Of Life, Food, and Fun

Went to Denny’s for dinner last night. I got their new Sweet and Creamy Cold Brew. It wasn’t as sweet as I expected. I got their Philly Cheesesteak Omelet without mushrooms, it comes with hash browns, and I chose a buttermilk biscuit for my bread. At first, I thought there wasn’t any cheese, but it was a thin layer on the bottom. The omelet was ok. The hash browns were nice and crispy. The biscuit was already buttered, which I wasn’t expecting. It was very good, though. So good I ordered another one. I had about half of that one. Our waiter actually came out with another biscuit. I told him I didn’t ask for another one. I think he said not to worry, that it’s not extra, and I can take it home. I decided I can have the rest for a snack today. After that, we went to Central to get a few things. We also got desserts. We both got upside down pineapple cakes. I didn’t think they’d be available now but they were. That was a real treat.

They’re almost done with putting up the backyard fence. I think they’ll finish it today. Yay!

Went to the Oak Table for brunch. There was a 20 minute wait to be seated. That’s actually not bad there, since they’re always so packed. I ordered a mocha, apple and cinnamon pancakes, and their breakfast potatoes. I got the mocha and apple syrup/maple syrup about 10 minutes later. A little long, but ok. Didn’t get the rest of our stuff until almost an hour since we started sitting. That was outrageous! When I got my pancakes, there was butter on top, even though I told them no butter. The waitress took it away to get rid of that. So it was even longer before I could really dig into things. She said that they accidentally made my parent’s cherry crepes with cheese, since she doesn’t want cheese they had to do the whole thing again. She didn’t tell us this until they gave us the food. They could have put my stuff out during that time. I don’t like the idea that my stuff sat out while that was going on. It doesn’t take that long to make crepes either… She could have also given her the side of bacon she ordered during that time, too. She took off 25% of the crepes and gave a coupon for $5 off an entree we have next time. So, she did something about it. The waitress was nice besides that. Maybe she was new. The food was great. I tested having both apple syrup and maple syrup. Nice combo. I should have asked for 2 or 3 pancakes. 6 is way too much. We were going to share the potatoes, but my parent decided not to have it. It was too much, too. I had a little ketchup with it, which was also nice.

After that, we took the trash from the old refrigerator to the dump. It was starting to smell. We also went to the Kaiser Permanente Silverdale clinic to drop off my old meds. (Meds that have expired or I stopped taking.) I’ve got more to take there, but at least a good chunk is gone now.

Next, I tried calling my primary care team. I ordered cyclobenzaprine close to 2 weeks ago. My primary care doctor called on Monday saying that it needed its yearly prior authorization and they need me to know the interactions again. She needs me to say that’s ok to sign off on it. I’ve been without it for a few days. I asked for an emergency phone appointment soon. They started to say the next available one is September 10th. I said that’s too late. They said an emergency one might be August 21st. That’s still too long to wait for it. I hope she just calls on Monday, like she did last time.

I also called the oncology department. They want me to see my oncologist in person on August 20th. That’s during the week of the Phase 2: Top Coat of the roads in the neighborhood. (I think they’re working on another neighborhood’s roads too.) During that week, they say they’ll tell us when we can’t leave the house for a little while. We don’t know when that is yet. So, I think it’ll be best to change it into a phone appointment or a later in person one. I left a message for them and they called me back about 10 minutes later. (Faster than expected.) They said that my oncologist/rest of the ‘team’ are gone for the week right now. They might call me on Monday after they get in touch with them.

The new refrigerator was delivered and set up yesterday. They hauled away the old one too. I was a little worried about how they were going to fit it through the front door and how far it might stick out. They managed to do it, and it really doesn’t stick out much more than the old one did. It has a water/ice dispenser. Nice to have filtered water and ice. I don’t think it’s ready yet to dispense the ice. I’ve gotten water from it, though. It has a sensor, so you can just put the glass/mug down and it fills it up on its own. It also indicates how many ounces it is, which could be handy. It does that even if you don’t do the hands free thing. I think it has a bigger freezer area than the one before. So far that’s worked well. We put some chicken in there and it froze pretty quickly. We got a French door one. There’s a big section on the bottom for the freezer (I think that has 2 drawers within it), an in between drawer (you can set the temperature separately, and it even has a thing that’s movable for soda cans), and the ‘French door’ part with 2 side by side doors on top for the refrigerator. It’s going to take a little time to get the refrigerator’s temperature right. It has a kind of hidden shelf in one of the doors for drinks, which is interesting. There are 2 special inside drawers for the vegetables and fruits. It’s kind of cool that we could see those almost at eye level. It was lower and hard to look in with the previous one. I think the lighting is brighter, too. It’s cool overall. With this, I can try cooking again. I might try the My Fitness Pal Meals again. I have more recipes I found on Pinterest, too. Even found some drink ones that use ice. Kind of exciting!

Afterwards we went out to Applebee’s to get a late lunch. I got their new Caramel Dream drink. I wanted to try it last time. It has vanilla ice cream, an ‘espresso mix’, caramel, and topped with whipped cream. Like a caramel and coffee milkshake. It was good, but huge! I got about halfway through it. I got a ‘classic’ cheeseburger without onions. It almost seemed like a smash burger. Tons of lettuce, which I was a little nervous about. Got waffle fries and bbq sauce with it. I love waffle fries! Later, I made a salad from the salad bar at Central for dinner. I think I made it a little too big and couldn’t finish it. It was nice (especially on such a warm day) and I needed more vegetables. I wanted something small for dessert from Central, since I already had that milkshake earlier. I decided on a chocolate chip shortbread cookie. First time trying their shortbread. It was pretty decent. Just enough sweetness for it, too.

Today the person who did the cabinets, might be coming back to start putting up the fence in the backyard. That’s exciting too. They basically took out the greenbelt back there, and put a road and sidewalk in. They tore down the makeshift plastic fence they had put up while they were working on it. Now people can just walk into the backyard. They can see us inside too. It’ll be nice to have a real fence up like that.

I had Häagen-Dazs’ Caramel Cone ice cream for dessert. I thought it was nice that it was a single serving. Very small, but seemed big once I opened it. (Had its own little spoon in the lid.) I think it was the first time I had it. I like that it had a lot of chocolate covered cone chunks in it. Would have been better to have a little more caramel.

Yesterday, we went to Tacoma for my full bone scan. I’m more used to having something like a CT scan during it too. This time it was just the bone scan. When I made the appointment, they said that I probably won’t need an IV, so I didn’t make an appointment with Infusion beforehand. I got a call about a day before saying they made the IV appointment for me because they like to do the injection through the IV. I didn’t want to have to go through it again. This time it hurt a lot. They said they’ll try my right arm next time. I tend to get all my IVs and blood draws through my left arm. They think it might have some scar tissue because of it. She said she also can’t see nerves on the ultrasound machine unless it’s like a bundle. She might have gone through a nerve. I liked that she put heated blankets on me. It was cold in the clinic.

After the IV was in, they got the person that does the scan to come in immediately, and inject me with the tracer for it. I didn’t have to go anywhere else for it. Once she was done, they took out the IV and wrapped the area up.

After that, they said I could get something to eat and come back. We went to BJ’s for a late lunch. First time there. We both got black cherry sodas. The ice looked a little weird, but the soda was good. We shared a pretzel. It came with beer cheese and mustard. I think the pretzel was better than some other places. I got their Mediterranean chicken pita tacos without onions. They were kind of like gyros. It came with a ‘seasonal bistro grain’. I think they were trying to make it look like tabbouleh. I think it had quinoa and poppyseeds, plus tomatoes, cucumbers, parsley, olive oil, and a little lemon. It was weird. I kind of wanted to try one of their famous pizookies for dessert. I thought maybe I had enough food, though. I had half the pretzel, 1 ‘taco’, close to 2 bites of the ‘grains’, and most of the drink. I treated it like my lunch and afternoon snack. Not a lot, but maybe enough for me.

We came back to the clinic afterwards. It wasn’t much of a wait until they got me to get the scan done. It’s interesting, they always ask me to go to the bathroom beforehand. Apparently my bladder can show up on it. I sometimes can’t tell how full it is. She wanted me to left my legs while on the table so she could put the pillows under my knees. I lifted my legs higher than she expected. She said my legs must be very strong. Most of the people she sees have a problem lifting them just a little. She used to tie something around my ankles, but didn’t this time. She gave me a ton of heated blankets. She said I should try to sleep through it. I hate how the machine starts really close to my head. So close it’s like hitting my nose. It starts there and goes all the way down to my toes. I think she had to redo a couple of spots. Took a little longer than usual. I’m glad she cut my hospital bracelet off and took off the wrappings from the IV area for me.

We ended up going home after that. We were at the clinic at around 12pm (left home at around 10:45am, got a mocha at Starbucks on the way), went out to a late lunch at close to 2pm, came back to the clinic at 3pm, and finally got home at around 5:15pm. Felt like a long day. We were kind of thinking about having a light dinner on our way home. Thought of Hakata, but they were closed. I thought maybe we’d have something small at home and then go to Dairy Queen for dessert. Instead, I had a small frozen meal of Salisbury steak and mac and cheese. Then, later I had a cookie dough ice cream bar from the freezer. Light, but nice still. I’d like at some point to go to Dairy Queen.

Went to Coffee with Pride at Heathen’s Bakery. Kitsap Pride was behind it. I like the idea of queer meetups at places like cafés. I hadn’t been to Heathen’s Bakery before. Looked like they had interesting things. I got a berry cobbler. It had cherries, blueberries, and rhubarb. Interesting mix. I don’t think it was sweet enough. (It was vegan.) My parent had a sugar free cherry shortbread thing. I had a little bit and it was much sweeter than the cobbler. I also got an iced mocha. The chocolate syrup part was concentrated on the bottom. I couldn’t mix it very well. A little weird. It was all pretty good. I liked meeting the new people. There were only a few people that I knew. It was nice to see them, too. There were more people than I thought there would be. That’s a good sign. I tried to make room for a couple of people that were behind me, but they didn’t move. I felt like I was kind of in the way. There’s another Kitsap Pride event tomorrow that’s centered on having garlic bread in a park, I think. I like garlic bread. Poulsbo Pride is coming up, too. I was (still am) wearing my shirt with cats in the colors of the aro ace flag. Felt like I was representing part of myself that way.

We saw The Odyssey in IMAX at Galaxy Theatres in Gig Harbor. Good to be somewhere air conditioned, since it was hot out today. The last time I was there was 7 years ago. I read both the Iliad and the Odyssey recently. I think I read the Odyssey while I was in school, too. It was interesting to read again, plus the Iliad. I didn’t know there would be a movie version coming out when I read it recently. Those 2 were just on my list. There were things that would have been cool on the big screen that were left out. It didn’t even end the same way. Athena did more things and spoke a lot more in the book. The other gods weren’t portrayed very much in the movie. I think they added a place in the movie that wasn’t in the book. They captured the war stuff pretty well. The Trojan Horse was interesting. I think in the book it’s not mentioned much. Just as a couple of flashbacks. It was pretty long. I think I liked it.

Yesterday was a scan day in Tacoma. It was for a brain MRI and chest, abdomen, and pelvis CT scans. I don’t think I’ve had this combo there before. Normally it’s CT scans and a bone scan. My oncologist wanted them done on the same day. Can’t do that with the local clinics. I think it took less time with this combo. Although, the MRI was about an hour. My parent had finally found a spot in the parking garage, but it was hard to get into because of a pillar. She’s a really good driver.

I got my IV placed at the Infusion Center again before the scans. (I had to call beforehand about where to checkin/wait. The reminder call was wrong.) It’s usually done by ultrasound. The person that did it remembered me well. She immediately said my skin looked even more flakey than last time. She said I should definitely bring it up with my doctors. It did look crazy this time. I didn’t know that my legs were affected so much until later. It’s weird. I don’t think they can do anything about it. She said my veins looked really big this time. She was surprised. The IV really hurt going in. I started to have that thing where I get really dizzy, sweaty, and like I’m about to faint (I have fainted before). I was ok after breathing deeply and slowly like she told me to.

The MRI was after that. I’m glad they let my parent come with me to their waiting room. I had filled out a form online, but they still gave me the paper version beforehand. That was weird. They had me get into ‘pants’ and a gown. Had to get help with tying the back of the gown. There was a locker to put my things in, and they had issues with the lock not locking. There was only one person who knew how to do it. The pants kept falling off me on the way to the machine. I felt trapped inside. The earplugs didn’t block much of the noise. I had pads around my head and a cage thing over everything. My chin kept bumping against the cage. They were going to take the IV out when they finished it. I had to stop them and said I have CT scans next.

After that, we went back to the regular imaging waiting room. I had to fill out another form for the CT scans. They wanted me to have 16 oz of water 30 minutes before the scans. The MRI went longer and I started drinking it late. I got a Fiji water bottle. I’m not used to getting a water bottle, so I just picked it. I think it might have been on sale, too. It was ok. When they came I had just a little left. They said it was ok that I didn’t start earlier. They didn’t give me a contrast to drink. I think they did the same last time. They just injected me with contrast through the IV. I couldn’t get my arms in the position they wanted. Had to have my right hand on my forehead, which was a bit annoying. The person who was helping me was condescending to me. I just tried to ignore it. They took out the IV when they were done with the scans. It hurt coming out. Got out of the clinic at around 4:30pm. It felt like a long day, even though we arrived a little later than usual.