Lazy Spring Break

Still home, just being lazy and soaking up the family time. Yesterday I laid around the house literally all day and watched about seventeen episodes of The West Wing. Today I was a smidge more productive, and got my butt into Big City to visit a potential graduate school, then met my brother for lunch at his office. After a teeny tiny panicky episode Friday night, I'm feeling really good, really optimistic, and overall really content with how things are progressing.

in love with this show!

Still in some pain, but Dr. A totally restored my faith. I'm a realist at heart and won't believe it until I start seeing actual results, but he promised me that I'm totally curable, and even said how proud he is of me for staying the course with food, exercise, etc.

Speaking of, we had a long talk about exercise in my appointment. I mentioned it briefly in my epic recap, but that was starting to resemble a doctoral dissertation more than a blog post so I didn't go into much detail. Anyway, he wants me to lay off all exercise for a couple weeks, or at least until the steroids start kicking in and I feel the nerves calming down (e.g. fewer of those horrible electrical stabbing pains). Then, he wants nothing "intense" for another year or so, assuming I maintain my weight and continue to have regular periods. I will probably also get my hormone levels tested again at some point, just to make sure they're back within (or at least closer to) a normal range. My doctor said something like: "Your brain remembers not having periods, and it wants to shut them down at the first sign of distress."

So, back to exercise. What does "intense" mean? I'm not really sure, to be honest. I'm definitely not allowed to run for a long time, unless it's super light jogging. And to be honest, I'm not sure I trust myself to keep it light; I have a tendency to keep upping the speed/incline on the treadmill or telling myself just one more time around the block and before you know it, I've run X miles and burnt a gazillion calories in the process. Dr. A said weight training was okay as long as I didn't overdo it, but again, what does that mean?? I don't do a particularly strenuous lifting regimen, but I'm also a major weakling and definitely work up a sweat from it. Is that overdoing it? I think it really might be time for me to give yoga another chance. At the moment, I'm feeling super cautious and protective of my body and do not want to jeopardize my health, but I also love love LOVE the way exercise makes me feel.

source

Well, lots to think about. On an unrelated note, I have lots to think about regarding my graduate school choices, with which I won't bore you now but get ready for some major decision angst in future posts.

P.S. Does anyone remember my eyeball saga? I haven't seen my eye doctor in over a month, which is a record for me in the past year. If anyone out there is still unconvinced about the miraculous curative powers of weight restoration, please e-mail me.