Life Updates

 What's been happening...

(In addition to all the things that have been happening.)

Finger Update:
Remember my cyst that wasn't a ganglion so I had surgery and then it turned out to be ganglion after all?
And how the stitches were removed after a week which was wayyyyyy too soon because 
it was a gaping wound. They glued it shut, but I had to go back later that day after smashing it in the door and it started bleeding but they didn't think it needed to be re-glued?

Two days later it was a gaping wound again so I went back and got it re-glued.

After all that and even ten days later, when I was home from London,
it still hurt really bad. 

Which made me wonder, should I just have it amputated? Would that get rid of the pain?
I was cognizant enough to know that amputating to ease the pain was illogical.

But it also seemed like a good solution.
(My mom says, "don't let patients make decisions because they aren't in their right mind,"

which clearly was what was happening.

(Sidenote to remember that time that I thought it would be fun to drive from Los Angeles down to San Diego to meet my family for ONE DAY on their trip to Carlsbad? And somehow thought it was just a hop, skip and a jump back to Long Beach to pick Courtney up from her field trip to the aquarium then zip back down to Carlsbad?

Chris was a baby, maybe 18 months, and cried the whole 2+ hours on the way down,

two hours back to get Courtney, and the two hours back to Carlsbad. 

I was going cuckoo the fifth hour in of incessant crying and I remember thinking,

"If I drive off this cliff, then maybe the crying will stop."

It really did seem like a logical, rational decision. 

And that's the closest I've come to actually being crazy.)

Back to my finger... with time it got better.

 Now the wound is almost healed and it doesn't hurt much anymore,

although it's still "fuzzy" numb at the tip and side.

The moral of both of those stories is:

Things will get better.

Peter Attia

I'm really getting into Peter Attia and all his research and podcasts on health.

As it turns out, everyone else is too!

Lizze told us her dad has bought his book with extras to share for anyone interested,

Diane has been listening to his podcasts,

and my mom and Dimitrios have discovered his book as well!

This is another one of those things that Dan remembers the details and I just remember the big picture.

But, my takeaways:

*I'm shooting for 20g of protein 4x/day. 25g would be even better.

*To increase cardio strength and Vo2 max:

1-2x week of interval training--4 min. at 90% MHR and 4 min. at 65%

*5 days of zone 2 training (60-70% of MHR)

*Collagen protein is good for fingers, nails, hair and wound healing,

but a not great for retaining body muscle. Complete food proteins is better.

*Your body can assimilate the protein it gets any time of day within 24 hours, 

so 30 min. after workout is ideal, but any time in the day is fine.

Book Critique

After sending out seven queries and hearing "no's" from two and nothing from the other five

(hearing nothing if it's a "no" is the norm),

I'm on to Step 2 of the query process--revising my letter and first five pages.

I found a professional to give feedback and just got her notes today. 

Her wordsmithing is fantastic and I'm super excited about the notes she sent.

She also said one of my comps worked, but the other two don't. Ugh.

Finding comps is SO HARD!

I thought the other two were perfect,

but one (Amazing Grace Adams) about a disgruntled teenager and a mom whose been pushed over the edge was marketed as humorous,

and the other (Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance) was marketed as coming-of-age and romance.

She said "the voice of books by J. Courtney Sullivan" was spot-on. 

So if you have any suggestions of books, TV shows or movies where:

1) a parent and teen are in conflict with one another,

OR a family is grieving;

AND

2) It's only been published in the last three years (two is better)

AND

3) It has at least 10,000 reviews on GoodReads but not more than 100,000

(can't be a best seller but needs to be a good seller),

THEN send me your suggestions.