Moving ahead with a plan

and food notes

Poor Ernie is at this third doctor appointment of the week. Leo kindly drove him so he could get a few teeth removed for Valentine’s Day. 🩷

He IS feeling much better though! Courtesy our two boys, he saw both his primary care doctor and his nephrologist this week. Overall, his kidneys suck but that’s not new. They’re playing with his meds…first doctor said to cut back on one med, next doctor said to get rid of it completely, upping other things, etc. His blood pressure has been wayyyy too low which is part of the exhaustion, lightheadedness, etc. He is now under orders to gain weight, eat more protein and snack on anything he freaking well wants. And they want to get him off the morphine for his kidneys. He’s cut way back on it but when he went off it completely he had too much pain. The problem will be finding something affordable…that’s why he’s on morphine in the first place as the first drug they offered was several hundred dollars a month. We’ll figure it out one way or another though, can’t have my baby in pain.

SO, at least we have a plan for the time being, which feels good, and he is acting more like my beloved Ernie. Such incredible relief when he starts make wise ass comments or bad jokes.

He’s off to Barnes in St. Louis for scans next week. 🤞

Now in random food notes because, let’s face it, I haven’t been getting out of the house much.

BELOW is a sourdough English Muffin from Tooth Butter Cottage Bakery (the wonderful Hannah Fink). Oh good God in heaven was it good. I had peanut butter on it but I should have had it plain. That’s ok, I have more. I am finding that my issues with gluten seem to be primarily from…oh, what do I call it? Processed American flour. The major labels as Ernie and I always want to say when referring to mainstream entities—too many years of working in record stores. So things that aren’t from the major labels, local grains, European flours, oh, and real sourdough, seem to be ok. Hannah works with local grains and her breads are naturally leavened so we thought we’d give it a try. It is just heavenly. This will not be the last picture of these English muffins you will see as we subscribed so we’ll get them every Wednesday for a month. Follow her on Hot Plate and you’ll get a notice of when sales open up.

Standard roast chicken thighs with smoked paprika, sweet potatoes and broccoli. All in one pan, as easy as it gets.

Gluten free toast, a perfectly ripe avocado and beautiful local organic eggs.

Giving in to ordering the other night. He got egg drop soup, I got sizzling rice soup. And as always, ask for extra mustard for your egg rolls and you get the good stuff.

Ann brought dinner over Tuesday and I can’t begin to tell you how many times that day I said, “Ohhhh, I’m so glad Ann is bringing dinner.” It was at the, mmmm, lower part of the week for us, and this lightened our load so much. I texted Ann later and told her how wonderful it was and that it tasted just like her house somehow. She laughed and said it was probably the cornbread. I think there was more to it. Maybe the love I always feel in their house? I don’t know, but it really sustained us.

Oh, and although I wish we’d gotten more snow the other day, I was still happy when I got up in the middle of the night and the snow was lighting up the world.

Onward. Thanks for the good thoughts. I’m sending them right back to you.

Love,
Cynthia