It's beginning to look a lot like...spring?

This week, when the days are the shortest of the entire year, and when we're trying to get into the spirit of Christmas, it's 75 degrees outside. We have cannas blooming in our back yard. (I'd take a picture, but I don't have time to download it.) I had to run the air conditioner in my car to keep Cutie from burning up, and we only went five minutes from home. And I almost ran the A/C inside our house last night, when it got really warm after I had been cooking. Opening windows just wasn't doing much.

On the plus side, Cutie has been enjoying the outdoors and wanted to stay in her swing today longer than usual. She cried when I told her it was time to go inside and eat lunch. I'll take her back out this afternoon, if it's not already dark when she wakes up from her nap. I'm glad the days will start getting longer again now.

Car shopping

We are finally ready to replace Steve's 1996 Ford Explorer (with 174k miles on it). We've been doing lots of research online the past few weeks, mostly on consumerreports.com, and also checking out local listings. It's overwhelming to try to narrow down the possibilities.

We're looking for a 2-4-year-old family car or possibly a hatchback, since I don't feel comfortable driving bigger vehicles (more likely to turn over, too many blind spots, feel like I'm more likely to run into something, harder to park in a parking garage, etc.). We think we can manage with this size car as long as the seating space and trunk space are good, and we will enjoy the advantage of better gas mileage. If we get to the point where we really need a bigger car, we can get one when we are ready to replace our 2000 Saturn LS1.

We are still not really sure what we want as far as make or model. Some that look interesting are Toyota Camry, Nissan Altima, Nissan Maxima, Honda Accord, and Hyundai Sonata. We're open to suggestions on what to look for....

Health update

Friday I had the last of my six Glutathione/ATP shots. Lots of people have asked me if I have noticed a difference, and I guess the short answer is yes, it is doing something, but I'm not any less tired. Here is the more detailed answer:

The first difference I noticed is that my low thyroid symptoms worsened; this made me even more tired than I already was. However, not having seen the doctor for my follow-up yet, I have concluded that it is indicative of an improvement in my adrenal fatigue. Sound weird? Here's why: one symptom of adrenal fatigue is that my body is very sensitive to medication, that I don't require as much of any medication as a doctor would expect someone of my weight to need. Doctors have told me this for years about my insulin (without ever making the connection to adrenal fatigue), and more recently about my thyroid. So the fact that I now need a higher daily dose of thyroid supplement could mean that my adrenal glands are actually functioning more normally than they were before. The interesting thing is that my insulin dosage hasn't really changed, but that could be because of the increased stress that comes with this time of year (stress increases blood sugar).

I have also noticed that there have been far fewer nights in the past several weeks where I have had difficulty going to sleep, but this could be due to either the increased thyroid deficiency, or the improved adrenal function, or both. Or it could also be because I've been getting far fewer naps than I used to, because Rebecca has stopped napping regularly (Yikes!). In the past month, she's probably only had ten to twelve naps. She still gets to hang out in her crib for two hours with her blankets and stuffed animals, while I go lie down with ear plugs so her babbling, however cute, doesn't keep me awake. I only figured out I could use earplugs last week, and I wish I had thought of it sooner. I know I could probably make naps more consistent if I woke her up earlier in the morning (she usually wakes up on her own between 7:30 and 8:30, after a full twelve or thirteen hours of sleep); but that would require me getting up earlier, and I just can't do it. I've tried.

So, given all of the above, I don't really feel any more energetic than I did before, and my neck and shoulders still really hurt a lot, and I still get headaches every day. I have tried using the computer less (hence no blog postings for several weeks), but that hasn't helped. So I don't know if getting my thyroid regulated again will help, or if I just need more ATP, or if I need a different medication, or if I have yet another condition (nutrient deficiences/allergies/food sensitivities?) that is of yet undiagnosed. Please pray that my doctor will be able to help me when I see her in January. In the meantime, I'm hoping all the activity of Christmas will help distract me from how I'm feeling, or even improve how I'm feeling. I'm also open to other suggestions of how to take care of myself, if anyone has any.