Still Waiting for Tony to Come Home

Still waiting for Tony’s INR number to get up to 2.0 before they can let him go.  The surgery isn’t slowing his release, just his blood thinner. 😦  The only good news is that he isn’t in too much pain – he hasn’t used his PCA machine since Tuesday!

I am sure he’s bored out of his mind and can’t wait to get home to his comfy chair and our dog.  I am proud to say that Hannah and I were both able to get him out on walks, other than that, he is waiting patiently in our bedroom for Tony’s return.

I hit up the hospital cafeteria again for breakfast – on yesterdays menu?  A ham and cheese strata – the portions were already cut and the stats at 153 calories and 8 grams of carbs = 4 points – not bad!  And it tasted pretty good too – I think it must have had a lot of egg whites in it because it was fluffy, with not too much ham or cheese, but tasty.  With 2 pieces of cooked bacon and fresh fruit, lunch comes in at 7 WW points.  Not sure hospital cafeteria food has ever looked so tasty!

I realized yesterday that I hadn’t worked out in about 8 days.  I didn’t have my gym bag in my car – its still next to my washing machine waiting to be unloaded, washed and returned.  It was just overcast, and while I knew our temps were finally going to drop and be normal Chicagoland December weather, I wanted to go on a walk.  No wait, I take that back.  I needed to walk.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – my organization skills are left the second I walk out of my office.  One of the pet peeves Tony has with me is that, I, um, sometimes put stuff in the trunk of my car and it might take months for me to clean it out.  Case in point, here are the contents of my trunk:

• a brass colendar I bought at an estate sale back in July!
• a box of food magazines I’ve been meaning to give my sister for months – nevermind the fact that I have seen her a handful of times and have yet to give them to her
• 3 winter wool coats I’ve been meaning to drop off at the dry cleaners since October, you know, before it got too cold
• 1 yellow sweat shirt
• 1 pair of grey yoga pants
• a pair of pink socks
• blue gym shoes
• a light green lined wind breaker
• 7 recycling bags for groceries, that I always leave in the car and never remember to bring into the store

I have no idea how long those random pieces of clothing have been in there, but a quick sniff (have I told you I have no sense of smell?  pretty sure that’s why Tony married me!) and they weren’t too offensive.  Although once I was all dressed and put together, I think Shelley would just shake her head at the lack of color coordination!

Check it out – blue shoes, pink socks, grey pants:

With this light green jacket – OMG, this is an awesome jacket.  I bought it at Community Thrift store for $5, which is pretty pricey for me to spend at a thrift store.  It’s Pacific Trail Outdoor Wear – it normall sells for around $50!

Did I tell you it was windy! 😀  I did a brisk 45 minute walk and it felt wonderful.  I was happy that I had the last of my beef stew and a slice of rosemary sea salt artisan bread.  Lunch comes in at 10 points.

I left work at 4 and was at the hospital by 4:30.  The only thing worse than being in the hospital when you are sick is being in the hospital when you don’t feel you need to be there.  Tony was able to get in and out of bed with no problem, we went on a long walk of the floor.

I’ve been sitting all week in a chair that is not the least bit comfortable, although extra bed pillows help.  Now that Tony is feeling better we were both able to lay in his bed – think craftmatic adjustable bed – head at an angle, legs slightly bent – blanket on – it was really so comfortable!

In fact when the nurse change shifted the new nurse came in to introduce herself and was like “oh how cute, I have love birds in bed!”  We watched t.v. and talked, until I think he wanted to watch Thursday night football and insisted I leave at 8:30.  😀

Tony is now on a low sodium diet, so right when his food came I went to the cafeteria to get mine – these pictures don’t really do much justice, but I had a cup of baja chicken soup – I splashed some Tabasco in – and it was really good – it had black beans and corn, shredded chicken in a nice spicy tomato broth.

And on the side I had a big salad – cucumbers, carrots, romaine, mixed greens, a tablespoon of dried cranberries, diced ham and a sprinkling of sunflower seeds.  I dipped my fork into dressing on the side – I guess when you hit the cafeteria early enough the greens are nice and crisp!

I am actually proud of myself that I ate really good food today and got some exercise in, and still worked and spent a total of 5 hours at the hospital!

Since I haven’t been cooking, here are some more recipes that are on my soon to make list:

Adrianna made Chicken Tortilla Soup – I am going to use my leftover rotisserie chicken I bought over the weekend.

Sally made Tomato Masala Soup made with the base of leftover chicken tikka masala – um, turns out her husband doens’t like leftovers either and she tricked him into loving this soup, none the wiser that it was a leftover. 😀

And Jacky made Extreme Mac N Cheese with butternut squash that looks amazing – I may have to make it Paleo by using spaghetti squash, and of course without the carmelized onions!  But Jacky knows my aversion to onions so I don’t think she’ll be offended!

I’ll leave you with my Christmas picture of the day – make it a great one!