Whoohoo! I did good!

My cardiologist is thrilled with my cholesterol levels and says my heart sounds terrific. However, he has ordered a stress test since it has been a while since I had one. Oh boy something to look forward to next month.

It’s been almost four years since I had the heart attack. Doesn’t seem like that amount of time has passed.

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A visit with the vampires…

     Went for my blood work yesterday.  I do love the new St. Luke’s center they built to the west of town.  It is so much easier to park and, since it is such a new place, no one goes there. 

     Two receptionists, two people ahead of me, I waited about two minutes to check in.  I didn’t even have time to turn on my Kindle.

     Once checked in at the main desk, I walked to lab just a few yards down the hall.  No one in the waiting room, another two-minute wait,  I was seated and having blood drawn.

     I cracked the phlebotomist up as she took two tubes of blood out of me.  Since the chair was so high, I began to swing my legs back and forth and told her I felt like a little kid in the chair.  “Where’s my tray and snacks?”

I get an A for plays well with others

     To all the great gals at St. Luke’s Diagnostic Center, thank you for making an afternoon of tests tolerable.  We played well together. 

     I was glad I took my Kindle and MP3 player along.  When I first got there, the waiting room was practically empty.  After a little while, a crowd of loud people came in.  I knew then it was time to plug the MP3 into my ears and block them out so I could read.

     I did keep one eye on the front of the room for anyone coming in to take me back for my testing.  Good thing too because I didn’t hear my name called but looked up in time to see it called.  LOL!

     I was poked, pinched, stuck, prodded, and walked until I was so out of breath I could barely finish telling the funny story I’d begun. 

     The ladies all told me that what they saw looked good but I haven’t had the official word from my doctor so I’ll be on pins and needles until he lets me know what is going on.

     You all have a good one.

Still not up to par

     Two doctor appointments in two days is no fun but three days is worse.  I’m back to the cardiologist’s office today for both an echo cardiogram and a nuclear stress test.

     Only had about two hours of sleep last night not sure how much I’ll get tonight.

      Gavin and Patty played alarm clock long before my alarm went off yesterday.  Therefore they weren’t invited into my room to bed bounce. 

     You all have a good one!

Another shoe drops

     I was going to blog about the Westminster dog show but then I got an E-mail from my dear friend Elena’s neighbor.

     Elena is in the hospital fighting for her life.  She had a major heart attack.  She was resuscitated and tests showed a blockage that can only be cleared by surgery.  She is now in stable, but non-responsive condition with a breathing tube in the ICU.  The doctors are waiting for her condition to improve to discuss surgery.

     I have a candle burning for her.

When does the energy return?

     I’m still waiting for my energy to come back.  I get tired all the time while doing much less than I did six months ago.  With amazing temperatures the last two days it really bothered me that I didn’t have all the energy I wanted to have.

     People keep telling me that it will come back and I’ll feel normal again.  However, after carrying in the groceries and large bag of dog food yesterday I truly wondered about it.  Once I put  the groceries away, I felt so exhausted that I asked The Curmudgeon if he minded if I ordered a pizza for dinner.  I absolutely did not have any energy left to cook.

     Before, I would’ve made a great dinner using ingredients I just bought.  My ass was dragging for sure because all I wanted to do was take a nap.  (I didn’t though.)   It’s a little hard to do that when you have two bullies telling you it is dinner time!  They aren’t subtle about it.

     You all have a good one!  I’m going to take it easy today…maybe.

Six month check up

 

     My cardiologist is pleased.  He took me off of one medication today.  The nasty one that was making me cough so much.  However, he did raise the dosage on another.  The one for my cholesterol.

     Now if I can only take off the weight that I put on over the last few months.  Comes with the smoking cessation the doctor said.  He’s not worried about it but I am!!

     I hope you all have a good one!  I know I will now that the cough inducing med is off my list.

Wanted: new heart smart recipes

 

     I am still experimenting with new recipes.  The Curmudgeon has so far only liked about half of what I’ve tried from the heart healthy cookbooks I bought. 

     Help, I am quickly running out of recipes.  I downloaded another fifteen free cookbooks to my Kindle and only about half of those are heart healthy. 

     Do you have any heart smart recipes you love and men tolerate well?  If so, please post them in my comments section to share with me and other heart patients.

Updates on DH and the snow damage

     DH is much improved from his several days of muscle spasticity to our great relief.  His recovery is slow and we hope he will recover fully.

     The night of the dreaded Halloween snowstorm you could hear trees and branches snapping and popping all over the place.  All I heard today was the sound of chain saws.

     I have to somehow pull two broken magnolia limbs out of that tree and so far it looks like only one more tulip tree branch I’ll need to get down from that tree.  How you ask?  You got me by the short ones.  If my tree saw won’t reach I don’t know what I’ll do.

     Then I need to start raking leaves and dragging them out to the street for clean up.  The way I’m feeling now, this is going to take forever.

RIP Cousin Bill

     Cousin by marriage, I never had a chance to meet you in person.  We talked on the phone a few times and I did enjoy your sense of humor.  I will dedicate ‘Fluffy’ to you.

     I was lucky in August, I had DH call an ambulance when I didn’t feel right.  That saved my life, I survived my heart attack.  I wish you had listened to your symptoms. 

     My heart goes out to Bill’s wife–my Cousin Gloria and his family.  He was a good man who touched many lives.

Thank goodness the cooler weather is coming

     Now I can add soups and stews to our menu.  I love to make them from scratch.  It is easy to make them in a heart healthy manner too.  Which is something I am trying to do with everything these days.

     It’s also one way to get DH to eat less meat and more vegetables without complaining. 

     Over the next week or so I’ll be digging through my recipes and pulling out all my favorite soup and stews.  I do have a few out and have some of the fresh ingredients on my list for the farmers market. 

      Don’t get me wrong, I do not like cold weather.  However, I don’t mind cool weather.  (We can only hope it is dry.)

Time to whip myself back into shape

 

     I find that my muse has completely jumped ship.  She’d better get her butt back here soon.  It’s as though my brain caught a computer virus and shut down.  Not a good thing.

     I’m thinking that I probably need to jump start my creativity with a good infusion of  writing exercises.  In other words, my brain needs to get some exercise.  Come to think of it so does my body, the no smoking has added a few pounds.

     Oh, how exciting, me a lazy person, has not only quit smoking, but I am now going to exercise both brain and body. 

     You, my dear readers, might be subjected to some writerly exercises for a while until my brain gets the idea that it is NOT on vacation and MUST work.  You will also be subjected to me bitching about exercising my body.

     Be prepared, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.  This isn’t going to be pretty.