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Wednesday, December 30, 2015

The "Sushi Verdict", edition.

 Good Wednesday morning!  This is the last edition for 2015.  Almost a year since I started the training for home hemo. I could go on about our accomplishments for 2015.  But not right now.  I want to tell you about sushi and our plans for New Years Eve and New Years Day.  I may do the year in review on Friday. We'll see.  

So sushi.  Shawn likes sushi.  I've had it and not only have I tried it, I tried in the 80s before it became a thing. So there!  A friend, whose mother is Japanese had a restaurant in Livonia near Laurel Park Place. She had us come and have a sushi tasting party. I recall liking it, but not something I'd drive to Livonia to get.  Time passed and sushi just wasn't on my radar. My child, on the other hand, loves sushi. I think she really fell in love when she lived in Washington DC. So anyway. We're talking on the phone before she gets out here to Vegas and says she wants some sushi. I ask her, hey you live in a college town with a large Asian population, aren't there sushi restaurants there?  She informs me of several facts. First is that Champaign-Urbana is in the middle of nowhere. Insinuating that getting really fresh fish for sushi could be problematic. Second, yes there is an Asian population, but it's mostly Korean and Chinese. And as a matter of fact it's the largest concentration of Koreans in the state.  Maybe I heard that wrong?  

So my job was to find a good sushi restaurant here in Vegas.  So as I look them up, one of the restaurants that got high ratings is very close to where we live. As a matter of fact, I knew exactly where it was because I'd seen it and had wondered about it. The name is Yamasushi and its AYCE.  What is that acronym?  All You Can Eat. From my experience I'm thinking a sushi buffet and that just sounds yuck. But. The restaurant was getting high ratings. I'm clearly puzzled. So we just jump on and go. The place was packed!  And people still just kept on coming. As we sat and ate we watched the line to get seated grow. 

So how does AYCE sushi work?  I guess it's like Chinese dim sum?  You order off a menu, which has an impossible number of items and the server brings you what you order. Eat, repeat.  Until you cannot lift your chopsticks anymore!  Lol. We'd order the sushi, California rolls, tempura rolls, Diablo things, etc., the list was huge. Each plate had up to 10 sushi rolls on it and Shawn, Brian and I would each order something different. (My child likes eel....erm..). I even tried miso soup.  You pay one price and you gave a 1.5 hour time limit, then eat sushi until you burst!  Well I didn't burst, but I got full and I enjoyed it. Even if I fought with my chopsticks. And Shawn had her sushi jones taken care of!  

Will Brian and I go there once Shawn is gone?  I don't plan on it unless Brian has a hankering for sushi, but I won't turn my nose up on it again. It was good and filling.  That being said, I'd still jump for burrito instead!!!  

Friday we're having red beans and rice, with chipotle and  Gruyere cornbread, a salad and a pineapple upside down cake. Pauline and her niece are invited. And Brian and I invited our neighbor's down the hall. They moved in the complex about the same time we did. They're from southern Illinois and are very nice. They bring us (mmmmmmm good) cookies for Christmas.  And it's just time to reciprocate. I know.  New Year's Day is black eye peas. But I can't cook 'em. So it's red beans for us.  My recipe?  Sautéd onions, celery, green pepper and garlic in olive oil.   If I'm doing vegetarian I also add red, orange and yellow peppers and vegetable broth. Add sausage, like Jimmy Dean, then add andouille sausage, if I can find it, if not then smoked sausage. And yes, sometimes I used smoked turkey sausage. Add the jar of beans, add chicken broth and cook. Periodically use a potato masher to mash some of the beans. Gives it a thicker consistency.  Add a bay leaf or 2. Season with salt, pepper a little red pepper flake...or a lot depending on how spicy you like it.  Cook for about an hour then serve in a bowl over rice. Good stuff. 

Well that's it for today.  I'm starting the process to get on the transplant list here.  Yesterday I got a call from UMC, University Medical Center, the only transplant hospital in the state. :-/  So I'll be on the test merry go round again. The good news is my primary care physician has already had me take a lot of the tests to get a baseline. Woot!! 

Enjoy your day and a safe New Year's Eve!  See ya' next year!!!!  

Monday, December 28, 2015

The "Holiday Family Time", edition.

Good Monday morning. Still the holiday and will be a holiday until Shawn is headed back to Illinois.  So. Let's start with Christmas dinner. Most of the meal items were prepared or purchased before Friday.  Dinner was at 2:00.  I know. You say, hey that's rather early. And it was, but for a reason. Dad has to pick up Carl from his assisted living residence. It's literally across town.  If you're familiar with the area, we live near The Westgate, formerly known as The Las Vegas Hilton.  Carl lives very near Red Rock Casino and Resort.  It's listed as a 13 mile trip, about 30 minutes each way. There is no freeway to take there and the lights here are extra long.  As long as traffic is moving, 30 minutes sounds right.  Anyway. The point is Dad wanted to make sure he returned Carl before it got dark. And he did. We were pretty much done by 5:00. And that allowed me to do treatment that  evening. It was a win all around.  

Now. What was left to fix on Christmas Day?  The banana pudding was done.   The cucumber salad and potato salad were done, the candied corn needed to be heated up.   Put it in a pot on low and let it go.  The tri tip was put in oven on low and was going well. The turkey breast was also in the oven. So I needed to do my fancy rice.  What is fancy rice?  I sauté a package of sliced mushrooms, an onion, 1/2 a green pepper and 3 stalks of celery for about 5-7 minutes. I seasoned the veggies with kosher salt, pepper and garlic powder. That day I used 3 tbsp of butter, but I have used olive oil.  Then I added  the rice and sautéd it with the veggies for about 4 more minutes. Then, instead of water, I used low sodium broth. Friday I used beef broth to complement the tri tip.  But I've also used chicken broth or even vegetable broth. I added a teaspoon of beef boullion and then cooked according to the directions on the package of rice. Yum. Yum. And did I say yum?  I also made some gravy. 

The final dish was the oven roasted brussel sprouts. They were perfection. The trial run ended up too salty. I followed Ina's directions, but she just had too much salt. We seasoned before roasting and that was enough. As always there was too much good and as always, we sent our seniors home with goodie bags. We had a great Christmas Day!   

So Sunday is our regular brunch day. Yesterday we went to the House of Blues Gospel Brunch at the House of Blues in the Mandalay Bay. I thought Dad might like it. And he did. Remember, he attends the Episcopal church, so the music nowhere near gospel!  Also, the brunch buffet is pretty extensive. There were several stations.  The main knew had 3 Salads, shrimp, scrambled eggs, sausage gravy and biscuits,  Mac and cheese, sausage links, bacon, catfish and bbq chicken. There was a carving station, a chicken and waffles station and the ever ubiquitous omelet station.  And of course deserts. You can purchase mimosas and bloody Mary's .  I know at the Disney World venue they offered fresh squeezed orange juice...but that's Florida!!  

They give you 45 minutes before the show starts, but you can get food until the end.  I won't tell you about the show, but we enjoyed it. The gospel groups are different each week. The group we saw here in Vegas performs every 4th Sunday. The singer was Pat Pennington and she was from Detroit!  How about that?  Dad enjoyed it. Brian, Shawn and I enjoyed it again. I recommend the gospel brunch not only for the food, but the singing is good. 

That's it for today.  I need to reiterate that I am feeling much better. The problem really was too much fluid. Isn't that something. That could have killed me. I guess I was slowly dying. But now I'm not!!  Whoo hoo!  I betcha I'll be more vigilant about fluid accumulation!  Take care. Be careful if you're in bad weather areas. It's just chilly here. So much whining!  They don't know what cold is!  Lol. Have a wonderful day!!!







Friday, December 25, 2015

The "I'm Writing This On Christmas Day!", edition.

Merry Christmas. I didn't really anticipate writing the blog today, but I've got this small window of respite right now. Let's start with Wednesday, shall we?  Brian and Shawn got out early to pick up the tritip and smoked turkey. The tritip tasted great!  Anyway. We left later on to go to my monthly kidney appointment.  Great appointment.  I got a clean bill of health from my nephrologist.  I'm back to dialysis 5 days a week, but can do more if I feel the need. I'll be starting the process to get on the transplant list here in Nevada after January 1. The only hiccup is finances. I'll get into that in a later edition. You'll like this. (Feel the sarcasm). Let's just say that we're fortunate that finances won't get in the way, no thanks to the fucking City of Detroit. Ugh. 

Anyway. I still had to get a hit of iron at the appointment. But I don't need the protein supplement since I'm eating. Also we fax flow sheets (forms we fill out that have data from the  dialysis session). I skipped treatment on my birthday and indicated on the flow sheet for the following treatment that I missed treatment because it was my birthday. When I got to the dialysis center, every one wished me happy birthday, including the doctor!!  Ok. So my initial point was I got the iron. It's introduced through my arterial access. It takes about 10 minutes. And my accesses are causing problems right now, I may have to create new buttonholes. Another story for another time. My point is, I opted out of treatment Wednesday evening because I didn't want to restick the access so soon after the iron treatment. So we did treatment Thursday morning and will probably do treatment again this evening. It's all good. Dinner is early today at 2:00. 

Wednesday Shawn and I finished the potato salad. It went incredibly fast and Shawn showed me shortcuts. Imagine.  This recipe is handed down from my grandfather and it took my daughter to shorten the time significantly!!!  Hooray for youth and great thinkers!!!  Thursday Brian and I did the cucumber salad and banana pudding. That leaves the rice and brussel sprouts for today.  So today!  We sort of went overboard and got Shawn everything she asked for.  And more.  She ended up with a giant box filled with a bunch of presents!  She asked for and received archeology tools. I gave Dad a new fedora. I saw his old hat when he went to church. It looked pretty bad.  Bran received a cut resistant glove, so he may try a mandolin again without ending up in ER. ;-)  And I got bags. I am a an unashamed bad lady. And a kick ass AKA cardigan!!!  

Brian fixed the baileys and coffee and we had sausage, egg and biscuit sandwiches.  We'll kick into high gear in about 1.5 hours. Right now we're just chilling and enjoying each other!!  On that note I'm signing out. Have a great Christmas Day and enjoy yourselves.  I'm looking forward to the rest of the day!!!  

Note the Christmas tree on the speaker!!  And next to the hat is the gift to Dad from my brother and sister in law. Dad asked for a Mercedes. He got one! And the batteries to go with it!!!   Hehehehehe!!!
And for the record there  are other gifts scattered around the living room waiting to be placed under the "tree".  :-)  

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

The "Holiday Spirit", edition.

Good Wednesday morning!  First things first. Shawn is in the house!!!  So let me get some info out of the way. How does one get from Champaign-Urbana Illinois to ... Well anywhere?  Lol. The city is in the middle of nowhere surrounded by corn fields.  It's true that there is an airport there. It's a commuter airport and she could fly from there, but it would almost $300-$400 per trip. That's out. You can also leave from Springfield, Illinois, about an hour west of Urbana, but it still requires a layover at Ohare. Now Champaign-Urbana is nicely placed equidistant from Chicago, St. Louis and Indianapolis. How cool  is that?  Well. The only airport that has the shuttle(!) is Ohare. So she leaves from Ohare. For this trip. 

She could drive, but that means paying the long term parking and I just know the cost is prohibitive in Chicago. For the record, she has done the Indianapolis route before, but requires driving. So this time it was the shuttle to Ohare.  It did require a long wait at the airport once you arrive, but you won't miss the flight!!  Anyway. We kept in touch via text. And she let me know when she boarded. I was getting confused by time differences, but finally settled down. She's in Central. 

Brian, Dad, and I met her at the airport and then took her to dinner at the Boulder Station dinner buffet. We get several 2 for 1 coupons for the buffet every month so a Dad and I used those and we used our casino points. And dinner cost us nothing!  After dinner we came home, rested a bit and Shawn crashed. It had been a long day, after all. But the best part?  My baby is here!!!!  

Yesterday we went to the Fashion Show hall on the strip. Brian wanted me to get him some clothes for Christmas and Dillards fits the bill.  Shawn also knocked out some  shopping. Today, I'm starting on the potato salad. Brian is picking up the tritip and smoked turkey today and we'll get the perishables for the rest of the menu today. 

I also have my monthly meeting with my kidney care team today. It'll be much better than last month. No desperately trying to catch my breath this time!!  Not sure about my labs. And I really, really don't want to have to start taking a protein supplement. Ugh.  I think I can hold them off until we do the blood draws at the first of the month. 

That's it for today. I'll be cooking or prepping from now until Christmas dinner. And that's fine. Enjoy your day!  


Monday, December 21, 2015

The "Happy Happy Monday", edition.

Good Monday morning!  Shawn is flying in this evening. Whoo hoo!  Haven't seen her since May.  We've been planning for her visit. Also today is a no dialysis day!  Whoo hoo!  I'll start with dialysis news. I'm down 2.5 kgs from my original dry weight and feel so much better! My nurse wants me to stop, but I feel I can make the final .5 kg.  That's where the nephrologist wants me. I'll wait until meeting with my team on Wednesday to see what they say. It just feels good to feel better.  I still get tired, but nowhere near the tired I was 3-4 weeks ago. I can go into stores and not immediately look for the electric scooters. I can even stand in a line for a while. And the huffing and puffing has stopped. I was rivaling the big bad wolf for a while!  Lol?  

One issue I'm experiencing is my buttonholes, the 2 holes where I insert the needles for hemodialysis, you know one hole for blood in, one hole for blood out, well the area around the holes hurt now. It feels like I have needles inserted in my arm. I know. You're saying, well, yeah. You have needles inserted in your arm. But the buttonholes were/are like pierced ears. I didn't feel anything. I just inserted the needles into the tracks and called it a day. But now, not so much. I'll be bringing this up with my team on Wednesday also. 

Finally I told you I'd tell you my finalized Christmas dinner menu. Brian ordered a tritip from Road Kill Grill.  It'll be grilled there.  We're also getting a smoked turkey breast from Honeybaked Ham. I'm fixing potato salad. Yum yum yum. I tried and succeeded with the roasted Brussels sprouts. OMG. I never knew Brussels sprouts could taste good!  Ive hated them all my life. But the TV chefs made it look good, so I thought I'd try it. The first try was, eh. But this time?  Perfection!!! Brussel sprouts in bowl, toss in olive oil, place in pan, season with salt and pepper. Roast at 350 degrees. For our oven, it was done after 20 minutes. A light char. All carmelization and tasty as hell. Brian and Dad devoured them! So they made the menu cut.  Ok. Also on the menu is fancy rice. Rice cooked in beef broth, with mushrooms, onions and celery. Candied corn, which is already done and frozen..courtesy of The Neelys. And a tomato, onion and cucumber salad. I'm also making banana pudding for desert. I know it sounds like a lot, but the cucumber salad will be made on Wednesday.  Let the pickling take place over a few days. The potato salad and banana pudding will be done on Thursday. The corn is already done. All that's left to cook will be the rice and brussel sprouts. And I have Brian  and Shawn here to assist!  Will also have rolls and a relish tray with jalapeño olives, blue cheese olives, kalamata olives, small dill pickles and sweet gherkins. And rolls, of course. 

Sounds like a lot. And it probably is. I can't help it. And of course the goodie bags.  And I'm done with my Christmas shopping. The entire shebang was done online. Not unlike that Christmas after I was diagnosed with kidney failure.  Back then I was too sick to go out. And this time, I was also not feeling well enough to go to a mall.  I've finally admitted that the symptoms I experienced the past few months were quite similar to when my kidneys failed. It was the fluid accumulation. You can bet I'll never let that happen again.  What I thought was a normal weight gain was I fact an unhealthy fluid accumulation. Ugh. 

That's it for today.  Future plans include the House of Blues Gospel Brunch next Saturday. And Dad wants to take us back to the Brazilian Steakhouse. He's found his heaven at the Brazilian Steakhouses!  Lol. I don't know I'm going to survive until this evening when Shawn arrives, but I have to, don't I?  Lol have a great day!!!

Friday, December 18, 2015

The "Yesterday Was My Birthday!", edition.

Good Friday morning!  Brian is making coffee. He makes great coffee. I am so spoiled!!  And yes, I spoil him also. :-)  Yesterday was my birthday.  I had a pretty good day.  Woke up. Putted around. Eventually headed out to Target. See, I'm make little goodie bag gifts for my seniors.  We got some Santa marshmallow treats, but I wanted more stuff.  So I got some Hersey Kisses and little candy canes.  I figured they liked the Easter candy so Christmas candy should be ok. We also got M&Ms for the house. Plain, peanut and pretzel.  Then Brian suggested we visit the bakery. That's a dangerous place!  We bought some Italian bread and it was sliced for us on the premises.  I also got some more everything bagels, and a cinnamon roll. Brian picked up a pound cake and reasonable facsimile ofHostess  chocolate cupcakes. I also saw a focaccia pizza. The size of a personal pizza. Got a jalapeño one. OMG. Anyway we split it for lunch. Yum yum yum. 

We had an early lunch because we had reservations for dinner at Joe Vicari's Andiamo Italian Steakhouse at The D. Yes. It's the same Andiamo group as the Andiamos in Detroit.  I've been to the one in the Ren Cen several times and the food was great. Brian suggested this one since he hadn't been to Andiamos in Detroit.  As a side note, The D casino has an American Coney Island restaurant and the gift shop sells Louis the Hatter hats.  If we need a touch of Detroit, we can get it here. Anyway, before it was The D, it was The Fitzgerald, owned by Detroiter Don Barden. 

The restaurant is on the 2nd floor of the casino and has an old school, opulent feel. The Ren Cen Andiamos was much more airy, open and modern. The wait staff were in white coats. No appetizers were ordered, but Brian got a wedge salad and I got a bowl of lobster bisque. Just so you know, I'm a sucker for lobster bisque. When we went to Martha's Vineyard years ago, I had it everyday. Anyway. The salad was good and the lobster bisque was heaven. I also had a Bloody Mary. It. Was. Great. It had a touch of spice and wasn't overpowered by vodka. It was damn near perfect.  We left the bread alone.  Why were we taking it easy?  Because we ordered steaks. I am an unashamed beef lover. I make no apologies for my love of a good piece of prime rib or a good cut of filet mignon or as the case yesterday, a 20 ounce bone in ribeye. Mmmm mmmm mmmmmmm.  Brian had a 20 ounce porterhouse.  Yes I could gave ordered the 10 ounce filet mignon, but come on. The bone in rib eye has way more flavor and juiciness!  And I've shifted my doneness from medium well to medium. And yeah, I ate about 1/3 of it!  Lol. And we were served a side of pasta. I tasted it and it was good also. And Brian didn't finish his steak either. 

During dinner, the manager visited us. The servers assistant boxed and bagged our leftover steaks. The server then appeared with a champagne glass with a scoop of mango sherbet in it, poured champagne on it. A birthday treat, they said!  :-)  And I'd never tasted anything like it. It was wonderful!!   And then we had the audacity to agree to look at the desert tray!  Lol. I would have like the chocolate mouse, but the side was covered in coconut and top with mango something.  Bleah.  We ended up with tiramisu. Delicious also. And we probably ate less than half. So full. So good. After we ate, we made it back to the car. And even though it seemed we ate a lot, we knew when to stop so we weren't miserable. Been there. Done that. Wasn't happy. 

Received a call from Shawn, so you know that made my day. Looking forward to her arriving out here on Monday!!!  Dad gave me a nice gift, Brian gave me a watch. I was over whelmed by the birthday wishes on Facebook. And we finally crashed after Jimmy Fallon. :-D  

Skipped dialysis last night but before you fuss and fret, I dialyzed Tuesday and Wednesday. I usually do treatment 5 days a week and only switched to 6 days a week about 3 weeks ago. And I've made it down to my new dry weight...and besides. It was my birthday. So there. Back on schedule today. And I'm banking on being told to return to 5 days when I go to my monthly appointment on Wednesday. So there, again!  

Grocery shopping today. Gonna test drive the roasted Brussels sprouts for Christmas and gonna make the Neelys candied corn and freeze it for Christmas this weekend. I'll let you know the full finalized Christmas dinner menu next week. It's funny. For so long I wasn't interested in fixing a holiday dinner until I got out here in Las Vegas. I found that I'm enjoying hosting the seniors. They enjoy each other's company and it gives them a chance to get together. I'm pretty sure this is something Mom would want me to do!  

That's it for today. Long entry, wasn't it?  It's like that sometimes. Hope you made it to the end. Sunny day out here. Warming up to the 60s soon. And loving every minute!  Take care and have a great weekedn!  



Wednesday, December 16, 2015

The "Lovin' My Cousins", edition.

Good Wednesday morning!  My aunt, uncle and cousins are still in town.  And we spent time with them yesterday. We had lunch at the buffet at the Southpointe Casino Resort.  Was the food good or bad?  Doesn't matter. I was with family and we had a great time. Dad couldn't make it because he had a doctors appointment. And Uncle George wasn't up to it. Donna and Keith left to go back to Arizona. So it was me, Brian, Rosie, James, Brenda and Aunt Jeanette.  

We talked about Yellow Springs, our kids, Aunt Jeanette's lemon meringue pie, me being wingman for Brenda (lol) and how I'm Aunt Jeanette's 6th child.  Lol. Brenda especially liked that since that made me youngest instead of her and she promptly called herself a big sister.  Aunt Jeanette and I took our binders together. Partners in dialysis. Aunt Jeanette seems to be doing well and I was just happy to see her and be with her. And Brenda and Rosie. Dad wants to go back to Ohio this summer to visit family so we're going to make it happen. He enjoyed seeing Aunt Jeanette and Aunt Marlene.  

I'm almost done shopping and haven't set foot in a store.  I will today for a few items like wrapping paper.  And. I've got a photo of a purse I bought last spring. I went to a Dillards to get a Father's Day gift for Brian. After I purchased the gift, I strolled through the purse section. I'm a sucker for purses.  I noticed a sale area and spotted a red Coach Legacy Bucket Bag. Not only was it on sale, the sign on the rack said 50% off. I asked the nearest salesperson if that was correct. She said it was. The cost of the purse was $109.00.  It was an offer I couldn't refuse. As a matter of fact, I was beside myself with glee! Lol. See way back when, in the 80s, I had one of original iterations of the bucket bag. I paid $180 and thought that was outrageous, but I loved the bag. Me and 2 friends each bought one. The bag got a lot of usage, I even used it as combo purse/diaper bag. But when we moved to Las Vegas, I got rid of all of my Coach bags. I'm not telling how many I had.  And I'd been drooling at the new generation of bucket bags when Coach reintroduced them the previous year. I just could not justify paying $400 for a purse. I draw the line somewhere!!! So. When I saw that beautiful red bucket bag, I snatched it up.  Look, it was better than eating a piece of chocolate!!!!  And on that note I'll tell you about my Onna Erlich purse another day. ;-)

On the dialysis front. No new news. Feeling better, strength coming back, back on schedule with meds.  My last labs were still kinda funky because I wasn't eating. My hemoglobin is still low. The epogen was increased again. I'm eating more protein. My potassium and phosphorus numbers are still below average, but I'm eating the appropriate foods. I need to check with my care team if I should stop the phosphorus binders until the numbers rise.  Heh. I get in the groove of taking the meds and because I know what they're for and the consequences of not taking them I get leary. Well. I meet with the team next Wednesday. 

So it's warmer in the east and Midwest than here. And boy. The whining about the "cold" here is funny. OMG, it's 50 degrees.  They are actually longing for the sets of 100+ degree days. Really?  Lol. Anyway. Have a great day. Call a cousin. Make your day!!!


James, Rosie, Brenda, Aunt Jeanette, Pat, Brian


Pat, Aunt Jeanette 

Best find ever! For now. Lol. 

Monday, December 14, 2015

The "A Wonderful Time with Family", edition.

Good Monday morning!  Saturday we hosted lunch for our visiting family. I ordered the food from John Mull's Meats, also known as Road Kill Grill. What I liked was that I ordered the food on Thursday for Saturday and Road Kill never blinked. Just asked what time will I pick up the order. Ribs, chicken, green beans, slaw and peach cobbler. Renal safe for Aunt Jeanette. 

Saturday morning, we woke up and went out Saturday morning trip to Boulder Station. One hour of gambling a week. Came home and cleaned up and set up for visitors. Left for Road Kill to pick up our order at 11:00 AM. A 12 mile drive. A worthwhile trip. Anyway. We're tickled as we pull into the parking lot and see the line for the prepared food, Road Kill Grill. People are lining up for their lunch orders. And we're not surprised.  We go inside the funky looking cinder block building, John Mull's Meats, and there's a line inside. And still, we're not surprised. Much. We're used to lines around the holidays, but it just wasn't a surprise to see it on Saturday morning. The food is good and they have an abundant list if meats.  And as we leave, the line us longer with more people pulling into the parking lot. 

I get to the inside counter, pay and they direct us to drive around to the back. We did this exercise for the 4th of July. We drive back there and there's Earl grilling his heart out. Just like last summer. Except  it's not 145 degrees. Lol.  He gets our food. Gives us 2 giant pans of their barbecue sauce, regular and spicy and gives us an additional rack of spare ribs. So now we have 4. He packed everything up and even loaded it in the car.  Much love for Earl!!  We head home. And Dad goes to get a bag of ice.  

Around noon, or 1:00 PM, we get the call that they're on the way. We hosted lunch 7 guests and the three us. 10 in total. Our guests finished off the green beans and peach cobbler. We have about 1/4 of the slaw left , 4 pieces of chicken and a bunch of ribs. Because, you know, Earl gave us extra.  Lol.  That's cool. We sent some upstairs to my senior, Pauline.  We had a wonderful time. Dad and Aunt Jeanette grew up together and they enjoyed being together now.  Brenda and I hung out in Yellow Springs and Detroit and we enjoyed being together. And I always considered the others to be my big sisters. Love them so much!!  So yeah, we just had a great time and enjoyed being in each other's company. 

Today, Aunt Jeanette's baby sister and her husband are coming in from California, so we're going to the hotel to visit. And let me put this in perspective. Aunt Jeanette has 2 sisters still kicking it. Aunt Jeanette is 85, Aunt Dorothy is 95 and I gave no idea how old Aunt Marlene is, but I'm thinking 80. And add Dad to the mix at 89!!  How about that!  I'm looking forward to seeing more family. 

Nothing special on the dialysis front. I'm feeling better everyday. I still get tired, but I'm getting out more. It was a slow slide to get to the bottom where I was and its a slow climb out, but I'm climbing out!  That's it for today. It's cooler here than in Michigan and Illinois. For now.  Lol. Have a great day and enjoy your warm spell!!!  


Friday, December 11, 2015

The "Enjoying Visitors", edition.

Good Friday morning!  We were close to 70 degrees yesterday. I guess its unseasonably warm, but the news people sure do whine about the temps dropping to the 40s. Lol lol. Whine to me when the high for the day is 15 degrees. 

My aunt and uncle are in town along with 3 of their 5 kids.  Rosie flew from Texas to Ohio to get them. Brenda flew in from Georgia and Donna flew in from Arizona to be here with them. How fabulous is that??  When I was a kid I spent as much time as I could in Yellow Springs, Ohio  with my aunt and uncle. Their youngest daughter, Brenda and I are the same age and she is one of my best friends. We were in each other's weddings. Uncle George and Aunt Jeanette always welcomed me with love. And Aunt Jeanette introduced me to lemon meringue pie. Donna, Rosie, Tanya and Larry treated me like a little sister...in a good way!  Lol. It was great to me, since I was an only child. 

Years later as I was diagnosed with Acute Intermittent Porphyria and the later when my kidneys failed, I found that Aunt Jeanette was in the same sucky health path as me. Even to the point where our kidneys seemed to fail at the same time. I had hoped to visit Aunt Jeanette in Yellow Springs before we moved to Vegas, but life didn't allow it. So imagine my delight when Rosie called and said she was bringing her parents out here. And thats more than a motion. Both are in wheelchairs. But they are all here to help!  

Brian and I will have lunch for them on Saturday. I know how to provide a renal friendly meal and we discussed it.  Well.  It's gonna be Road Kill Grill!!  Ribs, chicken, green beans, slaw and peach cobbler. Since my aunt is having issues with staff giving her the meds at the right time, we have to be cognizant of phosphorus and potassium. Remember, though, since I dialyze daily, my diet is not restricted.  In fact, I've been instructed to increase my potassium and phosphorus!!!  Potatoes, tomatoes, avocados who hoo!!  

Anyway, I am just delighted to have my aunt ,uncle and cousins in town. And yes, Aunt Jeanette is getting treatment while here....like I used to when I visited. As far as I'm doing, the daily dialysis is bringing the fluid down.  I'm about 1kg from the target dry weight the neph suggested. I've started cramping a little during treatment so I know I'm getting close to what my dry weight should be. To put this in perspective, I was carrying more than 7 pounds of fluid on a regular basis. No wonder I felt bad.  I am getting better. I still get tired, but most days are good. That's it for today. Have a great weekend!!!!





Wednesday, December 9, 2015

The "Exploring Las Vegas", edition.

Good Wednesday morning!  If you wake up at the right time, you see the most stunning sunrises. This morning, the clouds gave the sunrise a yellow and pink striated effect. And now it's gone. Yesterday Brian was going to run some errands. I asked him if I could with him and I'd like to stop at a bakery I'd looked up. First stop was the library. Brian is a library fiend. Next we went to the post office. Needed to send Shawn her birthday cards. Now it was time to visit the bakery. I had the address and I always look up the map to see where places are and plan the route. We found the bakery with no problem, although it was a ways back from the road.  

So we found Great Buns Bakery. I wasn't prepared for what awaited us. As soon as you walk in, the smell gets you. The heavenly smell. Something(s) was baking. But even better than that.  The left wall had every type of baked good you could imagine. Self serve. Pecan sticky buns, turnovers, cookies, bagels, pound cakes, breads, rolls and more. Brian even found a cupcake that looked like a hostess chocolate cupcake. You could even buy pizza dough and gnocchi. Did I mention the intoxicating aroma?  

We ended up walking out with a pound cake, a loaf of cheddar cheese bread, a loaf of Italian bread (it was the daily special), a pecan sticky bun, 2 everything bagels and the hostess cupcake facsimile. You can bet we'll be back. Did I mention being accosted by the scent upon entering the building?  The place is huge.  Baking is going on while we're there. You can see it!!!  So yeah. We'll be back. 

Moving on. A recipe by the Neelys for corn popped up on my Facebook timeline. That was timely because corn will be on my Christmas dinner menu. The recipe is for candied corn. I read the recipe and ingredients and watched the video. It didn't take a lot of effort so I was in. Of course the Neelys used fresh corn but I went the frozen route. So here it is.  I sautéed one shallot in butter until translucent. Then added the corn. While the corn was cooking I made a paste out of 2 tablespoons of honey and 2 tablespoons of brown sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper. Added the paste to the corn , mixed it and that was it. Yes it was good. And no, it wasn't overly sweet. MAnd oh yeah, I added salt and pepper to taste to the corn before adding the paste. The only change I need to make is to cut the cayenne to 1/4 teaspoon. Since I had twice the amount of corn, I doubled the recipe, which was fine, but that was too much cayenne.  Now it didn't bring a big burn, but It could be toned down, especially since my audience will be my seniors. And. Looking through the circulars, I found fresh sweet corn. So. I'm going to get it. Have Dad shuck it, Brian cut off the kernels. Cook it and freeze it. Yeah!!!

Finally, on the dialysis front. Still not feeling 100%, but I am feeling better everyday. I have much more energy. And I look forward to getting out of the house. I've explained some of my dialysis procedures to you, but know I'm posting some photos so you get an idea of our prep. What you're looking at us my set up just before I stick myself and Brian hooks me up.  

The supplie for the night. The "15G" are the needles, the vial is the heparin, which stops the blood from clotting, 2 sets of wipes. The alcohol wipe the use on the heparin lid. Cleaning it. The Bernadine used on my accesses. Again cleaning it. 2 syringes to be attached to the saline bag and filled with saline. It's used to flushed my lines after treatment. Gauze pads used to anchor the needles after the stick. A syringe for the heparin and tape to rape the needles to my arm. 


I wear gloves and a mask for infection control. 



Measuring the heparin into the syringe. 

Monday, December 7, 2015

The "Feeling Better is a Good Thing!", edition.

Good Monday morning!  I'm feeling better. It feels good to feel better. Yes, I doing treatment 6 days a week for a while. And we're slowly taking off excess fluid.  It's making a difference. Because my nephrologist suggested (ordered) me to increase the amount of fluid to remove and add a day of treatment and because I'm feeling a LOT better, I'm really trusting him. The coughing is easing. I'm still coughing because I'm still carrying extra fluid, but it's nowhere as much as a few weeks ago. I have more energy. My appetite has returned. And my blood pressure has dropped.  Yeah. The blood pressure was going as high as around 160/101. Not good. My reading at end of treatment last night was 101/69.  And no, I didn't get light headed.  Hah!  

As I have been dropping the fluid weight, I was concerned because there will be a weight I cannot go below and this will be my dry weight. At that point I'll get light headed, feel cold, clammy and flushed at the same time (how does that even work????) and will cramp and may even faint.  And let me tell ya' the cramping is freaking intense.  I've seen people cramp when I was incenter. I felt their pain just watching them.  This comes when too much fluid is removed.  But so far, so good. Right now I am 1 kg away from my new target weight.  To put this in perspective, my target weight will have dropped 3 kg or 6.6 pounds. I've been carrying an extra, unwanted, unneeded, made me very sick 6.6 pounds of fluid. At least 6.6 pounds. I could be carrying more.  Sigh.   And yes. Some of the symptoms mimicked the symptoms I had when my kidneys failed. Lessons learned. 

So that being said, I'm getting out among the living again. I went to a Target and didn't use or need the scooter!  I went to sorority meeting. Drove myself!  I'm not getting as tired so quickly and I'm not gasping for breath as much after physical exertion. I even cooked some seafood chowder, instead of "supervising" Brian. Oh seafood chowder?  Shrimp, lump crabmeat, clams, seafood stock, clam juice, heavy cream, shallot, celery, potato, bay leaves, cayenne pepper, bay seasoning. Delicious!!!  Made so much, we had to freeze some. Also made some spaghetti with an arribiata bolognese sauce.  That pot of pasta was the best I've ever made.  Yeah. I watch too many cooking shows!   Lol.  

Yesterday we went to Marys Hash House for breakfast.  Dad had eggs and sausage. Mary makes her sausage and the patties are huge!  And tasty. I had the corned beef hash, eggs and grits. Brian had a shrimp and spinach eggs Benedict. Mary makes her own jams, jellies and apple butter. I got jalapeño Apple, Brian got orange. There were at least 10 more flavors. She also makes her own sauces, like spicy ketchup, chipotle and habernero. I like the chipotle. It's just hot enough and complements the hash. Other hashes on the menu are roast beef, meatloaf, turkey, salmon and vegetarian and an everything hash!  There was also a chili omelet with hatch chokes on the daily special menu. And yes, the portions are outrageous!!  

That's it for today. We'll start the Christmas prep today. I'm finalizing my menu. And I'll be texting dishes on my will Guinea pigs....Dad and Brian. Lol lol. I took some photos of my treatment set up. I'll share and write about that later this week.  Have a wonderful day!!!!