June: The Quick Snapshot
- Title of the month: Life’s a Roller Coaster
- Weather notes: Just like last month: hot, humid, and not enough rain. This is from Google’s AI overview, so it might not be totally accurate, but in June of last year, we got over 11 inches of rain, and this year, we’re around 3 inches. The drought continues.
- Mood: I had some dips in June. It’s a hard month because it’s my dad’s birthday and Father’s Day, so I’m always a little tender. But there was a health scare and falling into some old patterns that I’m trying to work through in therapy, so meh. Maybe a 6.5 out of 10? I’m not spiraling, but I’m paying attention to my mood more these days.
The Best Parts of June
- Adding a gorgeous bench to my bedroom. The cats love it, and they have yet to use it as a scratching post. That’s all I can ask for!
- Spending afternoons on the patio, reading my book and hanging out with Eloise (who also loves the patio). Lila is getting braver every time we’re out there and will come onto the patio, but runs away quickly.
- Olive and Eleni’s dance recital! Olive was in so many dances this year, including the big performance with all of the older dancers. It’s cool to see her blossom like this!
- Officially canceling my gym membership and starting to use my apartment gym. I’m excited to utilize it more when I’m cleared for strength training again.
- Having more people join us at trivia! My older nephew came one week, and two friends joined us on a different week. It’s been fun to have some new faces (and much smarter brains) at our table.
- Seeing Beetlejuice: The Musical with Bri, Sean, and Amber! I loved it so much more than I thought I would.
- Beginning the tapering process with my steroids! I’m so glad I haven’t felt my symptoms increase as I lower my steroid dose. Fingers crossed it stays that way!
- Discovering that the trees lining the street where I live are crepe myrtles! (I love crepe myrtles so much that I have contemplated planting one at my mom’s house, even though I am the last person who should think about planting anything.) The trees’ pink blooms make me smile every time I drive past them.
- Two days with Kim! She came to the Tampa area with her husband, and I was so delighted to spend time with her. We went to two cat cafes, two bookstores, and one coffee shop (with vegan treats!). And she came to my apartment and got to meet Eloise! (Lila hid from her the entire time, sigh.)
- Book club weekend. It did my heart good.
The Hard Parts of June
- A health scare – For a few hours on a Friday, I thought I might have a blood clot in my lungs, which would have required an ER visit. Thankfully, the CT scan was clean. I’m having some troublesome heart-related symptoms that prompted me to schedule an appointment with a cardiologist, so now that we know I’m not experiencing a pulmonary embolism (!), it’s time to do some other tests. I have an echocardiogram scheduled for mid-July.
- Fruit fly infestation – The fruit flies have descended. I don’t even know how they got here, but they have decided my home is a perfect nesting ground. I have multiple Zevo filters and bowls of apple cider vinegar all over my apartment, and they persist. Pest control came two weeks ago, and it helped somewhat, but it did not fully take care of the problem. It’s madness.
- Psoriatic arthritis – In June, I started my steroid taper! Yay! The good news is that tapering from 12mg to 8mg did not trigger any symptoms, but the bad news is that doing so did cause my inflammation markers to increase. This likely means that the steroid has been doing the bulk of the work controlling my inflammation, so I’m finally cleared to start a biologic. I’m waiting for my insurance to approve a Humira prescription, which will mean giving myself a second injection twice a month. (I’ll continue to be on methotrexate until everything stabilizes, and then we’ll discuss tapering off MTX. It’s also possible I need to be on both meds to control my symptoms.) It’s… a lot. This whole treatment process has been a lot. I’m very tired.
Favorites of June
- Favorite show: The Traitors Canada (Karine is an iconic host)
- Favorite podcast: I really loved the Midlife Lady Potpourri episode on Girl Next Door. I am a few years younger than the hosts, so it was a glimpse into what is coming for me very soon!
- Favorite meal: A deviled egg sandwich during book club weekend. I haven’t had an egg sandwich in so long, and this one was so good.
- Favorite cat moment: When I came home from book club weekend, both girls were hiding. I said, “Mama’s home! Where are my girls?” and Eloise came running out of the bedroom, meowing at me. Even Lila poked her head out of the cat tower! I think it’s safe to say we are all obsessed with each other.
- Favorite purchase: My new bench!
- Favorite ordinary moment: Sitting around the table during our book club weekend and feeling this sense of peace and contentment as we all shared our favorite memories of the past decade+. It reminded me of that quote from The Office, “I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good old days, before you’ve actually left them.” And I was like, these are the good old days. Right here! (Hence the title of my post.)
- Favorite decision I made: To see a cardiologist. Even if all of these heart problems are steroid-related, I’m still going to be glad I did my due diligence.
- Favorite thing I learned: How difficult it is for non-locals to say the town name, Dunedin. This mainly came up because Kim and her husband weren’t sure how to pronounce the name, and I was delighted by all of the different ways they tried to pronounce it! (It’s duh-KNEE-din.)
Looking Ahead to July
- One thing I’m looking forward to: Adding a new bookshelf to my collection
- One yearly goal I want to work toward: I am woefully behind in my goal of watching movies/TV shows. My goal: finish season 2 of Suits and watch Sleepless in Seattle. I can do this!
- One big hope for the month: That I can get started on Humira without too many issues
- Something I want more of: Sleep
- Something I want less of: Worrying
What was a bright spot for you last month? What was the best show you watched?
Book club weekend looks SO fun! I hope July is a month that brings you less worry and more sleep and some answers re: the heart stuff.
Gosh, me too! I don’t know if I WANT the echo to show anything useful, lol, but it would be nice to have answers at the same time. We’ll see!
Wow… June had A LOT going on.
I hope you get clarity and good news on the medical front and that the transition to new medication goes smoothly.
You are the best at styling bookshelves, so I’m excited to see the new one in place.
Aww, thank you! That comment means a lot to me. I’m having fun styling this new bookshelf. 🙂
The song Anticipation by Carly Simon has a line “these are the good old days” and that’s what I have been humming to myself ever since I saw your post. I remember hearing that song and crying while driving to one of my last yoga classes in Calgary. My ladies! I miss them.
Moving on!
You had quite the roller coaster of a month. Let’s manifest July as having NO MEDICAL ISSUES FOR STEPHANY. My goodness, you have been through it. Also, fruit flies! We have had a few zipping around, but the fall is the worst time for us, what with all the grapes being ripe. I can usually get them under control with a few apple cider vinegar traps, so I am just wide-eyed thinking of having to get an exterminator. Eeeee.
Your Dunedin is my Calgary. Non-Calgarians always pronounce it Cal-GARY, but it’s really Cal-gry. You can always tell when someone was not raised in Calgary by that pronunciation!
It would be LOVELY to have an easy and calm July. My goal of having less doctor’s appointments in 2026 is NOT going well, sigh.
The fruit flies were insane! So freaking annoying. I think pest control took care of this issue, though, thank GOD.
Calgary! I would have pronounced it the first way, ha. Now I know.
Oof- you really did have a lot of ups and downs last month. Book club and Kim’s visit (amazing) and then thinking you had a blood clot (terrifying). Well… maybe you’re due for a calm month! It seems like the most likely reason for the heart issues are the steroids, right? Hopefully that’s the case and you can successfully wean yourself off.
These are definitely the good old days!!! It would be nice if the good old days had fewer health scares, but you know what I mean. We’ll look back on the good parts with fondness.
I am feeling less of these heart-related effects as I lower my steroid dose, so I’m hoping it’s all been steroid-related! It’ll still be good to make sure it’s nothing serious.
This NPR podcast really helped me with a fruit fly infestation, especially the part about getting them out of your sink drain. Good luck!
https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1196980099
This is helpful – thank you!
June WAS a lot for you. I am relieved that you got cleared to go on a Biologic. I hope the PA comes through soon so you can get started on it. It should be life changing. Maybe once your symptoms are better managed, you could go back to oral MTX? I don’t mind injections but I get annoyed having a sharps container around and I didn’t love doing 2 injections/week at times as I bruise easily from them. I do have to be on MTX + infusions. Infusions are basically a biologic via IV but they can play with the dosage – I’m on twice the starter dose but now we are trying to pus them from every 4 weeks to every 5. The ideal/goal cadence is every 8 weeks. It’s a 3 hours process to get the infusion between driving there, getting the IV placed, the hour drip, getting the IV out, etc etc. So I’d love to lose 3 hours of my day less than once/month.
I hope the echocardiogram is a reassuring but I am glad you are seeing an cardiologist!!
Let’s see – high of June was probably time at the pool where we now have pool passes. I did a lot of reading and the kids play really well together there. Although on our last trip, Paul only wanted to do the water slides and Will didn’t so there was some whining about that…
I’m still waiting on the Humira script to get approved by insurance, sigh. My rheum warned me that it can be a PROCESS, especially because they asked for the brand name script but insurance denied that, so now they are trying under the generic. Fingers crossed it comes through soon!
Your infusion process sounds daunting, especially with how busy your life is! I’m glad that my rheum’s office is literally 5 minutes away. I could have done in-office injections but I don’t really mind doing them myself. I haven’t had to deal with disposing of the sharps container yet, and I’m sure that’s going to be a nuisance!
I’m glad you had so many good things among the hard things. I wish you all the best with your health stuff and hope you’ll be feeling better soon. I’m impressed with how you just dive in and get things done! I would also like more sleep and less worrying! I would not have guessed that’s how you pronounce Dunedin! The capital of Montana is Helena, pronounced HELL eh na, like Hell in a handbasket. There used to be a newspaper column called Helena Handbasket!
Thank you, friend! I’m glad I have a can-do attitude about all of this health stuff, but I would really like everything to just CALM DOWN for a few months, sheesh.
I have not pronounced Helena that way! Good to know.
I really like your new format of recapping the month! June was definitely a bit of a rollercoaster for you… some not so fun things (the trip to the ER, a fruit fly infestation (eek!), the steroid tapering), but also so many fun things and things to be thankful for.
The bad stuff is bad, but the good stuff is very, very good so I feel very thankful about that!
What a month 🥹🥺 I’m so impressed with how you continually advocate for yourself, stay tuned in with your emotions and feelings, and still find things to bring you joy. It’s rough but you’re working hard at finding and enjoying those “good ole days” and THAT IS THE POINT OF LIFE! imho anyway 😉
My bright spot was the trip! I loved spending so much time with you and meeting your girls and seeing your mom again!
The best show we watched was Company Retreat. So funny!
Also, I am posting my “things I learned” post tomorrow and wonder if I should include pronouncing Dunedin. I think it may belong better in the “questions that needed answering” post that I am still working on 😂
Ooh, thanks for reminding me about Company Retreat! I need to watch that. That would be a great one to help me catch up on my TV goal.
I loved seeing you and hanging out with you! Yay!