For the first time since our wedding, I have decided not to decorate for Christmas. My health at this time leaves me incredibly fatigued so I will take the easy way out. Thank goodness for online stores. I did however notice tonight while trying to place some orders that online stores have limited amounts of certain items and delivery dates into January.  I guess that can be expected since many people will choose to order online this holiday season. Thank goodness I am almost done with my shopping.

My health has certainly been a worry in the last while. For quite some time now I have complained about the mind-numbing fatigue that I experience every day. This last week a new problem was added to my already ridiculously long list of complaints. At times just the effort of walking from the bedroom to the kitchen brings about shortness of breath. Where this is coming from is beyond my comprehension. I saw a cardiologist and had an EKG on March 5th. The EKG came back within normal limits and the cardiologist informed me that he would recommend me for the surgery I should have had months ago. My chest x-ray also came back within normal limits. Another problem that has come to plague me is huge variations in blood pressure. I have been on blood pressure medications since my children were born. I had pre-eclampsia with both pregnancies and at times would have blood pressure readings as high as 223/110.  Thankfully both my babies and I survived but I have been dealing with high blood pressure ever since. The blood pressure medication I am on is called Clasipril. With this medication, my blood pressure hovers between 120/80 to 139/90. After days of hardly getting out of bed because of the fatigue and extreme attacks of dizziness when I tried to get up, I finally realized I needed to check my blood pressure. To my shock, my blood pressure would drop from 139/90 to 120/80 to 110/80 to 108/60 and 104/60. This variation explains one of the reasons for fatigue, dizziness and nausea. I would like to hear from any of you who have had experiences with fluctuating blood pressure. I firmly believe that these problems are directly related to the decrease in my thyroid medication. Once Code Red is lifted I will have to get in touch with my family doctor. He thinks that my numbers are putting me into a hyperthyroid range and that this could shorten my life. I feel that I would rather shorten my life by a few years but have a decent quality of life now instead of living longer but spending that time fighting fatigue and sleeping. I love to read and I used to read at least 4 – 5 books a week. Now I have to fight to stay awake long enough to read for 30 minutes.

Enough complaining.  You may have noticed that I have included the URL and several posts from the mental health site called My Mental Trampoline.   My daughter is the author of this site and the information she shares comes from her experiences dealing with Bipolar disorder.  I am incredibly proud of her and all her accomplishments.  She has not let this disorder rule her life and has fought through each debilitating episode to become a stronger and wiser woman.

Enough rambling for tonight.  I wish you all a wonderful Christmas season.  Try to make the best of this holiday season while dealing with so many restrictions.  The most important thing is to take care of each other and to keep safe.