Thursday, April 29, 2010

update on cataract surgery

Well, it went pretty good on monday! :) tuesday I went back for my check up, and it was good then too.

Dh is a computer geek at work, and last week mcafee had an issue that about tanked all their computers at his 2 plants here in TN. TG he had his boss to help him, and an "imager" to help him recover the 20+ computers that got hit by "not a virus" virus. Well, they also have a plant in Augusta, Ky. The one plant is about as big as the 2 plants here, and only ONE guy works there! Well, that plant got hit as well. about DOUBLE the amount of computers got hit, and he DOESN'T have an imager- so he is about 1/2 way done doing what dh was almost done doing on tuesday.

I tell you this to tell you THIS.....Tuesday he was going to take me to work for a "check in" before he took me home (I'm taking up too much of his time with all this computer stuff going on), but I "whined" enough and he took me home. Good thing. By the time he got to work his boss informed him he was heading to Augusta, Ky for the rest of the week! :) So, I've been on my own since tuesday! Luckily my eye is doing SO MUCH better than last time, and my vision is SO MUCH clearer.

I have noticed I am allergic to these eye drops as well (he changed me this time)- which I had a suspicion I would be, because in my charts I'm "allergic to zithromax" and this is in the same family. The pharmacist warned me, but we decided my initial reaction was so small as to not worry, and try and see what happens. Well, I told the dr today that every time I put them in my eye itches "pretty good" and the only thing that helps somewhat is putting in the other drops. :( He said "I'm worried about your allergies" LOL "you must have a lot of serious ones" uh, yeah... told him "I just try really hard not to get sick". lol So, he dropped me down to 1x per day, and said I can stop them at the beginning of next week! yay! Unless of course it gets worse. considering I'm having these itching issues WITH Zyrtec 24 hr every day.... LOL But other than that my eyes are healing really well! I can now drive without those pricey prescription glasses I got about a month ago! I had to go out and buy new $1 glasses since dd14 took off with all my old ones and lost them to the ocean when we were on vacation! LOL

So, DH is home tomorrow night.. need to get kids moving on cleaning on the house since we are having company saturday some time......

Friday, April 23, 2010

Menu week of April 26th 2010

Since I will be out of commission with my eye surgery, I really want to get things straightened out and ready better than I did last time..... so I have entered all my recipes in the spark recipe calculator, printed them out, and will be shopping today or tomorrow and cooking these 5 meals this weekend. I took them from the Once A Month Cooking book, a family favorite, and one from recipezaar.com . So, here's a list of the recipes I will be making, and you can all find them in my cookbook.... Jennywren93's cookbook.... in the sparkrecipes section. All of these are freezer meals, so this may be a good way to get your menus on track. You don't have to cook them all at once, but maybe cook an extra meal every night for a week - or every other day- and your freezer will be overflowing with less work for you soon! :) Linked the title to my sparkpeople cookbook. If it doesn't work, let me know and I will post all the recipes...

1. OMAC Spaghetti Pie- 373.6 cals/serving
Additional recipes used- Sweet Italian Sausage, Basic Spaghetti Sauce

2. Bird's Nest Pie- 429 cals (think this can be cut down by smaller servings, not sure how many servings it will make yet....)
Additional recipes used- Sweet Italian Sausage

3. chicken Tetrazzini- 317 cals/serving
Additional Recipes used- Cream of soup with Variations recipe

4. Jennywren93's Famous Chicken Casserole- 263 cals/serving
Additional recipes used- Cream of soup with variations

5.OMAC Oriental Chicken- 121.4 cals (this does not include brown rice-can add stir fry veggies or steamed veggies to go with this)


Yes, I do make a lot of things from scratch. I find it is cheaper and healthier that way. If you want convenience-I have no problem with using jarred spaghetti sauce, premade sausage and cream of soup.... this is just a choice I have made.


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Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Got my second Cataract Surgery finally scheduled....


had been trying all week to get ahold of them, but no such luck- had to "talk to one person" and kept getting her voice mail. I was so nice today and said I kept getting it, is she out this week... and they were nice, got my file, and scheduled me for this coming Monday - so in 5 days!

In some ways I am sooooo excited, and ready to get it over with... ready to get on with my life. I feel like I've been on "pause" for a few months now (since January)....

In other ways I am really nervous again. I remember what happened last time with my antibiotic drops (I was allergic), and how stressed I got near the end of the surgery, and all the things I need to do to get the house/family ready again for this.... including food in the freezer, laundry, cleaning, etc.....

Time to take a deep breath.... focus on relaxing and not stressing everyone out before monday! ;)

Before I called, I had updated/printed out lists for everyone from the www.handipoints.com website.... the kids love to play there, so I need to give them a way to earn the points to "buy" more stuff.....and this way everyone will see what to do when I am down again. I will be able to add to the list for next week while I am down so they can pick up my slack, and I can just make sure they are doing their lists..... I SO love this site for younger ones (they love playing on it with things they earn) and older ones (they can use their other way of earning for earning "things" as well), and for me and hubby to keep us on track! We all have accounts so I can add/subtract from our lists as I need. Saturday I will update/print the lists for the next week so maybe things will go smoother this time......

Ready to get this over with and on with my life...

Friday, April 9, 2010

Fibromyalgia Awareness Day May 12th

May 12th is Fibromyalgia Awareness Day!!

Between now and May 12th many of us will be stepping up our efforts to sharing videos, pictures, stories and information. One of the greatest ways to spread awareness is to share all of this with as many people as we can. The internet is one of the fastest and greatest ways to do just that. So when someone passes something along to you here on facebook, click "share" and post it to your profile...and be sure to share it with the group too. Each time you share something remember to say "Fibromyalgia Awareness Day is May 12th so help spread the word!

Many people live with Fibromyalgia, Lupus and other debilitating illnesses. I am adding a link to the "spoon theory" written my Christine Miserandino to help spread understanding about what a "day in the life" is like. Some days are better than others- some days I have more spoons than others- but when it's bad I may start out with just 2 or 3 spoons for the day!

Please feel free to pass on spoon theory to those in your family, your friends, or acquaintances who know someone going through medical issues- or may be themselves- so that you signal to them you understand some of what is going on.

Many doctors want to say fibro is "all in your head" but trust me when I say, it isn't! Please don't ever tell anyone who is hurting "well if you just keep going, you can work through it". No, they really can't. Belive me. When I over work (to get the house ready for a party, leaving for vacation, ready for my surgery), I can sleep for 3 days straight after. Yeah, I can keep going that day, but I pay for it after.

Ok, my 2 cents about it tonight! ;)

Blog will be shifting gears!

I have been having a....time.... trying to get here and do things. For that I apologize! My focus the last 6 mo or so has been different, and redirected, and it's time to redirect the scope of the blog as well!

So, what does that mean? Oh, I'm still going to be giving tips on saving money, organizing, and just generally being who I have been! BUT.... My focus has changed to include healthy living, losing weight, cooking well, embracing my fibromyalgia/food allergies, exercising, my cataract surgery and how things we are doing/eating affect us physically and mentally- and not just us, but our family as well.

I have been getting on www.sparkpeople.com more consistantly the last 2 months to log my food (most of the time) and record my exercise (we now have a treadmill we got at "play it again sports" for $150- and a great one!, and a recumbent bike we got at www.essex.com - the store actually- for $65 (compared to $160!) and also to blog on spark. Over the next week or so I will be working to get all of those blog entries added to this blog, and any new ones added as well- when I add them.

My husband did his "biggest loser" contest at work, and had a GREAT partner! They both realized about 1/2 way through they needed to work on making lifestyle changes rather than dropping tons of weight fast! His partner (www.garybowman.blogspot.com) is now taking on the task of training for a 1/2 marathon in October! My husband will be training as well, and I have always wanted to do this (much to Gary's surprise I think!) so I will be training along with them! October 9 is our anniversary, what better gift could we give eachother but the gift of health?

One thing I will have to work out in the beginning is how the training will affect my fibromyalgia, and also in 3 weeks I will have my second cataract surgery. I had my right eye done Feb 15th, and the dr really thought I would have until the fall to do my left, but it tanked in the last couple weeks. So, training starts next week (when we are on vacation!) so the 2 weeks after surgery I will continue to get my miles in, but just by walking slowly. The first few weeks of training is just a couple- 5 miles/day depending on the day, so this shouldn't be too bad.

I will be posting about Once a month cooking- I "rediscovered" this book today, and looking at the recipes it seems like pretty healthy food! I will put my recipes into my www.sparkrecipes.com recipe calculator to see if they are "worthy" of making (more on what I consider "good amounts" for meals in another post), and making/saving some up the week we get back from vacation to be prepared for after surgery! Not only will it save you time at night, BUT, money in the long run.

Speaking of money, I will be talking about one of my favorite guys more... Dave Ramsey! Gotta get things buttoned up in our household, get things back on track. I've been looking for a new job for over a month (as this job is on "contractor status" and haven't worked in 3 weeks) and it just seems God keeps saying "not right now" to me. So, my job for now will be to save us money, cook us good healthy food, and get us all on the right track!