A stomach ache to end all stomach aches...

The beau and I went out to lunch today. We had some giftcards for Ruby Tuesdays (one of my fave restaurants) that were given to us by someone I cat-sat for. We figured we'd spend the day out, have a free lunch, come home and do a movie night and all would be splendid. Instead, it ended up being a day from hell.

I ordered a salad and a veggie burger and a mango tea - nothing rough on the stomach, nothing fancy. But about 10 minutes or so after I'd finished eating I felt SO sick. I literally had to hobble to the bathroom because I was in so much pain. My stomach was churning like crazy. I almost fainted just trying to get into the stall. I was dripping sweat, dizzy as all get-out, and no matter which way I leaned or how much I bent, moved, or strained, I absolutely could NOT ease the pain in my stomach. The only thing that helped was when I started to Reiki my abdomen. The cramps stopped and I was able to pass a little of what was upsetting me.

I must have sat in the bathroom for a good thirty minutes. One of the waitresses even came in to check on me twice! David was so good and patient with me throughout all of this. When I was finally able to stand (and that was truly a feat) I walked out to him where he practically caught me in the hallway. He had to help me out to the car and kept insisting that I should go to the hospital. The thought had crossed my mind, but I make it a point to listen to my body and go with my gut and my body was telling me that it was just a REALLY bad stomach ache and if I could only get home and lay down, I'd be fine.

So he took me home and got me set up in bed and covered me up and turned on a comedy show for me, thinking that laughter might help ease the pain. I thought for sure it would make things worse - having to use stomach muscles to laugh - but it helped take my mind off the pain. He layed with me and we laughed together and by the time it was over I was feeling so immensely better. He's always so good to me; I'm very lucky to have him in my life.

Right now even he's picking us up some mint chocolate chip ice cream because I wanted something cold (and minty) in my stomach and he wanted something chocolatey. We're going to watch another comedy show when he gets back and try to finish today on a good note. :)

My stomach is always so sensitive and none of my doctors have ever been able to find a reason for it. They always just say it's "IBS" which is really just a catch-all type of diagnonsense. I have stomach problems far too frequently. I am going to see if David's sister (who is very "new age") will do a tarot card reading and see if she gets any clues as to what the problem may be.

For now, I'm going to stick to very simple, mono-meals, which is how I've been eating lately for no particular reason other than that's how my body decided it wanted to eat.

The Rat Maze

David and I decided to get creative and build a system of tunnels for the rats so that they can come and go from their cage without needing someone to let them out. They are gaining weight and although they've been put on a diet, they haven't really lost any weight. With the addition of the maze system, they'll get a lot more exercise. I've found them sleeping in the tunnels as well. :)

That's the best picture I have. The black tunnel extending from the rat cage is just some bendable black tubing that we found at Home Depot for $4/10 feet. We cut it with a hacksaw and used zip ties to attach it to a sink organizer that we found at WalMart for $4. The sink organizer already had a hole in the center to allow food and debris to pass through it and into the drain, and it had verticle bars for holding plates upright in the sink. We replaced the cage's lower door with this sink organizer (again using zip ties) and then attached the black tubign to it. Voila - a permanent entrance to the tunnels.

The rest of the "maze" is made with 3" wide PVC pipe which had pre-cut holes in the pipes. The holes allow for airflow and light, and let the rats peek out of the tunnels and out the window as they go by. For now, the tunnel only goes up and over their cage, behind it along the top of a tv center that's not being used, and down and along the screen windows. It then curves into a turn-around which leads back up and into the cage. When David and I move out and get our own place, we're going to make the tunnels better. We have a lot of left-over PVC (it was also $4 for approx. ten feet) so we're going to keep it stored away for later.

Our other project was to plant a container garden. You can see that here:

At the top left of the photo are three red and black bins. They contain two types of lettuce seeds, tomato, and argula. The arugula is growing strong - sprouted this morning - and one of the lettuce varieties is popping up. Still waiting on the others. The big plant to the right of the containers is a hybiscus plant, which is food for the tortoise in the container to the right of it. (He's hiding in the photo). There are also snake plants and a spider plant. Ironically enough, my patio also houses snakes and spiders:

There is so much life in my house. I love it. I'll have to take some photos of our kitchen. It's kind of like walking into an aquarium because we have bettas and fancy guppies all over the counters. I could probably charge admission to my apartment. We even have prairie dogs:

And the third-largest tortoise in the world, a sulcata. His name is Cecil. He's only two or threes years old right now. Their life span is so long that he will probably out-live us. :)

Anyone want to come over and spend some time with our zoo?! -lol-

A Big Update

I always feel like I'm talking to a great big room with nobody in it when I post my blogs. I have no way of knowing if anyone ever reads this since no one ever comments me. But, I enjoy posting so I guess I'll go on posting - hoping someone's actually reading! -lol-

I talked about my sugar problem in the last post. I am happy to report that I am still eating healthily. We did have a few friends over last night for a videogame and anime night, so I pigged out on some mint flavored oreos. But other than that, it's been lots of fruit and very little else. I realise the fruit has a very high sugar content, but it's far healthier than snack cakes and I've been eating such a wide variety of fruit (everything is so sweet and delicious this time of year!!!) that I'm getting plenty of good stuff for my body. I've also been drinking a lot more water than usual.

Yesterday I went for a two hour rollerblade excursion. I didn't intend to be gone for so long, but as I was skating I just kept taking different paths and sidewalks. I found my way onto a golfcourse that is situated alongside our apartment, and followed the golf cart path until I couldn't go any further. From there I ended up in some nice neighborhoods so I went "house hunting" (just browsing, looking, and daydreaming of what I might someday have) and eventually popped out at a street several roads away from my apartment. I was close to my boyfriend's job so I just skated over to have dinner with him. It was really nice. I was completely flushed red and sweating like crazy. My muscles were burning and my heart was pounding. I really pushed myself and it felt so wonderful because I haven't exercised in SO long. My body really wanted to work, so we did and the result was bliss. :)

I promised to post some photos of the new (fuzzy) family members. Without further ado, the fuzz-butts! The first one is Seraphina - she's a grey and white rex rabbit with GIANT bat ears and super-soft fur. She's really sweet and I've found her sleeping on my pillow with me a couple of times. :)

Then her buddy Mochachino. We rescued him from some kids on the side of the road. They had a box full of baby bunnies and were just trying to get rid of them before their mom made them take them to the pound. He LOVES to do bunny flops. He goes into fits of them and gets Seraphina going too. -lol- He's really hyper and kinda skittish, but he's a good bun. This picture was taken the day we got him. He's slightly bigger now, and he's developed black rings around his eyes, and a little black smudge on his nose.

And, the most recent (and probably the cutest) addition: Gizmo. He's so small he fits in the palm of your hand. We stopped into a Petsupermarket to get some bedding for the other buns, and saw him being picked on by two little dutch bunnies. I guess they were jealous of how cute he is. -lol- We picked him up and carried him for a bit before deciding we had to have him. His ears haven't decided whether they're going to go up or down yet, so they just stick straight out to the side like a little airplane. -lol- Hopefully he'll be the last bunny we add to the family. David has a habit of bringing animals home at random though...

I want to post some photos of the big maze we made for the rats the other night, and the new arrangement on our patio. We also have a new reptillian addition to the family that needs posting. I'm going to add all of that in a separate blog so as not to overload the site, my computer, or myself with too many pictures all at once. :)

I ate raw today

Who'da thunk it, huh? Lately my diet has been worse than ever. Thanks to some new medication, all my body wants is sugar, sugar, sugar! And I'm sorry to say that I've been giving into temptation. Today, however, I made a conscious effort to stop eating so much sugar. This is my new project. My body seems to be cooperating for the moment. All I wanted today was grapes and blueberries. I also had a green smoothie with two handfuls of spinach, 2 kiwi, a cup of pineapple juice, some liquid chlorella, a banana, and two cups of water. It was REALLY good - I definitely recommend it. :)

I'm going to have a tomato for part of dinner. I want something else with it, but I'm not sure what just yet. I have half a watermelon sitting in the fridge. I might have to dig into that... *licks lips*

Anyway, this is a sad excuse for an update or a blog post, but I want to be able to keep track of what I eat in the coming week or so. I need to monitor my sugar intake. I was literally going through a box of snack cakes a day. Not to mention all of the candy and gum and CRAP I was eating throughout as well...

I'm very tired tonight so this isn't very well written, but within the next few days I should have some nice pictures to put up. We have not one, not two, but THREE fluffy new additions to the family that are just beyond cute. They deserve some photo introductions. :)