Category: Health

Posts about health, including mental health topics like stress, depression and anxiety.

Sometimes you need a love poem

the Tall Girl # # #

needleSo, a relatively new health issue reared its ugly head last week. I’m doing better now (and it’s nothing life-threatening, despite the doctor raising the specter of the C word), but I can’t help but feel discouraged right now. The testing cost a generous sum that came straight out of my savings, which is part of why I’m so glum. (I don’t want to quote figures, but it was enough for an extremely nice vacation, if that gives you an idea.) I know I should be glad that I had savings to pay for it, but when I think about how hard I work and how careful I am with my money, it really upsets me. If I wanted to spend that much money, I can think of quite a few ways to do it that would have been more satisfying than having an unpleasant medical exam.

Anyway. One of my writer friends sent me this Tom Hiddleston video today. It helps a little.

Setback

the Tall Girl # # #

Apparently the Universe decided I hadn’t been beat down quite enough; I’ve been dealing with a stubborn, icky virus for over a week now. I wasn’t so bad last week, but this week has been pretty wretched. I’m feeling a bit more human today, but I’m still exhausted and the medicine makes me depressed. (I know — irony.) Fingers crossed for a return to normality SOON…

Sharing strength

the Tall Girl # #

Yesterday,961166_angel_2 I was backsliding a bit, feeling down and tired and worried. Today, my Reiki Master stepped in as my personal Angel of Healing to try to lift me past this health mess. She just did a distance session on me and sent me a ton of energy — I literally feel tingly from the energy work she did. It’s crazy and amazing that Reiki can work even when she’s in Vermont and I’m in Tennessee, with hundreds of miles between us. I didn’t really expect to feel much of anything, but boy, was I wrong. I can definitely tell that she worked on me! We’re planning to do three more sessions this week, although I have to say, just this one has me very encouraged.

Generous, compassionate friends are the best friends you can have.

Healing

the Tall Girl #

So, I’m feeling a world better than I did just a few days ago. I’m sure the exercise and the extra meds have helped, but I think working on my diet has probably helped the most — anti-depressants usually take longer to make a difference, and the simple depression theory just didn’t fit the facts: it didn’t explain why I was still hungry after eating a decent meal, or why I was waking up so hungry that my stomach was practically in knots, or why my mood would lift within an hour of eating and drop again if I hadn’t eaten for two or three hours. And when I looked at the changes in my diet over the last few months — particularly the foods and supplements I had discontinued — it suddenly seemed blindingly obvious that my main problem was nutritional deficiency. The evidence suggests I’m lacking some combination of iron, calcium, and magnesium, so for the last few days I’ve been extra-vigilant about my supplements and eaten a good bit of red meat and spinach. And the difference in my mood is just unreal. I’m still having some anxiety and I’m a bit tired, but I hardly felt depressed at all today. I even worked a few hours. Go, me.

The one downside to otherwise good news is that part of the problem is my beloved tea. Too much tea can interfere with iron absorption (and some sources claim it also depletes magnesium) — and I had been drinking an absolute truckload of black tea almost every day. I hate giving up my tea, but I’d rather do that than take a lot of extra medicine.

Anyway… I’m not at 100% yet, but I feel like I’m well and truly on the mend — and right now, that’s a pretty good place to be.