Oh what a time it has been.
Work has kept me very busy the past two weeks, so I apologize for the lack of updates.
All is well on the IC front. I have a checkup on Tuesday where I will essentially tell the good doctor that he is a genius.
During some work shenanigans, I ended up getting a lumbar strain in my back, so I haven't been able to lift anything for a few days now. After my appointment with Dr. Hooper on Tuesday I will be going back for a checkup on that front also, but I don't think it's anything major. Ordinarily, resting my back wouldn't be so bad, but, one of my best friends was moving this weekend and I didn't get to help him. That hit me...far harder than it should have. It was his first house (in fact he is the one that gave me the idea to apply for the particular home loan I did) and I wanted desperately to be a part of that moment for him. But, I could not. To make up for it, I'll be visiting him this weekend.
As for the loan, I decided to switch lenders. I had originally decided that since I already do business with Wells Fargo, I might as well go all in and apply for a loan through them also. Sadly...they are not very reliable or good a communicating with you when it comes to them giving you money, which, I don't completely blame them. I'm 23 and a year out of school; I get it. However, they didn't really treat me with any kind of respect, so I decided to politely tell them off and started working with a new lender at the advice of my realtor. So far, that experience has been phenomenal. The same day I started applying, I got my pre-qualify letter. They ran me through all of their simulations, and it looks like I'll be approved. I'm going to be a homeowner soon. Weird.
In about an hour or so, I will be going with my father to inspect the house so we know exactly what we're getting into. I passively absorbed some of his conventional wisdom just living with him, but I'm nowhere near as experienced as he is, so I thought it would be a good idea to have him check it out during the due diligence period I've been given.
Also, within the next week or two, I will fully transition to Network Analyst at work. I cannot tell you how excited I am about that. There is a lot (and I mean a LOT) of things I have to learn about it, but, I don't think it will be much of an issue. By the time Christmas gets here, I want to have at least the CCENT certification, if not the CCNA. Getting the CCNA in that amount of time, even with the studying I've already been doing, will be very difficult.
Wish me luck!
Also, if anyone is giving away a working washer and dryer, let me know!
Sunday, August 31, 2014
Monday, August 18, 2014
Day #16: Insurance, Alcohol, Alison, and Housing
Well, this has been an adventure.
I finally got a claim letter from my insurance company about my visit to the Emergency Department that started this whole mess. They wanted my medical history to determine if I was eligible for coverage or not. First of all, if I'm not eligible, what the hell do I pay you for?!? Secondly, the claim was for almost $4k. Jeez. I can't tell if I'm in the wrong profession, or the right one.
In other news, this weekend I helped Alison move back in for her final year at Brevard!!! That's been a whole other can of worms, but I'm so happy that the love of my life gets to accomplish one of her dreams. To celebrate, we went to the local ABC store and got a beverage or two. This is the first time I've had alcohol since I started Elmiron, and to be honest, the results were rather surprising. While on amitriptyline, as soon as I took the first drink of everything, I immediately needed to head to the bathroom. Breaking the seal was non-existent for me, because there was no seal to be broken. While drinking with Alison the other night (and I didn't have an extravagant amount mind you), all I experienced was some temporary mild discomfort. The next day I was even able to drive all the way from Brevard back to my apartment in Waynesville, through 2 different traffic jams, without stopping once. I have no idea why Dr. Armstrong didn't start me on these meds first....that would have saved me a great, great deal of time and pain....
Now, buying a house.
Man, this has been wild. In the past week, Geoff and I have looked at 8 different houses, with only two being worth purchasing. I gathered all the necessary paperwork and turned it into the bank today. I believe tomorrow there will be a thing or two I will need to sign, but, after that, we'll see if I can afford an almost $200k house. I've been working with a Remax agent by the name of Ms. Thomson, who has been wonderful helping us find a place in our projected price range. I know it seems like we've been putting the cart before the horse here, and to be honest, I think we have been. I've never looked at buying a house before, and all the research I've done talks about buying strategies and mortgage negotiation, not the order in which things are done. If it weren't for my friend Robbie, I wouldn't have even thought to attempt to buy a house. I mean, come on. A sickly, balding 23-year-old that hasn't been working for more than a year at his current employer trying to buy a house? What? Not to mention the fact that the only type of loan that even gives me a chance of buying a home is a USDA loan, which has its own mess of requirements and hoops to jump through. However, it looks like it's all going to come together in some weird way, as it usually does. Like I keep telling Alison, with the faith of a mustard seed, you can move mountains.
I took today off from work originally to go see Dr. Armstrong, which I ended up doing anyway just to get the rest of my patient file transferred down here to Dr. Hooper's office, but I also used this opportunity to fill out paperwork, relax, and all that good stuff.
Today's pain level: 2 out of 10. Mostly due to the healing tricep I'm still carrying around.
Oh! And my new med list:
I finally got a claim letter from my insurance company about my visit to the Emergency Department that started this whole mess. They wanted my medical history to determine if I was eligible for coverage or not. First of all, if I'm not eligible, what the hell do I pay you for?!? Secondly, the claim was for almost $4k. Jeez. I can't tell if I'm in the wrong profession, or the right one.
In other news, this weekend I helped Alison move back in for her final year at Brevard!!! That's been a whole other can of worms, but I'm so happy that the love of my life gets to accomplish one of her dreams. To celebrate, we went to the local ABC store and got a beverage or two. This is the first time I've had alcohol since I started Elmiron, and to be honest, the results were rather surprising. While on amitriptyline, as soon as I took the first drink of everything, I immediately needed to head to the bathroom. Breaking the seal was non-existent for me, because there was no seal to be broken. While drinking with Alison the other night (and I didn't have an extravagant amount mind you), all I experienced was some temporary mild discomfort. The next day I was even able to drive all the way from Brevard back to my apartment in Waynesville, through 2 different traffic jams, without stopping once. I have no idea why Dr. Armstrong didn't start me on these meds first....that would have saved me a great, great deal of time and pain....
Now, buying a house.
Man, this has been wild. In the past week, Geoff and I have looked at 8 different houses, with only two being worth purchasing. I gathered all the necessary paperwork and turned it into the bank today. I believe tomorrow there will be a thing or two I will need to sign, but, after that, we'll see if I can afford an almost $200k house. I've been working with a Remax agent by the name of Ms. Thomson, who has been wonderful helping us find a place in our projected price range. I know it seems like we've been putting the cart before the horse here, and to be honest, I think we have been. I've never looked at buying a house before, and all the research I've done talks about buying strategies and mortgage negotiation, not the order in which things are done. If it weren't for my friend Robbie, I wouldn't have even thought to attempt to buy a house. I mean, come on. A sickly, balding 23-year-old that hasn't been working for more than a year at his current employer trying to buy a house? What? Not to mention the fact that the only type of loan that even gives me a chance of buying a home is a USDA loan, which has its own mess of requirements and hoops to jump through. However, it looks like it's all going to come together in some weird way, as it usually does. Like I keep telling Alison, with the faith of a mustard seed, you can move mountains.
I took today off from work originally to go see Dr. Armstrong, which I ended up doing anyway just to get the rest of my patient file transferred down here to Dr. Hooper's office, but I also used this opportunity to fill out paperwork, relax, and all that good stuff.
Today's pain level: 2 out of 10. Mostly due to the healing tricep I'm still carrying around.
Oh! And my new med list:
- 300mg of Elmiron
- Ibuprofen as needed
- 10 mg of Montelukast Sodium (for asthma/allergies)
- 1 dose of Hair, Skin, and Nails multi-vitamin
- 1mg finasteride
Saturday, August 9, 2014
Day #7: New Diet, Workout Regimen, and A New Place to Live
Working out is one of those things I really enjoy. Lifting weights, seeing marked improvement, generally making yourself stronger, that's one of my favorite things.
For the past few weeks, especially with work and class, I haven't been able to devote a great deal of time to it. I've been able to do the absolute minimum of benching, core, and leg exercises, but, that's not where I'd like to be. Although, to be fair, I do have a strained tricep, so maybe taking it easy isn't all that bad.
Now, I've always done weight lifting, but I've never made any changes to my diet to go along with my workout plan. Enter interstitial cystitis. Funnily enough, the same diet you need to see massive gains in the weight-room and lose inches of fat is nearly identical to the diet of a patient with moderate to severe interstitial cystitis. So for the next few months, it looks like I might get jacked. I'll start posting progress pics whenever I mention workouts, which may not be very often (I hate that word...it shouldn't have a 't' in it...I don't care what it's origins are!).
My diet for almost the whole week can be summed up as follows:
Now, for the medicine. The insurance never came through on the Vesicare, so, I'm not taking it. And if the past few days have been any indication, I don't need to. Here's my current daily medication intake in total dosage:
Also, since Geoff and I can't find a rental property to suit our needs, I'm going to the bank Monday to see what kind of home loan I can get. Gonna buy a house. Maybe.
In short, I'm doing far better than I was a week ago.
For the past few weeks, especially with work and class, I haven't been able to devote a great deal of time to it. I've been able to do the absolute minimum of benching, core, and leg exercises, but, that's not where I'd like to be. Although, to be fair, I do have a strained tricep, so maybe taking it easy isn't all that bad.
Now, I've always done weight lifting, but I've never made any changes to my diet to go along with my workout plan. Enter interstitial cystitis. Funnily enough, the same diet you need to see massive gains in the weight-room and lose inches of fat is nearly identical to the diet of a patient with moderate to severe interstitial cystitis. So for the next few months, it looks like I might get jacked. I'll start posting progress pics whenever I mention workouts, which may not be very often (I hate that word...it shouldn't have a 't' in it...I don't care what it's origins are!).
My diet for almost the whole week can be summed up as follows:
- Chicken. Lots of it. Almost always skinless
- Rice
- Soy sauce for flavor
- Turkey, lettuce, cheese, mayo sandwich
- Apple juice
- Naked juice - Blue Machine
- Water
- The occasional dessert, be it peanut butter cookies or a small serving of ice cream
- Raisin Bran Crunch
Now, for the medicine. The insurance never came through on the Vesicare, so, I'm not taking it. And if the past few days have been any indication, I don't need to. Here's my current daily medication intake in total dosage:
- 300mg of Elmiron
- Ibuprofen as needed
- 10 mg of Montelukast Sodium (for asthma/allergies)
- 1 dose of Hair, Skin, and Nails multi-vitamin
- 150mg of Ranitidine (also known as Zantac)
Also, since Geoff and I can't find a rental property to suit our needs, I'm going to the bank Monday to see what kind of home loan I can get. Gonna buy a house. Maybe.
In short, I'm doing far better than I was a week ago.
Saturday, August 2, 2014
Day #1: Introduction and the New Meds
You know, life is a strange thing. You can go through it many, many different ways, and be all kinds of things. You could be an astronaut. You could be male. You could be trans. You could be depressed. You could be happy beyond all your wildest dreams. Or...you could be sick.
Wayyy back in 2011, I noticed that I was in pain. Constantly. My bladder hurt. My junk hurt. Sex hurt. There was something wrong. I couldn't sit through a 50 minute class. I couldn't play a full concert. I couldn't sit through meetings. Even as a kid, I had to go to the bathroom more frequently than nearly anyone else I knew, all with teasing remarks from my mother such as "Do you need to go see a doctor?" and other various things.
Well mom, yeah, I guess I needed to.
After several (extremely unpleasant) exploratory procedures and cancer scares and worries, I was finally diagnosed with a condition known as Interstitial Cystitis (IC) by doctor Bruce Armstrong. This is a condition that is almost exclusively found in women (yet another one of my unique traits, though I could do without this one) that feels essentially like a permanent Urinary Tract Infection (UTI for those of you keeping score at home). However, everything you would do to treat a UTI exacerbates the symptoms of IC. These symptoms are awful. Urinary frequency, urinary urgency, constant pain, nocturia, pelvic floor dysfunction, urinary retention, and in some cases, extreme incontinence. There is no cure for IC. In fact, doctors aren't even sure what -causes- IC. I was 20 and in college, what the hell was I doing with some old lady's disease? I had shit to do!
After several shattered relationships, trips to the doctor, medication experimentation, and trips to the bathroom, we finally found a medicine that seemed to make my life a little more livable; a tricyclic anti-depressant called amitriptyline. I was started off at the 25mg dosage, but after about a month Dr. Armstrong and I decided that wasn't quite strong enough, so we bumped the dosage up to 50mg, which I had stayed on until about a week ago.
The side effects of amitriptyline are awful. If you aren't depressed (which I wasn't) it can cause depression. It causes weight gain, mania, constipation, anxiety, clumsiness, dizziness, blurred vision, urinary hesitancy, loss of libido, headache, drowsiness, impotence, hyperglycemia, weakness, urinary frequency, gastrointestinal distress, and hair loss. And those are only the ones I experienced daily.
That last one really, really got to me, hence the now currently shaved head. I am proud and vain to a degree, and that is killing my ego. Hard. But, ever since I stopped the amitriptyline, it seems to be growing back. Slowly.
So, like I said, about a week and a half ago, I stopped taking it. Cold turkey. For a few days, I was fine. I avoided trigger foods, and surprisingly, I was doing well. Until that Saturday. I woke up bright and early with the worst pain I'd ever, ever experienced. I thought I had pulled or torn something in my back in my sleep. I thought my life was over. I basically crawled over to my roommate Geoff's door and begged him to take me to the hospital... I don't remember the trip, but apparently he drove pretty fast.
After some tests and pain meds, we found that I had two kidney stones. After about 48 hours, they made it from my left kidney to my bladder. That's where the real fun begins. Those two chunks of calcium wrecked my amitriptyline free life. It was just like before I was diagnosed. I couldn't (and still can't) really do anything. I've got a concert to review tonight that is going to be agonizing for me to sit through.
Fast forward to yesterday. While I was at the hospital for the stones, I got a lucky referral to urology doctors Steele and Hooper, much closer to home than Dr. Armstrong's Asheville office. So, I went to see Dr. Hooper on my lunch break. Dr. Hooper and I talked at length about my options, and we both agreed that amitriptyline is -not- what I needed to be on. So, after some thought and debate, he prescribed me two medications: 300mg of Elmiron (3 100mg capsules per day) and 10mg of Vesicare.
I just took the first capsule of Elmiron, and after some insurance shenanigans on Monday, I will take my first Vesicare.
I don't know how this will go, but, I figured I would document the journey. Here goes nothing.
Wayyy back in 2011, I noticed that I was in pain. Constantly. My bladder hurt. My junk hurt. Sex hurt. There was something wrong. I couldn't sit through a 50 minute class. I couldn't play a full concert. I couldn't sit through meetings. Even as a kid, I had to go to the bathroom more frequently than nearly anyone else I knew, all with teasing remarks from my mother such as "Do you need to go see a doctor?" and other various things.
Well mom, yeah, I guess I needed to.
After several (extremely unpleasant) exploratory procedures and cancer scares and worries, I was finally diagnosed with a condition known as Interstitial Cystitis (IC) by doctor Bruce Armstrong. This is a condition that is almost exclusively found in women (yet another one of my unique traits, though I could do without this one) that feels essentially like a permanent Urinary Tract Infection (UTI for those of you keeping score at home). However, everything you would do to treat a UTI exacerbates the symptoms of IC. These symptoms are awful. Urinary frequency, urinary urgency, constant pain, nocturia, pelvic floor dysfunction, urinary retention, and in some cases, extreme incontinence. There is no cure for IC. In fact, doctors aren't even sure what -causes- IC. I was 20 and in college, what the hell was I doing with some old lady's disease? I had shit to do!
After several shattered relationships, trips to the doctor, medication experimentation, and trips to the bathroom, we finally found a medicine that seemed to make my life a little more livable; a tricyclic anti-depressant called amitriptyline. I was started off at the 25mg dosage, but after about a month Dr. Armstrong and I decided that wasn't quite strong enough, so we bumped the dosage up to 50mg, which I had stayed on until about a week ago.
The side effects of amitriptyline are awful. If you aren't depressed (which I wasn't) it can cause depression. It causes weight gain, mania, constipation, anxiety, clumsiness, dizziness, blurred vision, urinary hesitancy, loss of libido, headache, drowsiness, impotence, hyperglycemia, weakness, urinary frequency, gastrointestinal distress, and hair loss. And those are only the ones I experienced daily.
That last one really, really got to me, hence the now currently shaved head. I am proud and vain to a degree, and that is killing my ego. Hard. But, ever since I stopped the amitriptyline, it seems to be growing back. Slowly.
So, like I said, about a week and a half ago, I stopped taking it. Cold turkey. For a few days, I was fine. I avoided trigger foods, and surprisingly, I was doing well. Until that Saturday. I woke up bright and early with the worst pain I'd ever, ever experienced. I thought I had pulled or torn something in my back in my sleep. I thought my life was over. I basically crawled over to my roommate Geoff's door and begged him to take me to the hospital... I don't remember the trip, but apparently he drove pretty fast.
After some tests and pain meds, we found that I had two kidney stones. After about 48 hours, they made it from my left kidney to my bladder. That's where the real fun begins. Those two chunks of calcium wrecked my amitriptyline free life. It was just like before I was diagnosed. I couldn't (and still can't) really do anything. I've got a concert to review tonight that is going to be agonizing for me to sit through.
Fast forward to yesterday. While I was at the hospital for the stones, I got a lucky referral to urology doctors Steele and Hooper, much closer to home than Dr. Armstrong's Asheville office. So, I went to see Dr. Hooper on my lunch break. Dr. Hooper and I talked at length about my options, and we both agreed that amitriptyline is -not- what I needed to be on. So, after some thought and debate, he prescribed me two medications: 300mg of Elmiron (3 100mg capsules per day) and 10mg of Vesicare.
I just took the first capsule of Elmiron, and after some insurance shenanigans on Monday, I will take my first Vesicare.
I don't know how this will go, but, I figured I would document the journey. Here goes nothing.
Monday, December 24, 2012
On Old People
Aging is a funny thing. You don't just wake up one morning and decide from there on out you are old. I think age is more of a mentality thing, where you have admitted to yourself you are past your prime and are on your way out. I've met some pretty old people who have only been alive for 40 years, and many of the youngest people I've met are upwards of 70 years old. So when does one decide enough is enough, or this old is too old? When your body quits working? When you've accomplished your life goals? When you've put the one you love to rest? When you have accepted the cold reality of death in an infinite universe that you only had a snowball's chance in hell of even existing in to begin with? It's fine to be 55+ years old, and many should wear that as a badge of honor, but please, never get old.
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Podcast #2 - All That Jazz
This is a short paper I had to present to my World Music class about the concept of Jazz. It will provide you with a short overview of what jazz is, what it means, and how musicians treat it.
Featured in this podcast is Tower of Power's influential hit, What is Hip?
Featured in this podcast is Tower of Power's influential hit, What is Hip?
Saturday, November 24, 2012
Podcast #1 - It's GRE-at!
Hello sports fans, today I have for you, for a limited time only, my very first Podcast! It's on the subject of GRE test-taking, and I might actually start a regular series for this sort of thing! The Podcast is available for download here, but it is also included below if you'd just like to listen to it. Let me know what you think!
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