Monday, December 27, 2010

Costocondritis

Hey, Everyone!

Went to the doctor today...
I'm going to be fine. I've got a bad case of Costocondritis from the chair I sit in at work. Basically, my posture is great at the start of the day; but after 8 hours of sitting in such a crummy chair, I start to slump. Sitting in a bad position for that many hours put too much tension on my ribs. Not to mention all the barfing I was doing recently. The doc couldn't believe I waited so long to come in... Anyway, I've got painkillers now and I got a special pillow to make my work chair a bit better (hopefully). I've also got a special exercise regimen that I'm to follow as well. Right now it really, really hurts. Especially when I cough or sneeze. I thought I was going to die yesterday, it hurt so bad when I coughed. I'm relieved that it turned out to be something that was fairly easy to fix. I'd like to say that "next time I won't wait a month before I come in," but, knowing me, I probably will... I can't stand hospitals. Of course, I am doing much better. At least this time I actually made an appointment instead of waiting until I had to go to an emergency room. Baby steps. :)

I'm also getting my blood sugar checked out again. On my birthday! I figured that if I had to fast for that many hours, I might as well do it on a day when I'm guaranteed a good meal later on in the day (my parents are planning to take Ramiro & me out to dinner that night).

Christmas went really well. I'll do another "Christmas in Pictures" entry like last year as soon as I can. So far no one's sent me any of the pictures from Christmas Eve & Christmas, so I have nothing to post.

In the meantime, here are pictures of Rebel (that feral cat with half a tail) from Christmas Eve (we gave her a meal that night) and Ringo (hiding under my rug from Mo):
Ringo is a master of stealth. Obviously.

Thanks again to everyone who checked in on me. Hope everyone had a great holiday! I can hardly believe that 2010 is almost over. If I don't write again before 2011, have a very happy New Year!

Until next time...

--Lauren*
http://littlezotz.webs.com

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Feeling Better, New Bed, Christmas Lights

Hey, Everyone!

Thanks to all of you who wrote/texted/called me to see how I'm feeling. I'm doing much better now; thank you. I threw up again once at work last Thursday (tomatoes were too much for my still-sensitive guts), but other than that it's been smooth sailing! I've been eating solid food again. I have to stick to fairly bland things still, but at least I'm not on a diet of nothing but baby food anymore!

Also, thanks to anyone who tuned into the season finale of Champions of Champions Elite. :) We don't know yet if there's going to be a season 2, but they're keeping Ramiro & me around for a while longer until they find out. I'm still going to be updating their Official blog twice a week, if anyone cares.

In other news, Ramiro and I got new bedding:Pretty nice, huh? But it didn't take long before it looked like...
Oh, CATS!! You're all so silly.

I also hung out with my parents yesterday and we ate steak & potatoes and went around looking at Christmas lights. Here's a picture I took from my cell phone of the Balian Ice Cream House:
If you search for "balian house" on Google, you get a lot of great pictures of this place. It's really something. You see the GLOW from this house for a couple blocks away... My picture's a bit bad because a.) it's a cell phone pic, b.) I was in a car that was in motion and, c.) it was raining like CRAZY (and still is!!) here in Southern California. If you're ever in Alta Dena, California around Christmas-time, you should check it out.

Anyway, if I don't write again until after the fact (and I probably won't), I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas (even if you don't believe in Christ--I still hope you have a happy day!). :)

Until next time...

--Lauren*
http://littlezotz.webs.com

Monday, December 6, 2010

Haircut, Soy, and Other Stuff

Hey, Everyone!

It's been a few weeks...

I've been super busy with work. For the past two weeks (except for Thanksgiving), I was working 12 hour days. For those of you who don't know (or have already forgotten), I write this: http://blog.coc-elite.com That's the Official blog for Champions of Champions Elite, the #1 Muay Thai show in North America. Anyway, I write their blog and I'm also in charge of their Facebook and Twitter and I write e-mails to Muay Thai people... yadda yadda.

Thanksgiving was good. Ramiro and I went over to my parents' house for dinner. We got to see my mom, dad, and my mom's brother. And Dorian:
And, on Thanksgiving, I looked like this:Two days later, I had my friend Jaz over at Vous Hair give me a haircut and now I look like:

I like it. It had been over a year since I'd had a real haircut (I don't count haircuts I give myself because they suck) and it feels soooooooooooooooo good. I love it. I think it suits me, don't you? I trust Jaz so much when it comes to my hair that I only tell her one thing: Don't go any shorter than my jawline. Other than that, anything goes! Haha, actually, this time, when I told her that she said "What about in the back...?" (It's the back, who cares!) I knew she had something special in mind.

Anyway, things were humming along really well in my life until the other day, I ingested soy. Now, those of you who know me well (or are avid readers of this blog) are probably saying "Oh no!!!" about that. And you'd be right! Soy + Lauren = Not good. For, as some of you know, I'm very very allergic to soy.

What happened was, Ramiro and I went to IHOP the other day. I had them check everything that I ordered for soy--and it was all safe--however, that doesn't really matter when they end up serving the wrong thing. I had ordered Ranch dressing (safe!), but the waiter gave me Bleu Cheese dressing (isolated soy protein). I don't blame him. It looked exactly the same. Anyway, I took one bite, looked up at Ramiro, said "This is wrong," and then I was barfing like crazy. ONE BITE. I got all puffed up (even my tongue!) and I was non-stop vomiting and ALL of my joints hurt. My elbows are always the first to go for some reason, but before the end of the day every single one of my joints was in horrible pain. I became acutely aware of just how many moving parts there are in my body.

When I get soy'd, the aftermath can last from a few days to a few weeks. I never know. Since my smaller joints (fingers/toes) are already starting to feel better I'm hoping it'll only be a few days...

Of course, now my guts are all messed up. For the first day I lived off of water & original pedialyte (that's all that would stay down), but the next day I had a small cup of brown rice and half a piece of bread. Today I tried to really "go nuts" and made myself a plain turkey sandwich (bread, 2 slices of turkey, and minimal mayo) for lunch and ended up throwing up at work. So it was back to brown rice for dinner. I'm going to be on a diet of brown rice and baby food for the rest of the week and then work my way back up to normal food starting next week. I always have to do this when I get soy'd, but it had been so long since this has happened that I'd kind of forgotten (I'd also forgotten just how horribly painful it is!)...plus I'm impatient. I want my guts to be better now!

The really sucky thing is, my parents were going to take Ramiro & me out to dinner at the North Woods Inn this weekend. For those of you who don't know, that's where white people go around Christmas-time to enjoy a steak the size of their face while being surrounded by the heads of dead animals. It's glorious. Unfortunately, we had to cancel because there's no way I'd be able to keep it down...

In other news, I got a message from an old friend today... Which I mistakenly (thank God!) thought was his way of telling me he was planning to kill himself. Sure. It's funny NOW. Anyway, I was so concerned that I actually called him up (even though I loathe talking on the phone). It was all a comical misunderstanding and I'm sure you'll all be happy to know that he plans to remain alive for quite some time (provided he isn't hit by a van...again). I'm still in quite a bit of pain, so I was grateful that he took up the burden of doing most of the talking. And supposedly he's going to write a song for/about(?) me. We'll see.

In conclusion, here's a picture of Robert & Ziggy (Ramiro & my cats):

They're very sleepy. Shhhhhhh.

Until next time...

--Lauren*
PS: Yes, it is very hard to have one condition (Hypoglycemia) that dictates I eat all the time with another condition (being "soy'd") that won't let me eat anything. Sigh. Pray for me?

http://littlezotz.webs.com