no boys allowed in the room!!!!

ha

well, usually anyway. /downer

i knew that was coming *sad trombone*

sometimes i feel like im walking 4 abreast

*looks down top*

Never mind.

i have this crazy bra that hoists my boobs way up and ridic OUT to the side like almost under my armpits (also it's pointed like a 50's maidenform)
whenever I wear it i feel like i should put flashing lights on my shoulders so i dont knock anyone over

ok the mental image i have of that is very lol

it includes the drudge sirens on the shoulders

*THIS VEHICLE IS RE-VER-SING! BEEP BEEP!*

and little flags like you tie onto the ends of lumber

lololol
omg

like a cockeyed pug

but boobs

totally

also dying irl

I lost a bunch of weight recently and what little boobs i had have gone with the weight and I had to downsize my bra and it sucked.

:(

i'll ysi some of mine

tbh i was gonna ask but it seemed inappropriate ;)

lol

I would offer you some of mine, but they are currently serving as a flotation device so y'know I need them so as to not drown and stuff.

calling carl a: I forget in which thread you mentioned the 8 minute meditation book, but I dled the kindle version and am going to give it a go. I am notorious for giving up a meditation practice within 7 to 10 days; can we be meditation support buddies?

Which week are you on?

Namaste and all that shit,

Q.

anyhow this is related to the no boys thread b/c I have got to do something (or many things) about this hormonal roller coaster situation. It is affecting my daily life in a not so good way.

I did not mention that book! I don't even know what you're talking about, but meditation has been suggested to me to deal with high risk pregnancy-related anxiety so I am interested.

q, how so?

also if you have trouble concentrating on meditation, i recommend incorporating a smell element (essential oil under yr nose, incense, something). it helps me get in the mood.

oh huh, I thought it was you, carl! Lemme search to see.

LL, I tend to be kind of perfectionistic when starting new things, so the minute something because "not perfect" (schedule change, on missed day, etc.) I tend to abandon efforts entirely. See also: yoga, learning Spanish.

I need accept that in these cases, "some" is better than "none" and "good enough" is just fine.

I like the smells idea, thank u for suggesting.

Your meditation phrase: the perfect is the enemy of the good.

perfectionism is self-defeating behavior -- once you start to look at it that way, it doesn't look so perfect.
(this not-news brought to you from the person who cried during her second drum lesson because she was frustrated)

Oh it was Jaq who was doing the 8 minute meditation thing! Jaq, are you here? CALLING ALL JAQ!

xpost that would be perfect for me, except that I would worry that I had not chosen the perfect meditation phrase.

It's funny, because I'm not like this in all areas of my life--as an editor, I would frequently coach writers who were charged with rewriting something horrible provided by a healthcare professional with "just make it better, it doesn't have to be the perfection you would have created had you started from scratch!"

it takes effort to retrain yr brain
give it time! and effort. and practice.

this is the big lesson i have learned this year btw, so it's not like i'm comin atcha from some high place
i have to remind myself of this every single day.

it is good to know I am not the only one! Thanks, LL :)

A tall woman just sat across from me in this coffee shop to study her "Explaining Psychological Statistics" book. Quincie, is that you?

I wish! Alas, I am still south of the border!

Sure do wish I had a coffee shop to study in.

i wish i had a coffee

my co-worker has this sign up that says "PERFECT is the enemy of DONE" or sthing which is corny but I like it

So after being on thyroid meds two months and a crazy diet, my hormone panel is actually WORSE than it was before! My estrogen is really low, as is my progesterone.

I had my blood drawn on Day 21, and my estrogen was only 47 (two months ago it was 61), and my progesterone is 11 (two months ago it was 15).

The good news is my thyroid antibodies did go down quite a bit.

man, weird! do you have any hypotheses about why it would be worse?

good that there was some good news too, tho.

i STILL haven't gotten my results back, and now i definitely won't get them back til at least monday. aaargh!

my doctor today explained that low is actually better than too high - which causes water retention, migraines, horrible PMS, etc. So she said its not a bad thing.

FINALLY got my results back, but the results are confusing and equivocal. I tested positive for one factor that is positive in 30% of people with lupus, 20-30% of people with scleroderma/mixed connective tissue disease and in only 10% of people with rheumatoid. However, I tested negative for the other lupus indications. My doc suspects this means I am in the early stages of lupus, but I have to come back in SIX MONTHS to get another test - if the amount of the factor in my blood has increased, then we'll be pretty certain that I have lupus. If not...? I don't know. In the meantime I get to just continue not knowing why I have horrible pain in all my joints, what's happening to them or what I can do to help alleviate it.

Sorry my last sentence was so melodramatic, lol. I'm kinda POed! I was really looking forward to some conclusive answers, but I know these things are sometimes really hard to nail down, especially auto-immune disorders.

CRAP. Sorry. And there's no other monitoring you can do in those six months?

I guess I'm wondering why they couldn't offer you a trial of steroids to see if it helps? Wouldn't that help confirm an auto-immunity dx? IINAD, tho. We need a gbx, too bad he isn't allowed in the room ;)

But for real, I'm super bummed for you and HII having to deal with health crap. I mean right now my biggest complaint is that my boobs hurt, and that tiny complaint is enough to piss me off!

ugh roxy that suuucks. my mum has rheumatoid, I know how exhausting and stressful all-over joint pain can be. I wish there was some way you could get some intermediary relief.

i don't suppose you could go back and be all 'yo doc help a girl out'

I'm sorry, roxy. That is the pits. Not knowing would drive me bananas.

Can you ask your doc for some pain meds in the meantime? It is not cool to have to live with horrible pain!!!

Rox, I definitely recommend seeing a dietician for your autoimmune condition. A lot of it can be alleviated if you can heal your gut (easier said than done, it sounds like it's like a 2-3 process of getting it in a good spot again).

2-3 YEAR process, that is.

meanwhile! I am going to pretend I know what I am talking about, and say VITAMIN A, D, & C are super important and critical as well as essential fatty acids. I'd take 5,000 IU's of Vitamin D daily, and incorporate fermented cod liver oil into your life. Try making your own bone broth (very important for gut healing--especially the gelatin). I really need to do better about these things, too. And organ meats wouldn't be a bad call either.

I'm in danger of going completely over the brink into quackery here but in addition to making sure I get a lot of broccoli and greens, I'm considering taking the spoonful of raw honey a day method. Not yet convinced it has to be manuka honey, but at $15 or so, it's try-able.

i am going to have to disagree a bit with homo ii here: while it's important that you get sufficient vitamins in your daily diet, taking extra supplements may not particularly help. The body is much more efficient at taking in vitamins from food than it is from pills. There's some argument for taking vitamin D as that can be hard to get in within one's regular diet. The US office of dietary supplements recommends, for example, that an adult of over 71 (ie whose bones are increasingly brittle) gets 800 IU per day. (http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminD-QuickFacts/ )

It's been found in recent studies that vitamin supplements (esp in the form of multivitamins), rather than extending one's life, may in fact shorten it: http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/07/the-vitamin-myth-why-we-think-we-need-supplements/277947/
I still find this kind of hard to believe and weird - even thinking that multivitamins did nothing, i would have thought that there's be a correlation to people making attempts to live healthily. But apparently not! Perhaps it's related to what's been found in another study, where taking vitamin supplements can make you feel like you've done something 'healthy' so it's ok to take other health risks like smoking: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/aug/26/bad-science-vitamin-pills-lead-you-to-take-risks