Progress Report and This Week's Goal

Alright, I should have known planning posts for the weekend would be a bad idea. We’re just too busy most weekends for me to find time to write. We’ve had a good bit going on, too, (which I’ll explain at the end) so I didn’t get a chance to write yesterday either. So, I’m just going to throw my progress report, this week’s goal, and hand updates in one post and to heck with the product review for now. J

Sleep Goal Progress Report

Last Monday, I started out wonderfully with my sleep goals. I was asleep before 10:30 and slept all night. Tuesday wasn’t quite as good, but I was asleep by 1:30, which is a marked improvement over my normal time. Then Wednesday, it all just kind of fell apart. I went to bed on time—and even drifted off. But I was back up at 11:00 feeling like I hadn’t eaten in a month, and then I was up the rest of the night.

There was some crying and, if I were to be honest, some colorful grumbling that night. Thursday night, I was so discouraged that I really didn’t even try. I spent the night researching treatment plans for delayed sleep phase disorder. I found out that I have been so close to doing the right thing so many times, but I’ve been going about it the wrong way.

I also found out that, while melatonin treatment is a very good option for mild to moderate delayed sleep phase, chronotherapy is the preferred choice for severe delays like mine. Perhaps that will make a good topic for tomorrow’s educational post: Chronotherapy Explained. Yes, we’ll go with that…stay tuned. J

By Friday, I had pretty much given up on the idea for the week. This was mostly because of the new information I had discovered, and partly because of stress surrounding current circumstances. The weekend was a lost cause. I did get to sleep relatively early last night, but woke up at 3:00 a.m. with my back killing me (I tried sleeping on that wretched mattress again), and it was nearly 7:00 before I fell asleep again this morning. Hmph.

This Week’s Healthy Goal

I wanted this week’s goal to be to proceed with chronotherapy, but I can’t do that this week. So, I think my goal for this week is simply going to be to drink 20 ounces of water every day. I know I need much more than that, but that’s more than I’m drinking now and you gotta start somewhere. I think I ought to be able to handle that, don’t you?

Dyshidrotic Eczema Update

There’s really nothing new to report here. I’m still taking Vitamin D daily, as well as a probiotic. I’m pretty much maintaining what I have—not significantly better, not really worse. My hands have healed to a point that they aren’t interfering with my daily life too badly, save for having to protect them from getting wet at all cost. So there’s that.

Local Rabies Epidemic

Now, I promised to explain my absence of late. Last week, we killed a raccoon that was behaving very suspiciously. Because of the recent outbreak of rabies in the area, we called Animal Control to have the varmint tested. Friday, we found out that the blasted thing was positive. We have a dog, and while we thought she had been vaccinated by her previous owner, we found out that she wasn’t after all. ALWAYS ask for vet records!

We don’t feel as though she was exposed because she’s a great big chicken and never really leaves the immediate perimeter of the house when she’s outside. However, there is a tiny possibility of exposure, so the state says we have to quarantine her for six months. So now we have a pen to build—and it has to be a double pen so that the kids can’t stick their hands through and get licked.

We can’t afford to spend a whole lot of money on this pen, but fortunately, my grandparents have amazing resources. My grandfather gave us four good-sized cedar logs, which we can split for fence posts. He also gave us some fence staples and loaned us some post hole diggers. We just have to buy the chicken wire for the fence and we’re in business. He also gave us six planks of raw lumber so that I can build a doghouse to keep the poor little thing out of the weather while she’s in isolation.

Needless to say, none of us are particularly thrilled about the situation, but I just don’t see putting down the dog when there is such a tiny, miniscule chance she was even in contact with that blamed raccoon in the first place. So we’re doing what we have to do to keep the state off our backs and protect the family just in case.  I also need to get some Comfortis to keep the fleas at bay while she's in prison outside.

Folks, get your pets vaccinated. Even if she had a current vaccination, we would still have had to quarantine her for 45 days, but at least she wouldn’t be cut off from interaction for six months. At any rate, that’s what we’ve been into recently and why I couldn’t blog yesterday. It’s also why I can’t start chronotherapy this week…we’ve just got too much going on and I need to start it when I can stick to it or it won’t do any good. But I’ll explain that tomorrow.