He didn't like Downton Abbey before. But I raved about it. So he gave it another go. And now he's hooked.
As always, let me know if you had a favourite. Mine's still the Downton Tabby one. (Yes yes, I know I've posted this before... but it's just SO funny!)
When BIKSS had his mad knee pains it was his MCL.
According to my boss who very unceremoniously lifted my leg and propped it up on his thigh, mine's likely to be an inflammed LCL.
He did the range of motions tests, having me turn my foot this way and that and then trying to bend my leg with the foot pointed in either direction...
And then, he added, maybe my meniscus too.
Here's a quick diagram. That's the front of a right knee. The MCL is on the inside of the leg, the LCL is on the outside.
CLICK HERE for a quick (and basic) lesson on knee anatomy.
Here's another pic -
Apparently, I will need to rest. NO walking. NO exercising. NO twisting this way and that.
Me - How did this happen? And if you say lao liao (old age) I'll thwack you.
Doc - Then I won't say anything.
Me - Sigh. Tell me how to fix it. It hurts.
Doc - Nsaid yourself.
Me - But that upsets my tummy.
Doc - Kefentech! (Ketoprofen plaster)
Me - Which doesn't work on me remember? You said something about being a fast metaboliser.
Doc - Oh right. Methyl salicylate? Counterpain? Wintergreen? But that smell makes you puke right?
Me - Right.
Doc - Oil. Any oil. Fish oil!
Me - What? Rub fish oil?
Doc - Not rub. Eat.
Me - Eat fish oil? Like Omega 3?
Doc - Yup. Omega 3 helps with inflammation too. But check the dose.
I did. 2.7g of combined DHA/ EPA a day - that's 9 of my mini gel capsules. I can do that. I'm on it!
I also figured out that if I leave my leg unbent, it doesn't hurt as much as when I've had it bent (eg while sitting) and then trying to straighten it after.
The summary is this : Straight all the way - no pain. Bent all the way - no pain. Straight to bent - small pain. Bent to straight - MEGA pain.
At dinner on Friday BIKSS got up to go and moved towards me to help me out of my chair. I turned to face him, and away from the table, but I kept on sitting, extending my leg. And waited.
"Hang on a tic," I said. I'm gonna need some time.
"I know exactly what you're doing," he replied. He smiled, almost chuckling. But not at my misfortune.
"What then? Hmm?"
"You're doing exactly what I used to do - after the leg's been bent for some time you need to straighten it to let everything slowly get back into place before you can stand up and put weight on it. Innit?"
Well, ok, maybe he DID know what I was doing.
My mood pic today ~
I wasn't sure what to expect. And I don't even LIKE BBQ flavoured anything.
But I saw them on the shelf and had to try one. I got the BBQ one, cos I had no clue what the other one was. (It's Fresh Cheese and Horseradish, btw.)
Surprisingly, it's not half bad. I would even venture so far as to say I LIKE it.
Have you tried these before? I might have to go back and get the green one now...
First, I had had a crappy busy week. The kind of week where you keep wondering why it's taking so long to get to Friday.
I had back to back lessons on Monday cos I needed Tuesday free to take mum to the doc. Wednesday was the visit to the columbarium. I needed to get supplies on Thursday. And FINALLY it was Friday.
In the past I recall weeks that had gone by in a flash - especially when I had a full schedule - but this time it just bloody dragged on and on.
Still, I needed to pick up some free rescue stuff and get to a pharmacy for a syrup for mum, so BIKSS got me (after I fed mum an early dinner) and off we went.
To a place that we'd been to MANY times in the past. Where we could count on great service, friendly smiles, and reliable food.
But it wasn't.
EVERYTHING WAS TOO SALTY.
The salad was salty. The spicy prawns were salty. I could eat none of it. BIKSS said, let's wait for the fish. He was quite happy to eat the stuff - it's a little more salty than usual, he said, but still edible.
No, it wasn't. It wasn't edible.
He maintained that it's cos I have a low threshold. But that's not it either. I know I can (and do, at home anyway) eat unsalted food with no problem. But I am fully aware of what is considered a "regular" amount of salt when it comes to store-bought, restaurant-cooked meals. I eat normal food at normal places too, do I not? And I don't complain about the salt level in there, even tho I would also be fine with much less.
"Let's wait for the fish," he suggested. It was fine except the skin tasted like a sheet of salt.
BIKSS suggested eating the fish and chucking out the skin but I was having none of it. Why would I give up eating the best part (to me) of a grilled salmon just cause the chef can't cook.
So he called the waitress over, told her about it, and she apologised and took the prawns and fish away.
She wanted to change them both, and at first BIKSS said it wasn't necessary to change the prawns but I said no, let's change it. After all, it was good gravy, and I didn't get to eat ANY of it. And we're still gonna have to pay for everything anyway.
So she brought us new prawns. It was much better.
And the fish? The mash tasted fine. The flesh of the salmon and gravy too.
"Let's see if the skin is any better."
I flipped the chunk of salmon over.
There was no skin. Le sigh.
BIKSS laughed. But I was just like whatever. It wasn't a good dinner date. And I wanted to get on with the rest of the errands for the evening (friend wanted to come by to pick something up but I was afraid we wouldn't be back in time so I offered to drop it off at her place on the way home - she lives very close by.)
I decided I wanted more donuts. So we got donuts. And then friend mentioned that she's now dreaming of donuts. So BIKSS stopped the car and I went and got 2 more donuts for her.
And then we almost drove into a carpark but BIKSS noticed it didn't have her block number on the sign, so we turned out again. Then I gave BIKSS wrong directions so he had to make another u-turn to get to said friend's house.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As I'm writing this I can't help but wonder if this is an accurate depiction of life right now. Mine, at any rate, if not everyone's.
Things you think you know, that you are sure of, are suddenly not a certainty anymore.
Things you've come to expect and depend on no longer can be counted on.
Something that you've been looking forward to that you KNOW will be comforting and satisfying is now the thing that's causing you to be unhappy.
Things that in small quantities can add spice and flavour to your life suddenly get chucked upon you in too-large quantities and overpower you.
Plans that start out simple end up getting changed a million times until it doesn't look anything like the original anymore.
You think you know where you're going, you can see the destination, but it takes you way too long to get there because the route you knew (or thought you knew) is off limits and now you have to obey all these other rules and conform to what everyone has to do.
And there's no such thing as just making ME feel better, cos there's always someone else who also wants a donut.
My mood pic today ~
And she finally, after letters from 2 other GPs, agreed that mum might be having some issues with anxiety and depression.
Also, she agrees with me (hello? I thought YOU were the doctor) that the sundowning and the confusion and the losing of pockets of time during her episodes point to early stages of dementia.
Tsk. Duh, that's what I said 3 months ago.
Anyway, she's put her on an SSRI (escitalopram aka Lexapro) -
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors are a class of drugs that are typically used as antidepressants in the treatment of major depressive disorder, anxiety disorders, and other psychological conditions.
and given me Zopiclone (aka Z-drug) as a standby for insomnia should she have difficulty sleeping (one night she was up till 5 in the AM!).
Nonbenzodiazepines, sometimes referred to colloquially as Z-drugs (as many of them begin with the letter "z"), are a class of psychoactive drugs that are very benzodiazepine-like in nature. They are used in the treatment of sleep problems.
I hope she feels better with the SSRI. I know *I* do, now that we have some proper meds.
Today's also dad's birthday so we're off to the columbarium to visit him.
The anxiolytic couldn't have come at a more opportune time.
My mood pic today ~
My Period.
After 2 months and 11 days.
That explains the 11-hour sleep on Saturday night. And the recent sugar cravings!
Instead of my usual route around my block, last night on my brisk walk I found myself heading towards the gas station. I came home with a box filled with 6 ring donuts. And a chicken pie. And a creamy mushroom pie.
That is all.
The good news is now that it's here, I don't have a hankering for donuts anymore. I suspect I'll soon be back to my usual fare of potato chips.
My mood pic today ~
I'm in the middle of 'lessons' so I'll be brief. Yes lessons. One of the topics was how the brain rewires itself. It's an online learning course on effective coaching in healthcare and lifestyle medicine. One of the 4 courses that will get me my certification in Lifestyle Medicine: Improving the Future of Health Care.
I finished fundamentals a while ago, then mum started being more unwell so I took a break. Recently I was thinking about starting up again and lo and behold the universe sent me a 20% discount code. Why not right? If you're a believer in signs, then that seemed to be a pretty obvious one.
We have also gone back to one of the restaurants in the chain where we had the no-spinach spinach salad and the chicken cordon bleaugh.
It was a rather splendid meal.
Total bill - $80. Yum. But Expensive. Thank goodness for the $50 voucher. Ordinarily we wouldn't have ordered so much food, usually one salad and one main. But since we could afford it...And also, I was hungry. LOL
My mood pic today ~
We had some good weather yesterday tho', it was sunny, and there was a cool breeze blowing (and at this point it sounds like I'm about to break into song lyrics) so I took the mum to a nearby reservoir park.
We sat in the shade of a tree, on a bench, and she listened to Christmas songs on Youtube! LOL.
We're also getting a little closer to making her more comfortable. The docs (yes, plural) agree that it's most likely anxiety we're dealing with, and aside from the very low dose benzo helping her feel better, we've also got her on a mild dose of salbutamol, which in some elderly patients, the Monday doc said, seems to help when they complain of laboured breathing. (Mum insisted on going to a different doc last Monday cos she feels the other ones she has seen are useless and she doesn't trust them to tell her what's what. Don't ask.)
I can't wait to pass the doctor's letter to the psycho-geri next Tuesday. For some reason everyone thinks she could benefit from an anxiolytic except the ONE person who CAN prescribe it.
(Well, ok, other doctors can prescribe it too, but they need a government hospital certified psych doc to sign off on it for long term use - this is the government's way of preventing abuse.)
I shall wait and see what happens.
========
The other thing about the weather being as cool as it is, is that I get hungry for carbs. OK, I don't, really. I get cravings for sugar. Yes, that's it.
Donuts specifically. I had a mad craving last Tuesday so I hopped over to the mall and picked up half a dozen. Mum had a friend coming over to visit that afternoon so I made that my excuse for buying the sweet treats. She had one, I had two. Then I had another the following day. Brilliant!
I had a Boston cream. a Bavarian cream, and a strawberry-filled berliner. I love the no-hole-in-the-middle ones.
But if that wasn't enough, after our brisk walk last night where I told BIKSS about my many-donut adventure, he shooed me into the car and drove me to the gas station where they are apparently selling the famously delicious DOTS donuts in the express marts! Only, I hadn't ever heard of them. He had, evidently.
Flown in from Spain? At gas stations? Dammit. That's taking something from bluddy halfway across the world and making it WAY TOO accessible.
How did I not know about these beautiful things? Anyway. I didn't. Had no clue what he was on about when he mentioned them. Which is why BIKSS decided we were gonna get me some! Bless him!
(I might still pick a jam berliner from Dunkin' over these but as far as chocolate covered donuts go, these are probably the best ones I've had.)
While I waited in the car, he went into the store and picked up a couple of mini 'chocolate drizzle' ones
... and a couple of regular sized lemon dots - which are stuffed on the inside too!
The description reads :
Soft dough filled with delicious lemon cream and decorated with a white chocolate coating and yellow sugar nibs on top.
I could do without the yellow sugar nibs, cos all I really need is WHITE CHOCOLATE!!! (Yes yes, I know there's no actual cacao in white chocolate, but it's milky and sweet and chocolate-textured and I love it!)
It really is a donut and then some!
For now I think I shall rest a bit before checking out the other flavours. If their website is anything to go by, I'll have a LOT of exploring to do in the coming weeks and months!
But the sweetest thing in all this, is BIKSS!
My mood pic today ~ (what else was it gonna be??)
When they lifted the dining-in restrictions we went for dinner.
And decided to go back to the Thai place by the marina.
The first two things that BIKSS looked at were from the vegetarian menu. And he didn't even realise he'd been looking at it.
We had a battered cauliflower with marmite that was so good I over-ate cos I wanted to finish it!
He also loves tofu so we got a 'Mapo Tofu' that was less mapo and more fermented bean sauce. It's not a flavour we're used to, so I didn't have much of it, plus I'm no tofu fan. But he did a spectacular job of finishing it.
We also had crayfish curry that was so delicious I brought the gravy home (with the veggies - they're really generous with the veggie portions) and chucked in some cabbage and capsicum today for lunch!
Then we went over to my aunt's place to pick up two cases of a low protein meal supplement that they now have no use for since my grandaunt passed last Sunday. Mum takes this too so we got lucky. I mean, that's 72 bottles at $5 each. I bought her a care package consisting of cookies, mixed nuts, chocs and even fruit, by way of thanks. All the main flavours / 'tastes' were present, sweet, sour (kiwi), bitter (dark chocolate) and salty... only there was nothing spicy in it.
And it wasn't even intentional... there's a Chinese proverb -
酸甜苦辣样样尝过
... which kinda translates to Sour, Sweet, Bitter, Hot (Spicy), All must be tasted.
It roughly means to have tasted / experienced all the different aspects of life.
And it's a nice mix of flavours to give someone at a time like this.
Anyway, after we lugged that home I smuggled BIKSS into the house. The mum has gotten it in her head that I'm to have no friends, and definitely not friends who are married. Yes, she has even objected to my meeting my godson's father. It's bluddy ridiculous.
Happy me was glad to have cuddles and nuzzle my face in his crotch again. Roger was happy too.
Sad me was bumping up against bones that I never used to bump up against before. BIKSS has definitely lost some weight. I'm so glad for him. He's such a different person from the man I knew before, food-choice-wise LOL.
My mood pic today ~
So the day after I got my foot pain answers I woke up with the worst neck ache on the planet. These were some sharp pains, not the usual stiff neck or muscle aches.
The doc said let's do an X-Ray. So I went downtown to the main clinic to sort that out. Turns out I have begun showing signs of ageing-related wear and tear. The official term is cervical spondylosis. Which is just a description / umbrella term for "pain and spine degeneration" regardless of the cause.
More accurately, I've got spondylolysis - but before I send you to a link, have a look at this picture -
So in a nutshell - facet joints are like protrusions that connect one vertebra to the next. Got that?
So a good looking spine will have all the vertebrae lined up one above the other - see the green and turquoise lines, where the bottom of the upper bone will match up with the top of the lower bone, but mine don't all form a nice clean stack - shown in pink. C4 and C5 seem to be misbehavin' quite badly!
The answer to this - physiotherapy. I shall have to get an appointment made at some point. But at least there are no major issues. Just good ol' pain from wear and tear.
While we were at it, the boss man noticed that my bones weren't as white as he'd like so he sent me off to do a bone mineral density test.
Results - all good. I'm well within the standard deviation so he's satisfied with that.
And since the same machine can do a full body fat analysis (FBFA), he said just do that too. So we'll be able to see what's the difference between the scan I did 4 years ago and now.
Turns out I'm 2kg heavier now, 1kg more lean mass, and 1kg more fat. My total body fat percentage is 27.6% (age 48), up from 26.5% 4 years ago (at age 44). I'm pretty happy about those numbers tho.
Based on this chart, I've been right between Slim and Fit (or Healthy and Fair) both times I checked. I'll take it!
My mood pic today ~
We turn 56 today and it's a holiday, but there's not going to be any big parade. Instead they're having a ceremonial one whatever that means and I suppose we'll all just watch it on TV.
There WILL be a "party" on the 21st, and I'm not sure if they're actually going to have people in a crowded space shouting and screaming in the heat - but I'm certain I don't want to be there.
We've reached 70% full vaccination. I suppose the government is glad they met their target - their plan was 2/3 of the population by August. Counting those who have received at least one dose, that number goes up to about 80%.
The plan is that by September we'll be 80% fully vaccinated.
This is good news for relaxing of measures.
I know that our case numbers are pretty low in comparison to other countries, particularly our immediate neighbours, but that's cos seemingly extreme measures were put in place to prevent widespread infection - evidently it's working. (To date approx 65k cases in total, 41 deaths, and about 2k active cases currently)
We test whole blocks of residents if there are at least 3 positive cases in the block; quarantine orders are issued for anyone who has come into close contact (15 mins at 1.5m or less) with a confirmed case and that means keeping any kids at home (so they don't spread it in school) until a second negative swab test result for the person in quarantine; and not allowing dining-in at all eateries, AT ALL - not even outdoor ones. This means we get LOTS of changes and updates every week or two, and that's probably the thing that annoys me the most. But I suppose the plan has been to keep everyone away from everyone else as much as possible until the majority have been vaccinated.
Now that we've reached that point, it seems we can carry on with life again, somewhat, but I'm certain there will be new challenges and a different trend will emerge, one that will need reactionary measures again. Only this time the parameters will look very different, I suspect.
They've taken off the "possible exposure alert" on our tracing app since they made the announcement to relax the rules. And we are left wondering if this is the next step in their move to "living with Covid as an endemic instead of pandemic" as previously announced.
Of course this means that maybe just maybe I'll be able to sneak BIKSS in again for some nookie. The last time we had sex was on the 4th of June. I looked. Cos I write down EVERYTHING.
That's 2 months and then some.
We'll also be able to eat out again. HURRAY. Time to use that voucher.
Honestly, I think being NOT on dates regularly has given me some separation anxiety and I think I've coped by just shutting out and becoming numb in the relationship department. I still enjoy the texts and chats when we DO walk but I'm not craving intimacy. Which is a bit alarming. Oh well. Let's see what happens moving forward. (It could be Covid lockdown's fault, but it could also just be my hormones.)
Speaking of - my hormones have all gone haywire - the last time I had a period was on the 12th of June. Thankfully the hot flashes have stopped and I'm sleeping thru the night again.
The irony tho. No period. But no sex. But also, no cums. Not many in any case. I've probably had 3 cums in the last 2 months. The libido has Covid. It's in some serious need of resuscitation I think.
While my hormones seem to be less problematic these days, relatively speaking, the MSK pains (musculoskeletal) have gotten more pronounced. It could be the crazy long / fast walks I've been doing (I try going faster when I'm walking solo), it could also be the uphill / downhill walk I did with financial guru/accountant friend last Wed, but I think it's made worse by the let's-push-mum TOO FAR in her wheelchair outings when I take her out solo on our caregiver's day off.
So I went and did some research on Kinesiology tape and did a simple tape up for knee to see if it will help. So far, it's not too bad and I can at least squat to pee without pain LOL.
In a nutshell -
When the tape is applied to your body, it recoils slightly, gently lifting your skin. It is believed that this helps to create a microscopic space between your skin and the tissues underneath it.
Some physical therapists think the tape changes the information your sensory nervous system is sending about pain and compression in your body.
[Our tissues] ...contain sensory receptors that feel pain, temperature, and touch. Those receptors all contribute to proprioception—your brain’s sense of where your body is and what it’s doing. Kinesiology taping creates a lift that unloads the underlying tissues. Decompressing those tissues can change the signals going to the brain.
I don't know if any of it is actually working, but I AM aware of the tape around my knee, and perhaps that's messing with the pain signals after all.
I hope this time the doctor gives her something for her anxiety.
I'm nagging BIKSS cos he still hasn't gone and booked his medical appointment. He's checking with his insurance to see what they will or won't cover.
He also had the sniffles last Thursday and had to do another swab. His third so far.
Thankfully, I've had none.
And on that note I shall sign off with today's slightly optimistic mood pic ~ Is it finally safe to come out now?
