DDD #22

How did we go from #27 to #22? Well I’m obviously WAY behind in my blog posts since I only posted once in May. I’m also worried as time goes by the critical DDD information that is stored in my head will slowly disintegrate before I can document it. THE HORROR! So…to avoid this I am writing about the most recent DDDs while that info is the freshest.

So back to #22. Last month after my second PRP injection John and I met up with Maggie at Baby Blues BBQ for our 22^nd Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.

Like always we took Guy’s suggestions and ordered the dishes he featured on the show, but this time we were a little disappointed.

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John got the pulled pork, which was pretty good, but a little dry without adding more BBQ sauce. We also got the corn since it was features on the show and it was just ok…not real sweet. I got the baby back ribs and they were AWESOME. By far the best thing we ordered all night…along with the GIGANTIC glass of Kool-aid.

Maggie was pumped to have the option to just order sides, since they are her fave, however they were dry as well, (without adding BBQ sauce).

Baby Blues and BBQ was featured in season one and I’m starting to think that the most recent restaurants featured on DDD are at a higher quality then some of the ones featured in the earlier seasons. Sad but true.

I also think this DDD was before Guy started using his stencil to mark the places he visited. However he did leave this behind.

DDD #27

Last week John and I headed back down to LA for my last(?) PRP injection. After my second injection I did notice that the pain had decreased. It still swells up a lot, but at least I’m seeing any difference in my foot. After the first month’s injections I only noticed a change one day, and was thinking that the injections weren’t doing anything. I’m not sure if they will heal my Achilles 100% but if I can run or jump by the end of the year, the mission accomplished!!

The third injections hurt just as bad as the first two, but I didn’t start to feel any pain until we got home around 11pm. With the first two injections I felt pain immediately after the numbing shots wore off. I’m not sure if that was a good sign or not, as my foot hurt pretty bad the next morning.

After the injection we had made plans to meet Maggie at Gloria’s Café for our 27^th Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. At the last minute I got a text from my sister-in-law that she and her husband were going to be able to meet us as well!

Gloria’s started out as a Mexican restaurant but over time she started introducing more and more San Salvadorian dishes. Every dish I tasted was REALLY good. The flavor was outstanding.

Maggie got the beef tacos, I got the 7 seas soup, and Molly and Michael split the popusas combo plate.

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John got the carne adbodaba and popusas.

The flavor of John’s carne and my soup, was SO good. I’ve never had anything like it before. I could have used some crab extraction utensils though, but I managed…as some of you know, I have a bit of crab cracking experience.

The décor was authentic and it had the neatest light fixtures…very 70ish. (Sorry no photo). If you didn't notice in the first photo, Gloria's has their DDD poster hanging in the window of their door. That is what I like to see! Be so proud that you risk the poster fading away to nothing. I'm sure Guy would replace it if they needed. Overall I LOVED Gloria's and can't wait to eat there again. Thanks Guy!

Thyroid Update

A few weeks ago I got some blood work done to check my thyroglobulin levels. (Thyroglobulin is a protein that is produced by your thyroid. Since I do not have a thyroid, my level should be at 0.) A year after my thyroid was removed my thyroglobulin levels were high at a 3.8, (I think). My doctor then found the cells in my neck, which lead me to my second surgery.

Six months after my surgery I got my levels check again and they were at 1.7. My doctor wasn’t that worried because she said she has some patients that never reach 0. As long as the number continued to go down, then we had nothing to worry about.

Six months later my levels were tested again and they were 1.4. I also had had my yearly ultrasound and my dr. didn’t see anything suspicious. Yeah!

Fast forward to my most recent blood work and my levels came back as 2.8. What the heck? I contacted my dr. and she isn’t worried, and doesn’t see it necessary for me to see her any sooner than my next appointment. She does think it’s a good idea to get more blood work done before my appointment to see if the levels test that high again.

So as of now the saga continues, but I’m not going to worry about it until after we get back from Paris. I will continue to say that I am one of the lucky ones. A friend of mine, (Stephanie on the far left), recently got diagnosed with stage 4 liver cancer. If you’d like to follow her fight please visit her Care Page.

I Found a Wistle

This past holiday weekend we had quite a few guests in town. First my parents and my uncle were in town and around the time they left my in-laws showed up for a day. One of the highlights of the weekend was that MGMT performed in Avila Beach on Friday night.

Thanks to Spin magazine John had downloaded some of MGMT’s songs last year and we included those on a mixed CD we made for my dad for Christmas. When I found out that they were going to be playing 15 minutes from where we lived I HAD to get us tickets! The only time we ever get big named artists playing in our County is during the Paso Robles fair in July. This concert was very unusual!

After I bought the tickets I then realized that I didn’t have either one of their albums! Oops! John download them for me ASAP and I started listening to them everyday at work. At first I was like ‘what kind of music is this?’ but by the end of the few weeks I was a total fan.

The concert was on a golf course, so I made reservations for us to have dinner at the restaurant on the course. It couldn’t have worked out more perfect as we got to park super close to the venue!

My dad sent Eric to get some beers…he came back with this! As you an see he is very proud.
The crowd was mostly college kids, but there were even some families with their little kids. I always have fun people watching and seeing everyone’s stylish concert attire. I assume white pants the latest fashion trend?

The first two songs MGMT played sounded SO good. However by the third their sound got all whacky and the base was REALLY loud…then they keyboards got REALLY loud, and then there was massive feedback from the guitar. It did improve, thank goodness, but we weren’t sure what was going on.

They had a really long encore (5 to 6 songs), but ended it with their song Kids, which was awesome. What was odd, is that they sang the song over prerecorded music. I’m not sure if they planned it that way or what, but it was odd.

I still haven’t figured out how they wound up picking Avila as a venue. My only thought was that the Santa Barbara bowl was booked, or that they knew someone in the area. I’m hoping it is a sign that more big named bands will play in this area but I doubt it.

I'm here...

Is anyone out there? I blame our move 100% for my lack of blogging. Seriously. I cannot believe how much of our time the move has sucked into its vortex to never be seen again. I’m so ready to be able to do something fun without the feeling of a thousand home jobs hanging over my head. Granted we did have some fun when we went to Sacramento a few weekends ago, but I’m talking about not having that feeling while at home.

This weekend my parents are coming into town, so after we moved in we decided that our goal to get the house unpacked would be this holiday weekend. So far it’s been a good/realistic plan. However HOURS of fun have been sacrificed for it, as well as HOURS I needed to read my book club book.

This past weekend we decided to be ‘responsible’ and not go down to L.A. for the last leg of the Amgen Tour of California bike race, and it’s actually a good thing we didn’t. We wound up working both days on the house and even took two more loads to our storage garage. We even had boxes to still unpack! We made some good headway, but I just want to be done with it.

The adjustment to the new digs is getting easier and easier, but there still isn’t enough counter space in the kitchen. I think that may be one of my permanent complaints.

I will do my best to get back in a blogging routine, so keep your fingers crossed that I do…or you can just leave me a motivational comment.

New local

Sorry for the lack of posts this week, but we moved this past weekend. Needless to say it's been rough and everything is disheveled. The move and the adjustment into our new home has not been easy. Even after getting rid of, (what I thought), was a lot of stuff during our garage sale, it still wasn't enough. Our new house is totally packed....I mean packed.
Here is our guest room AKA the 'staging' room. What do you do when your staging room is filled? Well you put stuff where ever you can find space. I swear if the producers of Hoarders came in our house right now we would qualify for their show! Small pathways have been made around our stuff.

I actually got the kitchen unpacked tonight, but I have no idea where I put anything. At least now maybe we will be able to make some meals at home. After 5 days of eating out every meal I'm already sick of it. That actually shocks me since we ate out for 4 weeks when we remodeling our kitchen. It took 3 weeks for me to get sick of it then.

We are also still working on our house on Yarrow which is a major reason we haven't had time to unpack our stuff. However we just found out that escrow will not be closing on Friday so that gives us the weekend to finish up and clean Yarrow. I am praying that escrow will close in a couple of weeks. It kills me to think that we could have moved this weekend instead of last. Oh well. There are a lot of things that are out of your control.

**Sorry for any type-os, I'm too tired to proof this.

Good or Bad Cancer?

This past weekend the following secret was posted on postsecret.com:I thought this was very interesting as the person was referring to thyroid cancer. (The three colors on the ribbon are the awareness colors for thyroid cancer). I don’t think anyone invalidates what a person has gone through when they say that thyroid cancer is the ‘good’ cancer. To me that means THANK YOUR LUCKY STARS you do not have a terminal cancer, have to go through Chemo, loose your hair, or lose a major part of your body (from surgery).

Why does this person feel guilty for not suffering more? No one chooses what kind of cancer they get. I’m wondering if they have a family member or friend who is suffering from terminal cancer, which is making their cancer seem less important

I also agree that no cancer is good, but it’s all about perspective. You aren’t given a choice with what cancer you get diagnosed with. Do you think if someone had the choice to have thyroid cancer or breast they would pick breast? Even if they really wanted a boob job, I doubt they would choose breast. Why? Because thyroid is better than breast…right? Less risks?

Why is it that some people can’t even say the word ‘cancer’? Because it’s bad, right? I agree that it’s all bad. Like I said before…it’s all about what perspective you put the cancer in to deem it ‘good’ or ‘bad.’

The same day I viewed that secret, I also read an entry on the blog Dear Thyroid called ‘Myth-Busting: The Good Cancer. We’re Talking About Thyroid Cancer.'

This entry gives a great detailed explanation of what someone goes through when diagnosed with thyroid cancer. It also supports the thoughts on the secret.

A few days later they posted part 2 of the first blog entry, which states the ‘good’ points about the cancer.

Like I said before, it’s all about perspective. I was surprised at how many angry commenters there were on the first post, saying they were tired of peeps saying thyroid was the ‘good’ cancer. I guess I should be thankful that I’ve had a positive outlook for most of my diagnosis.