All Fixed - The Old Tickers Working

So I'm back home and all is well. The heart ablation went well and I was told it was 95 percent successful which is higher than what I was hoping for. Usually they have a 92 percent success rate if the patient is wide awake during the procedure. Because of the arthritis in my back, lying perfectly still for anything is not an option therefore I was put to sleep and that reduces the success rate to 72 percent. It took them two and a half hours to find the defective pathway (Figure 3 on attached link) and zap it. They had some fancy anesthetic cocktail that was administered very slowly and it really hurt my hand and arm but it kept me asleep for the duration. When I woke up I had a sandbag on my leg and I wasn't allowed to move for 4 hours.
I have a hole in my groin and one in my neck and other than a baby aspirin a day for a month I don't have to take any drugs and that pleases me immensely.

I was very lucky and had a room to myself so I closed the window blinds and door and snoozed the rest of the day away. The food was pretty crappy but then again, it's a hospital. I spent a little time knitting but by four AM I was ready to "Get Out of Dodge" so to speak. Of course they weren't letting me go anywhere. I did con the nurse into getting me a sandwich which helped a little. By six am I was really desperate...I got dressed and sneaked out to the Tim Hortons coffee shop and had one of their wonderful breakfast sandwiches and a big coffee. My nurse was not impressed with me when I got back to my room, sigh... I'm sure when Rudee my nurse friend reads this she will just shake her head, I'm a lousy patient.

I'm glad it's over, my husband was a nervous wreck. My good friend D spent the night before here with us and spent the whole day at the hospital keeping my husband sane.

I'm tired, I'm sore but I don't have any arrhythmia and that's a good thing. Now we have my husbands Colonoscopy on Friday (his fourth in two years) and then neither of us wants to see a doctor for a very long time. Thank you to everyone who left good wishes for me...

Time To Boogie...

Tomorrow morning bright and early I'm heading to the hospital for a little heart procedure and this is what I'm taking with me. Can't seem to go anywhere without that knitting. I'll be back later in the week if all goes well.

Bread Shortage? - Not Here

No I really am a pretty lazy person when it comes to cooking and baking so ever since my favourite domestic diva posted this recipe I have been wanting to try it out. So here is my attempt and results. It's so good and so easy I haven't been able to stop making it.

Some time after dinner or before I go to bed I throw this together. Basically I just mix up 3 cups of flour, and 2 teaspoons of salt. I sprinkle 1 generous teaspoon of yeast on top of this and add
1 1/2 cups of room temperature water. I stir this up for a couple of minutes (its soft and shaggy looking), cover with some plastic wrap and put it somewhere warm for 12 to 18 hours.

The next day it looks like this (below), all nice and bubbly. I sprinkle flour generously on the counter and tip the whole mess over. Using my flour covered fingertips I simply fold it over onto itself a couple times and then let it rest for 15 minutes or so.

I then gently gather it up and shape it into a ball using just enough flour to stop it from sticking. I gather it up into a ball and put it on a large sheet of parchment paper sprayed lightly with oil spray. I pick up this mess and put it somewhere confined like a frying pan. Cover lightly and let rise for two hours.

Then it's time to bake and here's the trick. Use a large 4 to 6 quart covered casserole pan. I have one of those old oval enamel ones with a domed lid that works like a charm. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees the rack second up from bottom and put your empty casserole in the oven Let the whole thing heat up for half an hour.

After half hour take the casserole out of the oven, pick up your bread dough including the parchment paper and plunk it into the casserole. Cover with lid and put it in the oven. Bake half hour covered and another 15 minutes uncovered.

Thanks Kelli...oh one more thing...Kelli's going to Africa again and could do with some t-shirts for the orphanage.

Will We All Starve?

As the cost of gasoline goes up and more and more farmers corn crops are going for bio fuels instead of food, the price of food also rises. Some stores are rationing rice in America, what will be next? I have personally noticed that flour has doubled in price and the cost of a loaf of bread has risen dramatically. From what I'm reading it can only get worse. Anybody else notice or am I too fixated on this.

I can still afford to buy a bag of flour and rice but some of the poorest people on earth will starve. There are riots in many countries around the globe and it may only get worse. Maybe we need to rethink ethanol, it may be causing more harm than good. Maybe I need to ask the offspring, he's a science kind of guy...

The Cardinals Are Back

It's not the best picture of the Northern Cardinal but it's pretty high up. The song of this bird is just wonderful and I could listen to it for hours. Sadly he hangs around only long enough to call his mate, then their off. He will come back though, he likes our tree. He's prettier than the female, unfair that don't you think.

Spring is definitely in the air...

Standing Up For Canada

I have been following what is happening in the U.S. primaries with great interest. Whoever becomes the new President will have some effect on this country for good or bad. I don't write about it because it's really none of my business how my American friends choose to vote.

I do find some of the rhetoric over the top though, especially when both Clinton and Obama speak of renegotiating NAFTA.

Today in New Orleans Prime Minister Stephen Harper was quite clear that he wouldn't mind so much. I tend to agree with him on this one. A lot of Americans are complaining about the price of gasoline these day but I wonder if they would like to pay what we pay. I assure you it's much more and considering that we ship a lot of our oil down south that seems kind of unfair to me.

"Canada is the United States' number-one supplier of energy. We are a secure, stable supplier. That is of critical importance to the future of the United States," he said

Nuff said...

Lets Blame The Americans - Again!!!

Why is it that whenever bad stuff happens it's always the Americans fault? Always, no exceptions, they always get the blame, weird that actually...why is the source of the drug, China, not taking some blame?

The drug Heparin is back in the news today and I've been following it since reading the story by the Knitting Nurse last week. This drug is still being used in a number of countries. The raw materials come from China and it is manufactured in the United States and it appears that the ingredients can cause harm. China absolutely denies it is at fault and blames the American manufacturer. The FDA believes that raw materials are contaminated.

The contaminant found in the B. Braun products, oversulphated chondroitin sulphate, has also been found in heparin products in other countries, including the United States and Australia.

As my friend the Knitting Nurse says, get this out there, make people aware that this drug can cause harm.

I'm Here, Sort Of...

I do not like to blog when I'm out of sorts or if I'm not feeling well which is why I haven't been around. But I figured if I don't write something soon, you will all go away and I wouldn't want that.

I am seriously out of sorts these days and it all started with a two day migraine last week. Of course the only pill that works is the one I'm not supposed to take (Maxalt) but after two days of retching I broke down, crossed my fingers and took the pill. I'm still alive...

One Saturday we had our bridge club for dinner at our house and because I'm really feeling crappy (the arrhythmia) we had it catered. Everyone loved the food and a good time was had by all. Because I wasn't up to it and because there were enough players I got to hang out on the couch and knit instead of playing.

My sweetie has a really bad cold and I'm praying I don't catch it from him, hence he's been banished to the guest room. My heart ablation surgery is scheduled for the 29th of this month and the last thing I need is a cold. I'm sure they would cancel the surgery if I were sick and truthfully, I don't think I can wait any longer for this to happen. I'm pretty much at the end of rope here. So that's it and until I feel better no serious subjects, unless something crops up of course...just knitting

In case any one is interested in science, my offspring has a new blog, did I mention he's a science teacher?

Drugs Made In China - Heparin Can Kill

This is one of the stories that have appeared in the news but I missed until it was pointed out to me by a blogger friend, The Knitting Nurse , thanks Rudee.

You can read more here, and here. Health Canada has ordered a recall on the drug.

This drug was given to my Mother last spring after she had the pacemaker surgery. Could this have been a contributing factor to her death? Why are pharmaceuticals imported from China? The question of the day...

Throw Away Those Plastic Bottles

Back in December I wrote about the plastic bottles containing bisphenol A and how they were threatening to our health.

Today Health Canada calls bisphenol A a dangerous and is taking steps to possibly ban it.

“Bisphenol A is in every Canadian home. It threatens the health of every Canadian. Moving against it would be a hugely significant victory for public health and the environment,” said Rick Smith, executive director of Environmental Defence, a group that has been campaigning for a ban on the chemical from food containers.

Read the whole story and judge for yourself whether or not you want to keep your bottles...

I Have A Friend...

"whose parents don't believe in conserving..."

Shoot them, I say...



Is there anybody else who finds this commercial and the kid not cute or is it only me?

Time To Move On

Since it's almost one year that my Mom died, I have realized that its time I tackle emptying out her bedroom. It's a beautiful room on the main floor of our house and some day it will become our bedroom, just not yet. Now some things have been taken out such as her mechanical reclining chair which I gave to a neighbour, and some of the photos on the walls but generally speaking, it's still pretty much the way she left it on that last day.

It's not that I haven't tried mind you, every once in a while I will take something out of the cupboards and put in a box and about half hour later I will go back in there and take it out and put it back on the shelf. My offspring did try to put some stuff away last year after the funeral but stopped when I had a meltdown. Most of the stuff he packed up I have since unpacked again. I think I have been living in a state of denial, in fact I know I have. I keep thinking she's coming home but of course that's foolish.

I also have all kinds of boxes in the basement filled with her treasures that she couldn't part with when she moved in with us. When she was still mobile, she'd come down to the basement once in a while and ask me to open a box to see what was in it. She'd always find one single thing and insist it had to come to her room with her. I always indulged her and when she wasn't looking take something else away. It wasn't a huge room, only about 300 square feet so space was at a premium.

It's time to claim this space as mine so I'm going to be very diligent in the next little while packing things up to send to Goodwill and some other stuff will go to a garage sale. My sweetie also has a garage full of stuff that needs to go and there is definitely some furniture in house I wouldn't mind seeing end of. So I'm going to be a bit busy for a while.

At the same it's tax time for us and being the slob that I am I have a whole years receipts, bills, contracts etc. to fix for the accountant. The appointment is fast creeping up on us so I'm up to my armpits in paper, grrr. If I could just learn to use Microsoft Excel and do my husbands invoices at the end of every job I wouldn't have to go through this every year. I'm going to have to make a concerted effort to learn it. I also have to prepare my Mom's final tax return and that's a bit more traumatic.

So that's my boring life, just paperwork and knitting...

Sylvester's Still Guarding The Backyard

Yup, he's been scaring the squirrels away all winter, that's his job. Tweetie Bird is helping and hopefully they will continue for a while longer; they are looking a little tired and ragged after this long winter.

I just had a 24 hour migraine and I'm still a bit worn out but I got out in the yard a bit and looked for signs of life. I found a couple...




Happy Weekend everyone...

One Year Ago

One year ago today I had to call an ambulance to take my Mom to hospital. She fought me and told me she didn't want to go, she said she'd never come home again. She was right.

And so began a long 6 weeks of watching her slowly fade away. With all the bad things that happened to her in the hospital I wished I'd kept her at home. That is my regret and one I second guess myself about almost daily. It's eating away at me slowly, and no matter how hard I try I can't put it out of my mind for long, it always comes back. The what if's...