Wednesday, March 24, 2004
Not fluid in the lungs, says the cardiologist's nurse. Could be anemia. But to order the blood tests for that, I have to go to my regular health care provider (family doctor). So I'm over to there in a couple days, so he can see me and order a complete blood count (CBC). It never hurts to have one of those once a year anyway, and my last one was January 2003!! I though one had been done since then - I've had blood drawn several times, but apparently it was all for more narrowly focused tests.
Liz, Gizmo says hello. The piggies say, where's the love?
Liz, Gizmo says hello. The piggies say, where's the love?
Sunday, March 21, 2004
Ya know, chasing a 13-pound rabbit around the room can make one short of breath even when there's not fluid in the lungs. In fact, chasing any pet rabbit can do that. Last weekend we took Fred & Ethel, the 9-lb French lops, to a party. All the humans had to keep fairly close eyes on their bunnies to keep arguments from starting- rabbits do not get along with strangers instantly. Although Fred and Sherman, the 16-lb Flemish Giant, did in fact get along instantly - they both decided to go sit in someone else's pet carrier, snuggled up together, glaring out at the world. Catching bunnies to put them back in their own carriers when the party was over was a challenge. Chasing, dragging bunnies out from under furniture...
Then this past week, I was suddenly all short of breath again. I hadn't gained any weight that I could tell, but I had all the symptoms of fluid in the lungs again. I called the doctor; got advice from the nurses to take double dose of furosemide (Lasix) for a couple days and see if that helped. I think it's helped a little, but I'm headed in to their office tomorrow morning to have them take a listen. I can't think of any reason for this to suddenly occur. Because it did, though, I wanted to avoid any restaurant food, even the stuff that's relatively low in salt, so I made several meals at home this weekend. Had friends over for a batch of the cashew chili (recipe somewhere below), and then tonight made a turkey meat loaf using the spice packet from Healthy Heart Market. Luckily, I had just ordered a bunch of stuff from Pete there, and had low-so cornbread mix to go with the chili.
One of our friends also gave us a couple of pounds of pecans from his back yard. I got several boxes of the Sweet N Low cake mixes from HHM, and I've been making those, throwing in a large handful of pecans to each. Works quite well. Advice: use a smaller pan than they say - if you use an 8" x 8" pan, you will have a thin, dry, flat cake. Use a 8" round pan or a 7" square pan (those come out to within an inch of the same area, if you're wondering- 7" square is 49 square inches of pan, and 8" round is just over 50 square inches) and cook for 30 minutes, rather than 8" square at 25 minutes, and they come out just fine.
Also resorted to making fruit salad again to go to a party; hey, it's hard to go wrong, and so much party food is out of the question. Our hostess did boil one batch of crawdads without any seasoning salt, but the corn on the cob had salt, and the potato salad, and of course all the pickles and olives. So I had crawdads, carrot sticks, and fruit salad.
Anyway, now to use up some more of my limited energy cleaning bunny litter trays. Good thing they're cute buns- they have to be, to be worth this much work!
Then this past week, I was suddenly all short of breath again. I hadn't gained any weight that I could tell, but I had all the symptoms of fluid in the lungs again. I called the doctor; got advice from the nurses to take double dose of furosemide (Lasix) for a couple days and see if that helped. I think it's helped a little, but I'm headed in to their office tomorrow morning to have them take a listen. I can't think of any reason for this to suddenly occur. Because it did, though, I wanted to avoid any restaurant food, even the stuff that's relatively low in salt, so I made several meals at home this weekend. Had friends over for a batch of the cashew chili (recipe somewhere below), and then tonight made a turkey meat loaf using the spice packet from Healthy Heart Market. Luckily, I had just ordered a bunch of stuff from Pete there, and had low-so cornbread mix to go with the chili.
One of our friends also gave us a couple of pounds of pecans from his back yard. I got several boxes of the Sweet N Low cake mixes from HHM, and I've been making those, throwing in a large handful of pecans to each. Works quite well. Advice: use a smaller pan than they say - if you use an 8" x 8" pan, you will have a thin, dry, flat cake. Use a 8" round pan or a 7" square pan (those come out to within an inch of the same area, if you're wondering- 7" square is 49 square inches of pan, and 8" round is just over 50 square inches) and cook for 30 minutes, rather than 8" square at 25 minutes, and they come out just fine.
Also resorted to making fruit salad again to go to a party; hey, it's hard to go wrong, and so much party food is out of the question. Our hostess did boil one batch of crawdads without any seasoning salt, but the corn on the cob had salt, and the potato salad, and of course all the pickles and olives. So I had crawdads, carrot sticks, and fruit salad.
Anyway, now to use up some more of my limited energy cleaning bunny litter trays. Good thing they're cute buns- they have to be, to be worth this much work!
