Journal

2019 - Week 43 Cooking

Yesterday I took Freyja and Mani in for blood tests (a check on our upcoming expenses list). Freyja to see how she’s doing in her treatment of her hyperthyroidism, and Mani to make sure he’s good to have his dentistry later this week (tooth removal and general cleaning). I also paid off the last of my surgery bill (another check). Much to my delight, the insurance payment went through for all the doctor appointments and tests before the surgery (over $2k outstanding). So now I’m cleared of all the medical debt (only took a bit of wrangling and a bit of patience). We have the dentistry for Mani remaining, my exercise machine (actual bone spurs kind of not conducive to walking), and a couple of outstanding issues with my car (including my own dumbassery, and something that just needs to be fixed, but is not a dreadful problem). My car is to the point where the repair and challenges are to be balanced with the need to replace it. Maybe i should just look for something newer, but not new, to get started. Not now, but start looking in general. Anyways, more expensive year then expected, by quite a bit, but it looks like we’ll get through it all right (thanks to selling of banked PTO). It certainly has been stressful, but therapy and work helps me keep going pretty well (Been working from home for the last week (except Tuesday, when I went in to get a flu shot and went to therapy). Looks like it’ll continue this week (waiting for the part to fix the dumbassery problem I caused).

2019 - Week 41 Cooking

I graduated from cardiac rehab (effectively nurse supervised exercise) this past Friday, which effectively removes the restrictions I have had on me. Because of all this, I removed the delay of finding a solution to regular exercise. I do enjoy my bike thing, but unlike a walk where even if it is repetitive, it’s changing for my eyes (shadow changes as the sun rises, noticing something else in a tree). At the cardiac rehab, they’d normally play a health related video then Jeopardy, which between that and what I was listening to (music, podcasts or audio book) was enough to keep my brain distracted from 50 or so minutes of cardiac exercise. I’ll have to figure something to do at home, but I’m finding a new nice balance.

I still struggle with food choices. I’m eating less of things I shouldn’t, but break down from time to time (yesterday was a prime example of a problematic day). It’s not like I don’t make good choices, it’s that I seem to miss the not good ones to much.

2019 - Week 34 Cooking Results

I started cardiac rehab this week. I think it’s a pretty fancy name for nurse supervised / directed exercise. That being said, it is nice getting the movement in. We’ve been looking at something to effectively keep me off my feet (and thus spurs), but still allow me to get the cardio in. I does get a bit expensive though. I’ve got 5-7 more weeks to figure it out.

Over the last two weeks, I’ve added a number of drugs and quadrupled one, some of the top line numbers (blood pressure, for example) are well in control. I’ll have to wait for blood tests to see how the others do. My body seems to be coping well with all the changes so far. The only one I’m really struggling with is the general forbidding of my go to feet solver, naproxen.

I replace my battery in my close to 3 years old iPhone on Monday, and slowly wondered around the probably dying mall while the apple store was doing their thing. This was probably a mistake, as the next day, my feet were complaining quite a bit. It was troublesome After talking to my pcp, I’m convinced that the next step will probably be anti-inflammatory injections. I should make an appointment with my podiatrist. I meet with my cardiologist on Monday. I’m collecting doctors…

During the checkup I explained that this week there was only one pork thing on the list, while last week there were 4. I’m doing better?

I’m having trouble with judging the salt level. Knowing what I like and knowing what I should do is challenging. I want it to be flavorful, but not to much that it’ll be problematic. I always try to buy the low salt prepared ingredients, but I also have taste buds.

Reed’s Hollow announced it was closing at the end of the month. This is a loss for the Beaverdale neighborhood.

I paid a guy (tiny company) to mow my lawn, and he’ll do so for the next four weeks (hopefully by that time I will no longer be forbidden to do so). We were sitting in the basement and watched him whip back and forth on his riding mower on our tiny plot of land.

Sous Vide Fish

After taking a few weeks off from using my sous vide thing, I finally got back into it. So I wanted to see what the taste of the mirin that Cam brought me from Japan. This seemed like the perfect opportunity. I added a bit of mirin with the lightly salted tuna steaks. It added a bit of extra sweetness to the tuna and a nice savoriness on top of it. Served with a simple salad. and tada, a healthy meal.

Tinga de Pollo

So this may not be as healthy as the general target was set, but other then salt content, may have served the right purpose. I served it over rice and quinoa for a nice mildly spicy dish. I did cut out one of the peppers, because I thought it might be a little to spicy for Shannon, but after adding all the things, I was pretty sure it could’ve taken the extra pepper. That being said, it was pretty good. I added a bit of the adobo sauce to the rice while it was cooking, to add a bit more flavor to it and stirred in the leftover quinoa after it was finished.

Stir Fry Udon

Lots of vegetables, some pork and a combination of Cam brought mirin and soy sauce. This turned out real nice. I’ll have to make this again.

Spaghetti Aglio e Olio

I was going to use this as a quick meal night, and it was. I also started the sous vide for the chicken for the salad. This wasn’t as garlicly as I thought it might be, but I blame myself. It was still pretty good. I had intended to use some of the chicken for pasta, but the 2 hour cook time removed that from the thought process.

Cold Chicken over Salad with Citrus Vinaigrette

So this is how to make a salad. We started off with a base of spinach, added some fried onions (bought for another purpose), some fresh cut super fresh cherry tomatoes from Wabi Sabi farm and some chicken sliced and put over it, then drizzled with the citrus vinaigrette. Good things. Still have a lot of leftover chicken to use.

A bit of thanks. A bit of memory. A bit of advice.

After being, poked, prodded, scanned, x-rayed, nucleartized, I would like to publicly thank Dr. Abdul Abdulbaki and all the people related to UnityPoint Clinic - Cardiology for their work on me. I also would like to thank friends, family and especially my wife, Shannon, for their support during this new experience.

The experience was a bit odd. I’ve been in for many scans of my GI tract, and they leave me feeling drugged, and my memory with holes and etc. This I was clearly awake and was able to watch on the screens as the probed through my arteries. I was able to converse with the good doctor and the nurses in the procedure (I may have made a few jokes). The experience was clearly not pleasant, but not really painful either (worst part was the last part when they were taking out the catheter, but the victories are good: out of the room, seeing Shannon for the first time after, peeing after, standing up to pee after, and putting on underpants (so my ass is no longer feeling the breeze).

I tried to keep an outward calmness, as I didn’t want to concern Shannon to much, as she was already dealing with a health concern due to her mother. I did debate leaving instructions under my keyboard (both for work and home) so Shannon would know what to do, just in case. I also may have broken down a bit chatting with my brother late at night, a couple of days before. I felt like I should tell my family, as it could have a lasting impact, but I didn’t particularly like the attention that it brought after. Understandable, I suppose, but still … I don’t know what I should’ve expected.

So, for those of you that don’t like seeing a doctor, Go, regularly, take their advice as best you can. If you know you have family history of something (colon cancer, heart disease, etc), make sure you make your doctor aware. If you don’t like your doctor, find a new one (I’ve done this once).

2019 - Week 25 Cooking

So two little health things. One I had a leg infection, from where? Who knows. I twasn’t painful, but was kind of gross. A round of antibiotics later, I have some lingering swelling, but am trying to keep my legs elevated, especially at night. The other one. I was cleaning out the stash of drugs I am no longer taking (which apparently has been piling up for more then a decade, to turn int for proper disposal (thanks Hy-Vee for taking 95% of them). One of the ones in there was a bottle of fluoxetine, which changes my timeline in acceptance and trying on my road to address my depression. This has kind of messed me up a little, as this was a couple of years before I started taking my current medication and because I don’t remember this at all. While me forgetting something is not particularly surprising, I thought I had most of the highlights of the journey in my head. I was in a bit of a funk over it, trying to remember if I could search my faulty memory over other things I may have forgotten. There are lots of steps forward and back in a journey like this, so it is best just to accept and keep progressing.

2019 - Week 4 Cooking

It has been a rough week for my brain. I have this long string of notes (763 words so far), a medication change (up) and I’m still…adjusting. Wil Wheaton made a post earlier this week, that is helpful not only to me this week, but to others. As a side note, the meh haiku, was part of my brain distraction technique (not all are, but a lot). I’m still concerned, but less so. I’m functional, if restricted. Thanks to my wife, boss and co-workers for their understanding, help and options.

2019 - Week 3 Cooking

I was able to spend some time with my brother, and it was very nice. I believe the quote of the time, was when I described what we were doing (playing video games), “We are spending time together where we don’t have to talk about anything, it’s a very Kurth thing to do”.

I am about to start to week three of my transition from one anti-depressant to another (not that it’s not working, but due to possible GI side effects). So far things are…well doing okish. I’m uncertain as if this dose is the right amount, but I think I need to let my body re-adjust. In doing a bit of research, I found the one I was on, is one of the harder ones to ween off of, so there is that. Yesterday was the last half pill.

Friday and Saturday were rough on my foot and bone spur recovery. I think with the walks I’ve had through the week, though still very short compared to what I have done (1.5 miles x 4 days this week vs (3.5 + 1.5) * 5 days a week). Yesterday while doing snow removal and loading and unloading the car for errands, it became very clear that the custom orthotics that I was prescribed to help me walk better, disconnect me from the feeling of the ground, or at least feeling it in a way I am used to. I probably aggravated my Achilles tendon, which my bone spur is hiding behind, and have had quite a setback and have to concentrate to walk normally and it’s quite painful.

This morning, I set down my cold brew wrong, and it fell and shattered in the living room. I had to discourage the cats from investigating while I cleaned up, including the shards of glass, tiny and large. It seems relatively odd to me that we’ve had the same set of glasses over the last…decade or so. But in the last year we’ve had 3 or 4 shatter (1 drop, 2 sinks, one set down wrong).

While driving home / waiting in traffic one day this past week, I tried to write a haiku to describe the feelings, and sight of the traffic that is on 63rd. I didn’t finish it. I may have to try again.

2018 - Week 15 Cooking Results

A couple of accomplishments this week.  After some questionable previous financial decisions, we have finally consolidated our house debt into a single loan (at least it will take effect very soon) and have plans to accelerate the pay down a bit, but also free up general monthly income.

We're continuing to aggressively (but not overly aggressively, as to continue to enjoy life) go after things we need vs not.

We have also been slowly re-organizing and cleaning the edge locations of the house.  Donate or give away things we don't actually use (camping is out, per my sleep apnea), then fill that space with things we do, or at least one of us does.  We free up space, then organize space then free up more space.  Some decisions are just things we have put off doing, but now do, cause it is what is next (some / most of this is probably on me).

As my mental state has generally stabilized in what I suspect is an acceptable normalish range, I think a lot of this is more possible and things are generally easier to do.  I do not have to work through getting myself motivated to do a thing, but generally can just get started.  I still spend an excessive amount of time analyzing my thoughts because I suspect they will be unreasonable, but more often then not, now, they are not.

Roasted Chicken Thighs Salad

While cleaning the kitchen yesterday, I simply roasted some chicken then let it cool and refrigerated it.  Then combined it with a some mayo, sour cream, mustard, celery, a bit of diced pickles and pickled jalapenos.

Thai Style Red Curry Chicken with Vegetables

I followed this for the most part, and served it over quinoa.  This added a nutty underlying taste to it, which I thought was nice.

N'duja With Eggs on Flatbread

Little spice, little fat, little eggs.  Good stuff.

Pizza

Delayed until today.  I took the dough out already to do the final rise

Taco Salad

Another easy choice.  I may need to stop eating very spicy salsa.

Turkey Torta

Buy Torta rolls from CostCo, Make tortas, easy peasy.  This worked out pretty well.