Bedside manner

What is with doctors not having any sort of bedside manner?? When I first met with the doctor to find out if the cyst was something that should be taken out of my back, I met with him for MAYBE five minutes. He didn’t give me any details of the procedure, but made it seem as if it was simple enough, so any questions I had were silly.

Fast forward to Friday. CP and I had to get up at the butt-crack of dawn in order to drive an hour. We waited for a few minutes before I was admitted for a pee test (to make sure that I wasn’t pregnant), to insert the needle into my hand, to go over the medicines that I take, etc. After the nurses finished with all of that, CP and I waited….and waited….and waited. The nurses made it seem as if my doctor? Wasn’t so good about being on time.

When he finally showed up over 30 minutes late, he made a quick joke about CP’s Red Sox hat. He then proceeded to have a shocked look on his face when CP told a short (and might I add- funny) story about the person downstairs wearing a Yankees hat. His face had the look of “why are you telling me this? I am a busy doctor. I don’t make small talk.” He asked CP if he had any questions (NOT ME) and when CP said no, quickly walked out. Ummmm okay.

Then after I laid down on the operating table, I asked if I could see the cyst when I woke up. (what? I was curious) He said, “sure. You won’t remember it though.” The entire time he is playing on his Blackberry. The anesthesia then hit me and I don’t remember anything.

After I woke up, I did ask the nurse to see my cyst (and yes I DO remember what it looked like). Did he come out after I woke up to tell me that he got all of the cyst? To tell me anything at all? No. Even when I had questions as to what I could do exercise-wise and just in general in the next three weeks before I see him, the nurses had to phone him to ask instead of him coming out and talking to me.

What kind of bedside manner is this? This is a 2005 “top doctor” in the state and a 2007 “top doctor-surgeon” in the city. Who the heck voted this guy as a top doctor????

Recovering

First off, thank you all so much for your good wishes on Friday. That was very sweet of you guys.

The surgery went fine. I was under for 45 minutes and now will have a big incision scar on my back. CP has been a gem. After I got discharged I thought it was a fine idea to head to Whole Foods. I don’t remember much, but CP said that I wasn’t making much sense- I must have still been loopy from the anesthesia. Halfway through the hour ride home, the anesthesia wore off and sitting in the car was causing me PAIN. Instead of going home we smartly stopped at a pharmacy to pick up my prescription for Vicodin. The rest of the day I spent sleeping and/or out of it.

Randomly, the whole surgery brought out a weird fear I have. Have you ever watched any of those emergency room shows where they usually blur out the person’s face and their genitals but have to hurriedly cut off someone’s clothes in order to work on them? After watching those shows, I was like, wow I hope that if that ever happens to me I am in better shape. I don’t ever want a doctor to look at my body and think YUCK. Yes, I have thoughts where I worry about what the doctors think about my fat a** instead whatever serious medical problem I came in for. Welcome to my crazy mind.

So this obviously was a bit of a different situation as it wasn’t an emergency, but as I got on top of the operating table, a thought did cross my mind about whether they would be talking about my back fat or my cottage cheese thighs. Probably about a minute after I got on the table, I was out cold so the thoughts didn’t last long.

Saturday CP’s mom, stepfather and grandmother were supposed to come down for a late lunch, but I was still feeling icky. They ended up coming yesterday instead and we had an absolutely DELICIOUS meal. I will post some of the recipes later this week.

Last night Fuzzy Britches started retching, looking very uncomfortable, licking her chops, trying to stretch her stomach, etc. so we were worried that she had bloat. That resulted in a 30 min car ride to the only open vet hospital in the area where they said that she probably didn’t have it, but could get x-rays just in case. We decided against the x-rays b/c she seemed to be doing better, but might get her checked out by our regular vet b/c she has done this three times in the last month or so and could be a sign of something else. Booo for our puppy getting older. :-(

Time to head home. I am not looking forward to the drive home and it is very uncomfortable (as it has been sitting in my desk chair all day long). However, CP delayed his flight until tomorrow morning so that we could hang out tonight (YAY!). We are both hoping that he won’t have to travel again for a couple of weeks…

Ready for the weekend

This morning is my surgery (I’m writing this the night before). Hopefully I am not too sore afterwards as CP’s mom, stepfather and grandmother are coming over for dinner tomorrow.

What did you do for your mother this weekend? My mom requested a picture frame with a recent picture of me and CP. I guess she is sick of all of the wedding pictures. Ha! Unfortunately, we don’t have a nice picture that we have taken recently, so I am scrambling to find something else. Nothing like waiting until the last minute…..

It will be nice to have CP home this weekend. I have only seen him for a grand total of 6 days in the past 4 weeks. No es bueno. He was hoping that he would be able to take some time off from traveling, but there were some problems found this week and he definitely has to go back next week. Boooo. I miss my husband. It has been a rough couple of days and I am in desperate need of some hugs.

In need of good news

Yesterday was a very bad day. First I got the final email from the other company saying that after reviewing my information, they still don't think that I am qualified for the job. At this point, I knew that they were going to say that, but had hopes that HR would actually do their job and read the extra information I sent over. I may use different words to describe what I am doing for my company, but we are still doing the same damn things. *sigh* Our vision of moving out to Denver before the end of the summer is basically dead.

Then, I received an email from mom saying that a family friend's son had died from drugs over the weekend. I have known this family since I was in first grade. Their daughter and I were best friends until high school- she started hanging out with some "interesting people" and we were not as close (she grew up and became a doctor so she turned out okay). I had many sleepovers at her house and knew her family very well. Our parents stayed great friends and hang out all the time, even after my parents moved out of the suburbs (where we lived right down the street from them) and into Chicago.

My parents had an inkling that something was going on with the son as the last time they were hanging out, the mother kept checking in on him. They thought it was a little odd as he was 28 years old. Anyway, I guess he and two others got a bad batch of drugs that killed him over the weekend. When he didn't show up for work on Monday, the daughter went to his apartment on Tuesday to check in on him and found the bodies. I can't even imagine having to walk in on that.

It's just all so shocking. What a waste of a young life. The whole thing makes me sick.

Money talks

One thing that I meant to add to my post on Monday was the concept of how much YOU can change the food system, just by the things that you eat and where you spend your money. The end of the movie Food, Inc. really touches on this and I whole-heartedly agree. If you believe that your body does not need hormones, pesticides, artificial flavors/colors/additives, etc. then you can make a choice with your wallet.

Frankly it is sad that some people do not have this choice. It is cheaper to go to McDonalds and buy a hamburger off the dollar meal than to buy ingredients to make a healthy salad. Not everyone has the choice to buy organic as it is not in their budget or they do not have farmers markets/grocery stores that carry these products. It is sad that in 2010, some cities don’t even have a grocery store where you can buy produce, let alone organic produce!! But the more money people put into organic products, the bigger the market will get. The more selection we will have. And hopefully, the “cleaner” our food will get.

Case in point: CP and I went out to dinner two weekends ago. I was thinking that the scallops and spinach entree sounded good, but then I heard that one of the specials for the night was a organic, all-natural, no pesticides and hormone-free piece of sirloin. I immediately chose that as my entrée. I think that it is fantastic that this restaurant has this option on their menu, so I wanted to make sure that I supported it. Usually sirloin is not a very good cut of meat, but this was tasty (even CP agreed!). I can remember my time down in Argentina, where most of their cattle is grass fed and allowed to roam anywhere and everywhere (literally!). HOLY CRAP the steaks in Argentina are TO DIE FOR. You simply don’t understand until you are down there. I kept telling CP how AMAZING they were and he simply did not believe me until he joined me for 10 days in the country. He then ate at least one steak a day (no joke!). The reason the steaks taste so good is mainly because their beef is not pumped full of corn, antibiotics, and other crap. It is how beef should taste.

Picture CP took of a parilla in a Buenos Aires restaurant

Recently, the Environmental Working Group posted a list of the foods that are best to buy in organic form in order to minimize pesticides. http://www.thedailygreen.com/healthy-eating/eat-safe/Dirty-Dozen-Foods I have entered this list into my Blackberry so that when I am at the store, I can make informed choices- and also think about our food budget!

For those of you too lazy, here are the things that your should buy in organic form, if possible:
Apples
Bell Peppers
Blueberries
Carrots
Celery
Cherries
Grapes
Kale
Lettuce
Meat
Milk
Nectarines
Peaches
Pears
Potatoes
Spinach
Strawberries
Tomatoes

Do you buy organic products? If so, do you follow these lists?

My apologizes in advance....

Sorry people that don't watch the Real Housewives series. This will be a RH-centric post. You might just want to come back tomorrow if you are not watching the Bravo series. Or, start watching the series right now because it is seriously entertaining.

Real housewives of NJ
The second season debuted last night. First?

Serious cat grooming fail (one of Dina's cats)

Second? Danielle can't stop talking about the rest of the women. She talks about her problems to some clothing shop owner, to the woman that did her pedicure, some religious person, etc. Maybe she needs to get something else going in her life? I'm just sayin'. She stalked some party that Caroline held that she wasn't invited to. After finding out about said party, she drove towards Caroline's house with intentions on confronting her as to why she was not invited. But then kept telling herself that she didn't care that she was not invited. Riiiiiight. Her poor kids in the back seat of the car had to tell her to turn the car around. I felt bad for her last season as it really did seem like she was being ganged up on, but now I just think that she is craaaaazy.

In this episode Jacqueline seemed to still want to be nice to Danielle, but it's obvious that the other women (Teresa, Dina and Caroline) have all talked to her husband and pressured him to end Jacqueline and Danielle's friendship. From what I have heard (and from the previews of the upcoming season), Jacqueline quickly turns on Danielle. It was interesting that Dina stayed out of the Danielle-bashing that was going on at the party. And the clothing shop owner that quickly turned on Danielle in order to gain favor with the other women? That was just weird. I think that she wanted to just be on tv.

Third? It looks like it is going to be an interesting season. I was thinking that Bravo really screwed up the NJ franchise because when you put four women that are family and then have another one on the outside, it has the tendency to get boring. Without Jacqueline staying friends with Danielle and thus creating tension with her other family members, there might not be much that occurs these season between the four of them- except maybe for ganging up on Danielle. My interest in the season might hinge on how crazy Danielle gets. Maybe they need to add another unrelated housewife next season?

Real Housewives of NYC

I didn't realize that Perez Hilton outed Bethanny before she was three months pregnant. That is quite unfair. While I know that the business of gossip blogging relies on getting the scoop before anyone else, I do think that there should be an unwritten rule to not out pregnancies before the three months is up. The blogger doesn't have to deal with the pain of an miscarriage- and let's be honest- most of the bloggers out there are men. Unfortunately, that would be a hard rule to follow. The people feeding the bloggers this gossip may not know how far along a celebrity is. I guess the celebrity should refuse to comment on the story until the three months is up?

I am still team Bethanny this season. While I am not sure I would have sent Alex to deliver my message to Jill (and Alex should not have done it in front of everyone), Jill is being a hard-a** for no apparent reason. And now that Bethanny has said that she is done, it looks like Jill wants to try to make up with her in Thursday's episode. Huh? Oh and it looks like Alex's blowup with Jill is going to be interesting. I think that whatever Alex has to say to Jill has been building up for a while and that is why she is ready to explode.

Wow. Who knew I could write so much on two, seriously dumb shows that I watch? Is anyone still reading this post?

I have seen the light

Finally, my long-awaited post on my new outlook on food- thanks to the book The Omnivore’s Dilemma.

Basically, something just “clicked” after reading this book. After a couple of years of half-listening to news articles about high fructose corn syrup, documentaries like The Future of Food, and advice from nutritionists that people should eat more whole-grain foods I started to do more research. I started to think about all of the healthy things that my mom used to cook for us, using fresh ingredients- despite the fact that she had a 45 minute commute. I will let you guys read the book as Michael Pollan is a MUCH better writer than me, but I am thoroughly disgusted with the things that I used to eat and with what is now in our food.

One day while reading the book I scanned the ingredient list of my Lean Cuisine. HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP was listed as one of the ingredients. WHAT????!??? Not to mention that I couldn’t even pronounce half of the ingredients listed. Another day I looked at the ingredients for my Oats & Apple Streusel Fiber One bar. I thought that I was being somewhat healthy by eating one of these babies because everybody needs more fiber in their lives, right? Whadda know- more high fructose corn syrup. Grrrr. Picking up a loaf of whole wheat bread and seeing that it STILL has enriched flour in the ingredient list. My Light n Fit yogurt and my Quaker Oats instant oatmeal? Both have tons of extra processed sugar. So despite the low calorie content, I was spiking my blood sugar levels, then feeling lethargic about an hour after consuming all of these products.

I finished the book and knew that I needed to make a change. I firmly believe that putting artificial and unnatural things in my body is not helpful. Is this why cancer rates are so high? Is this why more kids have been diagnosed with autism these days? It can’t be healthy that hormones are found in the milk that we are drinking. I don’t know the answers to those questions. But even if it turns out that all of these artificial products are harmless, it has been proven that they are less nutritious. So why eat them?

As far as the cost, this is something that is important to me. I am willing to pay more money so that I don’t ingest pesticides into my body. I don’t want to eat genetically modified foods. I don’t want to eat chicken whose breasts were fattened up in half the time it normally takes because they were made to eat corn, making it so that they can barely walk because they are freaks of nature. Animals in general shouldn’t be eating corn!

So what does this mean to my diet (I loathe to call it a diet because I truly feel as if this will now be my way of life)?
*No processed white flour that has to be enriched because manufacturers have stripped out the nutrients.
*No processed sugar like HFCS or other artificial ingredients.
*Buying organic meat.
*No Light n Fit yogurt, Quaker instant oatmeal, Fiber One bars, white bread, Lean Cuisine, etc.
*Moving to whole grains like quinoa, brown rice, whole wheat pasta.
*Reading labels of the products I buy in the store….and cooking more on my own using fresh, organic ingredients.
*I will allow one soda a day. I don’t drink coffee and tea just doesn’t have enough caffeine in it to keep me up when I need some perking up. However, I bet that I might not need that soda most days because I won’t be spiking my blood sugar any more!

So far, the change to natural/organic foods and whole grains has been going well. I have been making food when I come home at night and especially on Sunday nights. I have been boiling eggs in advance so that I can eat a hard-boiled egg before dashing off to the bus in the morning. I bought rolled oats and have a simple recipe of adding cinnamon, raisins and a teaspoon of sugar (when I finish those I will try steel-cut oats which are even more nutritious). It has been fairly easy to find organic products at the local Stop & Shop, or, there is a Whole Foods that I have been to twice that is somewhat close to work. Every once in a while, CP and I will make something that has processed white flour in it (or something similar) because that is what is in our pantry right now. Wasting food is also not a good idea.

And how have I felt lately? GREAT. Usually I would be half falling asleep at work after eating my oatmeal or my Lean Cuisine. With my high fiber, whole grain meals I have been feeling FULLER and NOT TIRED. It’s great! Will I ever eat processed food again? I would be kidding myself to think that I will NEVER eat something that is processed again. But severely cutting processed foods from my plate will be helpful in leading a cleaner lifestyle.

Now I just need CP to finish Omnivore’s Dilemma, instead of me telling him about the various parts every night on the phone….. :-) Luckily, CP is already on board with most things. He cooks with fresh veggies. He hated when I would eat Ramen or Lean Cuisines. He makes and then cans his own salsa, chutney, pickles, hot sauce, etc. If moving west doesn’t work out fairly soon, then we will be planting a garden for the summer.

So, needless to say (and you may already have noticed), I will be trying out various non-processed recipes and letting you know how they turn out. I can’t imagine that this will be the only post where I discuss how I am becoming a full-fledged hippie (ha!). :-)