My Fitness Pal Blog - Day 12 Through 21 - And Just Barely Feeling Alive

Freaking infections.

I don't know if I'm allowed to say the other F word on MFP, so we'll try and keep the language to a minimum, at least until I'm less worried about getting kicked off. But seriously. F that S. Or something. 

The infected jaw hung around for about ten days. The amoxicillin I got for it hung around a lot longer. The ear infection (right ear) that I got the day I came off the amoxicillin has had me deaf, dizzy and in a crapload of pain (although not as much as the jaw), the ear infection (left ear) that feels like it might start up tomorrow doesn't hurt yet but feels full and weird, and the thing that I assume is an abscess that's above the top left molar that I had filled, or maybe root canalled, two years ago, is giving the most disgusting sweet rotten taste in my mouth that I've ever had, and makes me want to keep shoving food in there just to kill the taste.

No, brushing and using mouthwash doesn't work. Two minutes after the Corsodyl  - which is about the strongest one you can get in the UK, and is miles better than Listerine, or so I'm told by both my dentist and my third-year dental student BFF - the taste is back.

Luckily I have an appointment with the dentist on Jan 3rd, so in the absence of any real pain, I think I can hang on till then. Even if the taste makes me feel eulgh.

Oh, and on top of that - there was Christmas to deal with. Right?

Christmas was fine. The family dinner on the 23rd was fine. Christmas Day, just mom and me at home, was fine. Christmas shopping was fine. I'm in that post-infection, post-antibiotic downer place where nothing quite feels right or makes me jump for joy (not to mention the fact that my normal meds aren't working so my muscles are killing me, and I'm constantly swinging between baking and freezing which is enough to get any person down) but nothing went wrong. My family didn't eat each other. Everyone seemed to like their presents. My mom gave me a totally awesome Imperia pasta maker with attachments for ravioli and gnocchi, as well as some books (which I have already read, all 900-some pages; I've stayed in bed a lot since I've been feeling so rotten) and other incidentals. Papa and Stepmama sent me a nice check, with instructions to spend it on something really nice that makes me happy - so as usual, I will spend it on this semester's tuition. I can't help it, I'm horrendously practical, and tuition makes me happy. My brother's family gave me the textbook I need for school this year, which I'm thrilled about - no more working off photocopies. All in all, presents were great. Everything I got is stuff I asked for and can use - candles, writing paper, kitchen equipment. Don't get me wrong, I love it when people buy me pretty things to store away for when I have a place of my own, but I'm starting to run out of places to keep all the boxes of stuff I have. It's really nice to have stuff I can actually use now.

I did some sale shopping, and was fairly restrained, buying things that I NEEDED rather than pretty things that I liked and decided I had to have. Earrings were my one frivolous indulgence - they're sprays of shooting stars on long chains, from Kurt Geiger. There's several more things in the KG store that I'd like, but I'm running out of money. I bought ridiculously beautiful, ridiculously expensive calf-high leather boots from Jones - £75, down from £150, down from some price I don't want to say - and even though they took most of my non-tuition Christmas money AND most of the money I had left in the bank after bills and Christmas shopping, I'm thrilled with them. I haven't had calf-high boots for a decade or more - because of the amount of walking I do, and also probably because of the ballet and cheerleading as a kid and teen, my calf muscles are ridiculous. There's hardly any fat on them, and even when I'm slimmer I look like I'm packing cantaloupes. So I haven't found any boots to fit since I was about 17 - but Jones had a pair that I could ALMOST do up. When I got them home, I panicked for a day and a bit, because they'd weatherproofed them for me and it had made them shrink a bit. I couldn't get the zippers done up at all, and I was a wreck. But then I discovered that I was trying to pull them too far up my legs, and if I let them crinkle a bit at the ankle - which, I'm told, is a perfectly acceptable way to wear boots - they zip just fine. They feel good on, too. I need to write about the boots in detail, because they affect my mental state so much. All I'll say for now is that it's damn good not to have cold, wet feet - here in England it rains all the freaking time, and I've been wandering around with wet feet for two winters now, ever since I started relying on public transport.

I do need to see if I can do some exercises to slim my calves a bit, maybe lengthen the muscles. Or at the very least, stop walking on an incline all the time - years of hiking mountains and cliffsides, followed by years of walking and jogging on a treadmill at a 40-degree incline, are probably as much to blame for my calves as the ballet. :)

I've been under my calorie goal all over Christmas (although I still haven't found the recipes mom used for a couple things on the family dinner day, so I haven't logged them yet) but I've been basically eating crap. I don't eat well the majority of the time anyway - too much sugar and simple carbs, not anywhere near enough protein or fibre -  but over Christmas a lot of it has been sandwiches and junk food. In theory, staying under the calorie goal should make the difference in my weight whether I eat crap or not, but it's not doing my body any good.

I won't know, though, until my scales arrive. I bought some really nice ones from Amazon, and I'm hoping they arrive tomorrow (Monday) - if not, then it'll be after New Years Day.

Keep your fingers crossed for me.