Thursday, September 26, 2013

Thursday, September 19, 2013

I gotta what? The good, the bad, and the ugly of having a vitamin D deficiency.

The last time I went to Kaiser, my doctor ordered some blood tests that weren't the standard ones I usually get when they check for iron, b12, white and red blood cell counts and the results are in. My doctor said I was vitamin D deficient. I'm not surprised. I'm pale and always have been. I go to work when before sunrise and come home after sunset.  And if I don't leave the office for lunch, I'm hardly in the sun at all.

So he and/or his counterpart prescribed 50,000 IU and I read up on it and thought that at that level, it would be too much of a shock to my system, so I got 10,000 IU at The Vitamin Shoppe on Monday and had to read up on how to take it again because the doctors never seem to know. Vitamin D is a fat soluble one that should be taken with food, so for the past three days, I've taken it with my lunch since I don't eat breakfast.

For example, when I told my doctor that I worried about osteoporosis because I maintain a dairy-free diet due to Crohn's Disease diagnosed in 1985, he said to "take caltrate two times a day". This, in part, is right, but it's also wrong.
1. You can only take one pill per dose
2. Taking calcium gives you gas
3. Taking the enzyme found in "Beano" helps a great deal in combating the gas.

So I also started to take one Caltrate plus D chewables in the morning (preceded by two Beano) and at night along with my one Centrum chewable in the morning.

And yesterday at lunchtime, after talking to my gf at work about the general all-over muscle ache I thought was associated to the Vitamin D, my body decided to go into excessive urination mode. What is this all about??? And now I'm on the internet again trying to figure out the good, the bad and the ugly of it all. And I left my doctor a message about these new issues.

The good news is that adding calcium back into my diet, even in the form of supplements, has further lessened the effects of Crohn's Disease as long as I continue to restrict my diet of those foods that trigger an acute attack.

More on vitamin D:

From 2010, 5 Things You Need to Know about Vitamin D
"The IOM recommends that, in practically all individuals, the average blood levels of vitamin D be at least 20 mg per milliliter for good bone health. According to Dr. Kovaks, people who have a problem absorbing the vitamin may need to take 2,000 IUs a day to achieve the recommended blood levels.
But can you take too much? According to the IOM report, very high levels of vitamin D (above 10,000 IUs per day) are known to cause kidney and tissue damage, and there is some evidence that lower levels have risks. But anything below 4,000 IUs per day is considered safe.
The bottom line: every person is different, and you should talk to your doctor about the need for  vitamin supplements."

Saturday, September 14, 2013

The house, the home, the condo falls down, kinda.

It's been 12 years since my hot water heater went out the last time. It happened on Sept. 11, 2001. Yes, that specific day. I took the day off of work, so at home I was forced to watch the tragedy unfold on TV with all that was happening at the WTC and PA and with a plumber in my dining room.

So earlier this year, I had gotten sick of my leaky toilet ( in my small bathroom and it was so bad that it tore up the wall) and went to Pacific Sales on Labor Day weekend and bought two new TOTO low flow one piece commodes for $800. Then I hired a plumber for $1,000 for the install. The weight of the units were 99 lbs each and I just don't have the strength do the install because I'm a petite woman. And I didn't know what the condition was under the commodes was going to be like, so I thought hiring a professional was a good idea.

Then guess what? My hot water heater went out again, 12 years ago, it was $1,000. This time, it was $1,400 to replace.

My condo hasn't been the same since. I had to move all of the IKEA HUSAR cabinets away from the dining room walls in order to give the plumber enough room to work. Then I recognized that I have been putting off a full paint job on my dining room. Right now, it's actually three tones of white. And it would look so much better being just one color.

I finally installed the rubber moulding in the main bathroom. So now I have the bathroom walls to rehab with plaster and three rooms to paint.