Allergy Sufferers Rejoice!

If you suffer from seasonal allergies due to pollen or hay fever try taking 250mg of Pantothenic Acid twice per day. We have some type of tree on our property that causes me much sneezing, itching and nasal congestion and headaches every spring. Right now in fact. I started taking Natrum Muriaticum, a homeopathic for allergies and it helped, but then I read an article about Pantothenic Acid. So I have been taking 500mg every day and almost all of my symptoms are gone. I get a little itchy from time to time, so I take my homeopathics and between the two I am doing much better than previous years. Give it a try, it is certainly working for me.

Mom's Stable

Well, my mom is stable. I went to see her a couple of days ago and she had her eyes open. She is still intubated so she cannot speak and they still have her sedated so she has to work very hard to move her arms or open her eyes. She could hear me and understand me. I even saw her smile when I talked about the kids, even if it was ever so slightly. That was very encouraging to me. She closed her eyes for a bit while I talked to Jim, but when I said I had to go, she opened them again to say goodbye. The doctors saw some improvement on her x-rays a few days ago too. So she is hanging in there.

Carpet Massacre of 2008

Well, Andrew just loves to imitate Gabriel. So the other day he took his clothes and diaper off and tried to sit on the potty chair, which he calls "bathtub." I let him sit there while I went to fold laundry. A few minutes later Andrew came running in yelling "Mommy, help!" There was poo on his hands and running down his legs. So I cleaned him up and then went to find the rest. He had decided to go play in the 2nd bedroom when disaster struck. There where about 10 piles of pudding consistency poo all over the carpet. There was no way to clean it w/o rubbing it into the fiber. So I used my carpet stain remover and Oxyclean, but the stains are still there. So I am calling it the 2008 carpet massacre.

Update on my Mom

My mom has been put on a ventilator and is being sedated. She began coughing blood last night and could not breath with the machine she was on. She is also being given amnesia medicine so that if/when she is taken off of the ventilator she won't remember being on it. The doctors are still talking positively, of course they will until there is literally nothing else they can do. So at this point it is a waiting game. They still have not biopsied her lungs and still do not know what is truly going on. They are putting off the biopsy because it is surgery and is a great risk.

Andrew's First Shave

Well, Andrew had his first shave today. Todd has an electric beard shaver and left it on the bathroom sink. Andrew climbed up on the toilet and grabbed it. He turned it on and when I found him he was rubbing it on his chin and lips. I should have grabbed my camera and taken video of it. It was pretty cute.

In a Seinfeld Episode

Every time I go to the hospital to visit my mom I feel like I am in a Seinfeld episode where Jerry and Newman meet each other. If you are not familiar with the show, these two characters loath each other and their greeting is always the same: Newman says "Jerry" with as much disdain as possible and Jerry responds in kind, "Newman."

Anyway, there is a male nurse there that is like that. I was holding my mom's hand and talking to her when he walked in and we "met" for the first time. Instead of a cordial greeting he looks at me and says "Who are you?" But his tone and the look on his face were very accusatory, like I was not supposed to be there or was doing something wrong. I was taken aback and didn't even say anything, I was shocked. Instead I looked at Jim, my mom's husband, with a look on my face that said "Who is this guy and what is his problem?" I am pretty sure the guy picked up on that and was still trying to find out what I was doing there, as if it wasn't pretty obvious. Anyway, Jim answered for me and the guy, tried to make a joke, poorly and went away. The interaction was brief; shorter than it took to type this all out, but the negative impression was lasting.

So I was there yesterday, holding my mom's hand and talking to her and he comes in again and says "I didn't know YOU were here." Again his tone was that I, me specifically, was not supposed to be there, which actually, I wasn't. They don't allow visitors at shift change (7:00-7:30pm) and it had just turned 7. But still, he could have said hi, I am sorry, but I have to ask you leave. Oh no, it was an "It's YOU again" attitude. So I left.

Let me say that the staff is great there. Everyone else has always been really nice. I don't even know this guys name, but I have to laugh because every time we see each other it is just like Seinfeld. We're both scowling and squinting our eyes and he says "Jennifer." and I respond "Nurse."

My Mom

For those of you who don't know, my mom, Donna Bochner, has been in the ICU for the last week. A week before that she had knee surgery and seven days later her lungs completely shut down. Right now the doctors are treating it as pneumonia, but she is not responding as well as they had hoped and they now think there may have been a drug interaction between her prescription medication and the anesthesia. The majority of both lungs are non-functional. She has to wear an oxygen mask that is pressurized to reduce the work her lungs do. Their next step is to biopsy the lungs to find out what is actually going on. She has made some improvement though, but could certainly use your prayers.

Bowling

We took the boys bowling for the first time this week. They had a blast! We had a ramp and bumpers to help them. Gabriel is strong enough to carry the 6lb ball over to the ramp or to the lane all by himself w/o dropping it. They were so cute taking turns and helping each other. I wish I could have taken pictures, but we had our hands full (Todd and I) between the two of them. If one wasn't running down the lane the other was running around the building screaming with joy. So, no pictures. Maybe next time.

Broiled Sturgeon with Mango Salsa

Mango Salsa:
1 ripe mango (diced)
1 orange (half peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces, half juiced)
1 lime (juiced, 1/2TBS for salsa, reserve rest for the fish)
1/4 cup pineapple (crushed- canned or fresh)
1/2 inch piece raw ginger (grated)
2 TBS celery (chopped very fine)
Fresh cilantro to taste
salt to taste

Combine all ingredients and cool in fridge for at least 1 hour.

Sturgeon:
1 Sturgeon fillet with skin on (large enough to feed two or three people)
Olive oil
salt, pepper, garlic powder to taste
cilantro
2 TBS butter (cut into thin slices)
mango salsa

Rub sturgeon with olive oil and season to taste. Place under broiler until golden brown. Turn oven onto bake 400F. Cover fillet with plenty of cilantro and arrange butter slices on top. Cover with about 1/3-1/2 of the mango salsa and bake until the thickest part of the fillet flakes with a fork. Time will vary depending on thickness of fillet (20-30min). Remove from oven and drizzle remaining lime juice over fillet. Serve with remaining mango salsa or add salsa to a green salad and enjoy. I also served a soft ginger-mango Stilton cheese on sesame crackers as an appetizer with this meal and it was delicious.

*If your fish does not have skin on, you may oil and broil both sides. The baking time will be much reduced, probably 10 min.