She is TINY! Smaller than a hardcover book. And adorable and so active and playful.
She doesn’t have a name yet. I can’t decide on one, although the one I’m most considering is Luna.
Right now she’s laying on my chest as I’m laying on the couch using my laptop. This is something Draco also used to do as a kitten and still tries to as an adult, but it doesn’t work so well with him since I can’t see the screen over him.
The inital reaction of the other cats wasn’t very friendly. They weren’t pleased to have another cat. There was hissing and Draco especially didn’t seem to like having her around. He’s getting to like her though and was even laying next to her and letting her play with his tail. Spencer is hiding still. Akasha was the most interested in her at first but now has lost interest.
August 15th, 2009 - Posted in Pets | 2 Comments »
I’ve decided to stop taking the Savella. It stopped helping several weeks ago. When I was at the rheumy’s last, he had said we could increase the dosage if needed. I called to see about that and then he said that there had been no additional benefit of taking it at higher dosages so he wouldn’t prescribe it.
When I first started it, dizziness had been one of the side effects I had. It went away, but it came back at the beginning of the month. My heart rate and blood pressure were also higher (and they were already high). I’m already on the max dosage of my blood pressure medication, so that wasn’t a good thing at all.
I haven’t really done a proper withdrawal, since I only had a week’s worth left and didn’t want to spend the money to get refilled. I started taking half pills Monday night and went to quarter pills last night. I’ll be out completely by Tuesday. So far, I haven’t had any withdrawal symptoms and the dizziness is gone. It’s kind of strange…when I was still on the trial pack it seemed to be helping but when I started the month’s worth I had from the pharmacy, it’s almost like they were just placebo pills.
July 17th, 2009 - Posted in Health | Comments Off
Today I had skin testing done at the allergists for food allergies. I had to be off my antihistamine for a week. That was torture! I didn’t realize how much it actually helps my allergies. One day I sneezed the whole drive to work. I’ve had a miserable time the past week.
There were no big reactions, like there was during the other skin tests a year ago (cats and grass were some very large ones). But I did have reactions to oats, whole wheat, pork, and lamb. I wasn’t suprised by the first two but was by the meats. I’ve never eaten lamb (and never plan to). I don’t really like pork, although I eat bacon pretty regularly. I suppose turkey bacon is better for me anyway. The arm that had the oat and whole wheat got very itchy even though the bumps weren’t large at all.
I temporarily went off the gluten-free diet the past few days, but need to get back on it. I was happy to know that I am not allergic to corn, as that is what replaces wheat in a lot of food (and things like Fritos).
June 29th, 2009 - Posted in Health | Comments Off
I have been feeling not that great lately. Last week I couldn’t really sleep because of the pain in my side. I had mentioned it to my doctor in May and she said if it still bothered me, she could send me to a physical therapist. Yeah, that worked out so well for my hip (I ended up with pain in my knees instead). It went away for a little while but came back recently and had been spasming most of the night, sometimes without me even moving. It’s eased up a little bit the past two days.
I finally got Ambien CR approved last week and took that for a few days. Then I tried not taking it for a few days and ended up not able to sleep. Part of it may have been rebound insomnia, but most of it was pain. Then not sleeping kicked off my fibromyalgia pain and I could barely walk the past couple days. I took Ambien the past two nights so got some sleep, but I can’t be taking it every night. It makes me depressed. So OTC sleep aids don’t work, Ambien doesn’t keep me asleep, Lunesta makes my asthma worse, Ambien CR makes me depressed and Sonata doesn’t work. *sigh*.
There was a stray cat in our yard on Monday. It looked several months old. It was friendly and came over to us. Joe had to leave for work (this was at 7 am…he woke me up to tell me). I tried to pick it up twice but got all scratched up as a result. He wouldn’t come near me after the second time and I haven’t seen him since (it has been raining each morning since anyway). I feel bad that I couldn’t hold on to him and bring him inside (he was very much a boy). And I felt bad that I chased him away by trying to pick him up, when he came near me to be petted.
I’ve started on a gluten-free diet. Since starting Savella, I’ve been feeling noticeably sick after eating foods with wheat in them. It’s happened before the Savella, but only occasionally. Now it’s every time. I started last Friday and accidently (and a few times on purpose) ate wheat since then, although I’ve managed to avoid it yesterday and today.
June 18th, 2009 - Posted in Life | 3 Comments »
It’s definitely an addiction. I’m now up to 14 domains that I currently own. I bought prehistoric-creatures.com and sea-creatures.net.
At least I have a head start on material for sea-creatures.net. Back in 2005, for my final project I did a non-fiction children’s book and website for a children’s education program for a fictional aquarium. (See my final project presentation). Some of the illustrations are pretty good, such as the clownfish, but many will have to be improved. I was working on this project when I got very sick and ended up in the hospital, so I’m still surprised I even managed to finish it on time.
I’m excited about my three creature sites and am looking forward to working on them all.
June 6th, 2009 - Posted in Web | 3 Comments »
I’ve now been on Savella for over two weeks. The first week was the dosage build up, I’ve been on the 50mg twice a day dosage for one week and 4 days. I had no side effects on the smaller dosages the first week. I was sleeping better, so I had less pain. Before I started taking it, I would wake up every hour or so and have to use the bathroom about 3-4 times a night. This was causing my pain to be much worse than usual. Once I started on the Savella, the pain became more bearable because I was sleeping better. I only wake up several times a night now for no reason. Unfortunately, the Savella doesn’t stop me from waking up from things like my husband getting into bed, or cats meowing in my face or banging on the closet doors. Something that I didn’t expect has also happened: I can get through the night without going to the bathroom on some nights. On the other nights, I only have to go once.
I am feeling more productive and less brain foggy. I am also feeling more social, although the Social Anxiety Disorder is still there and causes me to sign off of AIM a second after I sign on. But that’s still a big improvement. I hadn’t signed on to a chat program in years. I don’t think the brain fog improvement is entirely due to Savella since it started improving in January when I started taking CoQ10. Right now I take 200mg in the morning and 100mg in the evenings.
I almost forgot to mention that I did start having some side effects when I went on the full dosage. I started having bad headaches and dizziness when I was upright. I think those side effects are starting to go away though, fortunately.
June 5th, 2009 - Posted in Health | 1 Comment »
