My Weekend In Pics

I wanted to make a more photo-oriented post for a change :). Greetings from Lahti from me and Franz, we’ve been enjoying ourselves and springtime! ❤

I was having some symptoms of becoming infection or some other health issue as past few days I suffered from sore throat, muscle- and headaches and slight dizziness. I hate resting and just sitting on my ass. But as I’ve been slowly getting smarter with my health, I forced myself to just lounge on the sofa, only doing some mild stretching and slow walking for exercise. I also upped my calories by adding more carbs, and due to the dizziness, upped my hydro slightly. I decided I’d make the most of my few resting days and sleep a lot, walk with Franz and spend time with my mother. I didn’t need to regret that, as I now feel completely fine, no sign of flu or other ailment. That means I get to go and workout more, and soon – yay!

Yesterday we had a nice walk to nearby Lanu-puisto with Franz. The weather was cool but sunny and we had a great time. Though the hike uphill made me huff and puff and sweat like crazy it was worth it!

Afterwards I had a relaxing evening with my mom as we watched House Of Cards Season 4 on Netflix :). Franz was really exhausted after our stroll so we got to unwind at peace. And I almost got another pair of socks ready – knitting-craze is on again!

Today I had another working day. I was dead tired in the morning so I took a midday nap, and after waking up we went walking again with Franz to get some fresh air and cool breeze to brush off my brain fog. We walked to and around Pikku Vesijärvi (Little Vesijärvi) park and pond a couple of times. Nice weather had attracted a bunch of joggers, families and other people to enjoy the view as well. Franz was very interested in Lahti’s duck and seagull population :). The big crows gave him a little scare, though.

I even made it to the gym to hit my delts and arms before my work shift started, so I’m one happy, happy girl today :). I even feel I’m progressing with my overhead squats I also practiced <3.

Great weekend for everyone,

xoxo,

Veera

Painkillers And Movie Marathons

Who’s an efficient athlete? The one who only gets sick on rest days… 😉

Last night I slept pretty poorly and decided that today I’ll abstain from training and get some much needed rest and recovery. I’ve had a mildly stuffy nose for some time now and have been using my nasal rinse bottle to prevent sinusitis:

As I’ve written before I have mild immunodeficiency with low immunoglobulin levels so I get viral and bacterial infections easily. I’ve taken preventive antibiotic treatment with tetracycline for over a year because of this. It has helped me a lot, I haven’t had a single bacterial upper respiratory infection in whole year now. And when I started doing only phone consultation work at home, my viral resp infections also stopped. Right now I do miss normal patient work but I don’t miss having a cold every other week or so. Actually, now that I’ve been able to do such light work and rest, I’ve been taking a pause from eating my antibiotic for over a month now. With the blessing of my doctor, of course.

Now I’m wondering if I’m developing a bacterial sinusitis or if this is going to pass with rest and rinsing my nasal cavities. I’ve had an annoying headache as well and have been forced to take painkillers as pain increases my need for hydrocortisone. I also have work today so I’m answering my consult phone as well and need to be sharp – no room for pain or brain fog from AI. But as an acupuncturist, there’s also other remedies than just pills to ease the headache. So I put some needles on… 😀

Little acupuncturist at work

Now I’m gonna treat myself with some homemade vanilla Pepsi:

Homemade goodness with Pepsi Max ❤ and vanilla extract

When I’m finished with work, I plan to stay tightly on the sofa. I haven’t watched Silence of the Lambs in a long time, and if I’m up to it, maybe I’ll continue with Hannibal and Red Dragon.

Stay healthy (or put some needles on),

xoxo,

Veera

Ice Ice Cream Baby!

After a successful training week I sported up a little bit of fever. So since yesterday I’ve been resting as much as I can. Great – finally some time to watch Netflix and read! I did stretch, so it counts as exercise right? Great thing was that I’d stocked this week’s treats in advance:

Yum, ice cream… Now I’m gonna curl next to my boyfriend to finish watching The Raid 2 :).

Stay positive,

xoxo,

Veera

When Your Body Is A Traitor

This post is not about alien abduction or mind-controlling slugs out to conquer the Earth (Sorry, you X-files peeps). Still, this seriously scary stuff for me as a control freak who’s never been good at sitting still for over 5 minutes…

Imagine the worst hangover ever. The world spins around you and everything blurs into kaleidoscope-like shapes. An army of dwarves jump around inside your skull, pounding your brain with their hammers, laughing at your pitiful state. Waves of nausea run through you. You even want to vomit, just in the hope that it will make you feel better. No, it won’t. You simply suffer. A flying carpet is familiar to most people, but have you ever heard of a flying sofa? That’s the thing you’re sprawled on, holding your head with your eyes closed.

Sounds awful, right? Luckily hangovers don’t usually last more than a day. Only, that rule doesn’t apply if you’re living in AI-land. Here, this can be a normal state of being, lasting anywhere from only a couple of anguished hours to days, weeks, months or even years of pure hell. And there’s not much you can do about it.

When hung over, people don’t usually go to the gym. Or maybe they do, if they happen to belong to some weirdo religious cult that’s into self-mutilation and torture. If they can, they also skip work (ever called you boss you’ve got the “bug”?). What do you do when more than half your days resemble hangover-hell? Pray for a miracle and whip yourself a bit more today while you’re at it?

When I studied medicine, the textbooks said (and still, sadly, do) that once you get diagnosed with adrenal insufficiency and start your corticosteroid replacement therapy, your symptoms will disappear and you can and will live a normal, happy life as a contributing member of society. Yeah, right. And pigs fly. If you give them a good kick. Let me tell you a little insider secret: that’s bullshit. You can try to mimic your body’s intricate endocrine system, a product of millions of years’ evolution, but that’s about it. Try. Cortisol secretion is highly regulated by various hormonal and neural feedback loops, the circadian rhythm, overall hormonal balance and combination of physical and psychological stressors. Thinking that swallowing a pill 2-5 times a day will be as efficient is kind of arrogant, isn’t it? And who said we doctors don’t have a God complex?

I try to treat my body with respect. Sleep enough. Eat healthily – but not too healthily- this girl has got a serious sweet tooth with need of regular sacrifices! Restrict the amount of work I do. Relax and de-stress – well, I’m still working on that one. Still, there are days I simply cannot estimate my body’s needs for cortisone. I take too little, or too much. Or maybe I’m taking just the right amount but there’s something else going on that makes me feel so damn horrible. Maybe it’s all in my head (victory point for the shrink!).

Every day is a new learning experience. As I really am not mentally advanced enough to transcend into a higher level of being consisting of pure energy anytime soon, I guess I’ll have to try and cope with this weird and often uncooperative body of mine and make peace with it. Today I’m trying the well-tested method of eating some ice cream and reading more scifi.

Happy Saturday for you all 🙂 ! How will YOU make peace with your body this weekend?

xoxo,

Veera