It Needed To Be Said...

THE “fact” that junk food is cheaper than real food has become a reflexive part of how we explain why so many Americans are overweight, particularly those with lower incomes. I frequently read confident statements like, “when a bag of chips is cheaper than a head of broccoli …” or “it’s more affordable to feed a family of four at McDonald’s than to cook a healthy meal for them at home.”

This is just plain wrong.

As a student, it can be extremely easy to fall into the trap of buying foods from the cafeteria and other fast food vendors, given the ease and availability. At the end of the day though, what we make ourselves is more often than not cheaper and healthier than anything that you could get from an outside source, packaged and ready to serve.

*What the writer failed to mention about the prepackaged, ready to serve foods is the fact that most of that junk comes to the fast food restaurant frozen. I worked at Wendy's when I was younger. The patties are frozen, the fries are frozen, the chicken nuggets are frozen, the chicken (grilled or fried) that goes on the sandwiches is frozen, and the fish that goes on the sandwiches is frozen. The only thing that Wendy's makes fresh are their salads, which includes slicing the vegetables. (I'm sure the McDonald's lettuce is frozen and they only offer ranch dressing, the most fattening dressing available at 350 calories a serving. Fat Free Ranch has 35 calories for serving.)*

*Not only are these foods prepackaged, cooked elsewhere and then frozen to be sent to the fast food restaurant of your choice, they are all loaded with sodium, partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, and sugars. (The sodium for a McDonald's Quarter Pounder with cheese is over 1000.) Some of those prepackaged foods even contain appetite stimulants. (A bag of Oreo cookies contains 23 appetite stimulants. So do most potato chips. Lays wasn't lying when they said, "You can't just eat one," but they did cheat.) I like cookies, chips, and french fries as much as the next person, but if you value your health, these types of foods really shouldn't be eaten on a daily basis.*

About Me...

• My name is Shellye doesn’t matter.
• I am a slacker writer.
• Most writers have mental illness and I am no exception.
• I have Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), and panic disorder.
• My FAVORITE season is FALL!!!
• I’m writing a book. All of the characters in my book are a reflection or facet of me. Some are more of a reflection of me than others. Some are geared more toward facets and attributes that I wish I possessed which is why so many of my characters are doctors.
• I am a woman who does not like to tie her shoes and I’m afraid to go to the loo by myself in my own home because there are centipedes in there.
• I have two black & white cats, I prefer vanilla over chocolate, coffee over tea, and I love a variety of music EXCEPT FOR COUNTRY.
• When I’m angry and need to blow off steam or solve a problem, I go the batting cages and hit until I feel better. I am a problem solver by nature. If I tell you what my problem is, I’m not venting, I want a real solution or I wouldn’t have told you about it in the first place.
• I want to be a doctor so badly!!! I am interested in the brain and how it functions, so I would probably be an neurologist. What’s stopping me is the fact that I have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and faint at the sight of needles, blood and other bodily fluids to say the least.
• I act like I’ve got it all together, but I wear a mask like everyone else. My mask just fits a little tighter to my face than yours might. I have a hard time ripping it off when I am feeling transparent.
• I crave solitude, but I also hate being/feeling alone.
• I don’t typically eat breakfast. (Usually just coffee, but sometimes, I do wake up feeling hungry.)
• I have very vivid dreams and remember every single one of them. My average dream consists of trying to ring someone, but the numbers on my mobile phone don’t come up as the ones I’ve dialed. I also dream about being able to fly.
• I think the men who complain about their wives being unable to make a decision should take a walk in my husband’s shoes. Try being married to someone who has Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. My husband should be nominated for sainthood.
• Sometimes I’m certain that David Bowie’s make up looks better than mine.
• My background is mostly British. I check “other” on the ethnic background question.
• My life is made up of compartments. I compartmentalize everything in my life in numerical or alphabetical order, by colors, by categories.
• I think in terms of black and white, but the problem with life is that there are a lot of gray areas.

Blessings...

After being sick for over a week, I'm finally starting to feel better. To my surprise, I got a call from a lady at church. She said she had something for me, and I was thinking, "OMG, I'm still in my pajamas!" I decided I needed another day to rest in order to continue recovery. I don't want to push it. And if God isn't an on time God! Our car wouldn't start, but because this lady wanted to give me something, she was there and able to jump start the car. (We need a new battery, so we must get one tonight.) So Doug made it to school and I got blessed with heavenly scented Mary Kay Warm Amber lotion and perfume and a card and small Mary Kay cloth drawstring bag! It was a really nice blessing. God knows I've had a rough couple of weeks, especially with this illness. It's good to finally be on the mend. I think being prayed for about four or five times at the I Will Rise Women's Conference was probably played a part in my recovery.

The moral of this story? God knows when His children need a pick me up and He sends a blessing.

SICK!!!

I have been sick for the whole of last week with what can only be described as the day & night nonstop sneezing sniffling coughing aching stuffy head/chest minus the fever (I think...) but I am NOT getting any rest. I got seven hours of sleep last evening, but when I woke up at 4:30 this morning and have been awake since. After fighting to reclaim sleep in my comfy bed, I gave up at 6:30 and made myself a hot chocolate topped with fat free whip and cinnamon. I feel terrible! Whatever this is, it's killing me! Prayers are requested and appreciated. I can't stay sick because I've got way too much Fall stuff to do!

More Lovely Pics Of Fall!

These are just too pretty not to post!

I can't wait until it looks like this around here!

Wow...

This is like crack for me...

This is such a pretty picture.

And what comes after Fall? Glorious Winter!

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I can't help but think this reminds me of the courtyard on the Aeon Flux movie.

This isn't a Fall or Winter pic, but it is a volcano eruption in Iceland. I thought it was cool.

What The...???

So, I have unequal pupils. This has been happening for several years now, but this recent stint has lasted about a week with no real neurological symptoms. (Usually, this is accompanied by a migraine or other neurological problems like drooling, aphasia, photophobia and phonophobia. What I have noticed is that I am having trouble seeing out of my right eye, and it's the eye I usually have the constricted pupil and supervision in, but my smaller pupil is the left eye this time, and I can see out of it just fine.

The picture above is a bit exaggerated. Here is a pic of what the size difference looks like in my eyes. I can't exactly get a pic of my own eyes due to the flash.

It is noticeable enough, but not like the first picture.

These episodes of unequal pupils concern me for several reasons. Allow me to list them.

• Changes in pupil size and unequal pupil size can occur with serious conditions such as head trauma (concussions), brain tumors, stroke/TIA (Transient Ischemic Attack) or poisoning.
• Increased intracranial pressure
• Seizures (effects can last long after)
• Infection of membranes (around the brain itself)
• Brain tumor or brain abscess
• Glaucoma
• Tumor or mass in the chest
• Horner's Syndrome (I may have that because at my eye appointments, when the doctor dilates my eyes and takes pictures of them, even both pupils dilated are not the same size and my eyelid does droop (ptosis) noticeably in the photographs there. I pointed this out, and he wasn't concerned, but I noticed this in 2008/2009. The only other explanation for ptosis is neurological.)
• Aneurysm
• Brain hemorrhaging/bleeds
• Migraine Headaches (I have not had a migraine for a while now and I don't have a migraine at the present time.)

Okay, Differential diagnosis for unequal pupils. Go.

What issues can be ruled out in this case?

• I am a female in my early *twirties* to be exact, so I wouldn't have glaucoma.
• Infection can be ruled out because I have no symptoms to support an infection. Usually fever is a big indicator in something like that.
• Increased Intracranial Pressure is not likely. I haven't had an actual headache, including migraines, for I want to say around three to four months. I have had weakness and numbness on one side of the body that did not accompany a migraine a day or two ago, but no double vision, behavioral changes, decreased consciousness, or lethargy, so pretty good chance that's not it.
• Tumor or mass in the chest...that can be ruled out. The only symptom there is hoarseness, but my allergies have been on the rise the last week or two.
• Aneurysm, probably can rule it out. I don't have a headache or pain behind an eye, but I do have ptosis and vision problems. Without the headache or sudden onset of symptoms, it's highly unlikely.
• Brain hemorrhage has approximately fifteen symptoms, and I experience thirteen of those during a migraine, including loss of consciousness and impeded swallowing.
• Horner's Syndrome is a big maybe. I have partial ptosis, miosis, and red conjunctiva. I don't know. It's not painful, so if this is the case, I'll take a syndrome with no painful or neurological symptoms.
• Migraine headache can be ruled out because I am not having one at this time. My migraines mimic a stroke. No kidding.
• Brain abscess can be ruled out. I'm at the correct age to have a brain abscess, but I am not immunocompromised nor am I on chemotherapy. (Some patients undergoing chemo are at risk for a brain abscess.)
• I haven't had any recent head trauma (other than thoughts of ramming my head against a wall repeatedly due to stress) at all...

We have ruled out the majority. Now let's take a look at what wasn't ruled out.

• Stroke. I haven't had any episodes of that nature from a migraine, but the one sided numbness/weakness that happened two days ago could have been from a TIA. I've been told by several doctors that I am a high stroke risk. (I think STRESS would have something to do with it, especially right now. *lol*)
• Brain tumor. I am concerned about this sort of thing given all of the neurological issues I have gone through or go through on a fairly regular basis. I would like to think that if I had one, a CT Scan would have revealed it, but I've been told MRI's get a better look at strokes/brain tumors if evidence is present, and nobody wants to do one.
• Idiopathic. (Unknown cause)

We have listed everything on the so called white board. Too bad I don't have Chase, Cameron, and Foreman to throw out ideas/suggestions. (I'm a bit loyal to the original cast of House M.D.)

So, anyone want to take a dekko at this, try to "solve the puzzle" so to speak? If you can, please let me know.

Until Whenever...

SICK!!!

But this picture makes me feel a little bit better...

So today started out with me being exhausted. (I had three hours of sleep total.) First thing on my agenda was lunch with Jodi at West Tenampas. This was a planned luncheon that her sister was supposed to attend, but she was unable to make it due to illness. Then Jodi treated me to a McDonald's Mocha Frappe. I dropped her off at school and then headed home to meet another friend.

Manuela was waiting for me once I pulled up in front of my apartment. It was off to the mall for us. I finished my frappe on the way there. The first order of business was to go get a deluxe spa pedicure and manicure, Manuela's treat, but since we had a twenty minute wait, a trip to Starbucks was in order, where I was treated to a non fat, seven pump vanilla London Fog, and today was the perfect day for one. Then, we made our way back to the mani/pedi place.

The deluxe spa pedicure consisted of the usual filing, trimming, and moisturizing along with a leg massage, but the deluxe part of it was the mint sugar scrub, which made my legs tingle, followed by a clay/mud mask that was applied to the legs with a hot towel wrapped around each leg. All I could say was wow. Once the towels were removed and the legs rinsed off, a cold gel was applied, followed by lotion. I was not in the mood for color (I leave that up to Wendy Bundy, my regular nail tech), so I got a French Tip on my toes. Then I was taken to get my fill in. The man was so nice to me unlike some of my other experiences at similar places. I told him that my regular nail tech uses a soft file. He apologized for not having one, but he promised to be careful and gentle, and he was! He did not cut me or even hurt me in the least bit as he drilled and filed my nails into shape. I got the French Tip on my nails too.

Manuela went for a totally different look, having the French Tip with red nail polish, then having the Union Jack symbol hand painted on each thumb. It looked amazing. While she was under the dryer, I went to Chic-Fil-A and got a chargrilled chicken sandwhich and a large fry, also courtesy of Manuela. After she made a trip to Victoria's Secret and the Christian Book Store, we left. I had church this evening and Manuela was going to see Paul Poulton, a Christian musician from England.

Here's the Union Jack that I was talking about...

I got to church around six o'clock and went up to the crow's nest to start the computer and eat my sandwhich and fries. I ate as I'm waiting for Doug to get there, and a guy from Eddie James Ministries just walks right in. Then I felt bad because here I was eating up there, which is something that I don't normally do. I was hoping this didn't lead him to believe that we were unprofessional or didn't take running the big screens seriously. Doug arrived shortly after, and I told him that I had no idea anyone else would be up there or I would not have brought my food in the crow's nest. I apologized to the guy, who was okay with it, and from then on, he and Doug have a frustrating struggle with the big screens. We can't display the lyrics. We can't keep the projectors from messing up. The words at the bottom of the screen were cut off. Despite these things, the service was amazing up until the very end.

As Eddie James made the altar call, my entire body suddenly became very weak, so I sat down, and I noticed that I'm having trouble breathing. I made it through the last fifteen minutes of the service. Doug grabbed the remote to turn the televisions in the narthex off, and I'm doubled over with chest pain, impeded swallowing, and difficulty breathing. Doug is scared at this point, especially when I told him I needed someone to pray for me. Doug left and came back with Pastor Keith, who immediately started praying. By the time Pastor Keith had completed the prayer, I was able to breathe a little better. I spent a half hour reclining in the chair up in the crow's nest, using Doug's jacket as a pillow, the fan blowing on me. Finally, I had enough strength to stand and walk. Doug helped me to the loo and then out to the car. I was still having a bit of trouble breathing, but by the time I got home, it was resolving.

As of now, I'm lying in bed, Doug at my beck and call. I do feel better, especially where the breathing is concerned. I'm still feeling weak and off balance, and every muscle in my body is aching from the tension I experienced. Doug is still contemplating taking me to the emergency room. I'm still not sure what happened. It may have been a panic attack, but I can't explain what caused it because I was thoroughly enjoying the service. Nothing was there to cause me to panic. I'm a bit embarrassed to say the least. Whatever it was, let's hope and pray that it doesn't happen again.

Thanks for stopping by!

(The pic below is basically what we will end up doing later.)