It’s been a while since I’ve bothered added anything to this inactive blog. Not sure why I am doing it now. I’ve been mostly dumping my online time on Twitter. It’s become my news feed on the ridiculous state of America’s political scene.

================================================

2017 was definitely on my list for one of the worst years ever, mostly due to our Toddler-in-Chief. The role of president does NOT entitle him (or anyone) to act like he’s some king or dictator. The U.S. is not that kind of country the last I checked. I mean, I’ve had my qualms being an American most of my life, but on top of all of those issues (mostly racism) now I can add that I’m simply embarrassed to be an American. For the record, I’ve never been into politics, nor claimed to be some sort of political junkie, but because of his royal ass-ness Trump, I’ve forced myself into the complex world of politics. I still don’t have much of a grasp on the whole deal, to be honest, nor do I align with either republican OR democrat (I think I’m just independent?), but enough is enough! I’m kinda afraid to admit that I’ve never voted my entire life, nor felt the need to… until now. Although I’m not sure if it matters since Russia has messed with our democracy and compromised our voting system anyway. 😐

Ugh… 2017 has been wrought with anxiety and stress for both my husband and me due to politics. I hope Mueller puts Trump & his whole regime away forever. The sooner, the better.

In terms of health, quite a few things have come up for me that hasn’t been pleasant last year. More info below (warning, might be TMI)– unless you clicked on this blog entry directly from Twitter or something:

I have been suffering from extremely heavy menstrual bleeding for several years, however, it seemed to have gotten much worse at the start of 2017. My old gynecologist kept telling me nothing was wrong and that some people have heavy bleeding. Well, when it’s keeping you up all night because you have to change both the pad and tampon every ~2 hours, something ain’t right. It eventually got so bad to the point where I was changing both items every 1-1.5 hours. If I didn’t, it’d literally look like a murder scene under me on my bed. I don’t even know where all that blood comes from! As far as the size of the pad+tampon, they were the “ultra” and “overnight” (#5) sizes from Tampax and Always brands, respectively. There aren’t any other sizes larger/bigger than those.

When I decided to get a second opinion from another GYN, she suggested I get an ultrasound and a blood test. The blood test showed that I was rather anemic due to the blood loss. I guess that’d explain why I was always so exhausted, although I contributed that to the lack of sleep (having to wake up every hour to change my dressings). The ultrasound came back positive for a uterine fibroid. 30%-40% of women between 30-40 get them, apparently, so they’re quite common. What isn’t common is the pain and the amount of blood I was losing. I know I’m one in a million suffering from fibroids, but so what? Everyone suffers differently and has different thresholds of pain that they can take on. She put me on birth control to see if it’d help. It’s been about 5 months now and I guess it’s helped a little bit. My periods don’t last 2 weeks anymore, thankfully. I still have a few days where the bleeding is heavy, and I get these enormous blood clots accompanied by extremely painful cramps. I really don’t think this is normal. If all of the women who suffer from fibroids have to endure this level of pain and blood loss, I’d like to think something more would be done about this issue. What’s annoying is that since my husband and I are asexual and don’t bother with the sex department, I’m not even using the Pill the way it was designed to be used. It’s merely there to try and control this fibroid. I hate having to remember to take a damn pill at the same time of day, every day. I guess it’s this, or go through with a hysterectomy.

My neck is still bothering me. As I noted in an older post, my neck is bent backward. The natural curve in our neck is going the opposite way with me. My chiropractor retired and it has been no fun trying to find a replacement. I don’t care about the changes that have happened at his old office. It’s no longer the same warm and welcoming office. Whenever I was struggling with a migraine, they’d do everything they could to fit me in last minute to try and correct whatever is being misaligned. It’s completely different now. I tried another office and they only cared about getting more and more customers. I didn’t feel they catered to their clients and tried to help them individually (since we all suffer differently with separate issues). I’m just tired of being treated like a number. I don’t live in a big city, so there really isn’t a reason to be treated that way, in my opinion. It becomes a chore to hold my head up most days, and I get a lot of migraines due to it.

Along with the curve of my neck being out of whack, I also struggle with scoliosis. Apparently, this was something my parents should have addressed while I was young and still growing. There are two areas along my spine that are not straight. One by my left shoulder blade (which causes a lot of issues with my left arm) and the other in my lower back. They only discovered this while I was getting x-rays taken of my neck. I always wondered why my back hurt so much.

Another thing that I was diagnosed with last year was IBS. Yeah, that crappy thing. Irritable Bowel Syndrome. I am now having to rethink everything I have come to eat all of my life. Luckily rice hasn’t been cut out. I always thought the whole “gluten-free” (aka gluten intolerant – “GI”) thing was just a fad, but it goes along with IBS. It’s where your gut does not possess certain (good) bacteria that breaks down certain proteins, which then causes gas and other unpleasant things to happen inside. Lately, I’ve been struggling with nausea and Dr. Google says it’s also a side effect of IBS. That, or a gallbladder disease. I can’t eat any wheat-based items now. Or other yums that I enjoy, such as garlic. My doctor gave me this IBS food list to refer to. If I don’t listen to it, I end up paying for it after in the worst possible ways.

There are more issues, but it’s way past my bedtime so I’m gonna stop here and either add to this later or just try and post another entry. Other than the above, my husband and I have been wasting our time playing video games. I’m either decorating my house in FFXIV or messing with the ongoing stuff in Xenoblade Chronicles 2. It’s a pretty fun game. Not the best, but still fun. Lots of things to do if you’re a completionist like we are. 😛