***The Senior WW Challenge*** - FRIDAY 7/30

My day yesterday was not good at all. I’ll give you background info first. The Tuesday before our trip Fred came home from golf and was trying to tell me about a problem he had putting the car in park and kept telling me the dividend didn’t work plus a few other garbled words. I said Fred you are not making sense as there is no dividend in a car, are you okay? He assured me he was fine and there most certainly was a dividend in the car. He kept stumbling over the word and I said I think you are having a stroke, let’s go to the ER! He said no I think this is heat related and then he was talking fine and was saying how he couldn’t get the car to go from drive to park but finally managed to. Okay well I still think you need to get checked but he refused. So Thursday we left on the trip and I forgot about it. Sunday night after we got home he said you know I’ve been in AFIB the whole time we were gone? I said how do you know as he never feels the symptoms and he said I was manually checking my pulse and I could feel the racing. I asked why didn’t he say something? He just thought it would stop as it usually only lasts a few hours. He then took his blood pressure and it was up so he did go to the doctor Tuesday who sent him to the hospital for a CAT scan. We kept waiting to hear and Fred kept checking his blood pressure and our regular doctor’s nurse called and said you need to call your heart doctor as you probably need to get back on a blood thinner as your CAT scan is okay now but it does show you had a stroke in the last three years. Have no clue why he had no symptoms of it. Anyway yesterday his blood pressure kept going up and we could not get through to our primary doctor but did get through to the heart doctor’s nurse who said she would talk to the doctor and call us back. Fred then took his blood pressure again and it was 181/123! I said okay I’m done with doctor’s offices we’re going to the ER right now! We checked in there at 3:30 and did not get put in a room for about an hour. By then his blood pressure started coming down but he was still in AFIB. The first doctor said you do need to be on a blood thinner and we know it will probably give you a stomach bleed like before and if it does you will have to stop and then we will discuss putting in a watchman that filters the blood to prevent clots but that is only if the blood thinner does not work. Then a second doctor came in and said he was having a neurologist come to check him out and so he did and the neurologist was really nice but said he wants an MRI done as he’s pretty positive he had a stroke within the last three years but not as recent as 10 days ago and only the MRI will show the damage. But not to worry as for now he’s fine but if left untreated he could have a full blown stroke at any time. So we had the first doctor talking to our primary doctor and the neurologist talking to our heart doctor and all said yes back on blood thinner and also his Lipitor dosage is to go from 5 grams to 40 grams a day. The first doctor we saw said sooner rather than later he is to see the heart doctor and our primary care doctor. We both said good luck on our primary doctor as an appointment within a week is impossible. But Fred does have an appointment with the np so the ER doctor said that will work as once in the office I’m pretty sure your doctor will see you as he was the one who said he wants to see you. So anyway we were in the ER from 3:30 yesterday afternoon until 10:30 last night. Then when I got up I noticed Bridgette had major diarrhea during the night. I know it was her as Bailey came to bed with us. So I’ll try watching her to be sure it is her as I still have some of the tablets left to stop diarrhea. So that’s what’s going on in my world!

Good Morning!

I must say I was glad to see that you Sandy started the thread by OMG....I had a feeling something was wrong but I thought it was something with you, Sandy. I hope you can get some answers and that Fred can get back to normal ASAP.  And poor Bailey.... ((HUGS)) and prayers sent your way!

KC, Yes, please let us know that you are okay. 

Time to teach yoga. BBL

Oh Sandy what a day! Yes this is always a worry at our age. You were smart to insist on the ER. Keep us posted.

Today Don and I will be married 55 years. He woke me this morning just to tell my happy anniversary. We’ll go out to lunch and do some shopping for a few groceries and other things. I am very blessed to have this good man as part of life’s journey.

Karen E I suspect Brenda got some of her gusto and energy from you.

Gail if you want other furniture you better get it ordered. It takes months to delivery. I hope your luck is better then mine.

Pat hoping that Jerry is having an improved day.

Jane from my years of selling things in shows and eBay I’ll tell you that you will meet crazy people. Please be careful.

Goodness KC that’s close. I’m glad you are ok.

Hi all!

Oh my gosh! Sandy. Fred and you are included in my prayers. Also Bridgette. Please keep us informed to how they are doing. I know exactly what you men about getting an appointment with your primary care. Even when they say they want to see you getting the appointment desk to schedule it is difficult.

Karen glad to hear you are safe.

Sharon, congratulations on your Anniversary.


Jerry has had some minor improvements, baby steps. This is not going to happen overnight. I have to keep reminding him that this is going to take time to get back where he was. He is beginning to take an interest in things again. For instance he watch the Olympics last night. For some reason I can't seem to garner an interest in them this year but it makes me happy that he has. It's so much better than him staring into midair or sleeping all the time.

Jane you really do have your share of kookie people. In all the years we vended at craft shows don't think we had that many. Maybe being online is different. I think people will say or do odd things on line as it is anonymous to some degree.

Hope everyone has a good day. And stay safe.

Ruth you never disappoint with a good Friday-to-share recipe.   So here’s one I made this week too.

Baked Fish-in-Foil with Vegetables
(I lined the foil with parchment paper. Also skipped the asparagus as I didn’t have any)
Serves 4 so I adjusted for just us.

Ingredients
* 1 1/2 lb cod (I used haddock)
* 1 bunch asparagus, trimmed
* 2 whole zucchini, cut in rounds
* 6 baby red onions, thinly sliced
* 1 handful cherry tomatoes
* 3 cloves garlic, pressed
* 3 tbsp olive oil
* 1 tsp dried oregano
* 1 pinch salt and ground pepper, to taste
* fresh cilantro
* Lemon slices
Instructions
* Pre-heat oven to 400F degrees. 

* Cut fish into four equal pieces. Set aside

* In a small glass bowl whisk the olive oil, minced garlic, oregano, salt and pepper. Set aside

* Cut 8 pieces of aluminum foil that is big enough to accomodate the fish and vegetable. 

* Place one piece of foil on the counter/ work surface. On the first layer add 5-6 asparagus spears. On top of the asparagus place 6 zucchini rounds. Place the fish on top of the zucchini. Top the fish with 2-3 cherry tomatoes, whole or halved. 

* Season each fish and vegetable packet with garlic oregano oil.

* Top the fish with a second piece of foil. Fold both bottom and top foil pieces together tightly. 

* Place the fish packets on a sheet pan and bake for 18-20 minutes.

* Carefully open fish packets away from your face, as it will release lots of hot steam. 

* Completely remove the top foil. You can either serve the fish in foil packets or slide the fish and vegetables onto a plate. Add a lemon slice and fresh cilantro to each packet

I served with baked sweet potato and collard greens.

This map shows the areas being investigated for Tornado activity late yesterday afternoon and early evening. The YELLOW DOT marks approximately where we live and just how close this storm came to us!

Sorry to hear Fred is having heart issues. Know you will keep a watchful eye on him Sandy. Prayers for both you and Fred. Vicki great blessings you are progressing so well. KC glad the storm did not cause you any damage, prayers for those in its path. Also prayers for your Jerry and you with his upcoming procedure. Pat pray your Jerry is progressing p, prayers for the both of you.

Happy 55th Anniversary Sharon and Don. Enjoy your day today and many years to come.

Hoping Karen C and Bill are enjoying their travels. Maybe they are in PA by now with their family.

Weather here today is 90% better than the past several days. About 77* now with cool breeze. Yes we have a thick haze of smoke, the sun is shining but with the smoke there is a funny color to the out side atmosphere. We don’t really get the affect of the sun. Think I will bake one cake this afternoon and the other in the morning. Brenda’s party isn’t until 5:00 pm.