Upside downish

I've been feeling very upside down lately.

That is because I'm trying to jumble up the kidney stone fragments in my left kidney. My check up and xray recently showed that the stone I had was sufficiently crushed, but it's all still in there. They all settled down into the lower part of the kidney. But I'm trying to give them the boot out of there. So in the evenings I lie with my hips on the couch and hang off of it onto couch cushions on the floor.....and watch television all sideways. Oh and I drink tons of water because it slushes them out, which leads to lots of little trips down the hall.

It seems to be working, but just a few fragments come through each night so this may take a while. I've done searches on ways to get them to pass and this seemed the most reasonable to me. More reasonable than drinking a 2 liter bottle of Coke and a cup of asparagus puree within 2 hours, which causes a great big chemical 'reaction' supposedly. More reasonable than jumping up and down, landing hard, as to jolt the stubborn things into moving.

Our dog likes the upside down mom. She likes to explore and poke me all over my head, neck and face, which is cute at first but then just ends up being irritating.

I can't find a way to type when I'm hanging off the couch all upside downy but I am hoping my need to type thoughts out there into cyberspace will kick back in sometime in the near future. I'm sure you'll notice when it does. ;)

Happy Valley really delivers ;)

Yes, there is a place called Happy Valley. Doesn't it just make you want to sigh with contentment! I've had Happy Valley rescue me out of the brink of anxiety and strife twice now. Twice.

The first time was with my daughter Hannah. She was driving her little Honda civic back up to Flagstaff from Phoenix and I was along for the ride. Just before Happy Valley Road we heard a bump and felt a definite jerk and realized we had just had a tire blow out. We were in the left lane on a busy interstate, so we pulled off to the left in the grassy, rutted area between north and south bound lanes. We came to a stop and sat there quietly.....waiting. Hmmmm, no men with us, we had to make a plan. CALL SOMEONE TO COME HELP US! That was our plan. I called my sister with the last bit of battery power in Hannah's dying cell phone and she called the highway patrol.

Uh yeah, hello highway patrol, my really helpless and lame sister is stuck on the median with her little helpless daughter. They need HELP! Waaaaaaaaaaaaaah. Or something like that. I could only imagine.

I spied the Happy Valley turn off and it mocked my very being. So close and yet so stuck.

No sooner had we hung up than a patrol car pulled up by us and licketty split Hannah's donut spare tire was in place and the officer was guiding us across the lanes of traffic to that elusive Happy Valley. He actually put on his policeman lights and stopped traffic while we revved up out of the rutty median and across the highway. Ha! We had longed for it and now it was ours, our happy place. Our valley of great happiness. We pulled in to Walmart and pulled out again in 30 minutes with a new $35 tire in place and balanced. I love happiness. I even loved Walmart.

Today Happy Valley really delivered again. Emma needed a book for her advance English class. She needed it last weekend. The quiz on the first chapter was yesterday! *whoopsy* So we felt the adrenaline in our guts and we set out to the library. No book. I dropped her off at the church for music practice and went by Bookman's. Nope. I went to Barnes and Noble. Wah. Supposedly the teacher thought he had reserved enough copies but the store manager said it was never done. They were sold out. Yep.

I had him call the B&N in the north part of town (Happy Valley) and they had it. They said they had it at the front desk with MY name on it. I love them. I went home and unloaded the groceries we had bought before all of the running around. I looked in the yellow pages for a closer bookstore. None. So I waited until 6pm to wait out a little of the rush hour traffic and then I set out, thinking it would be a long night. Traffic was NOT bad, and I was home in exactly an hour, sitting on my couch with American Idol beginning. =) Ahhhhhhh It was so sweet to just walk up to the counter, say my name, plunk down $15 for a minute paperback book (I didn't even care) and walk right back out in less than 2 minutes. Oh yes, happy.

Day by day

I'm trying to get back to my normal pace of doing things here lately. But I find my limits are kicking my legs out from under me. Hopefully I'll find blogging fun again soon and not so much another chore to finish. I do feel good and strong again until hitting some limit that I didn't know was there. So I am thankful to have some energy and drive back in my body again.

I had a check up at the doctor's today. They took an xray and my left kidney is still full of fragments of kidney stone. I'd appreciate prayer about those moving on out. It was discouraging to see so much still left in there.

Today was our first day back at school after Spring Break and I was in bed by 7pm! I watched a television show, then turned it off to drift in and out of dozing for an hour. Now I am surrendering.

Croutons

I am enjoying my Spring Break from work. I took the kids to my sister's cabin for a couple of days and am now home and doing whatever I please for a few days. I am feeling really good now, but my projects for Spring Break still are on hold. This morning I took the baguettes I had neglected and made croutons out of them. So I thought I'd share.

Cut your bread into bite sized pieces. Save all the crumbs....they are good to sprinkle on salads too! My bread was thoroughly dried out, but it still made great croutons. I usually bake croutons on very low heat in the oven until they are toasted, but today I did them in a skillet. One reason was that they needed freshening up since they were rock hard. The other reason is that it will be in the 90's this afternoon and I didn't want to heat up the oven. First spread a tiny bit of olive oil in the skillet, add the cubes and crumbs, stir them to get the oil around and then add some spices. I usually sprinkle garlic salt on croutons as I make them, but I am trying to avoid a lot of salt, so today I used this salt free seasoning:


It is full of dried garlic and onions, along with lots of sesame seeds, a little pepper and parsley. The process toasts the sesame seeds and gives great flavor to the croutons.


Stir croutons every few minutes for about 7 minutes on medium heat. Then transfer to a paper towel until cooled off. Keep in an airtight container or ziplok bag.

Enjoy.

It's nice to be smiling as you drift off

In at 6am, home before noon, that is how a good lithotripsy goes.

And I had a good lithotripsy today. Every part of the morning went great except for the IV nurse. She failed....twice! I fear IV's so bad because I have deeply hidden veins that are hard to 'thread'. The anesthesiologist numbed me first....wow, why can't a nurse think of that! And then he just slipped it in, all while talking to himself....very quirky. They wheeled me into the litho room before sedating me at all. Usually when you have a 'procedure' they sedate you and THEN wheel you into the sterile room with big lights and busy people. It was a little unnerving, but ended quickly after the anesthesiologist said I'd feel pressure in the IV then I would relax. Then just...

night night.

I do remember him talking to his vials of meds before I went away. He was saying (to himself or the vials, not sure, didn't have time to ask) "Okay, no nausea *clink*, we want a nice light sleep *clink clink shuffle*." Then I smiled and knew nothing until I was being asked to cough the breathing tube thing up when it was over. I barely remember it, but know it was a breathing tube because my voice is shredded for today.

Otherwise, I am lying on my side to let gravity filter out stone debri, no need for pain meds yet and I am drinking liquids til I slush.

Update

Lithotripsy is Thursday, then Spring Break. We're almost through this little crisis and with a week off at that!

The photo is what a lithotripter operator sees as he gets ready to shoot.

Just watch it

I promise to write a brand new, very interesting and personal post sometime this weekend. But until then, this is a comedian who I've never heard of, doing a schpeil on our society today. SO relevant! Please watch it....it's hilarious and so true. And it just might make you chill out a bit.

And by the way, my kids are required to watch. I will not require Charles to watch it, but it may contain very good sermon material/illustrations. I found this on Second Cup of Coffee. Props to Linda! =)