Gus and the Sunflowers Both Kicked the Bucket

So I finished watching Lonesome Dove finally--what a tear jerker! I won't say anymore in case you ever get around to watching it.

The flowers that were sent while I was in the hospital are finally dead. I feel like a character from Heroes that has gained strength from their demise so it's not such a bad thing to see their wilted bodies all around the house!

Last night was rough. I decided to try sleeping in the bed like a big girl but ended up awake with screaming back pain at 4am. I've noticed others have mentioned having back pain after surgery and attributed it to the lower back overcompensating for lack of ab strength. I think it's also my soft pillow top bed that doesn't support my lower back at all--I've been fantasizing lately of sleeping on a board! I wonder if that memory foam stuff would help. I've seen that you can buy just a pillow top for your bed instead of having to purchase an entire bed.

Aside from the back pain during the night, I feel lucky to have 80% of my mobility back at this point. It's mostly my low energy level that keeps me down which will hopefully build back up with time. Adios, Week Two and it's on to Week Three!

Banner Day!

Woohoo! Today I went off the meds to see how I felt. I've been taking Ibuprofen every 8 hrs since I got out of the hospital a week and a half ago. I'm feeling okay but probably should continue taking a lower dosage. At least the pain is manageable now.

I soaked in the bathtub for a bit this morning to take the steri strips off my incision. It was totally painless and the area is looking pretty good though I'm still sportin' the muffin top! I decided to reclaim my independence with a trip to Target and the grocery store. I'm getting around pretty well but my energy level is still pretty low. I found myself eyeing the pillows n such at Target for a place to take a nap. All this to say that I'm still not ready to go back to work yet. Tuesday will be the two week mark for my surgery and I feel like I still need to rest a good bit during the day (and work on my blog!). My entire incision and a couple of inches beyond it in all directions is really numb--a weird sensation. I've read on other post-surgery blogs that this is normal so I'm not gonna sweat it and hope it goes away in time.

All in all, a good day.

The Fibroid Belt?

Many diseases have been shown to have some sort of spatial relationship. There are countless projects underway investigating relationships between chemicals in the environment and breast cancer, for instance. Researchers have even discovered a geographical factor related to kidney stones.

Apparently there is a "kidney stone" belt in the south, where there are far more occurences than elsewhere in the country. But does that mean it's due to an environmental factor or could it be a social/cultural factor related to diet? Most kidney stones are composed of calcium oxalate which is found in tea so many researchers think the mass consumption of good ol' sweet tea in the south explains the kidney stone belt. Others think the stones are formed more in the south because it gets hotter there than in other regions, causing people to get more dehydrated and allowing stones to form more easily.

The reason I brought this up is because I went to the website of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), which is part of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. There you can perform data queries wherein you specify attributes you want to look at. I found a group of diagnosis codes for fibroid related hospital stays (the data available only concern hospital stays and do not include doctor's office visits) and specified that I wanted to see national statistics for all hospital stays throughout the country where the primary reason for that stay was fibroid-related. The data returned are organized in a way that you can see the stats broken down by region and guess what....

The south had double the number of instances than any other region! In fact, each of the other three regions (west, midwest and northeast) was within a couple thousand instances of each other. Perez Hilton says "inneresting..."

I'm always looking for a good excuse to do a GIS so this may be my next project! Stay tuned for the geek maps to start appearing...

P.S. I'm getting out of the house today for lunch outside my kitchen and a walk in the park--so excited!!

TGIF

Baby Steps....

I was feeling pretty good today so I decided to take a spin in the car (shhh....Don't tell anyone at work). I drove a couple of miles and came back. Okay, I drove to a nearby Coke machine and came back. Anyway, it was surprisingly painless!

Since I've got a lot of time on my hands these days, I started watching Lonesome Dove. It's a commitment I've never been able to make before. It's god knows how long so I figured it would keep me entertained. A couple of things I'm perplexed about...

Is that really Diane Lane--aren't her eyes a different color now?

Why did they cast a white dude in the role of Blue Duck?

How come Tommy Lee Jones looks older in this movie than he did in The Fugitive, four years later?

Spring, Sprang, Sprung?

Really?! It's supposed to snow tomorrow??
I live in Virginia and for the past several days we've enjoyed unseasonably warm temps. I think it's made a world of difference in my recovery as I've been able to go outside, sit on the porch and chase away the cabin fever. Rumor has it, we'll see some flakes tomorrow morning. Just when I thought spring had sprung! Now, don't get me wrong--I love to play and ski in the snow, but if I can't get out in it, I'd rather not have it around. It's all about me, right??

On a happy note, I slept through the night for the first time!! I can't believe it: I stayed up long enough to take my last meds (midnight) and the next thing I knew, it was 7am! Boy, did I need the rest. I was concerned about soreness from all the activity yesterday so it was a big relief to wake up feeling okay. I know there will be good days and bad days for the next few months so today feels like a giant leap forward and I'm so psyched about it! (okay, I'm also hopped up on my morning coffee right now)

Who Knew that March 9 was National Fibroid Awareness Day in Jamaica?

I travel a lot to Jamaica for work and I keep up with the local news there via The Gleaner newspaper online. National Fibroid Awareness Day was mentioned in this article outlining recent changes in the demographic of women that are affected by fibroids. Apparently physicians are noticing that younger women are more frequently having fibroid problems than in past years. Fibroids are more prevalent among women of African descent and they affect 7 in 10 women in Jamaica.

Visitors are Good!

Today was a good day overall, though I think I may have overdone it again. I did some light vacuuming in preparation for some visitors and my back is already barkin at me. I brought all the flowers (from well wishers) I had put outside because they were making me cough and sneeze, back inside. Boy did they light the place up! A friend brought a yummy meal over for dinner and hung out awhile. Just as she left and I had time to gulp down my afternoon meds, the door rang and a couple people from work came to visit. They brought a baby so it cheered me right up.

I was also able to catch up with two good friends on the phone today. It's amazing how cathartic a chat with an old friend is!
My advice to women at this stage in recovery is don't become a hermit! Accept visitors and the help they may offer! It will make the days go a little faster and a little easier. It also makes it a tad easier to accept things like the fact that your favorite tv show is playing a rerun tonight....aaaaargh!!!!

Xenoestrogens are Everywhere!

So I've been doing a little research on fibroids (what else am I going to do with all this couch time) and in doing so I landed on a great website that provides a lot of information on fibroids and what causes them. A woman named Shola Oslo, a kinesiologist who works with women with a variety of conditions such as fibroids, endometriosis, PCOS and infertility created it.

She provides a lot of information and informative videos on different types of fibroids. I watched two videos on what causes them. SCARY! Most doctors agree that fibroids are estrogen-fed. She and many other researchers are now investigating the increasing role that xenoestrogens play in this. Xenoestrogens are synthetic compounds that mimic estrogens in the body. They are found in everything from plastic wrap to non-organic meat. Evidence suggests that making life changes that decrease the amount of xenoestrogen intake can halt fibroid growth. So...time to make some lifestyle changes--I'm convinced!