December 21, 2014

Long time no blog

It's been busy here. Since the transfusion I've had mixed energy, not what you'd expect from getting fresh blood. Twice I've taken dextroamphetamine as per Dr G just to get started in the morning. Today's real (as opposed to decaf) coffee didn't do it for me.

But I did manage to make 25 potato latkes for our block party this afternoon. The house smells like fried oil, as it should during Chanukah. Rik took the selfie below on the first night when it was just us.  You can find my dad's latke recipe here.




On Friday night we went to friends for a latke-fest and I baked a six-pointed "Jewish" star shaped challah. It was well-received with many an ooh and ahh. One guest pointed out that her Swedish grandmother used to make cardamom bread (I fill my challah ropes with cardamom and brown sugar), and that this challah smelled like love to her. What a lovely thing to say!





Bob spent the day at the groomer but it's hard to tell in this photo. Boychik did the same a couple of weeks ago, so both dogs are now dematted for a few months. FYI, Boychik had a small cyst on his back leg that only showed up when his hair was cut. The vet removed and biopsied it and it's benign - no cancer!




And that seems to be all the news of the day! Happy Chanukah, and I wish us all a happy and healthy, joy-filled new year.

December 12, 2014

Two of three problems fixed

1. A head cold since November 8th;
2. A sinus infection since last week;
3. Anemia (low red blood cell count)

In somewhat different order:

Last week the pounding in my head and pain in my sinuses was clearly, in my experience, a sinus infection of great magnitude. It took me a few days to get a referral and an appointment with an ear-nose-throat doctor (ENT). Yet another one of my ever-growing medical specialists, Dr Burgoyne diagnosed me right away, prescribed antibiotics, and told me to call by Thursday if things hadn't improved. Which they have.

At Wednesday's chemo session, Dr G took a look at my labs and told the nurse I had anemia and needed a blood transfusion. This has happened only once before over these past 12+ years. (I love saying "12+ years!") They type and cross your blood each time and yes, I'm still O+, and give you Benadryl and Tylenol before you get the blood.

On Thursday I received two liters of blood, which took almost seven hours, from 9:30 am to 4 pm. I picked up a mocha on the way to the hospital and noshed on chocolate throughout the day. Plus I had the usual delicious Swedish lunch of soup, tuna sandwich on rye, and chips for the second day in a row. I napped most of the day but did manage to read the newspaper. I drove home and went to bed at 6:00.

Today I felt in recovery mode after being at Swedish two days in a row. I slept in, eventually waking up to shower, change the sheets, start laundry, feed myself, etc. My friend G and I were supposed to go to the local Star Trek convention today, but I lacked the energy. I didn't even have enough energy to walk the dogs, so they have been canoodling with me all day instead and nobody complained. Rik will be home soon and he will walk them. I'll roast a chicken in honor of Shabbat and the fact that my cheeks are now pink once more!

PS I still have the head cold. What can you do? Send me some virtual chicken soup, please.

December 09, 2014

I've been nominated in Healthline’s 2014 Best Health Blog Contest

I got this in my email today:


Hi Jill,
I’d like to congratulate you on being nominated in Healthline’s 2014 Best Health Blog Contest! You can see the contest here:http://www.healthline.com/health/best-health-blogs-contest
Each year, we recognize and honor the top health blogs of the year with our annual Best Health Blogs Contest. The contest shines light on those blogs that have really made an impact on their reader community and provided them with valuable information and resources to help them live better, healthier lives. We are happy to let you know that you have been nominated in the contest!
The contest started this Monday, December 1st and will run through January 15th. We will award cash prizes (up to $1000!) for the top 3 blogs with the most votes.
Please share the page with your followers and ask them to vote for you. Users can vote once every 24 hours, so please continue to share and encourage your followers to vote!
You can create a badge for you site that recognizes your nomination and encourages those to vote for you here:http://www.healthline.com/health/contest-badges
Please let me know if you have any questions!
Thanks,Maggie Danhakl • Assistant Marketing ManagerHealthline • The Power of Intelligent Health660 Third Street, San Francisco, CA 94107www.healthline.com | @Healthline | @HealthlineCorp
About Us: corp.healthline.com 


(The "vote for me link" is on the upper right.)

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