I keep saying "glucose free"

I haven't had a lot to say recently.  I've been sick.  It's boring.  You know what's more boring than being sick?  Writing about being sick.

I'll sum up:

Felt horrible
Laid around a lot
Eventually was able to see GI doc
Excitingly, had immediate celiac test and endoscopy
All tests came back negative
.. so I still don't know what's wrong
Decided to go gluten free and it helped
Decided to go lactose free and it helped
Still waiting for follow up with GI doc, where he'll tell me he still doesn't know what's wrong
In mean time, trying to get back to daily life but feeling very much like I've had a long flu

You know how after you have the flu you feel better for a day and you think you're fine until you try to do anything?  And then you realize that you have all the strength and endurance of a newborn kitten?  I've had that going on.  When I first got home from the trail I was too sick to exercise, so I pretty much just worked and lay on the sofa.  But it feels like more than the end result of laziness.  The first time I tried to walk around the park, my knees were rubbery at first.  They failed to get better, and then after a mile I started cramping all over my body.  It was not what I expected.

My back definitely did not appreciate the extended time off from the gym, and started hurting all the time.  So I went to the gym and did the best I could.  The back has been getting better.  And the rest of me too.  I went to the park this weekend and I didn't start cramping up until mile four.  That's measurable improvement.

I never in my life thought I'd go on a gluten free diet, so this has been interesting.  I've been reading a lot of labels.  Restaurants are a problem.  I've been trying to eat at the cafeteria and have chosen poorly a couple of times.  Today, for instance.  But since I don't have celiac disease, I think I can assume that I am only causing myself temporary inconvenience when I have gluten, rather than long term intestinal damage.  Although, as soon as I stopped eating gluten, several awful skin things that had not been responding to treatment started to heal up.  So maybe the implications are more far reaching.

Lactose free I've done before.  I already knew what brand of soy milk I like on my cereal, and if past experience serves I'll be able to eat goat and sheep cheese. 

I'm going to have to start packing my lunch more and that bugs.  I really liked being able to get fresh hot food at the cafeteria.  Sigh.

JD was out of town while I was experimenting with gluten/lactose free living.  Tonight was his first night back where he cooked dinner.  He made us a pretty good dinner with a red quinoa base.  He made enough that I'm dehydrating the leftovers to take camping.  It should be good with savory stuff for dinner or with sweet stuff for breakfast.  A little non-dairy protein powder, a little stevia, maybe some walnuts.. Actually I'm making myself hungry.  Heh.

The camping I mentioned above?  I have a week long trip scheduled for the beginning of October.  I've been planning it for a year.  I have no idea if I'm going to be able to do it.  But if I don't prepare for it and then I'm well enough when October gets here, I'll be pretty pissed at missing the opportunity.    So I'm finding foods that won't make me sick (Packit Gourmet is nice enough to label their stuff if gluten or lactose free) and working out the logistics now.  DeLee and I are going to go on a low mileage trip in a couple of weeks to see if going up and down hills wearing a backpack is a problem or not.  If it's okay, I'll make a motel reservation for a night in Waynesboro so we can stage ourselves for a Shenandoah hike.

Let's see, good news?  I can totally eat chocolate.  And jelly beans.  I found gluten free waffles.  Beer and wine are both being a problem, but scotch apparently is not.  Oh, and I am entered into a humorous speech contest in exactly a week and apparently I'm okay with that.  Trying to decide if I'm going to talk about the Schnork, the day we tried to move Playboy into Chocolate's field, or the day Trouble kicked a Roomba's ass.  I was going to link to those last two but they were a really long time ago and a little hard to find online so I'll repost them here. 

Not a banner day

We had our first medical excitement with the yorkie today.  When I went to let her out of the crate this morning, she was feeling bad.  She'd barfed multiple times.  She continued barfing, mostly dry heaving, for the next hour.  In between she slept heavily.  Poor little thing.  I was concerned about her dehydrating quickly since she is only ten pounds to begin with.  I was still sick from earlier this week, and also was working, so JD took her to the vet.

They feared pancreatitis due to tender tummy symptoms, so she was admitted for bloodwork, IV fluids, and an xray.  They basically found nothing really wrong with her.  She's pumped full of drugs, no longer vomiting, but still miserable.  And her little hind leg is if anything worse.  Probably because she's been lying down all day.  It definitely gets worse without movement.

Me, I barely managed my day of telecommuting, then went upstairs with chills.  I fell asleep with comforters piled on me and woke up a couple of hours later, sweating.  It is starting to look like my weekend will not, in fact, be full of horses and hiking.  I'll be lucky just to get out to see the horse, let alone groom him and ride.

So, yeah, not my best Friday ever.

Pre-talk anxiety commencing: now

Oog.  I am fed up with being home and inactive.  Unless I'm dying tomorrow, I'm going to go outside and do something.  Or else my back is going to seize up on me entirely.

I got a delivery today.  My new trekking poles came in.  I ordered a pair of Gossamer Gear LightTrek poles to replace my very beat up REI poles.  The REI poles were great, but since I replaced the worn out tips, those tips just don't want to stay on.  Plus the old poles are feeling kind of weird, like maybe something inside is a little loose.  The LightTrek poles are very light at 4 oz each.  The REI poles are probably 8 oz each.  Unfortunately, the weight difference isn't enough for me to notice when I hold them, as it turns out.  Ah well.  I needed new poles, and these are new poles.   I'm looking forward to trying them out on a trail soon.

I also have to do a little work this weekend.  I'm meeting with my Toastmasters mentor on Monday to run through my first speech.  Which means I have to write my first speech.  Or at least work out the details of what I'm going to talk about.  I was surprised that they didn't want you to write it out word for word.  Instead they wanted you to write an outline, then reduce it to one word per notecard.  I'm sure that one word will be a great help when my mind goes blank.  "Green?  Green?  WTF was I going to talk about that's green?"  Yup.  That'll go well.

The easiest thing for me to talk about is backpacking, so I'll do that. I've actually given speeches about backpacking that were much longer than 4-6 minutes - but I was wrung out afterward.  Which is the thing I'm trying to fix.  Sigh.  Anyway, I know I can talk about the trail with one hand tied behind my back.  With my mouth on autopilot I hope I can work on other things to reduce my anxiety - like remembering to breathe.  I hear that helps.