busybee fluffy rambles

GERDing my loins

I had a relapse of my GERD symptoms and some pains which felt like an ulcer, so I tried some OTC omeprazole, immediately had the bad side effects from it that led me to stop taking it last time, and remembered that I used to eat a lot of active-culture yogurt when this happened previous times which was helpful, so I started making smoothies again, which helped with the reflux somewhat.

In the meantime, I made an appointment with my doctor, but she was super backlogged with appointments and the clinic offered me an appointment with another practitioner, who I also had do a skin cancer screening since I was super overdue. He tested me for h.pylori which came back negative (yay) and also said that my various moles and keratosis bits were just normal signs of aging, nothing to worry about, but he said it was good that I got a skin cancer screening all the same (since it had been 5 years since the last one).

Because I don’t have h.pylori, the doctor suggested that I pay closer attention to my stress and diet. Not a bad idea.

Fibro and fatigue stuff

In the meanwhile, because of the breathless announcemenets of a new fibromyalgia treatment, I had asked my doctor about trying out cyclobenzaprine. I’ve been taking it every night before bed, and it’s helped me to sleep much more deeply, and as a result I’ve been waking up feeling at least somewhat rested, and throughout the day I’m significantly less fatigued and also in less pain. I’m also finding it easier to focus on stuff, too.

Today I took a little drive and I didn’t get hit by the usual wave of fatigue and anxiety, so hopefully this is gonna be an upward trajectory.

Music stuff

I’m booked for a few upcoming shows, such as the 100th Moonlit EU at Trans Academy on October 8, and also a private (paid!) show on September 26 (which will eventually be posted publicly). I’m glad to be getting more exposure.

I’ve started making backing tracks for my VR performances which I think are bringing a much-needed added dimension to things. I wrote more about that over on the blogpuppet.

And as usual I’m continuing to work on music for Trans Academy and the indie game.

Also, The War Machine is finally available on Spotify, and it will be the last thing I release there unless things significantly change. (For that matter I’m not super interested in releasing anything to the other streaming platforms, either, for a bunch of reasons right now.) It would be very funny to me if this is the track of mine that actually gets attention on Spotify, so for this one track I’m making an exception to my request to listen to my music literally anywhere else.

My original plan was to remove all of my other songs from Spotify once The War Machine posted, but my music’s currently stuck with a distributor that is not easy to work with and in order to do that I’d have to completely remove and reupload my catalog, which in turn requires signing up for and paying a distributor, which I absolutely do not want to do right now, so I’m just gonna keep my catalog fossilized in amber. It’s not like it’s making anyone any money anyway.

But anyway. Stuff like this keeps me going in the face of all the other stuff that’s making life feel challenging. Any port in a storm.