The "I've Written 400 Entries!", edition.

Good Wednesday morning!  I've written 400 entries of this blog. That's a lot of writing, a lot of information and a lot of whining!  I make no apologies for my whining. I've enjoyed taking you on this journey with me.  The blog is also a wonderful journey of memories for me. Thanks to Facebook putting up my memories, I get to read old entrie. Many I've forgotten (well, it's been 400!). I can see where I've been, how I've felt, what I've gone though, how I've handled issues and outcomes.  It's also helped on odd things.  Like I'd read about how the dialysis techs in Detroit used an alcohol pad on the back of the gauze when the needles were removed. This is an additional step in infection control. So we started using the pads.  Or I get to relive certain events. Some good, some not so good. By the way, there have almost 20,000 page views of the blog since its inception. It may sound like a lot, but it's not.  The blog tends to average 20-25 readers with some odd spikes up and odd low hits. I especially like it when I get the hits from Russia or China. :-/

So. On my comfort food kick, in addition to the smothered potatoes I wanted some French onion soup.   I'd tried making it from scratch a while ago. And that was right after Shawn left for Howard University, fall 2008. You know I'm a Food Network addict. Well, I watched Tyler Florence make the soup and he made it sound sooooo easy. (Yeah I was duped). I went to Westborn Market and got my ingredients, then to Pier Zone to get the ramekins (fancy little bowls -lol!). It came out ok, but Tyler was a bit off in how long it takes to cook the onions.  Fast forward to now, 2016. I used a different recipe, but the ingredients were pretty much the same.  We got everything, although I passed in the brandy reopened by Julia Childs. Brian and Dad said we should include it the next time.  Yes. There will be a next time.  

Brian prepped 4 giant onions and 2 cloves of garlic. We proceeded to start the process of carmelization of the onions. It took 90 minutes. It was worth the wait. Once that's done, we added the wine, broth and seasonings. Then it had to simmer for a while.   Finally Brian sliced and toasted the baguette slices, then added the Gruyere and Parmesan reggiano. The recipe said to make sure the entire top of the bowl was covered with the cheese. Put the bowls in the oven and broiled until bubbly. Jackpot!!!  Successful French onion soup!!!  Dad and Brian pronounced it was restaurant quality! And one bowl was quite enough for the meal.  Although when I went into the kitchen later, I caught Dad downing a cup of soup while he was putting up the food!  Lol. Busted!!!! We have some left over, so it got frozen. It's there for another chilly day!  

On the dialysis front, it's been a year of home hemodialysis. Yes it's better than incenter and I'm doing better on the whole, but it's still dialysis. I have to continually remind myself that as much as I hate this, and I really, really hate this, it could be so much worse. And even though it can be so much worse, I'm entitled to a release of my emotions. Eh. Last night I had another spike in low blood pressure needing an infusion of saline during treatment. I can't stress enough on how much I hate how it feels when my blood pressure is dropping. And now that I know what it is, in addition to knowing my blood pressure is dropping, I have to fight the panic that comes with it.  I am able to alert Brian and he does what needs to get done. And we get through it. But I hate it.  

Today my nurse is coming by for the yearly inspection. She'll check the equipment and test the water. She'll also chuckle at how we somehow managed to have wild surpluses of all the equipment. We replenish every month based on an inventory with suggested amounts of equipment. It tends to be maybe too much?  Boxes upon boxes of syringes, alcohol pads, gauze. Lots of Purel and examination gloves.  Some of this stuff we do go through pretty quickly. Others, not so much. We've learned that we don't need to replenish everything each month. Took a year to figure that out! 

Anyway. That's it for today. I'm thinking pork chops for dinner.  Have a great day!