Next year, I plan to take part in Ellie’s Mixing it up Challenge. It sounds like it should be fun!
If you’re perusing Ellie’s page right now, I’m planning on aiming at the Mixing Bowl, probably going for 12 categories. This is going to be the place-holder until I can get more details put in 
Edit January 2 2012: Added categories and potential reads!
Posted in challenges | 2 Comments »
Well, not quite. I’ll save you from the enourmous review list of books. I will give you The List for 2011:
I’ve discovered the joy of Connie Willis (definitely my favourite author of the year) and been thrilled by Mistborn. I’ve loved the C J Sansom books (who wouldn’t love mysteries set in Henry VIII’s reign) and my iPad has given me access to some amazing comis. I got so caught up in The Magicians and Mrs. Quent that I had to order pizza instead of cooking one night so that I could finish it. Diana Wynne Jones kept me reading late into the night and a group read finally got me through Northanger Abbey.
I’m a bit divided about my favourite books of 2011, but here are the main candidates:
Daughter of Time – Joshephine Tey
Mistborn: The Hero of Ages – Brandon Sanderson
Soulless – Gail Carriger
Doomsday Book – Connie Willis (and her other books, except that would be half the list)
The Name of the Wind – Patrick Rothfuss
Unnatural Issue – Mercedes Lackey
Dissolution – C J Sansom
Mastiff – Tamora Pierce
Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
Persuasion – Jane Austen
The Uncommon Reader – Alan Bennett
Astonishing X-Men Vol 3. Issues 1-6 – Joss Whedon and John Cassady
The worst books of 2011 is easier, although they weren’t dreadful, just not that brilliant:
Outlander – Diana Gabaldon
Septimus Heap Book One: Magyk – Angie Sage
Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine (September 2011)
Virals – Kathy Reichs
My thread for the 75 books for 2012 on LibraryThing is here so follow along for next years books if you’re interested!
Posted in 75 books, books, iPad | Leave a Comment »
Everyone’s doing it, so I’ll join the bandwagon.
2011 basically sucked for me. I won’t lie. Any year that has an emergency hospital admission in the first month and the diagnosis of a severe chronic illness is never going to go well. I’ve spent most of the year on steroids and now take a ton of pills and injections to keep things at bay.
While the UC diagnosis did at least finally give me access to lots of help and doctors who are eager (and wonderful) carers for me, it did also make my life a bit more complicated and I ended up cancelling most of the trips and fun plans for the year due to flare-ups. When you add in all the things that I couldn’t do due to my back, you end up with a year that did not have many trips or fun days out and consisted of a lot of hospital trips, tests, needles and bad news.
Thankfully the last six weeks has been better: I’m in remission (I hope, we need to discuss the recent stomach cramps in the new year) and my back has eased off a lot since late November.
I’ve written a bit during December, for the first time in months, and my Christmas has been so much better than last Christmas.
All of this gives me hope that 2012 is going to be a lot better than 2011. So here’s to the end of a sucky year and the start of what will hopefully be a fantastic year!
Posted in babble, colitis, deep thoughts | Leave a Comment »
(This post was very witty. But WordPress ate everything except the first sentence and I had to re-write it. I forgot most of the jokes. Argh)
Normally I’d title this one “I aten’t dead (still)”, but I suspect that I’ve used that title too often…
I’m not, though. Dead, I mean.
It’s been a weird year, largely featuring my battle to get the colitis into remission, which has involved several rounds of steroids and a variety of increasingly powerful drugs. Thankfully we’ve finally got there and I’m now on some lovely strong immune suppressors (plus a couple of other things) and the steroids stopped three months ago.
Unfortunately the stopping of the steroids meant the return of the back pain. That is being investigated. Ugh.
Still, looking at how ill I felt this time last year, I think that I’ve still made progress. At least I’m able to eat normally again and retain my food, which I think we can all agree is an important thing. I’m slimmer than I was, but at least I’m here
What else have I been up to? Not a lot. The big trip that I’d planned in September had to be cancelled due to another flare so much of the last few months has been pretty quiet.
I’ve read lots of books, become a (bigger) TV addict (thank you, Netflix in my Wii, DVD manufacturers and my new iPad with BBC Global iPlayer) and achieved very little knitting. Professionally has been better: despite all the illness, doctor/hospital visits, tests and drugs, I managed to get promoted at work and we successfully released a big bit of software last month. Not too shabby, I think.
So, why have I finally dusted this thing off? Well, it’s easy – books!
And maybe, TV!
As I am pretty terrible about updating on things like what I’m doing and how my life is, why don’t I fill in the gaps with book nattering? My page for this year’s books is here and I’ll be setting up something for 2012 soon.
Also, I’m doing a book challenge next year so I need to get myself signed up and a thread started for that. So much reading to do!
Good thing reading is my first big love
Posted in 75 books, babble, blogging, colitis, iPad | Leave a Comment »
I’ve been rather quiet on this blog lately. I’m not quite sure why, although I think it’s got a lot do with being tired and a bit overwhelmed and therefore not having things to post that aren’t medical and health related.
My trip to England was lovely and the convention was fantastic. It returned me refreshed, renewed and enthusastic for all the things that I’d been not doing or thinking about while I was sick. I read some excellent, amazing books (I’m on a good book roll right now) and was feeling thoroughly ready to tackle the world again.
Then I got the news from my specialist that my colitis was not in remission and seemed to be prednisone dependent. As my symptoms (the bleeding most noticably) had returned when we tried to taper down the pred, I had to concurr. This meant that our plan to taper off the pred and introduce a nice, cheap, easy-on-the body maintenance drug was not going to work. Yup, pretty devestating news. I’m now waiting to hear whether my insurance company will fund an insanely expensive biological immuno-suppressant called Humira, which has the advantage of kicking in fairly quickly, or whether I’ll have to use the cheaper, non-biological drug azathioprine, which takes several months to reach theraputic levels. In the meantime, we’ve bumped the prednisone back to high levels and I’m dealing with the side-effects (acne, gastric reflux, yay) while also dealing with the anemia from my heamoglobin dropping due to bleeding.
Mostly, this has involved insane levels of exhaustion and me turning into a crazy person obssessed with everything I eat in case that’s the thing that’s killing me and OMG what am I doing to myself?
My specialist keeps reassuring me that this is nothing I’ve done to myself, this is not my fault, and I could be not eating anything at all and I’d still have active colitis. My disease is severe and extensive, but it’s not something that I can fix by diet or by not eating or by turning into a crazy obssessed lunatic.
He may not have come out and said the bit about being a crazy obssessed lunatic. He’s far too nice for that. But it was certainly something he would have said if he wasn’t so lovely.
On Friday, I had a slight existential crisis in the middle of the grocery store. I was exhausted, to the state of being a burnt out zombie, and the exhaustion had been doing funny things to my brain all day. I was depressed, feeling rather desparing and defeated, and it all seemed to fall on me in the middle of the grocery store.
Posted in babble, colitis, food, health | Leave a Comment »
So, when I last wrote on this blog it was the day after seeing the duty doctor at my medical practice and I was feeling really rough. Her prescription of peppermint tea was not helping and I was starting to get very dizzy with flashing lights and sudden unexpected naps. I had been putting all of this down to my ‘stomach bug’ and was planning to get my fasting bloodwork done the next day. There is a reason that there has been no update since – and it’s a little dramatic.
On the day of my bloodwork (January 26th) I was feeling so tired, dizzy and breathless that I could barely stand long enough to dry my hair. It took me forty minutes to achieve that and I realised then that something might be wrong. My lovely cousin was a star and took me out to get my blood done, despite having only just finished a night shift, because I knew that I wasn’t safe to drive. Afterwards I went home and worked, reclining on the sofa a lot, because I am slightly crazy and still couldn’t quite believe that I was actually ill.
A few hours later I got a call from my doctor’s office. My haemoglobin was dangerously low and I needed to get myself to the ER immediately. I called Mum to cancel our Wednesday night Skype chat, called my cousin for a lift and checked myself into the ER.
The nurses who treated me that night told me they had never had a patient my age, with those results, able to walk into the ER. I should not have been conscious, never mind ambulatory, and if I had passed out at home my blood levels were so low that I would have been dead in a day or two. The tummy symptoms that the doctor had dismissed a couple of days before were actually symptoms of a large GI bleed and I was dying. The only reason that I hadn’t passed out was because I had lost a lot the blood gradually over several months (apart from the big loss in the final week) and so I had acclimated as my levels dropped. Thankfully the ER staff were able to pump me full of blood and saline (when they found viable veins!) and after twenty hours I was released on condition that I went straight to see a GI specialist that they had found for me.
He examined me, said that it was unlikely that I had IBS, and got me started on tests to figure out the real problem.
By the time I got home that day, my Mum had booked tickets and was due to fly in a couple of days later to look after me. I felt so much better thanks to all the transfusions that I couldn’t really understand why everyone was so worried, although when my tummy troubles returned at super-strength a day later it was lovely to have Mum around to look after me.
Posted in colitis, health | Leave a Comment »
I thought that things were improving over the weekend. I made it through most of Saturday with no problems and while Sunday wasn’t as good, it wasn’t as bad as it had been during the week. Right up until I was kept awake for two hours on Sunday night with cramping and, er, other issues.
I had physio yesterday and, as the physio’s office is round the corner from my office, I elected to go to work afterwards. My doctor’s office is just across the road from my building so it was a good plan. Apart from spending most of the day in the bathroom and not keeping any of my food in my stomach. Argh!
The physio was disappointed that I’d been ill and thus unable to work on my core much. As working on my core tends to set off cramping, I’ve not been getting very far with my exercises. He wants me to try harder this week. Yay?
My GP left the practice in March of last year. At the time, this didn’t seem like the end of the world because I was fine, nothing was going on and the practice staff assured me that she was being replaced ASAP. My new GP starts on 7th February. Argh. So I’ve been relying on duty doctors at the walk-in clinic at my practice, which isn’t good when you’ve got active issues.
Yesterday I managed to get lucky yet again, by seeing the doctor who was leaving the practice at the end of the day and thus was reluctant to do anything that would require paperwork. Like referring me to a rheumatologist. That will be my battle when the new GP starts. The duty doc said that it will take months, maybe years, to get me a rheumy so what is a few extra weeks in the grand scheme of things?
I think she may be missing the point, but there’s nothing that I can do about it apart from trying to get an appointment with my new GP the moment he arrives.
The big reasons that I was there was to discuss my meds and discuss my stomach issues. We got nowhere on the meds, her suggestions being counter-intuitive in light of what’s causing the pain and my other issues, and she was rather less than helpful on the stomach thing.
She did, reluctantly, fill out a requisition for some lovely invasive testing because I’ve been having issues on and off for years and it may be a good idea to rule out some form of colitis. She also signed the requisition for some bloodwork to check for anaemia. I’m getting tested for a whole bunch of things, in fact, so it’s fasting bloodwork. Somehow I have to get myself to the doctor’s office tomorrow morning having consumed nothing, including my painkillers, since tonight’s supper. This may be interesting.
For my current problems, she suggested peppermint tea and a trip to the emerg if things don’t resolve in a week or so. Argh.
This morning I’ve been having flashing lights, dizziness and extreme exhaustion which I’m reasonably sure are due to my inability to process food properly for a week. I’m giving it another couple of days before I think about the ER. Just not quite sure how to drive to get my bloodwork done tomorrow if I’m still like this…
On the up side, this is a great weight loss program. I didn’t need to lose weight, but I’m going to look so sleek and slim by the time this is over. That’s got to be a bonus, right?
Posted in eds, health, hypermobility | Leave a Comment »
Since Tuesday evening, my digestive tract has been in full-on rebellion. Argh. I made it to physio on Wednesday, went to work afterwards and then faced with the prospect of Eating Lunch made a tactical withdrawal and went home.
Yesterday I didn’t even bother with the work thing.
By the evening, I was feeling quite a lot better and rather hungry. Supper treated me well and I was feeling confident that I was better.
I decided to work from home today because I was feeling wobbly and light headed still, so being on the roads with a storm on its way in seemed like a silly idea. Breakfast seemed OK…until about an hour later when breakfast suddenly seemed like a stupid plan.
Argh.
Problem is, there is a variety of possible causes:
1) Exhaustion from sustained back pain and lack of sleep making my digestive tract partially shut down
2) My meds finally upsetting my stomach enough to cause issues
3) Exhaustion from blah blah causing an IBS flare (although I don’t think it’s ‘true’ IBS that I have)
4) An actual stomach bug
I have to admit, 4 seems the least likely. Sleeping for most of Wednesday afternoon and a lot of Thursday has made my back even more painful than normal and having to eat in order to take my meds is not making me feel happy.
I’d be able to cope with either my stomach or my back, but both together is just making life suck. Also, the not feeling safe to drive thing means that today’s planned trip to the doctor to discuss meds and insist on investigations and referrals has been postponed to Monday.
The bright spot is that the girls think it’s lovely having Mummy home all day. I just have to get through their little fluffy brains that standing on Mummy’s tummy is not a good plan.
Posted in eds, health, hypermobility | Leave a Comment »
Many random things:
- BossBoss has been feeling so guilty about watching me be in pain all day that he organised an ergonomic assessment for me. The occupational therapist came in today and confirmed that my workstation is pretty much perfect (I had one of these around eighteen months ago) so there isn’t much she can recommend. BossBoss will probably still feel guilty about being powerless to help me, but hopefully this will let him know that he’s doing everything he can.
- The OT told me that it’s totally appropriate to start insisting on investigations and referrals to a rheumatologist because I should not have to be in this much pain She also made me feel better about insisting on ruling out inflammatory arthritis because if that’s what is wrong, there are excellent drugs out there that will help me. Again, I’m far too young to just live like this. It was nice to get that validation.
- Yesterday I had monster Greek food cravings.
- I ate my healthy wholewheat pasta with lentil sauce anyway.
- I’m planning to drag some knitters to the Greek place for supper soon. I dream about the kolokithia (fried zucchini) and would mug someone for dolmades.
- In the midst of my terrible cravings, I got desperate and started Googling for some fried zucchini recipes. I found some oven baked ‘fried’ zucchini recipes and one of them is going to get tried this weekend. Before anyone asks why I can’t make them tonight, there is no zucchini in my kitchen. Argh!
- The pizza place just round the corner from my office sells fried zucchini sticks. It’s so tempting sometimes to just go over there and indulge. Canada is an evil place for introducing me to these delights.
- The water company sent me an overdue notice for a bill that I’d paid weeks ago. For once, I got mad rather than scared and immediately commenced with the telephone calls. Twenty-four hours later, they’ve found the payment and it’s all sorted out. I feel so productive! And brave! And proud of myself!
- It would be really bad to plan on experimenting with the fried zucchini and some baked shrimp toast (the closest I’ll get to prawn toast here) on Saturday, wouldn’t it? There must be a law somewhere about not eating an entire meal of appetizers. It just sounds so awesome and yummy…
- I’m trying to comfort myself with thoughts that at least I don’t crave sweet stuff. It’s savouries all the way. I suspect this is no healthier…
Posted in eds, food, health, hypermobility | Leave a Comment »
I had a slightly slow start to the year, but then got two brilliant reads that I couldn’t put down so I tore through them really fast. It all adds up to January 13th and four books have been read, with two currently on the go and both more than halfway through.
Here are those books:
1. A Suitable Vengeance – Elizabeth George
This one was an oddity, the fourth book in the series and yet set a couple of years (I think) before the other books. Havers is barely there, because of the setting, and I missed the relationship between Lynley and Havers more than I expected. This is also in the days before the established relationships, so I missed Simon and Deborah together but was also fascinated because this is the story of how they became Simon and Deborah. It’s also the book where we find out a lot of Lynley’s family secrets, the things that shape the man we know in the other books, and we get to see the uglier side of Lynley’s background. As a study of the backgrounds of all the characters and a good mystery (yes, there is a mystery here) it’s a good book but I’ll be glad to get back to the normal time period with the next one.
2. Outlander – Diana Gabaldon
A friend of mine has been raving about the Outlander books ever since I met her, so I though that I should really give this one a go. I’ll start by saying that it’s not a bad book. It’s not a literary masterpiece, but it is a step up from much of the bad writing that haunts certain sectors of the romance genre. Unfortunately, it’s also the kind of book where I danced for joy when I finally got to the end and really wished that I hadn’t stuck with for so long. The plot didn’t really capture me, there was some odd historical inaccuracies that jarred me (rationing in England did not end with the war, it was still in force in the early 50s) considering the amount research done in other areas and I could not engage with the characters enough to care for them. I suspect that this is one where some people are going to love it and other people will be a bit ‘meh’ about it. I fall into the latter camp, unfortunately.
3. Daughter of Time – Joshephine Tey
This was a recommendation from somewhere on 75 books, either a personal thread or the mysteries thread, and I loved it. I finished it last night and can easily see myself re-reading it again because there’s so much lovely historical research detail to go over again. The basic plot is that Inspector Grant has broken his leg and is on enforced bed-rest in hospital while it heals. A friend suggests that he tries his hand at researching a historical mystery and hands him a bunch of portrait re-prints to look at. Grant picks out Richard III, who has a face that does not fit with history’s most notorious murderer, and sets out with the help of a British Museum researcher to work out whether he really did kill the Princes in the Tower. The book was published in 1951 so some of the ideas were familiar to me already (I’m a bit of a medieval history buff) but some of the evidence was new to me and the way that Tey wrote it kept the investigation fascinating throughout. She managed to breathe life into the historical figures despite their existence as academic studies just as vividly as she created her fictional characters. It’s historical research presented in as a good old fashioned mystery and it works brilliantly. I’d recommend it to anyone and it’s a strong contender for going onto my favourite books of 2011 list.
4. Mistborn: The Final Empire – Brandon Sanderson
I read Elantris a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it because Sanderson does such a good job of writing epic fantasy with a bit of a twist. When this trilogy was being discussed on the 75 books threads I decided to give it a try, despite the slightly unpreposessing title, and I’m very glad that I did. The first book is epic, filled with twists and turns, never goes quite where you expected and has both a resolution and some un-resolved things that left me itching for the next book. The characters, particularly Vin, Kelsier and Elend, are beautifully drawn and they are allowed to grow as the book progresses. Sanderson uses Allomancy as his main magic in the book, the ability to ‘burn’ metals for different abilities, and it’s a wonderfully unique system of magic that really enhances the story. If you like epics and high fantasy and you want to read something just a little bit unusual then you should definitely check this one out.
Posted in books | Leave a Comment »
My books on LT
