For the first year in I don't know how long, I'm not dressing up for Halloween. I just don't have the energy. Or the money so it kind of worked out. Last night Rooster and I went to Old St. Andrews Inn, a purportedly haunted bar here in Chicago. We didn't see any ghosts, but the food was pretty good and the beers just kept comin'. Word to the wise, Elephant beer by Carlsberg is on the strong side, and more than three of them might not be for the lightweights. Not that I am by any stretch of the imagination a lightweight. The bar also had live music and the band was pretty darned good. I would go back, and probably will.
Tonight I'll be watching either a scary movie or one of the multiple ghost hunter type shows on cable. Of course, I may just watch Abbot and Costello meet Frankenstein again.
--Little Bird is over the hangover
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Succotash
The newest things to report: A heart healthy cooking program, My folks finally get a decent TV, and I start yet another new medicine.
Okay, first things first. My step-father is battling high cholesterol so he wanted some healthy foods for dinners. And he doesn't want it to cost an arm and a leg. My folks had been buying stuff from the prepared foods section of Whole Foods, and that was pretty pricey. So I spent a day or two searching the internet looking for tasty sounding/looking recipes for him. I found around 30. I already had 10, so I think he's set for the next month. Seriously, I could cook one different thing every day and not repeat for well over a month (Sundays I get to be a little less strict about the menu). This ought to be interesting. I figure that by the end of winter, I'll be very very good when it comes to cooking vegetables. Very good. Due to practice alone.
The TV. For years my parents have been making do with a giant obsolete tube tv. The picture was fuzzy. The sound was awful. So they bought a new one. A flat screen! AND a blu-ray player!!! The picture is amazing. The SOUND is incredible. A few months ago my step-father accidentally purchased a few blu-ray disks (he didn't realize that they wouldn't play on the DVD player), so we popped one of those in to see the picture quality. One of the things that a person might never really want to see in the clearest possible picture is an extreme close up of Keith Richards' face. I'm just sayin'.
The pills. Tomorrow I start a generic version of Prozac. Budeprion has been relatively kind to me, but it costs over $100 a month and I don't have insurance to help with it. This new medicine is under $20 a month. The citalopram was less than $5, but the side effects were unacceptable. I read the side effects listed for this new pill, and they aren't all that great either, but they are also not evident in EVERY patient. Of course, they weren't for the last one either, but hey, I'll try it. If it helps, and doesn't cause painful or embarrassing side effects, I'll stick with it.
---Little Bird will be cooking up a storm!
Okay, first things first. My step-father is battling high cholesterol so he wanted some healthy foods for dinners. And he doesn't want it to cost an arm and a leg. My folks had been buying stuff from the prepared foods section of Whole Foods, and that was pretty pricey. So I spent a day or two searching the internet looking for tasty sounding/looking recipes for him. I found around 30. I already had 10, so I think he's set for the next month. Seriously, I could cook one different thing every day and not repeat for well over a month (Sundays I get to be a little less strict about the menu). This ought to be interesting. I figure that by the end of winter, I'll be very very good when it comes to cooking vegetables. Very good. Due to practice alone.
The TV. For years my parents have been making do with a giant obsolete tube tv. The picture was fuzzy. The sound was awful. So they bought a new one. A flat screen! AND a blu-ray player!!! The picture is amazing. The SOUND is incredible. A few months ago my step-father accidentally purchased a few blu-ray disks (he didn't realize that they wouldn't play on the DVD player), so we popped one of those in to see the picture quality. One of the things that a person might never really want to see in the clearest possible picture is an extreme close up of Keith Richards' face. I'm just sayin'.
The pills. Tomorrow I start a generic version of Prozac. Budeprion has been relatively kind to me, but it costs over $100 a month and I don't have insurance to help with it. This new medicine is under $20 a month. The citalopram was less than $5, but the side effects were unacceptable. I read the side effects listed for this new pill, and they aren't all that great either, but they are also not evident in EVERY patient. Of course, they weren't for the last one either, but hey, I'll try it. If it helps, and doesn't cause painful or embarrassing side effects, I'll stick with it.
---Little Bird will be cooking up a storm!
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Just a Note
Hello everyone! Today's post is from New Mexico. It is sunny and cool and Mama Bird's B-day party was a rousing success. No cell service up here though. So if you haven't gotten a call from me (assuming you were expecting one) I can't do it.
Okay, on to the other thing I wanted to address. This is a blog. It is sort of an on-line diary. If you are not interested in the goings on in my life, you are not required to read it. However, if you're going to comment about how no one wants to hear/read about my issues, have the balls to sign your goddamned name. Even if it is a screen name. If you feel the need to say something, clearly you care. Also, if you know I won't publish it due to the fact that you are a fucking asshole, why comment at all?
--Little Bird says FY,YFF!
Okay, on to the other thing I wanted to address. This is a blog. It is sort of an on-line diary. If you are not interested in the goings on in my life, you are not required to read it. However, if you're going to comment about how no one wants to hear/read about my issues, have the balls to sign your goddamned name. Even if it is a screen name. If you feel the need to say something, clearly you care. Also, if you know I won't publish it due to the fact that you are a fucking asshole, why comment at all?
--Little Bird says FY,YFF!
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Irritations
Hello! I'm back! I know I've been gone for what seems like forever. There have been... issues. Boy HOWDY, have there been issues. Let's start with the biggest one.
Several months ago I started a new medication. One that was supposed to help regulate mood and keep the brain chemistry in the right balance. I suppose it did those things, but at some expense. The list of side effects that came with the meds was daunting. And I ended up with some of the most awful ones. Extreme lethargy (we're talking tired ALL THE TIME). Increased sweating (as if I didn't already sweat too much). And last but certainly not least, diarrhea. Unpredictable, explosive, and extremely unpleasant.
The reasons I switched to it were because I wasn't happy with the medication I had been taking and also the new one was only $4. As opposed to the $96 I had previously been paying.
I stopped taking my meds. I stopped because I was tired of being tired. Because I couldn't go anywhere for several hours after taking it for fear of shitting my pants. I stopped taking them and then things started to get bad.
I got... irritable. Irritable like just-woken-up-haven't-had-caffeine-yet-PMS times like a thousand. It was... not fun for me. I can't imagine that I was much fun to be around. I wasn't sleeping well. I gained twenty pounds (which only irritated me more).
So the other day Mama Bird and I were discussing this and I made an appointment with my doctor. I get to see her in two weeks. In the mean time I'm going to New Mexico. A twenty four hour train ride sounds like just the thing for an irritated mess, right? Two days after I made the appointment it dawned on me that I could call my doctor and ask her if she could phone in a prescription of my OLD meds so that I wouldn't kill anyone on the train. She did and I've been taking them for five or six days now. Already things are better.
The meds I'm taking now are actually different from the old old ones. Before I was taking two pills in the morning and they were sustained release. This meant that I was getting a double dose in the morning and petered out to nothing in the evenings. The NEW old meds are the same drug, but one pill that is also sustained release, but sustained for the whole day.
The new meds cost $117 a month, and that's not great, but at least I'm no more irritated than the next person now.
I think I've explained the whole brain chemistry thing as it pertains to me before here, but I'm gonna do it again.
I have Neurofibromatosis (NF). And a non-verbal learning disorder (NLD). Because of the NF, the nerves in my brain are slightly compromised. Imagine that nerves are like electrical wires, and those wires have that protective sheath insulating them. Okay, the insulation on the wires in my brain? Full of holes. It's not supposed to be like that. Because it's like that, I use more of a specific brain chemical than I make. Because of all that, I have the NLD. Fun isn't it? The meds I take balance all that out. They slow down my re-uptake of the chemical, so there's enough to go around.
At least that's how I understand it. But my brain is wired weird, so I might be wrong,
It's possible that my lack of posting has been because of the imbalance I've been experiencing. We'll see.
--Little Bird is (re)medicated
Several months ago I started a new medication. One that was supposed to help regulate mood and keep the brain chemistry in the right balance. I suppose it did those things, but at some expense. The list of side effects that came with the meds was daunting. And I ended up with some of the most awful ones. Extreme lethargy (we're talking tired ALL THE TIME). Increased sweating (as if I didn't already sweat too much). And last but certainly not least, diarrhea. Unpredictable, explosive, and extremely unpleasant.
The reasons I switched to it were because I wasn't happy with the medication I had been taking and also the new one was only $4. As opposed to the $96 I had previously been paying.
I stopped taking my meds. I stopped because I was tired of being tired. Because I couldn't go anywhere for several hours after taking it for fear of shitting my pants. I stopped taking them and then things started to get bad.
I got... irritable. Irritable like just-woken-up-haven't-had-caffeine-yet-PMS times like a thousand. It was... not fun for me. I can't imagine that I was much fun to be around. I wasn't sleeping well. I gained twenty pounds (which only irritated me more).
So the other day Mama Bird and I were discussing this and I made an appointment with my doctor. I get to see her in two weeks. In the mean time I'm going to New Mexico. A twenty four hour train ride sounds like just the thing for an irritated mess, right? Two days after I made the appointment it dawned on me that I could call my doctor and ask her if she could phone in a prescription of my OLD meds so that I wouldn't kill anyone on the train. She did and I've been taking them for five or six days now. Already things are better.
The meds I'm taking now are actually different from the old old ones. Before I was taking two pills in the morning and they were sustained release. This meant that I was getting a double dose in the morning and petered out to nothing in the evenings. The NEW old meds are the same drug, but one pill that is also sustained release, but sustained for the whole day.
The new meds cost $117 a month, and that's not great, but at least I'm no more irritated than the next person now.
I think I've explained the whole brain chemistry thing as it pertains to me before here, but I'm gonna do it again.
I have Neurofibromatosis (NF). And a non-verbal learning disorder (NLD). Because of the NF, the nerves in my brain are slightly compromised. Imagine that nerves are like electrical wires, and those wires have that protective sheath insulating them. Okay, the insulation on the wires in my brain? Full of holes. It's not supposed to be like that. Because it's like that, I use more of a specific brain chemical than I make. Because of all that, I have the NLD. Fun isn't it? The meds I take balance all that out. They slow down my re-uptake of the chemical, so there's enough to go around.
At least that's how I understand it. But my brain is wired weird, so I might be wrong,
It's possible that my lack of posting has been because of the imbalance I've been experiencing. We'll see.
--Little Bird is (re)medicated
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