Late

Well, my blogs are late this week. I'm not adjusting well to the current medication scheme. I can only hope that things start to improve soon. In the meantime, I've got work to do.

Ambrose has finished his read-through of both proofs, which means I have some editing to do. I've already fixed the pictures for the solo trip; I just need to place them, which I'll do as I do the text editing he has recommended. Well, some of it. We disagree, in some instances, as to the proper place of the comma. Since I have a degree in English, I win those arguments.

I've sent the proof of the ONP trip to Bill (who went on that hike with us), who has already reviewed the text but deserves a chance to review the captions as well, especially since some of them are his pictures which I want to make sure I've attributed to his satisfaction.

Once I get all my editing done, then I'll need to create the ebook versions. I sometimes do that before I finish editing, but then I have to edit two documents with the same corrections and that's not really very efficient.

I still need to finish writing up the account of the September solo trip; I've fallen off of writing regularly again. No excuses really. I just need to bear down and get that last bit written. I think I will be able to publish all of these in 2018. Plus the CrossFit book, for which I've redone the first CrossFit workout that I ever did. I want to redo a few more, but I might not, depending on timing. I'd like to release that book on the 5 year anniversary of my starting, but we'll see. That's 12/17.

I have plenty to do, I just need to figure out a way to do it while I'm experiencing constant stomach pain.

Rocky Start

Taking anti-depressants while not depressed is a strange sensation. In my experience taking anti-depressants in the past, I never noticed any kind of effects until I tried to get off the medication. Well, there were a couple different ones. On the Effexor, I never noticed much until the head zap withdrawal symptoms. On Wellbutrin, I noticed that I no longer wanted to smoke cigarettes and I actually quit while on it. And then the withdrawal from that was just needing to take a nap for about a day every time I decreased the dose. Not bad.

But with this Prozac that I'm taking to try and treat the IBS (an off label use my doctor has prescribed), I noticed effects really soon after I took the first dose. My doc said that I might feel "activated" and I didn't know what that meant until I felt it. I wasn't feeling hyper, but I just felt a little more... active. In my thoughts and also somewhat in my body. A lightheadedness. And my stomach went from feeling bloated to feeling super bloated.

Now, I'm taking this to try and fix my IBS, and one of the side effects is, essentially, upset stomach and constipation, the exact things I'm trying to avoid. My doc told me to look at any GI symptoms in a positive light, in that if the drug was affecting that area, that meant it might help it later on once I reached an effective dose. Which is not very comforting when I feel like I'm going to burst. I even dreamed that I was pregnant, which I completely blame on the feeling of largeness in my tummy (I'm not pregnant).

I won't really know if the medication is helping until I've been on it for 4 to 6 weeks. I really hope I start getting used to these side effects soon.

Or at least that the tummy issues subside, because right now I feel like I'm making the problem worse instead of fixing it.

On the brighter side, I'm getting well on with the books I want to publish before the year is out. Amazon switched its paper copies from CreateSpace to the Kindle Direct interface, and I wasn't sure how those would look, so I ordered a proof copy for the May ICT section book to be sure the new service translated my files correctly. It looks good, and I'm just waiting on Ambrose to do a proofread before I go in, fix things and publish.

I'm working on captions for Return to the Wild Coast, and I hope to have the proof for that ready to go by the end of this long weekend. Then I just need to finish up writing the September ICT trip and my CrossFit book. I just might get them all published in 2018!

IBS Alternatives

At my annual wellness exam, my provider suggested that I might consider trying low dose anti-depressants to treat my irritable bowel syndrome issues. She said that using about a quarter or less of what was considered a therapeutic dose for depression had been shown to help with IBS. I said I would do some research and get back to her.

I'm not entirely convinced that the issues I have are caused by IBS and not, say, chronic appendicitis or something else that is difficult to diagnose. Partly because no matter what I try, nothing seems to help.

I've done elimination diets to try to find triggers. Nothing. Sometimes, my stomach will just protest when I eat something for seemingly no reason. It could be a food that I've eaten before, the day before even, without issues, but suddenly it hurts me.

I workout a good amount. I try to keep my stress levels in check - and the exercise definitely helps there. I get 8 hours of sleep or more per night - except when my stomach pain keeps me up, or makes my sleep more restless than restful.

I'm going to try this solution. Supposedly there are similar neuro-transmitters in the gut as there are in the brain, so it makes sense to me that this might work. I haven't been able to find many studies backing this up, but I don't really trust that the studies would be good proof - of safety, sure, but not efficacy for my particular issues. So I'll try this out, and if it works, great. If it doesn't, then maybe my practitioner will be willing to consider that maybe what's been diagnosed as IBS isn't.

Holding the Streak

I finished my write-up of the coast trip, keeping to my 1000 words per day even when I really didn't feel like it. The last day I went over that since I could feel the end and wanted to go ahead and finish. Ambrose has done his preliminary read. After I go over his suggestions, I'll be sharing it with Bill, since he was on the trip, too.

I almost let go of the streak when I finished the coast story; I figured I would have other things to do and could write the story for the Stanley Lake to Dagger Falls section of the ICT after I caught up on production work. But I changed my mind at the last minute and snuck 1000 words into my evening to get started on my the writing for the 6th book I'm planning to publish this year.

I mean, I did finish the initial captions for the Hammett to Willow Creek book, so I was moving pretty well on production even with 1000 words per day of writing.

In 2018, I've already published two small guidebooks. And I'm planning on two ICT books, the coast book and a CrossFit book.

That seemed like a crazy idea when I first thought of publishing that many books in a year. But now that I'm closer to realizing it, I think I can do it. I'll need to be focused, because the Hike with Me books take a lot of time at the end, but I can get there.

Even if it means pausing on the writing streak once I finish the last write-up.