I knew It had been a while since I made an entry here but 4 months? Wow.
Guess I'll start with my vacation this July. First one since contracting scleroderma. Spent a week in northern Ontario at a cottage resort with my daughter and her hubby - son also came up for a couple of days. Wonderful time, fresh caught fish every day, great weather, days spent sitting by the lake. Oh yeah.

August was fairly uneventful except that I now have a display of my artwork at a local studio. Sales are slow but hopefully will pick up as the holiday season approaches. Actually, I've had a couple of orders this past weekend so yipee.

September has meant I've been been very busy. Now  volunteering for the library doing one on one ESL, have taken on another ESL student through the Arthritis society where am currently teaching a 6 week program. There's also the work I do with the Scleroderma society and I'm taking a writing course which began last month and will end in April. Add in appointments and the lie and there's seldom a day when something's not going on. Not complaining though.
And speaking of appointments, saw GI doc today. Having some blood work done to check iron levels and vitamin D (because of prednisone). Also had doctor write a prescription for imodium which I take regularly to ward of chronic diarrhea. Aside from the diarrhea, my health is good as is life in general.

Walk in the Park

On June 8, 2013, London, Ontario held its 4th annual Walk/Run in the Park for Scleroderma. Although it threatened to rain we were fortunate that it stayed dry and it was a perfect day for a walk/run along the Thames.  Present total stands at $24 000 with a few more donations to come in. More pictures here.

Surgery coming up.

Finally having my gall bladder removed May 6 as a result of the infection I had this past Christmas.  Right now, I'll just be happy to be done with it. Was just advised that I will have to go in a day early at the request of the anesthetist who has some concerns because my mouth only opens just over an inch wide and my head doesn't bend back meaning they expect to have some problems inserting a breathing tube.  Not sure what the plan is for that extra day.  Will find out when I get there I guess.

All else is good. I am eating well, exercising and meditating and, best of all, the warm weather is here so Jojo and I have been spending lots of time outdoors. Happy spring everyone.

Here's an image I recently worked on. Hope to print it big - 3 to 4 feet wide - and possibly put it in a show of my photography at my local library

Updates

Nothing much to report really. Exercise and meditation continue to go well.  Must admit though that I've skipped the odd day, usually because I've forgotten. Will be reviewing the exercise program with my physiotherapist soon to see if we need to make any changes or add some new ones in.  Meditation is going really well. In fact I am putting together a group to meet on a weekly basis. Having the usual problems finding a time that works for everyone.

Diet is up and down. A couple of weeks ago I had several days when I had severe reflux.  Finally vomited one night and it got better after that.  Since then I have cut back severely on what I eat every other day and that seems to be working. An ongoing experiment.

Have had two planning meetings for our walk on June 8 and everything's falling into place nicely.

More on Exercise & Meditation

Starting into my second week of exercise and meditation.  I am happy to report that I never missed a day of exercising or meditation although my meditation was cut short by about ten minutes yesterday evening when my nurse arrived early.  Not a problem as I'd already told myself that 10'/day meditating was my minimum goal.  Did the full 20' today though.

I told my PT yesterday that I'd been doing well so we agreed that I should add some more exercises.  I don't believe I mentioned that the first set were all done form a sitting position.  Consequently, the new set from yesterday are all standing.  I tried them out today and found that three repetitions was a bit much so started doing two.  Will stick with that untilI I feel ready to do three.  Oh, and I was doing a couple of neck stretches but felt that they were irritating my neck so my PT suggested I simply stop doing them.  Done.

It is a fact that exercising actually decreases pain and, with the exception of my neck, I am finding that general body/joint pain, has in fact decreased over the last several days.  I'm well on my way to becoming the new me, and it's only been a week! Life is good.

Exercise & Meditation

Now  that I am getting my diet under control (it's still a work in progress but coming along nicely) it's time to turn my attention to exercise. After all, it's no secret that diet on its own can only do so much and the same can be said for exercise.

So, before Christmas, I asked my physiotherapist for a new set of stretching exercises and suggested that, being the music lover that I am, perhaps it would help me get motivated  if we set the exercises to music of a suitable tempo.  I had already done some experimenting with this idea and decided that a waltz beat would work best, something with a tempo of around forty beats/minute or thereabouts.  Since I had recently purchased Diana Krall's latest release, 'Glad Rag Doll', I looked there first and found a couple of waltzes, 'Prairie Lullaby' and 'Wide River to Cross'  that seemed to work.  Also found a couple of Holly Cole tunes later on and added them to the list.

This past Thursday, my PT gave me the list of exercises and I started doing them along with the music on Friday.  Have done them every day and am finding the experience quite enjoyable and satisfying. Will be looking for some more waltz tempo songs for the future in case I get tired of these ones.

I simply do a stretch for two three counts which means holding it for between 2 and 3 seconds, rest for the same amount of time, and repeat two more times before moving on to either the other side or a new stretch.

Following the exercises, I thought it would be a good idea to meditate which I have done on all four days.  Even though I have been meditating off and on for close to 20 years, I decided to use an app on my iphone to get me going.  The first part is loving kindness or 'meta' meditation followed by mindfulness of breath meditation, the entire session lasting 20 minutes.  Once I get into a routine I will probably switch to a less structured technique but for now this s working well. It really feels good to be meditating on a regular basis again.

I must confess that, even though I am aware of the benefits of exercise, I have been negligent in doing any since I was diagnosed 9 years ago.  The reason, laziness is the best I can do.  But when it has taken my neck three months to heal from a simple sprain I realized just how poor my muscle tone was and it was this realization as much as anything which prompted me to ask my PT for a new set of exercises.

New diet for daily exercise for the body and meditation for the soul, things can only get better, right?  Wish me luck.

On the Diet Front

Been trying out some new recipes this week.  So far I have made scalloped potatoes, rice pudding and today, baked potato pizza. (Click on item for recipe)

The scalloped potatoes were excellent.  Made enough for two meals (remember I don't eat a lot at a time).  I altered the recipe to avoid the milk by substituting a yogurt and rice milk mixture.  I would have preferred regular yogurt but all I had was vanilla yogurt on hand which didn't really seem to affect the flavour at all. I also cut back on the cheese a bit.  The second time I had this for a meal I had diarrhea the next day.  Not sure if it was the potatoes at fault or not.  Not sure if it was due to the potatoes or not. Will definitely make again.

I cut the recipe in half. The rice pudding was again using a mixture of rice milk and yogurt. As the recipe called for vanilla, the use of vanilla yogurt was not a problem.  I also substituted dried blueberry for raisins as raisins are not recommended for my anti-diarrhea diet. The taste was fine but the rice was overcooked, very mushy, and I probably won't try this recipe again.

The potato pizza was excellent.  I used pita bread instead of pizza crust which made for a crunchy base which I usually prefer anyway.  Also cut back on the cheese, probably about half, because I know it's not ideal for my diet.  Chose to go meatless and didn't have any chives so added a little extra of the green onions.  Was a little overdone at 400 degrees for 25 minutes so will cut back on the time next time.  Otherwise it was very tasty and, yes, I will definitely have this again.
Happy eating.

Gallbladder Infection

On December 23, I went to emergency with severe abdominal pain and was diagnosed with cholesystitis or an infection of the gallbladder. I was transferred to another hospital and admitted immediately. So, I spent Christmas week in hospital fighting off the infection with heavy duty antibiotics.  And then another ten days at home on still more antibiotics.  There goes my carefully cultured gut from my new diet.  Diarrhea was back and unable to eat.

It is now 1 1/2 weeks since I finished up my antibiotics and my gut is getting back to the pre gallbladder state.  Been eating yogurt every day as well as food from my diet.

Have an appointment on February 6 with the surgeon, prep for removal of my gallbladder. Talked this over with my GI doc last week, wanted his opinion about necessity of having gallbladder removed.  He convinced me that I should go ahead with it.

Also had my picc line replaced as the old one was getting a bit sluggish - required more pressure to flush.

That's about it for now.