Well I'll be...

Last week I was traveling for work and was visiting a client in Northern Ontario, roughly 3 hours North of Cochrane.  When I arrived at Timmins airport and stepped outside the plane, I breathed in and my nasal hairs froze instantly.  Oh boy.  From then on I breathed through my scarf.  The outside temperature was -40C every morning, warming up to about -28C in the afternoon.  Add wind chill to that and you're at -50C.  Fun stuff.

That meant that everywhere I went there was heat blasting; in the trucks, in the buildings, in the "dorm" rooms.  Upon arrival, the ambient temperature in my room was 25C.  Holy shit.  That got lowered right away to a more comfortable 23C.

In fear of an asthma attack while up North for the week, I armed myself with a new Bricanyl inhaler, the type that I'd used for many years, but haven't had the need to use for over a year now.  I didn't need it once.  I firmly believe that eating properly has just about eliminated my asthma, though I do still experience minor wheezing at times.  It's not nearly bad enough to treat with the inhaler, anyway.

So, here I was, in awful conditions for skin and lungs.  To battle the incessant blowing/electric heat and hopefully prevent my skin from drying out, I applied some serious lotion (St. Ives Intensive Relief) to my body, morning and night.  I found it really helped and I only scratched the hell out of my skin the first night.

On the Thursday, I took my second dose of silicea as directed. Now that I'm back home in "normal" winter weather (between -3C and -10C), I've eased up on the lotion application so we'll see whether the silicea helps with skin ailments as much as it's rumoured to.  I have my hopes up! :)

I noticed yesterday that for the first time in memory I was not itchy.  Anywhere.  I've always had some spot on my being needing a scratch, like as if I had fucking fleas, but suddenly there was no itch.  Could it be??!  Will see how it goes in the next couple of days since I've virtually stopped applying the lotion.

In other good news, the corn on my left foot is gone!  The last bit of hardened skin came off during my trip and I can finally walk with a normal stride.  I'd forgotten how good that feels - why the hell did I resist this treatment so long?!  Avoiding chemicals, that's why.  At times they do good things, okay? :)

Hubby and I went for a hike through a section of our closest conservation area today, and it was so nice to walk normally, even when there were tree roots and rocks underfoot.  I gave my (left!) ankle a slight twist while jogging down a hill, but other than that it was fantastic.  Yay!!

Oh!  And, as expected, I did wheeze a bit after running up and down a couple hills in the cold air, but it wasn't severe enough to use the inhaler.  I'll always make sure I have it on me just in case anyway.

Homepathy Treatment Plan / Update

Helen, my homeopathic practitioner, provided me with my first prescription last week: 2 tiny little balls of silicea.  The instructions were to take one tiny ball, dissolve it in about half a cup of water, and sip it throughout the day.  Ok, done.

It's hard to believe that such a tiny little ball of something could make any sort of a difference to a 150 lb (ok, 153.5 lb as of this morning) body, and to be honest, I haven't detected anything as yet, but I'm anxious for the second dose next Thursday.

As I mentioned before I have an actual goal this year, which is to complete the Toronto Tough Mudder event in September, so I'm tightening the belt, so to speak, and hauling my lazy ass back onto the proverbial wagon.  Over the past month I was enjoying way too much sugar and grain products.  (Dearest Hubby: if you come home with another apple pie I'm gonna wring your neck!)

I weighed myself on January 9th and was semi-shocked (more disappointed, really) to see 155 on the scale.  This morning, after a decent BM it read 153.5.  Good.  It's moving at least.

Oh!  I also mentioned before that I used some heavy-duty corn removal pads on my foot and finally I am seeing something happen.  Those things basically kill the layers of skin by drying them out so that they peel off.  That's what I have happening; a disc of now-dead skin that is slowly coming off, hopefully bringing the corn with it.  About half of the disc has come up, which I've clipped off using my nail clippers, so hopefully the rest will come loose by mid-next week.

Ughhhh...stupid foot!

Lesson learned...see, I've had a corn on my left foot for over a year.  It bugged the shit out of me and REALLY hurt when I stepped on something the wrong way.  Last week I finally gave in and bought a box of those 40% salicylic acid corn remover pads and made use of them.  Yesterday I removed the second treatment (pad) and thought it would be a good idea to soak my feet in warm water and tea tree oil soap (Dr. Bronner's).  That would have been fine and dandy if I hadn't dried my feet and gone for an hour-long walk right afterward.

Stupid.

Part way along the walk I could feel a blister starting between the two smallest toes - on the same damned foot!!!  If only I had waited a little longer before heading out...

Okay, enough already. Let's move on...

Every. Single. Day. For the past week I've had either a full-blown migraine or the feeling of one threatening to blossom.  I'd like to move on now, thank you.

Last Friday I at least had an excuse, what with the effing smoke alarm blaring in my ear (and btw, my ears rang for several days after that), but since then, there isn't an obvious trigger that I can think of.  Let's see...it could be the weather...it's February, I'm in Toronto, and there's NO SNOW on the ground.  Bizarro!

Otherwise, I thought maybe I'd upset some neck muscles while attempting my various bodyweight lifting exercises on the bar...or else it could be stress from my idiot clients...not sure.

This weekend we're taking my mom out to shop for a small kitchen table for two (for her new bachelor apartment) and we're also moving her into said apartment on Sunday.  Truck rental, the whole she-bang. Who's betting whether the headaches continue for those days?  Oi.

On to other news...this week I found myself at the Shoe Company shoe store (weakness! lol) and snagged myself a couple pairs of water shoes, which I am now using as slippers at home (blue pair) and at work (black pair):

They are incredibly comfy, light, and flexible, but I wish they came with steel toes built in!!  On both of my big toes my nails are slightly ingrown (ugh!) and today I managed to keep the toe-stubbing to one time only.  Is there a pain worse than this??!?  I'm sure there is, but man oh man, I could have screamed, it hurt so bad.

A couple days ago I stubbed my toe (and this means a gentle contact with a table leg, when you have an ingrown nail) TWICE.  Mama help me and my stupid feet.

I left a message with my doctor's office for a podiatrist referral but haven't heard back yet.  I also have a deep callus on the pad of my foot just south of my baby toe on the left side.  It's getting difficult to walk with all this going on.  :S