Foot to mouth

I can relate MG. While I don't have the tickle in my throat that is keeping your house up at night, it seems I have developed a sharp pain in the ball of my left foot. This pain only seems to come on about 2 hours after I have gone to bed. I am hoping I just stepped wrong and this will go away. A cold ice pack seems to stop the little shooter dead in its tracks - but that is hardly something you want on your foot in the middle of the night this time of year.

I had a couple check ups in Rochester yesterday and I am happy to report a sparkling review from both the plastic surgeon and my regular doctor. I don't have to go back to see the young, good looking plastics guy at all - and my regular doctor said, "call me in April - now get out of here and have some fun!" I have the green light to do everything from working to swimming to jogging - I just cannot lift stupid amounts of weight or shovel snow. Thankfully, these were not hobbies I ever embraced, so I think I will cope with the "loss" fairly well!

I had one complaint to report when I went to see the regular doctor today. I cannot sneeze. I mean, the sensation comes, I am almost ready to let it loose and it ends up being a couple quick weird inhales and it sometimes just cannot come out. Its like that cry thing that happens when you have cried a long time and you inhale suddenly and quickly 3 or 4 times in a row. Since she feels there is no medical reason for this - she suggested that I have come to "teach" myself to do this. For the past few months, I have been living in fear of a sneeze and when I feel one coming on I grab my stomach and brace for the worst. It doesn't really hurt to sneeze - I guess I feel like my abdomen might explode and the skin graft will hit the wall. I really don't know.

So, as I sat back this past evening I felt one coming again - I tried to relax and just take a deep breath and it did finally come. And - I am in one piece. She might be right on this. I will have to take inventory of a few more, though, before I will sign off on it! Never underestimate the power of a good sneeze. You will miss this little party trick when you "teach" yourself not to do it.

We ate at the Hu Hut at Apache Mall today. My first experience with filling a bowl with as much random food you can pack in and then standing in line watching it all stir fry on a big round flat top grill at the hand of two guys who walk around smacking spatulas the size of Nebraska. I must say it is a well orchestrated "dance" they do. I couldn't help wondering, as I stood there watching some short little chubby mans sauce bleed over into my pile of random food, if they ever got piles mixed up? I mean how would you really know. The noodle you pick might be a deal breaker - but I thought they all looked the same.

I learned I do not Black Tai Peanut sauce. I made my own little culinary delight from a recipe card that adorns each table. I should have stuck with the first concoction of random ingredients and sauces. I don't normally go for food fair where you play a large role in the meal. I would rather read it and order it and eat it. If I wanted to stand in front of a random selection of food items and figure out what to make with it all - I can do that from the comfort of my own refrigerator. I would go back though. Now, if I can figure out what to order when we go to Panera. That one intimidates me too and I end up with a turkey and cheese every time. Going to places where everyone else knows how to order and "what to do" is unnerving - especially if someone is behind you. I just got "okay" with Subway a few months ago. I hate having the big role. Make me the thing in the picture - is that so hard? Huh? 8 bread choices and 10 different sauces? Oil or vinegar? Club or Combo? I don't know. The picture dude - I want the picture deal up there above yer head! Do THAT.

Well, I should see about some sleep now since my foot thing is gone again. Cold - but gone.

Sunday...

Enough on politics for a few weeks. We went out to eat last night with friends I do believe are avid Bush/McCain/Palin fans. They are from a military family and I guess if you like the military [i.e. war] you like Republicans. Or so they tell me. I am good at having a responsible discussion in mixed company when it comes to politics, though. I certainly don't want to lose any friends over an election. Naturally McCain has his good points - as does Obama. It is the sum of the whole, however, we vote for. So when having a discussion among persons you wish to remain close to - its good to point out some good and bad on both sides no matter what party you stand for - and then shut up and order dessert. I had the Oreo Cow. (and there was no oreo's in it - strangely...)

Our house is RIPPED apart. We ripped out carpet upstairs and downstairs and are replacing the carpet up and putting down an oak floor in the living room. Of course this must be done 3 days before I am to go to surgery! We started yesterday and have friends helping. I am proving to be a good garbage carrier - and I can make snacks and food when requested! We had to sleep in the "den" last night - Mark on the couch and me on a twin bed. There is a small foot path to each - and to this computer - beyond that - it is full of furniture.

I am off to Rochester in the morning for one more little nosey procedure before Tuesday. Then Tuesday. I am still not even remotely nervous. I imagine though that will change a little once I am up there and rollin' down the hall to OR. We'll see - I might just surprise myself.

Well - I believe it's time for me to serve again.

There is life after Movi-Prep

Well, this is what my Thursday looked like - I didn't include the little bottle of white grape juice that became my receptacle for "throw up" on my way home from the store to get broth and lemon jello. I do have a little pride.

Movi-Prep: A 2 liter cocktail taken 1 liter at a time over the course of an evening to induce a colon cleanse. Usually before a colonoscopy. Yes, this was my Thursday. (More about process below.)

I think the prep for the procedure is designed to make you so completely ill that you have ZERO anxiety about the actual colonoscopy. I was sick most of the day on Thursday and that was just from fasting. Once I set the morning coffee free, I had dry heaves for another couple hours until I finally managed a nap around noon. Then I mixed up my little cocktail and eventually added the straw so that I could taste as little of it as possible. I don't need to tell you what happened next.

By Friday morning - I felt flat as a pancake and more hungry than I can ever remember being. On the drive to Rochester I began to obsess about what I would eat once I was done... a chocolate eclair, a cheese omelet, Godfathers combo pizza - and a pound or so of Lasagna- oh and a cheeseburger and a chocolate malt..."yeah, I am having all of that...heh eh heh...." . I narrowly escaped Kwik Star without sticking my finger in a chocolate frosted donut.

I got through it though, and things look good once again. One more check up Monday and the countdown to September 9th begins.

Added: 2/18/2009 Footnote to anyone who has found this looking for information on Movi- Prep:
If you are fortunate enough to have had this prescribed in order to clean your system, its not that bad. I later learned I could have had a light breakfast the day you start this. I didn't and got the heaves because I was so hungry. The directions say to start this later in the evening - I did the math on that and figured I would be up all night long with this process. I started the first round at 3:00 in the afternoon. That way you are done by the time you want to go to bed and get some good sleep.

My first suggestion would be to drink it with a straw. Get the straw in the back of your throat so you taste as little of it as possible. Its basically SALT flavored with lemon. Excess amounts of salt will evacuate your system. Your system won't absorb very much because of the amount of it. So don't worry about that. I am on a low sodium diet. You will need to be close to the bathroom through the drinking process. You drink it in 3 stages if I remember correctly (I am adding this post some months later). Once you are done with it and your system is empty - you will feel fine. The next morning you will be HUNGRY - but I felt just fine shortly after I was done. Getting all of it down is the hard part. I ate lemon jello, broth and egg drop soup that day - minus the solids in the soup. That, at least, felt like real food. I went to the nearest Chinese Restaurant and got two big bowls to have on hand for the day. Drink plenty of water also.

Feel free to email me if you have any questions! kirk2@neitel.net

The weekend.

What a glorious few days I have had. My appt. in Rochester could not have gone any better if I had orchestrated it myself. In fact, it played out pretty much the way I wrote in my last post. (Strangely enough!) I had the cat scan on Thursday to see how my 'insides' are looking and to quote my doctor, "It looks awesome! Perfect." Surgery is scheduled for September 9th. Finally, a real beginning to the end of this journey.

When we were done in Rochester, we set off on a mini bike trip to parts unknown! It was a great way to celebrate my little victory on Thursday. We had no agenda, really. From Rochester we went to LaCrosse, Lansing, Harpers Ferry, Prairie Du Chien where we stayed overnight. The next morning we left for Dubuque and hit a bunch of little towns along the way. Balltown most notable. There is a rather well known supper club/bar there that has been around for like 100 years. On Christmas Eve, this past winter, there was a fire and they lost most of the establishment. It is now rebuilt and quite lovely! They lost a good portion of their antique items. From what I understand from the worker there, they had quite a collection of old west items. Including things that belonged to Jesse James. A score of old guns too - although I am not a big gun fanatic.

We eventually crossed the river and began the journey back home. I have concluded that all a small (tiny) town really needs to sustain "town status" is a little bar on the corner that everyone seems to flock to. In every tiny town there were no businesses to speak of but you could count on seeing the neon beer sign in the window of at least one storefront! Name's like, "Frank's, Chippy's, The Old Tap, Freddie's Place and Lettie's Tap." They all sound strikingly friendly but we stopped by one of them for a soda and we may as well had monkeys hanging from us for the way these locals stared. Welcoming....eh, not so much!

I took a some pictures along the way- here are few neat ones and a couple rather mindless one's!

View from Mt. Hosemore look- out. The Mighty Miss.

This is my driver, again, at Mt. Hosemore. Can you tell how thrilled he is I made him sit there for 5 seconds. Oh well....What a view...!

Leaving Mt. Hosemore. Pretty.

Still leaving...Check out the goon in the rear view mirror.

Going over the bridge in Prairie.

Me outside the restaurant in Balltown (and our trusty steed).

It was a fabulous couple of days.

On another subject.....much to my delight I see there have been changes to the Redneck Crossing in my absence. Two old porcelain bath tubs now adorn the yard. A picture is now too much for me to resist.

Get yer motor runnin...

We are off tomorrow! Mayo Clinic, then our little bike trip to parts unknown. There is not much I can say at this moment about the appointment. In a perfect world, we get to the Gonda Bldg early, I drink my icky stuff, I get the IV of the crap that makes you hot, flush and taste metal - then the little conveyor takes you into the donut hole and you hold your breath. I will have heard my name 57 times at this point. Then, I go back to St. Mary's, have the follow-up at 2:30 and I am told how great a patient I have been, my surgery is in a few weeks and off we go. Well, to type that sounds like an awful lot. It is really not that bad. I try to be as humorous as I can and that seems to make things easy for everyone involved. A brief synopsis of the appt. will follow on a future post. Throw a good thought out to the universe in my honor. I hope it all goes that well.

I am looking forward to the bike trip following all of that. I need a few days away from my house. As much as I consider my home a sanctuary - this will be good for me. Its always been easy for us to travel since we don't have children. But today, I find I am a little anxious about leaving for 2 days. Crazy. I have traveled from coast to coast and across US Borders and never blinked an eye and was happy to be on the adventure. Today I am thinking about all kinds of garbage out of left field.

When I started considering the beneficiaries on my investments, I finally slapped myself back to reality and kicked that little bastardly voice to the curb. I know this mental circus gets me no where but, I buy the ticket and eat the cotton candy anyway. The difference now, is that I know I am doing it and can lose the negativity pretty quickly once the "what if scenarios" begin to get completely ridiculous.

My garden is flourishing. So far I have eaten 3 pounds of lettuce, 143 radishes, a couple pounds of kale - and way more chives than anyone was ever meant to eat in one sitting. With all of that, I have triple still to come in the garden. I haven't even started on the peas, cucumbers, squash, potatoes, onions.....

I think once all of that comes to fruition I will be stopping by our local food bank. I know they accept garden fresh items at certain times. I will have enough potatoes to mash and fill an ocean at the rate its going.

I must go hoe.

Here it is the 4th of July already. We have no really super exciting plans - a cook out tomorrow and maybe some family time in there somewhere. I managed to score some fireworks in Prairie Du Chien the other day. That ought to be hours of family fun - providing my husband doesn't lose an arm. I tried to get some pretty user friendly stuff - but then again - even the Big Boom stuff just has a fuse you need to hold a small flame to for 3 seconds....then RUN. You run as fast no matter how BIG its supposed to be.

Had a check up this morning with my local doctor. Thumbs up on that count, now I just need to get my body scan at Mayo out of the way next week. This should hopefully throw the door wide open for the now infamous "final surgery". So much of my life is on hold until I get this behind me. I think I need to connect the two doctors though. My surgeon says "eh, you could stand to gain a few pounds." I did so with complete EASE (more potatoes please!). My doctor here looked mildly amused to see I had gained almost 10 pounds since my last visit. He looked at me like I had grown a third eye. You know, his eyes went squinty for a second - then he says so profoundly, "Hmmmm........okay then. So where are we going from here?" Well, my first thought was "HMMMM, WE are not going anywhere. And second, I am 133 pounds and I don't think that is unhealthy on either end of the spectrum for my body type." So, I promised Mayo I would gain weight and today I promised Decorah I would not. Someone is going to make a liar of me! I think I will just stay where I am at and they can fight it out.

My appointment is next Thursday and after that Mark planned a bit of a mini "tour" of sorts. From Rochester we are going to La Crosse and are going to ride (motorcycle) for a few days up there. We'll get a hotel room or a cabin in the country and we will land back there at night. I am looking forward to it. The only vacation I have had in over a year was a months stay at Chateau Mayo last summer/fall. Not exactly 5 star accommodations and a little restrictive as far as over night stays go ;-) they won't let you leave!

That's all - I have to finish my garden review. I picked some radishes a couple hours ago and I was amazed at the size of them. When I looked on Monday I thought they needed a little more time -but something happened this week and now they are fairly enormous!

Happy July 4th!

Shop 'til you drop!

Okay. So it's time to talk about the toilet, but first a Readers Digest version of the last year of my life (it's relevant): I resigned my position of 16 years in May '07, decided to take the summer off and regroup. I did work that summer at a fun job at a store some friends of ours own. It was a good experience to clean the career pallet you might say. Just when I was beginning to shed my mental baggage of the past 16 years at "adult daycare" - I faced a health crisis in August. I had surgery to remove a portion of my intestine that was possessed by diverticulitus. I never knew I had this. In fact, I have never had ONE health issue in my entire life. So, I guess getting the mother load all at once seemed fitting to the powers that be! The surgery went okay - but there were major problems early and I narrowly escaped with my life a month later! Thank you, Mayo Clinic. I am doing fine now and will have one more surgery later this summer to make me completely right with the world again.

My recovery was snail pace slow and I was warned it would be. I got to a point, though, where I was stronger and feeling good (and restless with so much TIME). Working full time or even part time was not really in the cards for me yet - but I wanted to find something to fill up a few of my days!

I became a Mystery Shopper! What an amusing way to fill a day! It felt alot like working for the FBI. I would get my "packet" in the mail. "Smith & Co." wants to find out how their employees are stacking up. They want to know if the customer is really having the experience they had hoped it would be! And is the "product at said establishment" up to snuff? You study the packet and then continue the remainder of the requirements online. Some shops can be quite involved - even testing your knowledge on the establishment before you are allowed to shop it.

Each "shop" (thats the lingo ;-) is different. My last particular string was for a chain gas station, where after making some purchases and buying some gas - I had to retreat secretly to my vehicle and fill out a rather lengthy critique (they must even have the correct color of paint on their curbs and logo's displayed to specification.) Once that is complete, with this particular string (more lingo there) you have to go back in, meet the manager and basically tell him/her THE JIG IS UP! "I am grading you today... on you, your business and how clean you are! BUSTED!" Well, not really! LOL

It's all quite professional and you explain your purpose and then give them the horrific news you will be taking an assigned number of photos to be sent back to their headquarters. That usually makes people groan like their lunch is coming up. I felt bad doing this part of it, really. To have people look at you like you have the power over space and time to flick their livelihood from them like a fly on your shoulder. So I tried to be pretty nice.

Most shops are just following the instructions on what you are to buy and questions you are to ask of the employees. You don't normally reveal yourself, so those I really like. My next string is a chain restaurant and I have to order carry-out on a few days and and dine in on a few. I have to order what they tell me to order which sometimes is NOT what I would normally get - and then come home, get online and complete the critique on their website (and I usually eat some of what I had to buy about here!) I have no clue what happens to anything or anyone after that. So, I get paid for my time, reimbursed for gas and reimbursed for my purchase. I will probably keep doing it even after I go back to work. I have read some people actually make a living doing this. While I don't know if I could support myself on it - it is a fun way to make a little extra cash.

So, the toilet. When I began this blog, I wanted to load a picture to see how easy or hard it would be. When I opened up my PIC folder, there it was in all of its glory. A toilet at one of my shops. I thought, now there is a conversation piece. Turns out I was right!

footnote: ...the toilet didn't make out too well on my critique...