Friday, June 29, 2018

Some hot and stormy days in Florid

It's summer, which means storms.  Every day there has been a big thunderstorm. One of those days, the lightening was so close and the thunder so loud, not to mention simultaneous with the lightening, that we screamed and ran inside from the lanai.  I like being on the lanai in storms, but not that time!

Today I weighed 274.6 this morning.  The last time I logged my weight into the Lose It! program was last Friday.  That weight was 279, so in the week from last Friday to today, I lose 4.4 pounds. I am happy with that.  I was trying hard all week.  I logged in all my foods and did water aerobics three days in a row, Monday through Wednesday.  I'm going back to water aerobics this morning, too. (Thursdays I play Mah Jongg in the morning, and I won two games yesterday.)

This upcoming week will be more challenging because we will be at Universal Studios for lunch and possibly dinner on Sunday.  We are eating out Tuesday for dinner with Bob and Jane to talk about NARFE stuff.  Then Wednesday we are going out to dinner on the Fourth of July with some friends to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. So that's three or four meals in restaurants this week.  I'm not great in restaurants, but I'll try.  The best I thing I can hope for is not to gain next week.

So for awhile, Friday will be my weight report day.  I'm really trying again, so I should get back to using the blog to help support me.

Eventually Tuesdays will become my reporting day because Solivita is starting a TOPS group that meets Tuesday mornings at 10 a.m. TOPS stands for Take Off Pounds Sensibly.  It's much cheaper than Weight Watchers, so I'm planning to join it.  I can't start this Tuesday morning, but I can start the week after that.  They don't have their own diet plan, which I like.  I have so much trouble making Mark's Diabetic Living recipes fit into the WW point system.  I just can't do it, plus they have gotten pretty darn expensive over the years.  I'm hoping that by going to meetings but using my own diet plan on Lose It! and Diabetic Living recipes, I can stay on track and get all this weight off once again.

I also am going to try much harder to write this blog regularly again even if I can't post any pictures anymore.  You'll have to be my friend on Facebook to see pictures from now on.


Tuesday, June 26, 2018

Hey, Look! Two blogs, two days in a row.

Good morning.  I have only a few minutes to write before heading out to have a full day.  I'm so grateful that Mark is okay so that we CAN go out and have a full day TOGETHER!

At 9 a.m. we are meeting good friends, Barb and Ed W., at the Cove for breakfast at Cheeks.  We haven't had a chance to hang out with them for quite awhile, and we planned this before Mark went to the hospital.  It will be good to relax for an hour at the restaurant and have breakfast together.

Then we will do the water aerobics again at 10:30.  It all went very well for Mark yesterday.  His BP and pulse were fine after he did the routine.  Last night and this morning his blood sugars were also normal for about the first time in over a week, so he's feeling pretty darn good this morning about everything.

After water aerobics, we will drive up to SeaWorld.  They have a pass holder deal for June that gives us one free Quick Queue (like Disney's Fast passes, only not free like Disney), so we are using it to do the Penguin Encounter.  It always has a long line, and we only did it once years ago. We will also eat lunch there.  If it starts to rain, then we will come home.  If the rain holds off a little while, we might go visit some other animals.  There are lots of shows to see that are new, but none of them start until after 5 p.m.  They are new summer evening shows, but the storms will be hitting by then.  UGH.  That's summer in Florida.  We have a backpack with ponchos packed just in case.

I had a good day with food yesterday, and I'm down .8 pound today to 275.4.  Although we will eat lunch out today, it won't be bad.  It's a small flatbread pizza and small Caesar salad.  There will also be a lot of walking plus the water aerobics.  Actually, i think the breakfast could be more calories and fat than the lunch.  Dinner will be at home.  We are having salmon, baked sweet potato, and broccoli, so that will be very good.  Well, it would be better if Mark didn't want to make a heavy creamy sauce to put on the salmon!  He's happy to get back to cooking, obviously.

I hope you are all having a great day wherever you are.

Sunday, June 24, 2018

From the 5th to the 24th. Three week update with some BIG NEWS on MARK.

Obviously, I hardly ever write a blog anymore.  I don't even know if anyone else besides me is looking at this anymore.  For that I am a little sorry, but since I can't post pictures anymore on here and I'm not doing very well on weight loss, I've kind of lost interest in writing every day.

I did learn to use the Apple photo program, but this blog cannot upload pictures from there.  My plan is to try to learn the Google photo program around the first two weeks of August when we are at Evey's house.  I'm hoping she or Eric can help me with that since Eric's mother uses it.  This is a Google blog format, so I'm hoping they might be compatible.

Meanwhile, I have been posting pictures of our adventures up on Facebook for those of you who are my friend there.

So just to catch up from the last three weeks, here are the highlights, more or less in the order in which they happened.

1. My weight is down a little.  This morning I am 276.2, which is a loss of 3.8 pounds in the last three weeks.  Of course, those who know me must know I didn't just steadily lose 3.8 pounds. In between being 280 in the June 5 blog, I ballooned up to 285 again and then down to 276.2.  So that's how it goes.  Currently, I am feeling in control, so who knows how long that feeling will last.

2. We went to Medieval Times with two other couples, the Goldbergs and the Sterns.  Lots of fun.

3.  We saw Rent at the Dr. Phillip's Center.  We had never seen it live before, just the movie. In fact, Mark had not even seen the movie, so it was completely knew for him.  Broadway Across America always does a great job.  That was our last show for this season.  We went with the Goldbergs and had dinner out afterwards in Celebration.  Delicious.

4.  We learned that the Rabbi our synagogue hired from Brazil is not going to come after all.  His wife is having issues with her pregnancy, so they withdrew from accepting the job.  We are back to square one.  Our current Rabbi led his last service this weekend and has actually already moved to Columbus, Ohio where he will be the senior Rabbi of a large congregation with two rabbis. It's a great move for his family and only a few hours to Cleveland where his in-laws live.  We wish him well on this next step in his career.

5.  SOJC choir started up their rehearsals again, first one since the first week of May.  Only 5 of the 10 singers showed up, so that is frustrating to me.

6.  We went to the Mad Cow Theater to see Bad Jews.  Mad Cow is about two blocks from Dr. Phillips Center, so we are used to that drive.  There are two theaters in there, but we were in the small black box theater.  Bad Jews was a four character play about two brothers, a female cousin, and the fiancee of one of the brothers fighting over their recently departed grandfather's chai necklace.  It was funny and poignant and a tear-jerker at the end.  Excellent.  Again we went with the Goldbergs and had dinner at Town Tavern in Celebration afterward.  It was POURING rain when we got to the restaurant, and we were all SOAKED running into it.  Ah, Florida weather!  LOL

7.  NOW FOR THE BIG NEWS ABOUT MARK.

On Tuesday, June 19, we were scheduled to go to Universal Studios for the day.  When I woke up at 7 a.m., Mark was lying on the bed and said, "We aren't going to Universal today.  I think I'm having a heart attack.  We need to go to the hospital."

So I dressed quickly and took him to the local hospital, Poinciana Medical Center ER. They were wonderful there.  They got him on an IV and checked his vitals and blood.  His heart enzyme, troponin, was sky high, an indicator of heart attack.  Because Poinciana doesn't really have a cardiac unit per se, after about two hours an ambulance transported him to Osceola Regional Medical Center where they do have a big cardiac unit.

Everyone there was also wonderful.  Shortly after 4 p.m., he was taken into the catheritization lab where they looked for blockages.  Just like in 2010, his vessels are all clear.  In fact the doctor said his arteries look like those of a 25 year old.  Just like in 2010, he had had a toakotsubo.  If you're reading this and don't know what it is, it's easy to Google!  It's extremely rare for someone to have a second one, but here he is having it, being rare.

There's nothing much to do for it except rest.  This one seemed less severe than the one in 2010.  The doctor said the Tuesday afternoon catheritization and the Wednesday morning echocardiogram showed that it was already resolving itself.  Mark stayed two nights and was discharged Thursday around 1 p.m. with instructions to rest through Sunday.  He can go back to normal activities on Monday.

He's doing very well.  He has rested.  I haven't let him do anything except make his own breakfast and lunch, which is easy. I even did all the grocery shopping on Thursday, which everyone knows I NEVER do!  LOL  I have done all the cooking, cleaning, and laundry, too.  Such role reversals in our house!  I even learned how to make a pot of coffee.  LOL

Since this happened, he's really struggled with his blood sugar numbers, not to mention his pulse and BP.  The med for BP and heart rate has been increased by 50% to 150 mg twice a day of Metropolol.  This morning he finally had a mostly normal blood sugar.  Since last Saturday, he hasn't had a normal sugar reading, so having a good one this morning is a big step forward to getting back to normal.

The doctor wants his BP at least over 100 on the top number.  He had super low ones in the hospital. Twice his top number was in the 70s and the lower number in the 40s.  That is VERY NOT GOOD.  Also the doctor wants his resting heart beat in the 60s.  FINALLY, last night that also happened.

So he's on the road to recovery and feeling much better.  One more day of staying indoors and resting, then tomorrow he is going to go to water aerobics.  I'm going with him just in case it doesn't go well. HAHA!  I really think it will be fine, though.

What causes a takotsubo?  Stress and violent bursts of adrenaline and other stress hormones are the usual cause.  Back on January 30, 2010 he had huge amounts of stress, didn't go to the hospital until two days later, and spent three days in Johns Hopkins.  You can read all about it in this blog, the article dated February 4, 2010.  I just looked back at it.  I don't think I even used the word takotsubo.

This one was caused by a bad dream.  Yes, that's right.  A BAD DREAM.  The cardiologist said that he has seen that happen before, not often, but it has happened.  Mark was sleep-walking and panicked that he was in a movie theater and had to go to the bathroom but couldn't find it.  When he woke up, he was in standing in the bathroom, holding his cellphone with the flashlight on, and realized his heart was pounding out of his chest with terrible chest pain and pressure.  That was it.  He had the takotsubo during his bad dream/sleep-walking episode.  Scary, because you can't control having a bad dream.  Sigh.  Of course, that was at 2:15 a.m. and he didn't tell me until I woke up at 7 a.m.  GRR.  He said he didn't want to wake me.  At least he didn't wait two days to tell me this time.

We are all just glad that he survived this second cardiac event and seems to be recovering fully.




Tuesday, June 5, 2018

Is this the longest stretch ever?

Today is June 5, so this may very well be the longest stretch without a blog.

I have now learned to use the iPhoto album thing to make and share photos.  I can even put captions in to it.  What I can't do is share them on this blog.  That is so frustrating to me, so that is the main reason I haven't written a blog.  Evey taught me how to do the iPhoto album program when we were together around the Mother's Day Weekend trip.  Now I'm hoping she can teach me the Google photo album program when we go visit her in August.  Since this blog is a Google product, I'm hoping those two will be compatible with each other.

Weight-wise, of course I gained weight on the three weeks up north.  I gained five pounds to be exact, but I lost them in two days after we returned.  Then I gained them back in one day, and now two days later, I have lost them again.  Ridiculous.  I am 280 this morning.

We are going to go to the Crayola Experience at Florida Mall this afternoon with the Goldbergs.  Then we will go to Millennia Mall to walk around and check it out just because we've never been there and it's supposed to be very pretty.  The day will end up with dinner at Bahama Breeze.  We chose that because we had bought a big gift card to go there to take Lowell and Emily out to dinner in Maryland.  Unfortuntately, there are no more Bahama Breeze restaurants in Maryland.  Well, at least we have a big gift card to use tonight.

I suspect my weight will be back up a few more pounds tomorrow. Then we are eating out at Medieval Times with the Goldbergs and Sterns tomorrow night.  That's life in Solivita!  LOL  At least Mark and I have pre-ordered the vegetarian menu, so maybe that's a little less calories.

Since I wrote last, we had the following excellent experiences:
1. Fabulous Shavuot holiday for three days with good friends the Oreskys and Rosens.  It included dinner with Rabbi Emeritus Jonathan and his wife Mona, hanging out with their son Reuben, wonderful times at Mishkan Torah.  Mark's favorite is to stay up all night for the study sessions and to lead the Torah Trivia Contest.  It was an especially good contest this year!

2.  Unbelievably beautiful wedding of Rabbi Saul and Phyllis's daughter Rachel to Darren in Wilmington.  It was a magical time, also full of friends we rarely see anymore.

3.  Great train trip up and back to Maryland.  Love the auto train.

4.  Bought a brand new king sized bed just yesterday.  It should be delivered in about three weeks.  It's a Serta Whispering something....lol.  Anyway it felt good in the store.  I hope I'm right when it's here.  Our old sleep number bed is 18 years old now, so I think we got our money's worth out of it.

5.  We are in the process of getting a new microwave oven.  We looked at a lot in person at Lowe's and Best Buy last week, and then Mark tried to order the same one from BJs online.  That didn't work for some reason.  More research shows it might be best to go get it at Home Depot. Hoping to pick it up tomorrow morning and have it installed next week.

6.  Played a lot of Mah Jongg both in Maryland and in Florida.  Not winning a lot, but having fun anyway.

7.  Had our "usual" Sunday with a movie (Solo) at Disney Springs and a WDW park, this time Animal Kingdom.  We wanted to see the new UP! Bird Show, the new Donald's Dino-Bash characters and dance party, and the baby hippos on the safari ride.  It all worked except for the babies.  They were nowhere to be seen.  Sigh.

8.  Attended two outstanding opera events.  First was Star Trek:Abduction by Opera Orlando.  Unbelievably FUN.  We wore our old uniforms.  It was Mozart's Abduction from the Seraglio set in the Star Trek universe.  Too fun!  Then I attended the Orlando Voice Experience at WDW's Coronado Springs Convention Center led by the very famous retired baritone, Sherrill Milnes.  12 students sang solos, duets, and ensembles.  I was grinning the entire time because the music and the voices were just exquisite.  The wine and cheese reception afterward allowed me to speak with all of the singers and congratulate them.  Turns out one of the best is from Baltimore and went to Morgan State.  She knows one of my former students who became a choral director, too.  Small world, right? Now we're Facebook friends.  LOL

Of course there are pictures of most of all of these fabulous events, but I cannot share them with you here.  I haven't given up yet.  I'm now putting all my hopes on the Google photo album program.

Off to water aerobics now for the first time in probably a YEAR.  I KNOW!  Hard to believe.  I hope I can still do it.  LOL  At least the calories expended in 45 minutes of water aerobics should help with the calories I will consume later at Bahama Breeze.