Stay Vacay!

Anytime we eat out twice in one day while living here in vacationland, FLORIDA USA I feel it necessary to call us on having a stay vacay, or vacation for you purists!
Actually, the reasoning for eating out twice in one day had nothing to do with needing or wanting a vacation, but more to do with convenience.
You see, whenever I am scheduled, usually yearly unless in need sooner, to see my Dr. Nord, our mutual internist, I have to go in for a fasting blood work the week before that appointment.(My A1c is one of those tests and hopefully I will now be out of the threat of type two diabetes that I have been battling since 2009 with borderline numbers of 5.7-6.1, I believe below 5.4 is in the clear!)

And after we usually eat breakfast out, and we did since I had PT at 10:45A.M. today.
But you see that also goes into lunch time being done so close to noon and all and so we ate that out too!
Breakfast at the Olympia restaurant, is where I had a poached egg and whole wheat toast and a very large tropical fruit cup, actually I ate only a half of a slice of toast and about two or three piece of fruit and Hubby took the other half of my poached egg added into his two eggs, sausage, home fries and his toast too that he finished; he had coffee. I had a small tomato juice that I did finish and a glass of water that I did not, lemons on the side as always. My three halves of toast that were left and fruit cup came home with us... and after PT we had lunch at Jacks on Marion in Punta Gorda, and I ordered my favorite there their Calypso (seafood) bisque soup and Hail Caesar salad with anchovies, and yes, they too came home. We both had iced water with lemons on the side; Hubby ate half of his roast beef with ajous and spicy fries, so his came home too!
Just like on a vacay!

I finished my soup for dinner, but Hubby was still not hungry so we have plenty left for another day!
Sounds weird to many who don't live in vacationland, but we do.
Although, many people probably visit your area and enjoy vacationing there; new to them and mysterious and fun perhaps, hmm?
Anyway, we had mild temperatures here as always, mid to high seventies today so for us Floridians it was sweater weather, but we saw so many tourists, as usual in shorts and T-shirts, brrrrrrrrr, ha!

Moving on...

I was happy to see that this morning that I had lost another pound!
Thirty-five so far and counting, and tomorrow it will be three months since surgery!
While in Jacks I was happy to see that they now have free WIFI and so I asked my phone a question I thought I knew the answer to, if I can ever drink any alcohol ever again due to the gastric sleeve surgery and the answer was NO! (Just read where some people can drink wine, yay!)
Sounds silly, but I inwardly gasped thinking no wine, even on holidays, oh darn.
It is calorically unwise and the fermentation components could be damaging to my banana sized tummy, since two thirds was removed! The voiced answer on Google was stating. We had stopped two years ago due to the calories anyway, but still sad,  a wee bit.
Oh well... caffeine is a no no too as well as all that spicy food that I love.(Good news about spicy too, whatever you can tolerate.)
Those though could be only temporary although I will have to check again online.
I did check and added in where there were other answers more possible choices, stay tuned there is a rather high learning curve for all this and it is a daily process for me.

Any-who, I would like to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you all to kindly count all your blessings and share all those overages with you know whom and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear!






 

O Canada!

My pulmonologist's nurse Sierra was very helpful with calling me back nearly by five Monday evening with five more asthma medications that I called my insurance pharmacy the next day as well as my local pharmacies too.
One pharmacist was so annoying for when I mentioned that my Anoro Ellipta was my Epipen he told me that CVS has some name of a medication for $110 and I asked "my asthma medication?", he said no, your Epipen....and he handles drugs, yup!
Anyway, when I finally found out that there were no generic brands carried by any of the pharmacies comparable to the Anoro Ellipta and I was entitled to a 40% discount with my insurance and that was on the bottom line on my Anoro Ellipta at $409 every two months, I asked about the others that all came in at $900-1100 for a two months supply, but minus of course that 40% discount,  all now tier 3 with Medicare, Geez, not a bargain to me, no way Jose!
It turns out when I called Sierra, the nurse, back she had one more possibility up her sleeve, globalpharmacyplus.com  also can be reached by calling, which I did at 1-855-475-7782 Fax 1-855-275-7787.
They did not have my Anoro Ellipta but they had a generic of one of the medications on the list that Sierra had given to me on Monday, called Spiriva.
A 90 day supply for me is $68-$10= $58 +$12 shipping=$70 for a 90 day supply, yay!
They give you an order number and you in turn give that to your doctor's office so they can fax the prescription up there, yep to CANADA! Next best thing to moving there, ha!
I felt a bit un patriotic doing that, being an American and all, but out of desperation and all...

Get this, Hubby said while I was writing tonight that our Ft. Myers TV station, NBC affiliate, was running a story on how many people diagnosed with asthma do not really have it!
I was tested and x-rayed and CAT scanned and had a pulmonary breathing test and all sorts of tests, so why would they say that and make people stop taking their medication?
What Hubby relayed was that they had colds or some such thing that caused miss-diagnoses.
But after a year or more when seeing a pulmonologist wouldn't they be able to tell the difference?
Especially with someone like me who takes so many vitamins?
I sometimes think that journalists, myself included hold too much power, not me, (I only wish that my pen was mightier than my sword, don't even have one of those though, ha!),  not that I am a serious journalist at all or in their class at all, but those TV people that many get  all their info from should be more careful on presentation... but that's just me, I'm just saying...
Always check with a reliable trusted source, a M.D. or whomever yours in that case that person of trust might be.

Anyway, I was surprised that they, Global Pharmacy also carries pet medication, like heartworm etc. ours in fact in a generic for a fifth of the price! Something to consider down the line...

On that note from one proud American who will not be watching the inauguration Friday; another form of boycotting, a peaceful way to show displeasure with the incoming administration, allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you all to kindly count all your blessings and share all your overages with you know whom and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear!

 

KING!

 

How things can change on a dime, two steps forward and sadly too many backwards...now in front of this this Friday!

Do you think that Dr. Reverend Martin Luther King is turning over in his grave... I wonder if such a fine man that might have been able to head us in a better direction than the charlatan that will be taking over from another man of kindness and decency who will be sorely missed what he would have had to say about all this... Oh what fate bestows upon us now... where have all the great ones gone... and why must we Americans be punished! 

 

My original was written 1-17-11 of the below blog:

Please enjoy and think about how we got here, not where any of us had hoped to be, why?

 

In a world where our surnames are determined by our heritage or in the case of us old fashioned women by our spouse’s family names; Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is a man whose family had no idea that he would grow into his with such a worldwide dynamic of what the name stood for and that he would become a ‘King’ among men in the sense of his leadership, and bring to our family of men and women a legacy that any of us folks could be proud of from whence we came.
And so today we honor that man of our history who brought about a unification of all races to know that we as a unit of beings will be better at working and accepting one another and freedom should ring true for all.
A blessed person loved by all except for the one lunatic who cut him down way too soon in his prime of life.
Thankfully our children and grandchildren have been taught to continue Martin Luther King Jr.’s bequest of liberty for everyone no matter what the color of their skin.
I do believe that we have made quite a bit of progress on this forefront but have a ways to go, you see, we still hate too much here in this country and until that stops completely his words will not be fulfilled!
And so I beg of all Americans and all people of the world to listen closely to what this man’s words were, you can copy and paste this site: http://www.mlkonline.net/quotes.html for he knew what we all should do and felt we had the capacity to accomplish it all…and now more than ever we need to try harder!
Thank you Mr. King we all have much to thank you for!
His actual birthday was Sunday the fifteenth when he would have been eighty-eight years old.


I sure wish that things were different now, for a short time, eight years things were looking up for our country with love for all people, but now my hope for that is diminishing so very sadly...

Give your thoughts on this day of remembrance started in 1983 by President Ronald Reagan another Republican who now to me seems that he was much better than I thought, he brought about unity to so many here and in the rest of the world. If we had to have another Republican  why not one more like a Lincoln or Reagan why oh why a DJ Lord?
 

Love Hate Relationship; hate might be a bit strong, but not happy!

He helps people he hurts people Senator Cory Booker, I used to truly respect this man, now I am concerned about my own ability to make proper choices about people. Please read this extensive reasoning of why I feel this way in the article below. His goodness to most everyone will always outweigh his bad though...at least I truly hope so, please Senator Booker re-examine the BIG Pharma medication hikes!
They are needed meds with life and death implications for all of their users!

http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/1/14/14262732/cory-booker-senate-democrats?yptr=yahoo

The problem is I have my own fight with my own version of the Epipen controversy. You see, that mine is Anoro Ellipta, my asthma inhaler is now a tier 3 medication that went from $47  for a two month supply to now $455 for the same quantity and time period, but mine is dosed daily not for emergencies only. (I also have an allergic reaction to bee stings that could have by now have turned into needing an Epipen, but I no longer garden or go outside too much these days. If I even hear any buzzing I leave quickly!) I had misspoken previously about it being a deductible meeting issue for the Anoro Ellipta with my prescription drug plan, and no there is no generic alternative for this drug yet!
I checked even with Glaxco Smith Klein, the Big Pharma company that makes it with their customer assistance plan, according to their criteria we make two hundred dollars a month too much to qualify! But with increases in taxes and homeowners insurance payments and no COLA, cost of living, increases  to speak of with social security that's a lot, although Hubby gets his big 3% yearly with his state employee pension thank goodness, but that still doesn't keep up with what actually is happening. People think with Medicare it is free no, they take quite a bit out to pay for medical insurance from both of us and then more with paying out the supplemental and the rx addition to part D paid out of pocket monthly too!
So on Monday I am hoping that I will hear back from my pulmonologist that I had called Friday with my dilemma leaving a message with his service, and perhaps he might have some ideas, by then I will have about 20 days' worth left of my medication inhaler.
I still have my emergency one, perhaps that will be enough?

Moving on...

Today we stayed home.
But got things, mundane things done around here, and in between Hubby watched his Netflix binge on the living room TV and I watched mine while relaxing in bed with my laptop on my pimped out hospital table now marbled contact papered with a white spray painted stand, oh my latest is the reboot of the X-files from its beginnings. I had watched the newest episodes on its Fox station just when they had it last year I believe, but it has been interesting watching it all from the beginning again. We were fans from its original beginnings way back when and so were our sons. I am currently about halfway through the fourth season of the nine seasons. Oh Hubby's choices have been many Zombie ones and currently now Revolution that was on network TV, but was re adapted for Netflix with an additional season or two, not sure, since it was not my pick. We do share our choices though, Hubby did watch all of American Horror Story as well as Haven; both are still thumbs up from us!

On that note, allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you all to kindly count all your blessings and share all your overages with you know whom and we will too!

 And next time please be here or be square, ya hear!

Today we left the manse!

For the outer world.
Our drive was one of some time and distance and we arrived without any designated concern for we were on our own and nothing matters then; only selfishly ourselves!
Mystery solved another art festival another bunch of truly happy people whether observing or purchasing we all came with one incentive deep in our souls to enjoy the mild Florida temperatures and to enjoy the scenery!
From pet watching to people watching to admiration for other peoples' talents it was a very successful smile ridden day!
Something about being outside in fresh air with artsy people makes one wonder why anyone should  ever return home.
But alas these things do have a beginning and an end, and since we left after our lunch at one P.M. to go there all the way to Cape Coral about forty miles one way as the crow flies a little less if your GPS tells you how, about thirty five miles that way... besides it closed at five, but more tomorrow if you missed todays joy!
The high seventies with overcast made our arrival weather just right, but by leaving time, and that is why we really had to leave it was due to the sun that was blaring and the eighties abounded rapidly!
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Florida gotta love ya!
We came with sweaters on and left perspiring.

Moving on... just a smidge...

Bumped into my long lost cousin and his wife, the retired teachers from NJ now Venice Florida there who are avid art collectors of all mediums, we had been estranged from them for many years.
Oddly my cousin came up behind me and  touched my arm I think he was a bit surprised that I was in my fancy motorized wheelchair, the same one as Stephen Hawkings. He gently asked me how I was doing and seemed concerned, and answered with not so good I see, not verbatim. After we caught up on the last several years sort of, me answering questions actually, and not asking too many of my own, should have. He pecked me on my cheek as if he truly cared and we said goodbye, not see you, but good bye!
Chilling actually, so civilized and cold and scary, and there was so much more I had wanted to say, but I did not get the chance.
Better that I didn't I suppose.
The hurt was still there and even though sincerity was almost there I believe it was just for the heck of it.

Oh well!

Good night to all and to all be well and happy and smile or at least find something to cause that to happen, we all should daily!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear!


 

DAGNABIT!

I repeat, Dagnabit!

 My two nightstand drawers took no time at all to neaten, perhaps an hour due to massive paperwork from my medications and blood tests and hospitals' folders etc. and I even found of all things a 2009 tax return, would you believe! Our copy, so no worries there, but why there is a mystery when all others are in our file cabinet. Many have been shredded since the new rule of thumb of keeping non-business ones for only five years, I think. Sad and shameful though that the year of 2009 must have been the last time I cleaned that top drawer out! (Oops, did I say that out loud? Ha!)

No sweat, like my other cleaning projects that had had me dripping wet; this last one was way too easy breezy.

And my appetite came back, don't worry I'm not overeating since I really can't, my tummy tells me NO! 
I am still only eating small portions, but I did eat each of today's meals, ice pops in between, but I lost another pound, yay!

I have not been doing my exercises though with all these other workouts I have been getting!

Although, today I goofed again with not checking the depth of my injector for my Copaxone and I really hurt myself with my right arm inoculation today after my shower after my last drawer project.
Happy I did that all first, since my right arm was pretty much out of commission for hours, but the warm compresses did work!
I really must watch the adjustable injector's depth due to my weight loss, I forgot as I gained it went up and now that I am losing weight I have to readjust. It felt as if I hit a nerve or even bone! Scary!
But it must not have been either, since I feel better now.
Barely could move my right arm for hours.
And that is why I refused to have the basilar arthritis thumb and ulnar nerve fixed on my right side fixed due to my left side took over four months to get back to normal, but I am not a lefty.
You see, they put a piano brace on you for ten days until the stitches are removed and then you wear a cast for another six weeks and then two months of occupational therapy!
Yep, for a very right handed person like myself it poses too many questions about how to do normal day's functions, hmm?
Eating, going to the bathroom, writing this etc.?
I had my left done way back in August of 2001, and thought I would wait for the right side to get really bad.
The doctor wanted to do both then, but I nixed the idea.
And the orthopedic hand surgeon told me they were both just as bad then, so my right one has gotten real bad... but I hate the idea of going through that now with my other surgery so recent.
It actually gets the worse at night my hand and arm o that right side.
A few years ago I went back to that same doctor and he was ready to schedule the surgery, but my insurance was not that great and my out of pocket was way more than we could afford, and now we have great insurance that would cover all of it, but the whole bunch of other things  I mentioned above causes me to hesitate.

Anyway, it's a lot to think about!

Moving on...

To the DJ controversy about ousting him prior to him actually taking office, before the inauguration.
We, I should say most of us believe he is not capable of managing our country's needs and wants.
But we have all been anxiously letting out a lot of steam with raucous rants on the best way to accomplish this, myself included, petitions have not proven to do anything and calling our representatives have been another possibility to try, believe me I have written letters as an advocate for ills/diseases that I believe in being added in for vote by our government's elected officials using all of our monies for disbursement, since we all are paying in taxes to subsidize other things for all of us, why not for funding Cancer, MS, and Arthritis etc.
So calling our local senators etc. sounds great, if they are available to speak with, but hopefully they are busy doing our bidding for us on all of our states' matters while representing us up there in D.C., so who can we talk to really, a lowly office worker to whom we cannot be sure the message will go through? No offense to most office personnel who do know everything going on and run the works, so forgive, but you are all busy too! I instead contend to believe that Bernie Sanders and most all of the Democrats do know our concerns about how things will be handled under DJ's reign, and there are so many checks and balances in place that he has no clue about that I feel fairly confident that he is mostly a blustery blowhard about his threats and odd ideas getting passed, truly!
Too many sane people that we sent up there to D.C. for that to happen; anarchy?
Let's hope never!
Nuclear war? All those threats from those other folks, like North Korea, not going to happen, since we could retaliate in a New York minute!
No winners in that case, too big a risk for both sides.
But we must not lose HOPE ever!
And I encourage any of you as well as myself to do whatever you feel might work, and if you get lucky, spread the word and we will all follow suit!
Success can become contagious too!
Otherwise a peaceful unified march on Washington on the day of the inauguration and pray a lot!
He cannot get away with any of his ludicrous suggestions, and his background and lawsuits will slow him down, and might even stop him before he tries anything to which no one is listening, really!
He won, that is true, but he has already gone back on so much of his promises to those who voted for him that I am more than sure they will realize they made a BIG mistake! DAGNABIT TOO!

On that note of perhaps hope, 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 blessing and to share all those overages with you know whom and we will too!

 And next time please be here or be square, ya hear!
 

Bloated much?

How does flat club soda cause bloating?
I did have a soft boiled egg and a sliver of toast with a bit of butter and low sugar orange marmalade for breakfast, with a green tea chaser.
 Lunch did not make the grade, a smidge of chicken and my homemade cream of asparagus soup that I had not finished the day before; it was less than half a cup and I could not get that down at all!
So most of the afternoon I had my sugar free tropical iced pops, 15 calories a piece and a couple of the no sugar added chocolate ones that are 40 calories apiece, and that was it until dinner.

I have been receiving skinny recipes from Betty Crocker, of all things and tonight's fair was a recipe for chicken tomato sauce pasta mozzarella and parmesan casserole. It called for bowties, but we had left over uncooked in the box ziti pasta and so used instead. I do improvise a lot, all else we basically had like the Panko, we had made that switch years ago from bread crumbs, but we buy plain and it called for Italian style, thus my pantry loaded with dry ingredients and larger sized items, so a little of the garlic powder and onion powder and my one kitchen drawer is also a designated spice drawer and in there I have the smaller containers of oregano and basil, next mix all of those with the half of a cup of dry Panko and voila Italian style Panko!

It also called for hot pepper flakes that I used to love, but these days it is still a no no, darn, and Hubby can't take the heat so they were omitted, it also called for a jar of tomato sauce and we had one left in the pantry Prego Heart Smart, and we always have mozzarella part skim in the fridge as well as parmesan cheese and with our rotisserie chicken still waiting for more devouring we were all set.

Of course with just the two of us I cut the six servings down to half, should have been a third, but Hubby enjoys some leftovers, especially of this type of casserole and I was certain it fit the bill.
He had two healthy sized servings, and I had about two tablespoons full and then after a teaspoon more, yup, that's me these days. We had cauliflower with it on the side, Hubby about 3/4 of a cup and me about a teaspoon if that. I was surprised the recipe didn't call for the usual, garlic cloves onions and mushrooms I seem to add to everything I make, but it didn't. I could have added them for sure, but I suppose I was being lazy.

Although, I did also clean out our guestroom closet too today, next my dual drawers in my night stand!
I'm on a mission and I am almost all done!
Hubby even stated it has sparked his desire to start cleaning out the sheds!
I live for being a good example! Ha!?
And I have a weird concern of what people might say after I am gone if they saw those messes...oh well. I guess whatever gets you motivated is whatever works for you!

Any-who, with all this excess energy and lack of a real appetite, perhaps like in the old days the weight will continue to melt off of me, yay!

Our anniversary is next month and I would love for another ten pounds to be gone by then...so I am motivated!

On this note of allowing me to think/write out loud and bounce my thoughts off of you, thanks by the way, allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you all to kindly count all of your blessings and share those overages with you know whom and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear!

PS  I am watching our pres.-elect DJ slowly, but not quietly implode by his own doings and all due to his own voice of too many habitual lies! We might just have to all sit back calmly and watch all this as it unfolds and he explodes with a nervous breakdown, proving once and for all to all that he is unfit to serve.
Someone cancel his health insurance please!
Since he is giving his children his business holdings, it will be interesting if they help him when it all takes that nasty downturn, or will they just warehouse him and commit him, hmm? Time will tell, and his Karma is definitely in jeopardy!