My Chest is Normal!

Well, the good news is that my chest x-ray came back normal, so no lung cancer (ha!), or pneumonia.  He described what I have as “bronchial spasms” and the best course of action is . . . more prednisone.   I also have a stronger cough medicine and he wants me to use the inhaler 5x a day vs. 3x a day.

He said the only exercise i can do is walk, but if the coughing continues to obviously stop.  So at this point it’s a 50/50 chance of me doing the 5k on Saturday – only the next couple days will tell!  Regardless, he said that I probably won’t feel 100% for another 12-14 days.

But, I can’t complain one bit.  So you know that my Dad had cancer, my husband had cancer and my brother had cancer.  Well, my cousin Pam has cancer.  Pam lives in Virginia and is married with two adult kids.  She was my first female role model, but as I write this, I am not sure I ever told her that.

I remember she and her boyfriend (who ended up being her husband!) spent the night at our house one night because they were backpacking across the country – I was probably 11 or 12 at the time and I just thought that was the coolest thing.  I was an avid letter writer as a child, and no matter how many times I wrote her, she always wrote me back – sometimes just a simple post card from where ever they were at – it meant so much to me at the time!

Well, she was a breast cancer survivor, but several years later they found out that the cancer had spread to her bones.  She now travels 600 miles round trip to Boston every month for clinical trial treatments.  Yesterday she wrote an article on the Huffington Post website – you can check it out here.  So while I am knocked to the sidelines for a couple weeks, she’s fighting for her life – I love you Pam!

Breakfast yesterday?  Sucked ass.  I mean really big time sucked ass.  Way too many sweet flavors going on in this parfait – you would have thought I had learned my lesson!  Vanilla chocolate chunk Chobani yogurt, sliced banana and vanilla cherry granola.  Barf.  I only ate about 6 bites before setting it aside, and then I had to literally take it to my office kitchen to throw it out because of the smell.

This came in at 329 calories, 4 fat, 62 carbs, 4.8 fiber and 11.5 protein.  But ick.

I didn’t bring a lunch because my appointment was at 1:00 p.m.  By the time I got out of the doctor office, down stairs for the chest x-ray and then went to Walgreen’s for my prescriptions, I was hangry!  I stopped at McDonald’s – dollar menu all the way baby!  The grilled chicken chipotle bbq snacker and a small fry: 480 calories, 19 fat, 56 carbs, 4 fiber and 19 protein.

The snack wrap was actually quite tasty – the bbq sauce had a spicy kick to it. 

With the extra time I had yesterday afternoon after I got home, I put together Carol’s salsa that I canned over the weekend – she won the August challenge giveaway.  Then I also FINALLY boxed up my food magazines for Marcia – I only promised them to her six weeks ago!

Dinner was breaded chicken over mashed potatoes with a pan sauce and broccoli.  I don’t really have a recipe for the chicken, although that piece below is half of one half of a chicken breast – they were huge chicken boobs!

Dredge the pounded chicken in egg whites (I season with salt/pepper/Italian seasoning), then dip into Italian style bread crumbs.  I pan fried them in 2 teaspoons of grapeseed oil – I forgot I had a bottle of this and I like it because it has a higher smoking point and doesn’t burn.

Once the chicken was cooked on both sides, I removed the chicken.  Here is a simple pan sauce recipe:

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon olive oil/grapeseed oil
• squeeze of fresh lemon juice (about 1 teaspoon)
• salt and pepper to taste.

With the residual oil left in the pan (about 1 teaspoon) add the butter and melt it.  The add the flour and cook for 1 minute.  Slowly stir in the chicken broth for a nice creamy sauce, should take about 5 minutes.  Remove from heat, season with salt and pepper and add the lemon juice.  Makes 4, 1/4 cup servings: 44 calories, 4.7 fat, 1.6 carbs, 0 fiber and .44 protein.

This delicious dinner was 531 calories, 31 fat, 45 carbs, 5.5 fiber and 21 protein.

Was anyone else a football widow last night?  I don’t mind because Tony LOVES the game so much, even though we both picked the Giants to win.  So while he watched football I watched Brittany & Abby, International House Hunters, Restaurant Impossible AND I watched music videos.  I haven’t done that in a long time.  I saw this great video and I have never heard of this band before.

Please don’t tell me they are country music stars, because I really don’t like country music!  Check out this video:

Am I the only one who’s never heard of this band before? 

Alright – off to get my shit together – make it a great day!