making changes

I’ve had a lot of time to think about a lot of things since all of this new stuff began. One of the things I have given a lot of thought to is chemicals.

Chemicals in what I eat, in what I clean with and what I put on my body. It hit me that many times a day I was coming in contact with things I can’t pronounce and I know they are soaking into my skin or going into my system and I don’t know what they are, or what their real effect is on my body.

And so now, I am suddenly aware that I want to lighten what I have titled “my chemical load” so that my body isn’t working hard to weed out harmful things from my system.

So I have cut out sugar and white flour and anything I can’t pronounce from my diet. I am not eating animal fat or any meat other than chicken and turkey (which I already was doing). I have been concerned with what my meat eats..and that is very hard…nobody wants divulge the whole truth about what their livestock is eating..even “organic” fed chickens are fed a soy based diet..which is not healthy for me right now. Very often my meals look more ‘real’…real foods on my plate that are easy to recognize and haven’t strayed very far during food prep from what they were originally. I could go on and on and I’m sure I will as time goes on.

I am less militant during these times of healing because I don’t have the energy to go to the health food store and gather special ingredients right now. But I’m still trying hard not to break the rules as much as possible.

I am also working on cutting out a lot of the store bought things I use…lotion…lip balm…body wash..some cleaners…this sort of thing. I tried a recipe I found online for lotion and it was a fail. I haven’t given up on it though. I made some body wash, but I won’t use it until my wounds are healed, so more on that later.

I’ve said Yes to Cucumbers for lotion. I’ve also gotten acquainted with Burt and his Bees. It’s been interesting to see what is available now that I am looking and reading labels on evvverything.  I feel like it’s an investment in time and effort that will pay off, not just for me, but for the whole family. 

So you’ll be hearing more about the details of the changes I’m making as time goes on.

***If you have any favorite tips or web sites or recipes or products that you think would fit the bill, please leave me a note about them in the comments. Thanks, peeps!***

another surgery

Friday I had another surgery. I had some skin that didn’t survive my first surgery and this was just going back in there and getting rid of it. In some senses, it was a piece of cake. Shorter surgery..no hospital stay.

But I got a drain. And she stitched it to me on the scar from my last drain. And it was really asking a lot from non-elastic “scar” skin. Ugh. So I have been on heavy duty pain killers all weekend because of a stitch…not because of the surgery itself. I go later today to get my drain out. Maybe then I’ll notice my surgery site more.

She had to really work to get my wound taken care of and removed. She warned my husband about how I had a wavy horizontal scar now. By the time I finally got up the nerve Saturday night to unwrap everything and take a shower, we were both a bit anxious about what we were going to find.

And what we found wasn’t that bad. Not near what we had imagined we might see. But taking that shower about did me in, with all the stitch tugging and all. So I didn’t take a shower last night. Waiting on having the tube out to take a proper shower… hopefully with a lot less pain…later today.

sort of a catch up

This is sort of a catch up post. I have had company that stayed for about a week. Needless to say I wasn’t  posting on the blog. Ha! At his arrival, I was on heavy narcotics and sleeping most of the day and by the time he left (yesterday), I was/am off all narcotics (only taking rx strength ibuprofen) and am able to drive.

I have come a long way…yesterday was two weeks exactly since my surgery.

Went back Monday to see my plastic surgeon. I have some areas of new skin growth (I have a patch of skin that is not alive and will need to be removed), but I will still be having a small out patient surgery at a little surgery center…not THE BIG HOSPITAL…in a couple of weeks. Glad for this time because it gives the skin a chance to regenerate itself where it will. But I also have to massage the skin to make it more pliable. The first time I did it, I almost gagged. I am just not used to the geography ‘there’, and having to feel of it often during the day has been hard for me. It is also waking some things up that were numb, so that is a good thing even though it feels like a set back as far as pain. But it is all necessary.

I have cried in the bathroom over taking off tape…not the dressing change itself, which isn’t pretty..just tape. But that is also something to be thankful for…I am getting feeling back, which is a good thing.

Anyway..that is enough for now..it feels as if there are many things to say…like I am sleeping in the recliner…much more comfortable than a flat bed. I am showering until all of this heals..and I miss soaking in my tub.

More later…. Thanks for checking in on me. Love you all. : )

from D to A just like that

I had my surgery Tuesday of this week. A double mastectomy. And went from a D to an A just like that.

I came home from the hospital yesterday. I am super tired. But my peeps are waiting on me hand and foot.

Hubs helped me take a shower this morning and get into clean pj’s and helped me with my hair. It won’t be in any style magazines, but it feels clean and right now, that’s about as good as it gets.

Everything went well…I have cleans nodes, which is a major praise. One request…a small patch of skin isn’t thriving and if it continues to die, I will have to have another surgery to have it removed…probably next week. So “go pink” has an even greater meaning for me right now..that skin really needs to go pink.

I am sleeping off and on all the time and on a ton of pain meds…so hopefully this post makes some sort of sense. I will check back in with you later, but just wanted to post a general update.

Thank you for all your love and prayers.

Go pink!!!

a new journey : (

Our family has entered into a new journey…another journey no family ever wants to take.

I found out just the other day that I have breast cancer.

I will be having surgery soon. Please keep me and my family in your prayers.

More later.

easy chicken and potatoes…slow cooker style

This has got to be the easiest thing ever for the crock pot. And it’s also yummy and comforting too.

Just put a package of thawed chicken tenders in the bottom of the crock pot. I seasoned the meat with salt, pepper, garlic powder, dried thyme and some sage powder.

And then cut up several potatoes. I halved and then sliced them about a quarter inch thick..or so. Nothing exact here. I just didn’t want big hunks of potato so they would be done in time. Anyway, I put those on top of the meat evenly.

And then poured two cans of this over the top…

Chicken gravy. This is the Walmart generic version of Campbell’s chicken gravy. I’ve gotten both and the Great Value tastes better, in my opinion.

I also sprinkled a little bit of the seasonings on top of the gravy and lidded it up and turned it on low. The potatoes soak up some of the gravy so it didn’t turn out runny or overly wet. Just really homey and comforting. Great with a salad or steamed broccoli.

*side note: My slow cooker cooks fast so I start mine after lunch and it’s ready by dinner. You mileage may vary. : )

Tennessee vaca Part 3 (Biltmore, Dollywood & Clingman’s Dome)

The next day we got ourselves together for a road trip to North Carolina. Another state I’ve never visited! : ) It’s so pretty there!

But first of all..another photo off the balcony at the cabin. Gorgeous! Good morning, God! : )

We had a slight little unplanned detour as our GPS led us onto a GRAVEL road for about a mile and a half. It wasn’t very wide either. A little bit scary…but the weird thing...people lived down there! We passed houses and the mailman along the way. We were so glad to be back on paved road though!

And tunnels..we don’t have those here..you have to have mountains for that.

And fog…or smoke…since were were in the “smoky” mountains.

But then we arrived…

…at Biltmore Estate. Wow. There just aren’t words for this place. Huge. Opulent. Ok..how about gaudy and a little over the top? It was really hard for me to think of that palace as a house. But anyway..so pretty. And as you can see, the weather was perfect!

The gardens were stunning. Can you just imagine yourself going for a morning stroll when the dew is still on the ground? Sigh…

The next morning I noticed a thermometer on the balcony so I took a picture of it at about 8:15 in the morning….

…because according to my iPod, it was already 80 here at home. UGH.

We headed off to Dollywood first thing. This little church is inside the park and they hold church services every Sunday. I think that is so cool! : )

Saw an amazing birds of prey show. This was one of the smallest birds.

And this is one of the biggest.

Amazing! And we had front row seats…hello off season. : )  They would bring the birds down off the stage on one side and walk across the front isle right in front of us. Very cool. And also..all the birds  are non-releasable for various reasons.

We rode the train.

We had some apple pie…but not that pie..the slices from that pie were HUGE.

This is a replica of Dolly’s childhood home. It’s hard to fathom that kind of upbringing with 13 people in the house..especially the day after going to Biltmore and it was built for 3 people..and ‘guests’.

This was inside the park..I felt like it should have been at the front. Oh well. Very pretty.

We loved Dollywood..it was just a relaxing day. Oddly enough, this is a retiree destination for sure…there was a sign that said “stroller parking” and there was one stroller and TWO scooters. LOL Enjoyed seeing the museum type exhibits in the park and we also took in a few shows..birds of prey, a play about the mountains and a video about the mountains. Loved them all.

The next morning we awoke to bad weather. But isn’t that a pretty sight off another one of our balconies. My girl used to call the sun’s rays God’s light. I think she’s right.

We decided to go to Clingman’s Dome the last day. Even though we knew we weren’t going to be able to see a single thing.  Not sure if we’re persistent or just stupid. They don’t call them the smoky mountains for nothing.

This is from the walkway at the dome. When we looked down we could barely see the path below us..much less any scenery.

I thought I was going to die walking this thing. The air is thin and I was gasping for air. My peeps weren’t having any trouble though. We were a mess by the time we got to the top..wet and very tired.

There was a placard for each ‘view’. This is the one for the northern view.

And this was the northern view.

Hmmm..tell me again why we walked all the way to the top. I guess it was so we could say we did it. Ok, we did it. : ) I met a nice couple from our area on the way up, so we had some nice chats while we made our way.  We took pics of each other at the top to ‘prove’ we made it. But we might as well have been standing in front of a piece of white paper!

This is the balcony on our last morning. I grabbed the camera and took this pic and then put my camera in my backpack for the trip home. You can really see the ‘smoky’ that morning. So pretty though.  Sigh…

We had said to ourselves that we would try to leave around 7 am. I woke up crazy early…that’s another story for another post…so we got moving pretty early. By about 7:15 we were saying good-bye to our beautiful cabin in the woods.  We decided to go ahead and turn our clocks back since we would hit time change pretty fast after we got on the road. So it was like leaving at 6:15am. Sa-weet! We ended up only taking one day to drive home instead of two. We hit some storms and our a/c went out…which made the storms harder since we didn’t have a defroster..not fun driving.

We made some Cracker Barrel pit stops along the way, too.

Yummo. And we pulled in at home at about 9:15pm. We were so glad we didn’t have to get up and finish the drive the next day. We took the van that night to the dealer and it was ready by mid-morning and I finished all the laundry an unpacking by mid-afternoon. 

The End. We had a great time and loved every minute of it. : )