Heading to Maryland

Yesterday we had an excellent visit with Mark's co-worker Sharon and her husband Gordon. Although he has ALS, he is not letting it dampen his spirits. We talked with the two of them in their home for several hours. It was very inspiring actually.

Today we drove up to Florence, SC on our way to Virginia. My niece will graduate high school on Friday, so that's the first part of the trip. In Florence, we always eat at a restaurant called Fatz. Apparently they have changed the menu since we were here in February. They have added a Lite Menu with calorie counts. I got the Lite Carolina Mahi Mahi, which included steamed broccoli and a little bit of cole slaw and barbeque sauce on top of the grilled fish. The menu said it was 556 calories. I should have stopped at that, but I saw grilled skewered veggies as a side dish and ordered them also. It was two skewers, so I shared with Mark. Delicious. I should have stopped at that, too, but they had something I had never seen on a menu before: deep fried corn on the cob. How could I resist? I wanted to see what that looked like. It was delicious, but it was not what I expected. I thought it was going to be breaded or coated or something like that. Instead it was an average-sized ear of corn that had been dipped in hot oil to cook it quickly then covered all over in seasoned salt. It was spectacular and different. I'm sure that although there were lots of extra calories I did not need from the corn and the oil, it was still less calories than it would have been with breading on it. Right? Sure!

I had 280 calories for breakfast at home and my usual 320 calorie lunch at Subway. With the 556 in the mahi mahi plus an estimated 400 more for the corn and skewered veggies, I have had about 1500 at that point. I should have stopped there, but I also succumbed to the lure of a Stuckey's Stop. I didn't realize there were any Stuckey's left on I-95, but we found one when we stopped for gas. Yikes! The gas at that stop was $4.10 a gallon. We have been seeing it go down in our neighborhood. The going rate there was $3.75 yesterday. Can we say "sticker shock?" Anyway, back to Stuckey's. When I was a little girl and when I was the young mother with children, we always stopped at Stuckey's and got pecan logs as we traveled up and down the I-95 corridor. I haven't done that in years, but today a small pecan log of 240 calories jumped into my hand. Hm...so that brings my total calories to 1740ish. Then I also ate a small plum and a cup of strawberries. That's maybe 140 more calories, and before I go to bed, I'm going to eat a banana. Voila! Today's caloric total is now up to about a smidge over 2,000. Well, at least I didn't eat the bread or dessert or any alcohol in the restaurant. Also, we did do our weight routines at the gym before we drove off. Hopefully, I won't have gained any today. I actually packed my scale, so I will probably check in the morning.

Tomorrow morning we will eat the complimentary breakfast in this Econo Lodge, which we got for free with Mark's Choice Reward points. It's a nice room for free! I will try to eat an appropriate about of calories, no more than 300. We will have the usual Subway lunch and then plan to try a AAA rated restaurant in Farmville, VA tomorrow night. I suspect another 2,000 calorie day is coming tomorrow. Theoretically, I should be able to maintain on that. At least I hope so.

I got a response from the radiation oncologist today. They said it was no problem to have the CT scan of my head. I also got them to fax permission to the new dentist's office saying it was ok to have dental x-rays. I forgot to mention one thing about yesterday that annoyed me. I had blood drawn yesterday at the cancer center as ordered by the medical oncologist in preparation for my visit with her on June 3. I had had blood drawn there in February when I saw her and CIGNA covered it in full, so I assumed that would happen yesterday. NOT! It was covered when it was part of an office visit, but when I just came in for the blood draw, I was charged $10.35. What an odd amount. I was told I was paying for the nurse's time. I told them that I would never drive 40 minutes to get blood drawn there again and pay for it when Quest is 10 minutes from my house and completely covered by CIGNA. Next time they can just write me a prescription to take to Quest. I still can't get over the oddities of the charges at this place. Shame on me for not asking in advance.