The Good, the Bad, and the Crampy

We'll start with the good, shall we?
1. I weighed myself this morning, and it's the lowest I've been since.... ummm... well... probably in three years. At least. This is an exciting development, especially with the plateau I've been dealing with for the last three weeks.
2. I got my period yesterday. In case you were counting (which of course you were! Why wouldn't you be tracking my cycle?), that would have given me a 48 day cycle. Jeez louise. I had all but given up hope of having good 'ol Aunt Flo come to town on her own accord. I berated myself for slacking on the diet this month, for eating too much sugar, for not working out enough. I was depressed about having come so far only to take steps backward. But alas, cycle Day One was yesterday, and I am a happy camper. Oooh, this also makes the low weigh-in today exciting because I'm always chunkier this time of the month.
3. Oh yeah, did I mention I got a NEW JOB? Dr Boy and I are officially moving on up in the world... or at least up in the state. I am terrified, thrilled, nervous, confident, and relieved. And a few other things, but #2 definitely explains why I bawled on Wednesday when the news arrived. I really can't wait for the job to start, to get a sense of fulfillment back when I go to work. And, one my best friends will be a quick jog away, which is fantastic.

And, onto the bad...
1. I got my period yesterday. This means that last cycle, I didn't get preggers. Officially. As if the negative pregnancy tests screaming "NOT PREGNANT" weren't enough to convince me. This really sucked, to put it bluntly, because I had convinced myself the tests were just wrong. I had spotting 10 days after the positive OPK, which I chalked up to implantation bleeding. I was exhausted, way more than normal. And my boobs ached so much I couldn't walk down stairs without fondling myself. I have no idea what all that meant now, other than maybe I need to hit up the Victoria's Secret sale to pick up a new bra or two. Depressing.
2. I'm moving. I'm terrified for a lot of reasons. Did I make the wrong decision? Is leaving my family 400 miles away the wrong move for someone trying to have her first child? I feel terribly guilty about leaving. Plus, there's the renting our condo part, which is going to be a headache. Hopefully not, but probably so.

And last, the crampy...
1. I got my period yesterday. I have cramps. I have years worth of cramps, rolled up into one tidy few days that make my stomach feel like it's ripping itself out of my body.

That's all.

My favorite cookies. Ever.

It's been a while since I ranted about the depravity that is a limited-sugar lifestyle, so it must mean that I'm adjusting.... or cheating. Up until this last week or so it'd been more towards the adjusting side, but then I got a serious craving for my favorite cookies. When I say these are my favorite cookies, I mean I actually purchased a CASE of the chips used to make them from Amazon when I couldn't find them in the grocery store anymore. True story. I have three bags left.

When I was living in Texas, I came across the most wonderful Hershey chips ever- cinnamon flavored. Not butterscotch, not peanut butter, but cinnamon. Imagine the possibilities! Of course I'm not imaginative when it comes to cooking, but I do know how to follow a recipe pretty well if I do say so myself. I know, I'm talented, huh? On the back of the bag, there was a recipe for Cinnamon Oatmeal Cookies. And now I'm hooked like an addict on crack. When I moved back to California, I couldn't find the chips in store, so I made do with Amazon. I assure you they were cheaper when I bought them. I swear. I think.

Either way these are my favorite cookies ever. No raisins of course. 'Nuff said. Make them now.

Poor baby.

This is Vesta's right ear. Back when we were pricking her ears 6 to 12 times a day (yeah, we were seriously doing it that much), the red marks weren't as big. Or maybe her whole ear was just red? Or maybe we were just delusional and tried to convince ourselves that were weren't imposing cruel and unusual punishment on our firstborn.






This is Vesta's left ear. Not quite as bad. Right? Right?? When (and if) you home-test blood glucose on a cat, the ears have to "learn" to bleed over time. And if you stop testing obsessive-compulsively, they forget. As you can see.







So now she's just going to vomit up little pieces of Christmas tree to get back at us.
Happy Holidays to us!

Relapse? Let's hope not.

Seeeeriously? A more superstitious person (AKA Dr. Boy) would think that Vesta decided to go and be diabetic again because she knew we just sold and/or donated most of her diabetes supplies.

Long story short, Dr. Boy came home from work tonight to Vesta hanging out in the cat tree, not budging even to come down and eat. If you've ever met Vesta, you know she's a food-monger for which this is completely uncharacteristic behavior. He pried her out of the tree, plopped her in front of the food, but she'd only touch a few bites. Out comes the evil Ear Pricker, and low and behold- her blood sugar was spiked up into the high 200's. (When she went off the juice, she was holding that down between 60 and 90).

So.... we'll see where she's at tomorrow... and hope she got into some food she wasn't supposed to when we weren't home.

Things I am thankful for

1. Being done with work for today.
It was a really long, busy work day, one that I was not excited to walk into this morning. I got thrown onto a busier forecasting desk than I'm really used to, plus we had to issue a bunch of wind and frost/freeze products. A bit on the overwhelming side, but you know what? I think I came out ok. Maybe better than ok? And certainly better for it.

2. Having family that WANTS to come visit for the holidays.
Sure, it's been a long 3 or 4 days cleaning, organizing, shopping, and oh wait... Making sure the guest bathroom stops leaking poop water into our kitchen. Yeah, discovered that one on Monday evening. EXACTLY what you want to deal with less than two days before family comes to stay with you. I'm exhausted, Doctor Boy's exhausted, and yes, we complain about the onslaught of Meier Madness. But when it really comes down to it, we are both so very thankful that his brother, new wife, and parents WANT to drive down and visit us for the long weekend. And I AM looking forward to seeing them... and Harry Potter.

3. Having a clean house.
Doesn't happen a lot, so I love it right now. LOVE. IT.

There's so much more, but the Meier's just pulled up... Happy Thanksgiving, yo!

Quiz Time!

Guess who has PCOS? Me!!!

It turns out that the whole not getting my period (without the aid of medication) thing for 21 months is because I have PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome). It's fun. Side effects include anovulation (not ovulating) and insulin-resistance (getting fat, increased risk of diabetes and heart disease). Turns out that the two rounds of Chlomid I did earlier this year were probably pointless, as another part of this whole hormone inbalance is making my womb inhospitable. ie: Even if the hubs and I were successful, it wouldn't, well, take.

So what are we going to do about that? The doctor I'm seeing (who is an internist, not an RE (reproductive endocrinologist) which raises some issues of its own) has started me on metformin (500mg for now, upping the dose in a month) and a special weight loss program. What weight loss program, you ask? Well, losing 10-15 percent of my body weight, and a low carb, low sugar diet. So I have to lose 20 to 30 pounds. And eat less than 140 grams of carbs every day, and less than 15 grams of sugar. Oh, and get 50 minutes of cardio 5 days a week.

Here I am on day 4 of this crap. And let me tell you, the sugar restriction? Im-freakin'-possible. 15 grams of sugar? Here's a few things that have 15 grams of sugar in them:
- cup of yoplait yogurt, certain flavors
- 2 Kashi granola bars
- 20 pieces of candy corn
- 5 whole carrots
- 0.75 cups of grapes

So you can imagine how much this sucks. Big time. DB (Doctor Boy Hubs) says that it's more important to stick to the carb restriction than it is the sugar, that the sugar restriction is unrealistic. Obviously not to go crazy with the sugar, but not necessarily 15g. And you know what?I am A-O-K fine with that. Even though I'm a vegetarian, it's ok. Sucky for sure, but ok. Because if it gets me to this?


It's worth it.

Excuse me.

Um, mom?






Can't you see I'm eating?





Thanks alot.

Would you like some insulin with that glucose?

This is Vesta... Vesta, say hi! No? Why not? Oh.... I get it. You're mad. Mad about the whole getting DIABETES thing. Yeah, I'd be mad too.


So about a week and a half ago we noticed that one of our cats was urinating inappropriately. That's a fancy way of saying peeing on all our stuff- the bed, bathmats, laundry, floor next to the litter... We had a feeling it was Vesta, our 9 year old high maintenance kitty. Took her to the vet, and after urine and blood testing, found out she has diabetes. Yep, just like people. We got the official word Monday morning, and started her on insulin shots yesterday morning.

The insulin is fine- aside from the whole needing to be home every 12 hours (7am/pm) to administer them. She's really good with the shots. The more difficult part, however, is the glucose testing. That's almost as important as the insulin, because it tells us how her body is responding to everything, and whether she's hyper- or hypoglycemic. Those are both bad (convulsing vs blindness and other really bad side effects). Very bad. Imagine trying to poke your cat's ear and then do one of those glucose meter tests on it- Fun picture, right? Not really.

So we're dealing. All of this on top of leaving for Mexico (I know, you feel really really bad for us right now) tomorrow night. At least we found a place to board her that is comfortable with the testing and injections.

Ain't life grand?

I'm sad.

Not in an "I need to have a good cry" kind of way, just sad in more of a "Wow, that's really sad" kind of way. I've had this blog name for about 2 month now, but just decided to let inspiration strike and actually go about posting something. Not that that's sad in and of itself, just that this is what I finally chose to post.

Is it sad that I want to be a mom so I can ask for this necklace? Why yes, it is. Don't get me wrong, I want to me a mom for so much more than that, but it'd be really super if that happened sooner than later so the hubs could surprise me with this little gem.

Yep, Sad.