@IzabelaKaramia@writing.exchange
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IzabelaKaramia

@IzabelaKaramia@writing.exchange

trans woman, I write good poems, ADHD, autist, type 1 diabetic, love to study languages, dx exocrine pancreatic insufficiency Dec 2022. Runner not currently running because of years being undernourished. Now walking some and feeling better, convinced I will fulfill a promise I made in a poem The Pale Horse

Definitely a fan of Gruyère cheese.
You can never have enough elephants.
I'll close the door behind us, a tiny tap.
It's where museums tuck away the weird.

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IzabelaKaramia, to random
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I'm again awake early. Largely because of the itchiness from the sunburn I got on Thursday and Friday. I've been using aloe vera and hydrocortisone cream to ease symptoms, but it's going to take another day or two to subside.

I should have bought sunscreen the weekend before this one. I bought some yesterday and used it, but I had already gotten burnt.

But on the good side of how I've had outdoor time 5 straight days, I've walked 11.3 miles and biked 30.9 miles. Feels so good to move again.

IzabelaKaramia,
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Running had been such a huge and important part of my life. Now I'm finally getting healthy again and I can see running as part of my life again one day.

IzabelaKaramia,
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I was terrified 3 months ago thinking about what was ahead of me. Packing up things into boxes, leaving the area I had lived in my whole life, moving across the country...

Doing all that while still navigating life each day with a meager number of spoons...

But somehow here I am now on the other side of the country and I have The Amazing Ginza with me, a feral cat that I tamed and seduced into indoor life over the past year.

My own body is starting to work properly again and exercise has

IzabelaKaramia,
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become rewarding and beneficial when it hadn't been that for more than 5 or 6 years.

I don't know how I got so lucky.

Two years ago I was waking up in the mornings and sometimes wondered if I was dying, if I might die that very day, I felt so awful and run down.

It's been prolonged detective work with the help of doctors but also my own meager inheritance of sisu from my Finnish ancestors.

I'm kinda shit at many neurotypical aspects and expectations of life, but I have my sisu.

IzabelaKaramia,
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13.4 mile bike ride, covered that much distance because I wanted to see if I could, though using a bicycle, cover the half-marathon distance which was my favorite running distance for racing.

It also gave me the chance to try out the legs on some hills and see how I'd do there.

Hopefully if things continue going well with my physical health, I can do that ride once on the weekends and it'll be good to help build strength in the legs.

IzabelaKaramia,
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I rode 5.7 miles to get to the first significant uphill, although I put some extra distance on that portion by investigating two small spur roads, going out and back some on them.

Coasting on the downhill on the way back, the GPS says I reached 27 mph. Which felt precarious some to me but perhaps in time I will become accustomed to the feel of being on a bicycle getting up over 25 mph.

18+ GertrudeZane, to animals
@GertrudeZane@c.im avatar

Look how big and dark the pupils of Pax's eyes are! She is ready to pounce on me here! It's part of a fun little game she initiates that's become a daily ritual. I make scritching noises with my fingers on my leg and then she pounces on my hand. She does this over and over.

Good morning/afternoon/evening to all of you! Happy ! Hope your day is fun!

Trigger alert: Eye contact with a cat

IzabelaKaramia,
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@GertrudeZane

ambush cat alert!

IzabelaKaramia, (edited ) to animals
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I've awakened early.

It's Caturday. It's May 11, 2024 and that means it was one year ago today that I first fed Ginza. I had been seeing her around in the weeks prior and earlier prior to the photo, I had taken a bag of garbage to the bin. I spotted her underneath the light blue vehicle and when I went back to my apartment, I put some dry kibble in the plastic dish, brought it out and put it down in the empty parking space. Then backed away until finally she came out. #CatsOfMastodon #Caturday

IzabelaKaramia,
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And that's how Ginza and I began making friends with one another and as a result, that kitty cat in a photo taken in southeastern Pennsylvania is now with me all the way on the other side of the country north of Seattle. I wonder if she remembers that day any, that moment any?

I don't know, but I love her and am happy to have her with me in my life. I take care of her but she takes care of me too in her own way.

IzabelaKaramia,
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I had hoped to sleep in til 6 AM this morning, but woke up early and just a lot of thoughts, though not anxious thoughts, just thoughts about my now improving physical health and Ginza. I won't be surprised if I need a nap in the afternoon.

The improving physical health is filling me with excitement. I don't feel exhausted so much of the time anymore. I have some extra spoons now rattling around in the drawer that was almost empty all the time.

IzabelaKaramia,
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Depending on how the day goes, I'll continue to drop in photos from the past year of making friends with Ginza. Here's one of her taking one of her first looks in inside the apartment I was living in. She was both curious and so nervous about that. It was taken on August 3, almost 3 months after the first time I fed her kibble out in the parking lot.

IzabelaKaramia,
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So once I started getting Ginza okay with the idea of coming into the apartment, I tried to provide her things that would provide her comfort and safety. It took some time but she noticed the cat bed I put down for her and the first two or three days, she would sniff at it and paw at it. One day she actually got inside it and laid down, then immediately jumped up with surprise and disbelief maybe at how comfy it felt.

Day after that she took her first nap.

IzabelaKaramia,
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It's wild how energetic I feel this morning right now. It's something I haven't felt in years and years.

But wow assuming this continues to get better with my physical health, I won't forget how awful it feels to be exhausted and out of spoons so much of the time. When spoonies tell you they are exhausted and can only do so much, believe them. Believe them. No one who has chronic fatigue wants to feel like that.

IzabelaKaramia,
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As it starts getting light here this morning, I can now clearly see how it seems that mist and fog formed in this area overnight and that's probably why I couldn't see the northern lights when I tried going outside.

But maybe there'll be another chance tonight depending on how long the solar storm goes on.

IzabelaKaramia,
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Especially remarkable with how yesterday I walked 2.5 miles and biked 7.5 miles. I feel like I could go out and do that again this morning if I had the time available to do that.

It's taken about 5 weeks since I started adding in the final ingredient, I guess, but it's important to remember that there was great improvement in nutritional uptake for a whole year prior to that too.

But now finally it seems that all the ingredients are working together and I feel so much better.

IzabelaKaramia,
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This is a photo of Ginza from last August from when she had begun to come when I would call for her and shake a bag of cat treats. She had begun to roll around on her back and show off her belly, although the belly would remain no touch for a while.

IzabelaKaramia,
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I've been moving efficiently enough I found I had time and want to take a 36 minute walk and say hello to the morning. Legs feel really good, feel springy but I need to be patient and build them up to where I can start introducing the rigors of running to them again.

IzabelaKaramia,
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Errands have been run and when I got back, my blood sugar was in a great spot for me to take a bike ride with the helmet I bought while out.

A little over 10 miles, I'm feeling more and more comfortable on the bicycle and it's really good exercise to help rebuild cardio fitness and leg strength. Time to eat lunch and put calories and nutrients in me so my body can actually rebuild.

IzabelaKaramia,
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@ninetiger

maybe you'll get a chance tonight, the solar storm is continuing and maybe you'll get clear enough skies

IzabelaKaramia,
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Been busy with another rearrangement of furniture, this one involving me assembling a computer desk that fits into a corner.

That pretty much wipes me out as far doing useful things. Brain feels fried.

I still feel it would be a good idea to do a short easy half hour walk and help circulate blood to the leg muscles and help them recover from the 10 mile bike ride.

IzabelaKaramia,
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Decided against taking a walk. It's become hot enough here today that I think it would be more draining than refreshing.

BrentToderian, to random
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The Dutch invest €595 million annually on urban biking, resulting in €19 BILLION saved in public health care costs alone. That’s how smart govts do the math on investing in better mobility.

Let’s be clear — it wastes public money to NOT do it.

HT @modacitylife

IzabelaKaramia,
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@BrentToderian @modacitylife

It's incredibly smart investment to build urban spaces around the idea you want people to be able to walk and cycle. Doing that makes it possible for people to take part in activity that is very important to physical, mental, and emotional health.

Cars are killing us here in America.

yurnidiot, to random
@yurnidiot@mstdn.social avatar

i feel you smol void. i react the same way when someone tries to sneak a fry off my plate.

black kitten extends her claws and fiercely defends her food from finger trying to touch it

IzabelaKaramia,
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@yurnidiot

Small Void wants to grow into Big Void.

IzabelaKaramia, to random
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I'm awake. Have eaten breakfast and fed Ginza her breakfast.

Would have liked to keep sleeping this morning, but it's Friday. I hope tomorrow I can sleep in til 6 AM. More sleep is always good for me as it stands.

Body feels okay. Brain is still slow and grumpy, but maybe like yesterday it'll slowly wake up and do okay.

I dreamed I was running last night. It was a happy running dream and I'm sure I dreamed that with how it finally seems my body is getting better

IzabelaKaramia,
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One item on the shopping list tomorrow is to buy a bicycle helmet. The bike feels like it will be very useful to help me rebuild my fitness.

My weird complaint is going to be about how I really don't have any convenient hills to go up and down in the immediate vicinity. It's so freaking flat and hills are such a great way to build leg strength for walking, running, cycling.

IzabelaKaramia,
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Gonna have to try to maybe wake up during the night and take a look outside at the night sky. I've never seen the northern lights dance in the sky and this may be a chance for me to see them.

The difficulty may be I'm pretty tired after the walk and subsequent bike ride. I covered 10 miles of distance today with those 2 efforts. A month ago I couldn't have even dreamed of doing that.

I'm getting better again and oh I hope it continues. Oh how I dream to run again.

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