Uterine Fibroid embolization Day 1

I've been home now for about 18 hours. The procedure was a breeze. I went in on Wednesday at 7:30 am and was back in my hospital bed by noon. This was the first time I've had concsious sedaation surgery. I was very nervous at first because I thought I would feel the cut inot my frmeoral atery but I did not. In fact they had started before I even realized it. It was totally painless. I was instructed to hold my breath at times during the procedure which I could do with no problem. The only problem that happened was my heart rate and blood pressure dropped after they gave me the Versed and I felt l like I was going ot puke but they got it back ip quickly and I felt better. It never happened again even though I got a second dose of Versed during the procedure.
Now about the procedure, They went in through my femoral artery( right at the pubis/leg juncture) and snaked a catheter past my uterine arteries and then blocked the arteries that fed the fibroid with a plastic material so that the blood flow to them would stop and they would die. I prefered this to a hysterectomy since I'm only a few years out from menopause and bleeding won't be an issue then. After they were finished I was wheeled back to the recovery room where Kevin was to greet me and we waited for a room to open up.. I got a morphine pump and tried to dose off but I was not very comfortable at first. It took a good 12 hours to get to the point I was pain free. I kinda expected to be in some discomport so i didn't use the morphine enough. My blood sugar went up in response to the pain. But we finally got things calmed down and I felt fine, just drug stupid. They let me go home Thursday at about noon. I've had no pain since then, just an ache at the incision site and the occasional cramp in my uterus that aches but nothing severe. I'm not going to stop the pain meds until tomorrow though just to be safe.
I hope this works to deal with my fibroids. The anemia and heavy bleeding has been ruling my life for too long and I really want my life back.

curried kale chips

So here are today's finished kale chip.These are very different than the other chips. The other chips were delicate and fragile, translucent and emerald green(I used curly regular old kale). They tasted of kale only sweet and vinegary and salty. These are more akin to hippie food. The kale seems to be serving as a vehicle for the sauce dried on them.( I used dinosaur kale for this batch) The dino kale is much sturdier and does not fall apart as easily when fully dried. They have a very satisfying crunch to them and the curry flavor goes nicely with the greens flavor which is kinda masked. I question the full digestability of this batch, the chips take a lot of chewing which tells me that the cell walls are pretty intact. I'm not a raw foodist so I want my veggies to have lost some of their cell structure when I eat them. I'm not a cow. But as an alternative to high carb chips or other junk snack food these are very nice. They won't stand up to dippping, but they both provide a satisfying crunch so lacking in my low carb diet.

It's been a while since I've updated my blog. The summer is whizzin' by at amazin' speed. Spencer has returned from her trip to Canada more determined to become a Canadian than ever. It has been a summer of frugal living this year so no huge projects. From the garden I have gotten a watermelon, some basil and I see that I'll have jalapenos and eggplants in a few days. The water melon is JINORMOUS, it takes up about 3/4 of the garden. I have 4 melons that I see. My tomatoes are not looking so good so I don't know if I'll get a crop out of them.
A friend moved away and bequeathed me her dehydrator. I am having a blast with it. So far I've dehydrated that watermelon I picked too early, it was flavorful but pale and not very sweet. It turned into the most delicious watermelon candy. Dehydrating watermelon seems wrong on so many levels but it really does work. I've also made kale chips. Glorious, delicious kale chips. The first batch was with curly kale and olive oil, sherry vinegar and sea salt. NOM. I pretty much ate the entire batch. Today I am making a more ambitious recipe, curried kale chips made with much less oil and tossed with a curry flavored sauce based on sunflower seeds and tomato. A very hippie, raw food inspired thing. It smells wonderful but I am skeptical about the raw food aspect. So often Raw foodists dont' seem to see food as a pleasure and a sensual endeavor. But I can't knock them until I've tried them. So here goes. I found the recipe here:http://poxacuatl.wordpress.com/2008/12/21/kale-chips/ a beautifully photographed expose on her process.
The alcohol project is moving along although it has hit a few bumps in the road due to the economy. Had a great time working with my collaborator in June. Slow and steady.
So I leave you for now, dear reader. I smell some kale drying.

Earth Day 2010

Well it seemed like a good day to bushwack the back yard, what with it being Earth Day and all. Kevin did a great job clearing the forest although as you can see from the pix he seemed intent on protecting his frontal lobe rather than his eyes. The garden plot had been rounded up and the grass was actively dying so I moved compost onto the bed. 4 years of guinea pig poop does not decompose very well if you don't do anything to the pile. Down toward the bottom there was soil but it is mostly still wood chips. After I get this pile moved, I need to rethink how I compost and how I attend to it. My next project is to relocate the compost pile and get a rabbit hutch. The soil here is so poor that it needs all the amendments I can get. In that pile of compost I didn't see any worms at all.

Jalapenos & habeneros

I planted my peppers in my home made self watering planters today. And I have a batch of soap in the oven. One step at a time.

life goes on.

I found out a dear friend died yesterday. I knew he ahd been ill with cancer for several months. So it was for the best for him to go now. And I also found out that some friends 25 year relationship has just ended. With so much saddness, I was heartened to see my plants sprouting today. I came home to find the carrots tomato, chives and nasturtiums had all sprouted. I put then out on the back patio so they can get sun for thenext few days since I don't have any lights to rig up. I'm really pleased with the soda bottle planters . They have worked much better than I had imagined. To every thing there is a season turn turn turn.
Rest in peace my dear Jack. Spring is hear.

homemade barometer

Now I can tell when a High or a Low is coming in and what that means! When the level in the tube is lower than in the bottle there is a high pressure system and nice weather is headed in. If the level in the tube is higher than the bottle then a Low is coming and a storm is headed our way. AH Science!

Self Watering bucket planters

It is taking quite a while to get rid of the Dreaded Bermuda Grass of Death in my garden plot and it's time to get tomatoes and peppers in the ground. So I needed some kind of container. But things just fry here in the blazing Texas heat during the summer and I just can't keep up with the water so I decided that SIP, Sub-irrigated planters are the way to go. I found a web site( that had directions I thought I could follow and this is the result.
2 5 gal buckets ( I had some left over Tractor Supply buckets from the chickens, I could use some leftover oil buckets as well)
1 18oz Solo plastic cup
1 4'X 1" PVC drinking water grade pipe
a jigsaw
a drill
First, drill a bunch of 1/4' holes in the bottom of hte bucket

measure the circumference of the solo cup about 3-4 inches up( I used a string to do this)
Then use the jigsaw to cut out the center hole big enough for the cup to slide into. In my case it was just slightly bigger than that round ridge in the center of the bucket.

Then cut a hole for the PVC pipe about 1/2" from the edge of the bucket. I had to make a bunch of holes with the drill and then ues the jigsaw to break the hole open and I still didn't get the end nearest the edge to come off so I just bent the plastic down. look at the above pix and you can see the circle holes I used .
Then cut 4 slits in the solo cup from about 1/2 an inch from the top to about 1/2 an inch from the bottom. Put cup in hole, put pipe in hole

Next, stick this bucket inside the other uncut bucket.

measure how far apart the bottom of each buckets are from each other. In this case they are 3.5 inches apart when inside each other. Drill a hole just below this line in the outer bucket for an overflow hole and there you have a planter ready for potting mix. The mix goes down into the cup and it acts as a wick to pull water up from the bottom bucket. Total cost 5.00/planter ( I had a bunch of Solo cups in the pantry.

house plants in soda bottles

Here are 2 new house plants I planted in soda bottle planters. A pepperomia and a Maiden hair fern. Both need high light and like to be evenly moist so I think they will be well suited to self watering planters.