Personal: What a Year

Hey everyone! If you are still reading these... thank you! I apologize deeply for dropping the ball on making regular blogs, but its been a very busy year and I just couldn't find the muse to write. Allow me now however to give you a personal update on my life, and also announce that I will be blogging again very soon. So look forward to more Twitch blogs, Game blogs, Anime blogs and more.

The first announcement on my life I am happy to share is that I finally got my new car! I say "new" lightly though, as its very old and has a ton of problems... haha. But it works, it'll get me out of town if needed, and I love it. Having the freedom to travel is liberating and relieves a lot of that feeling of being trapped here as my old car couldn't make it even to the next town without breaking down. With this new car, I also get more opportunity to find work, so wish me luck. The car has a lot of electrical issues... only one window in the back goes down, the radio doesn't work, and I have no AC. It has one of those automatic seat belts that roll back on you when you get in... difficult to get used to that. I keep reaching back to put my seat belt on out of habit, lol. Its much more sensitive than my old car too, so it took a bit of driving to get used to the handling... but I think I'm comfortable with it now. Turning in my old car required muscle, so turning in the new car with just a slight movement of the hand made for some awkward turns at first. Few things this year made me as happy as getting my "first car" technically though.

I believe I've mentioned my health in a previous blog, and if you follow me on social media you definitely have seem some updates. I've been working hard the past couple years to improve my health. During those two years, I found out a whole lot of health issues I have.

• Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. It seems my liver isn't doing as great as it should. I find this a little funny though, as alcoholism runs in my family and I made it a personal mission to not go down that path (which I haven't) and I still ended up with liver issues. My Dad died of liver failure (though his was from drinking) so I wasn't too happy to learn about this. A diet an exercise plan will help improve this issue though, which is the plan I started.
• Sleep Apnea. Apparently I stop breathing in my sleep at least 80+ times. It was a nightmare going through the process of finding this out. The sleep test... ugh. That was a nightmare of a night honestly and I hope to never experience that again. I was hooked up to several wires, they put glue in my hair which took weeks to get out, the guy hooking me up dropped the wire box which yanked my head back so hard I thought I'd get whiplash, and my back flared up while I was laying there so it was nearly impossible to sleep enough to give them results. Thank goodness I slept the bare minimum to give them enough information for their diagnosis. It took about another year of headaches through phone calls and visits to get my CPAP machine, but I finally acquired that a month go.
• CPAP machine. I now sleep with a breathing machine that puts pressure up my nose to keep my tongue from rolling back and prevent snoring. Its supposed to keep my oxygen levels up, and give me a more restful sleep. In the month I've been using it, I think perhaps I've had two full nights sleep however. Yes... I did feel more rested. However, trying to fall asleep with this thing is the real problem. Its so awkward and uncomfortable, and sometimes when I use it I wake up choking because of the humidifier on it (I've adjusted the levels to try to fix that.) I have some ideas to try to help me fall asleep easier with it... so lets hope it starts giving me the benefits its meant to.
• Exercise & Diet. So now for some good news! I've lost weight and hit my goal of getting under 200lbs!! Working out twice a week with cardio, weight lifting, and stretches... I became more limber and lost weight. These were doctor specified workouts, so I was shown several ways to help stretch and get the tension out of my body, which allowed me to move more freely in cardio. Then when warmed up, I was doing four different sets of weights. As for diet, going gluten free was giving me the best results because bread and pasta often hurt my stomach to eat. Its hard since I love Italian food so much, but its worth it. No other diets proved effective for me either.
• Back Issues. This is something I've dealt with since my early 20's so I got used to it. With age though comes increasing difficulty when dealing with such issues. So for the past year I've been able to see a chiropractor and he has been a miracle. I got a back injury at a job many years ago, which caused one of my disks to partially collapse. So it presses down on my nerves at times and causes sever waves of pain... especially in certain positions like bending. I found out also though that my hips and neck are all sorts of a mess too. My hip bones keep shifting and twisting to opposite directions, which was giving me a lot of my leg pain and issues walking. My neck is constantly stiff, much to the surprise of most of my doctors at just HOW stiff. So when I visit my chiropractor every two weeks, I leave a new woman because I can actually move again. He realigns my hips, and he pushes around the muscles in my back and neck to get back into the places they're supposed to be. I might cry if I ever have to stop seeing him.
• Anemia. I am on a cocktail of medications now, but one of those additions was some iron supplements (and Vitamin C with it for absorption) because my iron levels seem to be consistently low. I definitely feel more energy and like I have a clearer head with these. It appears my body is trying to bleed itself to death once a month. So they also put me on some birth control to help regulate that problem a bit more.
• Mental Health. I've always struggled with mental health, as it runs in my family and... well, I've been through some serious stuff in my life as you may have read in other personal blogs I've written. I'm on some anti-depressants which help, and the exercise also improves on it. My sleep problems were making things worse as well, so working on that is going to help too. Between my history and my health problems, its no wonder I have such severe depression and anxiety problems... but I'm working hard to fight back against it, and I feel for now that I am winning. There are flare ups still, like recently with being caught up in these California fires (look up the Mendicino Complex fire in interested), or dealing with the ailing health of my elderly mother. But sometimes you just have to face what life throws at you and deal as best you can. Its times like these I'm fortunate to have people to lean on so I don't have to face it all alone.

So without getting into too much more personal detail, there is a bit of a rundown on the health issues I've had to confront. I saw so many doctors these past two years that I'm nearly sick to death of them; but its for the better. What's 3-4 doctor visits a week if it means eventually I can live a bit more normal of a life?

And last but not least is that I got a replacement computer. My old one was just about on the verge of death (blue screens and all), but I got fortunate to be able to buy a "new" one for a couple hundred dollars so that I didn't have to vanish from online! I'm so thankful that doesn't have to be something I need to stress on. My computer is so important in my life (perhaps sadly so) from my social interactions to my attempt at income. Without it, I'd be cut off from pretty much everyone I know and love... as I don't have many people in my life that are reachable in person (due to how far away they live.) Plus, things like Twitch, games, writing and art are stress relievers that help fight off my depression. So yeah... computer is life, computer is love! <3

There you have it; an update on what's been going on in my life lately. More things happened, like celebrating 2 years of being with my boyfriend, or loss of friends or loved ones... but I didn't feel like going into more detail on those things. Besides, if you read this far... good for you. I'm sure most others would have already gotten bored and stopped reading by now. Hehe. Thanks for your time, and look forward to new blogs coming soon!!