I had a very scary thing happen to me over the past two day's. My throat swelled up to the point of I could hardly breath. We still aren't 100% sure why, if it's an allergy to a medication or the change in weather. I've just never experienced anything like that before. I'll spare the detail's of it, but it really scared the crap out of me.
Not sure why I'm putting this in my blog. Other than that the therapy and trying to "relearn" how to sleep, is going ok. I wish it would move along much faster, and for a change in the past 4 year's my panic attack's seem to finally being suppressed. I'm still having a few but they are no where as bad as they where. The wife has noticed a big change in my attitude and said she thinks I'm in a much better mood, and no where near as snipy as I had become.
But finally starting to get 5 to 6 hours of sleep at one shot. Which so far I can live on that. It sure beat's the 1 to 2 hour's or being awake for day's on end, till I would just crash for two day's. I can sure tell I've been off work for a long time. I was in a couple of day's this week, and no matter how much I walked the dog, or went for a walk, it doesn't compare to climbing up and down ladder's all day long.
I'm so looking forward to getting back into the swing of thing's, which is slowly happening or at least headed in the right direction.
I've been very lucky to have such a supportive family, and co-worker's. I want to say thank you to all of them for dealing with me threw all the high's and low's of this whole thing. I'm really worried about my son, and what affect's it's had on him. Just now that I'm starting to do better I think it's time for some good quality father and son time.
I would suggest anyone that has panic attack's and or annexity/depression problem's, get seen, they can help, even though I was too the point I didn't think they could but it was a matter of getting a few doctor's involved. But there is hope out there. And if you need to talk to someone about them, don't be afraid to drop me a line. I don't know if I will be able to help much, but just having someone to listen has been a big help. I know this stuff is hard to talk to other's about since it does get very personal, but it does help, and their is some very understanding people out there.
Friday, December 4, 2009
Friday, November 27, 2009
Sleeping update
I've had a ton of e-mail's regarding my sleeping disorder's. Which thank you everybody!!! So I figured I'd post an update regarding it.
I've got a total of four doctor's that i'm working with. That sure does get confusing with the insurance company when thye want to know something, trying to refer them to the right doctor is kind of hard. They did figured out I have a mix of two sleeping disorder's, but not the one's they had though I had. So the original plan was completely throw out the window, which would have been a much easier and faster "fix". But that's mixed in with a annexity/depression problem, and all of them are feeding off each other.
I had put this stuff off for four year's due to being busy, didn't have time to make it in to the doctor, which made it progress to the level it got too. I had just been dealing with it and was trying to kept moving on with daily thing's.
The last doctor I finally met with for the first time last wednesday. Which was kind of interesting to say the least. She just shook her head at alot of the medication's they had tried, and the fact that one of them I've been on for over two year's, but it's been the one thing I could count on to supress a Panic attack. But she's said, if I was to go off of it at the moment, I would even up in the hospitial witht he possible of some very bad thing's happening. But we have to make a plan on how to get off of it, but she said not until we find something that can keep panic attacks from happening. But as of right now I am physically dependent on it. So yet another thing tossed in the mix to deal with.
I am getting to go back to work next week, and have been working hard on reseting me internal clock to a 24 hour clock, and not from about the 64 hour clock that had happened because it was delt with sooner. The past month, has been hard do to I had to set a wake up time. No matter what, if I haven't slept I have to get up at that time, and it's everyday, and no sleeping in on the weekend's. I had figured out my day's and night's are reversed, so get those back to normal hasn't been fun and still isn't right yet, But getting back to work and getting back on a normal "life" schedule will help, but the first couple of week's will be ruff. And scaling back on all sleeping medication's. They work for a certain amount of time, but are not ment to be a perminate thing. ANd after so long your body will fight those as it will see them as toxic and will rasie your white blood count like you have an infection your body is trying to fight off.
I've been trying to take walk's, ride my bike, go for a hike out in one of the park's as exercise to try and help make me physicaly tired, but also have been told, exercise in the evening nearing bed time isn't a good thing, due to it can cause adrenaline to start, and keeping you awake, so there's a fine line not to cross in the later evening's. Defining that line, well I haven't figured it out yet.
Another thing is I was/am a clock watcher, meaning at night when i couldn't sleep I would keep looking at the time on the alarm clock. This only makes you frustrated, and get's you start thinking, ok I can't sleep, I'm going to be so tired tomorrow, and making your brain "thinking" alot more than when you should be relaxed.
So far I haven't been able to get a solid sleeping schedual, but it seem's the quality of sleep I do get has improved. Which working on a getting back to a normal schedule will help and speed this up.
As far as a set bedtime, is good, but as I was told if in the evening if I've very tired, go ahead and go to sleep, just as long as it's not a nap in the middle of the day. As your body is trying to make up for that lack of sleep.
I think the worst was going 4 day's and night without sleep or just a few hour's, and then by the time the weekend rolled around, I would crash for two day's and there was no getting me up. Sadly I've missed a ton of family activies, alot of my son's sport's stuff.
But there's kind of an update, and I guess the best thing is now we know what's going on, and have a plan we have been working on for the past month in treating it, but it wasn't until I could get into all the doctor's to get everything I needed. Which that was the bad part, every big test, and every new doctor I wouldn't know about till I met with one doctor, and then trying to make an appointment, we found I couldn't get in for a month or six week's. So it just drug out the time-line this has been going on.
Have a happy holiday's everyone!!!
I've got a total of four doctor's that i'm working with. That sure does get confusing with the insurance company when thye want to know something, trying to refer them to the right doctor is kind of hard. They did figured out I have a mix of two sleeping disorder's, but not the one's they had though I had. So the original plan was completely throw out the window, which would have been a much easier and faster "fix". But that's mixed in with a annexity/depression problem, and all of them are feeding off each other.
I had put this stuff off for four year's due to being busy, didn't have time to make it in to the doctor, which made it progress to the level it got too. I had just been dealing with it and was trying to kept moving on with daily thing's.
The last doctor I finally met with for the first time last wednesday. Which was kind of interesting to say the least. She just shook her head at alot of the medication's they had tried, and the fact that one of them I've been on for over two year's, but it's been the one thing I could count on to supress a Panic attack. But she's said, if I was to go off of it at the moment, I would even up in the hospitial witht he possible of some very bad thing's happening. But we have to make a plan on how to get off of it, but she said not until we find something that can keep panic attacks from happening. But as of right now I am physically dependent on it. So yet another thing tossed in the mix to deal with.
I am getting to go back to work next week, and have been working hard on reseting me internal clock to a 24 hour clock, and not from about the 64 hour clock that had happened because it was delt with sooner. The past month, has been hard do to I had to set a wake up time. No matter what, if I haven't slept I have to get up at that time, and it's everyday, and no sleeping in on the weekend's. I had figured out my day's and night's are reversed, so get those back to normal hasn't been fun and still isn't right yet, But getting back to work and getting back on a normal "life" schedule will help, but the first couple of week's will be ruff. And scaling back on all sleeping medication's. They work for a certain amount of time, but are not ment to be a perminate thing. ANd after so long your body will fight those as it will see them as toxic and will rasie your white blood count like you have an infection your body is trying to fight off.
I've been trying to take walk's, ride my bike, go for a hike out in one of the park's as exercise to try and help make me physicaly tired, but also have been told, exercise in the evening nearing bed time isn't a good thing, due to it can cause adrenaline to start, and keeping you awake, so there's a fine line not to cross in the later evening's. Defining that line, well I haven't figured it out yet.
Another thing is I was/am a clock watcher, meaning at night when i couldn't sleep I would keep looking at the time on the alarm clock. This only makes you frustrated, and get's you start thinking, ok I can't sleep, I'm going to be so tired tomorrow, and making your brain "thinking" alot more than when you should be relaxed.
So far I haven't been able to get a solid sleeping schedual, but it seem's the quality of sleep I do get has improved. Which working on a getting back to a normal schedule will help and speed this up.
As far as a set bedtime, is good, but as I was told if in the evening if I've very tired, go ahead and go to sleep, just as long as it's not a nap in the middle of the day. As your body is trying to make up for that lack of sleep.
I think the worst was going 4 day's and night without sleep or just a few hour's, and then by the time the weekend rolled around, I would crash for two day's and there was no getting me up. Sadly I've missed a ton of family activies, alot of my son's sport's stuff.
But there's kind of an update, and I guess the best thing is now we know what's going on, and have a plan we have been working on for the past month in treating it, but it wasn't until I could get into all the doctor's to get everything I needed. Which that was the bad part, every big test, and every new doctor I wouldn't know about till I met with one doctor, and then trying to make an appointment, we found I couldn't get in for a month or six week's. So it just drug out the time-line this has been going on.
Have a happy holiday's everyone!!!
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
A ammo can or two.
Well, I've been trying to work a deal with some folk's about a large order of ammo can's to use for the Geoscouting project for the upcoming year. I finally got the right guy, and was shocked at the deal he gave me.
We worked out that if any IGO member want's to buy a pallet full or bulk quantity's of ammo can's 30 cal's or 50 cal's, he will sell them at whole sale. Already they give geocacher's a 5% discount which has been very nice of them to do, but with the rocking price of the ammo can due to the future of them is unknown at this point, they have almost doubled in price over the past year. The military has been crushing the can's, instead of putting them up for auction. Any way's I told them I would definitely give them a plug. CC military surplus in Central city. This is almost a 50% discount off of the retail price of buying them one at a time. And is just a quarter lower than what they cost a year ago.
I was so happy when he said he would do this for any of us, so if a bunch of us want to get together and buy in bulk, and split the cost and the can's we can do that.
I have to thank my little sister for helping me get them all off the pallet, counted, take the lid's and put those on. And for trying to help me repair a couple that got dented due to the metal band's holding them to the pallet. And for them putting them back in the truck to move from my parent's to my house.
Another big thank you to my little guy for helping me unload them all out of the truck and get them stacked up in the garage while we are waiting on paint to start painting them.
I'm almost ready to release a major announcement for me to the public. It's been a hard decision, but I think it's a good one. Just there will be no more log's under the handle of Parabola on geocaching.com. I guess I'll just spill the bean's. I've retired my handle. Parabola had a good run, but is now done. Done caching, no way. But a fresh start I guess. My new handle, well it's out there with a few find's already. Then final cache I had to put on terra-caching.com due to how I wanted to finish I couldn't meet the guideline's. There's a write up with a cache called Parabola to finish him up, with a very unique kind of cache and I think another first of it's kind. I've even got the 2nd in command there involved. I guess call it completing the circle. To swipe a friend of mine's cache hide name. That the cause of the recent design of my pathtag's. The piece's all fit if you really look and study them.
I hope I've made some memorable caches for you to think back and say to yourself, what was I thinking going after that cache. What's left will still be maintained by me, and I don't know if I want to adopt them over or not, but they still will be watched over, till the time comes to put them to rest.
Not to fear, though, there's more coming, and I think the picture's in this post will show that.
See ya on the trail's,
Parabola
We worked out that if any IGO member want's to buy a pallet full or bulk quantity's of ammo can's 30 cal's or 50 cal's, he will sell them at whole sale. Already they give geocacher's a 5% discount which has been very nice of them to do, but with the rocking price of the ammo can due to the future of them is unknown at this point, they have almost doubled in price over the past year. The military has been crushing the can's, instead of putting them up for auction. Any way's I told them I would definitely give them a plug. CC military surplus in Central city. This is almost a 50% discount off of the retail price of buying them one at a time. And is just a quarter lower than what they cost a year ago.
I was so happy when he said he would do this for any of us, so if a bunch of us want to get together and buy in bulk, and split the cost and the can's we can do that.
I have to thank my little sister for helping me get them all off the pallet, counted, take the lid's and put those on. And for trying to help me repair a couple that got dented due to the metal band's holding them to the pallet. And for them putting them back in the truck to move from my parent's to my house.
Another big thank you to my little guy for helping me unload them all out of the truck and get them stacked up in the garage while we are waiting on paint to start painting them.
I'm almost ready to release a major announcement for me to the public. It's been a hard decision, but I think it's a good one. Just there will be no more log's under the handle of Parabola on geocaching.com. I guess I'll just spill the bean's. I've retired my handle. Parabola had a good run, but is now done. Done caching, no way. But a fresh start I guess. My new handle, well it's out there with a few find's already. Then final cache I had to put on terra-caching.com due to how I wanted to finish I couldn't meet the guideline's. There's a write up with a cache called Parabola to finish him up, with a very unique kind of cache and I think another first of it's kind. I've even got the 2nd in command there involved. I guess call it completing the circle. To swipe a friend of mine's cache hide name. That the cause of the recent design of my pathtag's. The piece's all fit if you really look and study them.
I hope I've made some memorable caches for you to think back and say to yourself, what was I thinking going after that cache. What's left will still be maintained by me, and I don't know if I want to adopt them over or not, but they still will be watched over, till the time comes to put them to rest.
Not to fear, though, there's more coming, and I think the picture's in this post will show that.
See ya on the trail's,
Parabola
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Geoscouting
It's out and officially announced now. The Cache to Eagle program, the pillar's of scouting, the Pinewoodderby TB race. Eache councial will be putting together a different program. This is set up as a partnership between Geocaching.com and the Boy Scout's. Since we have similar values, and all enjoy the outdoor's the two do kind of go hand in hand.
So far we have a general plan for the Hawkeye Area Council and set up a pretty bang up program for 2010. This venture is to help celebrate the 100th anniversary of scouting.
As an Eagle scout myself, I learn a lot that I sit use today while out in the wood's looking for geocaches. But be ready Jan. 1st for the program to began, and other thing's may be added on as we go threw the year. I'm sure hoping the program we set up for the Hawkeye Area Council will blow other council's away.
You can contact me if you wish to help in this venture at all. We will be teaching GPS skill's as well as the ability to use a compass properly and some orienteering. All why we are doing one of the actives we love most, geocaching.
I'm also setting up a donation link to my paypal account. As I've been getting thing's for this, it's getting kind of expensive for just one person to handle and your donation would be put to use in the form of container's, logbook's, Swag, paint for the container's. Just make sure you use the donation link for this and not the one to help me finish this tattoo. Unless you want to donate to that as well. :)
Be safe out there and if you have time check out the Geoscouting website for more information.
So far we have a general plan for the Hawkeye Area Council and set up a pretty bang up program for 2010. This venture is to help celebrate the 100th anniversary of scouting.
As an Eagle scout myself, I learn a lot that I sit use today while out in the wood's looking for geocaches. But be ready Jan. 1st for the program to began, and other thing's may be added on as we go threw the year. I'm sure hoping the program we set up for the Hawkeye Area Council will blow other council's away.
You can contact me if you wish to help in this venture at all. We will be teaching GPS skill's as well as the ability to use a compass properly and some orienteering. All why we are doing one of the actives we love most, geocaching.
I'm also setting up a donation link to my paypal account. As I've been getting thing's for this, it's getting kind of expensive for just one person to handle and your donation would be put to use in the form of container's, logbook's, Swag, paint for the container's. Just make sure you use the donation link for this and not the one to help me finish this tattoo. Unless you want to donate to that as well. :)
Be safe out there and if you have time check out the Geoscouting website for more information.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Pathtag's
Ok, I'm starting to turn into a pathtag junky. lol I made my first one and ordered I think 150 of them. Af first they where flying out the mailbox as fast as I could get them there. But finally have slowed down some. I've gotten a lot of neat tag's traded with me though. This is the first tag I made. And I'm no photoshop expert but am getting better.
After getting them in the mail and being pretty impressed with how they turned out, I had an idea. I have been looking to make a very unique kind of cache. It would have to be a terra-cache, cause I couldn't get away with this on geocaching.com. But I made another design and am having 150 made. Once these are made they will each go into an envelope sealed with logging instruction's. I'm shipping these to a bunch of people all around the world, and they will put one in a terra-cache hide and forget about it. As people find those caches and if they look at the envelope and trade for it. They will find they can log another cache. Only 100 coin's will be set out for logging a find on this. Which is a lot of find's on a terra-cache anyway's. I don't expect it to be worth much in point's but I think the MCE of it will be pretty high as I believe this is the first one of it's kind. I haven't gotten the tag's yet but just got the blue print for it and it's in production now. You'll see it's alot more cartoony than I had wanted.
This is what I submitted:
This is how they had to change it to make it work:
Some of it was the cut lines would be so thin the color wouldn't be able to be added to it. I'll add some jpeg's of the first tag I have. I haven't taken a photo of it as of yet.
Parabola
After getting them in the mail and being pretty impressed with how they turned out, I had an idea. I have been looking to make a very unique kind of cache. It would have to be a terra-cache, cause I couldn't get away with this on geocaching.com. But I made another design and am having 150 made. Once these are made they will each go into an envelope sealed with logging instruction's. I'm shipping these to a bunch of people all around the world, and they will put one in a terra-cache hide and forget about it. As people find those caches and if they look at the envelope and trade for it. They will find they can log another cache. Only 100 coin's will be set out for logging a find on this. Which is a lot of find's on a terra-cache anyway's. I don't expect it to be worth much in point's but I think the MCE of it will be pretty high as I believe this is the first one of it's kind. I haven't gotten the tag's yet but just got the blue print for it and it's in production now. You'll see it's alot more cartoony than I had wanted.
This is what I submitted:
This is how they had to change it to make it work:
Some of it was the cut lines would be so thin the color wouldn't be able to be added to it. I'll add some jpeg's of the first tag I have. I haven't taken a photo of it as of yet.
Parabola
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
100 years of scouting
2010 will be the 100th anniversary of the Boy Scout program. Being an Eagle scout myself, I jump right in to help with this. Don't have a whole lot of detail's yet, but there will be alot of new caches, and hopefully some CITO event's and some regular event's wrapped up in this. I'll be working with a coule of cachers and the Hawkeye Area Council and keep the hides, in the area's that the HAC have to use.
I've been sending out a lot of email's getting permission to place hides in 7 counties. I've cleared them with almost all of them. The neat part is the ranger's are very excited about them as well. PJ and i will have our work cut out for us making alot of the hides. Also we are combing area's looking for Eagle Scout project's, and hope to include a lot of those into the cache hides.
The bad part is the cost of the ammo can has went up everywhere. They used to be 5 for a 30 cal, and now are 7.25 for a 30 cal. I've been able to raise some fund's to help pay for some of the ammo can's, but still going to have to buy them a few at a time.
Plus we will be putting on some actives at Scout camp. That will be lot's of fun. Just now waiting for a meeting happening soon, to hammer out the detail's.
Well back to combing the internet looking for deal's on 30 cal ammo can's.
Parabola
I've been sending out a lot of email's getting permission to place hides in 7 counties. I've cleared them with almost all of them. The neat part is the ranger's are very excited about them as well. PJ and i will have our work cut out for us making alot of the hides. Also we are combing area's looking for Eagle Scout project's, and hope to include a lot of those into the cache hides.
The bad part is the cost of the ammo can has went up everywhere. They used to be 5 for a 30 cal, and now are 7.25 for a 30 cal. I've been able to raise some fund's to help pay for some of the ammo can's, but still going to have to buy them a few at a time.
Plus we will be putting on some actives at Scout camp. That will be lot's of fun. Just now waiting for a meeting happening soon, to hammer out the detail's.
Well back to combing the internet looking for deal's on 30 cal ammo can's.
Parabola
Sunday, October 18, 2009
After all this time...
Well it's been a very long time, especially for me as they finally figured out what's going on with my sleep. It's a sleeping disorder called Circadian Sleep disorder, combined with severe Insomnia with poor sleep quality and some sleep restriction. After 4 year's of this stuff, what has happened is my body get used to the med's they keep prescribing and they seem to work for a few week's to a month.
What happens is my body get's use to each one faster and faster and now I'm to the point my body is finally rejecting the med's, which is why my white blood cell count has been higher than normal. It's the body's way of fighting what has finally become toxic to me off.
I kind of wondered how a sleep study could be given while I was on a bunch of different med's. So I've got to keep a sleep diary so we can find out my body's normal sleep/wake cycle. The great part (not really) is I've been on a sleep med for the past four year's and I'm having heavy withdrawal as I'm tapering off the them.
I guess this whole thing is treatable and I go in a week and a half to start a cognitive therapy that they will find out why my brain doesn't slow down at night and keep's going full speed. Basically what he said is I don't know how to relax.
So now the battle is getting me off all medication then we can see with the sleeping journal what my body's sleep/wake cycle is. We may find out my body has a 30 hour day cycle instead of a 24 hour one. But they can't tell until all the med's are gone.
Parabola
What happens is my body get's use to each one faster and faster and now I'm to the point my body is finally rejecting the med's, which is why my white blood cell count has been higher than normal. It's the body's way of fighting what has finally become toxic to me off.
I kind of wondered how a sleep study could be given while I was on a bunch of different med's. So I've got to keep a sleep diary so we can find out my body's normal sleep/wake cycle. The great part (not really) is I've been on a sleep med for the past four year's and I'm having heavy withdrawal as I'm tapering off the them.
I guess this whole thing is treatable and I go in a week and a half to start a cognitive therapy that they will find out why my brain doesn't slow down at night and keep's going full speed. Basically what he said is I don't know how to relax.
So now the battle is getting me off all medication then we can see with the sleeping journal what my body's sleep/wake cycle is. We may find out my body has a 30 hour day cycle instead of a 24 hour one. But they can't tell until all the med's are gone.
Parabola
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