Sorry for the Silence

It's been a while since I blogged and I don't really have a very good excuse. Mostly my online time has been filled with working on the genealogy project so Lizzie would have it available for her Human Genetics project. I got everything that she needed ready for her to have time to prepare her presentation.  We worked on it together over Thanksgiving weekend.

Speaking of Thanksgiving weekend, we had a lovely time. We checked into the Homewood Suites hotel on Wednesday night and were greeted with a complimentary Thanksgiving meal for dinner. It definitely wasn't home cooked, but very tasty. And our room was lovely. It was a one bedroom suite with a separate living area and kitchenette. Very, very nice and comfortable. As a bonus they served a hot breakfast every morning and a hot dinner every evening, and the rate I paid for this was only $56 a night. What a deal. I will be staying with them again and soon. Lizzie and I slept in on Thursday, but not so late as to miss their breakfast. Then we went back to our suite to watch Macy's parade on TV and of course the dog show for Lizzie. She has been fascinated by that since she was 2 years old. After a morning of television gluttony we headed out to Buca Beppo for an Italian feast of antipasto salad, baked rigatoni and pumpkin cheesecake. It was absolutely delicious. Then we went to the theater and saw The Muppet Movie. So Thanksgiving was filled with balloons, puppies and muppets. What a day. We spent the evening resting in the room and got up to hit the mall at 11:00 for black Friday people watching. It was seriously hysterical. I decided that black Friday shoppers, unlike what I had imagined, are for the most part too young to have graduated from high school and decidedly male. We got back to the room around 3:30 am and boy did I sleep. I didn't wake up until almost 4:00 pm. Lizzie had gone to breakfast alone and brought me back a plate. For lunch she had the antipasto salad and some of the rigatoni. We did some more shopping and worked on her genetics project for a while, but I was too tired to do much of anything. The next morning I took her to her dorm and spent Saturday alone watching Christmas movies. I didn't go home until Sunday evening and I was surprised that I was home alone for quite a while. Ken was out at a friends house and Cheryl didn't come home until late that night.

Now for the bad part of the weekend, part of the reason that I was needing so much sleep was that about a week before this I was hit with a flare-up of IBS and Orthostatic Hypotension. Both IBS and Orthostatic Hypotension are part of a group of conditions that make up Dysautonomia. Dysautonomia is an imbalance in the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems that regulate the automatic functions of the body. Dr. K officially diagnosed me with Neurally Mediated Cardiogenic Dysautonomia with Orthostatic Hypotension in 2005 when he did the complete cardiac work-up after I fainted driving my car. But being an electrophysiologist he didn't mention the other conditions that are caused by Dysautonomia, like IBS. IBS I generally figured out on my own. I can go months or years and not have a problem with any of these, and then something happens to throw things out of balance and I'm having trouble with one or more of them. When I have a flare, I feel as if the plug on my energy level has been pulled, and I have trouble regulating my body temperature. I'm sweating or having chills when I am in a comfortable room. All of this is a nuisance, but other than it's over dramatic presentation, it is unlikely to be harmful. The only thing I can do is treat the symptoms, BRAT diet and probiotics for IBS and salt and fluids for OH. It's just that I hate that I missed so much time on Thanksgiving weekend with Lizzie because I was so tired. Here's to hoping that this resolves itself soon.

The other issue that I've been concerned about over the past few weeks is that while showering in the hotel, because the light was so much better than what I have at home I noticed that a small area of fat necrosis in the scar area of my reconstructed breast has started growing. It has me wondering if it is really fat necrosis. Again, if I left it completely alone, and it is cancer, it could get ugly. But as long as I get it looked into, treatment is really simple. I have an appointment after the holidays with Dr. SH and I don't think it's necessary to try to move the appointment ahead. It just kind of bugs me that it's there again. Even if she still thinks that it's still fat necrosis, I think I'm going to ask her to remove it. At the size it is now, it would be a small procedure that could be closed with a stitch and I wouldn't even need to be anesthetized. I would rather that it be gone and not worried about.

So, health wise, I'm being pecked to death by ducks. But otherwise, I'm having a nice holiday season.