A busy day, for a change

Yesterday was a rare busy day for me. Between appointments and baking, my day seemed to disappear. 

The dietician appointment first thing was pretty standard. I've gotten my calorie intake back to my pre-hospital level (800-1,000), and she wants me to try staying there for another week. I feel like I've been stuck at the same intake for far too long. I'm losing sight of where I'm going, if anywhere. My weight went up slightly, but I didn't let it phase me too much. Fluctuations happen, as my dietician says. Gotta look at the overall trend. 

When I was chatting with the dietician, about to wrap things up, my lovely GP popped in to give me a flu shot. Oh, the joys of having a team forming at the same clinic. She came in right at the end of the appointment, then told me I had to sit and wait for 15 minutes, for observations. Mum and I convinced her to let us sit in the car, in view of reception. When mum had her flu shot, she told her GP she'd be "rebelling" and not waiting the 15 minutes. We sat in the now smoke-free car, and drove off after 7 minutes in a desperate hunt for coffee.

As I said in my last post, I declared yesterday mum's belated birthday. Her actual birthday was two weeks ago, on the 7th, but I was in too much pain to do anything. Both days were spent in-and-out of doctors' offices, but at least I was prepared for yesterday. We picked up muffins and coffee for breakfast on the way home from the dietician, and I spent the morning in go-slow mode. Lunch was Cheesymite scrolls and Milos (okay, non-Australians, I don't expect you to understand a word of what I just said). Then I whizzed into the kitchen and started assembling mum's cake. I got it done in a little over an hour, just in time to rush out to see the physician. 

The physician was nice. My breathing capacity's improved, from 30% initially to 60% now. We went through my blood tests, which showed little except a few diet-related lapses. My liver function was low, but we'll keep an eye on that. My iron is low, and my electrolytes are low for the first time in a long time. Mum asked if there was any indication as to what caused my lung issues, and he likened it to a bushfire. It goes through and destroys everything, and sometimes you never find any evidence remaining as to what caused it. He gave me a slip for yet another blood test in search of the underlying cause, and another script for antibiotics ("just in case"). 

He asked if I'd like to be referred on to yet another specialist, to help me specifically with my smoking. Apparently there's medications that block your cannabanoid receptors, so you won't get an effect if you try to smoke. He made it all sound very serious, and honestly, I'm hoping to quit weed the same way I'll quit tobacco. I don't need medication or a detox or group therapy. Next time I see him, in two months, I'll have proved that. Today was my first real butt-in-gear day with cutting back smoking. I've had a notepad set up with times and amounts for each time I smoke. My goal is to bring the total amount I smoke down a little bit each day. 

Here's mum's birthday cake. By her request, it's a chocolate caramel layer cake. It's three layers of sponge cake - caramel, choc-caramel and chocolate - sandwiched together with gooey caramel and frosted in chocolate ganache. It was also my first ever attempt at piping, so I'm not too dissatisfied. I ran the nutritional count on it, and the entire cake contains 9,000 calories. Thank god a tiny slice is more than enough. A tiny slice...

I'll have a photo of the cheesecake tomorrow. We started eating the less-presentable one first, as the recipe made up to two cheesecakes, but I'll get some photos tomorrow when I slice them up for the freezer. 

xxBella