Just an update

Nothing special in this update really. I've found that it doesn't take much to make me happy or feel like I'm doing really well lately.

Mentally, I've been pretty much on the ball if I'm awake. I feel more like "myself" than I have in over a year. I don't have that cloud in the back of my head most of the time, when I'm at home.

Driving still isn't the best. Just from my house to mom's, a whole 15-30 minute drive, can really wear me out. But give me about 30 minutes' rest, and I'm back on the game again.

Not as many mental hiccups, I'm understanding and even producing my own scientific terms (as in recalling and knowing which term I want). I can follow my writing a lot better again, or TV shows with interesting plots (Bones, NCIS, etc). And with Bones, that's saying something with some of the terms they throw around.

The mental exam showed that fairly well, too. That mental test I did a few weeks ago? I did quite well on it -- the annoyingly well that I'd thought.

I'm still getting the headaches, that hasn't changed in all of a week. But the point that I just can't get past is how much better I'm thinking again despite all of this.

Physically, too, I'm doing a lot better than 2 months ago. The functional capacity test still applies... I mean I have the physical limits, and when I'm working on something like helping mom get ready for the furniture to be delivered (hey, she has 3 years worth of accumulation to go through. She hasn't been able to do this since she dislocated her shoulder 3 years ago)... sure, I have a limit of about 15-20 pounds of what I can lift and move at a time. But I *can* lift and move that. I only last about an hour, maybe an hour and a half before I need to stop for the day. And that's in chunks of anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes of working. But you can make a good dent in 15 minutes.

3 hours and dinner later, and I've got to head home.

And I'm considering that a really productive day.

I also noticed last night... I used to go to sleep with my hands clenched in fists. It was unconscious. That started about 5 years ago. Got on some anti-depressant/anxiety meds and that helped. But it still wasn't uncommon for me to go to sleep with some tension.

Recently, the past couple of weeks, I feel like I've really learned to relax and take it easy. To accept my limitations and I'm learning to work around them. To not be quite so depressed or frustrated with it. (Just wait until the hormones kick in again and see if this profound mood lasts :p )

I just hope that this upward trend will continue.