No sites yet this week. The doctor is doing a truncated week, and I got pushed back to Friday. This makes me a little crabby, and also makes me wish I'd opted to have the same appointment day/time every week. That was an option, she told me in passing. I figured it'd probably be easier on her if I was more flexible, plus practice in flexibility is a good thing for people on the spectrum. So really, this is my own fault, but it's still annoying.
But I'm probably extra annoyable today. Last night I took the melatonin to help keep me asleep, but as far as I can tell, it did all but nothing. I woke up at 4am, then 6am, then 8am. I'd like to be able to consult with the doctor, and I suppose I should email her, but I might just switch back to the 3mg stuff. That, at least, I know does keep me asleep. And with how little effect this stuff has, I'm inclined to wonder if it actually has the correct amount of melatonin in it.
In the meantime, I've been experimenting with a magnesium supplement my mother passed on to me. Apparently magnesium deficiencies are common for people on the spectrum, and a magnesium deficiency can have fun effects like heightened depression and anxiety levels. The first time I took this particular magnesium, I had low blood pressure in the middle of a shopping trip. So on the doctor's recommendation, I've been taking them at night, where... well, if I pass out, I'm already passed out on a nice flat soft surface. I haven't really noticed immediate effects or lasting effects overall, though. Makes me want to try taking one during the day, perhaps with food, to see if I've developed a tolerance.
Today we will be visited by pest control people. Apparently, if the ants can't get up to our apartment on the third floor, the roaches will fill the vacancy. We've found four (brown banded) roaches. Like the ant situation in the last place, our apartment isn't really suited to be insect-friendly. We don't leave food out, we use trash cans, store food properly, keep the counters fairly clean, etc. But I'm guessing the same can't be said of at least one of our neighbors. So Chris squished two roaches, caught a third, and I washed a fourth down the bathtub drain. Neither of us have seen one for over a week, but they're roaches... they might survive a nuclear holocaust. We've cleaned the apartment as directed by a letter, and we have the caught specimen for the exterminators to inspect. Should be sufficient, I hope.
In happier news, sometime this week Chris and I will be working on writing a meal plan. I have a cookbook full of recipes that are my-diet-friendly, so hopefully we can get a few of those going for dinner. I've not dared to look at the book much. The recipes included in the diet book itself were... perhaps a little overly creative for my tastes. It couldn't just be burgers, it had to be Italian-spice flavored burgers with tapanade. Fancy and unusual was about right for the people the book was marketed to: mothers and older women with lots of cooking experience who have tried multiple diets and were unable to lose weight. But not for me, a (relatively) young autistic woman with minimal cooking experience and a desire for simplicity first, complexity once simplicity has been mastered. Come on, if I'm going to make burgers, I want them to taste like burgers, not Italian food.
I could probably try to dumb down some of the recipes by simply removing some spices to make simpler flavors and dishes, but that will try my cooking skill. Sometimes ingredients serve multiple purposes, so you can't just pull out the bits you don't like all willy-nilly. I'm sure my brother could teach a class in substitutions and things like that, but I can't. Trial and error time, I guess.
But I'm probably extra annoyable today. Last night I took the melatonin to help keep me asleep, but as far as I can tell, it did all but nothing. I woke up at 4am, then 6am, then 8am. I'd like to be able to consult with the doctor, and I suppose I should email her, but I might just switch back to the 3mg stuff. That, at least, I know does keep me asleep. And with how little effect this stuff has, I'm inclined to wonder if it actually has the correct amount of melatonin in it.
In the meantime, I've been experimenting with a magnesium supplement my mother passed on to me. Apparently magnesium deficiencies are common for people on the spectrum, and a magnesium deficiency can have fun effects like heightened depression and anxiety levels. The first time I took this particular magnesium, I had low blood pressure in the middle of a shopping trip. So on the doctor's recommendation, I've been taking them at night, where... well, if I pass out, I'm already passed out on a nice flat soft surface. I haven't really noticed immediate effects or lasting effects overall, though. Makes me want to try taking one during the day, perhaps with food, to see if I've developed a tolerance.
Today we will be visited by pest control people. Apparently, if the ants can't get up to our apartment on the third floor, the roaches will fill the vacancy. We've found four (brown banded) roaches. Like the ant situation in the last place, our apartment isn't really suited to be insect-friendly. We don't leave food out, we use trash cans, store food properly, keep the counters fairly clean, etc. But I'm guessing the same can't be said of at least one of our neighbors. So Chris squished two roaches, caught a third, and I washed a fourth down the bathtub drain. Neither of us have seen one for over a week, but they're roaches... they might survive a nuclear holocaust. We've cleaned the apartment as directed by a letter, and we have the caught specimen for the exterminators to inspect. Should be sufficient, I hope.
In happier news, sometime this week Chris and I will be working on writing a meal plan. I have a cookbook full of recipes that are my-diet-friendly, so hopefully we can get a few of those going for dinner. I've not dared to look at the book much. The recipes included in the diet book itself were... perhaps a little overly creative for my tastes. It couldn't just be burgers, it had to be Italian-spice flavored burgers with tapanade. Fancy and unusual was about right for the people the book was marketed to: mothers and older women with lots of cooking experience who have tried multiple diets and were unable to lose weight. But not for me, a (relatively) young autistic woman with minimal cooking experience and a desire for simplicity first, complexity once simplicity has been mastered. Come on, if I'm going to make burgers, I want them to taste like burgers, not Italian food.
I could probably try to dumb down some of the recipes by simply removing some spices to make simpler flavors and dishes, but that will try my cooking skill. Sometimes ingredients serve multiple purposes, so you can't just pull out the bits you don't like all willy-nilly. I'm sure my brother could teach a class in substitutions and things like that, but I can't. Trial and error time, I guess.
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