Day 58 - Pictures, Recipe, and News

April 7, 2012

Thursday's rehab went real good. I increased my watts on the Nustep. I also increased my walking speed and incline on the treadmill. It felt really good. I'm still working with the 5 pound weights. I had just enough time on the clock to get the first three weight exercises done. My time limit for now is 3 minutes of weigh lifting. I'm not sure when that gets increased, I just go by what the little sheet with the name "Gary" on it says to do.

I took a better picture of the Heart Institute this last week as well. My cardiologists office is on the first floor just to the right of the entrance.  My heart surgeon and the rehab area are both on the fifth floor. It's actually very nice to have them all located together like that. We had to stop by the cardiologists office Thursday on the way to rehab. Over at State Street we would have probably drove over to the cardiologists office since the doctors and rehab weren't all in the same building. In fact, my doctors were in different buildings on State as well. So the new Heart Institute puts everyone in the same building. Much nicer even if it is further away.

I took a few pictures of the view from the fifth floor. This is taken from the edge of the track at rehab. The bottom picture is a shot of the Samaritan helicopter. Unfortunately it was sitting backwards from normal.

Oh, I should answer a few questions from previous posts in case ya'll didn't see the answer.

Q: Have you ever seen Jim Gaffigan's hot pockets skit? Its hilarious. -Ar

A: No, Ar, I haven't. But now I will have to google it. I do hope it's online somewhere

Q: Is the food out there as good as on State St - Dad

A: The food is as good as on State Street. Some of it is even better. Or maybe that should be "different". They make the pasta right in front of you when you order it. Haven't tried that yet but it sounds really good. And the Gelato is really good. Lisa and I have shared a bowl of that twice now, different flavors each time.

Q: When will you be able to go back to work full time? - Aunt Shirley

A: May 7th will be my first day back at work. I'm able to work part time from home until then. but no more than 24 hours in a week.

After rehab Lisa and I stopped by Menard's to get new tires for the lawn mower, peanuts for me, and look at some bricks (or something) for around one of the trees. Lisa had never been to Menard's and didn't realize they had the variety of food stuffs that they do. Needless to say, we picked up a few extra things. They had Malt-O-Meal cereal on sale so we got some. It keeps for quite a while so why not. Haha. We also picked up a few snacks. I bought some small packages of a variety of snack foods to create my own trail mix.

Trail Mix Recipe:
8 oz. Chipotle Sunflower seeds

5 oz. Sesame Oat Bran sticks

5.5 oz. Banana chips

4.5 oz. Pumpkin seeds

5 oz. Soynuts

The snacks I used were on sale so I was able to make the entire mix for five dollars.

We went to Angel's Cafe for dinner Thursday. That's a little place down the way from our house, 5 miles or so. I had the Fried Chicken special. Lisa had Biscuits and Gravy with Scrambled Eggs. Looked really good.

My in-house nutritionist informed me when she got home from her lab that fried chicken wasn't really good for me and I should have had something else from the menu. Hmm. Am I paying her for advice? Geez, I hope not. This isn't the advice I really want to hear. Hehehe.

Ah shucks, she's a good daughter and means well. I will have to try and not eat too much fried foods in the future. After all, she is right about that one.

Had to take Lenny to the vets this morning. He did the splits on the tile floor in the kitchen the other day and his inner thigh was really red looking. His hock is also swollen a little. The vet thinks he might have pulled a muscle. At least that is what we and the vet are hoping. He is on meds for the pain and swelling. If it isn't better in a week I have to take him back in for an x-ray.

Tomorrow is Kristin's birthday. I can't believe how fast she has grown up. I guess I better do the same one of these days. Hardy Har Har Har.

Seriously, Kristin is a good daughter and Lisa and I are very blessed to have her. I thank the Lord for both Lisa and Kristin every day. If it weren't for them, I might not be here to celebrate Easter with them tomorrow.

Speaking of Easter tomorrow...Happy Easter everyone! He is Risen! God bless you all!