And again it is cold and gray and possibly rainy soon.  We have so many cold and gray and rainy days this month, it’s like February, only without snow.  I had the heat on yesterday.  It’s mid-May.  I’ve had the air-conditioner on around now some years.  On the bright (I need some bright) side, it’s not hot and sticky, which is never not a good thing.

Tried some bars with no soy, since I discovered that soy is bad if you have thyroid issues, which I do.  Why does no one tell you these things when they prescribe or fill prescriptions? Rise and Zing are both pretty good, and not overly expensive.  The Rise is just almonds, honey, and whey protein.  I used to make something similar with powdered milk, but these are already made for me. I bought both from Amazon.  You know, that company that will soon rule the world.  More on food, I am still doing the Home Chef thing.  Three meals instead of 4, and so far every one has been delicious and easy.  Not over my budget, either.  Every meal serves two, so I get six actual meals of excellent food.  I’m glad I discovered this, in spite of the original billing fiasco.

Was looking through book emails and it occurred to me, how many books there are now with the “Anybody’s Brother’s Cousin’s Neighbor’s Boss’s Uncle’s Mechanic’s Sister” titles.  Was The Astronaut’s Wife the first one?  I don’t know.  But there’s a plethora of them now.  A glut.  A distinct lack of originality. Like formula books.  I read about that once where certain authors have a murder every so many pages, a sex scene every so many pages, etc.  What happen to writing a book because you had a story to tell?  Now you write to a money-making formula.  Creativity.  I’m sure it’s still out there.  Well, I know it is because I read fan fiction, much of which is infinitely better than a lot of books I’ve read. I am overly fond of Torchwood fanfiction, but the Sherlock fandom has some amazing writers.  Check  out fanfiction.net, or Ao3.com

On the illness front,  after a week back up to 3mg prednisone, I can tell I am getting better.  More energy. a bit less pain, clearer headed.  It’s a good thing.  I haven’t tried the zoloft yet, except for one day, because I thought I’d wait to see how the prednisone worked.  The PA said I will  have to be on it for the rest of my life, because once you get prednisone withdrawal, which I blame on my rheumatologist, you have it forever and your body will always need a prednisone supplementation.

Anyway, I’m kind of condensing something here that I read in AARP.  Someone commented on an article and disagreed with the premise that worry, stress, sadness, anger and obesity can worsen chronic pain.  They can, it’s true, but it’s more accurate to say about people with chronic debilitating pain, which I have, that the pain can worsen worry, stress, sadness, anger and obesity.  Pain is exhausting, keeps you from meeting obligations, doing things you just want to do as well as need to do, isolates you as friends drop away from ‘the sick one’, makes you angry at losing the life you had, and prevents a lot of movement, which of course means less burning of calories and loss of muscle mass, so weight gain is inevitable.  And a lot of the drugs you need actually cause your body to gain weight, even when your eating habits stay the same.  Here’s a good blog post that goes into this even more.

https://fightingwithfibro.com/2019/05/10/12-reasons-why-fibro-and-mental-health-issues-coincide/

And an image.