Yay you, smonster!

Good luck, Hil!

I laugh, because I have a paradoxical reaction to almost any medication.

I laugh with you. I've baffled my doctor with my upside-down reactions to the BP meds he's tried me on. Diuretics, for example, are not supposed to make you retain fluid until your feet swell.

I found celery seed to be an effective natural diuretic, which annoyed him, because he doesn't believe in "herbs and flowers" as medicine. I said, "The fun thing is, it works whether you believe it or not," which annoyed him further.

Oh, speaking of my annoyed doctor, I finally got him to run the dang test for thyroid problems (the full, anti-thyroid something something test). And it came back normal. So, whatever my problem is, it probably isn't thyroid, so I'm Letting. It. Go.

(I wanted it to be thyroid, so I'd have (a) an answer, and (b) a solution. But no.)

Most of my issues were anemia, which was blissfully easy to mostly fix. Yay, iron!

Kate, I'm glad your pregnancy with Seabiscuit is going so well. I'm starting to notice changes in the way I walk as well.

And I'm sorry yours has been so difficult, sj! I have a lot of sympathy for what you're going through. Even an easy pregnancy has plenty of discomforts and indignities, let alone what you've had to deal with. I think you're handling a tough situation really well.

Thanks, Kate. I'm very grateful that ltc is showing all signs of being healthy so far. So, I often feel guilty for not enjoying pregnancy.

I know what you mean, but seriously, I don't know many people who enjoy being pregnant. The end result is absolutely worth it, but the process is mostly not a lot of fun.

I know what you mean, but seriously, I don't know many people who enjoy being pregnant.

I do. Many who had such perfect, easy pregnancies. It was the best time of their lives, blah, blah, blah. Or at least that is what they like to post on facebook or tell people after the fact. I have a distant relative at the moment who is constantly posting pictures of all this fabulous food she's eating with the hashtag pregnancy problems. Meanwhile, I keep reminding anyone who is still listening of the list of foods I would like brought to me in the hospital after ltc arrives.

Bill Cosby had a routine in which he was the first to jump into what turned out to be excruciatingly cold water. As he gets out of the water, his wife says, "How's the water?" and he thinks, "Why ... should ... I ... tell ... her?" I suspect that's the situation with many of the "best time of their lives" pregnancies. Also, maybe there's some kind of memory alteration that takes place so that the species will survive.

I saw something once (I think it was in an article about women who decide to become surrogate mothers) that said that about 5% of women really enjoy pregnancy -- like, they happen to have the right combination of bodies and hormones that they just feel much happier when they're pregnant than when they're not. Most of the rest just tolerate it, knowing that the baby at the end is worth it, and then another small percentage just have a terrible time while pregnant.

Didn't flea do really well at being pregnant? I suspect I would not.