Thoughts on a Thursday

Happy Thursday, friends! 

Again, one of the few days where I have some quiet time to relax while the kids are at school and do my thinking and reflecting. And binge watch Netflix in my underwear while eating oatmeal in bed. We all have our things. 

And it looks nothing like this.

Some things I've been thinking about today:

1) Bobby complimented me the other day for buying a Swiffer Wet jet. 

We lost ours during the move (which means that no, I have not cleaned my floors in a month and a half), and we kept putting off buying a new one because we figured it would eventually turn up. But finally we realized that we must have left it at our old house, so I went to Publix and bought a new Wet Jet. Bobby walked in from school on Tuesday and saw the box in the middle of the floor. He got a really excited voice and said, "Oh! You bought a mop! Great job, Mommy!"

Not sure how to take that.

2) But I'm choosing to not take the mop congratulations too personally because he has been congratulating me on everything lately. This morning he congratulated me for going to the bathroom and remembering to wipe. #proud

3) I posted a tour of part of our new downstairs yesterday, and one of my friends commented that she just has too.much.stuff. She hit the nail on the head. I meant to address that in the post, and I forgot. One of the most liberating things we did before we moved was having a massive, multi-day garage sale. We got rid of every single thing that we didn't want or was taking up space. And we moved into this new house with only things that we love and/or need and/or use frequently. It has made all the difference in the world when it comes to my mental and emotional well-being, which sounds kind of dumb and cheesy, but I'm not kidding. All the excess stuff was stressing me out, and I didn't really even realize it. If you are moving or feeling like it's just too stressful inside your house, then I would highly suggest purging things you don't want. I would also recommend the book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying. I'm not saying I'm completely tidy now, but the book changed my perspective on how to look at your belongings and how to decide what is and is not important to you. I feel so much more peaceful now! 

I'm using the word peaceful loosely.

4) I haven't mentioned this yet, mainly because I didn't want to stress y'all out even more after my IC posts, but I learned this Summer that I have Fibromyalgia. I honestly don't know a lot about Fibro; I know my aunt has it, and I know that my aunt-in-law has it, and I know that a lot of people have it and that it's horrible. But that was about the extent of my knowledge. So I didn't really connect the dots for a while. 

Ever since the Spring, I've been noticing that I am in a lot of physical pain when I get up. Not just bladder pain, which I'm used to and have made my peace with, but actual physical pain. My muscles would feel incredibly achey and painful after sleeping on my amazing bed, which I've slept on fine for two years. This started happening out of the blue, and then it became really consistent. At first I just chalked it up to not getting enough sleep due to my IC and peeing all night. Seriously, 2-3 hours of sleep a night isn't healthy, and I know that..so I just figured that the body aches were somehow related to that. Until it started getting significantly worse over the summer. I slept on all kinds of beds during our Gypsy Summer, and it kept getting worse and worse. Terrible, terrible muscle pain. 

One day, I'd wake up with arms so sore that I could have sworn I had lifted a car off the ground. The next day my calves would be burning with pain like I'd run a marathon. And, let's face it, I'm the last person who's gonna run a marathon unless there is someone chasing me with a deadly weapon; I probably wouldn't even run from somebody with a taser. 

This random pain kept jumping around all over my body day-to-day and getting worse and worse. And then the joint pain kicked in. If you had asked me a few months ago what joint pain was, I couldn't have told you. I don't even know what joints feel like at all, so I had no concept. Until I woke up one morning with randomly painful arms and excruciatingly painful elbow joints. It felt like I had been in the hospital with IVs in both arms for a week and had just gotten them removed. If you've been in the hospital for a while before, you know the feeling I'm talking about. When they take your IV out, and your elbow joints ache a little, and you can hardly extend your arms out. Does that ring a bell to any of my fellow invalids? I have experienced that in all of my hospital stays when they remove the IV. 

But this was inexplicable. There was no reason for this to be happening. And then the next day I had the exact same feeling in my ankle joints. And then the next day it was my knees and elbows again. Finally, I decided this was more than just not getting enough sleep; something was up. So I Googled it (which is something I don't often do for health related inquiries because I will start to convince myself I have cancer), and came up with multiple possibilities. Then I went to my new doctor, told her my symptoms and medical history, and she suggested that I may have Fibromyalgia. 

What a nice way to kick me while I'm down!

Of course, I went home and did research on that, and to my dismay found out that Fibro and IC are sister diseases. Many IC patients have Fibro, and there are lots of Fibro patients who develop IC eventually. Somehow, someway, the two diseases are often linked together. And I knew in my gut right then that's what this was. I went back, and the doctor ran a few tests and took blood work to eliminate other options. Then she put me on a medication than can help people with Fibromyalgia. I wasn't especially hopeful, because I have always been so disappointed with lackluster medical experiments where my IC is concerned, but, nevertheless, I began taking the medication daily. 

And then, a couple of weeks later, completely out of nowhere, I realized that my whole body and my joints were not in pain anymore. The meds were working! I danced a little jig and told my doctor, who said that further confirmed her suspicions. So for now, I'm doing fine as far as the Fibromyalgia is concerned. I still get easily fatigued, and I can tell when I've overdone it one day because I will be completely wiped out the next day, but I'm not in full-body pain anymore..so I call that a win! Now if I could just find something for that pesky bladder..

5) Now, because of the extreme body pain and fatigue brought on by the Fibromyalgia, it is not uncommon to gain a little weight. Think about it--you still have a normal appetite, but you don't have the physical stamina to exercise. Literally some days I could hardly move, much less walk..much less exercise. So it's fair to say that I have put on a few unwanted pounds. Now that I'm feeling a lot better, I would love to start eating healthier and doing some mild exercising to try to get off the pounds. And I told myself all Summer that I would change my ways once we moved into this new house. Then we moved into the new house. And then I told myself that I would change my ways once everything was finished in the new house and I really felt like I lived here. So we've lived here almost two months, and I keep making excuses for not getting back on the wagon. The laundry room isn't finished, so technically we aren't finished with the new house, so technically it's not time to start. These are the lengths I can go to to justify my own habits. I have GOT to get back on the horse. And I'm going to do it. 

Tomorrow.

6) On a completely unrelated note to anything, I have finally started bringing out all my Fall nail polishes! Fall is my favorite season for nail polish; I love all the dark colors and the greys/greens/blacks/blues. Two of my all-time favorite Fall colors are Essie's Merino Cool and Essie's After School Boy Blazer. I have been keeping them on heavy rotation lately. Now if the weather would just cooperate..

7) I received a package in the mail this week from one of my old neighbors. It arrived out of nowhere, and I wasn't expecting it at all. I curiously opened it up to find two pairs of LulaRoe leggings, along with a note saying that she had read my IC blog post and empathized with me. She noted that I had mentioned how I rarely wear jeans because the zipper tends to aggravate my bladder, so she wanted to send me some of these leggings to see if they were more comfortable for me. She wasn't soliciting me, nor was she asking for anything in return. She was just being thoughtful and kind. It was as simple as that. I cried when I read the note because it made me so happy to see someone do something selfless from the kindness of her own heart. It made me remember that there are still good, nice, kind people in this world. Not everyone is bad or shady or has an agenda. And we should all try to do things like this every once in a while. It's my goal now to pay the kindness forward to someone. And, in case you're curious, those LulaRoe leggings are the BOMB. 

They are so buttery soft, and they fit any size or shape. They're now my new obsession, and I want them in every print and color under the sun. If you've been hesitating (or if you don't know what they are), I highly recommend trying them out for an amazing pair of leggings! Sometimes it can be hard to find a distributor, so if you would like some info or to check them out, I can connect you with my sweet friend who does sell them (I do not sell them and am not trying to solicit you in anyway; just trying to rave about something I am currently obsessed with).  Or you can go to the LulaRoe website and find a distributor closer to your area.

8) I would really like to know who told my child about his balls and that they can itch, because lately he has been running around saying "My balls itch! My balls itch!" And I'm honestly not even sure that he knows what that means. But that is the ridiculousness I have been dealing with this week. Faux itchy balls. 

Happy almost Friday!