RL Anger

Auspice

@Catsmeow
I seriously began losing weight steadily once my deviated septum was fixed and I began sleeping properly.

Like, the role sleep plays in weight loss can be pretty huge.

Catsmeow

I rarely sleep and if I do sleep, I wake up every few hours. It's always been like this. My brain is too anxious to let me sleep. Most doctors tell me that has a lot to do with my weight loss being so hard. -- Maybe I should look into a nose job or xanax.

Ganymede

@Catsmeow said in RL Anger:

Maybe I should look into a nose job or xanax.

If your lack of sleep is affecting your ability to lose weight, you may be able to get a doctor to sign off on a sleep study. This may be an important step in figuring out what's causing you to not sleep well, even if you're super-anxious.

Lack of sleep will mean elevated cortisol levels, and a whole lot of other bad shit. So, your first step to weight loss may be getting that sleep study. If your doctor won't send you that way, you should find another doctor.

TwoGunBob

@WTFE Tell me more of this diet or a possible link? I'm open to trying a life changer and I need to for a million reasons beyond headache relief. I did my meticulous insane diet and lost around 35 pounds for a good 18 months and it crept back on as the diet was not really about eating different and healthier so much as tightly reigned portion control. It worked, but when my discipline finally cracked it all went to shit.

Auspice

@Ganymede said in RL Anger:

@Catsmeow said in RL Anger:

Maybe I should look into a nose job or xanax.

If your lack of sleep is affecting your ability to lose weight, you may be able to get a doctor to sign off on a sleep study. This may be an important step in figuring out what's causing you to not sleep well, even if you're super-anxious.

Lack of sleep will mean elevated cortisol levels, and a whole lot of other bad shit. So, your first step to weight loss may be getting that sleep study. If your doctor won't send you that way, you should find another doctor.

I will say my sleep study was a big middle finger to a lot of people. Primarily my mother. She was convinced I had sleep apnea. I did not. I had 'hypopnea.' I struggled to breathe, but I didn't stop. Nothing a CPAP would do anything for. It was 100% the badly deviated septum. >.>

Plus, if you get a sleep study, you can feel like aliens are doing weird tests on you!

Catsmeow

I should look into this sleep study. There is a list of medical 'I should do this' like I need an MRI, but...

I'm so horrible at adulting.

Auspice

I really hate how fucking long it can take to get in to see a specialist.

Doctor gave me imitrex and phenergan (pain & nausea) to hold me over, as it were, until I see the neurologist. Meaning I have about a week's worth.

MRI was last night.

Called neurologist to setup an appointment. Took the earliest one.

April 10th.

I did ask to be put on the list to be called if there's any cancellations between now and then, but joy. I'm sure if I ask my doctor, she'll give me more of the meds, but still. My life is pretty much effectively on pause if these migraines don't clear up.

TNP

@Auspice Why do you need to see that one? Find out all that are on your insurance plan that are nearby and call them one by one.

Coin

Fucking rear bike tire popped again. Fucking fuck fuck fuck fucking fuck.

Arkandel

@Coin said in RL Anger:

Fucking rear bike tire popped again. Fucking fuck fuck fuck fucking fuck.

Get one of these new generation airless/tubeless tires!

Coin

@Arkandel said in RL Anger:

@Coin said in RL Anger:

Fucking rear bike tire popped again. Fucking fuck fuck fuck fucking fuck.

Get one of these new generation airless/tubeless tires!

I doubt they're on the market here, and I doubt I could afford them if they were.

Arkandel

@Coin said in RL Anger:

@Arkandel said in RL Anger:

@Coin said in RL Anger:

Fucking rear bike tire popped again. Fucking fuck fuck fuck fucking fuck.

Get one of these new generation airless/tubeless tires!

I doubt they're on the market here, and I doubt I could afford them if they were.

Somehow I've only had two flats in two years but I'm tempted to look into that more. The reduction in performance is very minimal (something like 5-10%, which unless you're competing who cares) and you never have to worry about having to push your bike for a few km to get home/to a bike shop.

Else if you're okay with that you can always carry a kit along, but that's obviously a PITA.

Auspice

@TNP said in RL Anger:

@Auspice Why do you need to see that one? Find out all that are on your insurance plan that are nearby and call them one by one.

I'm debating that. This is the one my doctor recommended.

The number one thing holding me back is... phone + migraine is not a fun combination.

I need an assistant.

hedgehog

Fairly mild in comparison to constant migraines and debilitating chronic illnesses, but...

There is no reason for second graders to have multiple-paragraph writing assignments every week. And to expect my son to finish his in one day after being sick for a week from tonsilitis (which included an emergency room visit to a private hospital in fucking Nassau - no, a vacation it was decidedly not) is absolutely ridiculous. Especially since you spent the majority of our parent-teacher conference last week deriding his penmanship rather than bothering to mention that he's probably eligible for accelerated math next year, other than as an aside towards the end of things. Having to slow down and take his time is antithetical to your desire for him to do a rough draft and final paper in one fucking night.

TNP

@hedgehog Don't tell us. Tell the principal. Or both but definitely the latter.

Auspice

@TNP said in RL Anger:

@hedgehog Don't tell us. Tell the principal. Or both but definitely the latter.

This.

Even as an adult, I still resent how many times I was failed on assignments in elementary school based on penmanship. I've always found that to be kinda ridiculous. Can you read it? Ok then. Grade based on that. >.>

hedgehog

@TNP

Unfortunately, this is all part of some new literacy initiative in the district. The poor kids are doing reading and writing for the vast majority of the school day, with some math and fine arts thrown in, but there's next to no science or history or social studies going on. Don't get me wrong - I want literate kids - but it's really excessive. They're going to churn out a bunch of kids who hate reading and writing because it's all in the name of increasing standardized test scores, and not for instilling an actual love of the written word. I can't wait until next year, when I can opt him out of the PARCC, in spite of the fact that his scores would help skew things positively.

hedgehog

@Auspice

To be fair, his penmanship is atrocious and unreadable, but it's all something that needs to be solved with OT and additional help in the classroom, which I don't think he gets much of, outside of grip tools for the pencils. That said, when I was a kid we did a ton of penmanship drills, rather than just being shoved towards writing essays at age 7.

WTFE

@TwoGunBob said in RL Anger:

@WTFE Tell me more of this diet or a possible link?

I have "reactive hypoglycemia". (It was once sometimes erroneously referred to as "carbohydrate addiction" a couple of decades ago.) What happened with me that triggered migraines (among some other problems like a strong tendency to sudden rage) was that my body, in over-producing insulin, would give me blood sugar levels that tended to go up and down more often and faster than a Vegas streetwalker in an alleyway.

The process works like this:

I eat something that spikes my blood sugar.
My body, upon seeing the blood sugar spike would counter by dumping insulin. Too much insulin.
My blood sugar plummets like a concussed bee.
My adrenalin dumps and I enter fight-or-flight mode (and with my personality this was "fight" ninety-nine times out of a hundred) leading to either rage (usually) or panic (occasionally).
I would counter the sudden feeling of intense hunger by eating, which would lead back to 1.

This had a massive influence on my weight, my personality, and also triggered migraines quite frequently. Combatting that latter one required me to:

Cut down on sugars and refined starches. (Note: not eliminate. Cut down.) Make up for them with foods high in fibres, fats, and proteins.
When I do imbibe sugars and/or refined starches, do so only in small amounts and/or pair it with fibre, and if sugars, fats. This had the effect of "smearing" the blood sugar spike over time thus making the impact of a spike far smaller.
Snack more. Instead of eating three big meals a day I eat three medium-sized ones and snack frequently between them. SMALL snacks. Just enough to prop up my blood sugar and prevent it from dropping. Ideally these snacks were full of fats, proteins, and/or fibre. Complex carbs as a part of them is OK as well. (My "killer snacks" were either nuts or apples. Apples are fucking wonder foods for my condition apparently.)

When I started this and made the (relatively minor) lifestyle adjustments needed my migraines almost instantly stopped. A few times I screwed up the diet and they'd leap back in ready to remind me why I was doing this. Within a year migraines were a small problem that would crop up at an ever-decreasing rate instead of one of the dominating factors of my life.

As a side effect my weight dropped from four pounds shy of 400 pounds. (180kg) to far more manageable levels. I mean I'm still obese. I'm at about 115kg right now. But think of it: I lost, in effect, a whole person of weight. (My wife weighs about 60kg…) Most of that weight loss happened in about the first three years. After that … well, I like food.

I'm open to trying a life changer and I need to for a million reasons beyond headache relief. I did my meticulous insane diet and lost around 35 pounds for a good 18 months and it crept back on as the diet was not really about eating different and healthier so much as tightly reigned portion control.

I did portion-control dieting (Weight Watchers) for a while and had the same problem you had. I was perpetually hungry (because of the blood sugar roller coaster) and perpetually pissed-off (ditto). With the minor tweaks I mentioned, however, I don't bother checking portions. I don't feel hungry and while my weight LOSS may have stalled somewhat, it's not going back on to 180kg levels.

Now…

I AM NOT A DOCTOR! I am not a dietician either. I can and will not diagnose your state. Consult professional assistance if you think you've got what I have. There is, however, a nice test you can use to find out. It's the test the hospital used on me to ascertain if I was reactively hypoglycemic or not. It's dirt-simple, but it's unpleasant. Make sure you have a friend nearby to help out. Procedure is easy:

Don't eat. I had to not eat for 12 hours before the test.
When you're at the end of that period of fasting, take a glucose packet (like the kind used by diabetics to counter insulin shock).
In the hospital they monitored my heart rate and blood pressure to watch for the adrenalin rush of hypoglycemic shock, but they didn't need to bother. I turned pale, sweaty, and was trembling and nearly fainting within ten minutes. The blood pressure cuff was redundant. So for a home sanity test, just sit there and hold your hand out in front of you, horizontally.

If you find it suddenly shaking uncontrollably, and/or if you find yourself faint, pallid, and sweaty, then get some fucking food into you (no sugars: starchy and with protein: toast and an egg, say) and talk to doctors until you find one that understands that yes, in fact, reactive hypoglycemia is a thing. (Lots of doctors 20 years ago didn't believe in it. This appears to have changed, thankfully.) Then follow that doctor's advice.

Ganymede

@hedgehog said in RL Anger:

To be fair, his penmanship is atrocious and unreadable, but it's all something that needs to be solved with OT and additional help in the classroom, which I don't think he gets much of, outside of grip tools for the pencils. That said, when I was a kid we did a ton of penmanship drills, rather than just being shoved towards writing essays at age 7.

So, he's going to be a lawyer or a doctor. Have you seen the shit we write?

My brother is a doctor; I'm a lawyer. And people think we're literate in Chinese, that's how bad our handwriting is.