My Latest Rheumy Appoinment

This past Tuesday I had an appointment with my Rheumatologist. Of course Mother Nature decided that she was going to drop a bunch of snow on us that day, so I had the hubby drive me. I hate driving in the snow. I should be use to it after living in New England my whole life, but I hate it.

I got to my appointment late, thanks to this moron who was going 15 miles per hour. The roads were not that bad honestly and I only live 10 minutes away from the hospital that my doctor is at.

So, I get called in and my hubby decided to come in with me, mostly to make sure I tell the doctor everything and to make sure I tell him the truth. I have been in a ton of pain, but I am afraid of sounding like a hypochondriac when I ask for pain meds. I know I shouldn't feel this way, but I do.

The doctor asks how I feel. I tell him I am really sore. Hubby looks at me, then at the doctor and tell him that it took me 20 minutes to make the bed the other day and all I did was swear and make noises like I was in pain, which I was. He asks me where I hurt. I tell him my hips, back, elbows, wrists, ankles, feet, toes, hands, fingers, and shoulders.

When he was squeezing all my joints to feel any inflammation or whatever he does. I swear he enjoys doing that just to see me squirm and make faces. He squeezes the tips of my fingers and it really hurt. The tips of my toes have been hurting a bunch too and have swelled up so much that I have blisters on them thanks to my shoes.

He tells me that the tips of my fingers and toes are not normal RA inflammation spots. Same with my hips, back and my shoulder blades. He feels the rest of my joints, my elbows, my knees. My god was I horrified when he asked to lift my pant legs. I was so freaking hairy cause I hadn't shaved in like 2 months LOL.

He doesn't feel any inflammation and the joints are not hot to the touch. All nice and cool. According to my blood counts, my RA is doing good and pretty much under control. He did up my infusions from ever 8 weeks to every 6 weeks and the does from 400 to 600mgs.

He also said that I more than likely have Fibromyalgia, a chronic wide spread pain. Joy of Joys! Something else I do not want. It would explain all the pain in the wrong joints, the extreme tiredness I have and how the pain gets way worse at night. My sleep at night is really bad. I wake up constantly in pain and am always rolling over to try and get comfortable.

I have to have an MRI of one of my hands, my left one hurts the most, so see if there is any inflammation. If there is none, than he knows I do have Fibro. For now, I am going to look into alternative ways to treat the pain, like acupuncture and massage.

He also gave me a new prescription for Tramadol. This time it is the extended release 100mg with the option to go up to a max of 300mg. I took 1 pill (100mg) that night and it really did nothing. I tried the same does the next night, that again did nothing. So the next night I upped it to 2 pills, then I started to notice a difference. I am still sore, but nothing like I was before. I am going to keep it at this dose until I get worse. I seem to always build up an immunity to all my meds. I think most people do anyway.

I am still really tired and sleep still sucks. I have to take my naps everyday and try to take at least an hour long one. Two hours is better, but it depends on when I fall asleep.

A friend of mine noticed yesterday while we were walking, that I seemed to me a bit more chipper. I know it is because my pain was a ton better and so I wasn't so focused on how I was walking so I wasn't in so much pain.

Homemade Breadcrumbs

Homemade Breadcrumbs


It is sooooo easy to make your own bread crumbs, plus there is no added salt and you can flavor it to your liking.

To make, all you do is add day old bread to a food processor (or to a ziplock bag and pound the crap out of it. Did this in my pre-food processor days).

Pulse on low till you get fine crumbs. 

I have noticed that if my bread is still not dried out a bit, that the crumbs are thicker. You can see that in the white crumb pictures. I managed to get a few loaves of bread for 50 cents in the day old bin at my grocery store. I used those to make these crumbs.

Wheat bread crumbs

White bread crumbs, notice that there are still some chunks. You can reprocess after you dry them out in the oven if you want. No biggie.

Put the crumbs on jelly roll pans lined with foil in an oven preheated at 225 for 10-15 minutes.

After they are cooled, put all the crumbs in a big bowl. Mix with the seasoning that you want. I like Italian seasoning.

When they are all mixed up, put in a air tight container. I have a bunch of quart sized canning jars left over that I have been using up.

Beef Stew

Beef Stew

1 1/2 lbs cubed beef stew meat
1/4 c flour
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp pepper
3 tbsp vegetable oil
4 cubes beef bouillon
4 cups water
1 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp dried parsley
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
3 large potatoes, peeled and cubed
4 carrots, cut into 1 inch pieces
4 stalks celery, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 large onion, chopped
2 tsp cornstarch
2 tsp cold water


In a zip lock bad add the flour, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika and pepper. Shake a little to mix. Add the beef to the bag and shake to coat the beef.

Brown the beef in the vegetable oil in a large pot or dutch oven.

Dissolve bouillon in water and add to the pot. Stir in the rosemary, parsley, and Worcestershire sauce. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer about 45 minutes.

Stir in the potatoes, carrots, celery and onion into the pot. You may need to add more water. I usually do because I tend to add more veggies. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes.

Dissolve cornstarch in the cold water and stir into the stew. Cover and simmer 15 more minutes.

Enjoy!

Blizzard of 2013

Just because it is easier to post all the pictures that I took here on my blog instead of on Facebook. So here is my neighborhood and yard. I live in a mobile home park and the owner of it will not salt or sand the streets, only plow.

The view from the door at 9 this morning.

The snowdrift on the deck.

The hubs starting to plow us out.

Lots of snow!

This side of my car is covered, the other has nothing.

The ramp up to my deck.

My yard.

My daughter in the snow in her jammies. The snow is up to her hips.

Our mailboxes and my old bosses home. Our mailbox is the one without the door on it.

Our street.

Big snow pile in front of a neighbors home.

My car rescued from the depths of the driveway.

Plowing a path to the oil tank.

Homemade Vegetable Stock

There are some recipes that I make that I do not want to use any chicken stock in it. Basically anything that will be vegetarian.

Because I am into spending less and wasting little, I make my own stocks. During the warm months, I compost all my peelings and normal veggie parts one would toss into the trash. However, in the cold months, when I can not compost, I use those peelings to make my veggie broth.

Every time you peel, cut, etc, save those trimmings into a gallon sized bag. Make sure the veggies are cleaned and the trimmings are relatively dry. I pat them down with paper towels. You can also use a salad spinner if you have one. Store the trimmings in the fridge.

Some good trimmings to use:

Stems from herbs

Leafy celery tops

Potato peelings

Carrot peelings

Bell Pepper scraps (no seeds)

Any parts of an Onion

Tomato cores

Some bad trimmings to not use:

Broccoli

Cabbage

Cauliflower

Brussel Sprouts

Basically anything that is bitter, do not use.

After about 4 days, it is time to make your broth. Try to have about 3/4 of the bag full of trimmings. If not quite there yet, just add some limp celery or other veggies you have on hand that have seen better days.

I make mine in my crock pot and have it cooking on low over night for about 8-12 hours. Make sure to cover the veggies in water. In this batch I happen to have a bunch of potato peels and my gallon bag was full. I had to keep pushing my veggies down (they tend to float) to make sure I had plenty of water in the crock pot.

After the stock has cooked, strain  & toss out the veggies. I strain the broth again through some cheese cloth to catch anything small that might have snuck through.

From here, I can the broth for a later use. Process pints for 30 minutes and quarts for 35 minutes at 10 pounds of pressure. Do not use the boiling water bath method, only the pressure canner is safe to can broth of any kind.

Car Headlight Lens Restorer Kit

My car headlights have been really foggy and really suck. They are not bright at all. As a joke, the hubby got me one of those lens restorer kits for Christmas. You know the as seen on TV ones you can get from Walmart?

Well, seeing how the other day it was freaking 60 in the middle of January up here, I decided to use it and see. It smells horrid, kind of like paint thinner. I forgot to take a picture of both headlights before, so the before shot is of the left and the after is of the right.

So you can see that it is really gross and foggy. It really doesn't shine bright at night. I have to turn my high beams on to see anything. After following the directions on the box (really easy 2 step process), this is what it looked like:

Not perfect, but much clearer. The sponge thing the kit came with was nasty dirty even though I cleaned the lenses before like the directions said to. I can still see a few foggy areas, but it is on the inside and I am not going to bother taking the lens off to clean it.

I have yet to drive at night to see how much brighter it really is. I did turn the lights on to see how much brighter, and they do seem much brighter.

My Coupon Binder

I have seen many different ways to make a coupon binder. I have tried a few different ways, like cutting out every coupon and putting them in baseball card pocket sheets. That was annoying and hurt my hands with all the cutting. So, here is how I do my coupon binder. 

I use a 1 inch binder, but I do need up upgrade it to a 2 inch. I made a little cover sheet to slip inside the clear cover.

Inside the left side of the cover, I put in the coupons that I either printed from the web or have yet to add to my binder. On the right hand side, I have a pencil pouch that holds loose coupons I got from magazines, mail or other outside the newspaper means. It also holds a pen (to make my shopping lists), scissors (to cut out the coupons I need) and a Sharpy marker (to date the coupon packets).

The first pages hold all the coupon policy's for all the stores that I can use coupons at. For me, those stores are: CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens, Dollar Tree, Stop & Shop, Shaws, Target, and Walmart. 

This is a must to have with you. There have been a couple of times where I have had to point out the policy of a certain drug store. I have yet to use any coupons at Dollar Tree, because honestly, it is not worth it. My store carries very little name brand stuff and what they do carry (like Hefty storage bags) has such a little amount in them, it is not worth buying. But, I have the policy just in case.

Every Sunday, when the coupons come out, the hubby heads to the store for me and buys me 2 papers. I am not an extreme couponer and hate that some people take out the coupons before the papers are sold. The store near me has to return any unsold papers with the coupons intact in order to get a refund. The hubby makes sure that the papers he buys has the correct amount of coupon packets. 

For each coupon packet (RedPlum, SmartSource, or P&G), I put the date they came out in the upper right hand side. Then I go through each packet, separating the pages. Then I staple the upper left hand corner as close to the top of the page as I can get. Then I slip the packets into clear page protectors. I use CouponMom to make up my shopping lists and she lists the date that the particular coupon you need comes out and what packet it comes from. So, if I need a certain coupon, I cut out just that coupon.

I keep my binder in my Hello Kitty tote bag. It makes it easier to carry (I have like no wrist or arm strength thanks to my RA) and it also has inside pockets to hold my phone and keys. I also keep the current store add in there to compare with what is at the store. There is a few times an item is advertised in the paper at a lower price than they show at the store. It helps to have the paper with you to get the lower price.