Slow slow today

Actually kind of nice to have nothing I have to do today. There might be a small work project or two towards the afternoon, but I am planning on just puttering around the house today. The last few weeks have been very work intense, so this is a welcome break for sure.

Tomorrow Sarah is suppose to wear her favorite sports team, and after some thinking, what would be better than THIS:


Today Sarah is going on a field trip with the YMCA, they get to hang out with the professional baseball players of the Tampa Bay Rays! A very popular field trip indeed...

Tomorrow after my third workout session, I have a haircut, and then we are dropping the dogs of at the kennel before picking Sarah up from the Y. Then it is off to Orlando again. This time we are staying at a resort called Calypso Cay. We are all looking forward to a relaxing weekend, lots of time just hanging at their fabulous pool. Here is the pool at Calypso Cay, looks promising:

On Sunday we are going to Sea World, which will be a lot of fun. We haven't been there since 2004, so it will be like a first time all over again for Sarah.

These 3-day mini vacations are actually great! You get to get away for a little, recharge your batteries, but it is not the hassle of a longer vacation. We are going to Fort Lauderdale for a 4-day stay in mid August as well, but that stay will be combined with trying to hang out with Ken's grandfather as much as possible as well. He is going on 101 and who knows how long he has left...

Now I am going to get me some caffeine to drink and then watch some Swedish TV I think...

Almost done

Today I am most certain I will finish up the second job from the Italians - that means I get the day off tomorrow, just "normal" work!

I was up at 6:45 AM today, for my new workout routine. For a few seconds I just wanted to go back to sleep, but I knew that would make me feel awful about myself, so up I went and off for another 30 minuted speed walk/run. So far so good...

I am very happy I did my research and got a pair of Asics Cumulus running shoes, These babies are like running with air pillows under your feet (hence the name, I assume), and so far not a hint of a blister. This is very important, since I am very blister prone. And a bad blister could prohibit me for continuing for a while. See, I am a barefoot person. I very rarely wear socks or shoes that enclose the feet. I am all sandals, as open as possible. The barefoot part has always been the case, but the sandals thing started after I moved here to Florida in 1996. Occasionally I wear "normal" shoes during the coldest of winter days.

A few years ago I found out the lupus had also decided to include my feet, I have a chronic inflammation of the major nerve that goes along the foot, a so called Morton's neuroma.

I guess nerve inflammation is just something I will have to live with, I still have the neuralgia, the inflammation of the facial nerve. It seem though that most of my problems always seem to affect only my left side of the body, weird. In my left leg I have the Baker's cyst, a large cyst on the inside of the back of the knee, the nerve thingy in the foot, plus I had 3 blood clots in my left lower leg as well, and I think there is still some problems with that, since my leg tend to swell up a lot during lots of exercise or walking.

Don't worry, in 2005 they surgically implanted something called a vena cava filter, a filter thingy that sits in my vena cava (one of the two large veins that takes de-oxygenated blood to the heart). The filter is there to catch any errant clots before reaching the heart (or lungs or brain) and potentially killing me. The reason they gave me the filter instead of keeping me on blood thinners for the rest of my life (since the blood clot risk will be there forever), is that I was intolerant of the medication, but I also had so much inflammation going on in my body, that the risk for bleeding was too great.

This is the exact filter I have implanted

The filter is only about 80 % effective, so that sucks. But I feel a bit more stable nowadays, getting rid of the colon and rectum really helped in giving my body a chance to catch up and recover.

And hey, the filter looks like a star on a CT-scan, really pretty, at least that is something, huh?!

A little sore...

Yesterday was my first ever try to increase my cardiovascular fitness. I spent 30 minutes doing 30 minutes of cardio at 7 AM yesterday morning.

Starting out the first week, with my fitness level not even on the scale, I did 6 minutes speed walk, then 1 minute jogging, and repeated 3 times. 1 minute of jogging sounds like nothing, but for someone like me, who has been through a couple of major surgeries the last few years, who has lupus and all kinds of other medical problems, it was a BIG deal. The plan is to increase the jogging part, so after 8 weeks I can run 20-30 minutes straight.

How pathetic this might sound like to you fit people, this is a plan that might work for me. I say might, because I have no idea how my body is going to react. It doesn't exactly help that I have a Baker's cyst big as an orange on the back of my left knee.

So I don't have super high hopes for this fitness plan, but I am very motivated. I need more energy, I need to take care of my heart. So I got myself a pair of really good running shoes, and I am going to give it my best...

Yesterday morning, after I got over (almost) the initial feeling that I was going to keel over, and I was done, I felt great! Too bad I have to do it 3-4 days a week for it to really count...

But it did start the day out on a positive note for sure.
Then last night I decided to be really good, and I spent over 45 minutes pushing the mower around the yard. It was really needed, but it is quite the workout since we don't have one of those self-propelled mowers. Even if it is a motorized mower, you really have to PUSH!

After that my face was read as a beet, but it felt great jumping into the shower. Plus I took the dogs for two long walks during the day, so I really got my share of workout yesterday.

So today I am a bit sore, mostly in my hips and thighs, and tomorrow I am suppose to do another 7 AM cardio.

Hopefully it will all work out and my body will be happy, not too grumpy. I better cram my MP3-player with as many upbeat songs I can find. If you would all give me your best tips on upbeat songs, I would greatly appreciate it. I mean the kind of songs that makes you smile and you just can't sit still when you hear 'em.

I need all the help I can get.. :-)

Difficulty concentrating

Lets see...

• Monday afternoon slump... Check!
• Teenagers playing with firecrackers so dogs bark like crazy... Check!
• 8 very itchy mosquito bites... Check!
• Muscle pain from workout this morning... Check!
• Not enough caffeine... Check!

Very hard to concentrate... Must... concentrate...

Think weekend getaway! Only 4 days left!

Weekend Update

We had a nice lazy weekend it felt like, but at the same time I got a lot of stuff done.

On Saturday we went to the movies, and then we headed Downtown Bradenton for the annual 4th of July Fireworks over the Manatee River. As always it was packed, and at 9:30 PM the show started. It was 30 minutes of great performance! I have to say they outdid themselves on the finale this year, it was truly great!

Lots of people brought their own chairs and had set up camp along the side of Manatee River

Ken and Sarah eagerly anticipating seeing all the fireworks

After we got home Sarah was very excited, even though it was 10:30 PM, we still had a bunch of our own "fireworks" to shoot off. The kind you shoot into the air is not allowed, you need a permit for those, but we had fun watching all kinds of different sparkler-type of fireworks.

It was a very sleepy Sarah that finally went to bed at 11 PM...

Here is a clip of the beginning of the City of Bradenton Firework Show:

Independence Day Weekend

Last night I noticed my joints were not hurting anymore, and when I watched the news, sure enough, the weather that has been causing all this rain is letting up. Now we are back to normal, which in Florida means tropical in the summer with afternoon thunder showers. Great!

Sarah and Stan are both fine now, I think Sarah just really wanted to stay home yesterday, in fact, I think she just wanted to play with the kids next door...

So hopefully I can get some work done today, now when Sarah is at camp again...

Tomorrow it is Independence Day, aka Forth of July, aka the US National Day. This is usually celebrated all over with fun, food and fireworks.

Our plans is to go and see a movie tomorrow (the new Ice Age movie in 3D), then have a little BBQ. We do have some fireworks, but most kinds are illegal to use at home unless you have a permit, so we only got some pretty mild things. Enough to get Sarah excited!

Should hopefully just be a relaxing weekend with some pool/beach thrown in for good measure. Next weekend we have another 2-nighter in Orlando, this time we are staying at Calypso Cay, similar to the one we stayed at last time. We are going to SeaWorld next Sunday, should be fun, we haven't been to SeaWorld since December 2004!

Hope you all have a great Friday and weekend!

What's up?

I have no idea. Sarah woke up today complaining that she sees fuzzy out of her left eye, mostly at a distance. She also says she has a "medium pain in her brain", translation: she has a bit of a headache over her forehead... She also seems sensitive to light a bit.

So I am keeping her home from camp today to keep an eye on her. If it seems it might get worse or not get better I might take her to her doctor, his office is just around the corner anyway.

It is suppose to be another super rainy day, so a good day to be curled up on the couch.

Myself, I am finishing up the big project, and as soon as that is done I am starting the next one. I hope I can't still work when she is home, she has a tendency to whine a lot when she is bored... :-)

Florida Summer Rain

It was good we went on below mentioned walk when we did, because this is how it looked like outside 5 minutes after we got back...

Ready to go!

Wrist

We are having a huge "cold front" north of Florida, this is most likely what is causing my wrist to be so messed up. I wouldn't mind so much unless I had so much typing to do...

I tried wrapping the wrist to fixate it a bit, hopefully that helps a bit. It feels like having a broken wrist (I know, I broke this exact wrist twice when I was younger), but I know it is just the lovely lupus joint pain.

Apparently we are going to get bouts of torrential tropical downpours all through the day. The rain is welcome, we still need it, plus it helps with the heat a little, it hasn't felt more than perhaps 35 C the last few days.

And Sweden is hot, hot hot! I am so longing for Sweden right now. I just want to buy a ticket and go, BUT I have responsibilities to tend to, so no go.

But I talked to Ken and I have decided that Sarah and I are going to go by ourselves next summer. My mom promised I can have her car the entire stay, so that will be helpful. I have no idea where we would stay, but I am sure there are plenty of family we can force ourselves upon... Should be fun!