My daily pill intake

On the left are all of the bottles/blister packs of the pills I take. The photo on the right shows the pills. I put my cell phone in the picture for a size reference, because those pills in the middle (my cyclosporine) are BEASTS! When I first saw them, I thought they looked more like suppositories! :)

I spend a solid 1/2 hour every Sunday getting my meds ready for the next week.    I have to do this in order to keep everything straight, or else I'd completely screw it up and forget all the time.  I have to admit, though, that it is one of the things I hate the most.  Here is a list of the things I currently hate:
1. Spending the time to do my meds
2. Counting the pills
3.  I hate having to do this EVERY FREAKIN WEEK FOR WHAT SEEMS LIKE AN ETERNITY.
4.  I hate swallowing them
5.  I hate the sound of the ringer on my cell phone that reminds me every day at 9:00am and 9:00pm to take one of my meds.
6.  I hate that I have to have blood drawn at precisely 8:30pm every Monday morning in order to check the levels of these shit drugs coursing through my body.
7.  I hated the girl who was taking my blood, but thanks to a little phone call to her supervisor, I might have at least remedied THAT one (oh, don't feel sorry for her...her bedside/chairside attitude left MUCH to be desired). 
8.  My chubby body.
9.  Chipmunk cheeks
10.  The fact that I am turning into a werewolf (I fondly, but with some humor, call myself a Wolfmunk, or a Chipwolf...take your pick...)
11.  the fact that I have no idea when this is going to go away...
12.  the amount of work I have to put in to make it go away...
13.  the sheer EXHAUSTION I feel more often than not from weaning off of the prednisone
14.  the guilt I feel for taking a day off to regroup
15.  blister packs  (seriously..it's no fun after the 10th pill...my fingers are KILLING me)
16.  CVS (or rather most of the people that work at the one I frequent)
17.  Anthem for making it perfectly impossible to see if I'm getting ripped off (but I'm pretty sure I am somewhere along the way)
18.  myself for not putting more into an FSA...already blew through our $2700, and it's not the end of March yet :(
19.  The tingling feeling that is ever present in the back of my neck (if anyone has ever been to a chiropracter and had those electrical stimulation pads after a treatment, then you can imagine what feeling I'm talking about, only it's like they've got the electrical pulses turned up too high.
20.  The fact that some days I can't hold a pen and sign my name because my hands are shaking too bad.
21.  The fact that I can't find sunglasses/glasses to fit my face.
22.  The fact that my current glasses squeeze my head and give me a headache.

Yeah, that about sums it up right now.  I'm just pissy.

Oh my word....I'm tired

This week has been hell, workwise. I'm totally regretting staying home on Monday (even though I would've been WORTHLESS) because I could've used an extra day to get everything done. I've been working on a change control at work that was originally implemented during Christmas, but due to lack of appropriate requirements, had to be fixed. To make a long story short, I've already worked my 40 hours by this morning. Hopefully, I'm in a good place for tomorrow morning to start testing, because this MUST be completed tomorrow.

And I started the cyclosporine on Sunday....no creepy side effects yet...keeping my fingers crossed...

I've been pretty good about working out (except this week...it's been shot to hell). Joacim's been great about taking care of Izzy and getting her dinner while I work out when I get home from work. It's not a easy system, and everything feels so hectic, but it's so important for me to lose this weight, and if I don't put myself first in this regards, who will? I can't keep complaining about feeling crappy if I'm not doing anything about it, right? And I'm really starting to enjoy it! I sweat profusely (partly due to the steroids) but I feel sooo good when I'm done. And I'm doing a lot of different things so as not to get bored: 30-day shred with Jillian Michaels, Tae-bo with Billy Blanks, yoga and my pilates reformer. I've lost a couple of pounds since last week. Seems discouraging when I consider how hard I feel I'm working out, but I know this is something that's going to take some time. As everyone says...it takes time to put the weight on, and it'll take time to get the weight off. I also signed-up with Livestrong.com, and they have an iPhone app where you can track your food and fitness. It's been pretty eye-opening to see how many calories I eat in a day, and it totally motivates me to work out based on how much I've eaten in the day. Lovin' it so far!

Okay, enough rambling...I'm going to bed. Night!