1) I had a lot of social anxiety in the lead-up to my weekend with Kim. This has nothing to do with Kim and everything to do with the way my brain works—it didn’t matter who I was going to be spending the weekend with, the social anxiety would be rampant. (Okay, not if it’s my mom because, well, she’s my mom.) Even though I felt really silly having such an emotional response to something that was going to be fun, I have gotten a lot better in recent years of acknowledging that my brain works differently than other people and it’s okay to have anxiety about things that don’t make other people anxious. And guess what? You can be anxious and still do the thing! The moment I saw Kim at the airport, all of those silly anxieties floated away. Just seeing her smiling face made me immediately feel at ease!
2) Let’s do a scalp psoriasis update, shall we? I went to the dermatologist last Wednesday for my annual skin check and my psoriasis follow-up. Something you should know about me is that I have this tendency to downplay how I’m feeling. Even when I was going for regular chiropractic adjustments, I would tell my chiropractor that I was feeling fine when I wasn’t. I don’t know why I do this. I guess I just don’t want the doctor to feel like they’re failing at their job because I’m not feeling better, lol. I’m such a goddamn enneagram 9 it hurts. Anyway, at this appointment, when the nurse asked me how my scalp psoriasis was doing, I told her, “Terrible.” And proceeded to talk about how bad it had been these last few months. I’m proud of myself for being honest! When my dermatologist came into the room, we talked about all the different options available to me. She still feels strongly that we should try to treat this at its source rather than doing a systemic treatment that has lots of additional side effects. Since the topical steroids weren’t doing their job, I opted for injections. Essentially, this entailed injecting steroids right into my scalp to hit the deeper skin layers that a topical steroid can’t really get to. I was admittedly apprehensive about getting injections in my head but after a month of pretty excruciating psoriasis pain, I was ready to try anything. Getting the injections wasn’t pleasant, of course, but it honestly wasn’t any worse than what I’d already been experiencing. She stuck the needle into multiple spots where I have the dry skin patches, and since then, I have seen some improvements in my condition. The patches haven’t cleared up completely but the itchiness/pain has reduced considerably. I’m still using steroid treatment (I started a new one, calcipotiene, which is formulated specifically for psoriasis) and hopefully that does the trick to clear up the patches completely.
I have a follow-up appointment in two months—the injections often provide relief for up to 6 weeks, so it’s something I may have to get done frequently. For now, I’m happy with how the injections helped my itchiness/pain, but I may have to look into a different treatment if the dry skin patches don’t clear up.
3) Remember how I talked about how weak I felt during my workouts a few weeks ago? Every workout felt like it was taking everything out of me and was so challenging. This week, I have felt so strong! During my regular Tuesday evening class (which is a 20-minute weights-based full-body workout), I was able to complete all of the exercises without feeling like I was going to die, and even felt like I could push myself a bit further than I would normally go (which I did, and then felt like such a badass, lol). I even felt strong during my Wednesday evening HIIT class and felt like I didn’t have to modify nearly as much as I normally do. I’m getting stronger! It’s a good reminder that I’m going to have weeks where things just feel harder and there can be myriad reasons for that. On those weeks, it’s best to listen to my body and do whatever feels right, whether that’s reducing the weight, taking the modifications, taking more breaks, etc. Odds are, I’ll be back at my best the following week.
4) Last night, Bri and I went to a really fun book event in downtown Tampa. There were tons of vendors, local authors selling books, a book swap, and some bookmobiles. It was a crowded event, too, which made me really happy. I loved being surrounded by all the bookish people—so many great bookish t-shirts and totes! I also counted seven dachshunds, which delighted me to no end. We donated some books to the book swap and then Bri and I stood in line to check out the two bookmobiles that were there. One was for a bookstore that is hoping to open a brick-and-mortar location soon in Ybor called Bookends. I bought a cute bookmark and a new edition of Red, White & Royal Blue (my current one is an ARC that I got for free from a Goodreads giveaway, and I’ve been wanting to replace it). We also visited The Sated Bookworm, which was a romance-centric bookmobile. We got there a little late, so all of the good stuff had been picked over (which is awesome for the vendor!) but I did buy a book from her. And I’m now following her account on Instagram so I can keep an eye on her location. I feel like I missed out on some seriously cute items, so I want to visit her shop again soon!
5) This weekend should be a good one. As of right now, the only plans I have are a girl’s night in tonight, a writing date with Mikaela on Saturday morning, and a HIIT class on Sunday morning. I’m hoping to fill up the rest of my weekend with reading, napping, and getting some chores done. A restorative weekend it shall be.
What are your weekend plans?
