Living an EXTRAordinary Life

Is that a hockey term? I somehow remember that being the case. I meant it to be a pun.

Yesterday, I had my last physical therapy session and a check-up with my orthopedist. Neither feel more PT is necessary, as long as I continue to weight train on my own. Which I can certainly do. They both did some strength tests with me, where they pressed on my leg and told me to push against them and not let them push me. When I first started all of this, I couldn’t resist them at all on my right and now I can. I still need to do lifestyle changes, such as cross training, resting when necessary, losing weight, going to yoga. All of those things I can do.

I have to admit, I haven’t exactly missed running. It’s been a cold difficult winter. I am relieved to have not had the burden to feel like I had to train. And now that Matt is up to his 3+ hour long runs, even though the weather has been lovely for the most part, I am relieved that its not me!

Kitty health around here is stable. Indy is still on medication to bring his liver values down. I didn’t expect this treatment to go on so long, but his last result was still 130, and we need to get him under 100. Joey was not pleased with the treatment he got for his mouth … liquid antibiotics, but it did get him to eat and the mass has massively shrunk. Yay. He will be on/off antibiotics in two week cycles for a long time. He is not happy about it, but I can live with the treatment.

So my husband and I have bought a new house and have slated 5/7 for the move-in date. To prepare for this, we have been doing some massive amounts of decluttering. It is amazing to me how much stuff can accumulate in seven years. One weekend, we started working on the basement. I had actually started that project myself a few times and had a big pile of stuff for the thrift store, which we still need to bag up and get out of here. We spent 108 minutes that weekend mostly breaking down boxes and cardboard. The municipality we live in does not recycle cardboard and I never actually set up a system for dealing with cardboard. I do have a need to keep some boxes that are in good shape, as I have seven nieces and nephews that live in other cities, so I do ship things to them. But I certainly didn’t need to save all of these.

Fortunately, the new township we are moving to recycles cardboard. That makes me very happy. I am a recycler! I just hate having things go to waste. I like to find some use for things, if I don’t want them. Maybe that is the reason behind my packrat tendencies. Some of it is laziness. As in the case of the big pile of shredding … we never shredded this stuff … who wants to mess with that.

This is just a small sample of the shredding we accumulated from various parts of the office, mostly our lovely filing system:

Fortunately, there are companies that will shred for us!

Magazines? I’m addicted. Glossy paper, matte paper … doesn’t matter as long as its paper and pretty. Here were what I considered the “extraneous” magazines in my craft room.

A post on freecycle and they were gone in a few days!

Whoo.

And cooking? Have I been cooking? Well, not too much. Sorting and reorganizing has been taking center stage. Although a few weeks ago, I made the following Sweet Potato Stew from Joel Fuhrman’s book, Eat for Health. This recipe is from the phase one section.

It was yummy. You can make the veggies smaller if you wish and have it more soupy, but I liked it just the way it was.

Recommended side dishes were brown rice (that I didn’t cook enough) and braised bok choy. I had no idea if I would like the latter item. It was okay. I had never braised before, and honestly, I can’t remember how to do it. Here is what it looked like:

This weekend, we will be working on that basement some more. Surely that is the hardest thing to do before we move … besides actually moving. Oh, and making phone calls. I hate making phone calls. There are a lot of phone calls to make in order to move. Does anyone want a job making my calls for me?

It really does!

Procrastination is one of my very best personality traits. Or worst. But I’m also a perfectionist. And so the perfectionist in me procrastinates doing things until I have time to do it perfectly. Or I just procrastinate doing things I dread or don’t enjoy (making phone calls rates highly). So its a vicious cycle.

There have been times when my procrastination has paid off though. I know a few times I’ve put off making certain phone calls to have the situation resolve itself. However, I have a nice recent example that I wanted to share.

When my husband and I were looking at houses a few weekends ago, we had a conversation about games rooms and spaces. One of the houses had a small basement with a pool table already there. He mentioned that there wasn’t enough space for a ping-pong table as well. I said to him “We can just get one of those covers that converts the pool table to a ping-pong table”. He sneered at me. “I don’t want that” or something like that.

Well, as it turns out, I wanted to buy him one of those for this house to put on our dining room table at Christmas. I procrastinated and the one I had wanted was not available until after Christmas, so I had to make other plans and decided it would be his birthday present.

However, his birthday rolls around and I kept forgetting to order it in time to get here. Then I thought of something that would be better. I couldn’t decide between the two and in the end, I got him neither of those.

It worked out that he didn’t like the ping-pong converter idea … but what is an even better ending to this story … the alternate gift? He already had one. And for the curious, it was a San Antonio Spurs DeJuan Blair jersey.

So, next time you want to procrastinate, realize … it CAN work in your favor.

I know its been a while since I posted.  I see a notice that I have a TON of comments. I know they are spam.  So as I am deleting them, I am reading them and I crack up.  The funny thing is that some sound valid from strangers and some are so weird and obvious.  Then there is this one:

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What?  Getting ex back?  What post talked about that?  LOL.

Anyway, some updates from my life.

Indy continues to improve.  The last ALT value was 131.  He just had another test yesterday, and we are hoping for that magic number of 100 or less.  I predict it will be 100 teens.

Joey turned 20 years old a few weeks ago.  I can’t believe that I have a cat that is 20.  He has been not wanting to eat and I noticed one day that he was having trouble chewing.  It went beyond just being picky.  I had also noticed a few weeks back that his breath really stunk.  Really badly, like nothing I’ve ever smelled before.  It was not the expected uremic smell from the kidney disease.  So I plop him on the counter by the good light, and open his mouth.  He fought me, but I saw what I thought was bleeding.  I called in my husband to help hold him down and I see a mass.  Pretty large, bulbulous and red.  Not bleeding though.  I also noticed excessive tartar on the teeth.

Not sure what to do, I took him to the vet earlier this week.  The vet was very concerned, but since he is so very old with compromised kidneys, we cannot put him under for a thorough evaluation.  The mass could be something really scary or it could be inflammation/infection from the bacteria on the teeth.  He managed to scrape some tartar off the molars and started Joey on antibiotics.  We’ll see if it looks any better when we go back for his acupuncture next week.

Me?  Well, I have only two more sessions of physical therapy left.  It has helped me build up some muscle.  Not sure though if it helped the pain go away or if it was a result of my stopping most intense exercise.  Was it the rest or the strengthening?  Or both?  I guess we’ll never know, but I am feeling a lot better. I still have pain when out in the cold that is probably a result of the arthritis.  I’ve been cleared to do my own lower body routines and cardio … except for running or jumping still.  I started taking a supplement for joint pain.  It’s not glucosamine/condroitin because I am not sure of their efficacy in humans, and they are made of shellfish, so they are not even vegetarian!  The supplement I’m taking is Zyflamend and I really think its helping.