Doing much better, thanks to meditation, yoga, Aricept, & lil doggieswalking ... - Page 4

Theta Z · 11-14-2012, 02:32 PM

It's sunny, clear, 'cold' (for DownHere) 65 high today.
My headache resolved earlier in this week.
Yesterday, last night it was my neck that was so tender & painful. That seems to have resolved overnight. Yay.

Today it is my lumbar back that is so painful & distracting me from getting on with my task(s) for the day.

I'm cooking New Mexico Pork Roast Posole, Green Chile Stew, roasted corn, Indian frybread, and fresh pumpkin-pecan muffins for my elder friends, professors emeritus retired couple who are a great delight. I cook for them a couple times a week, and I enjoy it, yes, as do they.
Everyone who knows me lifelong knows that if Theta is cooking, she is happy & doing a-okay.

It's a great day to be cooking outdoors on the grill.
Friends in New Mexico sent to me a 10-lb box of Hatch, NM and other assorted NM chiles. I'd wanted to fire-roast them outdoors on the grill this morning.
However the loud noise assault of the lawn tractors, leaf blowers and power-trimmers/edgers today has been nearly incessant since early morning.

Groan!.

Never mind the fire-roasting, although that would have been ideal.
Oh well. Close all the sliding glass doors and turn on the whitenoise fan and try to forget about it.

So I've sat in the shiatsu chair massager with the heat application on, taken an 800 mg ibuprofen & 2 aspirin, hoping for some relief enough to get this New Mexican Feast Day dinner going and delivered by 6pm.

I'm dogsitting one of my fave little guys today also.

Wish me well in my small efforts at being productive and useful today! Lol.

Thinking of you all and wishing you a hopefully very fine day.

Sincerely,
Theta

Theta Z · 11-15-2012, 10:46 PM

An update:
I did get enough relief in the intense lumbar back pain yesterday, through various selfcare modalities, + the 1600 mg ibuprofen
( 800 mg in the early-early a.m. and a second 800 mg. 8 hrs later) + 405 mg aspirin in the afternoon.

I did pull together the New Mexican Feast Day meal for my elder friends, and got it to their table, served, & all cleaned up by 7pm last evening. Yay.

They are very pleased and want me to cook for them 2-3 evenings a week. I'm trying to be responsible to my own needs and limitations, before overcommitting my time/energy capacities.

If it were simply the cooking only ... as I am presently ... it would be no big deal. However I must remain mindful that it's the grocery shopping excursions that "do me in". Can anyone relate? I'm sure many here can/do.

I did very well this week. I did most all of the grocery shopping on Tuesday at our local little family-owned uptown market, which I can handle/cope a-okay. I didn't have to drive to any of the bigger major groceries, further out, which are just (still) such an assault on my senses, that I have to "rest" and recover afterwards.

Anyhoo, I'm thinking that I might manage okay to cook 2 nights a week for them regularly, but for now, I simply cannot manage 3 --- despite how much I would like to do that.

I am just feeling that it may simply ultimately over time prove "too much" for me to sustain ... to do what I enjoy doing for others, yet making sure ahead of time that I am taking complete care of myself and not pushing-the-limits of my envelope.

I simply cannot afford to 'blow it' again this time, i.e. doing too much, not realizing it, and being unable to sustain the heightened level of activity & commitment ... ending up in burnout/collapse/relapse again. No no no. Cannot afford to go there again.

So for me today was a wholly uncommitted day (by choice) timewise and largely a planned/scheduled day of rest, restore, recoup, recover. I even declined an invitation to lunch 1:1 with a good friend. I 'saved' myself, my energies, my capacities all day, to have a quick, simple, nourishing early evening dinner at the home of a friend who'd cooked for us.

I've by now had my Celestial Seasonings Sleepytime Extra tea x 2 cups this evening, a lavendar epsom salts bath, a cup of warmed milk with local honey, brushed my teeth, am in bed with Thursday Night House MD Party on Oxygen tv, fresh clean sheets on my bed, mattress turned-&-flipped, and took my newly today re-Rx'd lunesta 2mg, starting to yawn & hopefully very soon to nod into sweet sleep ... I hope.

All the best to each and all here.

Good night,

Theta

Theta Z · 11-18-2012, 10:22 AM

Duh.

I have a dear friend who often takes me to lunch at her favorite, our local Chinese cafe's small buffet. I certainly appreciate the great value & quality of the buffet, and my friend's generosity. We've been frequently enough of late that I've learned that if I partake, I am thereafter simply good for nothing the rest of the day!

Yes, I'm a little slow on the uptake to make the connection to the ages old, "MSG syndrome" !
Having lived in China for a year, I'd think I'd have been more mindful of this hazard. Again simply, "Duh."

"Still learning after all these years how to navigate this PCS maze."

Humbly,

Theta