Not Out of the Woods…Yet

I had my annual eye exam yesterday morning.  For diabetics, this is just as important as meeting with your endocrinologist regularly.  They have this one test that takes pictures of all your blood vessels.  Diabetic Retinopathy is the leading cause of blindness in diabetics.  It happens when you don’t control your blood sugar over time and once the damage is done, you can’t really reverse it.  I am happy to report that my eyes look exactly as they did 8 years ago when I did my first test – woop!  

I then went to the hospital.  Well, after I went to McDonald’s and got this:

Gah.  My mouth said “I’ll have oatmeal!” but it came out “I’ll have a sausage McMuffin with egg please!”  440 calories for that sandwich. 

When I got to the hospital they were taking five additional vials of blood for more testing.  Remember yesterday when I said “his liver is fine and we are just waiting for his INR number to come down to remove the polyps?”  Well, we are still waiting for his INR number to come down, but his liver is not functioning right.  There are several opinions:

1. He takes a medicine called Allopurinol for his gout.  He could be having a toxicity problem with that drug that is damaging his liver, so they took him off that medication immediately.
2. He may have gall stones. One of the stones may have lodged in a bile duct, causing the function of the liver not to be able to do what it does.  If that’s the case, they can remove the stone and hopefully things start working correctly.
3. He has a slightly fatty liver – not even sure that that one is yet!

He definitely is jaundiced – the whites of his eyes are yellow.  He’s not in any pain, which is good, but it’s the constant waiting.  By coincidence, Tony’s colon cancer surgeon popped his head in because he saw Tony’s name on the patient board.  He decided to get involved and actually told us more of what was going on than anyone.  He ordered a detailed MRI to see if they could determine if a gall stone is in a bile duct.

It took about 20 minutes, but I am not sure I could do it being enclosed like that.  He did have headphones on – they had XM radio and he chose 60s music.  At one point he started tapping his toes to the beat of the music and the technician took that as a sign that he was trying to communicate with her to get him out!  He did a great job.

Sadly, he ordered lunch just as they decided to do the test, so he couldn’t eat or drink anything.  He ordered me a tomato soup and a turkey sandwich for him.  Because of his artificial heart valve (is my man bionic or what??!!) he has to be on a low sodium diet.  No ham, no mustard, no marble rye even!   Well, have you ever had tomato soup without any salt?  Um, it’s not very good!  I ended up eating his sandwich though.  After I picked off the icky sliced tomatoes.

So we watched a lot of t.v.  I bought a few magazines.  I read my emails.  THANK YOU to everyone who’s sending me DVDs for the children’s ward!   I think at last count, I am up to nearly 24 DVDs and my goal was 20.  You guys rock!!  Still not too late.  If you have some newer, gently used kids DVDs you don’t watch anymore, or want to buy some from Amazon.com and mail them to me – I’d appreciate it.  Just shoot me an email at mybizzykitchen@gmail.com.

I ended up getting the salad bar for dinner again.  It’s not bad, and I am actually liking kidney beans in a salad!  I noticed that in the hot station they had grilled SW turkey cutlets.  They were small so I asked for two of them with the idea to chop them up and put them on my salad for protein.  I got two turkey cutlets, the salad and an iced tea for Tony.  Total?  $15.51!

I looked at the receipt and said “each piece of turkey was $4.29?!”  She said yes, and when I told her I didn’t want them anymore, she said they were already on my tray so I had to buy them.  I could have bought a whole turkey breast and made THREE meals out of that for less than $8.58!  Lesson learned – ask for the price before buying!  While the flavor was spice, they were super dry and overcooked.  And they are each smaller than a plastic spoon!

I loved the combination of flavors with this salad – the spicy banana peppers, the sweetness of the dried cranberries.  That’s about the only decent thing in the cafeteria – except their chili is pretty good now that I think of it.  Aimee, I totally understand your frustration with hospital food now!

I have a confession to make though.  Since Wednesday night, since no one is here, the mindless snacking has come back with a vengeance.   I know some of it is stress related, but it has to stop before it gets out of control.  Last night I must have had a cup of peanuts while catching up on Facebook and emails – so mindless!   So I’ve already told myself that the kitchen is closed after 7:00 p.m.  I get home from the hospital after that time, so that’s what I have to do.  And my exercise has ground to a complete halt.  I am about to snow blow the driveway, so that will be some exercise, and when I come home from the hospital tonight I plan on doing a 40 minute Insanity routine.  I will post my “after” picture on Instagram to hold me accountable.  Are you following me yet there?  mybizzykitchen is my name on there.

Alright, time to get this show on the road.  Today is my best opportunity to get the snow out of the driveway before arctic temperatures come back.  They are saying that on Monday we’ll have the coldest temperatures in Chicago in over 30 years – windchills will feel like –50!  Tony and I both agree that it doesn’t make sense to live in a place that can have 100 degree temps and then be –20!

Thank you for your continued prayers and support.  Every time you leave me a comment or send me an email or text, it feels like a hug!