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!!!