So I’m on Day 2 of Migraine from Hell.Â? I’ll probably be fine to go into work tomorrow — drugged on Toradol most likely, but still going into work.Â? (Jon’s driving me so he can get my car taken in.) I came home from work early yesterday because the pain, the photosensitivity, and the sound sensitivity got to be too much.

I slept most of today and cleaned off a couple things on the DVR.Â? (No… I have not watched last season’s finale of Grey’s Anatomy and yes, I am aware that the season premiere is tomorrow.)Â? I probably shouldn’t be watching The Biggest Loser: Families and eating BBQ chips, should I?Â? (Then again, it’s one of the few things I’ve eaten today.)

I was the champ-eee-yon of the dare last week at work — I clocked 32.85 miles.Â? I’m so not even approaching that this week but I only really need about 9 miles to stay on track for my goal and I’ll have that easily.

So I’ve been doing this virtual triathlon thing at work for a week now and have been keeping track of my steps and all.Â? As of yesterday, I was on target for my goal of walking 250 miles over the twelve weeks.Â? (Yes… it sounds like a lot but it averages out to around 3 miles a day which is totally doable.)

I walked 3 of 4 days at work and Friday managed to exhaust myself and work up a pretty decent sweat.Â? I think I’ll have to bring a spare shirt to work in addition to some SeaBreeze because I was needing something to cool me off!

Now to get the last 2000 steps in for today…

Oh yeah… I baked No Pudge Fudge and some Mexican Chocolate Chip cookies (using Splenda) for Church #1’s coffeehour tomorrow.Â? Go me.

Part of the company I work for is sponsoring a “virtual triathlon” for its members and as I need to start doing physical things again, I signed up.Â? We can either run, walk, bike, or swim and I’m sure that mine will be walking as I can’t run due to knees/ankle/asthma, there’s no good pool around here where I can swim year-round, and I don’t have the time to bike.

So… I got myself a pedometer last night and have been wearing it all day.Â? So far, my step total is pretty dismal but I’m sure it will improve once I start walking and being active again.Â? It’s also Saturday which is a quiet day for me… usually.

I get to wear it for the next 12 weeks and keep track of things.Â? It will be interesting to see how many miles I cover.

My annual exam went well this morning — I have an awesome doctor who talks to me while she examines me.Â? She’s also got a new nurse (who is tangentially a parishioner of Jon’s) and said nurse is wonderful.Â? The exam and all was less torturous than it normally is and I was to work by noon.

My bloodwork came out fairly well considering that I’ve had an unhealthy summer.Â? My A1C was 5.6 (which is good) though my cholesterol is still unbalanced.Â? I think I can fix it with some tweaks in my diet and maybe some fish oil capsules.

Otherwise… I’m so done with doctors!!!!

Pisco of ePiscoSours has been talking about his struggle with dysthymia in terms of having “the Parasite” in his head. While this can get a bit humorous (at least on my end reading it), it’s surprisingly accurate.

It honestly does feel like I have a Parasite in my head somedays and that the Parasite is sucking all the energy out of me. There are also the times when the Parasite sets off the fire alarm in my head and causes a panic attack which just makes my day so freaking lovely… especially if I happen to be at church or work. Unlike Pisco’s, my Parasite is a fan of Coca Cola which means that when my blood sugar tanks around 4:00 pm, it screams and hollers at me (not audibly) until it gets some Coke. I know my doctor is going to LOVE this tomorrow when she reads my bloodwork and that I’m probably going to be put on yet more medication to control my glucose intolerance.

The Parasite had a month of free reign over my mind in June aided by the Topamax which was feeding it well. I honestly don’t even want to think about how screwed up the month was with all the depression and crud messing with my mind. I can remember the last full week of June being one of the WORST times of depression in at least 8-9 years — I was so depressed that I would sit at my desk at work and cry silently. There was no way I could really express what was going on to the people around me and I am a bit worried about that.

The Parasite also tends to silence me and make me want to just withdraw into myself.Â? There are days when I don’t want to be social at church or work and people playing “let’s draw Jen out of her shell” REALLY piss me off.Â? Being around people constantly is incredibly draining and having to do it makes me incredibly tired.Â? For example, I came home after an hour of church and slept for 5 hours!Â? I come home from work and just want to collapse on the couch because I’ve been around people and I just want to curl up in a Jen-ball and recharge myself.Â? This means that I eat waaaaay too much fast food on my way home (because I know that I don’t want to have to cook when I get home) and that I don’t do anything active when I get home (i.e. taebo) because I just don’t have the energy to move.

I don’t want to let the Parasite win but sometimes, I just want to curl up and just let the fighting happen for awhile without me…

The eye appointment went well other than having to have a glaucoma test.Â? I blinked most of the dye out so my eyes looked like a pumpkin had exploded around them for awhile.Â? No big change in prescription and I at least *have* it so I can get sunglasses made this weekend.

The ENT appointment: I drove 3 1/2 hours to have my ENT examine me and stick sharp/pointy objects up my nose for 5 minutes.Â? At least I don’t have to go back unless I’m having problems.

Did my bloodwork this morning for my annual exam on Monday.Â? I’m not looking forward to it because I’m probably in for a lecture and crappy bloodwork results in addition to the normal goings-on with an annual exam.Â? I have forewarned my co-workers that I will likely be crabby when I get to work…