All Around the Internet Friday!

Phew!  The Health Benefits of Coffee - Good news for me, because I just can’t seem to give the stuff up!
What?  The Cheese isn’t magic after all?
Alternative Funereal Songs

Burglar in the wrong line of work - some people just really can’t catch a break.  He probably should have just left after regaining consciousness the first time.

Bookmarked for the designers among us:
80 Best of Adobe Illustrator tutorials, brushes, .eps
Beautiful and Creative Examples of Color and Design
Mashable’s Blogger Toolbox
Common Photoshop Mistakes and Abuses

The Photographs:
Very cute and clever photos of two adorable little girls!
Some of the best Inauguration Day Photos that I’ve seen
The title says it all: Stunning!
Cool light graffiti!
Terrific HowTo on Selective Color Photography from Blissfully Domestic
Terrific Macro Photography

And the video: So cool.

The Doctor’s Office

On Tuesday, I had a long overdue doctor’s appointment. My foot issues are still with me and even though it is improving, my foot still hurts a lot. I think that 6 months is a little bit too long to be in pain, especially if there’s something that can be done about it, so I called and made an appointment for 2:30 on Tuesday. Of course, I’m always early for everything, so I got there are 2:05, signed in and sat down. At 2:40, a woman who had been there longer than I had, stood up and made the announcement that her appointment had been for 1:30, and she still hadn’t been seen and had somehow slipped through the cracks. The receptionist assured her that she had not slipped through the cracks, but that she would be seen shortly. At that point, I seriously considered rescheduling, but it had taken me so long to get myself there I decided to just wait it out. Thank goodness for Facebook and Ms. Pacman Apps. They finally called me in at about 2:50 and a student P.A. took my history. I told her about my foot and also mentioned that I wanted to talk to the doctor about hormone replacement, just to open up a dialogue. I’d had blood work done in April, which showed that I’m very healthy, but I have some things going on that are obviously hormonal and I’d like to talk about them.

The student left and I could hear her discussing me with another woman, but I didn’t know who. The P.A. that I had seen in April was no longer with the practice and my appointment was supposed to be with a Dr. who was new to the practice. A male doctor. So who was this woman who was making decisions about my care? After about 30 minutes, a woman stepped into the room and started rapid fire, giving me instruction and opinion. I interrupted her and said, “Excuse me, who are you?” She seemed startled, but quickly recovered and introduced herself as the P.A. on staff who handles feminine issues. Ok, fine - but I have a real problem with the lack of respect that medical professionals all too often show to patients. I am in charge of my care and I demand the same respect that I show others. I also demand to be treated as though I might be intelligent enough to decide on my care and I don’t appreciate being tossed around without being told what’s changing, who’s involved and where they think we might be going. As far as I’m concerned, my health care professionals work for me and as with any service provider, the customer is more than entitled to respect and compassion and please, leave your ego outside; I’m just not that impressed.

Anyway.

After our awkward start, she settled down as did I and she informed me that the blood work that I’d had in April was not as stellar as the previous guy said. Honestly, the only thing they would confess to is that my triglycerides were 2 points higher than normal. Ok, fine, I’ll go for bloodwork again. I’m annoyed that we’re starting from square one, but if they want to check my thyroid again, fine. Every year I go through this. Every doctor thinks that my symptoms stem from my thyroid and every year the test comes out normal. I always let it go, because they keep telling me that I’m just too young for hormone issues and I’ve thought that this was just something that I’d have to live with. After the past year though, and all the focus that’s been put on hormone replacement and peri-menopause, I have hope that there are other things to check. I agreed to the blood test, figuring we’ll just start there and hey, maybe something will show up this time with the thyroid and if not, that will give me the leverage I need to start the hormone testing.

Then, she says… “I think you’re just depressed. ” Really. That just pissed me off. I’m a lot of things, but depressed isn’t one of them. Stressed? Overworked? Overwhelmed? Check, check, check, but I’m not depressed and at that point I lost a little bit of the hope I’d held just a few moments before. Why is it that when a woman doesn’t feel “right”, when there’s just something off, there’s this automatic jump to “she’s depressed”? Haven’t we come farther than that? Especially from a woman? I might expect that from the old boys club, but I certainly didn’t expect it from a woman. I assured her that I am certainly not depressed and let’s just move on to the blood work. I don’t think that she liked me very much but I don’t give a crap. It’s my body and I need to be my own advocate.

As for the foot, she prescribed 800MG of Motrin 3 times a day for the anti-inflammatory properties. I filled the prescription, but who knew that Motrin could knock me on my ass like that? Did you? Anyway - my foot does feel better, but I’m going to have to call and see if just taking at night is an option as I couldn’t possibly drive or take care of any of my other myriad responsibilities taking that three times a day.

You know what I hate? I hate that I feel like I must prepare myself to be combative when I make a doctor’s appointment. And whatever happened to the doctor that I was supposed to see? Does he even know that someone else took over my care? And how difficult do I seem as a patient if I even bring that up? I guess I’ll just have to choose my battles a little bit carefully here.

Oh Great, I Think my Dog has PMS.

If you’ve been visiting me for any length of time, you know that in September we adopted a beautiful Irish Wolfhound puppy.  She was rescued from a puppy mill and at the time of rescue was severely malnourished.  The rescuer and her vet of choice both recommended not spaying Fiona until she was 12 months old because of the malnourishment and because she’s what they refer to as a “giant breed”.  They surmised that we probably wouldn’t have a problem because she might not have a heat until after her first year due to being so malnourished. (Our vet didn’t agree, but I didn’t want to chance it)  She turns one in March and tomorrow we were going to go buy a voucher from the Humane Society to help alleviate some of the cost and make an appointment for her. A day late and a dollar short, I’m afraid.

On Saturday morning, she snapped a little bit at Riley (our other, neutered, dog), which was so out of character for her, that it gave me pause.  Granted, he had his nose inside of her ear and I might have snapped at someone for that as well, so I warned the kids to give her a bit more of a berth and we all went about our business.  She seemed lethargic for the rest of the day and even when allowed to run off leash around the yard, something that she loves to do ordinarily, she just wasn’t that interested.

Yesterday I was walking up the stairs which are polished wood and show every speck of dust and dirt and noticed that there were little pink dots on the steps.  Obviously they were liquid and as I went to get a tissue, it dawned on me just exactly what they were.  After my initial panic and screaming, which will certainly result in therapy for my children regarding women, cycles, menstruation and biology in general, I calmed down and figured I should probably just deal with it as panic never solved anything. It feels good sometimes, but doesn’t help. I found a pair of bicycle type shorts that my daughter has outgrown and was going to good will and a maxi pad and created a makeshift garment that would at least protect my rugs. The dog was so horrified by her new outfit that I couldn’t even bring myself to take a picture of the poor creature.  The look in her eye caused me to suggest that Jim and I take over her care completely from the children as I figured if she bit someone, it should be an adult.  She was afraid to sit, afraid to stand, afraid to walk and really miserable.

I sat around lamenting my situation when it occurred to me that there are probably products for this sort of thing.  I called Petco and they assured me that there were doggy diapers that would take care of this situation and that they were only $20 a pack.  At that point I probably would have paid $150 a pack, so I was quite happy with the price.   Jim ran out to pick them up (what a relaxing day off for him, right?  Not.) and when he brought them home and took one out of the package,  I realized that we had just paid $20 for a $6 package of diapers with a hole cut out of the back to accommodate the tail.   I didn’t really care at that point.  I was just glad that someone else had thought of a solution and I didn’t have to.  We got the diaper on her and at least she was able to lie on the rug in front of the glass door, which is her favorite spot.

We have a plan.  She won’t be allowed off leash until this fiasco is over and we’re still going to go ahead and buy the voucher and make the appointment for March. All in all, I think we handled it fairly well.  Disaster had been averted.  Fiona’s still not happy though and when I look in her eyes, I recognize that look.  It says, “leave me the hell alone”, and I know just how she feels.

anthropomorphic? What’s that mean?

Cross posted at BlogHer

Alternative Physical Education or OMG It’s Cold!

If you know me at all, you’ve heard me complaining about the weather lately. I grew up in the frozen tundra of Long Island and moved to Florida as soon as I possibly could. While I hated the cold from the beginning, since I moved south I have become very accustomed to being warm. I can no longer bear any kind of cold whatsoever. Seriously. If the temperature dips below 55 degrees, I stay home, under the covers, in a jacket and socks.

Given those circumstances, being in charge of the physical education of two children has proven to be problematic for the three to five weeks when it’s too cold for me in Central Florida. I have resorted to all kinds of ridiculous ideas to keep the kids active, but somehow I don’t think that the Dept. of Education would think of my vacuum dancing as  acceptable curriculum.

All that has changed now, thanks to modern technology and video games.  That’s right, video games.  I know that you must have seen by now how many women are using the Wii for fitness…  well, I’m using it for PE.  And you know what?  It rocks.  The kids can choose the activity and it’s a great way to expose them to different movements than they would normally be exposed to.  Take the tennis… We don’t have tennis rackets, we don’t have a court and I couldn’t imagine shelling out the money to buy the equipment not knowing if anyone would enjoy it.  Now, the kids can experience the basic premise of the movements and if they enjoy it, well, then we’ll consider the purchase.

The console came equipped with tennis, bowling, boxing, golf, and baseball.  You’d be surprised at the workout that you get from this.  We also bought Naruto Clash of the Ninja Revolution (rated T for teen - cartoon violence) and the kids really get a work out from it.  They enjoy it completely and we all know that an object in motion tends to stay in motion, so even after the games go off, the kids tend to stay more active even though mom is still under the covers.

I definitely plan to extend this with the Wii Fit, if it’s ever in stock, anywhere, ever again.  I guess I’m not the only one with that idea.

Irony

So I took “When You Are Engulfed in Flames” out of the library and just finished it. I enjoyed it quite a bit, as I usually enjoy David Sedaris. I couldn’t help but notice that the book smelled rather like the smoking room in a funeral home. Ironic, no?

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