunch post from today, and that’s why I titled this post the way I did.

I might look into a new theme for this page. It might be time. Maybe something black and gloomy. Yeah, that would be cool. Black and gloomy is tight.

Now I need to get my exhausted ass home so I can eat dinner with the love of my life, check out how far the paint job got while I was out, watch the new episode of Star Trek Picard, and then finally get some of that sleep that I didn’t get any of last night.

Almost quittin’ time, babie!

Breakfast

To commemorate my return to the world of eating breakfast and the end of my intermittent fasting experiment, I commissioned a piece of art that I like to call Protein Shake and Vitamins: I Pick Things Up and Put Them Down.

Obviously I used one of my lucky Lowell Devils beer glasses. Obviously.