ow ow ow

Today I went in for my nose checkup and got my nose lasered! They described the procedure to me as analogous to "aerating the lawn." Well, it HURT and it hurts now. Waaa. Hopefully this will help the scar heal better. Ow.

yum yum yummy!

I am really enjoying my first tentative steps into raw foods. Everything tastes delicious! I did overeat the pudding tonight (there's a reason it says it serves 4!!) but in general, I am amazed at how easy and fast it is to prepare these meals. Tomorrow for breakfast I'm going to have the beautiful Scramble you see above, from Ani Phyo's Raw Food Kitchen cookbook (have I mentioned how much I love the Boulder library system? It has everything!) The kids liked the pudding too, which is a plus!

Today I had my followup with the dermatologist and everything looks good. I'm to massage the bump on my nose 3x/day with vasaline and see him again in October for possible laser therapy to remove the bump. I'm pretty confident I can squoosh it down myself. Did you know stitches that dissolve into your skin are made of cat gut? Seriously! Anyway, my body rejected those and is pushing them back up through my nose, so I'm to examine it for stray guts (iew iew iew!) and pull them with a tweezers if I see any (he found 2 today. I was wondering what those pokey things were!)

Fun Days

The nose is improving (this one's for you, Mom!) You can see I still have a teeny bit of a black eye. The nose itself is still somewhat swollen, but not bad. The incision is healing nicely, although there is a spot in the very center that is not knitting up as cleanly as Dr. Allen would like. All in all, no biggie. (click for a larger view, Mom)
Tonight Ted and I rode our bikes to Stacy's (about 2 miles) for a book club meeting. It was very uncomfortable with sunglasses so I eventually took them off and just squinted. Pressure on the nose at all is just not fun.
Ted had a blast at HHS camp today. They rode the RTD to Eben G. Fine park, then hiked Red Rocks, then went to Pearl Street to play in the fountain and have Italian Ice. He was beat!
Sam and Mae went with me to my TKD class. It's my first time back and I elected to walk, not run, my laps. Other than that, I feel fine. I'm learning Inwa I and it's cool!
Ted and I picked up our CSA share today, chock full of greens. I plan to blanch the greens and freeze them as long as the lettuce lasts. Once the lettuce is on its way out, we'll eat the greens too. There is a lot of lettuce in the early weeks of the CSA! It was great to be back and I know we'll have some delicious salads this week!
Tomorrow is everyone's last day of camp til we return from Iowa. We're going to head to Lakeshore's pool with Tara and Stacy at 4 (Sam will be so psyched. Every time we bike behind Lakeshore he begs to go swim there.) Saturday is the annual CCAI Reunion picnic and Sunday, I believe is free. I can't believe June is almost gone already! This summer s flying by!

Natural Rememdies

When Amber came to take care of Sam and Mae on Thursday, she ended up taking amazing care of me as well! One of the things I was very into when I lived in Chicago was "natural remedies." I pretty much dropped it after getting married and moving out to Colorado, busy with school and babies. But Amber has turned me back on to it. I am impressed with the body's ability to heal itself on its own (I haven't been given any antibiotics or even a pain-relief cream for the area - it's healing itself just fine. A few minor spots to keep an eye on, but no problems.) I think that's just amazing, since I certainly associate medications with any sort of surgery, no matter how minor. Besides the wonderful potato that brought my swelling down in a matter of hours, and the arnica cream that has helped the massive black eye shrink to almost nothing, Amber has suggested other natural remedies to help strengthen my immune system and assist in healing, as well as generally keeping myself healthy.
I was feeling a bit weak after the stitches were removed today, probably much more of an emotional reaction than a physical one. So I decided to have a power lunch - a lunch chock full of all the things I had learned about.

Amber gave me a recipe for tempeh with a dipping sauce that I knew I had all the ingredients for (always a plus!) After nuking the sliced tempeh for about 5 minutes to pre-cook, I fried it in peanut oil (plus some garlic. I heart me some garlic.) The dipping sauce was a mixture of soy sauce, sesame oil, seasoned rice vinegar, mirin and a few drops of hot chili oil. It was good but I overcooked the tempeh. I can see that it would make a tasty snack.
After sauteeing the beet greens in the leftover garlicly peanut oil, I topped it with Amber's dressing: some DHA 369 Blend (Omega Fatty Acids), Balsamic Vinegar, a generous squeeze of half a fresh lime, and a dash of salt. I have to say, that was a good dressing. I'm going to try it on a spinach salad tonight. Mmm. I think she should write a cookbook.
I added about 3 ounces of Aloe Vera (Gel & Juice, berry flavored) to the rest of my Synergy Kombucha (guava flavored) bottle for my drink.
After lunch, 2 TBSP of Probiotic Acidophilus (it has a yogurt texture and tastes of blueberry) finished up my meal. I feel full and full of energy, and it's about 3 hours later. Cool.

For anyone who's interested, here are some of the natural rememdies I'm trying:
Colloidal Silver: a natural antibiotic (we're excited to try this for Mae's ear infections. That and garlic should help keep her down to fewer than one a month! It's been suggested to me that constant ear infections are a sign of a food allergy, so we're going to run her bloodwork at her 3year and see.)
Probiotic Acidophilus: probiotics keep the organisms responsible for strengthening the immune system healthy and happy.
Aloe Vera
Omega Fatty Acids
Tumeric: a powerful antioxidant that is said to help prevent cancer. it's also a good healing agent, so I've been adding a dash of tumeric to my daily (non) petroleum jelly that I apply under the bandage. I also tried a tea; it was OK but I'll stick to my green tea for now.

MNW Day 4

Today was the best day so far. I was able to schlep the children, cook black bean and corn stuffing with homemade corn tortillas, and lemon cake (sort of, more on that later) for Paul's little birthday party.
Today the swelling is down to barely noticeable. It looks bad, but doesn't affect my vision at all. Ahh. Back to blogging. And, I was able to finish my bookclub book, An Irish Country Doctor, which was lovely. The very top, on the bridge of my nose, is the most sore. I wonder if that's because there isn't any fat there to protect things. Very ouchy. But the rest of my nose feels ... bulbous. But fine. It's still swollen enough to have that odd sensation of not feeling it when I touch it (does that make sense?) but that's better than it hurting, I suppose.
People have been so nice. Amber was an absolute godsend. Paul has been amazing, never complaining about everything he had to do this week. Wendy rescued me on Wednesday when I really didn't know how I was going to manage. Louise has called just to check in. Tawnya has called every day to see how I'm doing, offering her "been there, done that" support. I've been talking to my parents almost every day for a month now, since my mom's hospital stay. She's home and fine now, but I find that our calls are now reversed and it's them comforting me. Thanks, Mom and Dad. I appreciate it. I appreciate all of you.

As for the cake, I think adding the extra flour you're supposed to for high altitude would have helped. Luckily, it still tasted delicious, just like I remember my mom's. Happy 39th, Paul. We love you!

MNW Day 3

WARNING! PHOTO BELOW NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART!!

So, the bandage came off today. It looks much better than I thought. I took the pic before cleaning it, so it's a bit better looking than that. Also, I had a babysitter today for Sam and Mae. She brought me a potato, sliced it up, and instructed me to use it as a compress on my (swollen shut) eye. 15 minutes later and my eye was open! Hooray! She's versed me in some "alternative medicine" approaches to healing and I figure, why not? OK, are you ready for the pic? Don't look if you don't want to. Or if you're my dad, click for an even larger view! heh.

Day 2 update

Ain't I purty? oy. Thanks to Wendy's awesomeness, I was able to stay home and not (attempt to) drive. She brought Sam and Mae home for me; Paul left work early and brought Ted home from camp. Tylenol is working well. It's just all the pressure from my eye that is the problem. I hope the swelling goes down soon. Tomorrow I need to venture out into the world to take the boys to TKD since testing is on Saturday.

MNW Day 2

Terrible night of sleep. I don't tolerate Vicodin. I feel better this morning. My eye looks crazy. My nose hurts.
Just wait til tomorrow, Dad. The bandage comes off! Ahhh!

Mohs Nose Woes

The pic is for my dad. Plus, I've never had a black eye before. I haven't blogged about my adventures in basal cell carcinoma, but it's been a ride. Liquid nitrogen didn't do the trick, a biopsy confirmed the cancer diagnosis, and I spent 4 hours today having the Mohs procedure done. It took them 3 passes to get it all out but the procedure itself was completely painless (i.e., Dr. Allen is fabulous.)
More info when I'm up on my feet again. Right now the Vicodin is making me really nauseous and, did I mention? my nose HURTS.