Tag Archives: labs

Menu Monday

Posted in Blood test, bread, budgeting, budgets, California, cancer, cooking, meal planning, Uncategorized by

We did very good with meals last week. I did cook the tilapia, and followed through on some of the other meals. We didn’t do a pizza or the baked potatoes. The night my daughter works late, I had broccoli cheddar soup for dinner. We also had turkey burgers one night because I finally found them in the freezer:(

Last night I made a beef stew with things I had on hand and wanted to use: carrots, potatoes, and a piece of steak. So there’s a little leftover that I put in the Souper cubes to freeze. I also had made the night before a turkey and wild rice soup because I had stuff in the freezer to use: 3 containers of turkey broth that each had turkey chunks in them. I added some cream to make it creamy and it was very good. I froze some of that too although rice doesnt always freeze well so that might be a wash.

So this week:

I have a Costco rotisserie chicken to slice up, and I’ll do some potatoes or stuffing and a salad.

Tuesday- Still planning on burritos or tacos, maybe with leftover chicken. Maybe I’ll put together chicken enchiladas.

Wednesday- Something from the freezer to use, maybe spaghetti and sauce.

Thursday- Again, a freezer meal, maybe enchiladas or soup.

Friday- try again for a pizza

Saturday- TBD, it depends on what I have to use up.

Today, I was planning on the pool but decided to come home after labs and do stuff around here. I feel a little stretched thin, so it’s better I do home stuff to regroup. Monday used to be my home blessing day of tidying up areas that I didn’t get to during the week, so I think that’s what I’ll do. I also started a loaf of sourdough to bake this morning.

I’m glad the appeals court ruled against the orange, evil, cruel man. Time to help people, not hurt them. Honestly, what evil person takes food away from children?

Friday Things

Posted in Blood test, books, bread, budgeting, budgets, California, decluttering, Myeloma, swimming, velcade by

It’s been a busy week. I’ve done tons of decluttering. The back of the Santa Fe is full, so I’ll go to Goodwill, maybe even this morning.

I emptied 2 binders of recipes I had saved and only kept the ones that were really favorites. Most of them can be gotten from the internet anyway. I went through the last two vintage suitcases that have my kids’ Waldorf toys and got rid of a few little things, but mostly just consolidated them into one, so the other is going to the thrift store.

It’s a strange place to be, but I’m determined to whittle things down to just the bare bones and keep the poetry. I have two empty shelves in the closet now. The bread maker is in there on a shelf and I haven’t decided on the bread maker yet. I think I’ll plan a sandwich loaf over the weekend, and then that’ll help me decide whether it’s a keeper or not. Good bread is easily bought at Costco and then frozen.

It’s raining this morning, and it’s wonderful to have everything watered.

We had a fun (expensive ) lunch with my son this week, and it was worth it. It was only burgers for all three of us but now a days that’s $20 each for a sit down meal. I also went to Costco after my labs on Wednesday. Something was off this week because I went in twice, and both times my lab orders were NOT there. Fortunately, I thought to get a PDF copy, so they did do the labs minus one (the SPEP). I scheduled it for next week but I think I’ll just cancel it and get it next month. My kappa Light chains went up another point. So now it’s at 21.5 . If the trend continues I’ll need to do something by January. I see Dr. L in October and see what he says. I can only hope it drops again next month but who knows.

All the bills are done for the month, so that feels good. It’s a good feeling to know it’s all taken care of for now. I’m still waiting on the Allstate bill to activate, and then my only choice at this point is to make the partial payments.

I’m planning on going down to the pool this morning and then straight home. I do need to get water at Costco, but it’s too heavy for me to get alone, so I’ll see if my daughter can pick some up after work.

I haven’t been reading much, although I did start my annual rereading of The Hobbit and LOTRs. I have books to drop off at the library, so I’ll check what’s new.

I scheduled my flu shot and COVID-19 booster for next week, so I’m sure I’ll be down for a few days. That’s usually what happens.

Update: all dropped off!

Midweek Musings

Posted in budgets, California, cancer by

B’s labs came back good. His hemoglobin went down to 9.2, but that’s not a complete dive. So he’ll be fine till next week when he gets labs. His energy is still so low, and although he’s eating some, it’s still not enough to really gain any weight. He has his next immuno next week so maybe things will start to improve.

I finally got a call from Ortho, and my appointment is set for June. I’m like WTF, June??? I started doing my PT exercises, but I am starting slow. I only did 3 of them yesterday and will add one a day. I can tell that my muscles aren’t used to the exercises.

Today is a home day after yesterday’s fiasco getting B his pain medication at the pharmacy. It is a controlled substance; therefore needs a special doctor’s code, and twice the doctor’s office sent the prescription, but no code. Ugh, I had to go out twice yesterday, but it finally got filled.

We’re planning on having the VW towed today if AAA can do it. I’d like to get the work done and then, by fall, either sell or keep a while longer. I’ve gotten used to not driving it, but I still miss driving it. My daughter is going to pay half, so that’ll help.

What wonderful or not-so-wonderful things are you up to today??

Simple Sunday on Monday

Posted in California, cancer, cooking, home stuff, husband by

Yesterday was just an off day.

I went to the Auburn gym to do weights and then headed down to Costco. I had the motive to keep driving the Santa Fe to see if anything happened again. It didn’t. I plan on calling one garage today, though to see if they can run a diagnostic. I’m not sure if they will be able to do that this week, but I’ll try.

At Costco, I got coffee( the main reason), B needed Tylenol, and then I picked up eggs, bananas, and some other stuff.

It was a beautiful sunny day with temperatures close to 70 degrees. Sitting in the sun, it felt much warmer. Today, it’s raining, and it’s certainly fickle weather. Spring, I guess.

We are at T-6 days and counting down to Stanford. B will find out Friday what time to be at the hospital Monday. I’m guessing very early, as this can be a long surgery. He’s had his pre-op video appointments, and they all went well. Today, he has to get labs to check his hemoglobin and, if necessary, get a transfusion. I hope not, but we’ll do what’s necessary.

I plan on being home today and doing a house reset and some baking. I have a loaf of sourdough to make. I’ll put my starter back in the fridge after this as I won’t be making bread for a while after this. I’m also going to make a new recipe of Chicken adobo.

Tomorrow, I plan on going to Mahany gym and the library. I have a couple of holds at the library. Then I plan on swimming on Wednesday.

I’m thrilled at the huge turnouts for protests against the administration. It’s exciting that so many people came out to do that. I’m an optimist, so I think it will matter in the long run. What this administration is doing is trying to rewrite history and destroy democracy. It’s scary what is going on.

Menu for the week:

Chicken adobo with basmati rice. I have some tofu for B; plus, he’s not eating very much, which is worrisome.

Beans in the crockpot. My Ranch Gordo order showed up so I may make a new bean to me. Eye of the goat. I’ll check Steve Sando’s The Bean Book for a recipe.

Pasta of some sort. I have a TJ’s pasta alfredo in the freezer, so I may pull that out.

Brinner

Pizza

TBD, and then we leave Sunday morning.

My daughter will be coming with us to help out with driving and navigating the hospital. My son is planning to stay here and take care of the cats. He still has to work most of that week but will stay here at night. The cats really like their routines so this will be somewhat upsetting to them. But it’s the best we can do right now.

Five on Friday

Posted in Blood test, California, cancer, cooking, frugalism by

I spent $240 on food at Costco but that includes the protein drinks for B. So that was $25 on sale so closer to $200 for food. That included maple syrup(which lasts a long time), granola( because I didn’t make any), and some other pantry staples. I’d like to figure out what the breakdown is for long-term pantry stuff but not now.

I got gas at Costco this week and that was $4.65 a gallon. So saved some money there.

Today is my eye doctor’s appt for a retinal scan to see how my macular pucker is. I haven’t noticed any change, I still can’t really see out of my right eye. The left eye does all the work. 😦

B had another blood draw and his ALP is still elevated( liver) so that’s what seems to be causing the abdomen pain. He has a message to his UCD oncologist to see what she thinks this is about. His ALT and AST are in the normal range. I think one of them is slightly out of range but those are liver markers too. This really throws a wrench into the whole process because I’m quite sure Dr. Lee won’t do the surgery if something is going on with the liver. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. Somewhat stressful.

We have PGE’s tree people showing up today. We think they’re going to take the one tree today and then the big one next week. If we paid for these trees, it’d be at least $4K for one and the other is huge so probably $5-6K

I’m just glad they’re doing it. I may go for coffee in town as I get too nervous with trees coming down. We’ll see how it goes.

I made black beans for dinner last night. We each had half a cheese tamale with them plus avocado. I only gave B a small portion because of his stomach pain. I told him also to take one of his pain pills and he did and said that actually helped.

Simple Sunday

Posted in Blood test, California, cancer, Flylady, home stuff, swimming, velcade, Walking by

A cold morning to start and damp. We had a nice walk again, with no one there. I guess we must be between walkers because haven’t had anyone in a few weeks on the weekend. During the week, I see some regulars that start to show up around 7am. The next 10 days look nice with no rain so that’ll help dry things out.

I headed out to the gym at 8am and it was a little busier with the ‘new years resolution exercise’ people. I left before 9 and then it was getting even busier.

I stopped at the store for some things for a greek salad and wine. After I got home I cleaned under the kitchen sink. It’s the kitchen zone this week, so tomorrow I’ll finish the cabinets and I want to clean the fridge.

My son is coming for dinner and to spend the night out in Rubi. He works in Auburn on Mondays so it’s a good time to catch up. I plan on cooking some leftover turkey and potatoes. I also have leftover nut loaf to heat up as well.

This coming week should be mellow, no appts !!! Hurray!! I don’t have my labs till next week so that’s a little different than usual. I always go the Monday after my shot but because I had been scheduled for my next Velcade later( Feb), I pushed my labs out. We did reschedule me for the end of January or 4 weeks.

Last night we watched ‘To kill a Mockingbird’. Even though I’ve seen it many times and read the book so many times. it is still such a powerful movie. Gregory Peck did such an amazing job as Atticus Finch. If you haven’t seen it in a while, check it out. We finished the series the Helsinki Murders. I wouldn’t really recommend it. It was dark and seemed overdone. Oh well, some series are like that.

I do plan to go to Roseville tomorrow and swim but I do have an alternative plan if the pool is too busy. If the wait is longer than 10 minutes for a lane, I’ll go down to the gym. I’ll just need to pack my gym clothes as I wear my suit to the pool. Plus, I’ll need to bring my Hoka’s as I wear my Birkenstocks to the pool. Whichever the case, I’ll do one or the other.

Not much else new here at mi casa so I’ll close for now.

Mid week

Posted in books, California, velcade by

We are having beautiful weather. It’s definitely cold at night but the days are mid 60’s. The oak leaves are golden yellow and most are still hanging on. It’ll be the next big storm that will bring them down.

B’s labs came back pretty good really. Platelets at 120 so that’s a huge improvement. Hemoglobin was 9.4 so also good. He’s only had a little nose blood. So that means his platelets are holding. Tomorrow is another lab so we’ll see then but it is very encouraging.

I plan on swimming today since it’ll be my last chance this week as I have Velcade tomorrow. After Velcade tomorrow, I’ll go down to the library and get my holds. The new Ina Garten came in for me so I’m excited to read that.

I added a few ornaments to the tree and today or tomorrow will get the other box out and see what I want to add. The simpler the better.

I’ve made a sourdough using Tartines recipe. It seems his recipe works the best for me of all the ones I’ve tried. Before I leave this morning I’m going to shape it into baguettes. He actually uses a different recipe for baguettes but I’m just using the basic country loaf one. We’ll see how it comes out.

I’ve stayed away from most of the news regarding trump. His cabinet picks seem crazy but that’s what he is. It still makes me so sad that this is what this county wanted. Look out folks for the incredible increase of food, clothing, gas everything due to the tariffs. I get actually sick to my stomach thinking about him placing his hand on the bible and taking the oath of office. A convicted felon( which now he’s trying to get thrown out), an ex-president who lost the last election and tried to force a coup. It just makes me sick. And if he pardons those J 6’sers, OMG, what have we done. ( we’ll not those who voted for the reasonable, conscientious choice) but we as a collective. 😦 So sad.

Well, on that note, I’m off to the pool.

Frugal Friday

Posted in Blood test, budgeting, budgets, California, cancer, frugalism, meal planning, Political things by

We got home around 5:30 p.m. after B’s infusion. It was raining and dark, so driving was a bit of a challenge. I had made some beet soup in the IP, so dinner was done. Overall, it went well down there, and he got the 2 bags. So today, he’ll get labs and see how much it improved the platelets.

He does have an appt for tomorrow back down in Rocklin, but my son or daughter will do that. It’d be great if he doesn’t need them but that’s not too likely.

This morning is still cloudy but no rain. I considered driving to the pool, but honestly, I’m just tired of driving this week. This morning, I’ll do some house things and read. I’ll also check the pantry for menu ideas. Tonight is pizza night but we may not do that. I guess I’ll see what everyone want to eat.

I went to Safeway on Tuesday after my labs. I think I spent @$90. This month’s food is over budget but I’m ok with that as some of that was stocking up stuff from Costco. I still need to go get a few things from the Holiday market and there is Thanksgiving. Some months are just like that.

We have spent more on gas than normal, driving back and forth to Sacramento, Rocklin, etc. The Santa Fe needs windshield wipers so B will take the car maintenance envelope and get those when he can.

I’ve only got a few things left to buy for Christmas. I need to order /send my BIL (Heidi’s husband) his annual cheese from Point Reyes. I’ll do that soon. And I need to get 2 GC’s for my daughter. One for the garden center and the other for Gap. She pretty much buys whatever she needs so gifts are a challenge. And besides, she told me she dislikes Christmas so there’s that.

I’m still not reading any news, and I feel better for it. I do catch a headline here and there and then freak out( like Kennedy as head of Health. I mean he’s a fu**king anti-vaccer. It’s all too much and somewhat feels like an alternate reality. Maybe I should read Carlos Castenada again.

Menu Monday

Posted in Blood test, California, cooking, swimming by

I think I’ll do a mix of from scratch meals and then some pantry/freezer meals this week.

Last night we had a broccoli casserole that used broccoli, chicken and tofu on the other side, ranch dressing and then cheese on top. I used up all the broccoli so that was good. It was ok. Not great but ok.

Soup night of some sort. Last week I made homemade mushroom soup ( to use up the Costco mushrooms) and it was quite delicious. I want to add some new soups to my rotation so I’ll be checking out recipes. But if I don’t find something, I’ll just do lentil or minestrone.

I have a meatloaf and mashed potato dinner planned. It’s enough for one dinner and then I’ll freeze the other half. B can have a veggie burger with his potatoes.

I think I’ll plan a brinner this week too. I have lots of eggs so I could do pancakes, eggs, and veggie sausage.

I have a freezer lasagna to use one night with a salad.

I feel like a curry as well, so maybe red lentil curry with rice.

Probably a pizza night but that’s still TBD.

The freezer is low on meats as I haven’t restocked anything so I need to plan a Costco trip for some beef, chicken, and maybe fish.

I got my labs done and was out the door within 10 minutes. Then, I went to the pool. It was crazy busy for some weird reason. Usually, now when I go later, it’s pretty empty so I don’t know if it was just a one-off or what.

I’m home and chilling for the rest of the day. I’m almost done with Fellowship of the Ring.

Simple Sunday

Posted in Blood test, books, budgeting, budgets, California, cancer, cash envelopes, cooking, decluttering, Flylady, minimalism, reading, Uncategorized, Walking by

We had a wonderful walk this morning with very cool temperatures and it was quite breezy. We were the only ones there except for the one runner who we like a lot. Very nice woman and a beautiful runner. She has a great pace.

I could feel the Dex drop of energy though so I was tired and knew I wasn’t going to go to the gym. Taking the 4 mg of dex on Friday and Saturday is good and keeps my energy pretty good but it’s still a tax on my system. So today, being Sunday, I’ll do my morning routine and then chill.

I decided to finish the kitchen zone so that’s done. And I did a quick swish and swipe in the bathroom.

I’ve been re-reading ‘Atomic Habits’ by James Clear because a YouTube I watched did a review of his book and I didn’t really get what his premise was initially but she explained really well so I got it from the library. Basically, so far I get, that he’s saying it’s the system of how to get to where or what you want not so much the goal. So on reflection, I thought about how the Flylady system and regular decluttering( like one in and out) is really the system I use to maintain a clean and tidy, and uncluttered home. I only started the book so I feel there might be more thoughts about all this to come.

B’s had a few good days and a few bad days with energy. He did go on the Mayo clinic site to read about the drug he’ll be taking and a lot of people had input and comments. That is the best way to really find out about some of these things are from real people taking that chemo. He was encouraged.

We had a fun night last night with my son, his girlfriend, his other friend who’s transmale( a wonderful person BTW), and my daughter. My son got out the OONI and I had made pizza dough so he manned the OONI handmade 4 pizzas which all came out great. Then he set up an outside movie screen and we all watched Alien!!! It was fun!! They left about 10. All in all a fun night.

Tomorrow I get my labs and then I plan to swim if my energy is good. I’ll just have to see how I wake up. I also need to get into Costco for eggs and coffee. I might add a few other things on, but not too much as the food budget is almost gone.