Been a while

Been a while since I've posted anything here, since I'm not sure that anyone actually reads it... (HINT! If you do, post a wave or something so I know I'm not wasting my time here? :D )

Things haven't been too bad, but in part that's because of my lowered expectations from myself.

Still waiting to hear from the insurance whether the appeal went through or not. They have 45 days from Nov 10th so it could be a while.

Did get my latest bloodwork back. The EPV was completely inactive now, and the ATP was up to around 25. So the shots are working!

Speaking of, I've learned how to give them to myself where it's not as painful. I'd found a correlation between left and right leg in that the left hurt more than the right.... found out why. Because I'm right handed, I'd be sitting back and more relaxed for the right side. Left side, I'd sit forward and be more tense. I figured it out when I was sitting forward (shot goes in the upper leg) on the right side one time and it was just as bad as the left. Tried sitting back on the left -- sure enough, not nearly as bad as it had been. Also hit a record this week... I think it only took me 5-10 minutes to actually *take* the shot from the time I picked it up... I've taken as much as 30 to psyche up for it before :p

In other news, let's see... DEFINITELY not ready to go back to work. One of my good friends who was a coworker (note the past tense) has taken a job in Virginia and just left this morning to go out there. I sat with her for a little last night to visit one more time before she disappeared, and even though I've been doing a lot better than a few months ago, when she started discussing work related stuff and things with the manager, etc, I had a hard time processing it again. Left after about 30 minutes, but part of that time I was dizzy. It's amazing how much stress / energy just SITTING and TALKING to a FRIEND can take. But, at least I made it by.

One of my best friends came over to mom's for Thanksgiving, too. It was good to see her again, and BOY was she a HUGE help (even if she doesn't think so). Interestingly, despite the fact that she's in a stressful situation and I'm trying to help a little (be a shoulder, all that), the several hours with her while helping mom fix Thanksgiving Dinner weren't as stressful as the time with my friend who is moving. Probably because I was both at mom's house and sitting in a comfortable place, and because I'm just more relaxed around her generally.

Anyway, I'm still needing the naps, and having trouble following some things (been trying to trace genealogy on mom's side, and I had to put that aside for a little bit), and I'm really beginning to think I may end up having to go on full disability, but my next appointment with the specialist is on Tuesday so I'll talk to her about it. After all, I'm wondering about this when my ATP number is still 25 and it needs to be closer to 40 before I can consider it.

In the meantime, I've now had three people tell me I look so much better as far as color, carriage, stress, etc goes than I was looking a few months ago.

"You're looking wonderful!" -- this when I still can't drive and still only have a typical stamina of about 8-12 hours during a full day? Though, really, I FEEL a lot better than I did several months ago.

At the moment, however, I feel tired after the stress of Thanksgiving. It was fun stress, but it was still stress and it takes me a few days to recover from that any more. So, off to bed.