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[lenniel]

Hi all!

MsTurtle: my mother was just diagnosed with serious apnea and was shocked at how little sleep she was really getting.  The machine helps her a lot, though. I'm sorry about the family crap - I am forever grateful mine is small and far away!  Has everyone left?  Are you coping okay?

MsP - still feeling less achy?

Gourmetless, are you also feeling relatively pain free?  I like your analogy of pain management to time - the stressors and pitfalls in academia always seems to be followed by periods of deep boredom, and finding ways to juggle time and health seem a daily task.

Psychdiva, I hope you don't have to have surgery!  I'm sending good vibes your way and hope you just go easy on yourself.  Sometimes, I get so disgusted with everything I just take it one minute at a time, if necessary, but that still sucks.  I get tired of by hyper-vigilant about mood, being nice, yadda yadda.  All the stuff that other folks either don't do or cover up really well.  Take care of yourself, and feel free to whine - we can take it...:)

Hope all are doing okay today!

[gourmetless]

Whine!!!  Wine!!!

One day at a time, indeed!!  Thinking too much can only get you into trouble.

I just posted this on the Fluffy Faculty board, but...  I wrote for three hours yesterday, with my legs folded under me.  I know better, and am dealing with knee aches today.  But, other than that, am feeling relatively fine today!

Next week is a research trip... yah for sitting in drafty reading rooms with hard chairs!  Woohoo!!  Then carrying my laptop back home again.  At least I will be staying with the gentleman partner, so I can get plenty of neck rubs.

Be well all, as we move into the mid-point fo the summer and the holiday weekend.  Have some sangria.  It cures all ills.

[gourmetless]

BAD day.  I am so achy and sore, and cold.

I have new downstairs neighbors, who are just moving in.  They have been locking our common outside door, which we (my old neighbor and I) never did, due to no working doorbells.  I took my keys down, lay them down in the vestibule as I took my trash out, and proceeded to lock myself outside.  I hate fishbrain. I *meant* to carry the keys with me, who knows why I put them down.

So, I spent some time trying every door (locked).  We are the only two tenants.  I climbed on top of a air conditioning unit, and used my trowel to try to pry open the window.  Nada.  I went to the car to get my club, but it was no go.  I didn't fall, but it was a close call.  Then it started raining.

Luckily, I keep an extra set of keys in my office.  So, off I went in the rain and walked up to campus and got my chair to let me into my office.  Thankfully I was wearing shoes when this happened.  I even had a bra on.

Between the stress, the walk, the rain, and the emotional fatigue, I feel like crap!

But my new lavendar scented neck wrap arrived today!

Happy Holiday everyone!

[lenniel]

Hi all!

Oh, gourmetless, that just sucks.  I hope you are feeling okay and enjoying the new neck wrap, though!  We are heading to see the parents (his, not mine) and it should be a quiet, mellow trip.  Only a few days, but it will be nice to see some new places and maybe do a little hiking.  The cats are not pleased with us, but they have ample toys and a cat sitter to visit, so I hope they will not eat the house.  They are, however, a forgiving bunch, so we should be able to buy them off on our return...:)

Have a great holiday, all and stay healthy!

[ms_turtle]

blah! I'm in auto-pilot, robot mode with near-constant headaches. Just wind me up before lecture and then try to get through the rest of the day.

[msparticularity]

blah! I'm in auto-pilot, robot mode with near-constant headaches. Just wind me up before lecture and then try to get through the rest of the day.

I'm ready to trade you for a day or two - I'll come teach your classes if you'll finish packing up my house to move ;)

I'm hanging in there, but the joints are swollen and achy after too many days of too much stress and the wrong kinds of exertion. It's inevitable in the circumstances, of course, and I've really just got to endure. We spent the weekend in the Bay Area with my brother, and that was wonderful - fog, long walks, lots of interesting food, and so on.

Hope you're all doing okay this week!

[lenniel]

Hi all!

We survived a visit to the 'rents, heat and a 4 hour wait at the Canadian border coming home from a day trip to Montreal.  Yow.  The cats have forgiven us for leaving them alone for 3 whole days and the house was in one piece, so all is well.  Feeling pretty grumpy because I'm not getting enough sleep - the cats wake me up, combined with the 'rent's sleeper sofa designed by Stalin - but otherwise okay.

Glad your weekend was a good one, MSP, and I'll pitch in to help as well, MsTurtle.  I once had a turtle for a pet...am I qualified?

Stay well, all!

[tenured_feminist]

Any other celiacs out there ever tried sorghum? I got some cereal last week and now I feel like I swallowed Moby Dick and am wondering if there is a cause-and-effect going on here.

[college_grad]

I've had the sorghum beers and a lot of the "Bob's Red Mill" flour mixes I've used have sorghum in them.  Actually, the cookies kind of give me that feeling like I just expanded a few inches in the horizontal direction - I figured it was the garbanzo or fava-bean flour because I never had a problem with the brownie mix that also has sorghum in it. 

Anyway, if you haven't had any cereal or grains in a long while it could be kind of a shock on the system.  I tried all the organic whole-grain cereals, but I was never very impressed.  I can't stress how much I like the Cocoa Pebbles - cheep, crunchy, chocolate.  Of course, just too much milk can do the same (but I don't usually get that problem until about the third bowl).

Thinking on my diet a little bit, I'm becoming convinced that I eat gluten-free for the purpose of indulging my senses rather than any actual concern about health.  I never substituted the healthy presentations of grains - just the beer, brownies, cookies, and crunchy chocolate.

[cyano]

Haven't posted in a while, but I'm feeling much better. I made it through the end of term and finally gave in and started steroids again. They're low dose so I'm sleeping ok and not grumpy (yet). I've also started a really strict diet again with no complex carbs - no grains, no starches, no lactose, no beans. Just lots of well-cooked easy to digest fruits and veggies, fish, some meat, some yoghurt. It's restrictive, but for whatever reason it works.

Hope everyone is having a restful summer and a chance to regroup.

[rubygirl]

Hi all.  I've been lurking on this particular thread for a while, but I've offered up several prayers and sent good wishes for all of those in distress. 

I was wondering--I suffer from anxiety and today had a mild panic attack about the beginning of the school year--just because I have an astonishing amount to do before it starts, and because the first three or four weeks of the year are always super-stressful for me (lots and lots of answering questions and being "on" for tons of people...and I'm quite an introvert, in terms of how I draw my energy).  So if anyone has any tips and strategies that they would like to share about alleviating/coping with anxiety, I am all ears.  It just helps to hear it from people who have been there, you know?

I can start:

1.  Exercise.  I hate exercising, really, but it does help.  Too bad it doesn't seem like it will *beforehand*, even when I know it does!

[lenniel]

Hi all! Glad you are well, cyano, and done with the semester, and I hope you are feeling better, t-f?  I know nothing about celiac disease and it just sounds miserable. 

Welcome, rubygirl, and I am sorry about the anxiety.  I used to get bad anxiety attacks as well and still do in rare circumstances.  For a long time, I had a prescription for anti-anxiety meds that we very helpful but haven't taken anything for years now.  Much of my anxiety was situation or caused by my worrying about things over which I had no control, so I would create a big pocket of nerves over situations of my own creation.  Here are some things I do that may or may not help, as everyone is different:

1.  Exercise is a great way to work through or relieve anxiety, and even a simple walk will do wonders.

2.  If you are introverted, make sure you get enough alone time in between being with people.  During the day, make a point to take that walk, or have a very quiet lunch.  You'll be able to rest, be still and quiet for a bit, and the impact of the day will be less.

3.  If you find you are getting to the freak out point, try the "worst case scenario" game.  I learned this in cognitive therapy years ago, and it is very very helpful.  It helps you pinpoint whether you are creating anxiety over things that you have no control over as well as take a situation to a logical, rather than nervous, conclusion.  Letting go of the uncontrolables is huge and a great way to relinquish anxiety.  I live my life by this, and it has made everything much better. 

In the worst case game, just try taking your worry to the end of the line: Worry: You have to be nice to 300 incoming freshmen.  Let the Game begin: you feel really fragile and worry about saying something silly-okay, so you say something silly, they laugh, or think you're an idiot parent complains-your boss yells-etc etc.  Most of the time, you'll find that it is not as bad as it seems, and if you try really funny conclusions (I use zombie attacks, nuclear war and superheros in mine) you'll make yourself laugh enough to stop feeling nervous.

When you get home at the end of the day, make sure you do something nice for yourself.  Read a fun book, watch mindless TV, a movie, or just sit and listen to music.  Don't listen to the monkeys chattering in your head, just relax.  Soon, the monkey chatter will calm down and you'll find that you can control the anxiety, rather than it controlling you.

Take care, all!

[ms_turtle]

rubygirl,
All of lenniel's suggestions are good. At work definitely schedule alone time and keep it sacred. Keep in mind that you will have to have several anxiety-reduction techniques in your 'bag of tricks' because no single technique works every time.

Having a friend or SO pull or push you away from the vortex helps.  On some occasions when I don't know what to do to calm down, my husband gently forces me to get out of the house and go to a movie or something.

I do use medication for anxiety/panic attacks when I feel a bad one coming on. Twenty pills might last four months or so for me.

That said, I had a calm weekend after a rough week -- just getting through each day without crying or crawling into bed was a monumental struggle. Then the thought of doing it again the next day, made me feel even worse and want to vomit. blech...

[rubygirl]

Thanks, Lenniel and Ms_Turtle!  I appreciate your tips, and good wishes.  I like the Worst-Case Scenario game, especially, and the alone-time-at-work thing.  I think those will be very helpful.

Ms_Turtle--sorry to hear you had a rough week, but I'm glad you had a calm weekend.  How are you doing today?

[ms_turtle]

Time to pull up the deck chairs, blankets, poodles, chocolate, and beverage of choice...

I have been in an awful state the past few days. I've managed to make it to the end of 2nd summer session (I taught both) and give the final tomorrow. In the meantime the anxiety is through the roof and I feel a major depressive episode coming on. I keep myself busy (I was pulling weeds and worn out annuals at 7pm in 90 degree heat and humidity), but if I stop for even a minute I start crying and feeling the need to vomit or rock. In a few days the kiddos and I are off for a trip to my parents. I dread coming back and the iminent fall semester. Let's just say things are really messed up, hopefully only for this semester. I even have an email from the chair saying, "Guess I was wrong."

I have an appointment with a new therapist (the old one moved out of state) on Friday. Guess I'll be sufficiently messed up.

Thank goodness for Turner Classic Movies, a bowl of popcorn, and glorious technicolor.