Tag Archives: cpap

Frugal Friday and Happy 4th of July

Posted in Blood test, budgeting, budgets, cancer, cooking, frugalism by

I have nowhere to be and nothing big on my calendar, so I’ll be home doing what I always do.

We used to take the kids to the parade and watch fireworks every year. At some point, I guess maybe they were a bit older, we stopped because the traffic was insane afterwards, and there were too many people. Now, and over the last 20 years, it just doesn’t interest me. And now that I’m old, I just don’t do something if I don’t want to. Not worth it.

Frugal-wise, Costco was $200, with some of that being my favorite wine for this weekend and then lots of proteins for the freezer. I’m calling that part of the LTF storage as it was a bag of shrimp, another bag of salad shrimp, ground beef(3 packs), and some other sale stuff.

I went to Holiday here in town after getting back up from Sacramento. It’s easy and not crazy busy. I needed the cheese sticks that I forgot at Costco, and some salad things(broccoli, mushrooms, ?. I also got a jar of Hoisin sauce to make some stir-fries with. That’s it for me till next week, which is nice.

My appointment went well, and he did say that with these low numbers, kappa light chains can vary a lot. He said if it was a huge increase( like before ), we’d change up treatment. So onward! I do feel very lucky that my numbers and Velcade have kept me in near remission for the last 3 years. It’s a small price to pay. 🙂

Last night I made up a taco bowl, and it was tasty. I still have some ground beef left, so I may look up some other recipes to use it with. I’ll ask AI, which is fun to do.

I was finally able to upload my Sleep HQ data from my ResMed machine. It took trying like a dozen times till It finally went through. I think the problem was on their end, not the SD card. Anyway, it looked good. Some leakage (pressure), but not anything alarming like my mask coming off. Overall, I was pleased. My events have been around .5 which is statistically non-significant. Events need to be under 5. (AHI) . This is all CPAP lingo, but you get the idea.

Hope you all have a nice 4th, and share what you’re doing if anything. It’s always interesting to see how other people celebrate or not. Well, I guess different times of our lives are, well, different. With young kids, the parade and fireworks are cool; older now, not so much.

Miso soup for breakfast. an interesting recipe from that Japanese cook book I got. It uses tahini which I’ve never done.

Simple Sunday

Posted in budgeting, California, cooking, home stuff, Uncategorized by

It’s still very hot here, but I think today is the last day of it. I went for a walk this morning, but even then it was warm out.

After checking my SD card for the Airsense data, I asked AI about the data. It does seem that my oxygen drops relate to when the pressure ramps up. Also, there is more leakage at that point too. For now, I’ll continue as usual. I may need to do that in lab titration because it pinpoints when it happens, and then they adjust it. I feel my next step is to lose some weight and then see how the oxygen is. Medicare has a bridge program for Zepbound ( which is used if there is a diagnosis of sleep apnea). I don’t know how it works, but I will find out. My Part D drug insurance doesn’t cover it, so if I can, it’ll be helpful, I think.

I’m still stressed about it all, but will plod on.

I did go into the gym as I wanted to do my weights and hit the thrift store. I didn’t find too much. Sunday is nice in there as it’s fairly quiet.

Not too much cooking going on with this heat. I might just make up one of the salad packs with some sort of protein. I’ll make a tentative list of meals for the week tomorrow. I know I have some pulled pork to use and beans, so that’s one or two meals. I also have some feta to use, so I was thinking a Greek pasta salad. Otherwise, who knows? A pizza?

This is an open week for me, which is great. I’d like to do a few house projects, like painting the front door. Plus at least one swim and one Roseville gym/library.

Some pictures of our crimson Hollyhocks. They were my sister Heidi’s favorite.

Frugal Friday on Saturday

Posted in budgeting, budgets, California, cash envelopes, swimming by

The rain is still with us and the storm gates are open. Santa Cruz really got hit hard with the wharf breaking off. I was hoping to walk this morning so as of 6am , it’s still raining so I see how it is in 30 minutes. I can walk a little later if it stops.

I have most Christmas stuff away. The little tree in the living room just has the lights on it, so I may leave that up a day or two more. Otherwise, Christmas is over.

i went down to the pool yesterday and it was AWFUL. I can count on one hand how many times it has been crazy busy and does not invite swimming. I waited 10 minutes and then did get a lane to share. But the coast guard was training, then the college kids; maybe 15 of them were taking up most lanes. I almost left but glad I did my swim. next week I won’t be able to go at all because of New Year’s, it’s closed and then on Thursday I have my Velcade shot. I wore my new Apple watch to track swimming and it was fun. I still couldn’t remember how to unlock the water though. ( a feature to release any water if any in the watch). But when I came home my daughter showed me. I didn’t see any water come out.

I’m mainly using it to track sleep and sleep disturbances which basically is sleep apnea. So based on a week’s tracking, I was elevated every night which means some sleep apnea. This is giving me a good idea of my sleep patterns which was the main reason I bought it. I’m trying a few things, like no wine after 7pm and seeing if I can lose some weight. The thing is if I’ve had sleep apnea for years with no problems, then I’m not sure what it all means. Well, my appt with the sleep doctor isn’t till April so it gives me time to work on different things.

Budget wise, I have January’s budget in place. I don’t think we have any annual bills coming up so that’s a relief. I’m trying to get ahead with the spring annual bills like property tax but there’s not a lot left over to add when it’s all said and done. Still something is better than nothing. I’ve set the food budget at $500 for the 3 of us. That’s a little tight but I am going to try and use up freezer stuff. So far for food, I’ve spent $139. I plan on hitting Costco this week so that’ll add up. I don’t need a whole lot but buying from Costco means each item is more expensive though you get more. Plus that’s what stocking up is about.

In January, I need to buy some clothing items such as socks and a few T shirts. I think I’m ok on jeans, but may need a new polar fleece jacket. The one I have is LL Bean and it’s held up for 5 + years so I may get another one. Since I wear the same things daily( levis, T shirt, a demin shirt or flannel and my LL Bean fleece. some stuff does wear out. I’ll try to budget a $100 for January and see how it goes.

Today is a home day for me and I plan on cooking some brown rice and tidying the house. If I can kick the cats out, I’ll vacuum.:) they are spoiled!!!

Thankful Thursday

Posted in books, California, camping, cancer, Gratitude, peritoneal mesothelomia, social security by

This has really been an awful year. B getting diagnosed with peritoneal mesothelioma was such a shock. Also, it doesn’t have a very good prognosis. Then because of this, we had to cancel all our RV trips and it’s been hard to not head out somewhere. All in all, it’s just been a hard year. As we close 2024, I’m still thankful for many things.

  • that he’s had the last chemo and will get a PET scan soon. So going into 2025, we should know where he is with it all.
  • I’m thankful that, even with me getting Velcade, I can do most things that need to be done.
  • I’m thankful my kids are there to pick up the slack and help us so much.
  • I’m grateful that even though money is always tight on SS we can pay our bills. There’s not a lot left over but we have a roof over our heads, food, and hot water, wood heat and lots more. It would have been nice to not have a mortgage at all but that wasn’t in the cards for us. At least we can pay for it.
  • I’m thankful for the library and the world of books. Books, even as a child, took me to places I’d never been. Today, at 72, I can say books still carry me to unknown places and show me a different perspective.

I’m hopeful for 2025, but I think it’s still going to be tough going especially when we head to Stanford for the surgery.

One step at a time, one step at a time.

My appt went ok yesterday. It was quite busy in there but I still got in on time. Dr. L asked if I had any sleep apnea. Not that I know of. I guess my hematocrit is slightly elevated and he said to consider getting a sleep apnea test. Even if I did have it, I wouldn’t use a mask at night unless it was severe. Does anyone out there have any experience with sleep apnea. My guess is the hematocrit goes up and down because of not drinking enough water. Dehydration is one cause. I never drink enough water. Plus it’s been 1 point out of range for a year. 15.5 is high normal, I’ve been 16.4. I’m not sure why he brought this up now, but I said, I’ll think about it but I really have too much going on to add one more thing. I’ll do some more research and see what I find out.