Saturday, November 27, 2010

Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving was good!
This was the first time we "hosted" the family meal
at our house, our new home. ;-)
It was great!
Geo's sister Marsha and her hubby Doug were here,
along with Geo's Dad.
I cooked an "Upside Down Turkey".
Dad had me all worried and anxious about that
but I must say it came out excellent.
Very moist and tender.
I will defiantly use that recipe again.
Next up: Christmas.
Unfortunately, we are not doing it here tho,
Marsha will host it at her house,
in Lakewood, in Los Angelas.
We agreed to switch off every year,

next year she gets Tday, and we get Xmas.
Sounds fair to me!

Friday, August 13, 2010

BONEHOUSE

We have moved to San Marco,
a city in the county of San dIEGO.
i am in paradise here! The past week has been a whirlwind; productive, exhausting and chaotic!
i have never lived in a house like this, i keep getting lost in it lol. When the guys were moving boxes in, i had marked them all,bedroom, bathroom, etc; they started teasing me..."which bedroom,there are 4! which bathroom, there are 2??" lololol!
I think i said b4, its a 3 bedroom, Geo corrected me on that, it is a 4. There is so much closet space, with shelves, A huge walk in closet in our bedroom, We are keeping all 4 cats in what i call "the lions den", until they get acclimated to being here, they are still a tad freaked out. That room is huge, it is actually 2 bedrooms, it was made into 1 room, Geo will turn it back into 2.
So that is also Dads room, he loves the cats, and its mutual.
i have a laundry room! Wait until u see my pantry, its huge! i am loving the kitchen, i never had a garbage disposal, or a dishwasher, now i have both. ;-)
it has a smooth top oven, its electric tho, cooking on that is a tad different, but so far i like it.
There is a 'kitchen nook', like a sitting area in the kitchen, which i really like.
The living room and dining room is hardwood floors, not laminate, real wood, its beautiful.
One entire wall of the dining room is a double sized sliding glass door.
Geo has a dining room table for that room, we just have not set it up yet. There is bunches of stuff to do yet.
It has a fireplace, i so missed having a fireplace, i just really like them.
It has a double door entry, with a foyer. We dont even have enuf furnishings for this house, but thats ok, ttat will come. ;-)
Did i mention the pool? Heyzeus and i have gone in every morning since we been here. He loves it AND the additional benifit to that is it totally tuckers him out, which is great, he has alot of energy, with him tired i can get 'stuff' done.
There is a park 1 and 1/2 blocks away, another one 3 blocks away in the other direction. ;-) Acroossbthe street is a park! These are not public parks, they are private property, for the residents of this community. They are all intertwined together, wth walkways, well lit, doggy waste stations, etc....
i have not gone exploring the nieghborhood much yet,
and today is the 1st day i went online, i am busy 'nesting'
oh! i almost forgot! Geo surprised me with a brand new refridgerater, it is a double door Amanda,
it has n ice maker on the door, u can choose cubes or crushed ice or cold water. U don't even have to add the water, it does it all by itself, lol, this is probably old hat to some of u, but i have never had a fridge like this, lol.
So far i have rearranged the food and the shelves in it several times.
I wake up every morning here grinning, we both do.
i am just in awe that this is our home, like pinch me u know?? ;-) i feel very blessed. This was certainly worth the wait. im so very excited still.
OH! Geos commute to work? its about 10 minutes now, thats a major plus, it changes his entire day, bf his commute was about an hour.
i could go on and on! but that enuf for now ;-)
happily barking...KC

Friday, July 23, 2010

Tough call...

So, I have been to NIH, in Baltimore, MD,
twice now. Both times I was so impressed by the
entire staff there.
The 1st time I was there, the doctor at the eye clinic,
determined that I have a large cataract in my left eye.
So, I went to my eye doctor here, in San Diego, to have
cataract treated/removed. Both doctors agree that removing
this cataract will greatly improve my vision.
HOWEVER, there is a very small risk (5%) that the procedure
may not be successful, and could cause immediate
(irreversible) blindness.
No big deal right? After all, it is only a 5% risk,
with a 95% success rate.
Those are good numbers, that is a tiny, minimal risk, right?
Not to me. I am completely blind in my right eye.
So that tiny risk seems enormous to me.
I don't think I want to chance it. I would love to improve
my vision, but....not at the risk of losing the vision I have left.
The eye doctor also said that,
"yes, leaving it be is an option, BUT you are risking eventual
blindness by doing so."
WTF? "eventual" or "immediate"
What would you do?

Saturday, May 15, 2010

gotta love beer!

WHO KNEW? ;-)
CHEERS EVERYBODY!
Beer Inhibits Tumor Growth
CORVALLIS, Ore., Nov. 7 (UPI) -- Research at Oregon State University shows that beer contains a micronutrient that inhibits cancer-causing enzymes.

The compound, xanthohumol, was first isolated by Oregon State 10 years ago and an increasing number of laboratories across the world have begun studying the compound, said Fred Stevens, an assistant professor of medicinal chemistry at Oregon State's College of Pharmacy.

The substance comes from the hops plant used to give beer its aroma and flavor, ABC News reported.

Most beers made today are low on hops, however, and so don't contain much xanthohumol. But beers such as porter, stout and ales have much higher levels of the compound.

Mice studies show that the compound is metabolized quickly by the body, so it's hard to get a large amount in the body at one time, Stevens said.

"It clearly has some interesting chemo-preventive properties, and the only way people are getting any of it right now is through beer consumption," he said.

http://www.kentd.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=99:beers-good-for-you&catid=1:latest

Monday, April 19, 2010

Just Stuff....

I saw Dr. Zu (my oncologist) the other day,
not only was the cancer non-evident in my bloodwork,
he feels no need for me to have any future PET Scans.
I will go for bloodwork every 6 months, but otherwise I am
done with the whole 'cancer chapter' of my life.

I got, and am wearing my BTE ABI.
So far so good! The sounds are better with this thing.
The other day I was zipping up the zipper on a back pack,
and I heard the zipper! I haven't heard a zipper in years!
I forgot they even made a sound.
And it sounded just exactly like...a zipper! LOL
Needless to say, I sat there zipping and unzipping for a few
minutes. ;-)

Geos dad is staying with us.
His name is also George,
so I will just refer to him as Dad.
And no, if you are wondering, my Geo is not a Jr.,
he is the 3rd George in the Sotier line ;-)

Saturday, April 3, 2010

EASTER WEEKEND

I finally got my BTE ABI in the mail from Cochlear,
geeez, they are slooow!
Anyway, Monday I will sent it off to Steve Otto for him to program
and once I get it back, I will be wireless!

We are going up to L.A. tmw, for Easter dinner at Marshas house. (Geos sister) Then when we come home we will be bringing Geos dad home with us,
and he will stay here indefinitely.

HAPPY EASTER EVERYBODY!

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Guess what I got in the mail today.....

My insurance sent me the approval for my BTE ABI.
It has only been 10 and 1/2 months.
(do the math, that is 311 days)
I'm stoked!
And yes, we are talking Medicaid/SSI.
After a denial, they are covering it.
Amazing.
If you too, are covered by the state,
and are hoping for the upgrade;
don't give up, jump thru whatever hoops they throw at you,
deal with the red tape,
and keep the prize in sight!
bark~!

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

NIH - Wednesday

I am typing this from the computer room at NIH, in Bethesda, Maryland.
NIH is huge, it is like a little city.
The internet connection and computer use is free to all guests here at NIH.
Gotta love that.
The weather? Well outside it is cold (26 degrees last night) but I have spent the entire trip
lugging around my down jacket. I packed sweaters, scarfs, hats, gloves, etc.,
for this venture into the tunda, and I have used none of that!
Every where we have been is heated; the hotel, cabs/shuttles, and of coarse
NIH is heated. So every where I go, I keep wishing/asking people to
'please turn down the heat" I hate heated air! So much for freezing..:-)
Yesterday I had 2 MRI's, uneventful. Today I go to the eye clinic
and then later I see an ENT, no idea for what. I got to admit,
I love all the medical attention, from people that are actually familar
with NF2. These people are very knowledgeable about NF2,
so not having to explain it every 5 minutes, is very nice.
Last night we ate at Hard Times Cafe (thanks Olivia;-))
We enjoyed it!