Where Did The Week Go?

Thursday, already?  Not sure where the rest of the week went but I knew I needed to get a blog post on before the craziness of the next few days takes place!  You see - my sisters baby shower is Saturday!  Both near-future grandma's are running around like maniacs and then there is the near-future 'Crazy Aunt' (that's ME) that has been overly busy at work and down and out not feeling well for a few days last week!  I haven't been as much help as I wanted the last couple of weeks!  Anyhow...today I will share with you some things I have been taking snapshots of over the past week and then I will blab about the shower next week!

First up is what I had for dinner last night.  It's the first photo you see in this post and it is LITERALLY something I threw together because I didn't want to fuss with anything special.  I found tortilla boats that happen to be vegan and I filled them with this chickpea mixture!

Smoked Russian Chickpeas:

1 Can of Chickpeas

4 T Vegan Mayo (I used Trader Joe's - see below)

2 to 3 T Ketchup

1/2 t Smoked Paprika

1/2 t Wildtree Memphis Dry Rub

3 Drops Organic Liquid Smoke

I cannot express how AWESOME this turned out!  I'm not going to lie - I kinda wanted to drink the 'dressing' which was a more smoked up version of my Vegan Russian Dressing I have done in the past.

This was the Vegan Spread and Dressing I used that I found at Trader Joe's the last time I went.  I'm partial to Just Mayo but this is pretty awesome on it's own.  It's not what I would call a straight-up vegan mayo but more like a dressing like it states - it seemed thicker and did have a different taste but the taste was pretty wonderful!

Another wrap I did within the last week was this one.  It doesn't look like much but it was a great comfort food!  I used a couple of potato patties, tomato slices, and vegan cheese sauce.  The vegan cheese sauce was the leftover vegan cheese powder I made not too long ago!  It worked well!

I had a huge salad this week, too, and I made this dressing.  It was supposed to resemble a vegan Ranch Dressing using Sunflower Seeds as the base but it totally missed the mark as a Vegan Ranch Dressing taste-alike.  The taste wasn't bad it just wasn't what I was going for.  

I'm grateful on a daily basis that Paco has been doing well the last several months!  A few months ago he wasn't able to do this!  He would barely move let alone look engaged in things!  

I still have to help him up on the sofa and recliner but the WANT and INTEREST is there!  I put him up on the recliner but he managed to get on the armrest all by himself and pose like this!  I couldn't tell you the last time he did that!  For about a year I freaked out when he did try to because his legs were so unstable!  How can these photos NOT put a smile on your face?

Reflecting on Last Week and Recipe Posts

This past week I was trying to focus on my Lymphatic System and I think I did a pretty good job with it.  I was able to try almost everything on my list from last week.  However...I didn't get around to the Plantains, Echinacea, and didn't do as much Yoga as I had hoped.  I made it about 90% or more with RAW FOODS last week, too! 

 It's been extremely cold over the past week - or month for that matter!  We've been seeing temperature anywhere between -18 and -29 and YES that is BELOW ZERO!  Brrr!

Because I am having some discomfort in certain areas of my body (and I am chalking it up to what time of month it is) I will be trying to focus on these things this week.  Most of the suggestions I have found online I already do with my diet.  So I think I will be upping my herbs and essential oils - as well as my green juices and smoothies.  I think I would be more excited about juicing again if I had a different juicer.  I'm still tossing the idea around of getting a new one.  Right now I am HOT on both a Breville and an Omega NC900.

In other news - I have been concentrating on Recipes over at The Raw Food World News Site and I will continue to but I will now be contributing articles again.  More on that down the road.

As for the recipes - I will include some quick links and sort descriptions throughout this week!  First up...Raw Tomato Garlic Herb Bread that I made in my dehydrator a while back...it strayed from the version just a little bit that I posted previously on my blog.  Brazil Nut Pesto was another recipe that was featured this past month.  You know I LOVE my Pesto's!  And the last preview for today is the Ginger Wasabi Noodle Bowl.  I did this a while back using a Wildtree Product but have since made it from scratch and enjoy it just as much!

Work has been going real well.  Incase I didn't mention it before I've been switched over to sales and I have already met my goals for the first two months of this year and I am really happy about it.  I'm still keeping a few of my responsibilities from before, too, so I won't solely be doing sales eventho that is my main priority from now on.

Furkids Update: Riley has been showing his age a bit and I think he is either getting random muscle pains or spasms or arthritis.  Paco has another appointment today for his ITP and they will be doing another full blood work up to check his levels.  We have been going about every other month since his levels have been coming back better the last few times, however, I have been getting meds for him every month.  Charlie seems to be doing as well as he has been since his tail amputation...so that is good!

Hubby has been on and switching meds for his Crohns and doing fairly well with it, however, our insurance changed over the last few months and things are NOT working to our benefit with the changes and his prescriptions.

As far as my love of Pop Culture as of late...I was able to watch the 40th SNL Anniversary Special and LOVED it!  We are back into The Walking Dead and will watch Sunday's Episode tonight.  Nothing, really, in the way of movies, lately, and my ears have been enjoying a split of Reggae and New Wave, it seems.

What about you!?  Do tell!

Paco ~ Update ~ ITP Sucks!

I know I have been hit and miss lately but things have been crazy at home with losing Suzie and a few other things as well as at work.  Today's post is an update about Paco who is still battling with ITP.  Yup!  ITP Sucks!  We lost Suzie on Saturday and Monday we had a scheduled vet appt for Paco and after his blood work the vet told us he was relapsing.  They wanted to see him again today.  After doing more blood tests - the results were still a little 'weird looking' but with his white blood cell and platelet counts being where they should be they said to keep doing what we have been doing.  This is technically GOOD NEWS at the moment that I am VERY grateful for as I don't think I could have dealt with the loss of 2 furkids in a matter of days.  We have to take him back AGAIN next Wednesday.  We we learned from all of this - this past week - is that he will have to be on some sort of medication for his immune system for the rest of his life.  However, because the steroid he's on right now causes him to have stomach/GI ulcers - we will probably have to change the med he is on at some point but because of the issues we will have to do that over time and carefully.  In addition to that med - he's been taking a med to coat his tummy to prevent ulcers - which apparently wasn't working on it's own.  We added over the counter Pepcid as well as a liquid twice/day - twice/week (Tuesday/Friday).  

Outside of the ITP issues he has developed what looks like small bruises in a few spots - near his hip - and now on his tummy - which I thought was part of the ITP - but his vet thinks its separate - and a skin issue.  So tomorrow he starts a pill for that, too.  This poor little guy is on SO MANY pills at the moment!  Eventho he's dealing with all of this - he's dealing with it VERY WELL.  His spirits are up, he's vocal, he's playing, etc.  Eventho we did get some GOOD NEWS today - it's going to be an ongoing struggle from here on out.  Some days better than others, I guess.  I'm just grateful to still have him in my life.

I was reading that "Chia" means "Strength".  Since he's a Chihuahua we've often called him "Chia" as one of his many nicknames.  Now that I know it means "strength" it just seems even more fitting.

Thank you for all of the kind words about my last post on Suzie.  It really means a lot.  Thanks again!  Ongoing positive vibes for Paco - always appreciated, too!

Household Updates

Last week was crazy.  I wanted to hold off on posting this until I knew more.  I'm happy with my choice to wait because I think there has been some improvement.  Here's what's up...Last week...Paco developed another spot near his hip.  He also stopped taking his meds - which was never a problem up to about Wednesday Night.  PLUS...Wednesday and Thursday he was getting sick.  Thursday Night even more so.  I called the vet that had been with him thru his whole ITP Diagnosis and she wanted me to bring him in again on Friday so I did.  They did all the blood work all over again and said the good news was that his levels and counts were the best they have been since this whole thing started.  The bad news was they are pretty sure that he has an ulcer somewhere in his body.

So we took him off of the steroids and added an additional medication to coat his stomach and help with this ulcers.  This seemed to help a LOT.  Because it was an intense steroid that he was on - they asked me to start giving it to him yesterday so I did. 

Time will tell what we will do next but I have a feeling they will have to adjust the steroid(s) that he IS on because that is the problem.  

Thankfully all else seems to be ok.  What I will say - without any hesitation is that ITP SUCKS!!!!  I wouldn't wish it on ANYONE...human or animal! 

In other news...Suzie has been rapidly aging.  We've had her for 12 years and she was 2 when we adopted her.  She's the Queen Bee - always has been - always will be - but - she's been making some noises the last few months that we are chalking up to arthritis.  She's always been a picky eater but the last week or so we've had to coax her to eat more than usual.  She's not in pain because she's still running around and playing.  I have been adding water to her food and yesterday I picked up some soft food to mix in with what she usually eats...I know she wasn't crazy about the food we just ran out of so that could be part of it too!  BUT...I have to say she is LOVING the wet food that we bought for her.  She's been eating it up without much nudging from us.  Disclaimer...our furkids are NOT vegetarian/vegan neither is my hubby.  Anyhow...I hope this new special mixture of wet and dry food will be the trick for her.


Aside from 'furkids' it was a weekend of CLEANING in our house!  WOWZA!  I started on Tuesday of last week going thru my clothes and ended up trashing a bag and donating 3 large garbage bags full of clothes.  THEN...this weekend I was able to toss 2 more bags and donate 4 more bags of clothes to Goodwill, too!  I still have more to go thru but this is a great start!  We went thru the upstairs hallway, the bathroom, the bedroom, the down stairs living room, and front room, and Paco's Palace (as we call it) and cleaned, too! 

Another thing we chatted about this past weekend was possibly opening up a YouTube Channel or two.  We thought it would be a good thing to do this winter since we tend to be hermits when the snow flies...which brings me to my next tidbit...SNOW...blah...YEAH...we saw our first snow fall of the season...a dusting...thankfully it didn't last the whole day on Saturday. 

Furkids Updates, Feathered Friends, & Finders-Keepers

Thanks to everyone who has been asking about our dear Paco!  For a timeline of posts about his medical issues visit these posts:

No!  My Dear Paco! Posted Aug 26th

Furkids/Family Medical Updates & Timeline Posted Aug 27th
Paco Update Posted Sept 3rd

Now for the NEWEST Update on Paco and some info about Suzie as well.  This photo above I took this past weekend!  Suzie - on the right - has lost about 3 pounds in the past several months.  I took her in for some required shots and prep for her stay with a very nice guy we have locally that her and Riley will stay with next week.  He truly LOVES animals and is a great guy.  Anyways...we are to keep an eye on her - she's NOT eating less and she IS acting completely normal otherwise.  They have her down as 12 but I know that is NOT true...we've had her for that long.  And she was 2 when we adopted her.  However, the vet did say that now she is within her ideal weight - where as before she was a little bit on the heavy side for her size.  She's our "Queen Bee" of the house that is for sure!

As for Paco - he continues to IMPROVE!  On Friday his Platelet Count was 698!!!  He will remain on all of his meds for the next 5 months and we will be doing monthly checks in the meantime.  He has another round of Antibiotics but once he's done with those he will be down to 2 meds and a low dose tummy tamer for the lining of his stomach because of the steroids he's on.

In other news I have been making some new friends lately!  Check these 'guys' out!  I went over to my parents Sunday night and across the street these two were hanging out.  I had to take a few photos because these aren't birds I usually see in our area.  They aren't the best photos because I was trying to use my ZOOM on my iPhone before they walked away.

They were short and fat but super cool!  After asking a few people and doing some research we DID establish that they were a type of Heron.  My husband thought they were young Black Crowned Night Herons but I think they look more like the Green Heron photos I have seen.  Regardless I was super fortunate to spot these 'guys' because they are concerned 'least concern' by the conservation department...it's not endangered but it could get to that point.  My mom said she's seen this charming pair of birds around their house and two of the neighbors properties in the last week to week and a half.  They are wondering if they are living in a nearby tree.

Also over the weekend...I was cleaning and found a package of Incense from Wild Berry.  I opened it up and decided to burn a half of a stick and they were still potent!  I remember when I was in college I used to buy Incense were ever I could find some but NOT for the reasons people may think!  Many of my college friends were NOT allowed to burn candles in their dorms or apartments so they burned these instead AND they were nice to put on window sills - they sun would hit them and release the oils, too, without having to burn them.  They were also CHEAP and the perfect price for college students on a budget!  So...yeah...I found a few sticks and was really shocked at the aroma in them still because I bet I have had these for at least 15 years because I don't remember buying them myself.  I'm thinking my father gave them to me because he gets samples at work for purchasing for a chain of C-Stores here.

 

OH!!!!!  And...I will have multiple posts again today so please check back AND if you haven't entered to WIN the Garden of Life Chocolate Cacao RAW PROTEIN Powder...there is STILL TIME...I will draw a winner tomorrow morning at 8am EST.  Check out THIS POST for more details and to enter!

Paco Update!

I have a lot to cover today at My Blissful Journey.  First off - I'm happy to report that Paco is improving!  Last week I mention he was diagnosed with IMHA which stands for Immune Mediated Hemolytic Anemia.  BUT...in fact he's been diagnosed with ITP instead.  ITP stands for Immune Mediated Thrombocytopenia.

They are similar diseases being that they both attack their own systems and that they are both immune diseases.  The difference being - in short - is that IMHA - is when the Red Blood Cells are being attacked and ITP is when the Platelets are being attacked.

When we took him in last Tuesday his Platelet count was at 9.  Thursday the count was at 3.  This is VERY bad.  Anything under 200 is bad.  We took him in for blood test again yesterday after him being on VERY limited activity for the long weekend while at home with us.  He was at the vet for 3 days prior to that.  His Platelet Count yesterday was 468.  YAY!!!!  Eventho he's 'out of the woods' he's still not up to par.  With ITP there is a long recovery time.  Right now they are shooting for 4 months on meds.  Maybe even 6 months.  OR...maybe even the rest of his life.  BUT we are VERY pleased that his counts jumped that much over the long weekend.  We could be more happy!  Thank you everyone for their positive vibes, prayers, thoughts, etc.  I believe they helped make a difference!  Thanks again!