Timing is Everything

Yesterday afternoon, I sat down and composed a peppy, witty post about shopping for fresh shrimp - extolling the joys of living close to the Gulf of Mexico, that breeding ground for luscious seafood. I made insightful observations about going down to the little fish shops right on the bay, where the fishing and shrimp boats pull up to the docks in back of the shops and unload their fresh catch of the day. Described my anticipation of sitting down to a peel n eat shrimp dinner with my honey.

I talked about how spoiled I am from catching our own fish (and shrimp too) and eating them the same day - how I can't bring myself to purchase seafood at the grocery store because it never seems fresh to me.

I also thanked my dear, dear friends who always know how to lift my spirits when they are down in that deep ditch.

Of course, once I had finished composing this artful piece, I hit the "publish post" button to find that Blogger was down for routine maintenance and my charming post was lost forever.

Will I never learn to compose using my word processor, and then copy over into Blogger? Apparently not.

Health update: I am keeping with my eating plan, which is supposed to help me figure out which foods cause me problems. A side benefit is that I am almost never hungry (this discovery is more incredible to me that finding signs of life on Mars). I have to remind myself to eat! However, I have not lost weight this week. I think my caloric consumption may be too low and my body is hanging onto weight, thinking I'm starving or something. I'm trying to eat more - and it will be easier once I can start adding other foods back into my diet.

I had an appointment with a urologist today. When I first arrived, I was nervous because I was obviously the only female patient in the waiting area. Fortunately, this urologist does treat both males and females. A co-worker's friend didn't find out that the urologist she had made an appointment with only treated males until she arrived at the office - her name was Pat and I guess the staff thought she was Patrick instead of Patricia!

Anyway, he said my kidneys look a-ok. In addition to persistent hematuria (blood cells), I am having a problem with, ahem, stress incontinence. Apparently this embarrasing problem shows up at my age, and especially with overweight women my age. However, my friend Karen has the same problem and she is normal size. We joke about trying to secretly assume the crossed-leg holding position when we cough or sneeze. Interestingly, neither of us has given birth, which I always thought caused this problem - although Karen has a beautiful 4-year-old daughter Karla who was carried by a surrogate.

Anyway, he doesn't think there's anything majorly wrong, but I do need to go in for a delightful little test called a cystoscopy so he can see what's going on inside my bladder. Fibromyalgia patients often experience microscopic burst blood vessels inside the bladder, and that might be what's happening to me. I also have some nifty new exercises to add to my repertoire, for the stress problem.

I've decided I need to be a grown-up and submit to this test with a good attitude. Just like the annual female exam and the mammogram, this is just something I have to grin and bear. I hear it's not bad at all, but I'll be glad when it's done (May 16). Hopefully, this will give me some answers on this topic and I'll never have to worry about it again.

Since I had to go into work on Tuesday, I decided that today would be my work-from-home day for this week. I'm just eeeeasing into the weekend.....