Hair everywhere

One of the things I deal with is excessive hair growth. I have dealt with it in some form since I was a teen. Over the years it has progressed to more areas & just gotten worse. I always figured it was some kind of hormone thing but in the last 10 years we haven’t really had insurance to try doing anything about it. Before that, even when I mentioned it to my doctor, we never did anything about it. He did not understand how much it bothered me. Well, that “bother” has only grown as time has gone along.

Caution: there could be TMI to follow ….

Some of the extra hair I have no issue with in general. Yeah, my legs are hairy & it’s all dark hair. Oh well. I shave. I have for about 36 years now.

The hair on my arms has gotten thicker & darker as I have aged. It got to the point where I just did not feel like a girl anymore. So, after talking several times with my hairdresser of all people, I shaved it! OMG I felt like a girl! I knew it would grow back but until it did, I felt so much more feminine. I did not feel the desire to cover my arms. Granted, my arms are still fatter than I like but that’s another story. So for now, I just shave them every so often. It seems the hair does not grow back as fast, or as thick. Too bad I didn't try this, years ago! LOL

Hair on my belly, happy trail & downward. Yeah. There is a lot. And it’s dark. Not exactly sexy. And yes, over the years I have shaved it many times. Or I have used the hair removal cream. Obviously at the pubic hair line I don’t use creams. And yes, there is a lot down there too. That, doesn't bother me. I can keep it trim, clean or bushy. And it been all those over the years. Like I said, TMI.

But here is one I don’t like … or find sexy. Hair around my areolas. Yup. And in between them. Sigh. Oh the hours I have spent plucking hair there. And the countless ingrown hairs that have required a little extra care there. Not sexy at all. And besides annoying, time consuming! And I’m not talking about thin blonde hairs. No. It’s thick, dark (& now gray!) hairs.

If I would never shave this could easily be me.
But mine extends up on my chin
& also my upper lip

Wait! There’s more … my face. My upper lip, my chin, my neck, my sideburns. And even some strays on my cheeks. We won’t even mention how thick my eyebrows are. My side-burn area I pick at with tweezers. Same goes for the sides of my upper lip. But my chin? Yeah … no. It gets shaved about every other day these days. Sometimes it’s daily, depending on life & sometimes I can go several days & give my face a break. My upper lip & sideburns get waxed every 3-5 weeks. You would think all that plucking would eventually cause the follicles to make smaller finer hairs or just stop. Not for me.

And to think … it could all be caused from an imbalance. Something I have lived with for way too many years. Something I will now work to correct. If any of this makes you look at yourself & wonder … go see your doc! Don’t wait like I did. Well, I still don’t have actual insurance but I am finding a way to do what needs done, for my well being. After all, I’ll be 50 in February. I do not want to live the second half of my life as lazily (& out of balance) as the first half. 

Tomorrow I go back to the doc & we talk results of the bloodwork. Not sure I'll get another entry in before we leave on vacation so I'll update when we get back. And the technical side of hair growth? Yeah I think i can blog about that too.

Feeling Validated

Thinking back to almost my entire adult life I think my hormones/thyroid must have been off (to some degree) the whole time. No doctor has ever taken the time to check. And me? Well, I mostly thought it was just me, and normal. I thought I was just a lazy person. I thought that the lack of desire/focus/motivation/drive was just me … a lazy me. And not really knowing better back then, I never pushed the issue.

I have tried to work with it, overcome it, hide it. I have been successful, but only in mostly small doses. “I don’t feel like doing anything” or "I'll do it later" has come from me way too many times. Way too many. Getting all excited about any number of my projects (loving the whole craft thing, but it's not limited to that) only to have them sit for sometimes years has left me with untold amounts of guilt.

And now, finally, I am getting solid answers? And it’s not all me? It’s not all just my fault & being lazy? What? No way! Yes way. The fact we can now work to fix this, has me both excited & nervous. Why nervous? Well, I have no idea what it will be like to want to do things all the time (or at least more often), for one. What it will be like to actually want to follow through on a project I start. What it will be like to want to go for a walk because I should, both for me & the dog (instead of wanting a nap). What it will feel like to just not feel so lazy all day long, day after day. Another small part of me worries that my blood work will come back normal. Then what? I really am lazy? I’m crazy with my symptoms? LOL Not likely, but it’s how my brain works. We’ll find out on Friday.

As these things begin to happen & answers come, I will try to keep up & share those feelings!

Road to Rebalance

For many years I have dealt with:

Excessive hair growth

Mood swings beyond a menstrual cycle

Fatigue

Lack of focus

Memory loss

No drive/motivation or just short bursts of it

Weight that wont come off

Elevated blood pressure & cholesterol levels

And a few other things

While I *know* the potential cause of much of this, having a doctor say so, makes it more real. What I did not realize is how connected all of this is. While we wait for the blood work to come back to confirm things, he has already told me most of not all of this can be due to hormone levels & thyroid. He predicts my thyroid is low & my hormones are upside down.

 I had my cholesterol checked in 2009 & brought that paper to show him. Only one of the levels actually concerned him. While my blood pressure is slightly elevated according to “standards” he is not concerned. We agree standards are just that, & not right for everyone. I am to eat more protein & salt. And of course, pay close attention to what I crave as that is what my body needs.

I have been learning a lot of things over the years. I talk a great game. I try to do what I say but often fall short. I have felt guilty when I fall short. When I explained the things I have done for my diet & our general food intake, he commended me for being that much ahead of the game.

I have felt guilty over many things that I learned today are not all my fault. Many of the things I have felt guilt over, were because my hormones & thyroid are so very out of whack & have been for a long time. My lack of motivation, lack of focus, lack of desire. Yup. Hormones. Low thyroid. I am anxious to begin a road to rebalance.

You know, I don’t know if I can even begin to tell you just how this has affected my life over the years.

A new journey begins

It has been a long time since I wrote in here. I think perhaps I need to rectify that. I think I have a good reason now.

After about 10 years of not seeing a doctor, I am now seeing one. A Naturopath at that. No, this is not thanks to Obamacare. We can’t afford that. The monthly cost might be okay but the rest is not. And while this alternative is not cheap either, it feels better. With Dr. Hoey being a Naturopath, there is not simply a test for everything & a pill to match.

My journey started yesterday when I enrolled in a direct patient care program. A small local clinic has evolved over the years & is now offering this groundbreaking awesome new care model. When you enroll, you pay a monthly fee. It is based on your age. This fee then allows you to choose your doctor (they currently have 3). You then have access to that doc via cell phone, email & office visits. You can go in as many times as you need in any given month. You get discounts on lab work & prescriptions. Now, this does not seem to be a substitution for serious care or surgeries but will most certainly work for the simple doctor visit stuff.

Today I went & had a meet & greet with my new doctor. He spent almost an hour with me. We went over my small laundry list of issues I would like to find answers to. After listening to me, asking more questions & listening some more, he already had answers & ideas. And thankfully, fairly simple answers as a whole. We drew blood & I will go see him next Friday morning to talk about the results & start my road to wellness.

Until I see him again the only thing I am to work on is getting more protein & salt in my diet. I think I can handle that. I think I will use this to document my journey. And yeah, I’ll go into my laundry list of concerns too. I welcome any reader’s comments & input if you care to follow along. 

New Granola Bar recipe

dry stuff mixed together

It’s been forever since I made a post in here. Well, maybe not quite forever, but a long time. I always have the best of intentions but something always gets in the way it seems. It’s been a long winter up here in the Northwest & Spring has finally sprung. You’d think with the cold, I’d be inside more & writing more. Apparently not. And with the nicer weather, I should be outside more. I’m getting there …

For now, I thought I would share a new recipe I found & adapted for granola bars. I had run out & stayed out for probably close to a month. Maybe longer. 

Since I have managed to spoil my man with these homemade lovelies, he was a bit bummed at not having any in his lunches for so long. I finally got my butt in gear just a few weekends ago & got a new batch made. I tried a whole new recipe this time too. He likes it! So, I made them again today. This time I remembered to take a few pictures too. After all, recipes & blog posts are always more fun with pictures right?

honey, sugar & molasses

Ingredients:

1/2 to 2/3 cup local raw honey

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 Tbsp molasses

1/2 cup organic peanut butter

2 cups oats

2 cups puffed cereal*

1/4 cup ground flax

1 cup total, of desired mix-ins*

peanut butter added

Using a large bowl, add all dry ingredients & set aside.

In a small saucepan combine the honey, brown sugar & molasses. Over medium heat, stir until sugar dissolves.

Remove from heat, add peanut butter & stir quickly to combine.

Immediately pour over dry mixture & stir to combine.

Press into a lined 9x13 or so pan. Let cool to firm up.

adding choc. chips!

Now, this all sounds simple enough. Here’s what I learned. The recipe I first saw had you mixing/melting the sugar then mixing the dry stuff. Lesson learned to mix the dry first & set aside. The honey/sugar/peanut butter mix hardens FAST. 

First batch I used a big plastic Tupperware mixing bowl. Second batch, I just grabbed a glass bowl. I had more mix stick to the side of the glass than I did the plastic. I’ll use plastic again next time. I’m guessing the glass bowl was colder than the plastic & hence let the honey/sugar mix harden faster when it hit the side. 

And as you mix, it’s almost handy to have another set of hands … one to slowly pour the mix while another begins to stir. I ended up mixing with my hands to get the dry off the bottom of the bowl.

first batch cut. 

*The mix-ins we used were a rounded 1/4 cup each of: sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, fig pieces & raisins. The puffed cereal we used was millet. No sugar added stuff. You could use rice crispies or whatever. Millet was what I had at home & it worked well.

Once pressed into the pan, we added some chocolate chips pressed in one by one. After they cooled completely & were cut, it makes 12 nice sized bars. You could easily make smaller bars & get 20 or so.

How I'm keeping my sanity during the fires & smoke....

A couple weekends ago we got a new to us nifty file cabinet. It has 3 drawers on the left & a door on the right. Open the door & it has a small safe & 2 shelves. We snatched this up for $15 from a yard sale. It needed to have the safe combo picked. Well, to have that done by someone would have cost around $50 & done some damage to the door. We figured out how to get the door off, losing only the 2 hinge pins. We took apart the door/combo lock & got the combo to the safe. 

Put it all back together & now all we need is new pins to use that part. The drawer side had a stuck slider & no key for the lock. No biggie, as we just disengaged the slider & lock. The door also had a lock with no key. That one was easy to repair with a new lock for $4.

It now sits comfortably in the closet of the spare room.

not filled yet but working on it.

Having this new place to put files of course leads to going thru our files … which led to finding old papers from when the girls were in school. So before just re-filing them, again, I asked if they would like to have them so I don’t have to keep them anymore. My oldest responded with a yes. No word from my younger one yet. Now, as I pulled the papers out I knew there were more somewhere. So this led to me pulling containers of keep it stuff down from the top of the closet in the spare room. 

Holy cow what did I get into? What I got into was the past … lots of cards exchanged between me & hubby, cards & letters from my Omi to me & the girls, letters from my older daughter when she had to spend summers with her dad, and so much more. This was on top of all the school papers, report cards, award ribbons & certificates & old pictures & a couple year booklets. So there I sat, going thru it all just enough to make 2 piles, one for each of my daughters. I could sit & go thru them again enjoying some of the memories … but I think the girls are old enough now to maybe appreciate some of this too.

kids stuff - 2 piles & 2 big folders w/artwork

It’s funny how attempting to organize one new thing leads to re-organizing several other things. I now have one file box under my desk area that has paper, labels & all the extra file folders I have left over stored neatly away, within reach. One drawer of the cabinet has all our personal file stuff while the middle drawer has all my business stuff. The bottom drawer will house all misc stuff. Feels kinda good to once again be a bit more organized in this area. While going thru the kids stuff & several containers from the closet I managed to repack some things into fewer containers. So that was a plus as well.

misc files let to sort

I have a small stack of misc stuff to go thru & file into some sort of organized system. I know I have plenty of folders for the task!

Next I really need to organize some of my misc business *stuff* better. I have several containers full of … stuff. Stuff to mount & mat some images but I want to use these things in a different way now. Stuff for packaging product. Stuff for … making things (parts) and just more … stuff. Of course its also the time o year where I really need to get moving on making new 2013 calendars for the upcoming holiday show as well as anything else new for the holidays. I think being a bit more organized might help me focus better on the next things. We’ll see. Here’s hoping the organizing of the biz containers goes quick!

Wishcasting: Healing

I write about many things in my blog. Lately not much has been of a truly personal nature tho. I tend to keep the personal stuff in a more private setting when I do share. But this idea of coming together to wish for things is too awesome not to share.

I have been reading these wonderful Wishcasting Wednesday posts in my daughter’s blog for some time. I wandered over to see where she gets these prompts from & learn more. Jamie hosts a  Wishcasting Wednesday each week. I enjoyed reading & signed up to get the prompts in my inbox. Seeing today’s topic I had a wish come to mind easily, so finally I am jumping in & joining!

Today Jamie asks:  What Healing do you wish for?

I think I have healed emotionally, for the most part, from the inflictions of my first marriage. It took a long time.

Now, I think to my own body. I think to the internal things which I know plague certain areas, both inside & out. Some of the things I am fully aware of yet have not found it within me to find the correct remedy, for me, to fix them. Some things I know I am not even fully aware of what exactly they are …

Without any health insurance, it is extremely difficult to just go to a doctor for something. Never mind the fact I would search out a Naturopathic one which might not even accept my insurance, if I had it. For the time being I rely on what I learn & listening to my body. Not the best solution, but it works. Well, kind of.

On that note …

I wish for healing of my body. I wish for my body to be in perfect health; to be well.

 Now, to make some new friends by reading what others are wishing for & helping to spread their wishes!