Work ate me yesterday, so I missed a whole day and am late with:

Happy Birthday, Anne! You make 40 look DAMNED GOOD. Your day sounds excellent (and yummy)!

Erin -- good lord, woman! I'm glad this is the 21st century, and your crazy reproductive system can be dealt with safely and (more or less) easily. But still -- good lord! I wish I knew anything about HRT, but oddly (considering my job), I really don't. I can look shit up for you if you have specific questions, though.

Kristin -- when my dad has pulled the "I was in the hospital with a HEART ATTACK but didn't want to worry you" thing, I always just asked him how HE would feel if our roles were reversed and I didn't tell him. It finally got it through to him that even though I worry, I want to know. I'm glad your dad is okay, but I'd want to strangle him if I were you. I understand that feeling.

IOmememeN, here's the weirdest thing I've heard in a while: despite the fact that I (1) exercise 3-4 days a week and (2) have lost 16 pounds since November [all Wellbutrin; I haven't been trying, so no need to offer standard "congrats on lessening your bulk"], my blood pressure is SKY FUCKING HIGH. Apparently it's been creeping up since the fall; I thought it was a side effect of the Wellbutrin, but my Dr. insists that it started creeping up before the Wellbutrin.

Anyway, at a doctor's appt. yesterday, my BP was something like Is That Even A Number - over - Are You Fucking Kidding Me.

Well, no, it was 150/100 or 110. Which is undeniably, no question, SKY FUCKING HIGH. Not borderline, not iffy; *high,* as in Hi, Here's Your Prescription For BP Meds.

Jesus. My doctor is as stymied as I am that my BP would go up while I'm losing weight and working out regularly and haven't changed my diet. My job is no more stressful than normal, so while stress is a factor, it hasn't changed in the recent past. Possibly all the stress from the last year finally caught up with me. I don't know.

But my BP has never been that high in a non-emergency situation (when I went to the ER for the stomach bug, it was insane, like 170/110, but I had been puking for 6 hours), so I asked him if I needed to go back on BP meds, because I really don't want to have a stroke. So -- back on BP meds. This is freaky, y'all, just because losing weight and exercising are 2 things that *lower* BP. I'm almost afraid to check my cholesterol.

And finally, unrelatedly, we have a birthday party to go to tonight for which the birthday girl decided the theme should be "school girl." Yeah. I did 12 years of Catholic school; I can state uncategorically that NOTHING I own can be turned into a school-girl outfit. That's the point; after 12 years, I never wanted to wear anything again that reminded me of those awful uniforms.

My boyfriend, OTOH, has many school girl outfits. I have a very, very interesting life. One that I would NEVER have predicted 5 years ago.

You should go as a school girl and a priest. You guys can decide who is who :)

We had a really bad afternoon out with TCG's mother. She is completely irrational. I ended up having to give her my e-mail address so she would back off TCG and his supposed lack of communication with her.

Oh, ugh, sj! That sounds not good. I'm on AIM if you want to chat.

Thanks, vw. I would, but I can't peel myself off the couch to turn on the computer. I'm on the cellphone.

{{{sj}}}

Teppy, when they take your b.p., do they use the regular cuff, or do they get out the bigger cuff? We've got a resident who will ready 200/98 with a regular cuff and 170/80 with the bigger one. I know I have to ask for one when I'm at the doctor's, and that woman has way smaller arm circumference than I have. Not that it changes the fact that your b.p. is higher than it used to be, but it may well not be as high as you think.

vw, if you are still around, I'm online now.

Erin,

JenP, my C-125 tests are negative so I am not diagnosed as having cancer.

Oh, yeah, no, I got that from reading your posts. I just meant that I didn't really have any input on HRT because of my sitch.

However, WRT to recovery, I can send an e-mail about how mine went if you like. Short version - it went much faster and hurt less than I expected. Didn't have much of a problem with hot flashes or mood changes, which I may have heredity to thank for, because my mother had an easy time of it the natural way.

ARGH.

I killed my iPhone.

I tripped over a dog. I'm fine. The dog's fine. The iPhone, NSM. It works, but the screen is badly cracked and glass slivers are flaking off. Not good for a touch screen.

Crap.