October 15, 2008 Dr. Mann & Corn Maze

Another busy day here at the Gould cottage. Emily had to be to work for 8:45, I had a 9:30 appt with Dr. Mann (ENT)and then we were due to meet the homeschoolers at Sauchuk Farm
http://www.sauchukfarm.net/default.htm in Plympton at 11:30. On top of that we thought since we were up that way we might check out Daddy's new office in Taunton if we had time.
Dan and I dropped Emmy off at work then headed into Falmouth for my appointment. Dan decided in route that he wanted to be Leonardo from the Teenage mutant ninja turtles for Halloween, and since we had a few minutes we thought we'd run into Walmart to see if they had a green sweat suit. They did and while we were there I optimistically grabbed a pair of size 10 jeans and a couple of medium long sleeved T-shirts, since my wardrobe is down to one pair of holey jeans, one pair of stained jeans and too many over sized short sleeve shirts. We made it to Dr. Mann's office right on time and was promptly invited into one of the exam rooms. Dr. Mann was very nice. My lyme test came back negative. My VNG came back abnormal. The way he described it is that the test results suggest that there is either a leison growing inside my left ear or within my brain. I promptly pointed out that he MRI was negative and he concurred. At which point I asked if I had something growing in my ear. I'm not sure he ever answered that question but suggested that my new diagnosis was Meneiere's disease....well duh, the first doctor I saw back in RI said that's what it was 9 years ago! Anyway, he said before starting medication he wanted me to cut out as much salt as possible from my diet. SALT ! In the last 5 or so years I've given up nicotine, caffeine, alcohol, meat, dairy and wheat, and the only thing that made the last three of those bareable was the salt. I cried right there in his chair. I'm a realist, things happen, bad or good and it's just what it is, it's meant to be. However that's before I was asked to give up salt. I'm sad, I feel like I've lost a friend and now wonder if eating is even worth doing, with everything tasting so blah. Irrational I know, and tomorrow I'll pick myself up and move on, but today I mourn. I hope Dr. Mann is wrong. Maybe I'd rather have a lesion. Ok...not really...
I left there thinking about all the favorite things I'm eating now that I'll have to avoid. Namely fake buttered popcorn and anyting marinated in vinegar.
We made it up to Plympton a little after 11am and without enough time to visit Dad we went directly to the corn maze, had a quick lunch then explored the farm. They had a cool pit filled with corn for the kids to play in like a sandbox, and cow train, and hayride to a pick your own pumpkin patch and of course the maze it self with sheets of paper called passports as clues to find your way. Marie was there with 4 of her boys. We met her and her family at the foraging field trip, so it was nice to see a friendly face. There were homeschooler from all over at this event since it was off
Cape. She and I started the maze together and our boys immediately took off into the maze. Dan thought he was such a big boy hanging out with all of them and since Marie's boys promised to look after him I let him go. Talk about an over protective Mom. Marie and I got lost....alot. Finally we found a number, consulted our passports and found our way to the first bridge. It was a beautiful view and she and I had fun taking each others pictures from up there.....boys? What boys? Since we could no longer hear the cherubs and it'd been a while we decided we'd go back to the start and enter the maze through the exit to head them off when they got to the end. We exited the maze then reenterd the exit which brought us to the second bridge. We could hear the boys but quickly lost their sound. We decided they were probalby already out and decided to go out ourselves. We found the two littlest boys petting and feeding the pygmy goats. Dan and Brenden did a great job of taking care of one another.
We found the rest of the boys, and some other homeschooling Mom's and talked while the kids played. Eventually most of the kids were out and one of the Corn Cops started up the ATV and started giving cow train rides. The kids had a blast. After that we climbed aboard the hayride. Marie opted out of this adventure and I willingly kept my eye on her boys. They each picked a miniature pumpkin to take home, we boarded our ride and made our way back. A quick look at the clock told me I needed to call Emily and tell her we'd be late. We left Plympton at 2:15 and made it to Mahoney's at 3:30. There's just no good way to get from the Bourne Bridge to East Falmouth. We came home and tag teamed the chores and before we knew it we were all relaxing. I threw a couple of racks of beef ribs in the oven, then went to class. Since tonight was the debate our professor thought our time was better spent watching that and let us leave early. I've been craving fresh Autumn olive berries all afternoon and decided on the way home I'd hit the playground in the dark to harvest some. I'm addicted to these things, they'll have to do if I can't have popcorn. And remember those size 10 jeans? They fit!

October 9, 2008 Gowns, purple hair and Dennis the manatee

It's been quite a while since I've blogged. Things have just been really busy!

I woke up Saturday morning and thought, we should go to the King Richard's Faire http://www.kingrichardsfaire.net/ before it's gone for another year, we've said we wanted to go every year for the past 9 and haven't made it. Mike thought it was a good idea and with nothing planned for the weekend, we decided that's what we'd do....until Leone called. Janni needs a new roof put on her house and Mike was calling to ask Mikey if he'd lend a hand. We live in a very tight knit community and if one friend needs help everybody pulls together to get the job done. King Richards faire would just have to wait. The kids and I spent the weekend hanging around, Em worked Saturday. I worked Friday - Sunday. Em had her last driving instruction Sunday. The weekend passed and Janni's roof was left tarped and half done.

Monday was uneventful. We took Em to work, it was her first day cashiering at Mahoney's and she was a little nervous, but did great. Dan and I stopped at the grocery store on our way home to pick up food for the week and then went home to clean. Dan and I rearranged the living room to get the couch and loveseat off of the living room windows. With a strong north wind off the pond you can feel the cold air on your back. Dan took a nap, and I did school work.

Tuesday turned out to be a very busy day. I had a VNG http://www.stopdizziness.com/services_vng.asp test at Cape Cod ENT in Hyannis at 8:30am. Since I had to have a driver we decided I'd have the test then Em would drive us to the m all and we'd spend some time in Hyannis shopping. The test went well, comfortable except for the weight of the goggles I had to wear, and judging by the assistant running the test everything seemed normal right up until the Caloric test explained in #4 in the above link. She called in an audiologist to repeat the test and when it came back the same the audiologist said she'd seen that result once before. I don't know what any of it means, but it did sound like an abnormal finding. I see Dr. Mann next Wednesday.

The kids and I went to the mall afterwards. Our first stop was Macy's. They always have beautiful dresses this time of year, and I love trying them on. Em and I both tried a couple. I took pictures with my cell phone. I'm pleased with my progress. Size 10!

Em's been asking if she can color her hair for some time. After thinking about it for a while, I've decided that if that's the extent of her adolecent rebellion I'm a lucky mom. I gave my blessing. She chose purple hair dye from Hot Topic. We browsed the mall for a while, had lunch at the food court then made our way to Trader Joes and Christmas tree shop for a new carpet for the living room. We remove the old one every summer, it's easier to vacuum sand and dog hair without it, but always get a new one in the fall when the weather starts getting cool again. The kids and I headed home and since I was unhappy with the hair cut I got a couple of weeks ago asked Em if she wanted the hair cut she'd been nagging me about. We agreed and took our turns. The girl who cut my hair had blond under her dark hair and I started asking her about dying. 3 hours later we left. Em had some of her hair bleached then dyed purple, all three of us had our hair cut, Dan decided midway he wanted his hair spikey so into the chair he went. We got home at 6pm with just enough time to make dinner before Mikey got home. It was a hectic but good day!

Wednesday was Dan's first day back to Sandwich Library's preschool storytime. He did well, had a good time and made an Elmer the Elephant craft. Afterwards he and I had a picnic at the Marina playground then went over to Buzzards Bay to meet Dr. Lorraine Hurley and Blanche Derby http://www.tagyerit.com/freefood.htm for a foraging field trip on the canal. I had no idea how many weeds are edible. Our favorites are sheep sorrel which is everywhere and tastes like lemon, wood sorrel which looks like clover except it has heart shaped leaves and yellow flowers, it also tastes like lemon and the berries of the Autumn Olive which is an invasive bush with silvery leaves and bright red berries. The berries are incredible, we must have eaten a pint each! Here is a link to a blog with an Autumn Olive jam/jelly recipe. I've found a good source of them on a back road in Hyannis. I'm hoping to get a chance to forage closer to home sometime in the near future! Supposedly they're the sweetest right after the first frost.
http://wearemadeofdreamsandbones.blogspot.com/2006/09/autumn-olive-jam-saga.html

TodayMike was working in Newport and since Emmy wasn't working we considered going to RI with him, however Mom is camping and with a whole day to kill in Middletown and no car we decided we'd stay home and "enjoy" the wet day. Danny mentioned he'd seen the manatee on the news this morning with Daddy, and I had an idea. Nothing to do, and overcast...we could take a ride and see if we could see it. We arrived shortly after 9am, talked with the harbor master, and some of the natural resource guys for a while and although they were very nice they really told us very little. The kids and I poked around the docks for a while, and after seeing nothing started for the parking lot. There was a man parked up there and gave us the tip that yesterday the manatee had been feeding in the far corner. The kids and I decided we'd take a look and thanked our informant. Sure enough, we were not even down the ramp when someone said they'd just seen it. We walked down the dock and a worker invited Dan and I onto a boat. Within a minute this beautiful animal surfaced. It was probably 10 feet away but we were thrilled have seen it. Had we known just how close to it we would get this brief look would have seemed unremarkable. We watched Dennis or Denise surface and dive 4 or 5 times and got pretty used to the pattern. It would submerge for about 10 minutes. When it surfaced you'ld see it's nose, and sometimes it's back. It would come up and go down for 2 or 3 minutes before with a great sweep of it's tail it would dive for another 10 minutes.

Eventually it made it's way between two rows of dock and seemed to be coming directly towards us which is exactly what it did. In about 4 feet of water it surfaced along side the dock and proceeded to feast on the algae growing on the ropes. If Dan had reached out his hand he would have touched it, however the harbor master was looking on, trying to control the growing crowd. We decided we'd leave to let somebody else have a chance to see it. I have a feeling eventually they were going to block the docks entirely so the animal could do what it wished. Quite a liability having all those people and kids on the rickety old docks. There is a short video of the manatee in the upper left hand corner of this blog, if you'ld like to see more!

On the way home we stopped at Sally's to pick up some more dye. Emily loved the purple so much she wanted more, and was willing to entrust me to do it. We came home, Dan went down for a nap and I took to bleaching. 2 hours later, one very sad girl sits on the couch. Apparently when I bleached then dyed blue one particular section of hair I'd forgetten to take into account her part, and she now has a bluish/greenish stripe running right down the side of her head. Whoops.....

Here is the latest cape cod times article on Dennis: We would be the three people walking up and down the docks in the rain.
http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081010/NEWS/810100308

September 30, 2008 Bloodwork & Emily's Dad

So as I may or may not have posted last week I had my yearly physical with my primary. It was the usual, blood pressure 122/70, pulse 74, weight 166lbs. Asked me how everything is, and except for a small unhealed mark on my back everything is great. (he's going to remove it the end of October) and 5 minutes later I was out the door with my bloodwork order. I know the routine so I fasted that morning and went directly over to C-lab. I was called up the counter, ushered into the vampire chair, poked and sent home. My appointment with Doc B was at 9am, we left C-lab at 9:02.
So this morning I called for my bloodwork results. My diet has been so restricted I was concerned that I might have deficiencies. Turns out everything came back better then good.
My blood sugar was 87
My cholesterol is 129
Triglicerides 43
HDL 41
LDL 79
Pap- normal
I was pleased with the results especially since we spent an hour of our day yesterday at RI Hospital visiting Emily's dad who had a heart attack last Tuesday. He spent 3 days in ICU before he was sent down stairs. He's expecting to go home tomorrow. He had a blood clot that went to his lungs and made it nearly impossible to breath. He had some pain in his left hip a few days before so the doctors surmise that's where it started. He also found out he has diabetes. When he arrived at the hospital his blood sugar was over 600. He's only 10 years older then me and it really hit home that nows the time to get healthy, because it's only going to get harder as the years go by.
This afternoon I had an appointment with Cape Cod ENT. In some strange turn of events instead of being scheduled for the vestibular test, I was sent to see another ENT. He was very nice, and wrote up the paperwork for the VNG, ran a couple of tests and asked if I'd ever been tested for lyme disease. When I said no, he said he thought it was a good idea. He also asked if there was anything that I do that can bring an episode on, and I explained that sometime rubbing or pressing the back of my neck could trigger an attack. He contemplated that for a moment and suggested that this whole thing might be caused by a pinched nerve. I don't like the idea of chronic lyme disease at all, but a pinched nerve? What's the treatment for that, daily massages??? I'm voting for pinched nerve hands down! I went over to C-lab to be poked once more, then to the grocery store to pick up some bananas for dessert. Emily's itching to make something sweet so I challenged her to find something somewhat healthy involving fruit. She chose banana's foster sans the rum. It'll balance out the fried chicken and french fries!

August 29, 2008 MRI results and Oak Grove Cemetary

My MRI results came back normal, the inside of my head is really amazing to look at! Dr Mann referred me to a vestibular center in Hyannis for followup, since he can't figure out what's wrong. Hearing test came back abnormal with hearing loss in the middle range of sound bilaterally.He had no expanation why.

Oak Grove Cemetary in Falmouth was quiet with no signs of exuvia. 72 degrees and overcast, I wasn't surprised at the lack of calling. Off to make coconut custard tarts for my Kathy's 50th birthday party tomorrow at Adam & Kristins, before nap and work tonight.

August 22, 2008 1st instar!

On Tuesday night I left here for Falmouth to have an MRI. My ENT thought that it might be time have one just to make sure my dizziness isn't something more serious. I left with time to spare and quickly but thouroughly checked the trees in the Falmouth Hospital parking lot for annual cicada nymphs and found nothing. It was a busy night in the Emergency room and due to an emergency MRI I was pushed back from 8:45 to 9:15. While sitting in the waiting room, Elias called to tell me he'd caught at 1st instar Magicicada nymph. The periodicals lay their eggs in the branches of trees and 6-8 week later the eggs hatch into little white walking specks. This is pretty much the last part of the magicicada cycle to be seen. These 1st instars will drop from the branches to the ground, bury themselves into the soil, attach to a root and lay in wait for 17 years going through 3 more instars before they emerge again in their 4th instar form to turn into Cicada's. The whole process is simply amazing. I was very excited for Elias but only texted him after hearing his voicemail, concerned I'd be called in while talking. The MRI was mostly uneventful. I was injected with contrast dye about halfway through the test, but it was nearly painless with no unpleasant side effects. I left the hospital and checked trees on my way back to the van. I usually make a policy of not talking on my cell while driving, but it was night, and the roads mostly abandoned so I bent my rule and called Elias to congratulate him. We chatted for a bit, then I called Mike to let him know everything went well. I arrived home to find both Em and Dan still awake. I tucked them into bed and retired as well.

Wednesday was uneventful. Em worked, Dan and I spent some time at the beach, went bug and blackberry hunting since they are in season right now. I checked a few trees for instars but didn't find anything. We picked Em up from work, just in time for me to go to work. Em's been great about watching Dan for me, never complains and even volunteers before she's asked. She's a real treasure, and I appreciate what a great kid she is even more now that I'm working with kids her age who are doing things I would disapprove of. I arrived home early Thursday morning to find a message from Nettie saying she'd be down at 7am to take Marley to have hip x-rays in Warren, RI at noon. Dan had story time at the library (which was eventually cancelled) so I told Nettie I couldn't do it. Knowing it was going to be an early morning to bed I went.

Thursday morning I awoke at 6:15 and realized I had very little time to get alot of stuff done. Started laundry, cleaned the puppy pen, vacuumed, and did a quick cleanup. Em's great with Dan but the house is generally trashed when I get home. Nettie and Gram arrived at 7, I made them some tea and we talked until it was time for Em to go to work. Nettie and Gram made their way up the hill a little after 9am. Melissa and Danny were up there as well as Jessie, John and Suzanne. Jessie was upset that Nettie didn't call, and left for most of the day. I invited Nettie and Gram to stay for dinner, and prepared Chicken parmagiana, cesar salad and corn on the cob, which Emily finished off after I left for work. Mike arrived home just before 5pm, ate dinner then with Nettie's help returned the box truck. Em, Dan and Mike visited me at Dunkin before heading home and putting Dan to bed. Work was good, but the power went out just minutes before midnight. With nothing more to do and rescue vehicles on the move, we closed the shop and went off ambulance chasing. A short distance down the road an SUV had missed a corner and landed in someone's front yard. Thankfully, it didn't look like anyone was hurt. I arrived home to find Mike barely awake, he kept me company for a quick cup of tea, we climbed into bed shortly before 1am.

Friday morning and we all got to sleep late. Marley woke me up at 6am because she needed to feed the pups, but I went right back to sleep and Dan woke us up at 8:30am. It was good to catch up. It was our day to feed the animals at Green Briar so we dressed and headed over there. Afterwards we went to The BeeHive Restaurant in West Barnstable. We thought we were going to a breakfast shop but it turned out to be a higher end lunch and dinner place. Mike and Em had burgers, Dan a corn dog and I had terrific cajun scallops with sweet potato fries (which I'm now paying for) We arrived home to a hot sunny summer day and Dan and I changed for the beach. Mike decided he'd nap and was still asleep at 4pm when Dan and I had had enough. We showered, changed and headed out for some true 1st instar hunting of our own, armed with a burgandy fleece blanket and a small pill bottle for any specimens. We found nothing in the neighborhood and made our way across Pimlico Pond Rd to the old road and walked up a bit. I broke a few branches across the way but found nothing. I also tried Elias' technique of laying something dark under the branches and shaking them hoping any loose ones might fall onto the blanket. Neither approached worked until I snapped a branch and saw something move. Amazingly enough I'd found a nymph, quickly put it in my bottle, and texted Elias...the only person in the world that I know that would be as excited as I was. True to form he texted back how thrilled he was for me. Here's a video I made of my nymph. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0Gq5vW8Hv8. Dan and I walked home and prepared Chicken Caccitore for men's night with italian antipasto vegetables and rice. We had a good showing and after winning two games of cribbage it was time to update my blog then head to bed.