Evil-slaying activities for Friday, March 4

Forgive me for this being out of character - I'm a little too tired to feel creative. :)

Today started out with more doctors' appointments - a surgical consult with a new surgeon and another visit with my immunologist.  Because my INR rate is so high, surgery has been tabled until it's safe to perform it, and the new surgeon wants to do a biopsy first anyway.  My appointments were in the morning, so I did not go to work.  I'm having some pain in my face, which apparently I just have to deal with until they sort out the biopsy/surgery/INR mess.  I was feeling tired and crappy most of the day, until I had a energy workings session with John (aka Gigawood.) I've long been a believer in complementary medicine, and this time was no exception - afterword I was still sleepy, but I felt energized.  I wanted to get up and do something.  So I took our dog Bella for a walk and a short drive in the car while I indulged a craving for french fries (okay, this was not so successful, but I'd fought this craving for 2 days - opting for Jamba Juice and water instead - and I decided to give in.)  Then I came home and played WoW (and leveled up! One step closer to getting my main to 85.) 

After that, I undertook one of my power-ups: I baked a cake.  I can't play cello right now because of the finger sticks they do for the INR testing.  They stick the pads of my fingers and because I have no clotting factor, my fingers end up bruised and swollen, which makes pressing the strings painful.  So since I can't play, I made a lemon cake instead. 

THEN, my friends, I unloaded the dishwasher and loaded it, clearing out the sink of dirty dishes.

I feel like these daily updates might get a little mundane (I'm really critical of the navel-gazing sort of blogging that daily activities usually reflects - the Intertubes does not care what you had for lunch, I promise) but in the context of SuperBetter, I think it's important to document this.  Prior to this game, it was all I could do  to make it to work. I would come home, Matt would make dinner, I'd eat, stare at the television for a couple hours, and go to bed.  I felt like a zombie. 

So the fact that I was able to go for a drive, take the dog for a short walk, bake a cake, and do the dishes? That's a HUGE improvement for me, even if it's what normal, healthy people do every day without thinking about it.  For that reason, I hope you'll bear with the navel gazing - maybe just skip to the XP part to see the summary. :)

Doctors' appointments - 10XP
Leveling up in WoW - 10 XP (getting my main to 85 is on my Superhero To-Do List)
Dishes - 4XP
Walking the dog - 2XP
Blog post - 2XP
Achievement (from John) - 25XP
Power-up (baking): 5XP
Achievement (yesterday, from Courtney) - 25XP

Total: 83XP

Whoo hoo!! I'd say today was a raging success!

Another health update

As mentioned, I saw the surgeon today.  He took X-rays and concluded that the antibiotics just hadn't cleared the infection, and that I need more aggressive treatment.  What that means is a major surgery where they will remove any area of bone that looks infected.  He said they will try to save as much of the bone as possible, as well as preserving my facial nerves, but there is some risk of facial numbness. 

So will you guys still hang out with me if I have a big scar on my face/neck and possibly have droopy facial features?

As I was leaving the surgeon's office, I got a frantic call from my immunologist.  They had run an immunology panel on me on Wednesday (hence the seven vials of blood), and along with that, I requested they run my INR, which I have to have tested weekly to manage the blood thinners I'm on (which are themselves a result of the deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism I had last month.)  The lab reported back that my INR was 9.7 -- it's supposed to between 2 and 3, and anything greater than 5 is considered dangerous.  Another measure, called a PT, was 109.  Normal is like 25-30. 

What this means is that I'm at extremely high risk of bleeding, and that the surgery, which was supposed to happen on Monday or Tuesday, as to be delayed until my INR level is back within normal range.  I'm frustrated by this because I feel like my life is on hold until this stupid surgery is done.  My face hurts, I can't make plans at work or with friends or anything, because I don't know when I'll be going in.  Also, I had keyed myself up for the surgery, and now it's that sort of anticlimactic let-down that happens when you're expecting something that does not actually manifest.  It's a state of anxiety that I'm not entirely thrilled to be experiencing. 

My allies have come through marvelously to help me deal with this, even those that aren't actively playing the game.  People have sent me music, funny stuff, messaged me to tell me they're thinking about me, and -- as evidenced by Lindsay's post before this one -- come up with game-related ways to respond to this giant cluster of a situation.  I deeply appreciate this, and I definitely think that if I weren't operating in the SuperBetter paradigm, I'd be a lot more upset and freaked out right now.  I even managed to NOT cry at the surgeon's office! Whoo hoo!


So, quick request for allies: Something I forgot to ask was for someone to step up once every day/every couple of days to give me achievements based upon my activities.  I'd kind of forgotten about this part of the game, but I reached the SuperBetter section of Jane's book last night and it reminded me of this.  As she describes it, these achievements are important because they create that feeling of fiero, of positivity and success, that helps us heal.  And it means more if someone else gives them to me than if I give them to myself.  So I'll continue to post my daily activities, and if you guys can bestow upon me anything that you guys think is an achievement, that would be awesome. :)

Today's activities:
Work - 2 hours (10 XP)
Doctors appointments - 2.5 hours, plus another 1.5 hours driving all over town to get to them (25XP for appointments, and I gave myself 8XP for the driving, because, seriously, it was like 70 miles just around town)
Blog post (2 XP)
Total: 45 XP

Then I came home and played WoW and watched The Hunt for Red October, wheee. 

Evil-slaying activities for Sunday, Feb 27

Here's a list of my activities today - could you all be awesome and assign me some points for each of these activities?  Thank you!

-Worked for 3 hours (yes, on a Sunday, stupid site was supposed to go live tomorrow but is delayed AGAIN because of technical difficulties, ugh)
-Played cello for 30 minutes
-Did one load of laundry
-Went out and bought a stick blender so I can make more smoothies and blend veggies easier
-Submitted an abstract for my paper to the International Digital Media and Arts Journal

I think that's it.... so what's my point total for today?


Also, I thought of a few non-monetary-related rewards, but I could still use suggestions.  I'm drawing a blank!
New ideas:

-An afternoon "off" - to read, play video games, whatever without feeling like I "have" to do anything
-A drive somewhere to take photos
-Trip to a bookstore