Ice Skating at Toyota Sports Center in El Segundo, CA

This picture is a little older, but it was from a Girl Scout ice skating event so I had it in the same folder. The girls made cards to send to soldiers in Iraq.

Goodbye, Benezepril!

True story: cardiologist's nurses are sneaks. They say they will stop the treadmill as soon as you tell them to, and then they go ahead and add in another blood pressure reading and kind of egg you on just to make sure you're really and truly on the verge of a heart attack before stopping the machine. Maybe I'm old school, but when I'm instructed to go until I absolutely can't anymore, that's what I do. So I was a little panicky when I did just that, and the nurse added another 30 seconds or so. I thought I was going to go flying off the back of the machine, hospital gown a'flappin'. Or worse, get yanked back because I was wired up in a dozen places.

So from this you can gather that I went to the cardiologist. They had told me over the phone it was a simple, resting ultrasound of my heart. When I got there, they said I needed a stress test on the treadmill, too. Fine by me, but I would have worn sweats instead of jeans if they'd told me that in the first place. At least I was wearing decent shoes.

They did the ultrasound, and took my blood pressure in all sorts of positions -- on my back, my side, standing, standing on my head. Well, that's an exaggeration, but when you factor in that they took it in each arm each time, it was a lot of measuring. The ultrasound was while I was resting on my left side on a puffy mattress. It takes a while, and it's silent, and so soft and relaxing...I nearly drifted off for a bit. My resting heart rate seemed to fluctuate between 50 and 80. Strange!

Then came the treadmill. Now, I've been going to the gym a minimum of 3 times a week, and even on days I don't go I try to do cardio from a tape. So I wasn't worried about a test they told me that would take between 6 and 12 minutes on the treadmill. It took longer to wire me up. But here's the thing: the lowest setting is a very, very brisk walk at a noticeable incline. The machine just said "level 1" but I would estimate the incline to be the equivalent of about a 6 on the gym machine. First three minutes were brisk, but I didn't break a sweat or get out of breath. Then the intensity went up - incline about 9, speed probably about a 3. Just below jogging. After a minute my legs were really feeling it, and I was definitely sweating! At 6 minutes, it jumped up again. This was incredibly fast, incredibly steep. I was holding onto the bar to keep from slipping backwards. About 20 seconds in, I gasped out that I was done. The nurse took another blood pressure reading (argh!) and I gasped it out again, barely able to speak: "I'm done!" She replied back coyly, "Are you suuuuure?" "@#$*%)% YES I'M DONE!" is what I wanted to scream, but luckily I was too out of breath to cuss. They finally cut the power and I dutifully jumped back on the bed to have my second ultrasound. I was sweating buckets. My highest heart rate was 170! Can you believe that?

Dad's comment when I told him about it afterwards was, "Now you see why people have heart attacks during those tests sometimes." Um, yeah. Part of my high heartrate was panic, I'm sure, when they didn't stop the machine like they told me they would. Holy moly!

The good news is....everything checked out fine and healthy! The whole reason I was referred to the cardiologist is that I fainted a little over a week ago, and I've been lightheaded. The cardiologist reviewed my test, I talked to him about losing weight, the medications I'm on. He took my blood pressure too (also on both sides) and found that I was at 108 over...something. Seriously, he only took the first number. (Too cool for diastolic, I guess. On the systolic tip, y'all, fo shizzle!) He looked at the blood tests I've done to find out why I've been dizzy, and told me to stop taking the blood pressure medication. Hurray! I've been on it for about 3 years, and I've lost enough weight to leave it behind!


I tried to find a picture of a stress test, but all the ones I could find are like this one. Yes, ostensibly it's correct - the guy is on a treadmill with a blood pressure cuff on, attended by a friendly-looking technician in a crisp white coat. A more accurate picture would have him in a hospital gown open in the front with a plethora of electronics strapped to him; he'd be pitched at a steep incline; he'd be holding onto that bar for dear life while sweat poured off his face; and most of all, he would NOT be smiling. The technician would be holding a pitchfork and making comments about the amazing athleticism of the Bay to Breakers runners while the test subject enjoyed the simulated experience of trying to outrun a bear straight up a cliff. But other than those piddly details, that's what a stress test looks like.

Wini won a basket in a school raffle this past Friday. First of all, this was a fundraiser called "Pasta Night." I decided to support the fundraiser by helping with the ticket sales before the night and cleanup afterwards instead of actually eating pasta. Nick and Wini went to the actual dinner without me, and I caught up with them after dinner when everyone was waiting for the raffle draw.

It's so tough on the kindergarteners because they put in their tickets, but they don't quite grasp that if 250 kids put in a ticket to win a box of 5000 stickers (I'm not joking) that it's not likely they will win it. Both Wini and her little best friend Emma had long faces as the night went on, and the baskets were running out.

Then Wini's name was pulled - she was ecstatic! She ran up, and Emma, who had been sitting next to her, burst into tears. It's one of those life lessons, but you hate to see it.

And I wish they hadn't pulled her name, because it was a confusing hodgepodge of knickknacks like someone had cleaned out their garage. I know that the basket our room contributed had tickets to a day spa, some restaurants, a foot massager, all this cool stuff. It was worth $480. The basket we won had a buddha statue, candles, a stick of incense, some "crystal" roses (one of which was broken and had been taped back together, so whoever made the basket knew it was broken), coupons for $1 off at Quiznos, some orange juice coupons, some party novelty crap that you find in kids' goodie bags, and a whole bunch of fake pearl clip on earrings. What the hey? Oh, and this was the kicker for the diabetic on a diet: an entire case of butter cookies. Not a box, not 5 boxes, but 12, 2-lb. boxes of cookies. That's just peachy, isn't it?

There were also supposed to be a few items worth some money, like a $50 OSH certificate and some Visa gift cards. Suspiciously, they weren't in the basket. I called the woman in charge of the event and she investigated: apparently the mom who had assembled the basket "forgot" to put them in. Really, you have to wonder what this world is coming to. Did she think whoever won the basket would not want the only prizes in there worth something? The event was last Friday, and the certificates have yet to appear. Hmmm.

Other random stuff in the basket: a $500 coupon toward a weekly rental at this place: "Howden Castle." Sounds great, until you find out that it's $2000 a week to rent. Okay, so you get a bunch of friends together and go in on it, right? It only has 3 bedrooms, and sleeps 8. So basically if (say) the Lafferties joined us, that would fill it to capacity, and it would cost us $750. Now if it were in Scotland, or at the beach, or near a ski area, I would be thrilled -- but it's in the Santa Cruz mountains about 45 minutes away, right on the highway. So I don't think I'll be using it anytime soon.

So...the plot thickens. Wini was talking about the raffle after school, and she put a lot of emphasis on how it was so cool that her friend Clare drew her name out of the bowl. Drew her name. Not her ticket. I asked her if she thought Clare read her name on the ticket, and she just shrugged and said, "I don't know."

Here's how they did the drawings: people had put their tickets into an 8.5x11" envelope that was taped onto the basket they were bidding on. A PTA member emptied the envelope into a large bowl, and handed it to the principal. The principal held the bowl at waist height and had a kid draw a ticket out from the bowl. It was not above the kids' heads, they were standing, so it was about chest level for the kid pulling the ticket. It would have been simple for Wini's friend to see her name and grab her ticket. Apparently, last year's winners were mostly people running the event, and after complaints, they changed it from another PTA member drawing the ticket to letting kids draw the ticket. All in all there were about 50 prizes given away, from the big baskets to individual prizes like gift certificates at restaurants.

So, maybe that's all part of the process, right? Some kids might look, but it wasn't like they were digging around in there for a long time looking for a particular ticket. But the weird thing was that there were definitely people who won repeatedly. And there were a couple of cases where the kid pulling the ticket pulled his own name or his family's name. Then we come to find out that a mom who won a couple of big prizes is saying that she crumples or folds her tickets - the same person whose son drew her name for a big prize. It puts a whole new spin on everything.

Well, it was an unexpected windfall. The raffle ticket was for a good cause, and Wini loves the actual physical basket. That's something, I guess!

I Heart Camping

Boring medical stuff: I've been getting lightheaded, dizzy, and tired in the afternoons, and the doctor told me to call her if it got worse. Thursday, it did. I exercised, did my phone interviews, then leapt out of my chair to stretch...only to feel all my muscles cut out and the world to go black. I came too sort of slumped back in my chair - turns out Nick was walking toward me, saw me starting to crumble and caught me before I hit the floor.

I'm really sick of feeling dizzy at odd moments, but this was too much! I called my doctor, and it took a couple of hours to get through. In the meantime, Wini had a doctor's appointment, so I asked the nurses there to take my vitals. My bp was 120/70 and everything looked normal - no funny heartbeat, no anemic symptoms, nothing. I just felt dizzy!

My doctor wanted me to come in for an EKG, and gave me the choice of going in on Friday with a different doctor or waiting until Monday, when she would be back. I don't feel anything heart-related, so I decided to wait until Monday because we had a camping trip to Big Basin scheduled.

So...I went camping. We had a fabulous time! Saturday, we hiked about 4 1/2 miles and went after 3 geocaches on the trail. We ended up taking a wrong turn, ended up on the wrong side of one mountain, and had to take a fire road up to the top and come around on a high ridge to get back to our original geocache destination. It added two miles to the trip, but we really wanted that geocache! The connecting ridge was a very narrow trail right on the side of a very steep slope. All the roots and rocks in the trail made it very bumpy, and it occurred to me that this would be the worst place to have a dizzy spell, except for maybe being behind the wheel. But my head stayed clear the entire time. It was a little nervewracking with Wini along, though! Nick held her hand and kept her on the inside of the trail, and there were parts where we had to hand her down. Definitely it was not the trail we would have chosen if we'd known!

Here we are at the top of the pass:



And here we are with geocache in hand. Yes!



It was a wonderful weekend, and the perfect Mother's Day. Sunday I woke up to find that Wini and Nick had hung a project they had made for me from the roof of tent so that I saw it first thing. We made pancakes with bananas, turkey bacon and coffee. What a relaxing weekend, and I really didn't want to go home.

Monday, I went in for the EKG, and everything showed completely normal. She did some tests on my inner ear, and took my blood pressure in various positions. It does drop about 20 points from when I'm seated when I stand up. Since I'm a diabetic, my doctor asked me to see a cardiologist to rule out the possibility of a problem that she can't detect with a simple EKG, so next Monday I go in for an echocardiogram, which apparently is some sort of ultrasound procedure.

I really don't think my heart is the culprit in this case. It doesn't seem to hit when I'm exercising or putting strain on my heart, it just seems to hit in the afternoon regardless of what I'm doing. I don't mind going in for extra testing, though - as long as my insurance pays for it. If there is some sort of heart problem, I'd rather know about it and try to work on it than be surprised when it's too late.

More pics! These are from Wini's birthday party. The red boat lives at grandma & grandpa Kibre's.












Can you believe this was a month ago?

Diet Food Faves

I have a few diet products that I absolutely love. Yup, I have no qualms about going on and on about food.

Alvarado Bakery Essential” Sprouted FlaxSeed Bread: This bread is incredible. One serving is two slices, that add up to a barely-there 80 calories. A lot of “light” or diet whole wheat breads can boast 2 slices per serving, but most of those use tricks like slicing the bread very thin, or the loaf is shrunk so that a slice of bread is about the size of a slice of American cheese. But this bread is generously sized, hearty, and flavorful - like you’re eating a piece of regular whole wheat bread at 150 calories a slice. It toasts up so well that I look forward to eating it plain! It comes out of the toaster crispy on the outside, yet fluffy and flavorful on the inside. Really, this bread is amazingly good.

Today I was reminded of another reason I like this bread - it doesn’t crumble or fall apart like many of the diet breads. Nick did the shopping last time, and I can’t really fault him for his misses, but he picked up a loaf of Orowheat light whole wheat bread. I hate to just ignore that there’s a full loaf of bread to use up, so I used it to make a tuna sandwich this afternoon for lunch. What a mess! The bread falls apart starting from the crust line, and just doesn’t add any flavor to the mix. The flax seed bread makes the whole sandwich taste better.

Cameo Apples: Where have these perky little fruits been all my life? They are perfect. I love an apple that’s sweeter than the tart, sassy Pippin. It has to have a skin that doesn’t ruin the taste, like the cruelly named Red Delicious that dominated my childhood. Oh, how I detest those Red Delicious! I thought that I didn’t like apples until I had a Fuji at age 20. Between Red Delicious and the bland, soft horror that is a Golden Delicious, I was convinced people named apples to fool kids into liking them. Note to growers: it ain’t happening. I still hate both of those varieties.

Enter the plucky little cameo, an apple I had never heard of before this growing season! It has a pleasant, mottled stripey thing going for it that catches the eye. No dark red bitter skin to put me off my fruit for the day. The taste: sweet without cloying. The flesh: delightfully crisp.

There’s nothing worse than biting into a soft, fleshy, tasteless mass. Cameos may not have the high gloss of the traditional Red Delicious, but they shine nonetheless.


Laughing cow cheese:Who can resist this jolly bovine? Maybe all the cows in Switzerland are happy. Maybe this one likes to moo just to hear the echoes bouncing off the snow-capped peaks. So who cares if it's nothing resembling Swiss cheese -- it’s creamy deliciousness formed into a delicate, aluminum-wrapped wedge. You feel like you’re unwrapping a treat - a mouthwatering, gooey mess of a treat that will melt in your mouth with processed cheesy goodness. Mmmmm. Probably can't hold a candle to raclette, but it's guilt-free. And there's that happy cow. She's bright red, and she's wearing her own milk products as earrings. I find the combination irresistible.

Italian-Style Turkey from Trader Joe’s: I originally bought this because I thought it would taste a bit like salami/peppery flavorings on the edges of the turkey. That’s what it looks like in the package. But it turns out to have a lot of sage in the herb mixture. It ends up tasting just like you cut off a hunk of turkey right out of the refrigerator the day after Thanksgiving, and you smeared the meat with a helpin' of stuffing. Mmmm. This is what I eat for "second breakfast" after working out: toasted flax bread, sage-flavored turkey, FF cream cheese, and a smattering of lettuce for “second breakfast.” My mouth is watering as I type this.


Much as I love the NS "Nutriflakes", I wanted to find something comparable for when I'm not on NS anymore. Not to mention, one serving of the NS cereal costs a buck forty-five, which is well on your way to purchasing a whole box, wouldn't you say? I'm thrilled to report that I found this big box o'heaven in Trader Joe's. Take a look at these stats:

100 calories per 3/4 cup (140 with FF milk)
1.5 g fat including 500 mg Omega-3 fatty acids
190 mg sodium
Carbs 22 g
Fiber 7 g (making the carbs 15)
Protein 4g (with FF milk, 8 g)

500 mg of Omega-3 fatty acid in a serving! This beats the heck out of stirring fish oil in my coffee! Okay, I never actually did that, but I thought about it.

I love the taste and crunch of these flakes, but it's hard to recommend a cereal to someone else because I think we're all picky about breakfast. It's the most intimate meal of the day. You've left the quiet land of dreams and are preparing yourself for the enslaught of chaos that comes with the waking world. It's not the time to stir fish oil in anything.

As for me, I can't handle sweet cereal. Anything sugary first thing in the morning makes me queasy. Even in my pre-diabetic days, you wouldn't catch me eating a doughnut for breakfast. A big ole' bag of bacon and cheese biscuits from McDonalds, yes, but never a Krispy Kreme. So somehow, this cereal with its high fiber/protein/Omega-3 stats and its crunchy, slightly nutty taste is a wonderous amalgamation of healthy and oral satisfaction. It's quite a mouthful.