December 27 - I had an improvement to report today but upon copying my lists from the last time I had reported on them, I discovered that I actually have a number of improvements to report. How bleeping exciting is that?!? So, here's what's happening:

Improvements:
- Mucusitis is gone!
- Diarrhea is gone!
- Gagging is happening only every other day!
- Water pik is only needed twice a day!
- I stopped using my humidifier every night! (Although not because I'm now producing spit but because it was making me damp at night which then gave me the chills and I was more afraid of catching pneumonia than worrying about waking up 3-5 times a night due to dry mouth.)

No Improvements:
- Sporadic sleeping still happening.
- I'm still losing weight.
- 10% of food tastes meh, 10% of food tastes okay, 80% of food tastes rotten.
- I still have thrush.
- Back of tongue still swollen.
- I'm still not producing spit.
- Garbled talking.
- Bullfrog effect still going on.



Cool. I added color. So, items in red I really have no control over. Items in yellow, I'm thinking I should be able to do something about....kind of.

The sleeping issue. As mentioned previously, the melatonin didn't really do anything for me. Although JT mentioned that he thought you had to take it for a week or two to get it to build up in your system before it would be effective. Unfortunately, I had already moved on. I bought a sleeping aid called ZQuil by the makers of Nyquil. It didn't seem to do anything either. Since I'm on vacation until next Wednesday, I'm not too wound up about this issue right now. I'll wait and see how cranky I start getting from lack of sleep once I'm back to work full time. Then I'll start researching other options. Jer thinks I should ask my doctor to prescribe some Lunesta or Ambien. I poked around on the web. Lunesta may not be safe if you have a history of alcohol abuse <ahem>. Ambien, on the other hand, can potentially cause sleep eating. How cool is that? That could come in handy in regards to item 2 on the list......


Have I mentioned I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed? Here's my blonde, female, Polish move for this week. I hadn't weighed myself since 12/17 because it was just too depressing watching the scale go down, down, down. On 12/17 I had weighed in at 125.2. I decided that since I was going on vacation, I should be able to really bump up my eating. So, for 4 days straight (12/21-12/24) I made sure I was eating every 3-4 hours. I basically kept my tummy constantly full. On Christmas morning I decided to finally weigh myself again, thinking the scale had to have gone up at least half a pound. Alas, it said 123.4 (This is less than what I weighed when I got married at age 21!). I was SO bummed. I kind of moped around all day because of it and then in the evening, the lightbulb went off. I didn't weigh myself right before embarking on the four days of stuffing my face. For all I know, maybe I HAD gone up a pound or so from whatever I weighed. Doh! So, slightly cheered, I hopped on allrecipes.com and started working on the third item on the list which will help the second item on the list......

I'm still limited to mostly liquid and some soft foods. So I did a search on creamy soups and bisques on allrecipes.com. I found 8-10 recipes that sounded interesting so I printed them out, made a list of ingredients and hit Wegman's yesterday. $160 later I was back home with a very large amount of fresh vegetables and what not. On a side note, I passed a display of eggnog in half gallon containers while shopping. Since I've been drinking the eggnog milkshakes, I thought maybe I should give actual eggnog a try. Once I saw that it has 280 calories in 1/2 cup, I was sold. Thank goodness I hadn't looked at the price before sticking it in my cart because that may have changed my mind right back to not buying it. It rang up at $7.99 and then discounted a $1. For a half gallon! Holy cow! Anyway, last night I got busy in the kitchen. I made a cajun pumpkin soup which was okay. I made a roasted eggplant/garlic soup which was really good. I made a spinach/potato/broccoli/cauliflower/cheese soup that was actually a bit yuck but it's got some hefty calories to it and a ton of good for me stuff (plus it made 12 servings which I will feel too guilty tossing in the garbage) so I'm going to try to force myself to eat it. And lastly I made a different pumpkin soup that called for molasses. Turns out I'm not a fan of molasses. The recipe went in the garbage but I can probably make myself eat the soup. So, the eggplant is definitely a recipe I'll be making again. I'm taking a break from the kitchen today but I still have a stack of other recipes to try (one of them is peanut soup!) in the next couple of days.

Lastly is the thrush. Today is day 6 of once again religiously dissolving 5 of these lozenges on my tongue throughout the day. I'm going to keep doing that for 14 days straight and if I still have thrush at the end of 14 days, I'm going to have to call Dr. A and see if there's anything else we can do. I have to think that some of the discomfort in my mouth and throat would be reduced if I could get rid of this darned yeast infection.

So, that's the health report this week. Nothing much to report on the "fun" front. Santa was VERY nice to me. Who says naughty girls don't make the list! Ha! Due to today's storm, I am not currently ensconced in Patilda's cute little house. My manservant has been a busy bee. I think we're just about ready to clear out the two downstairs bedrooms so we can start remodeling them. It will feel good to get that project underway. My happiness project has stalled out. I may be starting it in February instead of January. I've been a movie watching fiend for this vacation. The Avengers, Cowboys & Aliens, The Amazing Spiderman, Django Unchained, Dark Shadows, Quantum of Solace, Ted.........speaking of which, Kim said that the Bourne Legacy was really good so I think that's where I'll head right now.......