Tomata or tomato, let's call the whole thing sauce...

Tonight is another pictorial of a bit of how we spent our day…TOMATOES OUT THE WAHZOO! And so I did take care of the partial over abundance of this ruby jewel, some call of the night shade variety, but in reality a very nice natural anti-inflammatory as proven in my constant blood work showing a very normal sedimentation rate, which is the one that tells whether you have inflammation or not. Jammed packed with vitamins and minerals and all other good for you things! “Scientifically, tomatoes are the fruit of tomato plants, according to Oxford Dictionaries. Because cooks use tomatoes to add an agreeable seasoned flavor to foods, rather than sweetness, tomatoes are considered to be vegetables. If fresh, ripe tomatoes are unavailable, it is preferable to use tomato puree, rather than canned tomatoes or tomato juice , as stated in Health-Care-Clinic.org. Puree contains more vitamins and minerals than either canned tomatoes or juice. Vitamin C One medium whole tomato contains about 16 mg, or 26 percent of your daily value, of vitamin C based on a 2,000-calorie diet, as reported by Fruits Nutrition Facts and Chart. Tomatoes can lose anywhere from 10 to 30 percent of their vitamin C if you cook them, according to Indiana Public Media. advertisement Sponsored Links Calculate Your Actual Age Take the RealAge Test and find out the actual age of your body. RealAge.com Vitamin A Tomatoes are classified as a good dietary source of vitamin A, according to Genetics.org. The vitamin A in tomatoes occurs as beta-carotene. One medium whole tomato contains about 1,025 international units, or IU, of vitamin A, or 20 percent of your daily value for vitamin A. Beta-carotene provides about 5 percent of the carotene found in tomatoes. Lycopene Lycopene is a carotenoid and an antioxidant. Antioxidants help protect you from developing cancer. Lycopene provides about 95 percent of the carotene in tomatoes. Lycopene gives tomatoes their red color and lowers your risk of heart disease and prostate cancer risk, says the University of Minnesota. When you cook tomatoes, their lycopene level greatly increases. Tomato sauce is a rich source of lycopene. Additional Vitamins and Minerals One fresh, medium-size tomato provides you with about 12 percent of your daily value for vitamin K and about 5 percent of your daily value for vitamin B6. It also provides smaller amounts of vitamin E and the B vitamins thiamine, niacin and folate. A fresh, medium-size tomato contains about 8 percent of your daily value for potassium and about 7 percent of your daily value for manganese. Tomatoes also offer you lesser amounts of copper, phosphorus and magnesium.” Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/352773-vitamins-and-minerals-you-can-get-from-tomatoes/ Basil from our herb garden. washed and ready to go! These are the sliced tomatoes for my freezed drying processing that is fresh basil from the garden too, extra virgin olive oil and apple cider vinegar and garlic has all been incorporated in the concoction. It is baked on low heat for hours and hours in your oven if you do not have a dehydrator, which I do not, but this works fine too. To speed up the process I play with the temps from 300, 350, 400, and finally down to 200 for the last couple of hours. The bowl alongside are the remainder of slicing tomatoes for salads and sandwiches. This sauce was made from scratch by dipping the tomatoes in boiling water then plunging them in an iced cold water bath for easy removal of their skins for the sauce that has fresh basil from our herb garden and onion and garlic and a bit of oregano with a dash of extra virgin olive oil,lemon juice and a bit of Stevia, mmm, mmm good now put safely away in the freezer for future use! The freezed dried ones will also be put into containers and or freezer bags. And I do believe that is it for today, consider yourselves schooled in what I do when I am not doing this, well not all of the time and of course these days Hubby’s the gardener when he used to not be, because that would have been me and of course he helped quite a bit when he used not help for these projects at all… He also painted a new wooden towel bar and matching toilet paper roll holder from Lowe's for my bathroom and installed them too, the fake brass set was looking well, fake…we bought the wood colored ones yesterday on our outing and he sprayed them white at my request to match my Victorian style bathroom and we also bought a new comforter/bedspread and shams in white Matelasse, actually that is with a coverlet from Bed, Bath and Beyond with that 20% discount, to make bed making as easy as pie for me and him too, lightweight and very pretty! On that note of much note allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask all of you to kindly count all your blessings and we will too! And next time please be here or be square, ya hear?!

Well, the info has been reviewed and the ...

Winner is! No, wait, that’s not what the information was about… my tests and blood work are all back and I am still only slightly Osteopenic, just in my left hip, so I guess it would be safe to say hip, hip hooray! I suppose being obese has its rewards for being able to move from chair to chair with the walker is sort of like weight, ha, bearing exercises, hmm? As far as my blood work goes that statin is working absolutely wonderful, since my total cholesterol is 166, not bad, and I bet that you’re all jealous, hmm? But my triglycerides are a bit high, but that is due to no exercise and interior/innards doc said my HDL was good, which is my healthy cholesterol and so not too bad in that arena…but my A1c did move up a bit from my neat free 5.8, and with the new norms an A1c of 6.1 is that much closer to becoming a gal with type 2 diabetes and I am to watch it, that is my diet more… with more protein! I am more into veggies and fruits than meats and chickens and fisheries stuffing my face, but I have been warned, and I don’t have to come back for six months unless I get that nasty headache again with that higher than normal wee morning glucose number of 179. She had no idea if the Gabapentin would cause the glucose to go up, but I told her that I read that it was not advisable to take if you were diabetic, although many diabetics take it. Today is my first day of taking the whole enchilada of 1800MG. of the Gabapentin and now I just read that there are more not so nice side effects from it… perhaps this will only last two years or less with this dose. All of these are disclaimers I suppose, if we believed them all no one would take any of this crap…but I am better in other areas of my ills that I was not doing so well without them: http://www.drugs.com/sfx/gabapentin-side-effects.html And so all of us have to weigh the bad with the good and now as many facts as possible; in other words read, read, read! So although, I am so much better in so many areas of my ills this weight will be the bane of my existence! Other than that, “How was the play Mrs. Lincoln?” You get my idea of how I feel about it… Now before I beat that dead horse again and too often, allow me to be the first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you to kindly count all your blessings and share all your overages with whomever you car to and we will too! And next time please be here or be square, ya hear?!

An uneventful night's sleep...

Conclusion: I was probably wrong. About what, I hear you all shouting? Of course I can’t, but if you are at all interested, some of tonight’s drivel is about ‘the whatever’ is she speaking about… What caused my severe headache and my rise in glucose? Actually, the glucose is not as clear cut, but the headache was more than likely caused by my makeup remover, a newer one but not my usual brand. And if I go back to the two days that I awoke from my sleep with those severe headaches it was the days I wore mascara, since we had gone out, which caused this amateur sleuth to realize it could not be just a coincidence; it was my deductive reasoning, more than likely an allergic reaction to the cleanser sheets? But the fact that my glucose was up quite a bit fasting that first night at 179 in the wee hours and not being a diabetic is a bit still unnerving, but it was fine this morning at 98… Must be my sluggish metabolism not digesting my foods and beverages so quickly, hmm? Any-who, tomorrow will tell the tale of what’s what, and then I will be that much better informed. Although, a dull ache still remains within my brain, oh yes, I forgot to tell you with my MRI report they do mention that there is a brain! Ta DA! Now, why is that I wonder… And yes, my night’s sleep was uneventful in the manner of it allowing me to sleep till after seven! You see, now if I had napped I might be saying that; I once again would have awoken in those wee hours, but I did, but only to, well, you figure it out, it is in the previous section of this sentence line… ha! Moving on… People from every walk of life grace the pages of Facebook and many have become friends or stronger acquaintances and it can be very nice. But some have sub-pages that they ask you to ‘like’ and it has put me as well as you I am more than sure to like their other pages? What I would like to know is why do they need more pages is because of the 5K limitations of Facebook on their regular page, or something more interesting that I am just not getting? No one has ever explained that one to me. And Facebook’s rules seem to change with the seasons…and are way to confusing for my wee brain, oops may be I shouldn’t use that term ‘wee’, tonight, since it is like a suggestive word… In closing as all of you, I bet, there is so much to learn and us all with inquiring minds need to know, and if only… someone would be kind enough to say…? On that note of Geez I gotta know I just wanta know…allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you to kindly count all your blessings and share all those overages with you know who you want to and we will too! And next time please be here or be square, ya hear?!

1:55 A.M.

That is the time I awoke at and I have been up ever since then. A few times during the day I did start to doze off, but chose to have coffee instead, most coffee I have drank in a long time, four cups today! Last several years I have been drinking a cup maybe two at the most. When I worked I was drinking ten, maybe a few more cups daily I only realized my down flaw when my hands started to shake when talking to another store manager while I was a district manager. Don’t worry that was already when everyone was getting drug tested and they knew I wasn’t on any drugs then, although, some might disagree about caffeine actually being a drug. Today, I am only on prescribed drugs now, by my physicians, way too many twenty-one pills and an injection daily! Oh the reason, I was up way too early was due to my darling head again! It wanted to crack open, and of course I was of a different opinion and wouldn’t allow it, but this time I felt it could be my sinuses and so I used my saline nasal spray and my antibiotic for my eyes and alcohol cotton balls for my ears and my cold water and alcohol washcloth for my neck and a few cups of coffee; for as we all know they act as vascular dilators and do really help and have been even known to curb migraines, which I used to get as a gal in my twenties from allergies, but was cured by desensitizing shots from an allergist after about only six months. And so within hours I was not as bad as I was, although, all throughout the day I have been periodically having those wee bit dull aches in the head area, all throughout it. Even now my darling wee noggin has been gonging deep dark rich tones as if in an ancient land. So I will have to hurry at least I have stopped nodding off. I suppose many are wondering why I did not try napping, Gosh you have nothing to do, do you? Well, a few reasons why I did not take a cat or kitty nap, number one is that I found if I nap I would not sleep through the night and two I beg to differ I had laundry to do and taking care of the houseplants and other flutterings around our home as well, now must I tell you everything? Kidding, of course I don’t but I do, but don’t I? I feel like this headache business is making its own sequels, at least it appears to be somewhat of a redundancy. And we all know that that is in keeping with my usual self. Monday my blood work should be back for my internist to tell me what’s going on, I hope, but Monday is also the day I turn it up a notch with the last/final higher increments of the Gabapentin being started of 600mg. 600mg., 600mg. if it is causing my headaches not my sinuses then, “HUSTON WE HAVE A PROBLEM!” And my neuro and I will have to figure something else out to help with my not so wonderful Multiple Sclerosis problems, changing for the worse symptoms… and yes, it does have an affect on glucose and so that is why the blood work will be the bottom line for knowing what is going on or not, who knows? Not only headaches and glucose but also can cause more weight gain, but at this point I do believe I will be dying ironically from obesity, not all my medicated maladies that have caused it! Such a good girl who quit smoking nearly seven years ago, and at that time I was going to the gym and thin with no medications ingested at all! Now if that isn’t ironic I don’t know what is? Have any of you ever wondered why a granny of ninety could be chain smoking away for more years than she can remember; while a young person of twenty-three gets lung cancer after taking up the nasty dirty habit only three years prior to diagnosis? I have and when I was privileged to have been able to go to visit at a university where doctors were discussing their research, on a break I spoke with one of the research physicians and he and as I felt, now this was years ago, probably fifteen or so years ago that in order for cancer to be called up to do its nasty stuff there has to be a gene trigger or some such thing, since that would be a more logical reason why some who smoke never have any ill affects from it and others do…And to this day I still tend to believe it, although I did quit. Now, that is not the greatest of thoughts to leave you with, but why don’t you just think beautiful thoughts, since my inner self believes that if we do it will show up on the outside of ourselves, that is manifest itself in our own outer beauty, okey dokey, so allow me now to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you to kindly count your blessings and share those overages with whomever you care to and we will too! And next time please be here or be square, ya hear?!

So March comes in like a lion? And goes out like a lamb?

Hey March! This is Florida! And we are in the southern exposure of these fine United States. Don’t you know that we are always warm and sunny all March long? Yep, March done did it to us too; we barely got up past sixty degrees today! Is someone trying to undermine our gorgeous foolproof weather and therefore our reputation? I demand a recount that is of the thermometers! Not votes, hardy, har, har...beat you to it! This is a very bad thing… Keep it out of the hands of the Chambers’ of Commerce’s! You know them, they will try and make it all sound so much nicer with a spin on how much warmer we are than our northern counterparts? And that it was Florida’s natural way of cooling down from the sweaty high humidity with those eighties for that last month that was so unusual causing all that morning fog and car accidents, due to the contrasting temps. No more fog here, and yet this is just another aberration, we all have a few, and it won’t last very long. Besides this nasty weather is only going to be sixties during the day and forties at night; it’s not like it’s going into the teens or single digits with wind chills or even freezing here! Oh no not us! Although, according to the Weather Channel we will be back into the mid-seventies by next Tuesday; our norms for March! And by next Friday, a week from today; it will be back into the eighties, hooray! And that will only be March 8th, not the thirty-first, yea. Oh lambkins; thanks for remembering what March is like here in the Sunshine State, warm and sunny! Big SMILE here. Here’s where that all got started the lion/lamb thingy… “If March comes in like a lion, it will go out like a lamb?” “Is there any truth to this saying??? Weather sayings are as colorful as our imagination. While many sayings are based on careful observations and turn out to be accurate, others are merely rhymes or beliefs of the people who came before us. Those people often believed that bad spirits could affect the weather adversely, so they were cautious as to what they did or did not do in certain situations. Those beliefs often included ideas that there should be a balance in weather and life. So, if a month came in bad (like a lion), it should go out good and calm (like a lamb). With March being such a changeable month, in which we can see warm spring-like temperatures or late-season snowstorms, you can understand how this saying might hold true in some instances. We can only hope that if March starts off cold and stormy it will end warm and sunny, but the key word is hope. However, this saying seems be to more of a rhyme rather than a true weather predictor.” Thanks to: http://www.farmersalmanac.com/weather/2010/03/01/the-truth-behind-in-like-a-lion-out-like-a-lamb/ Now I hope that is perfectly clear. It makes me feel so much more knowledgeable; I hope it was good for you too. On that note of trying hard to make this a better place ‘one day at a time’… that reminds me of Bonnie Franklin who passed away today of pancreatic cancer that only was diagnosed last September. Who was a child star, a tap dancer and was in the movies, on the stage and in our homes on the TV. She will be best remembered for her role as, Annie Romano, a divorced single mom with two teenage daughters, the series that ran for nine years, from 1975-1984 and was called, ‘One Day at a Time’. She was something else and will be sorely missed by all who laughed with her,okay at her, but that is why she did it, she was only sixty-nine years old. For more info, copy and paste this site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonnie_Franklin And so as Bonnie’s character knew that is all we can do is take it each day as it comes no matter what challenges we all have and we all have them. Taking them on in small increments always makes anything easier and not as scary,"One Day at a Time..." So on that note of a meaning that could take care of most of the world’s ills, allow me to be the first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you to kindly count all your blessings and share those overages with whomever you care to and we will too! And next time please be here of be square, ya hear?!

Results, vampira returns, brace yourself!

This morning I really thought it was just going to be another day of peaceful co-existence ala Hubby and Skipper, but no, I was very wrong! After awaking with a splitting headache at 3:12 A.M. and thinking I should check my glucose; since I hadn't in quite some time and having an empty tummy, and so I tested and I flunked, not being a ‘diabetic’ I had a fasting good morning glucose of 179! Scary and could this mean I was on my way to the nasty trifecta of not only having Multiple Sclerosis and Hypothyroid, but DIABETES TOO! Oh no, they can’t have me I won’t go, a coffee and a few hours later it was down to a not as frightening, 115, normal is below 100… I received my first personal phone call before eight thirty, eight twenty to be exact, from Anna the nurse in my neuro’s office they had the results of my MRI and fortunately, yes very fortunately, my snowy scatterings of lesions on both hemispheres and my T1 hypointense parenchymal lesions are all the same as last year and I am stable! Except for some nasal sinus mucosa on my left side, sorry about that, but it has progressed and I have no idea if that is good or bad, it does not sound that bad though… About an hour after that call from the nurse at the neuro, the nurse at the internist called to tell me I was supposed to have another blood test to check my thyroid and that I should go today and that it did not need to be fasting. Vampira called… but when I arrived they asked if I had eaten, well since it was eleven thirty, I had, I had breakfast at around eight thirty. They needed me to have more blood work preferably tomorrow, due to my appointment next week with my internist, and I said okay… On the way up there we made a few stops, one for my copy of my MRI report, next at Ace for wild bird seed and to Walgreen’s for finally my thumb/wrist brace and then the blood suckers. While waiting to be called we noticed they had a poster stating where they had labs in the area, a closer lab was not as far from our house, less than two miles, whoa! And so we decided the fasting-one, that is my blood test, will be there. Afterwards, we finally got my two all white pillow cases at Wally World not that expensive or fancy. Gosh they’re just for my legs pillow! Hubby took me out to lunch at the Olympia Restaurant, which we both like, he had an open faced turkey sandwich, with a side salad, mashed potatoes and gravy and I had broiled Basa with rice, corn that I didn’t finish, but very tasty cabbage soup. We both had black coffee, his with sugar mine with Stevia that I carry with me in my purse. A thumb brace is what I had for nearly two years on my left hand before I had the surgery on it back in August of 2001, and since my surgery is being delayed due to the extreme expense… I thought why not do what I know worked back then, when I never saw a bill with great insurance, and I also had a while with OT, occupational therapy. Sure I can copy a few exercises to do for myself intermittently during the day when I take the brace off periodically. I used to do hand exercise with my water aerobic students when I taught, yep this could be a piece a cake, well not cake, a little cupcake, maybe? I went to the Mayo Clinic site to see if keeping the brace on too long would be a problem and it said no. It keeps the thumb in a good position all day or all night it doesn’t matter either way. And so with that little bit of research I have a good feeling about me being able to handle my own fate with this, for a change. Heaven knows I was in physical therapy, occupational therapy and neuromuscular therapy, fourteen times! And I taught ROM, range of motion, for four years, so I can do this. PS I did tell my internist’s nurse when she called about the higher than norm reading of my fasting morning glucose, for a so-called non-diabetic with the last A1c being 5.8 in November, which is within the normal range. I suppose she could have been responsible for the additional fasting blood work being needed? Who knows, but I will know what’s what by next week. And so I will be happy and not worry. On that note of some hits and some misses, allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you to kindly count all your blessings and share all your overages with whomever you want to and we will too! And next time please be here or be square, ya hear?!

Endorphins VS. Adrenaline 2

How would you feel about a title that has gotten more hits than all your other accomplishments in this venue, in an over four and half year period? Although, in actuality I have had over 22,512 hits all toll, so far, that is until this tonight’s posting, for everything, so that statement is a bit inaccurate, a modest amount, but all mine. Did I mention I am read in ten countries in any given week in any given language, since I allowed them to translate what I write a few months ago? I wrote the original entitled item on February 26.2011 and it has proven to be the most popular of my Googled pieces that I have ever written, having 336 hits to date, although it seems daily there are more. It starts out with quoted information about the two naturally occurring processes in our bodies. And continues on with the ‘what ifs’, we could call on them when we really needed them in illnesses such as mine Multiple Sclerosis that has the two problems weakness and pain. If you care to read it too I am giving you access to this archival popular item of mine by copying it and pasting it from here: http://tobi-adayinthelife.blogspot.com/2011/02/endorphins-vs-adrenaline.html This is an experiment of mine once again testing the waters of what actually tantalizes an audience of readers to read what you serve up to them; I only wish I could speak with them individually to hear the whys. I have my own suspicions though, really. If you Google those two words it comes up with many other sites as well, but apparently people find it valuable in some way, shape or form to have those hits, at all? When I think about the youtube craze and all those flicks that get millions of hits I suppose that I am making too much out of my miniscule quantities, of course I am. Either way, I do feel a certain amount of tiny warmth in my heart that perhaps I did provide a service to someone somewhere? Or it could just be heartburn, since I do have GERD, HA! I wish I knew a scientist to help me with this project; wow did I say ‘project’? Unfortunately, when I have called upon people before for assistance the response has been lukewarm, if not downright cold. Okay folks, now is your chance see if you see the value in the original postings title, information, and concepts and if you are at all interested in my way of reasoning on behalf of all of us infirmed? I must admit I wrote all that before I became heat and cold sensitive to the point of causing exacerbations or at the very least intense spasms related to the MS. But for the many who do not have that problem it could be plausible? And that is why I would love feedback from people, perhaps in the scientific or medical professions, to see if it could be an answer to those two anomalies for too many chronic illnesses or illnesses that are fatal? That’s all I want to know if it is a germ of a plausible idea? I know poor choice of words, but you know what I mean, hmm? Any-who, in closing let’s say I cast the possibilities into the wind and let’s see if I catch anything? And I don’t mean the flu since our shots don’t work so we have been told…or any other ideas like calcium and vitamin D don’t seem to be of any help after all… what a week and its only Wednesday! Stick to the natural ways to get them through food and activities. On those notes of what’s next, allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you to kindly count all your blessings and share all those overages with whomever you care to and we will too! And next time please be here or be square, ya hear?!