Medication and Memory Foam

January has been an interesting month, so far.  For one thing, I am now on blood pressure medication.  I went to the doctor a few weeks ago, just to make sure I was still alive (apparently that's a normal thing?), and my BP was high.  Well, I wasn't terribly surprised, but my doctor told me to keep an eye on it and call her in four weeks.  I went back to work and didn't worry about it too much.  I had the nurse at work check it the next day, and it was 160/94.  The next day it was still 158/94, and she said I should probably start thinking about worrying about it.  Well, I bought a monitor, and I quit eating salt, and I bought lots of fresh fruits and veggies, and I continued to go running and do my yoga, and I really did try to do everything that I could to keep it down.  I started keeping a log of my BP, taking it 3-4 times a day.  Yes, I know, it's a little overkill, but what's the point of monitoring something, if you aren't going to know exactly what it's doing?  I like to know!
After 3 weeks of checking my BP 3 times a day, the diastolic (the bottom number) had only been under 80 3 times, and had only been under 90 11 times, and the wonderful women that I work with were trying to send me home to rest because they thought I was going to keel over and die right on the spot.  Many of them tried to tell me that my hypertension is caused by my job, but I told them it runs in my family; my grandmother has been on medication for it since she was 14.  However, as I was forced to admit, teaching also runs in my family, so maybe they have a point...
After 3 weeks of hypertension I called the doctor back and she had me come in and laughed at my log.  She laughed, but she said she loved it, so take that, organization haters!
Apparently the BP pills can cause dizziness and dry coughs, but 8 hours after I took the first one my BP was down to 108/82, which is the lowest I have ever seen it.  This morning it was 114/74, so as skeptical as my hippy, EMT, pharmacist father is, I have to say it seems to be working.  And I have been sleeping!  I haven't slept through the night in quite a while, and it probably helps to have my BP somewhere in a vaguely resting area while I'm trying to sleep.
The other thing that may be affecting my sleep is that we FINALLY bought a bed!  Or a mattress, anyway.  Our air mattress sprang another, unfixable leak, so we were on the floor again, and it is so nice to have squishy things under my back while I sleep.  Jesse seems to be having trouble adjusting, though.  Last night at 1 in the morning he woke me up.  He rolled all the way on top of me, and laid there for a while.  Then he rolled way over on the other side and pulled me over that way.  Then he rolled me over so I was facing the other way, moved my arms up, down, threw an arm over my face, buried my face in his armpit, pushed me over to the other side again....and this went on until about 2:30.  He was fast asleep the entire time.  At least he was sleeping deeply!  And the times that I was allowed to sleep were fantastic.  Bed=Awesome, and Sleep=not grumpy, sleepy Mrs. Smith, snapping at children and falling asleep while trying to listen to them read.  I cannot even begin to tell you how wonderful the last two days have been, especially compared to how frustrating the last couple weeks have been.  I have been snippy and grumpy and exhausted and just no fun.  So I am incredibly happy with lower blood pressure and beds.
And on that note....it is 9:00 and my bedtime.  I will leave you, and go sleep on my fantastic memory foam mattress with my bamboo memory foam pillow.  Memory foam heaven awaits!!

New in 2015

 

 

The first week of the year is the time to do all kinds of new things, right?  Everyone makes resolutions and revives old goals.  Well, I'm not much of one for "resolutions", but there is always room for improvement, no?
I have been considering going back to school for some time.  I would like to finish my bachelor's degree, so I at least have the option of getting my teaching certificate.  Jesse and I have been talking about it for most of our married life (so long, I know), and we keep going back and forth between whether it is realistic and worthwhile or not.  A while ago I was at work, talking with one of our subs, and she told me about the place that she got her degree.  It's all online and she had nothing but good things to say about it.  Well, one of the biggest  hurdles for me is that everything is far away and no one has a program that would work around my school schedule.  It is hard to go to school while working in a school, but on the bright side, I have all summer with nothing else to do!  Except drive to TN and hang out with my sister, of course.  Anyway, I have decided to fill out a FAFSA, and start talking to the people at APU (the online college my friend told me about), and see what happens!  I am only 30 credits or so away from a BA; you never know what could happen!  I'll keep you updated.

this is my buddy, Om, and me trying to have some more omming in my life

In other news, I went to the doctor the other day just to make sure I'm still alive, and my blood pressure was very high.  She told me to keep an eye on it and call her in a month.  The nurse at work (I love having a resident nurse) has been checking it for me on my lunch breaks, and it was consistently running around 160/94.  I decided to buy a BP monitor, so I can keep track of it at home, and see what it's like at other times of the day and in a less stressful environment.  Don't get me wrong, I love my job, but having to take time out of the day to go see the nurse to check my BP probably doesn't help my stress level.  So I stopped by CVS on Wednesday and bought the cheap one.  I took it four or five times that afternoon (who're you calling paranoid?), and it was drastically different every time.  By 7:30 that night it was up to 175/100-something.  I refused to believe that, because it didn't feel like it was up that high, so I returned it and bought another one.  The nurse said that I probably just wasn't using it correctly, so I have been trying to be good, and make sure the cuff is 1/2" from the inside of my elbow, at the same level as my heart, the cord thing is going down the inside of my arm, I'm sitting up straight, feet flat on the floor, arm at a 90 degree angle...Well in the time since, it still has had some fluctuation, but not as dramatic, and it has dropped down to a normal level.  But it has also been a long weekend full of laying around watching Netflix and buying new computers, so we'll see how it looks on Monday.
New computers?  Oh yeah!  I am currently typing on my fancy dancy Lenovo Yoga 2 laptop.  It's touch screen and has voice and gesture controls (that I can't figure out how to use...), and you can flip

it around so it works like a tablet.  Pretty cooool.  Jesse and I have been talking about buying a tablet for some time, and he decided yesterday that we were just going to go to best buy and get it over with.  Happy Christmas to me!  We wandered around and looked at tablets for a while, but we finally decided that what I really need is just a new laptop.  The one I bought when I started college the first time is still running, but it is 6 years old, and the mouse pad thing is going out, which makes cutting music difficult, which is primarily what I need it for.  Also, I will want something with a real keyboard and Word if I do end up going back to school.  So we bought a laptop!  I was a little tempted to go with one that was a step up, but it just didn't seem more awesome enough to spend the extra $250, so we decided to save that money and buy Jesse a tablet.  We are gonna have technology coming out our ears, man!  We don't yet, though, because they did not have the one he wanted in stock, so we decided to wait a bit, and get that one for his birthday.  Happy birthday to Jesse!
Of course, now that I have a new laptop, and one that is small enough to throw in a purse, I had to buy a new purse, because the one I have been carrying is falling apart; the strap is ripping off, and I
would hate for it to snap while I am carrying around  thing I do not want to drop.
I would like to pause to point out that I just folded my laptop into a tablet and am typing on my screen, because Jesse is laying on top of me, and his head is not a great table top.
Alsooo...what else is new?  Well, I have purple hair, now!  Burgundy, technically, but the kids say it's purple.  I cannot tell you how many times I have heard "Mrs. Smith, what happened to your hair?!". It doesn't ever look quite as purple in pictures as it does in real life, so I guess you will just have to take my word for it.
 I also bought some kale, and have made it a regular part of my diet.  No, Jesse still won't touch it, but h may come around someday, and in the meantime, I will remain healthy, and maybe keep my blood pressure under control.
So here's to a happy, healthy, heart attack-free year!  Have a good 2015, and eat lots of hippy food.  It's good for you.