Day 50: Friday

It is the 50th day since I was diagnosed with a benign brain tumor. I am waiting for the date of the surgery.

Susie’s service is on 23 March 2024, at 4 PM, at First United Methodist Church in Beaverton.

Susie’s Michigan service is on 18 May 2024 ** at Grace United Methodist Church, Lansing, at 2PM.

** Not 4 May

I am writing this on a foggy, cold, blue-skied Saturday morning in my home office.

Friday was a work-from-home day for the shoe company. I was up and feeling the four days of working back-to-back to flying back from NOLA (New Orleans, Louisiana) and just stared at my slippers for a full minute. I summoned the will to begin, found my robe, and found the kitchen–it had not moved.

Corwin has been cleaning the kitchen, and there were only a few dishes in the sink; I put them in the dishwasher. I made Mexican coffee from the collection that the Kramers sent me–excellent. I grabbed just a banana as I was counting calories. I put all the information into the MyFitnessPal app. It also counts my steps, and there, when I start exercising, it can be recorded. I find the first Zoom meetings, and the early morning disappears in a puff of Zoom meetings with Mexican coffee and a banana.

I shave, clean up, and dress. Next, between meetings, I slip out to the nearby Safeway. I have a list, and soon, my cart is overflowing with food and paper products. We are on our last roll of toilet paper! I buy extra food as Corwin is weight-lifting, and he packs it away. Eight bags, plus paper products and a gallon of milk, for over $300. Air Volvo delivers that, and I must unload and put it away. I think the step counter on the iPhone should give me extra credit for that. I distribute the toilet paper. I still worry about having enough TP–leftovers from the pandemic supply chain problems.

Glenda, when she was here a few years ago, put the sugar in a reused container with a tight lid, so I filled it. The ants discovered that while it was almost empty, sitting on the counter waiting for me to fill it, the lid was loose. I have to dump out the sugar in a bowl and extract the ants. Ick! The container is, without ants, now back in the pantry with the lid tight. The remaining sugar is in the frig. No ants in there!

Aside: Yes, I have an ant killer on retainer, but ants are back after the flooding and snow let them cross the barriers. I will be contacting them again to redo the defenses.

I returned to work online, did a review, and made lunch. I bought a pre-cooked chicken and cut off some white and dark meat. I have that with some cottage cheese. This is delicious (not a salad), and I have half a can of peaches (no added sugar). I have none of the colon emptying issues later. Yes, salads are out for a while. Work continues to be quiet, the usual for Fridays.

I put on my walking blue Nike Zooms (the name’s irony is not lost on me) and walk to the little stream in our area for thirty minutes. I have thought about using a drone to track it or, more my style, building a boat with a camera to explore the stream and the culverts.

I’m back to the Volvo Cave via Nike Zooms, and my steps are over 7,000. Yes! Work is still quiet. I do two loads of laundry, read, and send Corwin a note to get some dill and shallots. I missed them.

I wait and watch my phone. No calls from the surgeon’s scheduler. Paperwork is still being done, and I continue to wait. I am expecting the surgery to either be in April or later May. The tumor is called an acoustic neuroma, 2.5cm, and the surgery will use a translabyrinthine approach. While slow growing, it will likely crush the brain stem if left untreated. The brain stem is needed!

I made beef stroganoff with egg noodles for dinner at Corwin’s request. Corwin’s Lion’s Mane mushroom (a kit I gave him for Christmas). I chop everything and pull out most of the ingredients. I am using an old recipe that I used to make years ago. I then wait until it is later to cook.

When it was time to cook, I used store-bought beef broth to make the sauce (using a roux to make it thick). I cut up the beef chuck bits into slices and salt and pepper. I fry the beef in batches. I cook the sliced shallots in the same pan. I add the mushrooms (I use some store-bought ones to fill out the amount), but the shallots start to burn. Next time, I will empty the shallots into the beef and fry the mushrooms in butter and oil alone. The mushrooms are not cooking fast, so I add water to the hot pan and cover. The scalding steam gets the mushrooms hot enough to cook now. I assembled it, remembering the sour cream to be added to the sauce but forgot the mustard.

It is delicious but needs salt. In my usual cooking, Corwin approves but adds salt. I don’t–I have high blood pressure. I would double the sauce volume next time and, of course, remember the mustard. I have two servings but don’t bust my calory count for Friday on my app–excellent.

While I have an open night, I am still tired today and have elected to stay home. I spend hours collecting the tax documents and assembling the deductions. Last year, I paid more than $80,000 on medical care–go right ahead and ask me about how “good” employer health insurance is. We will see if I can top the number this year with the co-pays and co-insurance (and other various ‘co’) for the brain surgery. Talk to me about why unregulated medical insurance and getting the policies from your employer improve my life. Growl.

Aside: United Health Care’s top executives receive more than $17 million in compensation each. Google it. Again, tell me they are using my money well. Does anyone think the UHC is managed so well to pay that kind of money out? Growl.

After growling over the numbers and assembling my giving last year, I wrote a letter to my accountant, who does my taxes. I am out of paper! I need to buy more paper for the printer. I usually buy a case of paper, but I have not used the printer that much. Now, I print out everything for my bookkeeping and burn through more paper. I am off to the office supply store on Saturday, and I need a binder for 2024.

I read and finished making the bed and all the usual things. I was in bed a bit early, but I was tired.

My meds have changed as the surgeon has me taking antibiotics and putting on a cream on my left ear as it is having some trouble. This requires a snack–meds must be taken with food–and I found the butter (now that I have bought groceries) and put a tiny bit on a slice of raisin toast. I added that to the app, but it is still under calorie count. Yay!

I wake at 4AM as I have an earache on my left side, and I take some ibuprofen and Tylenol. I sleep until 7ish.

Thanks for reading. By the way, I am reading The Beautiful Mystery: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel (Chief Inspector Gamache Mysteries Book 8), which I recommend.