Mom in hospital again... sigh

We had to take mom into the emergency room on Sunday morning. Her breathing had been getting worse and worse since she got out of the hospital on Wednesday. Finally she got to the point where she was gasping just sitting in her chair, without having to exert herself at all. Come to find out her lungs were filling with fluid.
They have put her on lasix and it seems to be helping, but we still don't know what has caused it.
I'm sorry this blog is turning into the Mom journals but that's what is going on in my life right now. They are talking about letting her come home tomorrow but I'm not so sure that's a good idea. If she comes home without knowing what went wrong, will we ever find out?
Other than that we've been doing good. While I haven't lost any more weight (boo hoo) I haven't gained any either, which I was terrible afraid I was going to do.
I've also not bloated up like a balloon, so I'm thinking with a little more tweaking to my menus I just might be able to lose some weight and save some $$ at the grocery at the same time.

I went to the store this morning and stocked up on some lower fat/lower carb foods. I got a couple jars of roasted red peppers, some frozen spinach, corn (I know but it's good for fiber and just a little added here and there into casseroles or soups shouldn't be too bad and I got the smallest bag. However I forgot the black beans I wanted to go with it, so I guess the corn will be hanging out in the freezer a bit longer than expected.
I found some really pretty produce, wonderful dark leafy kale, the small zucchini and summer squashes that I like so much. A few vine ripe tomatoes and I even splurged a little on a couple of really pretty red peppers.
I've got stuffed pepper meat in the freezer for tonight so I grabbed a couple of nice green peppers for that. I got some Dijon mustard so I can make Dijon pork this week. All and all not to bad a trip. I even scored some fish... yum!
Well I hope your all doing well, we're keeping it going here, just hoping and praying mom will get better and our lives can get back to something resembling normal again.

Life on a budget

I've gotten a good start cutting our grocery bill, but I still have a long way to go. I'm trying to get the stuff together to plant a small container garden in the back yard to help with veggies this summer. I want to start an herb pot too.

I've priced the stuff to make a shelf to set the pots on and it shouldn't cost more than $15.00. Since I can't get on the ground and will need to tend to them in my wheelchair, I need the pots up off the ground a bit. The biggest cost is going to come in buying big pots, soil and plants. I'm hoping to find a good deal at one of the home building stores or nurseries around here. I have a few pots that might works for smaller plants, but nothing big enough to grow much. I just hope I can grow enough veggies to make it worth the cost and that it helps with the grocery bill.

I've picked up a few bags of beans I can cook to help stretch things. Though techniqually fairly high in carbs, beans have something called resistant starch that works rather like fiber, and doesn't cause insulin surges. I've eaten beans in moderation every now and again on my low carb diet, now I'll just be eating them more often. I also have several cans of beans on hand for when I don't have time to cook dried beans.

I've got chicken fajita's cut, seasoned and ready to cook for tonight, along with a big bowl of salad and some low carb tortillas.
I have stuffed pepper meat ready to stuff some peppers tomorrow night, I added 3/4 cup of rice and 1/2 cup chopped mushrooms to stretch the meat. I should have enough meat to stuff the peppers for us tomorrow and freeze enough for another night. That way I can get two meals from one package of ground meat.

The flax bread still works for breakfast, and I need to make up bowls of tuna and egg salad for lunches over the weekend. We can eat them on lettuce leaves or a few triskets. At least I think there is some triskets up in the cabnet. All in all I think I have a fairly good handle on it. At least for this week.
Wish me luck for next week.

What I’ve been up too

Well mom is still in the hospital, we had hoped she’d come on on Monday but that didn’t happen.  Her heart was still out of rhythm and the meds weren’t correcting it.  So they put her under and shocked her heart.  The good news is her heart is back in rhythm and her pulse is back down in the 60-70 range where it belongs.  The bad news is,  it didn’t help the breathing issues.  So her cardiologist,  Dr.  Jessen has set up a meeting with her pulmonologist to see what they can figure out. 

The pulmonologist (super doc), Dr. Torres came in to see her this afternoon and he said his advice was to let her go home tomorrow and then have her come into his office.  We don’t know if Dr. Jessen will discharger her or not, but we’re hoping and praying he will soon.

I on the other hand seem to be getting inspired to get us on a budget.  I think I have it figured out so I can get our credit cards paid off, actually it’s just one that needs help. Some how we managed to let this one get out of hand.

I’m trying to do what is called pantry shopping, which is planning menus from the food you have on hand.  So far so good, but I have to wonder what on earth I was thinking when I bought some of the food in there.

This week we bought a few fresh veggies, eggs of course, and a few house hold things like laundry powder and toilet paper.  Not too bad.

I’ve also, decided that I’ll continue with my recipe blog.  I’ve found the whole time I’m cooking I’m telling myself how to make it lower carb.  So maybe I can post recipes with both versions.  Anyway, I think I’ll give it a try.

So that’s what I’ve been up to.  I hope once mom is back home I can post more regularly.

What did you have for Breakfast?

I was chatting with my friend Jennifer Eloff from Low-Carbing and General Health News this morning about things we eat for breakfast. I was telling her I'd had a wonderful cup of yogurt this morning for breakfast, and I decided it would be a good "recipe", more like technique than recipe, to share with you.
You can use either store bought plain yogurt or home made either one. What I happened to have was Dannon non-fat plain yogurt. I spooned 2 cups of yogurt into my strainer, which I had lined with a couple of plain old paper towels. You can use cheese cloth if you have it, but who doesn't have paper towel, right? Put the strainer over a bowl and let it hang out in the fridge over night. The next morning you will have a bowl full of whey and a strainer full of yogurt cheese. I've never found a use for the whey so I pour it down the drain. If you use it for something PLEASE, PLEASE drop me a comment and let me know what. I hate pouring it out, but I don't know what to do with it. Place the yogurt cheese in a bowl and it will keep for 2-3 weeks easy.
When you want yogurt, spoon a couple spoons of the cheese into your bowl, add a couple tbsp. of liquid to your bowl and mix. This morning I used a couple tbsp. heavy cream and several drops of Capella Graham Cracker drops, sweetened with a little sweetzfree and thoroughly enjoyed this thick, rich, creamy treat. Some days I add a little sugar free DaVinci syrup to thin, flavor and sweeten. Berries are wonderful in this and so is low carb granola.
This morning I sat back with a bowl of creamy graham cracker yogurt and a class of iced chai latte and totally enjoyed myself. What did you have for breakfast?

Just a heads up

Due to financial and family medical issues, I'm going to have to change the way we eat. We will be following a much more moderate carb, budget friendly plan from now on. I haven't got all this worked out yet, but I will either change the focus of this blog or create a new one to match our new health and budget friendly way of life.
To all my fellow low carb bloggers... keep the fires burning and I wish you the greatest success. To my readers, I hope I'm not letting you down, but for now, this is what I have to do. My family comes first and that means meeting their health and our financial needs.
While I love my low carb lifestyle and it really works for me. Having meat as the center of our meals has become more than I can afford just now. So I'll be adding beans, more veggies and some pasta and grains back in. We will not be eating packaged, highly processed frankenfood, we will continue to eat whole, real, fresh foods. I've just got to cut the budget and the grocery bill is the last thing I can cut back on.
So I wish you all well, I wish you great success and I ask that you keep us in your thoughts and prayers to make these adjustments as easily and healthily as possible.
Vikki

Mom is finally coming home!

Unless something changes, mom will be coming home Thursday.  She’s done so well in rehab, that they think she is ready to go home.

They have set up a therapist to come to the house to work with her for a bit longer until they determine that she’s back to normal or there about. 

I’m still a little worried about the left side weakness, it still comes and goes.  I’d feel much better if I knew what was causing it, but since they haven’t done any more testing, I guess getting and answer isn’t something we can expect.  

Once she’s home and gotten some rest and healed a bit more, we can start investigating on our own.  Not sure which doctor to start with, but maybe her primary could lead us in the right direction.

If this year long journey has taught us anything, it’s that you have to take your health into your own hands.  If we had excepted what the first doctor told us, she would never have gotten the surgery and I’m not sure how much longer she would have been with us. 

So we will just have to handle this new challenge when she’s up for it.

Thank you to everyone that has kept us in your thoughts and prayers.  Believe me, it helped.  This has all gone way to well not to believe God had his hands all over it. 

So thank you for the prayers and Thank you God for all you’ve done for us.