Last night was really weird. Terrible insomnia plus I had to pee about 500 times. I was wide awake from 2:30 till after 6, but then I slept for a couple hours thank goodness. I blame the insomnia on the SMALL but daily coffee ice cream cones that I’ve been treating myself to every day for about a week. I love coffee ice cream so much! I’ll take a break for a couple days and then go back to my small daily cones and try to build up a little caffeine tolerance.
My dill pickles smell dilly and pickley! I’ve put one of the jars into the fridge so they can chill before I taste them.
Breakfast was a kefir-strawberry-pineapple smoothie made with my own homemade kefir :)
Normal day, not great, not terrible. Took my metolazone so I peed all day but also felt less puffy. It’s a fair trade. Started some lemon peel vinegar with the lemon peels from making a fresh batch of tabbouleh. Mostly drank water all day to satisfy my burning thirst, but also ate a big juicy salad and a homemade burrito. I had enough leftover beans and rice to make four burritos so I got a little assembly line going and have three in the fridge for another day.
It was sunny enough to make proper shade so I had my nice outdoor time in the afternoon, like for three hours, just listening to my book and watching the bees.
Oh crap my heart just started racing… oh it’s ok it calmed down and is “only” 110 now, which is pretty normal for me.
Tired day. Did nothing. Watched the Sewing Bee Finale with Dave. Tried to sit outside but it’s weirdly overcast so the sun is bouncing off the clouds and there’s no real shade and I started to burn. Dave likes his homemade lacto-fermented pickled onions!!
Another fabulous day! Partly because I don’t feel shitty and the contrast is still so wonderful, but also because I woke up feeling well-rested. Moderate night-sweats. Only up ONCE to pee before I woke up at 6 to take my meds. I never went back to sleep after that (I usually do) but I felt fine all day anyway. I had a rest outdoors in the shade in the afternoon but didn’t sleep. I swear, it feels like I’ve just gotten home from a long hospital stay.
This morning I used homemade kefir to make my breakfast smoothie for the very first time and it was so tangy and good! I have a new jar fermenting in the cupboard for tomorrow’s breakfast. Damn I’m awesome.
I also got two quarts of dill pickles started fermenting, and boiled up enough chopped ginger to make two quarts of ginger-ale (I hope) when my first real batch of water kefir is finished fermenting. That should be Thursday, and then after I mix and bottle it (in reused fizzy-water bottles) it will need a second ferment on the counter for a few days to develop carbon dioxide for fizz. My ginger-water is very VERY spicy so I may dilute it to make three or even four quarts later, but I can’t make it stronger if I dilute it too much so I’ll leave it as-is for now.
I thought my first batch of sauerkraut was finished but after eating some with lunch I’ve decided it needs to ferment for a few more days.
Also I read a lot, and in the afternoon when I started to flag I sat out in the shade again and drank iced fizzy water and listened to my audiobook.
Made something like Spanish rice for dinner: minced onion and diced red bell pepper sautéed in chicken fat from Henry’s good homemade bone broth, then a cup of rice added to pan to toast a bit, then a cup of bone broth and a cup of diced tomatoes in juice to finish cooking. Plus chili-lime seasoning. Very very tasty. Might add cold canned black beans tomorrow and wrap in tortillas.
Oh yeah, my stomach doesn’t hurt so eating is fun!
My right foot is somewhat puffy. I’l keep an eye on it and take my ultra-diuretic sooner than Saturday if necessary.
I had a very enjoyable day of not feeling like I was about to die. So refreshing. I read a lot, ate a lot (well, not a lot but my stomach didn’t hurt so at least I could eat), sat outside in the afternoon… I spent the whole day on 6 liters of oxygen and felt fine, 85% when I checked. I was 80% on 9 liters yesterday. Now I’ve turned it up to 8 for sleep. I always need more oxygen at night.
My spices arrived! I bought several ounces each of dill seed, celery seed, coriander, and caraway seeds. Enough to share with Henry if he wants to PICKLE THINGS too, which I think he does. Also my ph test strips arrived so I can make doubly sure that I’m not poisoning anyone. I’m not worried, but it seems prudent since it’s so easy. A ph under 4.5 and it’s all good. My milk kefir grains seem to have reactivated nicely and I expect to have drinkable homemade kefir in a day or two! Can’t wait for my first smoothie.
I gave up on the clunky federated non-commercial opensource book tracker, bookwyrm, and spent a happy hour manually entering my last 60 or so books into slick commercial functional goodreads. Ah well. I will no longer be irritated by open source jankiness every time I want to put a book into my database. Instead I’ll be assaulted by advertising, but it will Just Work™. You pick your battles.
After four Very Bad days which I had to spend mostly lying down with my eyes closed and trying to breathe, I woke up feeling normal again! New Normal, you know, which isn’t great but I can walk around the house without feeling like I’m about to die. I can sit upright on the sofa with my Switch and my book and my stitching. I decluttered the kitchen for the kitchen cleaner who comes today. I can eat. I sautéed that chard I picked a few days ago right before I went Down and didn’t have the ambition to cook it. I’m gonna have a coffee ice cream cone now and continue reading my very good book, “Bad Summer People” by Emma Rosenblum.
I was really worried that this bad spell would be the end of me. Looks like I’m here for a while longer :)
My milk kefir and water kefir grains arrived and I’ve got both of them activating. I’ve almost certainly bitten off more than I can chew, especially since I seem to be circling the drain. Tonight my o2 saturation is 80% on 8 liters. Ugh. I am not long for this world, I’m afraid.
But I’m gonna ferment stuff as long as I can. Lol. I should have homemade ginger ale in less than two weeks.
Felt not terrible in the morning, took bath, started some new fermented things, then absolutely crashed and had to go to bed in the early afternoon. So short of breath. Hard to walk from bedroom to bathroom. Stomach hurts, can’t eat, so thirsty, full of fluid, took half-dose of morphine to help breathing. Mega-diuretic tomorrow should help a lot. Managed a full week between doses this time.
Hate this. There are things I wanted to do today. Massively unfair. Can’t even sit outside. Too far to walk to other end of house.
Tired day but managed to bake a half-size cherry cake for my Dave. It’s a very simple recipe. Oh, I also went to the store in the morning for more bulgar wheat and lemons because I cannot get enough homemade tabbouleh.
Sat in the shade in the fresh air from 3 (which is when my chair enters Full Shade) til 5.
Much better sleep last night despite bad sweats. Felt rested in the morning thank heavens, and my stomach didn’t hurt today. Overall a very pleasant and restful day.
First thing in the morning I made curried cauliflower with carrots and peas. So good. I also started some experimental sour cream by mixing two tablespoons of good organic sour cream with a pint of aging heavy cream. I’ve since learned you can do it with lemon juice or vinegar, too. In 24-48 hours we shall see what we get!
My carrot/ginger slaw went slimy so I tossed it, but I’ve since learned that it was probably fine, having an initial overgrowth of a harmless slimy bacteria which, after a few more days, would have been killed off by the more acidic bacteria. Still, it’s cool, I learned something, and I’ve ordered some ph test strips that I can use next time to be SURE it’s safe.
I started a jar of crinkle-cut carrot chip pickles instead, and also a jar of what will (I hope) become apple cider vinegar in 30 days!
She adds salt by volume, e.g. two tablespoons, but I’m more comfortable working with weight. I’ve read that the minimum salt you should use for pickling is 2% of the weight of your veggies, but pickles will be crisper with 4%. Also a tip I learned today is to add some sort of tannins to your brine for extra crispness: a few bay leaves, a few blackberry leaves, or a tea bag of black tea, for example. So one of Dave’s tea bags is in the bottom of my carrot jar.
I made myself a Fermentation Log using the “page assist” feature in Procreate, which allows you to make multi-page documents. Each layer is a separate page, and you can export to pdf. Perfect for comics and journals, etc.! And it was a fun use for the organizer stamps that I made a few weeks ago.
Henry told me to go outdoors and get some fresh air this afternoon, so I pried myself off the couch and came out to sit in the lounge chair in the shade in my container garden (my oxygen hose easily reaches) and I’m so glad I did! I’m a little bit too tired to read, so I’ve been listening to my audiobook and watching lacto-fermentation videos for hours. It’s almost 8 now and I’m getting hungry so it’s time to go in.
