Yesterday, the esophagitis pain was soo bad, my chest hurt, the ulcers in my throat burned and my mouth felt like I ate numerous spiked lemons. I spoke only when absolutely necessary and was using a text to speech app to communicate when I needed to. I work from home, so I didn’t have to speak much unless I had a meeting or my boss called me and fortunately yesterday was a relatively quiet day.
As far as exercise, I did 10 minutes of just walking back and forth in the apartment, 5 minutes of the glider and started again with the resistance bands, doing 20 pullbacks of the yellow (level 1) and red (level 2) bands. I also did the sit to stand exercise for 10 reps which is all my legs and glutes have the strength to do for now. I did this a few times have tried to do this daily, until I can add more reps and lower the chair to make it harder.
Today, I had a very early appointment for a new gastroenterologist. She prescribed a new medication called Vonoprazan that she says has been widely used in Japan since 2015 and was approved in the US to use since 2023. So once I have this prescription filled, I will start taking it, knowing the side effects are a possibility much like the other PPI’s, but at this point, I have to take something to start healing on some level before go off these and try alternative treatments if possible. It all depends on what the endoscopy shows in 2 months.
As far as keeping the mind and body occupied and active, a fun activity that engages the body and mind is carving pumpkins. This has become an annual tradition for my brother and myself and today will be no different. It’s a fun activity that we do together which is relaxing and for me, puts my arms, wrists and fingers to work which I don’t normally do these days and keeping the body moving and active is my top priority right now. I love everything from choosing with stencil to use, to gutting the pumpkin, carving it and then placing the light inside and take pics to remember our creation. Arts and crafts are fun at any age, pottery, painting, drawing, carving pumpkins etc…A perfect time to bond with friends or family and disconnect the mind from your problems and the world and just enjoy the present moment.
This year I had a few stencils I was thinking of doing Snoopy’s Red Baron was one, Grogu was another, but I settled on Linus waiting for the Great Pumpkin because my mom’s eye lit up when she saw the stencil, so Charlie Brown it is!! It wasn’t as easy as i thought it would be, but it was well worth it and my brother tried his hand at carving a Ninja Turtle. Happy Halloween!!
Mind Body Synergylia 