Health Fitness + Beauty — Page 31 — You are in My World Now

We had a little outdoor get together on Saturday

August 25, 2008 by Tricia

Saturday was such a beautiful day here in Toronto that I brought my laptop outside in the late afternoon so that I could enjoy the day, the garden and get some work done while I was at it. Needless to say I didn’t get much work done!

We’d been expecting a friend to come over for the weekend. He was going to arrive on Friday night and spend the whole weekend, but his parents got word that they could move into their retirement home so he pushed back his visit by a day so he could help them move. Unfortunately the moving went into overtime and he wasn’t able to make it to our house for the visit.

Since Chris is on holidays this week he really wanted to do something on Saturday so he ended up inviting his cousin and our 15 year old God son over for dinner.

That of course is why I didn’t get any work done! My god son loves movies and he talked my ear off for oh … 6 hours about all his favorite movies, actors, scenes from movies and even brought over part of his movie collection so that he could show us movie trailers!

It was all a little too much movie talk for me, but I did come up with an idea for him. I suggested that he start a blog and write movie reviews. He basically memories all the lines and scenes in movies (oh did I mention he’s legally blind?) so he’d be a great reviewer … or at least I think so after hearing how he describes movies all these years.

In the rare non-movie discussion that I got to participate in I learned of a new health drink by Orovo that I might try. It might help with my Crohns, certainly it probably won’t hurt to try it.

We ended up having dinner outdoors. Chris, his cousin and I had steak and our God son had hamburgers. We all had fresh corn on the cob as well (not great for my Crohn’s but I love it). It was a great dinner.

Oh … I also had a couple of beers that night. I don’t drink much in part because of all the medications I’m on and also because it just hits me too hard. So by the time our guests left around Midnight I was feeling tipsy and tired! Guess I’m a cheap date!

Hows the weather in your area? We have a cool and rainy summer, but the end of last week and most of the weekend was fairly nice (we’re back to too cool again) so that’s why I had to take advantage of Saturday being such a nice day. Who knows when it might be nice enough to sit outside into the night entertaining guests.

What is with all these fevers?

August 25, 2008 by Tricia

Geez … just how many fevers can a person have in one day or in a week or a year? I’m sick and tired of having fevers!

That’s just one symptom of Crohn’s disease .. well not the constant fevers, but it can be part of the disease.

I have had so many fevers, on a daily basis for the last three years, that when I purchased the domain for my main blog (and it’s sub-blogs) two years ago I called it Feverishthoughts! Hey it works!

One of the big things about having fevers on and off is that I’m never comfortable. (this doesn’t include my abdominal pain that’s also on and off throughout the day) I’m either too hot or too cold. My skin is also slightly damp at times and I think this has lead to an increase pimples in area of my body that get hot like my lower back and so on. I’ve taken to using pimple cream on those areas occasionally. Weird since I should be over that stage of my life by now and also because it’s hard to get at some of those areas too!

I guess it’s kind of strange to be complaining about having fevers, but if you had them every single day you’d probably be tired of them too!

I’m curious as to whether other Crohn’s sufferers have a lot of fevers as well?

Are all guys wimps when they’re sick?

August 14, 2008 by Tricia

Yesterday my husband woke up feeling sick. He’d complained on and off over the last week that his stomach was bothering him and or that he felt slightly nauseated, but I guess whatever he was fighting really hit him hard yesterday.

He knew he was feeling ill but he went to work anyway. Unsurprisingly he came home about two hours later and laid on the couch like a lump. He said he had really bad stomach cramps and when I touched his forehead he was burning up.

He really was sick. I kept giving him Tylenol to bring down the fever, even checking on him at 4:30 in the morning to see if he had a bad fever and gave him yet another Tylenol when I found that he did.

Now I’m not complaining about yesterday – he really was very sick … but it just seems guys turn into big babies when they are sick. As I said he’d been feeling slightly off for about a week so he was grumpy and well … sucky for all of the past week.

I’ve got Crohn’s and I pretty much feel like crap all the time … but if I give in to it I only feel worse because I’m thinking about how bad I feel … so I try to keep going and not complain. However with my husband feeling off for a week he kind of refused to do some of the things he normally does so I had to do them … and believe me I felt worse than him all of last week!

If I can cope with feeling shitty all the time, why can’t he cope with feeling sick for a few days?

I’m just keeping my fingers crossed that I don’t get whatever bug he has (he’s a lot better today but off work) because it will hit me really hard if I get it. I did feel really terrible on Tuesday though … so who knows, maybe I’ve already had his bug.

Poor miserable me

August 10, 2008 by Tricia

I’ve been feeling terrible all week. As some of you know I suffer from Crohn’s Disease and it’s been acting up quite a bit this week. On top of that I’ve had a migraine/headache since Monday (I think it might finally be going away), high fevers and now both of my knees are aching.

I think the knee pain is partially from all the rain and cool weather we’ve had in the last few day, but Crohn’s can also affect your joints so that might be part of it too.

On top of all that my stomach is growling like crazy. I feel empty, like I’ve taken diet pills and their making my metabolism burn higher and higher.

I hate complaining that I’m not feeling well almost as much as I hate not feeling well. Writing this out occasionally seems to help though.

Ontario Native Plants at The Brick Works

July 13, 2008 by Tricia

Join

Rather than posting photos of my own flowers for this weekends Green Thumb Sunday post I thought I’d post some pictures of the lovely flowers that were growing at the Brick Works last weekend when we went for a visit to this nature preserve in the heart of Toronto.

I’m thankful everyday that I live in this great city with so many things to do – there’s nightlife, movies, film festivals, street festivals, great parks, a bird sanctuary by the lake, great beaches and so many things to do or learn from thanks to Toronto’s diverse cultural population. I just love it.

Who would expect such a beautiful Oasis in the center of the city?

Along with hiking trails, woods, small water falls, ponds and marshes visitors to the Brick Works can go to plays held in the old buildings or visit the Farmers Market each weekend where they can buy fresh produce, baked goods, plants for the garden or home and arts and craft type items like pottery – my fav!

There are all kinds of native plants growing in the old quarry and around the ponds and marshes, but the Brick Works also has a garden at it’s entrance displaying what I believe are also all native plants.

I’m not sure what this plant is … perhaps a native phlox?

And these I believe are daisies – please correct me if I’m wrong or if you know the proper name for this flower:

This is Butterfly Milkweed. It appears that not only does it attract butterflies and moths but also bees and wasps!

If you are visiting Toronto or if you live in the area I highly recommend a visit to The Brick Works. It’s around the Don Valley and Bayview Avenue area. You won’t be disappointed! Oh and if you want to read a little more about our hiking tour and see some more native plants visit my gardening blog to read todays GTS post.

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information. GTS participants remember to check in at As the Garden Grows each week so that we’ll know you made a new post!