October 14, 2011

No news is . . . no news. It's going to be a long ass weekend.

Kay

Thursday

No blood test results yet. Hopefully tomorrow. I'll be relieved to have this thing scheduled. Now that I know there is something in there, I want it out BAD!

I'll post good news as it comes in!

Kay :)

Misc Stuff, Camping, and Wednesday, a Weird Weird Day

Monday:

Lots of action to report. All done with physical therapy for my shoulder, it's feeling much stronger, no more pain! Woo hoo.

Had a lovely hike and lunch and good laughs with my buddy Chris to start the week. Much pleasantness. And lots of stairs!

Tuesday:

Had a great camping trip. Terrific weather, lots of laughs, good eats. Nice ride on pontoon boat. Great long weekend. Waaay too much beer and food. My first night there, washing up the supper dishes, one of the guys said something funny and I looked up at him, laughing, and I sliced the hell out of my thumb. Mental note to self . . . be careful dumb ass! It bled for hours. Unfortunately my ER nurse friend wasn't coming til the following night, but three cheers for Mar! She fixed me up with a good bandage. Her excellent bandaging may possibly have been inspired by the fear of my bleeding all over her lovely new camper. If there had been a health care professional around, maybe there would have been stitches. Fortunately for me there was none, just my inebriated friends. So all weekend I kept that thumb bandaged. Couldn't wash any more of those damned dishes with a bandage on my hand. Pretty smart of me!

Then back to work on Tuesday. You know how you feel after a long weekend of eating and drinking too much, and not getting enough sleep, when you are pushing 50 years old? Well I do! And how! I was a little stiff, a little sore, not unusual after camping weekend and that long drive, but I had a pain on my right side, around my rib cage. It did not improve. I thought I was sore from camping, or bean bags maybe, but the most likely culprit . . . hacky sack!

Well the pain did not improve. In fact it was so painful I toyed with the idea of going to the emergency room. I tossed and turned and flopped around all night Tuesday, could not get comfortable, could not get to sleep. I could not help but think of my good friend, who, after a weekend of partying and fatty food, was stricken by pancreatitis, and was hospitalized and had to tell health care professional after health care professional about her beer consumption and fatty diet over the weekend. Oh the pain. Not just the pancreatitis, but the confessing. The friend who told ME that she drank 12 beers and ate a foot long Subway sandwich, but when the doctor asked her, she told him 6 . . . beers and inches of sandwich!!! Well I should never have teased her about that, because karma is a bitch man.

Wednesday (The Weird Weird day):

Well, come morning I realized I was going to suffer the same fate. The confessing, not the pancreatitis hopefully! The pain is not going to go away. Off to the ER. There is my friend Patty, who was also at the camping trip. Very handy to have ER nurses for friends. Except it's hard to lie to people about what you did to bring on your painful condition when your health care professional friend is standing there, and knows THE TRUTH. Oh and there is my boss's wife, also an ER nurse. So right off the bat I confess my sins (well, most of them lol) over the weekend --- tons and tons of beer and fatty junk food! Nobody seemed surprised or even shocked by my bad behavior.  ER business commences. All the pain is around my gallbladder, I have mistreated and abused my gallbladder all weekend, so all signs point to the gallbladder. So I get an IV, blood work, ultrasound. Then doc wants a CT-scan. Hmmm Ok. Weird and unexpected but OK.

Doc comes in and gallbladder is OK, liver is OK (quite shocking after the camping trip honestly; I think I forgot to mention that in addition to the beer there was booze in the coffee in the mornings too, topped with fatty whipped cream), but it turns out I have quite a large mass in my abdomen. Probably a benign cyst/mass/tumor from my ovary (I heard it referred to as all 3 things this weird weird day). Strangely my first thought was “Damn! None of these people needed to know I drank like a fish all weekend and ate tons of crap! I confessed for nothing!”

After the doctor assured me he was not joking (lol), I said ok, why is my side so sore? Turns out large masses in your abdomen can put pressure on nerves and generally just mess things up. OK. Refers me to my gyno for 3:30 this afternoon. Big fun! Definitely surgery. Doc is waiting for results of CA125 blood test (****!) before scheduling surgery, to see if I can have it here at local hospital or if I have to go to a specialist. Hopefully blood work results will come back tomorrow. And hopefully I will be able to have surgery here at local hospital.That is best case scenario.

Did I mention it is 31cm? WTF? If I told anyone it was 31 inches, oops, I meant centimeters. Sorry about that.

Is this really happening?

I'm glad the Weirdest Day of My Life is over! Very very very glad.

Kay :)

P.S. I'd like to share two funny typos that I corrected. In the paragraph about my cut thumb and Mar's camper, substitute "breeding" for "bleeding". In the paragraph about the ER doc referring me to my "gyno" substitute "gyro" in there! LOLOL

October 1, 2011

I know I'm a day late! My router went out and I am technologically challenged. My weight is the same as last week, which is surprising, considering that my diet turned into the "Corn Dog Diet" thanks to Corn Festival the last couple days!

I was in a soupy mood this a.m., so I cooked, sort of. Trying to utilize my pantry, so my cooking involved opening a lot of cans!

I read a bunch of recipes for Chicken Tortilla Soup and formulated a plan. I used a can of Progresso Hearty Tomato soup for the base, just because I have a ton of it that I got super cheap in my couponing adventures. I threw in some enchilada sauce, stewed tomatoes, black beans, green chiles, fresh corn, sauteed onions, garlic, and green, red and yellow pepper. Then off to market for some chicken, found a big pack of boneless, skinless chicken thighs, reduced for quick sale. Grabbed some sour cream and wanted an avocado, but they were too hard and too expensive for me. Seasoned up the chicken breasts with olive oil, chipotle powder, fajita seasoning, and chili powder from the Spice House in Chicago (yummers), and grilled it off and shredded it with two forks. Threw the whole shebang in crock pot and seasoned it up with some more of the spices. It smelled pretty good in the kitchen at that point. Served it up with a squiggle of sour cream and a squiggle of clearance Wholly Guacamole, and topped it with these little tortilla strips I have had in pantry from Aldi. They taste like little, lightly salted Fritos! Yum. Can't get those again . . .

Anyway the soup was delicious and satisfying and filling and a success! I think I prefer the tomato base over the chicken broth base I have had before. I'm going to start eating more beans and veggies. Look out world!

Camping coming up next weekend. Right now weather sounds delightful, and the menu is not too extravagant. Not that that will stop me from overeating! LOL  But I'm going to try to get some walks in. Shouldn't be too difficult with the fun dogs, Lily and Sophie, available.

Keep up the fight people! And stay away from the corn dogs!

Kay :)

September 23, 2011

Hi Folks!

I'm alive. John and I went to Madison, Wisconsin last weekend, for the Farmer's Market and apples and a little hiking. Seems John booked a hotel that didn't provide free internet (ARGHHHHHHHHHHHH and WTF - that doesn't mean where's the fat this time Maureen!). That is why I didn't post last Friday.

My weight is up 2#. I'm not surprised what with the Wisconsin thing! There was Green Acres, this yummy restaurant that has a block of cheddar the size of Rhode Island on the salad bar. And gosh that ribeye was good!

And the farmers market! Wow! It was spectacular . . . great variety, great prices. Between us we bought honey, shallots, rhubarb breakfast bars, Cortland apples, an apricot bar, Honey Crisp apples, radishes, garlic, a cherry-rhubarb bar, blue cheese, a peanut butter cookie with a chocolate ganache center, 12 year aged cheddar, lots of goodies. Actually I bought most of the sweets, but I think John ate most of them!

We also took a very nice walk at a county park. It had hills and gosh, I was huffing and puffing and John accused me of being out of shape! Ha ha. And boy howdy, I sure am.

I've been going to physical therapy for my shoulder, doc has me doing rotator cuff exercises. I've gone three times, plus there are exercises to do at home, and my shoulder is starting to feel stronger already.

I'm still playing around with dieting and trying to lose weight. I have not been serious at all. I don't know why.

Looking forward to hearing from my Fat Camp chums, hope you are all faring better than I!

Kay

Carb Harvest

Dug up some potatoes, sort of. Some were actually visible on the surface of the bed, so I took that as a sign to pick them. An interesting variety of sizes, I have sweet, red and brown potatoes. The ones on the right are brown and red potatoes grown together, a sort of potato fusion I guess. That is the most action a bed around here has seen in a long time.

Midge's zinnia bed has been a delight all summer, lots of color, lots of birds.

And after being nearly pepperless for the last three garden seasons, my bumper crop this year is very welcome.

September 9, 2011

I'm back!

Weighed in this a.m., up one pound, but believe me, that is way better than last week's fictional weigh-in would have been!

Doctor appointment for my sore shoulder is coming up on Monday (finally! lol). Went to the doctor for my wonky blood work for my thyroid. Seems my TSH was high, which may indicate hypothyroid. Doc wants to recheck in 6 months before putting me on medication I'll have to take every day. Since I can't even remember to take a vitamin every day, that idea was fine with me. Except for the being tired and dragging ass part for another 6 months. LOL  Maybe my new walking regime will help perk me up.

My friend got me out walking on the towpath with her two dogs. First night we walked for an hour, second night for an hour and 15 minutes. Last night it rained (whew I was relieved because I was sore!). I did a mini walk at lunch, and stretched, which helped the soreness. We are walking her two dogs, Sophie and Lily. Only one near drowning so far. While we were yakking near a low spot, Lily (7 months), apparently thought she could walk on water. Alas she cannot! She was in and out pretty quick, but she did not smell good afterwards. She had a couple good shakes and shared her pond scum with us.

We went from 100 degree + heat index last week to 70's during the day and 50's at night the this week. I love it!  Makes walking much more inviting.


John and I are heading to Wisconsin next weekend for some apples and some hikes. We'll be by Madison. Should be fun. I love Wisconsin. Beautiful parks. They have cheese there.

Looking forward to hearing from my Fat Camp Friends!

Back in the fight!

Kay