The News About Tony

Tony’s doctors appointment to get the results of his liver biopsy was at 3:00 p.m.  At 3:05 we got called into the office and the nurse goes over the usual stuff – takes his blood pressure (perfect by the way), goes over all the medications he takes, etc.  Then she said “okay, you can go back and wait until the doctor is ready to see you.”  Huh.  Usually once we are in the room we stay until the doctor comes in.  So we wait in the waiting room.  We watch Ellen, and at 4:10 we finally get called in.

Let’s get the news out of the way first, shall we?  Tony has liver disease.  Plain and simple.  The good news?  We have a plan!  Because his liver isn’t functioning 100%, he has to be on a low protein, low sodium diet.  It’s ironic that unknowingly, he’s been eating a low protein, low salt diet for the last couple weeks – fresh fruit, yogurt, dry cereal, rice, pasta, very little meat.  The steak I made the other night – he may have had two or three bites of it – he’ll mostly be getting his protein from eggs and cottage cheese.  I don’t think I can convince him to eat beans!  But it will just be paying attention to adding salt to dishes and checking labels – luckily we don’t eat a lot of processed foods, but every once in a while Tony will eat a frozen dinner or a frozen pot pie – the sodium ranges from 750 – 1300 grams per serving!  He has to be under 2000, but his goal is to be around 1,500 – and I don’t think he’ll have a problem sticking to that.

So thanks for all your continued support, good thoughts, etc. – we totally appreciate it!!

It was a tostada kind of breakfast and lunch yesterday.  In the morning I ended up using the leftover steak Tony didn’t eat with leftover zucchini and potato and put that all on two corn tostadas with 3/4 ounce of cheese and put it under the broiler – so fricken good – these two tostadas are 415 calories and so filling.

Since I had a half day and was leaving at 12:30 – I thought I would hit up the gym straight from work.  But then I realized if I did that, I wouldn’t get home until after 2:00 – and then to fix lunch, shower and get ready for the appointment in time seemed cutting it too close.  I came home and did Speed 2.0 from T-25.

It went by super fast – and I was able to do about 90% of it – the other 10% I did the modifications.

Here’s a great grilling tip – the other night when I was grilling the steak, the coals were still perfect by the time I took the steak off the grill.  I quickly grabbed a couple boneless, skinless chicken thighs and threw those on for lunches later this week.  Don’t waste the coals!  I also had a leftover of mixed beans from last weeks salads – chick peas, black beans and pinto beans.

[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:41]

I haven’t figured out the stats yet on this, but I can’t imagine its too bad – and probably super high in fiber.

We went straight to the pharmacy after Tony’s appointment, so we didn’t get home until well after 5:00.   I decided to make my spring time risotto with bay scallops – except without edamamme – I forgot about it and they were frozen.   The only thing is that I had to dilute the chicken broth – I had regular chicken broth and it’s a sodium bomb.  I also added pepper to the risotto since I wasn’t adding a ton of salt, and well, it was a bit too much for Tony sadly.  He said “My Mom never puts pepper in her risotto!”  True!

Turns out hard Parmesan cheese is a low sodium cheese – only 75 mg per tablespoon!

Even with the diluted chicken broth – each serving of this risotto is around 600 mg of sodium – but he was still well under 1500 mg for the day.

I never got my extra walk in yesterday – so didn’t hit my number – but not bad considering I sat for an hour and fifteen minutes waiting for the doctor.

Alright, time to get my shit together.  AND THANK YOU for all your kind comments on my post yesterday – you guys continue to lift me up and I know this is only a minor set back in the whole grand scheme of things.  Thanks for being the best cheerleaders!  Hugs!  Now go make it a great day!