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649848 tn?1534633700

Sunday Weigh-In March 10, 2019

Good morning... wow - another week past and here we are at the great spring forward time change to Daylight Saving Time.  The time changes always mess me up for a few weeks - seems about the time I get used to it, it's time to change back again. lol  Anyway, it looks like we're shaping up for another beautiful day, so other than the fact that my clock said it was 5:15 when I got up this morning instead of the usual 4:15, I guess nothing is really different.

This past week has been pretty hectic for me.  If you've been following, you know I had 2 of the 4 procedures being done on the veins in my legs.  The problem is that the valves in the veins in my legs aren't working so instead of blood being carried back to my heart as it should be it's flowing backwards and pooling in my feet and lower legs.  The procedures being done are using catheters to heat the veins, which destroys them, causing the blood to reroute via smaller capillaries in the legs, which will eventually make new veins that will carry the blood back to my heart.

The first procedure, on Wednesday, was quite painful because the person inserting the catheter and administering the numbing agent (lidocaine) didn't know how much of the lidocaine it would take to actually get me numb and unfortunately, they began applying heat before I was completely numb.  I did tell him that I could feel my leg, but he didn't really think I could until I nearly came unglued when they applied the heat... Of course, they stopped immediately to administer more lidocaine, but the damage was done.  They had to stop a couple more times on the way down that vein to administer more shots.   The only one that really hurts is the first place I felt the burning.  

When I went back on Friday, the nice man increased the dosage of lidocaine by almost double so the shots weren't nearly as painful, since it started working more quickly, plus it deadened the area better, but I did still feel it in one spot, so they had to stop to administer more lidocaine.  As I've known for years, but most doctors deny, this guy admitted I am resistant to the numbing agents, which causes me to have similar issues when I go to the dentist, etc so this isn't the first time I've had this happen.  

Anyway, the right leg is done and aside from some bruises and minor pain, I'm not much worse for wear.  All I have to do now is walk to make sure I don't get clots.  I've done really well and when I went back on Friday, they did and ultrasound of Wednesday's work, finding everything to be very good.  Next week, on Wed, we'll do an ultrasound to check Friday's work, then begin on the left leg.  There will only be one procedure this coming week, so it won't be as grueling.  The final procedure will be the following week.

I did get to watch the whole procedure on the ultrasound screen and the man explained everything he was doing and why he was doing it, so it was quite interesting and that makes it all a lot less intimidating and/or scary when you know what/why/how things will be done. I do realize that some people aren't interesting in the technical aspects of it all, though.  

The doctor had originally said they would use a type of super glue to close the veins, but he changed his mind because that's a new procedure and he said some people are allergic to the super glue. I guess there's no way to test for that allergy... The person doing the set up, shots, catheter insert, etc said he works at another location, as well and they do mostly the super glue with no issues and he was disappointed as he said it's a lot easier on the patient as it doesn't require the multiple numbing shots, which are actually the most painful part of the procedure but necessary because the burning would be intolerable - I know because I felt it.

Weight-wise, I've done pretty good, all things considered.  I haven't been as hungry, but I haven't done as much as usual, either.  I worked in my shop on Monday, making a pen for a friend's birthday and on Tuesday, I baked him a cake (healthy, of course).   Right now, I'm down 0.6 lbs from last week, but I have on several ounces of bandages so when those come off as soon as I finish this, I'll be down a bit further.  In spite of everything, I think the worst thing is not being able to take a shower for the 2 days I'm wearing the bandages - even though it gets me just as clean, a "spit bath" just doesn't cut it...  :-)

So - that's life in my world... what about you?  I hope you've accomplished your goal(s) for the week.

~~Wishing everyone a wonderful, successful week~~
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134578 tn?1693250592
Down either .4, .6 or 1 pound, depending on where my feet were on my touchy digital scale (and the last one, I exhaled. It made me laugh, how much of a pound it took away to blow out all the air in my lungs -- at least .4 on my scale. :)  Realistically, I can't take credit for a whole pound.)

I think it's the filberts. I haven't been very careful with the Dr. Pepper, and had two candy bars in the last week, meaning I haven't been shying away from the very concentrated carbs, but not as many when I have nuts in the shell around.  They provide something like a diversion. When I might go for a snack of something totally bad for me, like chips or White Cheddar Cheez-Its, I was instead cracking and eating the Ennis filberts I bought last month. At the snack impulse moment, substituting something a little more complex to eat that has a higher fat content (satisfying) but lower carb count, which is also slightly sweet and has high protein, for pure carbo junk, something good will happen. It's not a very fast way to lose, and my little sister gave me a momentary yank on the collar this week by sending me a photo of myself as a teenager -- I think I weighed about 118 pounds -- so I'm not sanguine. But I'm glad to literally nibble away at the issue instead of making a big fuss or feeling down about it. I think if I got down that low again, unfortunately, my neck would be all droopy and crepey, unlike the glowing young face in the photo, so I'm not aiming that low. But I think I could stand to hit 125 without looking like a saggy, baggy elephant. :)

Weather was fritzy this week. It snowed twice, once with some ambition of sticking, even though this is March and it never does in western Oregon at this time of year. I kept thinking of Dominosarah and all the news reports and films of the horrible blizzards, and wondering if the entire population of the state of Minnesota shouldn't just be given winter homes elsewhere (in warmer states) by the government, so nobody has to plow, and cope, and try to save people who are stranded. It looks totally miserable!

I've been watching YouTube videos by a guy out of Chicago named Baumgartner who does cleaning and restoration of important paintings.  Wow, is he good. And he has all the stuff -- a perfect, airy studio with all the necessary equipment and big, flat table spaces, exactly the right kind of cleaning products and touch-up paints (archival and removable), and the knowledge, of course. I'm sure it doesn't harm his business that he puts up the videos, but even if they weren't great ads, they are just fun to watch! (There is a whole YouTube subset of people cleaning things, all very satisfying. I also enjoy those where someone is cleaning out a trashy, neglected back garden of a Victorian house in Britain, though they aren't always as well filmed. Baumgartner, or his video editor, has it down to an art.)

Anyway, I have a lot of paintings, including a couple that are really dirty and one that has a small tear but isn't dirty, and I had looked up "How to mend a tear in a painting," to see if it was possible to do at home. One video by a crafts store showed a lady using fabric glue and a huge canvas patch on the back, which just seemed likely to cause future trouble. Mr. Baumgartner dealt with a tear by shaving off some threads from the unused edge of the painting's canvas, putting an archival adhesive onto the tear from the back (melted beeswax can also be used, amazing in itself!) and then dropping each little thread crosswise to the tear one at a time with tweezers, like little bridges, and smoothing them in with the adhesive. It was eminently sensible, and very sensitive, and won't leave a bump that can be seen from the front. I obviously have no archival adhesive but do have beeswax, and might try that thread method on my painting with the tear. At least, it won't do any harm, since beeswax is removable with mineral spirits. (My son had suggested duct tape. This is why paintings ultimately have to go to restorationists.) I'd love to learn the specialty of art restoration, though part of the draw in Mr. Baumgartner's videos is the lovely, perfect studio, which I would never be able to replicate. :)

Have a great week!



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Congratulations on however much you happen to have lost.  It's always satisfying to find that we've gone down, no matter how small the amount.  Isn't it amazing what the pesky scale can do to/for us?  My scale doesn't seem to be quite so sensitive, though my weight can vary by a pound or so, depending on the time of day it is, what/how much I've had to eat and how many times I've gone to the bathroom... It can be quite frustrating.

I look at photos of myself when I was in my younger years and don't even consider getting back to those weights.  First off, I pretty well know it's not possible, at this point.  Back in those days, I didn't have the health issues I have now - specifically hypothyroidism and pre-diabetes - that affect metabolism as they do now and if I ever did get back to those weights, I'd have loose skin hanging everywhere.  It would be much more unsightly than a few extra pounds; I can see that, just by noting the skin on my right leg now that most of the swelling/edema has gone down - even my foot is getting a, somewhat, "wrinkled" appearance from having been swollen for so long.  I'm wondering how most of my shoes are going to fit when this is all over, since I've had to go into a larger shoe size due to the swelling/edema.  It will be interesting once the healing has been completed and I've reached a new "normal".

It sounds like your snowfalls have been a lot gentler than the ones in the area in which dominosarah lives.  I've been watching the weather in her area as well, since we used to live not too far from where she lives and we still have family up there.  They get the horrible winds that blow the snow, even if the snowfall isn't fresh.  

The videos you've been watching sound quite interesting... perhaps you should think about designing a studio such as Mr Baumgartner's... Keep in mind that Mr Baumgartner's studio is probably not "always" as neat as it appears in the videos.  My woodworking shop gets messy with each project I work on; the trick is to clean it up between projects so it doesn't become overwhelming.   Right now, there's a cedar chest I'm refinishing and it's a very big job, so I work on other, smaller projects in between, so my shop has stayed somewhat messy with sanding dust, etc.  That makes it hard to work, so I'll take a day very soon to clean it well, even while knowing that I'm going to go in and make a big mess with sanding again!!

Good luck with the painting repair.  I suppose Mr Baumgartner's purpose in posting the videos on YouTube is to encourage people to try their hand at it?
  
No, in fact probably not. He doesn't put them out there as how-to's. In fact, all the specialty products and methods he uses make it clear that an average person should not try cleaning paintings. :) (Luckily, my dirty paintings are by anonymous artists and probably not valuable at all, so I can wreck them all I want.) My guess would be that the guy just realized that he got a very interested response from his clients if they came to see progress along the way as he cleaned a painting, and this being the 21st century, he probably thought of filming the process. I think a lot of professions could do this to their benefit -- film and narrate a job from start to finish -- and at least send it to the client along with the final product, if not post it publicly. Clients would watch, and know what went into the job, and it would facilitate understanding at a lot of levels. That they also make interesting general viewing is probably not why he first did one, but now I'm sure he can see that he has an interested audience.
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