beautiful addiction

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My goodness, all day today I have felt hungry no matter how often I eat! It’s just one of those days where I eat something and it only satisfies my hunger for an hour or two before I feel the need to be eating or munching on something else.

I had a bowl of cereal for breakfast, followed by a big bowl of homemade chili for lunch. I was hungry before dinnertime, so I had a snack of a yogurt and english muffin with peanut butter on it (thinking the protein would satisfy my hunger!). A few hours later I served dinner (pasta salad, corn, and boneless BBQ ribs). Not long after that I shared a bag of popcorn with my husband and a friend while we watched a movie, and ate a small handful of chocolate covered peanuts. Now I just got done eating another bowl of cereal because my stomach was growling! And I’m still hungry…

I wonder if it’s hormones or something as it’s almost “that time of the month” and hormones are all out of whack.

What could it be and does this happen to you? It doesn’t happen to me very often but when it does I feel like such a pig!

If you pay attention to my Twitter updates over there on the sidebar, you may have noticed that I was in a 4 wheeling accident this past weekend.  If you don’t read the Twitter updates…then this is news to you.  So let me explain.

Dave and I went up north with his dad and brother Friday evening to stay at the family cabin.  Saturday we woke up and had big plans to take our quads out on the trails for the afternoon.  I didn’t really feel like going, but drug myself out there anyway.  All was going well until we got to a small 2 track trail.  I was following behind Dave and it was really dusty, so it was hard to see through the dust.  The part of trail we were on was flat and fine, no big deal.

All of a sudden as the dust cleared, I was heading straight for a huge divet in the trail.  At this point the trail took on a more man-made appearance, with really deep divets on either side of the trail so that in order to ride it safely you really had to ride with one set of tires down in a divet and the other set of tires up on the ditch or center of the trail.  I didn’t have time to make this choice, however.

I hit the divet, my hand flew off the handlebars from the impact and I lost control of my quad.  It bounced over to the other side of the trail and I was flung over the handlebars.  I went straight up and over, nothing was stopping me.  Midair, I closed my eyes.  I remember hitting the ground head first, and my shoulders and back crumpled over my head and finally the rest of my body landed.  All I could think was “I’m goin to get ran over by my own four wheeler…” and then I did.  I can’t say for sure, because I don’t fully remember, but I think the right front tires ran over my midsection/ribs and the quad came to a stop.  My head was stuck under the quad between the engine and the side of the enbankment of the trail.  I couldn’t move.

Again…all I’m thinking is, “I’m going to get ran over by Ryan as he comes around that corner.”  I was afraid that Dave’s brother wouldn’t see me in time.  My quad was still running and all I could hear was the engine above my head.  I had to get out of there.  So I dug the sand away from around my helmet and unlodged my head from where it was stuck.  I crawled out from under the quad and sat in the trail gasping for air as Ryan pulled up.  Then Dave’s dad pulled up and he told Ryan to ride ahead to get Dave.  At this point I was pulling my riding gloves off, threw off my goggles and somehow managed to get my helmet off.

My mouth was full of sand and I was spitting to try and clear it out.  Dave’s dad asked if I could move, if everything was all right.  I said that I thought I was ok.  Nothing appeared to be broken.  I tried to stand up but lost my balance and quickly sat down with my head between my knees.  I was sore, shaky and covered in dirt…but I was alive.

We had to ride back to the cabin, and every bump I hit caused my back to buckle and hurt.  My right leg was hurting where the leg connects to the hip, kind of in the pelvic area.  Everything hurt.  There is a deep 3-4 inch gouge mark on my helmet where the engine scrapped against it as the quad rolled over my head.

Needless to say, we got back, I cleaned up and took some pain killers and worked out a deal to where Ryan is buying my quad off of me.

I’ve crashed that thing twice in the two years I’ve had it (the first time was similar but I hit a tree and messed my hand up really bad, although I didn’t break anything).  I’m not willing to see what a third time will bring.  I’ve hurt myself enough and I’m done with it.

I’ve gotten used to hearing about new and weird things in the news. It’s the day and age that we live in. Medical break throughs. New devices. Electronic gadgets that do this or that. It truly is amazing. So I wasn’t really surprised when I heard about C’elle. (See Celle Client Testimonial for more information.)

Basically? It’s a company that provides women a non-invasive way to collect stem cells from their menstrual cycle. You can collect each month and have the stem cells saved for future medical conditions and / or issues. Not only can this benefit the donor herself, but family members who genetically related (children, parents, etc.) and may be used for anti-aging therapy in the future.

I know this is probably a pretty controversial issue, but really… it’s NOT invasive, it’s not harming the donor, and it could be a potentially life saving decision further down the road. I would have to say that this is a much better option compared to the other stem cell research theories on the “market”.

Kind of interesting. I’m not sure of the cost implications or any of the details… just the main gist of the company and what they can possibly provide from a woman’s menstrual blood. Being a female… it’s kind of nice to see something useful come from our monthly visitor! What do YOU think? How do you feel about this newly found “miracle” to potentially harmful diseases and other conditions?

** Here is the press release where I read about this.

Taking Control: Future Therapies for a Host of Serious Diseases May Be Found in Women’s Menstrual Blood

July 07, 2008: 01:28 PM EST

OLDSMAR, Fla., July 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — With today’s hectic lifestyle, where most women are juggling careers, family, relationships, and a host of activities, the idea of possibly facing a serious illness in the future is not something that readily comes to mind — especially when a woman is in the prime of her life. But what most women don’t know, is that the key to treating a number of possibly life-threatening diseases that she, a parent, a sibling or even her children may face in later years, such as osteoporosis, heart disease, stroke, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, may be found within her own body — in vital stem cells, which can now be harvested from her own menstrual blood.

Now, thanks to the revolutionary research and technology of C’elle, a service dedicated to providing women with a safe and easy method of collecting and preserving stem cells found in her menstrual fluid each month, even the busiest woman can take control of her future, right in the privacy of her own home. With C’elle’s non-invasive collection process, menstrual cells are processed and cryo-preserved (stored at a very low temperature) for potential cellular therapies that may be used in the future. These self-renewing cells one day may even be used for sports medicine or cosmeceutical treatments, such as anti-aging therapies.

“C’elle enables and empowers a woman to take control of her future health, and possibly of those genetically closest to her, in a fast, painless and stress free way,” said Michelle Kay, Marketing and Sales Manager for C’elle. “We live in exciting times, as science and technology are discovering how extremely valuable menstrual blood stem cells really are, and the enormous treatment potential they represent for future therapies. C’elle’s ongoing research is supporting these promising findings.”

For more information about C’elle, please call 1-877-892-3553 or visit www.celle.com.

Over the past few months I have spent countless hours in waiting rooms to seen by my doctors. I hate waiting. I hate making an appointment for 10am and then not getting a glimpse of the doctor until 10:45, only for them to rush back out of the room because they “forgot something”. I don’t know about them, but appointments mean something to me. Being on time is something I like to add to my list of strengths. My time apparently means nothing and is ok to be wasted…but if you’re a half hour late? You get charged (even if they can’t fit you in to still see the doctor) and most often have to come back another day. So they want you to be on time…they just don’t have the time to fit you in at your scheduled appointment slot! It’s ridiculous.

There have been times where I’ve been waiting so long that I thought the nurse had forgotten to put my chart outside the door or something. Sitting in a little room for an hour without so much as a “the doctor will be with you in just a few minutes, sorry for the wait” is really kind of unforgivable. And yet I’m always too shy to actually open the door and peek out or ask what’s going on. So I sit. I watch the clock. I play on my cell phone. And, always, the doctor comes rushing in all frazzled like the world is crashing down around her.

Went to the dermatologist this morning to see how the meds are working for me. Turns out my blood work came back fine, aside from being a little anemic (which I’ve been for a while). The doctor said that he wants to start weening me off the Dapsone over the next few months. There are pros and cons.

Pros? If we can ween me off the medication it’s possible I will go into remission for an indefinite period of time. That’s a good thing. I don’t believe I should be taking medication if I don’t necessarily need it. So I would love to be off this for however long it could be.

Cons? He’s had patients before that, when weened off, their symptoms come right back and then the Dapsone doesn’t work as effectively as it had the first time around meaning that treatment can get difficult at that point. He dropped me from 50mg/daily down to 12.5/daily…so I guess we’ll cross this road if and when it comes.

My knees are killing me. They have been for the past few days, and I’m not sure why. It’s the achy feeling in my joints that the meds are supposed to help, but obviously aren’t. I’ve taken more pain killers over the past few days than I’ve needed to in quite some time. It’s quite disconcerting. I shouldn’t feel like I’m in my 80s with arthritis…

It’s almost 2am and I have to be up by 9 for a 10 o’clock doctor’s appointment. It’s just my regular appointment that I have with the specialist to see how my meds are working for me. Last time I was there (about 7 weeks ago?) he talked about dosing my immune system meds down to see if we can ween me off of them. I had to get blood work done in the meantime, so I guess it all depends how the results look, which I will find out tomorrow.

Ok…Dave’s already in bed and I’m seriously sleepy, so I’m headed that way too. But you should go check out We Like Money because I’m very proud of how it is looking. I’ve spent a majority of the day on tweaking it and advertising for it and whatnot. I hope it really helps us get on the path to financial freedom. (My goodness that sounds cheesy…)

G’night.