2015-04-13 - 11:58 a.m.
I haven't heard anything today about my uncle. Everyone is just gathered and waiting. Well, those who can be, are there. Some of us can't be off work indefinitely. I am taking Jax in for surgery tomorrow morning and this may knock me out of going to the funeral. I really hate funerals, but I want to be there for my cousin and aunt and for dad who is losing his younger brother. I can't leave once the pup is checked in. I hope my uncle doesn't have to suffer slowly for days.
New topic:
I'm coding charts and the one I am on right now is a lady who is a diabetic, has had one leg amputated, and is currently hospitalized from having a toe amputated on the remaining foot. Interesting to note, she is non-compliant with her diet and medications. Amazingly enough, even after the universe gave her a screaming flashing neon warning of lopped off leg... she is still non-compliant with her meds and diet. WTF?
Recently I had a patient who had COPD, pneumonia, bronchitis, and pulmonary effusion and was still puffing away. I had H1N1 one time and my airway was so closed down I cannot imagine wanting to suck in smoke when the capacity for breath is so low. I needed clean oxygen. Smoking is so unhealthy we have to code it as a disease. The code is from the mental disorders section, incidentally. Smoking can ruin your outcomes and cause... ya know.. all sorts of death and disease and complications. I get it, it's hard to quit. Harder to enjoy life without being able to draw a breath, I'd say.
I was a hard case myself with the diabetic thing. I procrastinated getting my shit together for years, but I'm not a person who will continue to ignore reality once I've seen the actual damage start happening. I thought I could avoid candy bars and keep my diabetes right where it was, but diabetes is a progressive illness and it will continue to get worse unless you take radical steps to reverse it. Which I have successfully done, thank goodness. It took me seeing that my sugar levels were going to keep increasing even if my sugar consumption didn't increase. My fasting sugar was 242 when I got my reality check. That's crazy high. Now it's normal and I don't take any meds. Yay for diabetes reversal!
What is this awareness deficit that people have about life and health? It seems like most people have to have some kind of horrible consequence in order to wake up and smell reality. I include myself in that. I believe it is one of my karmic lessons to learn not to procrastinate on things until something bad happens. It's a theme. At least I am aware of it and I am doing pretty well.
Yesterday I tried a new recipe for a one minute cinnamon muffin. It's softer and you cook it in a coffee mug. I took mine out of the mug and cut it into 2 halves, so it made 2 perfect little round cakes and I put cream cheese frosting on it. My nephew loves these sugar free, grainless, low carb cakes. I made him a carrot cake, at his request. After I gave it to him, I heard him gloating to his gaming friends. He was saying "Dude. I just got a huge slab of carrot cake. This is AMAZING. Trust me, you WISH you had some of this." So here is the recipe for the one minute cinnamon muffin:
1/4 cup almond meal or flour
1 Tablespoon golden flax meal
2 Tablespoons erythritol, Truvia, or splenda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon melted butter
1 large egg
Stir that up together in a microwave safe coffee mug and zap it for 90 seconds.
Cream cheese frosting:
1.5 to 2 ounces cream cheese. About a fourth of an 8 ounce package
1 pat of butter
3 tablespoons swerve confectioners sugar substitute or splenda
a few drops of vanilla flavoring
Stir that up till it's smooth and slap it on the cake. The frosting is a forgiving recipe. You don't have to be exact. If the cream cheese and butter are room temperature it will blend and spread easier. This frosting is very good by the way. With the Swerve sweetener, you really can't tell it's not sugar and Swerve is made of erythritol which is supposedly natural. It's good for diabetics. Some sweeteners have an effect on blood sugar but erythritol does not. It also has no bitterness, so I like it best. I used Truvia in my one minute cinnamon muffin and it wasn't bitter, but it would have been bitter in the frosting because Truvia contains stevia which has quite a bitter little bite on it. For some reason you don't taste that when it's baked into the cake part.
::love::
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