Asthma is No Joke

Asthma is no joke. I left work early on Tuesday, October 25, 2016 because I felt positively awful. Some people work to live. Some people live to work. Right or wrong, I fall in the second category. I don't leave work early. I headed home, took a hot shower, changed into sweats, and drank some hot tea. Ordinarily, a little hot water and a little hot tea cures what ails me. Not this time. I emailed my friend Cathy from church – asking her if she'd like to join me on a field trip to Littleton Adventist Hospital's ER.

 

Littleton Adventist is a great hospital – smart, caring staff, great food and landscaping and the best place to have a baby or hysterectomy – but the ER is sometimes a bit slow - so I changed my mind and asked Cathy to take me to Swedish Medical Center's Southwest ER near Clement Park, instead. They administered oxygen, started an IV, gave me a breathing treatment, took a chest xray, and placed me in an ambulance that took me to the main hospital in Englewood. The whole process – from the time I arrived at the Southwest ER until the time I was tucked into a bed on the seventh floor with a great view of the helicopter pad – took around two hours.

 

While I have become increasingly allergic to my sweet kitties and many soaps and cleaning products and have an Albuterol inhaler for when I get wheezy, I'd not been diagnosed with asthma or been treated for it. Until now – that is. For seven days – I was discharged on November 3, 2016 – I received respiratory therapy treatments round-the-clock and ordered meals that I did not cook from room service. The breakfast burritos with vegetarian green chili and the Mediterranean Sandwich (Feta, fresh vegetables, and hummus on Naan) were particularly good. I received excellent care from the staff at Swedish – especially the respiratory therapists – and had some great conversations with people.

 

And I watched my Cubbies on big-screen TV. On a more practical note, it's possible to respect the expertise and time constraints of healthcare professionals and be proactive about the care you receive. Even when you don't feel so great. What else? I've been home several days, feel great, and plan on going back to work on Monday. While the pulmonologist who directed my care at Swedish doesn't advocate sleeping with cats, he will provide me with the medication I need to continue to live with them. The way I look at it – I can keep my cats, sleep through the night, and take asthma/allergy meds or take more Lexapro. I vote for the cats.

Cat Nap

Cats enjoy an afternoon nap in the sun almost as much as they enjoy a good can of tuna.

Green Thumb . . .

Is my thumb green?  I'm not so sure.  Colorado is not the easiest place to grow tomatoes, but I thought I would try again.  While my plants are always big, verdant and leafy, I don't get nearly as many juicy, red tomatoes as I would like. Hope springs eternal.

This year, the two cherry tomato plants and the one full-size tomato plant cost $3.69 each at King Soopers.  I've found that the plants from the grocery store are just as hardy as the ones from the local garden center.  Three bags of potting soil cost roughly $3.00 each.  I had organic fertilizer left-over from last year, and was also able to re-use my containers and wheeled platforms.  It's cheap entertainment.

The cherry tomato plants had flowers on them when I brought them home from the store.  The full-size tomato plant, which has been growing like a proverbial weed, finally has some little yellow flowers on it.  No flowers equals no tomatoes, so we're headed in the right direction.

Week One

Week Two

Week Three

That's a cat, not a rat!

Week Four

Love This Stuff

Rarely does a day go by that I don’t consume at least one container of yogurt.  I’ve been eating yogurt since I was a youngster.  

My parents weren’t members of the counterculture and my mom wasn’t that great of a cook, but she made sure I ate healthy.  We did not have Wonder Bread, Spaghettios, or canned vegetables at our house.  I got small amounts of candy at Halloween, Christmas and Easter.  

Still, it’s not as if I experienced culinary deprivation.  I ate my first Asian and German food when I was still in preschool and I inhaled my first whole lobster tail at the age of eight. My entirely-Italian aunt (mom's side of the family), who was raised on the North Side of Chicago, made her pizza from scratch, in the pre-Food Network pre-foodie era.

Today, my favorite foods include yogurt, clementines, and ripe avocadoes.  The best yogurt I’ve ever eaten is the silky, smooth British kind packed in the breakfast boxes served on British Airways.  Yogurt from the United Kingdom has a nice texture.  

I've been searching for silky yogurt ever since my trip to Kenya.  Enter Noosa.  Noosa, developed by Aussie ex-pat Kael Thomae, is an organic, whole milk yogurt made in Bellvue, outside Fort Collins.  It's a little pricey, but really, really good and worth the extra expense.  My favorite flavors are Pumpkin, Salted Caramel, and Coconut.  They offer seasonal flavors like Cranberry Apple, as well.  My local King Soopers carries Noosa.  Sometimes, it's on special.  I also get coupons e-mailed to me.

Apparently, Coloradans (I'm an Illinois/Colorado hybrid) are not the only ones who like silky yogurt.  The grocery store where my paternal grandparents did most of their shopping, carries Noosa.  Food Business News.Net reported that Noosa Yoghurt, L.L.C., expected to generate $100 million in sales in 2015.  That's a lot of yogurt!

Caturday

I've been trying to capture pictures of Isabelle (six pounds and green eyes) and Ebenezer (15 pounds and gold eyes) doing something exciting.  Let's face it, cats spend most of their time eating, sleeping, looking for new places to sleep, begging for attention, and making messes (much to my chagrin).

This little stinker - whose first kitty box was the same size as the plastic shoeboxes that I use for Operation Christmas Child - celebrates his fifth birthday this week.
How did he get so big?

Colorful

Some people never get over their need to color.  I'm one of them.  Believe it or not, I really enjoy coloring with Sharpies markers. They are inexpensive and most colors are easy to find.  I use Copic Ciao markers exclusively for for skin tones.  Copics are neither easy to find in-stock, nor are they reasonably priced.

If I had children, my six Copics would be under lock and key. When I was in elementary school, my mom 'hid' the good construction paper on a the top shelf of my closet. I not only found it, but I also retrieved it.  How?  Let's just say that I'm not afraid of heights and I've always had really long arms for someone my stature (or lack thereof).

Occasionally, I color with Prismacolor colored pencils.  For the most part, colored pencils are reserved for use with Precepts Bible Studies.

Have you noticed that coloring books designed for for adults are popular once again?  My local King Soopers has coloring books that contain not only butterflies and birds, but also biblical themes.  I prefer to de-stress by coloring images that I stamp onto cardstock and transform into cards that I share with others.  

Another trend, popular amongst some Christians, is Bible Journaling.  Bible Journaling aficionados use some of the same supplies that stampers and scrapbookers use to fill the margins of their Scriptures with colorful notes and doodles.  
I love the Bible and I love to color, but I don't know if I'm ready to doodle through Genesis.  In college, I was one of those people who bought new textbooks and never highlighted them.  I have a separate Bible that I use for Precepts studies.  What do you think about Bible Journaling?  I'd really like to know.

Fine Point Sharpies

Ultra Fine Point Sharpies

Colored Pencils

I also use these for Precepts Bible Studies

Remember These?
The Box of 64 Still Has the Built-In Sharpener

Expensive
I use Copic Ciao markers for skin tones.

Coming Soon to a Mailbox Near You
This Stamp Set Pays Tribute to Classic Sunday School Songs 

Let It Snow

Joy

I'm pleased, not only that it snowed, but also because it is colder than usual.

Too Cool for This Cat

Ezer enjoys his creature comforts, his food and water dishes, his cat box, and his Mama (that's me).  On the rare occasion that he sneaks out, Ebenezer turns right around and sits on the door mat, waiting for me to let him in.  Isabelle, on the other hand, likes to wander.  Because we have both coyotes (ugly) and foxes (elusive and beautiful) in the neighborhood, I do my level-best to keep my pets indoors.