What Have I Done?

In an effort to make life feel more normal, I took my oldest 2 kids out for an overpriced dinner at Brio.  I had two glasses of Cab with my steak, and tried hard to forget about yesterday.  The family doctor called to see how my son was and apologized for being an alarmist.  I don't think he was.  I think he did a good job, even though I've been like putty since yesterday.  Considering he has a pretty serious underlying cardiac condition, I think it's reasonable to put dizziness and cardiac abnormality together.  Frankly, I'm relieved all is well.  We're starting to think something may be wrong with the latest prescription my son had filled.  The medication is correct, but since he had it filled, he's been feeling like he's drunk and dizzy.  He's doing a trial off the meds with the blessing of the cardiologist.  He's less dizzy today.

Since we were having dinner at the mall with the intent to take advantage of Macy's wear red and take an extra 20% off, we went shopping after dinner.  I bought a cute winter jacket for $22.  Then I went into the Ralph Lauren department and bought a hand made sweater that's cabled and has ruffled cuffs and hem.   I'm going to cannibalize the thing to get rid of the hideous hem.  Really, it looks like a tutu which is not flattering.  On me, it's too-too much.  Without, it'll be a thing of beauty.  Original price was $280.  I got it for $50.  Tomorrow, it's gonna be me, my new Ralph sweater, a pair of scissors and some knitting needles.  I can't wait.  I'll take before and after pictures.

Uh.  This doesn't  count as buying yarn, does it?  Nah.

The New Squeaky Wheel

Well it seems only fitting that today, National Red Dress Day,  I'd talk about the heart. 

My son is a wonderful man.  Growing up, he never really caused me any trouble.  I'm sure he's responsible for one or two of my gray hairs, but certainly not all of them.  He was just 18 months old when my youngest was born, and he spent many years in her shadow.  Her overwhelming needs most certainly dwarfed his own.  

When my son became a teen, he began to complain about his chest feeling funny.  He'd say his heart felt like it was beating out of his chest and he was short of breath.  Every single time I'd listen to his heart or take his pulse, it was completely normal.  My dad and my neighbor had just died so I thought he'd found a physical way to express his grief.  Then one day he complained and I found this boy's pulse was racing so fast, I couldn't keep count.  I took him to the ER where they hooked him up to a monitor which showed nothing abnormal, just plain old vanilla sinus rhythm.  How boring.  We couldn't make his heart act up until the nurse stuck his arm with a needle.  Immediately, his heart rate jumped to 200 on the monitor and just as fast as the catheter was advanced in his arm, the rhythm was gone.

We were discharged home that day and followed up with a cardiac electrophysiologist.  My son had an electrophysiology (EP) study with empiric ablation.  More or less, the doctor zapped the tissue in the general area he thought was causing the problem.  It didn't really help except now when my son felt the rapid rhythm coming on, it was always preceded by a thump he could feel.  We were back to square one.  We changed doctors and over a few weeks, my son wore a cardiac event monitor which he'd press whenever he felt his heart racing.  You know it's not good when a cardiologist calls your home on a Saturday and starts talking about sustained heart rates of 200 to 220. We saw a different EP doc who took him to the cath lab and tried again to fry the piece of tissue in his heart that was causing his condition of AVNRT, but because of sedation, they were unable to get the heart to act up during this visit.  Sick of it all, we looked to medications to help, and through trial and error, found the drug metoprolol to be the most beneficial.  For years, he's been stable and I can look at him without thinking of his heart.

Fast forward to today.  Thinking nothing of it, I sent him to the doctor for dizziness.  I'd checked his blood pressure, heart rate and listened to the rhythm.  I thought I heard a new murmur but didn't think much of that.  Just as I was getting ready for work, the phone rang.  It was the family practice doctor telling me he thought my son had signs of an aortic aneurysm and he was concerned about a prominent new carotid bruit.  WHAT???  I did what any seasoned ICU nurse would do:  I broke down sobbing.  I'm telling you, I was chicken little and called to anyone who would listen that the sky was falling.  Wisely, one of them was the cardiologist.  She, who is the voice of reason, called the cardiology department at the small hospital I used to work at and had them stay late to see us.  Today, we've had one meltdown, one 2 D Echo with Colorflow Doppler and one Bilateral Carotid Artery Ultrasound.  All was well.  There is no aortic aneurysm, no bruit and I am a useless blob of spent energy with several new gray hairs.  My sweetyheart  is still dizzy, but he is not in an operating room.  Now may be a good time to crack that bottle of red-it's the right color for today.

I Feel the Earth Move Under My Feet

Is it possible that I'll become a victim of the next round of layoffs in my health system?  I'm trying really hard to keep my calm in respect to the news that my system is looking for a way to shave $100,000,000 from its operating budget.  I thought I was bullet proof, but clearly, I'm misguided.

Do I keep my calm, waiting to see how the dust settles?  Or should I start looking now?  I'm torn.  I don't want to be caught in a flood of hospice nurses looking for work a month from now...

The Games People Play

There is a little game that's played in my home.  For the life of me, I can't recall the origins of the game, except to say that I think it began out of boredom.  Someone in my home sets up little animals all around the house.  They're for protection.  From what, I don't know...

Here we have a goose protecting the coffee pot and stash of coffee beans. I don't know why the pot needs to be protected, but that's the purpose of the goose.

It would seem the jungle animals were let loose in my bedroom. Now either they're a bunch of voyeurs, or they're there to protect me. All of them are facing my bed. I can't figure out why the horse is lying on top of the hut.

Obviously, someone has watched too much of The Godfather. I'm not quite sure of the meaning of this horse's head on my pillow, but that's what I found when I went to bed last night.  

Over the years, I've tried to tell people how quirky my husband family is, but I think the photographic evidence speaks for itself. You know, they say there isn't anything out there in this big world of ours that hasn't been said or done before.  I'm not sure, but I think this may just be an original game.

Do you live with odd people too?

One Thing Leads to Another

I am always amazed at the places my mouse can take me. Just point and click, or press enter, and I'm a world away. Today I was looking for news on Mt. Redoubt in Alaska. There are warnings this volcano could erupt at any time. One thing lead to another, and there I was looking at webcams from all over Alaska. No eruptions yet, but those people have drawn my pity just the same. The sun doesn't rise until 9:27 AM and sets at 5:22 PM. Honestly, I don't know how they do it! At 5:15 PM Monday, I had to wear my sunglasses while driving. I guess I should quit whining about the hardships here-at least we get about 2 extra hours of daylight than Alaska. That has to be awful. Of course, they get long days in summer, so maybe to them, it evens out. Here's hoping the volcano goes back to sleep.


On the knitting front, I came across a really cool website for yarn.  In an effort to keep from spending my retirement money, I didn't buy anything, and I didn't bookmark the site.  I'm having a harder time staying away from this month's Lorna's Laces at Jimmy Beans.   I've resisted for two lousy days. What are the chances I'll stumble?   Luckily, I've been waylaid by something else. While reading Wendy's blog, I saw the Stash Buster Blanket she's making and fell hard. It looked like it was knit, but it isn't. It's Tunisian crochet, and I'm smitten. This type of crochet is a cross between knitting and crochet.  I like that it's a stash buster blanket-the faster I get rid of stash, the faster I can buy again, so I bought the pattern at Stitchdiva and chrocheted a swatch. The pictures above represent a couple of hours of fiddling around with the different stitches. Tunisian crochet calls for big hooks and the one I'm using is a bit too small. Before I invested in the needle ($30) I'm trying to decide if I like this type of work. If you click on the picture, you can see the stitches in close up. When using the Tunisian simple stitch, the work appears woven. The familar V of a knitted stitch lies sideways. Like knitting, there are all sorts of ways you can manipulate the stitches to create others-including knit and purl stitches. Although Stitchdiva has a great written instructions I found a video tutorial. Not one to like traveling alone, I've provided many links. Now one thing can lead to another for you too.

It's What's For Dinner

Should he happen to see his shadow, things will not go well for the groundhog.

 

Searching for something good to do with groundhogs, I found this recipe on a Michigan outdoor website -they apparently got it from Herb. My commentary is in red to represent what I'll be seeing if that groundhog delivers the wrong result, because frankly, I don't think I can bear another 6 weeks of winter.

Waco Groundhog in Sour Cream

Recipe By: "Indian Cookin", compiled by Herb Walker, 1977

1 Groundhog, skinned & cleaned (who can I pay to do this deed?)
1/2 cup vinegar
1 tablespoon salt
2 quarts water
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 cup bacon fat (apparently the fat in the groundhog is not enough)
3 small wild onions (currently buried under a foot of snow)
1/2 cup water
1 cup sour cream

Skin and clean the groundhog ( this may be my first problem). Wash and dry and put in an earthen crock (why do I have to dry it when it's going into liquid?). Cover with water and a half cup of vinegar and 1 T. of salt. Let stand in a cool place overnight (don't worry, nothing bad could come of this, right?).

 In the morning, remove from brine, wash and pat dry with a damp cloth (again with patting dry then immersing in water). In a large soup kettle combine 2 qt. of water and 2 T. of soda. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer meat for 15 minutes, removing the scum (mmmm, scum) as it rises to the surface. Drain and rinse the groundhog meat and cut into serving pieces.

 Combine the flour, salt and allspice and dredge the pieces of meat in the mixture. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Melt the bacon fat in a heavy iron frying pan until smoking (nice combo of smoking hot and bacon fat- I'll keep a lid nearby in case I start a kitchen fire). Brown meat on all sides. Transfer the browned meat into a greased 4 qt. casserole. Arrange sliced onions on top, add water, cover and bake in a preheated oven for 2 hours or until the meat is tender (must be tough if I have to brine, boil, fry, and then braise).

 Transfer the meat to a heated platter to keep warm. Put the casserole on top of the stove over medium heat and spoon in the sour cream stirring constantly (this is needed either because the groundhog and bacon don't add enough fat, or the flavor is dreadful and I must mask it-I'm just not sure). Do not let the sauce come to a boil. Put the meat back into the casserole and simmer for about 15 minutes. Delicious served with creamed dandelion leaves (now where will I find dandelions on February 2nd in Michigan?).

On second thought, maybe I should make reservations for dinner. After looking at this guy's freaky little fingers, I've come to the conclusion that this recipe has too much fat...

Photo Wiki Commons

Just Another Day

We had a repeat of last Saturday's adventures in roommate screenings. I had a meeting with the advocate who'll oversee this assisted living arrangement, and we came to an agreement about creepy dad. He won't be visiting anyone who lives here, and he'll have to find a different home for his daughter to live in. It won't be Rachel's. I feel so much better about getting this off my chest, and I'm so appreciative of everyone's advice on this site.

Moving forward, we have 2 women in their early fifties, Miss Rachel who will turn nineteen this month, and a young lady in her mid twenties. All of them are very warm, friendly and charming. I'm so excited about this. Rachel is the most profoundly impaired of the four, but everyone needs supervision. At least my daughter won't be surrounded by people as impaired as she is, and I'm hopeful this situation will give her the opportunity to grow and learn from others.

Duke did OK with all of the women who visited, and their families, but he did not like the man who was doing some repairs here. Subsequently, the dog was banished to the back yard for about 20 minutes. You'd have thought I'd sent him to purgatory. When he came in, he was shivering like crazy so the kids bundled him up in my brother's Michigan blanket. That's what he gets for leaving this handmade gift just lying around like yesterday's trash. It was reclaimed, and as you can see, it's clearly gone to much better use.


Sebba was kind enough to model my neck warmers for me. I used cute silver buttons on the amethyst colored piece and some shell buttons on the other. I haven't blocked the lavender piece yet, so I don't think it lies as well as it will once I blast it will a little water and heat. Thank you Sebba-you really do showcase my work well.

The mittens are another story. It would seem I was nervous during these visits again, and I got a little carried away. The gauge was fine, but the length was simply too long. I just kept knitting around, and around and around. Knit 2, place thrum was my mantra, and I wasn't paying any attention to what my hands were doing-just sitting there channeling my anxiety into my knitting. Oh well, what's a little frogging? It keeps me humble.

***If you want to learn to do the thrum mittens, you can go here to see a tutorial. When placing the thrum, I insert the needle and wrap the yarn around it like for a regular stitch. Before I pull it through, I  place the thrum on the needle and pull them both through together. On the next row, knit the thrum and corresponding stitch together. This gives me the best stitch definition. They really are cozy-if a little huge at present. I'll frog tomorrow. For now, I've again been lead astray by--Heaven help me--crochet. More on that later.***