So despite my last rather thoughtful-ish post, I've just been poking along lately. Mostly, I've gotten stuck in that "what's the meaning of life?" thinking trap that gets a person NOWHERE and generally results in crazy-making. I've been trying to find the meaning in "all this." Some sort of grand purpose for the universe.

And, not surprisingly, I'm coming up empty. I got nuthin'. The best I can do, I think, is to continue to work on being the healthiest (emotionally as well as physically) person I can be so I can be of service to those around me. Specifically, I've been thinking about patient advocacy and also healthcare reform. There was an interesting piece on NPR about healthcare reform in Oregon, but reforms at the state level strike me as bandaid fixes more than anything.

The current healthcare system is tragic and I'm starting to think that, once I'm done with school, I may want to start getting involved in changing things on that front. I don't know how, or when or what it's going to involve but if my friend Colin's efforts on behalf of those using computer-aided speech devices is any indication, individuals can make a difference.

In other news... well, there's not much other news. But here's a quick overview of the last week or so in Zee's world:

• I've been trying to keep better track of my diet of late and things seem to be working! I've lost 1 whole pound in the last week! Woo! It is shocking (and a bit disgusting, really) how much fat is in things and how much ends up in our diet!! I'm rather revolted, actually, but I'm trying to move beyond that.


• My class this term is, as anticipated, quite a bit of review from the last few term's-worth of classes. I'm a bit dismayed, actually, that they're having us create table-based layouts but I asked and the teacher is fine with my creating a CSS-based layout so long as I demonstrate that I can use tables in some way. The break from the extensive reading and tutorials is pretty nice, actually.


• On the MS front: this week I experienced NO side effects from the Avonex for the first time in more than 10 months. Yahoo!! Although some aspects of the naturopathic treatments seem to be helping, the acupuncture doesn't appear to be doing much at this point. I have only been twice, however, so I'm going to continue going for a little bit to see if it helps.


• My blood test results came back on Tuesday and my liver continues to behave itself, thankfully! So I continue on the Avonex. One piece of news that was interesting, though, was the Vitamin D level in my system. Although my Neuro did "poo-poo" the idea that Vitamin D could help my MS (noting that no "conclusive tests" had been done) he nevertheless agreed to order the test on my naturopath's request. Apparently my Vit.D levels are at less than half of what is considered "normal" for an adult. So he wants me on at least 400 units of the stuff a day. I suspect my naturopath will have something to say about how much I should be taking so I'm holding off on that piece until I see her next week. Ahhh, chronic diseases are FUN! aren't they?


• Work is good!


• I've been knitting baby things again. (It's turning into a habit!) Will post pictures of everything shortly...

So that's about it for now. Happy Friday, everyone!