Rambling Rainy Day Post

Yes, we got rain and some wind! 

Not pounding torrential rain but definitely a good solid, steady rain which my garden needed. The hills are slowly disappearing as the next downpour approaches (or recedes or moves on). 

There's another taller hill/mountain behind those small hills so that says something about the density of the rain falling. It's wonderful. Rocky isn't happy he can't go out but he had some run around time, played with him on his wobbly post, need to trim his claws. Didn't catch me too bad, just one small nick and despite being in blood thinners, it stopped in seconds. The other day one of the other residents daughter who helps her saw me walking him around and said, 'he's big how much does he weigh?' I shrugged, 'haven't a clue, maybe fifteen pounds' she assumed the 'I'm an expert at guessing cat weight' attitude and said something about working at a vet and he had to be at least 25 pounds. I told her no way, I can't pick up 25 pounds easily so yeah, probably about 15. Well I weighed him using the combined weight subtract mine.... 16 pounds. Don't tell me how much my cat weighs if you don't heft him on a regular basis and toss his fluffy butt on the bed. Oh and my weight is about the same (209) given the time of day and other variables. 

So the heart monitor has been itching and feeling like it's pulling a bit on my skin. I just replaced it three days ago and then looked at the little pamphlet that has the start and end date and time on it. Today's the day it comes off in about an hour and a half then will UPS it tomorrow in it's little pouch. YAY! One science tech down. 

I'm feeling about the same energy and overall good as yesterday. Barely any leg spasms or cramps overnight or in the morning... my theory may be proving correct or it may be from meds, who knows. What matters is feeling better, getting stronger and the weather is weathering.

I fixed the 'chicken ranch wraps' today, decided not to make the trip to the store for the bacon but they were still yummy. Used my DIY rotisserie chicken seasoning on the chicken thighs and put them in the fridge for an hour or so. Ranch dressing, decided on using one of the small red onions, lettuce and tomato and the second one I remembered the pepperoncini which added a nice little twang. It was delicious and no leftovers of chicken! That's a do again for sure and could use the breasts if I wanted as well. Not your typical rainy day meal but that's what I planned and glad I did. Jon even remarked that he loved the sauce. Told him it was just homemade ranch with some extra pepper and garlic. Sometimes I think he compliments my food just to sound enthusiastic. No doubt it was delicious but not recognizing ranch dressing? When we first met he said he loved ranch dressing and would have it all the time. Oh well. Just happy that I make food he likes and we have so many foods that we like together. 

It's still raining. Doesn't look like it's going to stop any time soon. Garden is getting a good watering at least and my excited, child like gardener in the back of my brain wants to grab an umbrella and go see. I'm that way about streams and rivers too. After a good rain I want to go see how full the streams and rivers are and most trails are closed of course after a rain storm. Something about moving water like that is exciting to me, not sure where it came from, have always loved lakes and streams...from the shore. I remember being not quite petrified but definitely overly cautious and anxious being in a small rowboat on a small lake. I can swim, that's not an issue but goes back to when I was like 5 and 'almost drowned' in Acapulco.... my brother will contest my version of the story of course.  

So that's my rainy day ramble, not much else to do or talk about. Guess I'll go play my ipad games, do some knitting, toodle around on the interwebs.... and watch the rain outside. 

 

The hits just keep coming.

 Overall I'm feeling great though. Sleep was okay, had some leg spasms but slept enough and felt energized and almost completely normal today. An amazing feeling for sure. I got out of the shower and no breathing problems, not winded, steady balance, not starving I got out of the shower and realized it was after 11 and I hadn't taken my morning meds yet, stuck my head out and asked jon to make a pbj so I could take my pills. He asked, 'one slice or two?'... I thought.... that's an odd question, I asked for a sandwich. Well...his idea of a 'sandwich' is apparently open face on a single slice of bread. After all these years and I had only ever seen him make a 'standard' sandwich. I have no idea where he picked up single slice 'sandwich'. I just pulled out two more pieces of bread and had two sandwiches. I am still kind of dumbfounded about that.  

So yeah, not feeling like I want to bite everything in sight, people or food. Not ravenously hungry anymore and took my last prednisone this morning. Just down to three 'maintenance' pills in the morning and one in the evening. Yay for minimal meds!

The clouds flattened out more as the day progressed so this is likely the front edge of the 'big storm' coming Monday and Tuesday. We know how that works by now for weather in SoCal. Supposed to rain in the next twenty four hours or so, it was cloudy enough today but the clouds were too high.  

Really cool rocket trail last night from the launch at Vandenburg (I think?). The mission to the  ISS I suppose. I don't pay attention to that anymore, it's all background noise.

So the next hit that came was email from AMR...the ambulance ride I had a month ago. My copay is $250 which I had suspected which I am now kicking myself for not having Amber take me straight to emergency instead. It would have been $100 cheaper. Still can't afford it but AMR wanted me to submit my insurance card info and then they'd get back to me, whenever. Also 'we can help make payment arrangements' message on the account as well.

Yep. Medical debt. Yippee....

Going to try and stop at storage on Thursday before or after my appointment and try to pull some stuff out, maybe books or something to take to goodwill. Books go to the library, not goodwill. None of my leisure reading books are worth anything really, kept them for sentimental value so if they aren't buried too deep I'll try and haul that to the library. Have to start paring that down which takes time, gas and money.

Anyway. It's been a reasonable day, fixed another good meal, shrimp stir fry and hopefully tomorrow will be doing chicken bacon ranch wraps. Depends on whether we go to the store and get more bacon.  Saw my favorite home cook do them with chicken thighs and some spicy ranch, regular ranch is just fine. I just made a batch from a mix packet, added a little extra pepper and a crushed garlic clove. We have at least a few flour tortillas so here's to a different kind of healthy lunch. In looking for other ideas on that on pinterest I want to say 99% used breaded and fried chicken. Chunks or long pieces, I can see the attraction for that but just flavoring and then searing the chicken and slicing it up is just fine. We have tomato, lettuce, onion, that'll be good (and cheese if Jon wants that).

I did have two 'cooking fails' but only for snacks. I have wanted mexican food of most any kind for two weeks now. I bought two cans of refried beans and tried to remember how to doctor them up. Well I put about a third of a cup in the glass measuring cup then added (what I thought) was a small amount of the Better than Bullion and some water. Wellllll apparently that small amount was WAY too much and I had to dump it down the drain. The other attempt I can't remember now but it was also something equally disastrous on a small scale. Good thing I had made egg salad that morning and settled for a sandwich.  

So yeah. Feeling mostly normal for a change, I think even my legs might behave tonight. I was stretching my calf last night and when I was out with Rocky today, the left calf is still kind of stiff but doesn't feel like it's going to cramp too badly I hope. I think I only had a small cup of potato salad, not sure, but haven't had any of the ham soup in three days. I know it takes time for salt to work out of your system so here's hoping that's the key. Was looking through my posts and I started feeling crappy Jan 11 two days after my colonoscopy. I was starting to feel low energy before that but it seemed to really hit then. Anyway, keeping track is good information for doctors. I was actually trying to figure out when my leg cramps started which seems to be toward the end of  January.

Here's hoping for more good days and consistent sleep.  

 

And of course...

 Yeah, another surprise when I went to pay the SDGE bill. It wasn't just the 55.25 there was a 'past due' of 24.12 as well (approximate change but doesn't matter). So luckily was able to get a little extra from someone else and paid both of those with enough to pay phone bill with an extra $10 or so left over. Phone isn't due until the 20th on autopay so won't be spending any money if at all possible.  

Ratsafrackin....  

I got a check in call from my case manager and she asked the questions, how am I doing, sleeping okay, meds okay that sort of stuff. Told her the Sharp app said I had two prescriptions that were due for refill but they were done in the hospital and I couldn't order a refill. One is the blood thinner which cardiologist said was on my permanent list and the other is a beta blocker that lowers my blood pressure and keeps my veins relaxed. Nice. Important when fending off heart attack and A-fib.

She was able to get those refilled for me and we made a late night quick drive over to the pharmacy to pick those up last night.  Jon had to get mostly dressed again because I was going to leave it for the morning but then realized I would need the blood thinner for bed and the next morning. 

I mentioned the leg cramps to Tamara (case worker) and she was trying to puzzle it out, we checked all my important numbers for last labs and all that is fine. I then voiced my concern over the GFR (kidney function) numbers which seemed to be bouncing around and said that sometimes the cramps diminish after I pee. That kind of confused her and we were trying to puzzle things out when I told her don't worry about it I'll check my food logs and see what's going on. She double checked to make sure I didn't want to mention the cramps to a doctor and told her no, I'll figure it out.

Well it turns out, high salt intake can inhibit potassium and magnesium from being absorbed properly. The nights when I had bad cramps were within a day of having at least two bowls of the hams soup that has a TON of salt/sodium in it. When I didn't have that I had other things like processed meats, fried chicken and other things that had high salt content.  So will now watch my salt intake for the next week because I had spasms on and off all night culminating in a zinger at 6 am. I ended up going back to bed and slept in until almost 9:30. Was not in a good mood this morning when I woke up and it delayed everything but felt better after I got some food and a shower.  I don't get spasms when I have to pee during the day so that is likely just a false assumption on my part. But salt/sodium, that's a bigger red flag and not good for the heart either.

At least we have $20 in food money. Need incidental things like milk and maybe get some water flavoring and ice cream.  I just discovered that coke now has orange cream soda. Oh that is dangerous information for me. Jon's out of regular coke but with only $20 that's a luxury we can't afford right now.

Once again, something that happened yesterday and was going to hop on and add to the blog then decided I'd just do it for today and...can't remember what it was.  Maybe I already mentioned it, but obviously not very important or I'd remember right?

Oh, my fingernails are growing out because for whatever reason with my normal anxiety not being triggered I'm not wanting to chew my nails. That may come as a shock but my entire adult life and maybe even before I have always chewed my nails. I guess it was a substitute for sucking my thumb in grade school and so I have rarely ever had nails that were longer than maybe 1/8th of an inch. 

That is considered long in my book. Thumbnails are still being nibbled but not the other fingers and if they get much longer I trim them down. No inclination to chew them to smooth or shorten. That's an odd win for personal habits considering everything else going on. Or due to everything else going on. I don't recommend serious illness as a cure for bad personal habits at all.

Right now it's almost 5:30 and I'm exhausted. Feel like I did gardening and worked out but just cooked an excellent 'dinner' of chicken thighs in pasta sauce. Can't call it chicken cacciatori because no mushrooms. Still delicious and I should have only had one thigh but it was delicious and had already eaten some of the second one. Oh well, so I'm stuffed and want something sweet to drink but nothing left in that category. Strawberry yogurt is about the only thing left I think. 

Anyway. That's it for yesterday and today. Time for another bottle of water.

 

 

 

 

Good news, bad news, good news

 So good news, SDGE bill posted finally and the bill is reasonable, only $55.75. That is excellent and I was double checking to see if it was the last 'catch up' bill but it isn't as far as I can tell. It's really frustrating not being able to read the bill just straightforward, here's what you used, this is your bill, this is your extra on top of that...but noooo. 

Bad news, phone bill is also $55 but that isn't due for another eight days, Devon says he can send me 100 tomorrow when he gets paid which sounded like that was putting a pinch in their budget as well. I feel bad about it really and wish I didn't have to constantly put my hand out for help. So, bad news is, $100 isn't going to cover both those bills so have to go to another friend with my hat in my hand.
 

Bird of paradise in full bloom downstairs. Had to get a picture and it's not very flattering really, too much other stuff going on.

Third good news.... formerly frustration with the 'OTC' benefits we get on Medicare/Sharp. This new company I have complained about the list of products being woefully shy. Jon needs gauze pads for his after care and we were running low on rubbing alcohol. I was combing through the website and app and then saw that the app on my phone has the ability to scan a product bar code to see if it's covered. Well, that's handy and wasn't really necessary last time but since they can't list every, single, item that's covered it makes sense. So I tell Jon, we go to CVS and of course the listings they have in the brochure are all name brands, so we took a chance. Pick up a box of CVS brand gauze pads scan the barcode, and it's covered! Says so right there on the screen.  WEll that's handy! Scan an other box, that's covered too! Hot diggity! The alcohol was covered as well, so score! Technology for the win, but feel sorry for more elderly people that are worse at figuring out tech stuff than we are. Jon's still moving a bit awkward and worn out more than usual, he apologized and I told him you had a procedure done and almost passed out. You are allowed to be off kilter! The man is trying to be a a'man' and not allowing himself to be human.

Good news personally: Finding the right tool for the project; knitting edition. 

Anyway, so  the other good news is finding what I needed for my knitting project.  I'm making myself a sweater and the issue is having other projects languishing with needles I might need. I was making do with 'short' needles which is very hard on my fingers with the size of the project and the way I knit. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the non-knitters I am using what is called a circular needle, two needle tips connected by a cable, usually plastic, nylon or coated metal. It accommodates larger projects like blankets and sweaters much better. Now, the first challenge was finding a cable that was long enough, still a bit short but working on that soon. Second was finding the right size needles for the project that uses 3 different sizes,  the ribbed collar took one size, the transition to the sweater took another size and then the final size for the main sweater.

So I've been struggling with the needle tips, I had one set that was plastic and awkward not to mention too short a cable. I found another that I could use that is almost long enough but the only needles were the short ones. This makes for thumb stress and hand aching because I like to have a good grip on the project where I'm working on it. So struggling with a tool that isn't quite the right fit for what I'm doing making for slow work.

I went on Amazon (hiss boo I know) and I had saved a circular needle more than long enough with the right size tips in a style that  I'm already using for the socks. It is on sale and only $6.45 with tax and I have $ 7 left in the bank. I cannot justify using literally my last dollars on a hobby. Okay, one last look through my bags of projects to see if there's a project that isn't needful and has what I need.

First bag I pull out of the cubby mostly has balls of yarn but then I see a needle tip attached to the start of a multi color blanket apparently that's only about ten rows in. Is it? Could it be the right size? It's the same make as what I'm using... YES!!! IT'S THE RIGHT SIZE AND NEEDLE LENGTH! The cable not so much but you can see the difference in the picture for the needles. These are also 'interchangeable' so all I have to do is unscrew the tips and swap them out. Whoever invented that ingenious idea has billions of knitters thanking them every day. Knitting is now commencing at a faster pace with less stress on my hands. 

Oh, notice I'm not talking about food as much? Odd that really. I had more than enough food today but am feeling satiated for the first time in a while.  

So roller coaster of good/bad and hoping for more good for the remainder of the month.  CVS had a small flower and decor thing set up near the registers for Valentines Day. Valentines, Shmalentines, don't need flowers when you have a partner for life that makes you laugh.  And sometimes question their sanity. 
Shmalentines, we've got each other and that's all that matters.

It was a good day with a laugh

 I suppose. Didn't sleep well but got some sleep at least, woke up around 4:30 needing to pee then again at 6:30 got leg cramps and had to get up for that, fed Rocky and then went back to bed. Jon got up at that point which was now closer to 7. Dozed for about an hour then decided just needed to wake up for the day. It's been drizzly, cloudy and rainy all day and we had to drive to Jon's appointment across town in the afternoon. It wasn't too heinous, alternating wet and dry areas of road but my windshield wipers needed replacing last year. Didn't have the money when they offered at the tire place and will have to wait until next month. If I remember. Likely won't need them after next month either, but they'll be on there at least.

For the most part uneventful, Jon's appointment was for removing a skin tag from his exit hole (normally wouldn't mention something like that but there's a joke coming up). Anyway, he makes the doctors laugh but he also almost passed out after the procedure. He said he made the mistake of tensing up and then when they were done he relaxed and they saw him go pale and eyes weren't tracking. Vaso-reaction or something he remembered from his cardiology days. They had him sit back and got an apple juice while monitoring his blood pressure. All in all it was maybe a half hour and he came out sucking on a juice box which was kind of adorable. Jon then needed to use the restroom of course, they only had two bathrooms for public use, one was on the floor we were on (second floor), but was occupied and so I thought maybe there was one in the lobby. So we went down a floor, realized the mistake and had to go all the way up to the 5th floor through a maze of hallways. All of this is incidental because really, nothing exciting happened other than his office visit, stopping at the store for some soup, bread and fried chicken for dinner. I had to shorten my pace because he couldn't walk 'normally' he said he felt like he was walking like a duck. I told him I've seen more awkward walking without his excuse of surgery. I should have said something about actual ducks are cuter but missed the chance. We both love ducks.

Anyway. Jon's also been passing gas rather loudly of late and so just a bit ago he went into the bathroom and I heard him cut one. I normally don't say anything, it's body function and I'm just as guilty as he is in making a stink. I said, 'be careful not to rip your stitches out'. Stopped him in his tracks. He was bent over laughing, leaning on the microwave.  'I love you' is his greatest compliment and affirmation of why we were meant for each other. I made him laugh which is always a bonus in my book. He loves to make me laugh as well, sometimes just before we go to sleep at night.  

We were both starving when we got home. He said he was too nervous to eat much before we left and I'm just hungry all the time now. As a preface I had a BLT for breakfast , a chocolate cherry and two spoons of yogurt then a slice of leftover costco pizza for taking my pills and that was around 11. Got hungry again and had a bowl of ham soup and two spoons of potato salad.

We got home from the store and he started heating a can of chicken dumpling soup while scarfing down five of the six pieces of chicken, I ate the lone wing just to take the edge off while he got his food going. While he was eating, I had another BLT, a half cinnamon raisin bagel with cream cheese and marmalade, then a pause and had a ham sandwich with only mayo and mustard. I think I had something else in there as well but can't remember. 

Drinking lots of water. I want flavored water but will have to scrape some dollars together if I want that now. I used up the last three oranges that were gifted me yesterday, was rather tasty actually. Just cut them in half and squeezed the juice over ice in a glass, added a teaspoon or so of sugar and then water. So essentially 'Hint' water but natural. Pepsi and Coke are still too strong, Powerade is good but expensive even on partial sale.  Last time I bought some water 'enhancers' it was at Target and  discovered the Black Cherry version was great, added it in my coke at the time, then realized it had caffeine in it as well. Oops. Well that's still on the market and there's also electrolyte versions as well. So will have to check that out when I can. Orange-Tangerine is my go to of course with tropical fruit being a second.

Once again, if I'm not eating, I'm talking about eating, thinking about or writing about food. Seems like if you toss a topic at me it will eventually come around to food. Something seriously wrong I think.   

Oh my last labs were apparently much much better for the liver enzymes so oncologist said don't have to repeat them for a month or so. Will see about my other doctors and what they need. I noticed that the one set of numbers for kidney function was slightly high and that sort of tracks with my theory about the leg/foot cramps. Again, doctor wasn't looking at those numbers and I suspect if something were wrong they'd mention it. 

 I focus in on 'bad' numbers because of everything that's happened. If it turns out to be nothing and doctor isn't worried I'll still worry.  Anywhosit, that's my ramble for tonight. More water... pizza for breakfast, maybe bacon and eggs or BLT.

 

Better day, wierd weather again

If anyone doesn't want my daily diary of my life, please let me know. I'm doing this for my own memory and keeping people in the loop about bigger issues. I think there's a setting where I can send it out less frequently or you can just opt to not get the emails. Honest, I won't be offended and judging from what all is going on, you're not going to miss much.

 Got some better sleep, was actually pretty tired last night. Not sure what I did to get sleepy but slept pretty well and didn't have too bad a cramp attack. Today, on the other hand, I got out and did some gardening so will hopefully sleep pretty good tonight. Deja vu... I think I said something like that a while ago and turns out, no I didn't sleep really well. Crossing fingers.

Got a call from my GI Dr. Keller, just checking in on me and reporting what he saw in my last blood tests. No TB which is good and I think I would have known by now if I had it. My liver numbers and potassium were much improved from before, which I already knew and praised the wonders of medicine. He also saw that I was not immune to Hepatitis A or B and suggested I contact my primary to get those vaccinations done. As a matter of 'people our age' as he said, we didn't get those automatically with the rest of our vaccinations when we were little like they do now. He also mentioned getting the second fecal test for the calprotectin (marker for Crohn's/Colitis) done but he has to request that to the labs and when I went in today for the regular blood draw it wasn't on the list. I told him how things were going with stools and food but was still tapering off the prednisone. He understood and even though I seem to be doing okay he doesn't want to 'sweep anything under the rug' and then discover something later on. Totally on board with that but waiting to see how things shake out after I'm off the prednisone entirely.

So the weather... heavier overcast today with possible rain in the early morning hours tomorrow. But it's in the mid 70's and breezy. Not quite jacket weather but not short sleeve only.... so double shirt it is. Then after gardening I was sweating like a horse and my second shirt seemed like too much but then what would you expect right? 

So anyway. Once again there was a point I wanted to make but can't remember what it was now. Senior mental moment again. Jon has his minor surgery thing tomorrow over in Kearny Mesa, next week is trip up to Scripps Ranch for boob doctor check in. 

Just all the things.... sigh. boring stuff now. Interesting stuff later. 

  

And of course, then they don't.

 Had a not so good night. Could tell I was getting cramps in my calves when I was getting into bed. Was feeling off, certainly had enough to eat, probably not enough water so taking care of that today. Woke up to pee around 4 something and got a cramp in my right calf, slight one in my left foot. I think though, the cramps are somehow connected to bladder build up. I don't know honestly but it seems to correlate.

So needless to say didn't sleep very well, was able to sleep in until almost 9 after Jon got up around 7. Wasn't very good sleep because I had wisps and vestiges of my dreams throughout the night. If you remember dreams, it wasn't very good sleep, at least for me. So today is a kind of off day, breathing is a bit labored not feeling as hungry or munchy, plenty of food to fix but it's sort of in the background. Which is some of the side effects of coming off prednisone, lack of appetite, fatigue, lightheaded, so that tracks.

The weather is odd too, breezy but high weird wispy clouds that kind of smudge all over the sky so the light is subdued and it's holding temperatures a bit high. So almost a blanket type feeling despite the breeze. 

So it's just an odd day that feels off. Trying to do knitting on a sweater for myself, had to pull out four rows because I dropped a marker and lost track of where I was. All fixed now. Hands are still trembling under use making for more frustration when trying to manage stitches oh and fingertips are feeling odd. Can't tell whether they're losing nerve endings or being over sensitive. Another layer to an odd out-of-sorts day.

Chicken veggie teriyaki for lunch today. Used a package of the thigh meat chopped/sliced up the veggies last night. There was more broccoli but when I opened the baggie this morning it seems there may have been a worm because there was brown mushy holes in about six of the florets. Didn't tell Jon of course he would have tossed all of it out. It was tasty and filling over rice with more teriyaki sauce with just enough left over for snack later. Trying to get more brave about using higher heat to sear meat in the pan but with inadequate ventilation I'm reluctant. Oh, yeah. The 'vent' for the hood is a double filter fan the pulls the smoke/air up and then just vents it out over my head into the kitchen. That's not venting, that's filtering air and not very efficient at that. 

I should really get out and water the garden but it's now 3 pm and not sure I have the energy to do that today. I peeked at the beds when I took Rocky out but that's it. Such a chore to pull the hose out and unreel it and all that then put it all back again. 

 That was two days ago before I watered but looks about the same today. Waiting for another crop of tomato seeds to sprout different than my usual Roma type, big slicer type. Timing is everything in gardening, by the time those seeds (hopefully) are big enough to plant, those cauliflower and potatoes may be ready to pull. 

That's my life. 

This is February and traditionally it's Valentines month. Don't need to splurge on a special dinner when you're secure in your relationship. It's a nice bonus but not necessary. Haven't been on a Valentine's date in decades but for us, a fancy dinner is a sandwich for each of us at our expensive shop. Decadence would be Olive Garden or Texas Roadhouse. We always end up looking at food videos late at night and it's always when we're broke. But it's fun to day dream about monster Italian subs at a shop across the country.

There I go talking about food again so maybe not so much lack of appetite. Going to do some knitting while Jon snores in the other room.