Selenay's Ramblings

The appointment with the rheumatologist could definitely have gone better. On the one hand he examined me for hours with great thoroughness and admitted that the symptoms, history and reaction to steroids implied inflammatory joint disease.

He conceded that could be sacroilitis, which is the early stages of ankylosing spondylitis. I'd actually be happy with that because there are treatment options and doctors would be willing to help with the pain relief.

On the other hand, it should have responded to the Humira which is a big minus in the "Sel has proper back problems, not in her head" column.

I had run out of energy by then and didn't feel like explaining that the Humira only partially controls the colitis and needs other meds as well to keep me in remission. If I'd been thinking more clearly...

Anyway, he's ordered x-rays because if it's anything inflammatory, the damage of over six years of it should be visible now. If anything shows up, he'll contact me to come back in. Otherwise it's back to my GP for help, but as he doesn't like to prescribe analgesia, I'm on my own.

I was pretty depressed and hopeless last night when I finally got home. It's looking like yet again my back pain has no origin, no soloution and no help available. The only good thing is that it has been behaving slightly better over the last five days. While it did not help with the rheumatologist visit, at least I can start to hope that just maybe this flare is coming to an end.

Mum is not going home tonight due to the border agency strikes tomorrow. Sis has to because she has work on Thursday. We're leaving for the airport in an hour or so and we'll know then whether her flight is going or not. Hope she doesn't sit on the Tarmac for too long tomorrow!

In other news, I think that I want the new Zelda game for my Wii. It sounds awesome.

Also, Infinity Blade for the iPad rocks :-)

I should probably get on with useful things like composing my Yuletide fic, right?

- People who call me and don't at some stage introduce themselves annoy me. I may think the voice is familiar, but I rarely recognise voices and I hate having to say "er, who is this?". Stop doing it. Particularly if your caller ID thing only gives me an (unfamiliar) number rather than a name.

- I have a horrible headache and this week's variation on the "no appetite due to pred withdrawal" includes feeling full at all times. It's not very pleasant.

- Tonight's supper is supposed to be chicken wings, fiddleheads and rice. It may be wings and fiddleheads. Or possibly a small bowl of cereal, if my tummy doesn't improve.

- Also, my back hurts. Argh.

- And I'm very tired for no good reason.

- I fully intend to sleep in on my first pred-free morning. I'm turning off the alarm clock and just seeing when I wake up. This whole having to get up to take pred by a set time in the day has sucked so much.

- I'm finding a lot more to watch on Netflix than I thought I would. The TV offerings are still lacking massive chunks, but I can get Dollhouse, Leverage, and finally finish watching Survivors. Plus a bunch of other things.

- In fact, I'm liking it sufficiently to try to set up my Wii to use it. That's tonight's job.

- There are also a few movies that I've been meaning to watch.

- It's quite likely that I'll be keeping my Netflix subscription beyond the free trial, although I do hope they get the licensing up here sorted out properly because there is so much missing that is available on the US version. Argh.

- I love living in Canada so much, but sometimes we do get cheated out of rather a lot. Not to mention over-charged on everything else.

- One of my colleagues is insisting on propping his smelly feet up on his desk. I may sort of hate him today

- Ooh, I can watch the whole of All Creatures Great and Small and Gavin & Stacey on Netflix. Hmm. This may get used more than I thought...

I had a lovely Easter weekend and felt fantastic all the way through.

Obviously mother nature looked and that and laughed, because I now have a trapped nerve/muscle spasm right between my shoulder blades. I didn't do anything, I swear! I was just sitting at my desk this morning, shifted and got blind-sided by pain. Now I'm having to do lots of stretching and moving every few minutes just to stop my upper body seizing up completely. I did this two years ago and just had to wait it out. Ugh.

If it seizes up overnight, I can easily see myself calling in sick tomorrow seeing as the last time, it took me over forty minutes just to get out of bad on the first day.

Still, lovely weekend. Lots of reading, baking, relaxing and enjoying myself. On Monday, I took a vacation day to make a four-day weekend, which meant that I was free for coffee at the last minute with a friend that I hadn't seen in ages. Lovely. I made hot cross buns, which came out beautifully, and a chocolate cheesecakes that's a visual disaster but tastes wonderful. There were many books consumed and they were all enjoyable. My TV wasn't on much, but I did watch a couple of daft murder mysteries and there might have been some Doctor Who...

I even did some kind of work out every day. I'm trying to vary aerobic-y type things with strength training/yoga type things, but did quite a lot of the more strenuous aerobic-y stuff over the weekend than I normally do. It's nice to feel myself getting stronger and I can tell my stamina is improving. I can now do the 20 minute Zumba work-outs with enough energy/puff left for a couple of Wii Fit things afterwards.

And on Monday, I managed the thing that defeated me a year ago. I did an Island Lap on the Wii running game. 10 minutes of steady running, something that utterly killed me a year ago, and I managed it even after doing a few other aerobic-y things. Yesterday I did it again, just to prove that I could. It's nice to have the fitness levels to do that kind of stuff without keeling over. After all, nearly three years ago I climbed Snowdon. I want to be that person again. I've missed her.

I'm hoping that the fabulous trapped nerve/muscle spasm/whatever is not my body's way of telling me to slow down. Or my body's way of punishing me for doing aerobics rather than yoga for a couple of days. Tonight may have to be a no-exercise, heat-pads and warm bath night. Or maybe just some very gentle yoga-ish stuff followed by heat pads and a warm bath.

The good thing is that I've been thinking that I'm coming down with a cold, which would suck but also be a sign that my immune system is normalizing a bit rather than being completely hyper-active. Nope, no cold. Given the choice between back pain and a cold, though, I think that I'd take the cold. At least they're predictable and don't cause lock-ups!

Right, I promise that today there will be no mention of Doctor Who outside of this sentence. Let's see how I do, shall we?

I had a bit of a knitting crisis at the weekend. For the last couple of weeks I've been knitting some socks (which I love, BTW, and really need to photograph) but on Saturday I finished them and needed a new project. A few months ago I bought some light fingering yarn with vague plans to make a sweater vest. The problem is that there are no patterns out there for a vest in yarn this fine (apparently everyone uses worsted or heavier) and I've realised that the major reason that I don't already own a vest is because I don't wear them.
( Cut for knitting discussion and slight flailing )

At the same time that I was having a knitting crisis, a friend of mine had been talking to a local teacher about a sweater design course. I'd already planned to sign up, but the crisis has given me an idea for what my project will be. If the design that I want isn't out there, then I'm going to make my own pattern, damn it!

In other news, I am loving the Wii Fit Plus.

( Cut for length )

Today is going to be a very odd day, I fear. Between vacation and sickness,
seven members of my ten-strong team are absent. Including all my bosses.
Hmm. And everything I was doing needed a meeting with my boss this morning,
who is sick.

Epic goof off day ahead, then!

It's probably a good thing. I'm totally shattered. Due to a lack of bad
music (the music was pretty good and quiet enough that we didn't have to
yell over it so I didn't get a headache) at the pub last night, I stayed out
at knit night for way too long. Seriously, any Thursday that involves me
rolling home at midnight is too late. It was fun, though.

This evening I am heading out to Montana's for all you can eat ribs. It has
to be done. There will be three of us attempting to eat our body weight in
yummy, succulent ribs because we are rabid carnivores and sometimes these
things are just necessary.

Tomorrow I shall be much healthier, I promise.

Apparently BBC Worldwide has confirmed that a Doctor Who game is in the
worlds for the Wii, potential release date this Christmas. I just happen to
own a Wii...

This is something that I have neglected to discuss. My Wii finally (!!)
arrived on Friday and it is insanely fun. Of course, I had to go out and buy
a better tennis game on Saturday because while the one it came with is fun,
it just isn't quite enough. So I have EA Grand Slam Tennis, which is
brilliant. I have been happily losing in straight sets to various tennis
legends, although I have finally found a lesser player (Kei Nishimori) who I
can win a few points off before losing in straight sets. It's much more
encouraging. The game includes a fitness section, so it tracks the little
person that I created to play as and estimates the calories that I've used
while flailing around like a crazy person. It even lets me set fitness
goals. So I have the dual goal of trying to burn calories and also one day
win a game (not a match, just one little game) of tennis.

I'm starting small and building up in my goals.

I think that I'm going to get the MotionPlus attachment for sure to make
this game even more fun.

The golf game that came with the Wii is also great fun and I'm going to be
looking for an upgraded version of that. I want to play on real courses, not
highly improbable islands. There appears to be a Tiger Woods PGA game that
looks good - anyone know if it's MotionPlus compatible?

Nintendo has also just brought out a package of racket games - including
badminton and table tennis - that I may be looking into for added fun with
flailing around.

The Wii Fit and balance board have just been dispatched so I'll have those
soon. I'm not that interested in any of the games where I can just sit
around and play. Jumping around like a lunatic is much more fun and I don't
even notice that I'm getting some exercise. It's working just as intended! I
love my Wii :-D