Even before I realized that I would most likely be moving in the next few months, I started on a small projects of sorts. I want to use all of the crappy stuff that I already have. I’m sure I’ve decided this before.

I’m trying to clean out my closet with all of the cleaning supplies and stuff in it. I’ve got dusters that I have no intention of using, Febreeze (I NEVER use the stuff), several different mold and mildew cleaners. Under the sink, I found 2 bottles of dish washing liquid. Until recently, I didn’t even wash my dishes by hand. The bathroom is even worse, but getting better. (Think numerous soaps, lotions, and various other products that I will NEVER use.)

This little project has numerous benefits:

• Get rid of crap and free up some space
• Save some money
• Help me clear out all of the bad stuff before I buy organic products
• It’ll make me more aware of what I really use and don’t use. I really don’t need separate products for everything. One multipurpose cleaner, dish washing soap, and a couple of other products are probably all that are necessary.
• In the long run, I hope this will help me reduce everything.

So, this sounds like a win-win situation and isn’t too difficult of a project. It’s nice to be successful at something.

I’ve been meaning to write for the past few days. I sit down and find I have nothing to say. Things here are status quo I suppose. Of course, status quo for me now is nothing like what it used to be.

On the medical front, I’m finally able to straighten out my arm. There is still some tingling and tension in it, but I’m thrilled that I can now move it and stuff. Dr. B. is still sending me to a specialist to find out what the hell is going on with my arm. I really hope I just had some sort of bruise or something like that and I’m now fine. I took some more diagnostic blood tests today and my usual INR (clot) test. I will most likely go into see my gyno sometime this week to get my Vitamin D results. (Long kooky story.)

As for the weekend, I didn’t really do to much. I didn’t feel well at all on Friday evening. I went to bed super early. Saturday, I watched the amazing Men’s Olympic Marathon. Holy shit! Sammy I’m-Not-Even-Going-to-Attempt-His-Last-Name ran a blazing fast marathon. Wow! I’m thrilled that I got to see that race.

Sunday my Mom and Sis came to visit. After they left, I kicked it with R. for the rest of the day. We just hung out watching movies and eating. It was nice since I hadn’t seen him in 3 days. So yay!

Wow…That’s it. My life is truly boring.  My highlight so far is that I got my new laptop battery. I haven’t had one in over a year. I’m now portable again. I also cleaned up the laptop. I cleaned the keyboard, the screen, and did some internal maintenance items.

One bit of bad news came in over the weekend. My landlord is raising my rent. It’s only $50, but I don’t pay what I will be paying to live with what is essentially a roommate even though I can’t see them. I’m sick of the noise and paying their ridiculous electric bill. (Even longer story.)

I will be moving in the next few months. I’ll take my time and find something that I really like. I’m thinking of moving to another side of town for a bit of a change of pace. The change of scenery might do me some good.

Ohhh…I got my full hospital bill. Well, what I owe on it. It sucks, but I will be calling them to arrange some sort of payment plan. I will be paying for this embolism for the next 6 years or so. That’s always nice to know.

So, that’s that. Hopefully, next time I write I’ll have something a bit more interesting to say. I do have a few challenges that I want to attempt for the month of September. I’ll outline those later.

We all know that I love a good stiff drink. Right? Right. I also like a good glass of wine here and there. No biggie. I’m far from what most would call an alcoholic or anything like that.

Since my PE (that’s short for pulmonary embolism), I’ve found that when I drink I feel like ASS the next day. I’m not talking about large amounts of alcohol, either. I’m talking about a glass or two of wine. As was the case last night. I find it hard to sleep and wake up the next day feeling jittery and stuff. It sucks.

What’s a girl to do? She’s gotta say good bye to the booze for a bit. Not for long. And I still may have a glass here and there, but the sitting in the house sipping on it? Gone. Sigh… R. will be thrilled with this development.

My left arm still cannot be straightened out. It hurts like hell when I try. I’ve put heat on it, massaged it, tried to force myself to straighten it. Nothing. A call is going in to Dr. B. today. This is not normal.

The final and most disturbing change is how heavy my period is now. I won’t go into specifics or anything. But, wow. Just wow.

Let’s hope all of these changes are temporary and things will be back to normal once I am off the blood thinners.

Yeah. I didn’t think I’d ever say that, either. I usually like summer. It’s more relaxed, a great time to put some miles in, and I love getting to the beach in the evenings after work. As we all know, my summer didn’t exactly go as planned. I had planned on running and figuring out exactly what I’m doing here in my life. I’ve done none of that AND I’ve managed to get myself into a shitload of debt.

I’ve been preparing for fall. First of all, I’ve ordered most of my books that I need. I was able to rent 2 of them and buy another one used. The used one sounds like it might be in rough shape, but who cares? I got it for like 60% off. I still need to get the other books I’ll be reading for my lit class, but according to when I need them I’ll just grab them from the library.

I’m also doing some “fall cleaning”. This includes such great things as cleaning out the freezer, the refrigerator, my car (I’ve got stuff that’s been in the trunk for 4-5 YEARS), the closets, clearing my desk, rearranging furniture. All of that good stuff that will make my life a bit easier once classes start. Nothing huge on the list, but things that I’ve been putting off for….well years. Heh.

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I’m feeling pretty bad today. I was going to write a full post, but I’m going to try to get some sleep. Hopefully, I’ll feel better when I wake up.  I’m sick to my stomach, my arm is really bothering me, and I’m very headachey. Not sure what’s up. I hope it’s nothing serious.

Sigh…

Yeah. I made another accounting mistake. Kind of not my fault. I didn’t plan on paying $360 out of pocket for the plumber. Of course, my landlord will pay me back when he gets back in town. I’m down under $100 to get me through the next week. As scary as that sounds, the situation is not that dire. I have money in savings to buy my school books, bought $100 worth of groceries (that is a lot of food for a single gal), filled my tank, and don’t really need any personal supplies. I also have credit cards if need be. I should be fine. It still sucks to have to pay attention to these things when I haven’t in soooo long.

With all of my illness, tooth drama, and car reapairs I’ve gone through my savings and killed my budget. I know it’ll all work out, but it still stresses me out and makes me a little mad. I worked so hard to get debt free and have money in savings. One rough summer? It’s all gone.

Enough whining.

I ran today. Here’s how that went down:

32 minutes total | 3 minute running/1minute walking | Just under 3 miles => I felt great. My breathing was a bit labored towards the end. I probably should’ve allowed myself a bit more of a recovery, but overall I was fine with my effort.

I’m not taking my Forerunner because I don’t want to obsess over distance or pace. Right now, I just want to build to 30 minutes of solid running. Pathetic, I know. A month ago, I couldn’t even walk across a room w/out breathingg hard and needing to rest. Yeah. Wrap your head around that. I’m just happy to be breathing.

I went to the doctor today to find out what’s up with my left arm. The soreness in it is slowly moving down the arm. It’s now sore in the forearm area, too. I can’t straighten or anything, either. It kind of sucks.

The doctor did a bunch of mobility tests, and stuff and decided that it’s just a bit of myalgia. That’s a fancy way of saying muscle inflammation or soreness. As long as it doesn’t spread we’re good. Upon getting to the office I took a look at the side effects of the blood thinners I’m on sure enough muscle soreness is one of them. I was suspicious when Dr. B. said he would rather me walk around with a sore arm than at risk for another embolism. I’ll trust him on this one.

The super good news is that my INR level went from 1.7 to 3.1. Yes! Yes! Yes! So, I get to take a little less rat poison and I don’t need to have blood drawn every week. I now will only need to do it every 2 weeks. Woot! He also listened to my lungs and said they sound 100% better than when he listened to them in the hospital. I am clear to train normally (within reason, of course) and resume my life!! I’m still going to have some difficulty breathing as I get going, but there is no longer no restriction from the Dr. on it. I’ll see him in 3 months to start getting me off the rat poison.

So we finally start to see some good news. Yay! On the other hand, I’m SUPER weepy and really freaked out by the bills and insurance stuff I’m getting in the mail. You don’t even want to know how much it cost me to be in the hospital. I’m sure I’ll get a grip eventually.

I took out my newly defunked running clothes today for a jaunt around the neighborhood. It worked. They didn’t smell when I put them on nor when I started warming up. I just finished 30 minutes, and the clothes smell fine.

For those that care:

A couple of scoops of Oxyclean and a 2-3 hour soak in HOT water. (I put mine in the sink.) Then I threw them in the washer with the regular detergent and a bit more Oxyclean. (The regular suggested amount.) I washed them on warm (I know it says not too, but these are dire circumstances.). Rinse them twice. Toss in the dryer on low/delicate or hang to dry. (I didn’t have the patience to hang them then, but might in the future.

Trust me. It worked. I thought I was going to need new clothes.

And to just get back in the habit and not be ashamed of my running:

30 minutes - 2 min run/1 minute walk. Plus a 2-3 minute w/u and c/d walk.

I spent Friday at the urgent care center that was recommended by my doctor’s office. (He’s outta the country.) I’ve been having some pain in the armpit area that later moved down the arm making it difficult for me to straighten my arm. I originally just called my doctor to see what he thinks and rather I should have it checked out.

I went into the doctor that was recommended, and he sent me for a sonogram to rule out the possibility of another blood clot. We were supposed to have the results of the sonogram Friday evening. Of course, now it’s Sunday and we still have nothing. The pain has now “moved” down my arm. My armpit doesn’t hurt anymore. Now the pain is in my bicep area and down the arm. It hurts. Not a lot. More of an annoyance than anything. I just want it to stop. I’ve taken Tylenol, but otherwise don’t really know what else to do.

The sonogram chick did say that my veins had collapsed. I wonder if that’s where the pain is coming from. The probelm is that collapsed veins can cause blood clots. Considering that my INR has dropped also, this is a bit disconcerting. I go in for a blood test tomorrow - not in the left arm, of course - hopefully, we’ll find that my INR has come up. I’ll see if my regular GP is back in town tomorrow and we’ll go from there.

Anyway, I received my first hospital bill yesterday. It’s only for about $200. For a consultation with some doctor that I don’t even remember. Yeah. They’re going to roll in one by one. I don’t think I’ve been this financially strapped in years. I’m terrified of the big bills that are coming.

Well, I finally feel I might have an appetite. It could also be a wave of nausea. Who konws.For some reason, I want an Egg McMuffin. Yeah…I’m going to go get one. I’m blowing my “Dining” budget on an Egg McMuffin. There are soooo many things wrong with that statement. Sigh…

Note: I totally got to use a James Brown song as a title. Go me! Go me! Go me!  I would totally be dancing if I had the lung capacity.

A few weeks ago - before my embolism - I thought I smelled a funk coming from my  running clothes as I pulled them out of the dryer. I just assumed that it was in my head.

Fast forward to this week. I’ve managed a couple of runs. Once I got dressed and was milling around the house finding the rest of the stuff that I needed, I would smell this indescribable funk. I’m not talking B.O. I’m talking a stench straight from the depths of hell or somewhere. It’s a mixture of mildew, body odor, and some other stench that I can’t even put my finger on. It’s horrible. To make matters worse, once I got outside and started walking and heating up, the smell got worse. I couldn’t stand it. Holy Shit.

Now, I’ve had this happen before. Never to this extent. I usually just need to run the clothes through the wash in hot water or I use that Win detergent. I really haven’t had the issue in ages.  I don’t really have the money to buy that Win stuff, so I set out for another solution. I found OxyClean.

I soaked the clothes for 2 hours and then threw them in the wash in warm water and using a larger load setting than usual. I then did a second rinse. The clothes are now in the dryer. Instead of drying them on regular, I put them on low heat. That way I’m not baking in the funk. Hopefully, this will kill the funk. If not, I will rewash this weekend and hang them in the sun to dry. The sun kills all smell.

I truly apologize to all the peeps in South Florida that have had to stand next to me or catch a whiff as I run by. Whoa. It’s really bad. Please understand that I’m usually a nice clean girl.