Showing posts with label health care. Show all posts
Showing posts with label health care. Show all posts

Sunday, January 22, 2012

The Last Sunday Brunch In Winter


I went out to the last Sunday brunch that I will be having for a while. And it waaaaas good! The Cute Boy and I ventured out in the rain, this wet Sunday morning, to one of my favorite spots in Graton: The Willowood Market Cafe. Upon being seated in the back, in one of their cozy little tables for two, our waitress brought us two cups of coffee and asked us "What'll it be?" We looked at her and smiled. I think my smile was more like an elated child's Cheshire grin. My eyes seemed to say "You're in for a laugh, here we go..." And then, I hit her with it. I told her I was going to be ordering three breakfasts. I placed my order swiftly and decisively. I knew what I wanted before I even got there. "I'll have the Eggs Benedict, the Monte Cristo, and the Huevos Rancheros." I handed her the menus and smiled up at her sweetly.

"OK" she said with a laugh. "And what would you like?" she said looking down at The Cute Boy. ...Now I feel it's important to stress here...The Cute Boy is one beefy hunk'O man. He looks like the kind of corn-fed, good, solid stock that he is. Kinda like he played football in his High School glory days and will forever more carry that solid broad-shouldered manly physique with him. He didn't actually play High School football, but he looks like it. So when he looked up at her with his sweet baby blues and ordered *just* the Eggs Benedict, I think it threw our waitress a little. She had to repeat the order to us and even come back one more time to make sure she got it straight. I imagined her saying "The little lady at table 4 would like three breakfast's and her beefcake boyfriend will be having one. OK. Check. Got it. ???"

I'm not pregnant. But there is a very good reason that I am eating like it is going out of style. ....Oh...and one more thing...before we left, I ordered a crème brûlée too! Some part of me felt horrible just doing it. I thought about people who had little or no food, and about saving money. But ultimately, I went ahead with my plan anyway. It's not like I do this every day. And honestly, this is one of the cool parts about being an adult and paying for everything yourself: you can get, whatever you want. You can order two or more different things if you want to. Obviously, I didn't eat it all. I just munched away at the parts that I wanted and liked, split my Eggs Benedict with my boyfriend, and then went home with two large containers full of food. (I'll be eating breakfast food for dinner tonight...as well as breakfast tomorrow!)

The reason that I was indulging in all of these delicious salty, savory, and fatty foods, was because on Tuesday, my juicer arrives. Yes...you read that correctly...my *juicer*!

Some time last year, my friends Laurelin and David watched this documentary called "Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead". (If you want you can click on that title and watch it for free on Hulu.) It's about this guy from Australia who went on a juice fast in order to regain his health. This not only improved his life tremendously, but inspired him to then try to get out the word to the average person as to what the potential health benefits are to eating (drinking really) a diet that is rich in phytonutrients.

For the past couple of years, I've been having some pretty bad gastrointestinal issues, primarily due to stress. I'll say it, I'm a stress puker. When things get stressful for me, I toss my cookies. Or...even worse...I get horrible diarrhea. -Sometimes BOTH! :p It got so bad that my stomach was going into overdrive with the acid production, and I even got an ulcer. I've tried the traditional Western medicine approach -and I'll continue to do that as well. But I'm now more open to trying this whole juice fasting thing. I'm hoping that it will reset my G.I. tract to a healthy normal state, help me feel better in general, lose weight, and have more energy. We'll see. But I'm willing to give it a go. A serious go.

My friends who have tried it, said that they could really feel the difference in their bodies from the days that they didn't juice. Laurelin said that it just felt good. Like she felt cleaner from the inside. Healthier. More energy. And I have to say, all of that sounded very nice to me. I want to feel "clean from the inside". My trainer really wanted me to focus on eating more fresh raw fruits and vegetables. And when my Aunt, who is recovering from cancer, and also happens to be a good level headed health professional said that she was going to be juicing as well, and made the whole family sit down and watch the "Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead" documentary over Christmas, I knew it was something that I wanted to try.

So I ordered my juicer from Amazon. And when it arrives on Tuesday, I'm going to be doing it. Vegetables, fruits, nuts, and beans. I remember when I was a McDougall vegetarian, I never really had to limit my portions. It was literally impossible for me to eat so much fresh fruits, vegetables, brown rice, and beans that I got fat. And believe me...I tried! ...Well...I didn't really *try*. But I guess what I'm saying is that I chowed down. I ate as much as I wanted, and I exercised, and I remember just feeling good. I had energy. I felt clean from the inside.

SO I'm resetting my body. This seems like the perfect time to do it too. I'm just now, recovering from a mild case of Walking Pneumonia. I've been sick since Christmas. And my lungs are not back to normal yet. It's way better though. But I realized that this is a perfect time to try this juice fast. My reasoning is, that I've actually eaten a lot less this last month because of my cold. There were a good two weeks where I barely ate. So I think it will be a nice segue into juice. Last night, The Cute Boy and I ate a pizza dinner at his sister's house. It was so good! But we didn't even make it out of her neighborhood, before I had to pull the car over and puke. -I threw up six times last night. Violently. In all likelihood, I will probably get sick from what I ate earlier today. But I'm really hoping that this new diet will help relieve this. I have nothing to lose, and a whole lot to gain. Wish me luck!

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Something I Found Out Today About Broken Bones And Scar Tissue...

Well the news is in. Looks like I won't have to have my foot re-broken. Apparently, it's a bunch of scar tissue that's causing the pain. Who knew? When you break a bone, it bleeds into the surrounding tissue, creating scar tissue!?! (really??? -crazy!)  Other than that...I'm a lucky girl. Two weeks of walking on a broken foot with no cast...then taking the boot off early (I know...I'm naughty. Trust me, my boyfriend's already given me the lecture.)...Um...and having it broken in two different places. And I'm still OK! :) HA! Take that universe! In your pie hole! :p

Now I have to get moving and break up that scar tissue. Massage. Gentle stretching. Walking. Swimming. Biking. And even a bit of running. The Dr. said to take it easy and use my best judgement. She said that it *will* hurt, but that I would know the difference between "deep bone pain" and the pain of breaking up the scar tissue. And that I could expect to be fine. She said that some people *never* feel the same after a break or have the same mobility. And it's common for it to hurt for even a year after the break. But the best thing I could do is to gently work on breaking up the scar tissue. Somehow I'm pretty good at working through the pain. I guess that's a good side effect from taking care of my mom all these years. A little physical pain is nothing. Small potatoes. I can totally handle this. Happily even. :)

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Schlepping

May 26th, 2009; 8:19 PM

After work: Listened to irate message from "gentleman" at Kaiser...who apparently tried to come by the house today to give mom physical therapy; however, he didn't make an appointment with me. And I have no idea who this guy is. So far, I've only spoken to a woman. And I told her that she had to schedule it with me because my mom cannot even walk to the door to answer it, hence, this guy's attempt to "stop by" whenever he has the time to...is um...futile. I feel bad. And uncomfortable. I don't really want to work with the grumpy guy.

Went to Mombo's pizza on the way home because I had a cupon. The guy there was cute and sarcastic. I think he was trying to play with me, but I just didn't really like getting shit from a pizza guy after work. I was too tired, and had just listened to the irate Kaiser guy. I played back and kept it light hearted. But then grumbled about it as soon as I got into my car. "*&@@! mer...give me shit...grumble grumble...pizza boy." I think this is how the cycle of grump keeps getting spread. I must vow that the grump ends with me!

Came home to unholy mess. And I mean UNHOLY! Had to clean and shower. And lost appetite. Ate slice of cold pizza. Mom didn't even finish her slice. Gave dog a slice of cold pizza. She does not like Mombo's. I have to admit, it really wasn't that great of a pizza. Sandy's Take & Bake is better. 
And now onto the fun. I have a samurai film. A new Rubik's cube. And a dog to walk. ...I also have aspirations of going to the laundromat just so that I can wash ALL of my laundry in one hour while reading a magazine or my new novel. I doubt the laundry will get done tonight. I'm too pooped to schlep laundry. Maybe tomorrow. I think tonight I'm going to play with my 80's toy. I've always wanted to master the Rubik's cube.

Monday, May 23, 2011


  • Sep. 29th, 2008 at 12:32 PM
Floppy Bunny Mess
Is health care a right or a privilege to you?
Submitted By [info]deserves
Health care in this country is obviously a privilege. But I think it should be one of the basic standards of living that we all enjoy. It's strange to me that if I went out and killed someone...was on death row...my dental, vision, heck -even open-heart-surgery would be covered by our government. But as an average, law abiding citizen, I have to pony up the money myself...and if I don't have enough money for health coverage, I am SOL. I just think that is not right. There are basic things in life that I think we should all have, such as: education, health coverage, food, housing, safety, and peace.

Comments


kitty8fish wrote:
Sep. 29th, 2008 04:43 pm

word on the whole prisoner vs. law-abiding citizen thing. never really thought about that before.

ALSO it totally seems like it costs more money to EVERYONE when there's people out there without insurance. and i KNOW that a lot of overhead for private practice docs is paying office folks to deal with all the insurance people! prices could potentially go down if those folks weren't needed to figure out all the crap that private insurance does.

miss you, lady!!!



vanmedi  wrote:
Sep. 29th, 2008 07:04 pm

Miss you too!
...You know what else??? I was thinking about how Kaiser puts a lot of money into preventive care...and if everyone had medical care, we could all have preventive care, and I bet that would make things cheaper in the long run too. Think about how many heart surgeries could be avoided??? Not to mention the increase in quality of life for people in general.



oliemoon  wrote:
Sep. 30th, 2008 05:53 am 

Agreed! Muchly.



vanmedi wrote:
Sep. 30th, 2008 09:32 am

Hey Miss Moon!
How's Japan been treatin' ya?
Miss you! :-)