Christmas Wishes . . .

. . . to everyone reading!

Pretty quiet Christmas here . . . presents, church, family, snow, baking, cooking and wine. What more could anyone want?

Eat,live,run recipe update

I added three recipes to my project - Turkey meatballs, Broccoli, Cheddar and Potato soup and Turkey Taco Casserole.

Sunday while watching the Packer game I made the turkey meatballs, HERE. Positive comments from everyone. The meatballs were good and the marinara was quite tasty. Until the meatballs go into the marina they aren't much to look at, ground turkey has a way of looking pale and (honestly) somewhat sickly compared to beef.

On Christmas Day I made the Broccoli, Cheddar and Potato soup, HERE. Usually I make cream of broccoli soup for Cristmas Eve - but since we celebrated on Tuesday, I decided to switch it up and made soup on Wednesday. I have to say, it was hard for me to not make my customary Cream of Broc soup - but I gave Jenna's recipe a try. The recipe called for blending the broccoli and cooked potato. I used my immersion blender and left a few chunks of broccoli and potato. The recipe includes a bit of cayenne, mustard powder and sharp cheddar cheese - this all gives it a bit of a bite. It was really creamy and yummy. Another great one. This is a pic from my lunch today at work - I remembered that I had not taken a photo, so this had to do!

Although I was thinking we would order pizza tonight I arrived home and decided to make Turkey Taco Casserole, HERE. Easy to put together and ohh so good. It is quite apparent I need to learn to take better food pictures. Well, if you want to see better pic's make sure to check out Jenna's blog - she takes much better pic's! I added sliced black olives to the recipe.

I am off to make a Cosmo in celebration of getting released from infusions today! I saw the Doctor today and she decided today's infusion was my last. My arm looks good and I just need to keep an eye in it and make sure to call if there is any type of recurrence.

Tomorrow I am heading out for a run and will be adding the squats and lunges to get ready for skiing.

Enjoy the moments!

 

Posted with Blogsy

Updates . . .

. . . First the Recipe Update:

During the last week I made two more recipes from Jenna's blog, eat, live, run HERE. Both were easy and worthy of making again. Although based on my resolution to make all of Jenna's main course recipes over the next year - I won't be making them again until next year . . . but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't make them sooner!

Last week I made Spaghetti with Meat Sauce, HERE. I loved the earthy, cheesey flavor. The recipe fed us several evenings and I was able to freeze 2 containers of the meat sauce which is great for a quick meal during a busy work week.

Tonight for dinner I made the 30 minute lemon brown sugar chicken, HERE. Another easy recipe. The chicken didn't get as browned as in Jenna's pictures, maybe I should have left it in the pan a little longer but the flavor was bright and sweet. My son, Charlie thought it was a little to tangy because of the lemon juice and zest. As the name of the recipe says, it was ready in 30 minutes, which would be great on work nights.

 

Medical update:

I was at the clinic this morning for my second antibiotic infusion. My arm looks and feels better today; it is not nearly as swollen, the color is closer to normal, and my temperature is only slightly elevated. I still am a little achy - but it didn't stop me from doing some shopping, baking and cooking!

I have another appointment tomorrow morning. To counter balance the effects of the antibiotics I have been eating yogurt and bought a container of Kefir. I have appointments scheduled through Christmas Eve day and hope that will be enough. I have had lymphedema for 9 years and have never gotten cellulitis - I am trying to hope that this is a single event, even though it appears that once you've had it, you are more prone to contracting it again.

In the end, no matter how much I try to put it behind me - - it is always staring me in the face - Cancer Sucks!

Enjoy every moment!

 

Posted with Blogsy

What a day . . . .

. . . that I wasn't prepared for. Last evening, somewhere in the wee hours of the morning I woke up feeling achy. At first I didn't think much of it, after all I have added squats and lunges to my morning run with Sophie to prepare for our annual ski trip to Colorado. With less than 4 weeks to go - I have been pushing it a bit. But last night I also felt like I had a fever, so I got up and checked and my temperature was 99.9. Slightly elevated, so I took a couple Advil's and went back to sleep. This morning I still felt a little under the weather, but needed to tough through the aches and get to work. For accountants, year end is an extremely busy period and I knew that with days off for Christmas next week, I needed to get some work done. Plus I was planning on taking my staff out for a 'thank you' lunch and I certainly didn't want to cancel that.

When I got to the office I noticed that my right arm was red and quite warm to the touch. As a result of my breast cancer I had a right side mastectomy. In addition to breast removal I also had 15 lymph nodes removed which resulted in my developing lymphedema, a condition of localized fluid retention and tissue swelling caused by a compromised lymphatic system. Because of this added lymph fluids in my arm, I have to be concerned about infections. The lymph fluid is a protein rich fluid, so any infection can quickly grow and easily spread through my body. In other word, it isn't something to take lightly! I immediately called for a Dr appointment and was lucky to get in within 1/2 hour. As soon as my Dr walked in, I could see her concern. "We need to get some antibiotics into you as soon as possible." She left the exam room to make some calls and get the arrangements made. When she came back, she was very apologetic, because the clinics infusion center was swamped, I would have to head to the ER at the hospital. So off I go to the ER. I gave one of my co- workers a call - "the lunch would need to be cancelled! Would you cancel the reservations and send an email to my staff?"

Once at the ER - the nurse drew lots of blood to test for bacteria and then started the antibiotic infusion. By -1pm I was back at work, with appointments for Saturday, Sunday and Monday for additional infusions.

Not exactly what I wanted to do this weekend.

Lower portion of right arm

My Dr drew on my arm to see if the redness continued to climb. Tonight I don't notice any positive change. My arm is still very red and hot to the touch, and every muscle in my body is aching. Time to take a couple Tylenol and head to bed!

Enjoy the moments - my eyes are heavy - it has been a long day!

 

Posted with Blogsy

End

Morning started out with my 5:15 alarm - which was quickly snoozed for 15 minutes. 

Up and out for a walk with Sophie and then weight lifting. First morning of my training program - focused on upper body. I figure with my biking and running - my lower body gets plenty of workout time - but not so much for the arms, chest and shoulders!

I really notice that my upper body is weak during Pilates, when holding stretches and poses for very long my arms get really tired.  Some of that is probably attributed to the arm lymphedema as a result of my mastectomy. When they take the breast tissue for a mastectomy, they also take lymph nodes and many times there are not enough left to handle the lymph fluids in you body. As a result, my right arm does not drain the fluids and is larger than my left arm. 

Coffee on the patio - but no breakfast. I was running a little late this morning and planned to bike to work - so I needed to cut something out of the morning routine.  Breakfast - lost.  Making my salad for lunch - won. I did take some cherries to work and munched on those for my breakfast. The two Sandhill cranes are still hanging out at the park.

I wonder when they will head south?

Signs of Autumn - On our walk, I noticed a lone tree across the lake that is yellow. 

Then as we came around the corner, just down the street from my house, I happened upon another tree changing colors. 

As I gaze down the street at the trees lining the road, they all look tired and ready to change color and drop their leaves - as if the leaves are too heavy.  Is the pressure of staying green too hard on them?  

Rest of the day was work - simple work.

Enjoy the moments!