What now?

Over the last 2 weeks, I’ve been going to the doctor.  Firstly, I wanted to talk about symptoms of black mold poisoning (still no word on the apartment situation as of yet).  But I also wanted to get a full checkup and bloodwork done for a few reasons.

First off, I have been suffering from Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome for a long time now.  The pain has gotten worse and worse and there are new treatments being explored these days for that.

Secondly, PCOS can go hand in hand with diabetes and insulin resistance.  My mother was recently diagnosed as diabetic and my grandmother was diabetic so . . . I’m definitely a contender.

So I got blood work done.  Blood sugar fine, but the insulin is abnormally high.  The next step was to take a glucose tolerance test.  It wasn’t the worst thing to ever do but ooh, not at all pleasant either.  Basically, I had to make like a Gremlin and not eat after midnight.  Then first thing in the morning I headed to the doctor’s office where I had to drink 10 ounces (in 5 minutes) of something that tasted like a flat orange soda with 5 times the amount of sugar in it and then hang out for 2 hours while they took blood samples at 1 and 2 hour intervals.

Wow.  Holy shit.  Within 30 minutes I felt drunk and kind of sick from the biggest sugar high ever.  It was kind of gross.  By the time I drove home I was wasted.  I was instructed to eat lots of protein all day and take it easy.  Upon my arrival home, C presented me with scrambled cheddar eggs and some sausage.

Anyway, they called yesterday and said that the glucose test was normal, and I’m going in tomorrow for a consultation with the doctor.  I want to go over the blood test results, ask questions, and talk about the possibility of insulin resistance, along with some questions about PCOS treatment.

Also, just because of my proclivity to insulin nonsense and diabetes, I’ve started on a low glycemic index diet, which is going really well.  Much better than I could have ever expected.

And that’s where I’m at!  Already feeling the positive effects of the food change and exercise, which is great.  But nervous about whether or not any  medication will be suggested or necessary.  Wish me luck tomorrow!

Holy windshield, Batman!

C came home from work this evening around 5 or so.  As we sat upstairs talking, we looked out the window and remarked that the sky was getting awfully dark, awfully quickly.  She said that the weather had put Austin under a tornado watch and a hail warning.

It starts raining.  C says “I’m . . . going to move the cars now.  Just in case.”

Not 30 seconds later, I hear the door downstairs slam open.  “Move your car NOW!”

By the time I change pants, get downstairs, find shoes (she had taken mine), get the door open, C is running back up.  She is drenched.  She had already moved her car, moved my car, and taken the time to warn our asshole neighbor that he should maybe move his car as well.

And then we stood outside and watched this appear, in less than 5 minutes:

Our parking lot, being covered in hail.

My parking spot, covered in hail.

Now the hail's coming down so hard and fast, I can't take a picture through it! Go figure.

Our front steps, covered in hail!

C, holding a golfball-sized piece of hail.

So it hailed and hailed, it was awesome and weird and maybe a tiny bit scary.  Maya was terrified—I found her later huddled near a crate in a nest she had made out of some fabric.  Safe and sound and freaked on the ground floor.

As the hail died down, we saw a child from a neighboring apartment streak to play in all the hail on the ground.  At least his mama put a batting helmet on.  Which seems appropriate, as in areas near to us, baseball-sized hail was reported.  Go, little man!

He's rounding third, I think. Heading home?

Not 20 minutes after all this started, this is what it looks like outside.

Back greenbelt and dog-walking area. Sun is out!

Front parking lot yet again. Ominous clouds remain in the distance. Ooooh.

All this to say, I think the weather is what keeps Austin weird (courtesy of C).

Like a 50’s B-movie

We are looking into having our apartment inspected for . . . BLACK MOLD (insert ominous instrumental here).  For those of you that haven’t already heard me bitch about this, I’ve been having almost constant nausea, fatigue, and a mysterious rash on my arm that disappears and reappears randomly.  But I feel better when the A/C isn’t running for a few days.  My thoughts are that when the whole washing machine fiasco happened, the repairs obviously weren’t done correctly and there is now mold possibly growing in the ductwork and the sheetrock where all the water came through.  C hasn’t been feeling badly, but that could be due to 1) she’s not home nearly as much as I am and 2) it just affects people differently.

The mold detection kits you can buy at Home Depot depend on being able to swab a sample of the mold in question.  I don’t think that’s going to work for us, since if it’s in the ductwork it’s beyond our reach.  So we’re going to approach the apartment management company about paying for a certified air inspection.

In other health news, I finally went to the doctor for my various complaints and got a ton of bloodwork done.  Hoping to hear results tomorrow.

In completely random news, I had the weirdest dream this morning.  C walked by with a baked potato, and everyone in my dream (a large group of people, in a large room) got all excited and jealous of the potato and blinked out of my dream.  I woke up to C telling me goodbye as she was leaving for work and accused her of stealing my dream away with her tasty tuber.  Naturally, she just stared at me.  A lot.  I saw her shaking her head as she descended the stairs.

Can I keep him?

Right now there is the absolute sweetest cat on my back porch.  A boy, probably no more than a year old, and so friendly!

Lots of cats live around here, and at some point they always come and say hello.  Last week there was a grey tabby, also a boy, sniffing around while C and I were sitting outside.  Being cat people, we pet him and gave him some attention.  Our cat, Maya, who is super social, ran up to the sliding glass door with her string in her mouth and promptly flopped on her back.  It was a very “Hello! Be my friend!” moment and absurdly cute.  The cat growled at her and she immediately got a sad look and curled into the fetal position.  I’ve never seen a cat so dejected.

This cat though, he loves Maya.  Right now they’re flirting and being adorable at each other through the door.  Maya is now running the full length of the living room and rushing the door.  It’s like a prolonged game of peek-a-boo.  When I was sitting outside earlier, the cat jumped onto my lap and proceeded to fall asleep on my shoulder.

I want this cat! Alas, he probably belongs to someone already and he’s either lost or his owners are weird enough to let him outside in this area.  Really, now.  High traffic, loose dogs—you’re going to let your cat out?  But tons of people do.

If he’s around for more than a week, I’ll put a poster up by the mailboxes.  And if no one responds, I want this cat.  C already approached me about getting a new cat and, well, I didn’t have an answer at the time.  It’s been just over 3 months since we put Tiger to sleep and I’m not entirely sure that C is ready for a new one.  But Maya could use another cat in the house, I think.  Especially one that’s young enough for her to play with.  I think she gets really bored and lonely when we’re both gone so much.

Now I sound like a crazy cat lady.  Whatever.  It’s not all cats all the time, really.  Whenever we buy a house with a yard, we do intend to have a dog.  I like dogs.  But I’ve never lived without a cat, not my entire life.  And now I’d like to get a second one.

Regression

Maybe.  I was just reading this post on electric boogaloo and dang, I want a closet dedicated to cool things and fun-having.  In fact, I specifically want a napping/hanging out/coloring/reading closet.

Don’t laugh.

I’m not kidding, I would put big thick cushions all over the floor, a few extra to put against the wall to lean against, lots of flowers and cool things on the walls, and a few low bookshelves mounted to the wall and BLAMMO.  I have a Sharon-friendly nook.

And if this is some weird regression into childhood, whatever.  If you say you don’t want a closet of your own, one solely dedicated to your relaxation space and imagination . . . you’re a liar.

I want to hear about your own little space.  If you had a closet (no bigger) and you had to design something that appealed to your inner child, what would you do?  I’m curious, because I really assume that everyone is a book nerd like me.

What was that?

As I was sitting on my back porch tonight talking to my mother on the phone, I saw a large, bright green streak of light in the sky.  It was about 10:45 pm, and I was facing west.  I’ve been searching and searching, but can’t seem to find out what it was.  Did anyone else see it or know what it might have been?  Barring that, any good ideas on where to go to find out?  I NEED to know!