Hello, I am still here!
Dear Reader,
I am still here. Just not writing on my blog.
Here I am with Mr. Pennington, riding the ferris wheel at the Santa Monica Pier, just a few days before the 2025 fires ripped through Los Angeles.
Thank you to everyone who emails me. I'm sorry that I don’t respond. I don’t feel comfortable commenting on others’ medical care. But I wish you all the health and healing there is!!
What do I know? Only what has worked for me.
I’m not an influencer. I’m not trying to make money. I told my story here to amuse myself. Have you noticed there are no ads.
Yes, I still am injecting vitamin C every single day. I’m doing so well, I’m afraid to stop. My case of EDS is so severe. Intramuscular shots of ascorbic acid everyday for the past — how long has it been — 13 years? — has taken me from total disability to working full-time, off opioids, and strong from exercise, not in that order.
I have an excellent medical regimen which I will write more about soon. I ❤️ Big Pharma! And compounding pharmacies! Thank you medical researchers and scientific databases! Better living through pharmacology!
My body has a lot going wrong. Prescriptions are corrective.
Medicines are like nutrition, except they are precise and have been studied so we know what they can do for you. No need to wish and hope. You put chemical compounds in your body and they change things in known, predictable ways. I’d call it magic, but magic is a mystery and drugs are not. Prescriptions over blueberries! Or both please. It’s important to eat healthy. Be a snob like me and turn your nose up at soda and ultra processed yuck.
If you want to try injecting Vitamin C, you’ll have to get a prescription.
I went back to injecting in my gluteus medias. Injecting the vastus lateralis hurt too much and oh the bruising. Not attractive. I’m very vain.
On a recent CT scan, the radiologist noted the curious scarring from my vitamin C shots. Here’s what it said:
“There is bilateral gluteal deep subcutaneous reticulation, question prior cosmetic injection or other localized insult without focal or drainable collection.”
My PCP and I had a good laugh.
Nope, that's not plastic surgery you’re seeing, doc.
My ass looks great from all my exercise, which I can do — having slowly worked up with dedication and consistency — thanks to daily injections of Vitamin C. The C makes my collagen stronger and makes me heal and recover better.
I highly recommended conquering cardio.
The more cardio I became able to do, the less fatigue I have. Gotta get that heart 🫀 strong 💪, able to pump that blood.
For cardio, I run on the sand at the beach or on the treadmill and sometimes the sidewalk, although that’s a bit rough on my EDS feet.
I find that 20 minutes is just fine. I slow down at times so I can have the opporunity to force my heart rate back up again. This is effective. It’s the increasing of the heart rate that gets it toned. The heart is a muscle, after all.
I like doing kettle bells, too, for intense cardio.
I read somewhere that you should spend a few minutes each week with your heart rate in Zone 5. For me at my age, that is above 170 bpms.
After a short run, I can get it up there with kettle bell swings.
I swim in the ocean. That’s me in my stylish Italian wetsuit. The dolphin love it.
I play tennis. I’ll even play in the rain.
Tennis is THE BEST exercise if you want to live long and well.
It is whole body toning. The impact of hitting the ball and darting across the court strengthens bones. Holding the racket has made my wrists and hands more capable and stable — better than anything else I tried. I play ambidextrous so both arms benefit. Drills with my coach take twice as long, however. Wow, is my lefty serve bad.
I’ve been taking lessons for 2 years. Yes, the first 8 months or so provoked a lot of headaches.
I am willing to suffer to get better.
I don’t think that I have a choice.
I have learned that I have a better life if I exercise through pain and achieve strength. Stronger, I have less pain and more stability. Stronger, I can do more for myself. Stronger, I get less injured. Stronger, I am less fatigued.
It’s a personal decision I have made about my body, based on joint scans. Doesn’t seem like I will make anything worse. Exercise looks safe for my situation.
You have to decide for yourself what is the best for you.
I will have more pain if I am weak and inactive.
Exercise stimulates my nervous system, reminding it where my joints are and how to command them.
Tennis Paradise
Mr. Pernnington and I went to Indian Wells for a few days of the BNP Paribas Open. We saw Naomi Osaka lose, and a bit of Djokovic and Coco Gauff. Yay!!
I had to keep my face covered because I had just had an IPL Facial. That’s a laser that rejuvenates skin. You have to stay out of the sun for the healing process. I looked just fine underneath, which surprised people when I pulled my face covering off indoors.
That was my first cosmetic treatment ever. I used a Groupon. The one upside of having EDS is that you are probably gorgeous and will look young forever.
The BNP Paribas is always a gamble. The weather can be pretty abusive. We had just one day of calm winds and sunshine on our visit.
Last year we were pummeled with rain and wind. I got an eye infection from the flying dust. Then we got to enjoy urgent care and waiting hours for the pharmacy to fill the antibiotic eyedrops as puss oozed from my eye. Which reminds me, you must have a date shake in the desert.
Palm Springs is pretty awesome.
We went thrifting on this trip. We hit every second-hand, consignment, and used clothing store we could find. It’s nice out there!
I got some designer jeans in excellent shape for $11 each.
My ass looks great in them.