aspir(al)ing

Thirty and a Half.

Posted by terri | Filed under heart, watashi

Another St. Patrick’s Day has passed, which means another reminder that I’m about halfway to my next birthday. Last year I was rather apprehensive about turning 30, but also hopeful for the future and the opportunities that my situation at the time presented me with. A year later, I’ve reached what I had resolved for myself as I am entirely off of diabetes meds and am so far maintaining a fairly healthy lifestyle. ( Yeah, you’re probably sick of hearing about it by now.) It’s feeling more and more like March 17th is my day to make resolutions, as opposed to doing it on New Year’s Day. My following through on my resolution could very well have been a fluke, but I guess it couldn’t hurt to try it again.

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Anniversary.

Posted by terri | Filed under chub chub, health

Today marks my one year anniversary since being diagnosed with Type II Diabetes. Upon reading a journal that I kept at the time, I seemed hopeful that I would be able to manage my blood sugar and mitigate complications. As hopeful as I was, I have to say that I have exceeded my expectations as far as my progress goes. The fact that I was able to get off of meds and lose as much fat and gain as much muscle as I have is quite remarkable. What’s even more remarkable is that I didn’t deprive myself of much; I just made sure that if I wanted something good to eat, I’d just have to earn it with exercise and that I would always have to be cautious of not overdoing it. And even though it’s been one year, I know this not the “end of the road” — it has to be a continuing journey…
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Change(,) of Course.

Posted by terri | Filed under blogmeta

Two entries ago, I mentioned that I started a Tumblr Blog with the hope that I could use it as a microblogging platform for my health issues. After less than a week, I decided to change course and just create another Wordpress blog on my domain to microblog. I figured that my “main blog” would still be used to chronicle my health issues, and so I decided that I can use a microblog to chronicle anything in my day to day life. I thought that Twitter could take care of that, but a lot of the time, 140 characters just isn’t enough. The Tumblr will be around to aggregate my blog entries and send feeds to Twitter and ultimately Facebook…at least for now.

Update (03/06/2010) – Decided Tumblr wasn’t cutting it. Using FriendFeed to aggregate. So far, so good.

The Enbrel Vlog.

Posted by terri | Filed under health, vlog, watashi

I made a video of one of my Enbrel injections. If you are squeamish about needles and stuff like that, this video may not be for you. Granted, you don’t actually see the needle, but the pain on my face is enough to make you cringe!

I normally take my Enbrel injections on Thursdays and I just on a whim decided to make a video with it with my iMac and my point and shoot camera. In hindsight, I shouldn’t have used Photo Booth to take the footage because everything appears flipped, but I’m pretty pleased with it, considering how fast I was able to put it together. Yay iMovie ‘09!

So you may be thinking, why would I put something like this out there? Well, I just wanted to be a face for psoriatic arthritis and for its available treatments. When I was first suffering from the symptoms, I never would have imagined that it would be arthritis. Apparently my primary care doctor couldn’t think of it either as she referred me to a sports medicine doctor for my swollen fingers, thinking that they were just sprained. It finally took seeing four different doctors over the course of three months for me to finally get my diagnosis for my hand pain. And when I was given my diagnosis, I didn’t even know what it actually meant. I thought only older people got arthritis, but it turns out that there are many young adults, even children, are afflicted with some form of arthritis. I came to the understanding there is no cure for this, only treatments. And if they never find a cure, it’s something I have to learn to treat for the rest of my life.

The idea of having to take an injection every week scared me. I first looked to the Internet to see what others going through the same thing were thinking. It gave me a sense of therapy to see other people share their experiences. Sure there was anxiety seen in their faces, heard in their voices, and expressed in their written narratives, but that just told me it’s normal and that in the end, I’ll be okay.

Making the video turned out to be rather therapeutic for me as well. Not sure if I’ll ever make another one, but I’m glad that I made this one. I definitely welcome your thoughts and reactions.

So What’s New?

Posted by terri | Filed under blogmeta, chub chub, health, heart, watashi

There is so much I want to chronicle regarding my journey in managing my diabetes, arthritis, and just my overall well being. I decided to do it in a microblog powered by Tumblr called terri-is.aspiraling. While that blog is meant to chronicle what’s currently going on, I want something on the record to show what I’ve done with myself for the past year as far as my health goes. I decided that I’ll just do the lazy thing and put nearly a year’s worth of updates in bullet points. If I ever find the time, I may, just may, elaborate. And if you have been reading my Twitter (which I update about 5 times a day) you might very well be up to date already.
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Finally 30.

Posted by terri | Filed under watashi

I have so much to write, but so little time. I just wanted to note in my blog that I have at last turned 30, and really, it’s no big deal. I think I managed to accomplish a lot since my last birthday entry when I turned 29. I certainly want to write an entry celebrating this pretty significant year, but for now, it’s off to Maui!

Short Story Long.

Posted by terri | Filed under chub chub, health, watashi

I lately have been oversharing a lot of bits about my health these past several months. When using Twitter, I have been rather ambiguous about my condition, while being more specific in my blog. Unfortunately, my blog has been rather ignored (per usual) and so all there has been lately is ambiguity as to what I’m dealing with right now.

First of all, let me say that I am not going through anything gravely serious. I am not looking for sympathy or pity, because what I’m going through certainly doesn’t warrant it. I do want people to understand what is motivating me to take better evaluation of my health and why I may seem “healthier” these days when in actuality, I am just trying to mitigate any problems I may have in the future due to my current ailments.
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Japanese Karaoke-ドケ！

Posted by terri | Filed under tunes, video

One of my favorite hobbies whenever I can find the time, the money or the companion(s) is Japanese Karaoke. When I lived in Japan, Karaoke was one of the few pieces of entertainment that I thoroughly enjoyed, and it is always a fun challenge trying to read Kanji and Kana off of the screen while singing along. I certainly am not a great singer, but I think I possess a spirit that makes it fun every time — no matter how bad I sound.

This past week I went with 友也 who is the only one I know who enjoys Japanese Karaoke as much as I do (and it doesn’t hurt that he knows the “old school” songs I know.) We set the camera and just let it roll. Instead of taping the usual “Random Karaoke Pick” segments that I normally do, I decided to retry a song that I really effed up on the first time around. “真赤な太陽” (makkana taiyou) by 美空ひばり (Misora Hibari) is probably the only song I can dare to attempt from the famous singer, and it has turned out to be one of my most favorite to sing.
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Unexplained Owwies.

Posted by terri | Filed under health

I unfortunately have been plagued with some issues regarding my right arm and hand. What’s more unfortunate is that I can’t quite recall any incidents that may have caused my right extremity to be so sore. It feels like I am suffering from a sprain or fracture on my ring finger and my pointer, along with a tennis elbow and a stiff shoulder. I was alarmed enough to visit the doctor, but it turned out to be an almost worthless visit. She couldn’t come to any real conclusion except to guess that there were all unrelated things. The only thing I got out of it was having some blood work done and then a referral for a hand specialist. To make matters worse, I have to wait three weeks to this specialist for a problem not quite identified.

2009 has definitely been the year of me realizing my mortality, if you haven’t already figured that out. I can’t ignore every little thing going on with my body like I could before. I’m inclined to believe that this pain in my hand is a bad sign of things to come. I would like to hope for the best, but my recent lackluster medical treatment has left me with little confidence in leading a healthy, complication-free life. Oh well, we shall see what this hand specialist has to say when I see him…

Mandated to be Motivated.

Posted by terri | Filed under chub chub, health, watashi

I haven’t put an entry in over a month. Anyone who reads or subscribes to this blog would think, “Well, you hardly update that often anyway.” What I am happy to report is that I actually have two good excuses. Today’s entry: Good Excuse #1.

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Aloha!

Hello from the island of O'ahu in the beautiful state of Hawaii. I am terri, a local girl who at 30 is trying to make sure that life doesn't entirely pass her by. I've recently become engaged and am enjoying living a great life in paradise.