Sleep again

You can catch Americans catnapping all over the country. Sadly,

the real cure is more and better sleep.

Yesterday I headed off to the grocery store to buy the turkey for Thanksgiving. My menu is going to be super simple (and the recipes are at the end of this post).

But in trying to pick up the items in the supermarket, the aisles seemed packed with people who seemed loggy and unaware. Carts were blocking aisles, people were calling their families to remind them what ingredients they needed, and one woman was holding two large cans of pumpkin as if she were trying to read the label in a foreign language.

It was like one of those zombie films. Or maybe I was just looking at a lot of sleep-deprived folks trying to get up the energy to deal with another holiday.

I am not a hypochondriac junkie! I am a '54 Chevy Bel Air!

1954 Chevy Bel Air. Maybe runs hot, needs a few valves replaced, a little
chunky by today's standards, but still has some good lines. Turns over in sub-
zero weather. Yes. That's me!

OK, that title will make sense in a minute, I hope.

Annual check-up with Dr. Blood today. Good news is that all those 50- to 100-point fluctuations in my platelet count she considers "stable." She checked my spleen and other blood work and said those seemed fine.

Doc said to continue with having blood draws every three to four months and to call in if platelets jump to 900 or higher (currently my high readings are about 750). She said I should keep taking a baby aspirin every day. She noted that enteric coated aspirin would help with any stomach upsets. Most baby aspirin is enteric coated (look for "E.C." on the bottle), so just passing this along as a tip for anybody else on aspirin regime.

She also said I could stay stable for a period of years, and I'll take that, though, in reality, even the hot-shots don't really fully understand how quickly your ET might worsen or why it might morph into some other disease.

But then things took a strange turn.

... and now some thoughts for those concerned about Obamacare

Whatever your feelings about the recent U.S. election generally, if you rely on the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) for insurance, you probably have some concerns about your coverage given that many of those elected ran on platforms that included repealing and replacing it.

As someone who relies on Obamacare myself, I am offering two lines of thought here that might offer some practical info. First is how quickly the repeal and replace effort might happen. Second is what you can do to anticipate gaps in your coverage.

Hydrea's side effects?

Ever feel like this when you start taking
some new medication that your doctor
hasn't clearly explained to you?

This question comes up a lot on our Facebook page and on cancer discussion groups: "I just started taking hydroxyurea (Hydrea). Is it normal to ...?"

My mother is a cardiac patient who has had open-heart surgery, persistent atrial fibrillation, and a host of complications. I will spare you my rant on doctors who prescribe medication without explaining a) what it is supposed to do for you, and b) what side effects you might need to report.

Instead, let's pause while I a take a nice cleansing breath and scream at the needless worry and confusion that our doctors create because their offices are chock full of sick people and they don't have time to explain things.

Ah, that's better.

Now let's take the bull by the horns and get some info that might help us reduce needless worry.

First off, here's the link to the Mayo Clinic's page that lists Hydrea's side effects.

My self-improvement kick #4: Tricking myself into exercise

It's trick or treat season. Here's our jack-o-lantern, which reminds
me I'd really like one of those pumpkin muffins every coffee shop
sells right now. I'm trying  to trick myself into more exercise and
fewer of those muffins. 

So, this summer was hot and muggy up here in the Midwest, and don't care much for summer in any case. So I did a lot of sitting on my fanny in the one room that has air conditioning and trying not to eat too much macaroni salad. As a result, I gained back a few of the pounds I lost.

I'm also coming off a couple weeks of Prednisone for a lung infection, so didn't get a lot of exercise for about a month. The Prednisone always zips me up, taking away a lot of the ET-related fatigue and with the added side effect of making all the all the back and neck pain I have from a severe spinal curvature away. For two weeks I felt 45 again! Now that the course of Prednisone is done, I feel like I've been hit by a Peterbilt.