26th of Cheshvan

My nurse plans to discharge me from palliative care (pc) this week. My home aide did my last bed bath today. She might come on Friday, we don’t know. Most likely won’t. It’s usually on Monday and Thursday. She had off this Monday, and Thursday’s a holiday. At least I’ll be somewhat clean for the holiday. I have a plan for doing it myself. I might even get cleaner. My shower brush will come in handy. As my home aide was leaving, she said that I can friend her on facebook. She said she doesn’t normally say it, but that would be nice to keep in touch. I don’t know if I will or not. I searched for her, just to see. (I was surprised I found her.) She’s right, she doesn’t do much on there. She might react to things though. She was nice, but it might be a little strange.

My social worker said she’ll call me sometime this week. It’ll be about being in touch with another social worker who deals with cancer patients on Medicaid, I think.

They told me I can still stay in touch and call the pc doctor, even when I’m discharged from it. He never was very good at communicating. He keeps saying he’ll call me but never does. I don’t really trust him anymore. My primary doctor and oncologist would do a better job.

We didn’t get to go grocery shopping for the week during the weekend. We went to Central yesterday. On Sunday, my parent spent much of the day making a kosher Ukrainian borscht. All the meat in it was beef. There was quite a bit of vegetables, too. I think that was the first time I’ve had borscht. It seemed earthy. That might have been the beets. The only thing I didn’t like were the pieces of beef. They were a little too fatty for me. The sausage was good with it. Despite it being skimmed, it also left an oily film on my lips. That’s not a bad thing. It was pretty good.

I thought I was finally getting all my royalties from kdp/Amazon, but apparently some of it already went to the ‘state’ as unclaimed property. This is all on kdp or Amazon. I did what they asked me to do. I feel like they almost stole it from me. Luckily, there’s a claim you can file with the Department of Revenue to see if you have unclaimed ‘property’ or money. I shouldn’t have to give them the document that kdp gave me. The link will apparently disappear in 2 business days. I’ll download it to my computer just in case beforehand. They said I’ll get $33 from the US market. I’m not sure where they got the $33 from, if all of it went to the ‘state’. I got the royalty from the UK today. The $33 they say will be paid on 11/29. This is so weird. The Unclaimed Property Division emailed me back. They had a document of things that were unclaimed to me. Nothing on kdp. (Surprised they had anything.) I’ll try to upload the document kdp gave me to them and see what happens. I’m starting to feel like it’s not worth it… Maybe if I don’t get anywhere with the Unclaimed Division, I can email kdp back. They said I could use the email to reply back, if I needed to.

For Thanksgiving we were told to bring pie. We might get apple and pumpkin pies. They’ll probably be good. I don’t know what else will be there. Hopefully foods I can have. There will be 10 people, 8 adults and 2 children. That’s not too bad. Maybe it’ll be a new tradition to go to this friend’s place for Thanksgiving. The only downside would be how far away it is from home. (I think she said it's in Lacey, which would be about a 1.5-hour drive.) We’ll see how it goes. It’s nice to be with people for it, though. It’s a different experience when it’s just my parent and I and Rosie. Nice but different. I hope the friends we used to visit for Thanksgiving have a good one too.

I managed to do an outside walk today. The weather was good. No rain or wind. A little cold and cloudy, but nice walking weather. A little kid in a van yelled hello as they went past me. That was odd, and looked like the kid was going to fall out of the window.

Rosie’s been good today, but she’s been peeing and pooping outside the box lately. I looked up, with Google’s AI, how to clean up after a cat's mess in the bathroom. It came up with some pretty good suggestions. We’ll see how that goes. My parent might get in touch with Rosie’s vet to see what more we can do about it.

Went to Diablo’s tonight. I got their Diablo’s fries without onions, guacamole, and sour cream. It was like nachos but with fries. It was huge! (Fries themselves were huge!) Very good, though. The fries seemed to have a slightly spicy seasoning. I think I ate around a 1/3 of it. It’ll be a lot for tomorrow’s lunch. Got churros for dessert. Those were good too. 

Pinterest (again, I did not make these, I'm just sharing them):

(The next 2 are from the same house plan. One's the main floor, the other 2nd floor):

Youtube: 

19th of Cheshvan

I almost forgot. As I was walking through the parking lot to get to Starbucks last week, a car almost ran me over. If I hadn’t started to run, it would have hit me. I had right of way there, and it’s not like I was walking too slow. It was another scary thing. It was pouring rain when we went back out of the café to the car.

We might go to one of my parent’s friends’ place for Thanksgiving. I think they only asked us to get a pie. My parent might get more than just one.

With the previous unit (just started the next one) in Spanish on Duolingo, they’re going over the word si. It’s interesting that with the accent mark as sí, it means yes. Without it as si, it means if. They started putting all the learners learning Spanish in one league this week. Last time I checked, I’m 3rd in the league.

Got my new Molina card. It’s KP through Molina, so they changed the primary care doctor and added Kaiser Permanente at the bottom. (I thought the number was changed, but it’s the same.) I looked more at it. I don’t see the KP stuff in the Molina app. I’m thinking of calling Molina tomorrow about it. I might call KP’s medicaid line as well. I’ll have to make an appointment to see my primary soon. She’s moving to their Silverdale location. They are closing the Poulsbo location. I don’t know how this all works. I guess I’ll find out.

Went to Starbucks again Saturday. I got their new iced pecan crunch oat milk latte and their new dark toffee bundt cake. Both were good. Didn’t get close to getting run over this time.

Went to Kachai Thai for dinner Friday night. I got chicken satay, beef fried rice without onions, and rice pudding for dessert. The pudding was the only dessert they had left. I couldn’t hear our server very well. That was kind of a headache. The pudding had purple rice and sweetened coconut milk. Was better than the last time I had it. No weird aftertaste.

I started a new month for walking. This time, for my outdoor walks, I’m walking all the way over to the tennis courts (starting with the mailbox side) and back once. Apparently, it’s only 1 or 2 min longer than what I was doing last month. I thought it would be more. I only was able to do it once so far. It’s either been too dark and/or too rainy. I’ve decided that when it’s like that, I’ll just do a 14 min or 15 min walk inside. I’m also still doing 2 5-min walks inside. It’s expected to be really rainy and windy today and tomorrow. Weather Underground said the winds will start at 2pm today. It didn’t. My parent said it might be at 6pm. We’ll see. (It already sounds like it's really raining outside right now.) I think the wind will be so strong that the power will probably go out. Since I wasn’t sure when it’ll be windy/rainy, I decided to do a 15 min walk inside. Just to be on the safe side. Don’t want to get out there, and suddenly get stuck in it.

Went to one of the markets (we still call it Central) on Sunday. Got some of my weekly stuff. I was going to get a cranberry supplement, but they didn’t have the one I got last time. I decided to get something else. It’ll last for 50 days at least.

I also got my toothpaste. Apparently they’re the only ones that sell it nearby. It’s Pronamel from Sensodyne, Alpine fresh flavor, and whitens teeth. Good for sensitive teeth, like mine. I’ve been using it as I’ve gotten back to brushing my teeth on a regular basis. Doing it twice a day. I watched a video on youtube talking about when the best time to brush is. (Plus it talked about other hygiene/health things.) They say it’s about an hour after a meal. 30 minutes is ok, but not less than that and it’s not as good. So, I’m doing it an hour after breakfast, and 30 minutes after my last snack, which is kind of close to my bedtime. I also used to use water to rinse it off, but I don’t anymore. Just spit as much of it out as I can. My teeth look the cleanest they’ve been in a long time. Things don’t irritate them much anymore either.

I got a smoked turkey and dill havarti sandwich for dinner. Also, found out they have turkey dinners now. I grabbed one. I wasn’t expecting to get 2 dinners from that market. I also got cherry crunch pie for dessert.

Went to Safeway yesterday. Got some Drano to help with the downstairs’ bathroom sink. (This was after Safeway and going back to Central. They didn't have it at Safeway. They also didn't have milk, and we needed that too. Interesting mix to go back to get.) It seemed to be pretty clogged. It got much better after last night. I got some more cash for the buses. $20 worth of $1 bills. A lot, and it’ll go for quite a few bus rides. I got a grilled salmon and pesto pasta dinner from there. It also has asparagus and cherry tomatoes. I think it’s pretty healthy. Got a tiramisu cake for dessert. Hopefully that will be good too. Got lottery tickets. Mega Millions jackpot is getting pretty big. It’ll be cool to win. The drawing is tonight.

Pinterest (again, I didn't make these. Just sharing. Thought it would be interesting. Some come from my dream home board):

(This one has a link that has tons of different walk-in closets):

Youtube: 

11th of Cheshvan

Tapered hydrocortisone to 5 mg in the morning and 2.5 mg in the afternoon on Saturday. My legs cramped up twice by the next morning. I think it was related to it. Plus, I’ve felt really stiff. If it continues this way, I’ll go back to what it was before. (7.5 mg in the morning, 2.5 mg in the afternoon.) I’m really hoping I won’t have to do that. I need to get off of it.

My birthday was nice. (It was on the 7th.) We went to Silver City for dinner. We shared the soft pretzels (there were 2, so we each got 1), I got a small Caesar salad, French onion pizza, and pumpkin spice bread pudding. The cheese sauce for the pretzel was weird, but the mustard was good. The salad was very cheesy, but the dressing lacked flavor. The pizza wasn’t as great as last year, but with a little added parmesan it was better. I told them that it was my birthday, and they lit a candle on the bread pudding. Underneath the whipped cream, there was like a salty walnut crust. It was surprisingly good. I was going to go to a trans meeting afterwards, but I felt like it was too late. It’s nice to be with other trans people now, so it was kind of disappointing.

We went to the Oak Table for brunch on Saturday. I got my fave: smoked salmon eggs Benedict with potato pancakes and some applesauce. It was good. I didn’t tell them it was my birthday this time. I did last year, and they came out singing Happy Birthday and giving me an ice cream crepe. I didn’t really need that.

Tried the Korean BBQ yakisoba instant noodle bowl for lunch yesterday. It wasn’t as good as I expected. I didn’t use all of the seasoning, since it looked like I had plenty of it. It still didn’t taste like much. The ‘garnish’ were pieces of beef, garlic, and onions. It smelled good as it cooked in the microwave. I’m glad I at least tried it.

Today, I didn’t miss anything on Duolingo. I did 3 lessons. This past week I started unit 37, and I finished it and started unit 38 today. My Spanish score is 52. I don’t know how high it goes. It’s based on progress, not on how well you’re doing. I think I’m pretty high. I hope I get to the end soon. I guess we’ll see. I’m 10th in the league. Not in the promotion zone. (I think the top 6 go on to the next league.) Oh, I also didn’t like the glitch where I suddenly lost all my streak freezes yesterday. It warned me and that I should pay gems for more. Luckily, that went back to normal when I closed and opened the app again. Usually when it glitches, it doesn’t let you continue to the next lesson. You can do the lesson as many times as you want, but it won’t let you through. That’s annoying.

Went to one of the markets yesterday. Something shot at me while I was going to the cashier. It was hard and square and hit the side of my head. I looked around. Nobody was around me. I looked down, but didn’t see anything. I did hear a faint bang on the floor. My parent suggested that something might have fallen from the ceiling. If it was from the ceiling, something’s not right. They’ve done a lot of renovating. It wouldn’t surprise me if something from that stuff hit me. I got a slight headache in the area. No bleeding, thank goodness.

Found an interesting instant noodle bowl. It’s chicken pho. The sodium looks pretty good. I also got Amazing Maple Mustard. It sounded good, and might be better for sandwiches. (Had some today, and it was great!) Got pumpkin and walnut cookies. They’re pretty good usually. Found the Chomps pack this time. Often they just had the singles. Got birthday cake chocolate. Perfect for this month. I got a smoked turkey and dill havarti sandwich for dinner from there. It was good. 

We went to Safeway today. I got their beef brisket and mac and cheese dinner for tonight. Not very healthy, but pretty good. I'll have a chocolate truffle cake for my last snack. I've been having desserts for my last snacks sometimes. It might be healthier that way depending on what I have, and how big the dinner might have been. 

I also got some meds. They were kind of expensive. I was going to try and skimp on it, but then I'd just need them sooner, and it'll end up costing more. It was just for Dulcolax and Tylenol, both being the store brand since it was cheaper. I take 6 pills of Tylenol a day, and 2 pills of Dulcolax. That's a lot. 

Organized my pills for the week yesterday. It always takes a while. After I organize them, I look to see how much I have left of each one. This time there are 3 things I needed from the local markets. I got 2 of them from Safeway today, like I mentioned. The other one might have to wait until next week. I have enough of that, at least, for this week. So, I should be ok.

Rosie keeps playing with her water. My parent bought a pet water fountain for her. Hopefully that will help.

Found something on my banana this morning. Looked like an egg sac. I looked online, and it apparently has to have silk around it to be a spider egg sac. This didn’t. I took it off the banana with my spoon, put it in my leftover milk, and crushed it with the spoon. Nothing came out. A little scary.

Went to Starbucks for a snack. Got their new dark toffee bundt cake and iced sugar cookie almond milk latte. Both were good.

Pinterest (I use my Fashion Fun board on there to help me find my style. I think I have many styles. It went back to suggesting a lot of outfits. I liked some of the vests, and it gave me men wearing them, too. Interesting. I do think I might like some things that might be considered for men. Again, I did not make these, or the videos after this. Just sharing): 

Youtube: 

4th of Cheshvan

Had a bed bath today. It went faster than usual. One reason being I got a haircut on Saturday. So, less vigorously washing my hair. She used the dry soap stuff on it. She said I didn’t need the regular shampoo this time. You don’t have to rinse that stuff off. She said it’s good this time considering my stylist washed my hair already. Another reason was I’ve been taking my towels down and back up. Since she’s not doing that anymore, it cuts out some time. It ended up being around 12 minutes.

 

I got up the nerve to call Molina. I was on hold for a little while. Their ‘menu’ before that was awful. It took close to 30 minutes in total. There was a lot of waiting for them to figure out stuff. I can stay on KP (Kaiser Permanente) through Molina, and they switched me to staying on it. Yay! I wasn’t sure if they would let me. I’ll get another card with my primary doctor’s name as my pcp, their address, phone number, etc. I might have to visit her for my meds, etc. to transfer. I forgot to ask about that. There’s still no premiums, copays, etc. Hopefully I did all this correctly. I asked as many questions as I could think of. At least I won’t have to have a totally different medical team/facilities. 

I didn’t think I slept very well last night. However, I got 1 hr 8 min of deep sleep in. I usually get like 20 min at most. 

It was really raining and windy this morning. It’s stopped raining and the wind has died down since. I was nervous that the power would go out earlier. 

I’ll have to go for my walk earlier than before tomorrow, since it gets dark earlier now. I was going out at around 5:15pm. Now it might be around 4pm or so. Today I walked for 10 minutes inside instead. Hopefully I’ll go out tomorrow. 

Pinterest (I did not make these, I just thought it'd be interesting to share. Just some of my most recent pins):

Youtube (obviously did not make these videos, either. Just sharing): 

3rd of Cheshvan

I forgot to mention that I have a new passport. It was a busy summer with getting that done, too. It was different compared to the last time I got it. I wasn’t sure if it was going to happen. They even said that my pic might not be good enough, and I might have to take it again somewhere else. It all came together, and I’m happy I have it now. I can travel. Yay! I also got my state ID. That one was easier, but good to have.

Today Daylight Savings Time ended early in the morning. I was hoping to sleep that extra hour. Got up at 6:24am to go to the bathroom. Took a while to go back to sleep. I normally get up at 7:30am. That’s to take my steroid on time. According to my watch (yes, I have an Apple watch now), it said I had 1 hr 3 min of deep sleep. A lot more than my usual.

Started watching You Are What You Eat: A Twin Experiment today. It was weird. Some of it didn’t seem right. I’ll see how it goes. I’m skeptical about it.

Had a great chicken sandwich for lunch. It had a breaded chicken patty (hadn’t had this brand’s before), Colby Jack cheese, bread and butter pickles, a whole type of sweet red pepper (don’t remember the name of it), and some Subway garlic aioli on a sesame seed bun. Had a mandarin orange gel fruit cup with it.

Still doing Spanish with Duolingo. I hit an 1100 day learning streak today. I had a lot of streak freezes for a while, so those days don’t count in between. (So, it’s been much longer than that.) For the last 7 weeks I haven’t used a freeze yet. It’s been a while since I’ve done that. Did 3 lessons. Didn’t miss any. Did all 3 quests for the day. I’m 8th in the league.

Went grocery shopping. I was going to get a Chomps bag, but they only had the singles. So I got 4 of them. Tonight’s dinner was a smoked turkey and dill havarti sandwich. That was pretty good. I just don’t like how much butter they put on it sometimes. It was ok this time with that. Dessert is going to be caramel apple pie. One of my faves. I'll have that as my last snack. I've been doing that often. Having the dessert as my last snack, not right after dinner. I don't know if that helps or not. Sometimes if it's a smaller meal that's not on my splurge days, I will have dessert right after. Then, I'll have a smaller last snack.

I found Amy’s frozen Chili Mac! I hadn’t seen it in a long time. My parent is thinking of making chili for Election Day dinner. We’ll have tortilla chips with it. If I don’t like it, I might have the chili mac instead.

I got some more kimchee. It’s probably good for my gut. It says it’s mild, but it’s a bit spicy to me. Might get sauerkraut instead next time.

I’ve been getting turkey bacon lately, too. This time I got a thick store brand one. I’m trying to get more protein into my diet.

Got a Korean BBQ yakisoba instant noodles. Sounded really good. I try to only have 1 instant noodle thing a week. It’s like a treat that way.

I found a maple pecan Honey Bunches of Oats. That sounded really good. Yes, I’m trying cereals again. Not many taste like cardboard now, which is a plus.

I’ve also been getting Chef Boyardee stuff. Mainly mac and cheese and beefaroni or ravioli. It’s surprisingly good, and not that bad for me. I used to think it was just for kids, and I didn’t have it much as a kid anyways. So, why not?

Monday dinner will be grilled chicken, green beans, and mashed potatoes. The mashed potatoes have some butter on them. It sounds pretty healthy, besides the butter. I’ll add BBQ sauce to the chicken. To jazz it up a bit. Having tiramisu cake for dessert. I like Safeway’s Chantilly cake with berries, but they didn’t have it this time. I’ll try this, though. With walking around the stores and at home, I managed to get 75 exercise minutes. Shows how much I do on grocery days.

I also got lottery tickets. Got 5 tickets. Mega Millions is up to $303 million. Half of that is still a lot. If I did win, I’d split it with my parent, and then do the annuity. I would still get quite a lot every year for 30 years. I doubt I’ll live that long, so I’d have to give it to someone else at some point. I keep thinking about what it would be like to win. I have a pinterest board dedicated to my dream home ideas. The next drawing is this Tuesday.

Just got my new sweater today. It’s a caramel-colored tunic sweater. From the same brand that did one of my other new sweaters. That one was nice and soft. Hopefully this one will be the same. I’ll wash it tomorrow. It’ll be laundry day, so perfect timing. 

I don't know how often I'll be able to post. It might just be on the weekends. I originally created this blog as an everyday thing. I don't know if I can do that. We'll see. I might post what I watch from Youtube in the future. I've seen some interesting ones. I don't really watch amv's (anime music videos) anymore. A lot of them are on history facts, science, animals, travel, etc. A lot of things. I have a lot of interests as it is, and I'd love to learn/watch more about things, so it's fun to me. 

2nd of Cheshvan

It’s been an even longer time than last time. I want to get back into it though. A lot of things have happened. I’ll try to keep it shorter than last time.

Over the summer, I was approved for ssi. I get a very small income through it now. They also are going to discharge all my student loans. Meaning all of them will be forgiven or gone. I think this will happen in December. 

Being approved for ssi also got me approved for Medicaid. I chose Molina, since I was told that they worked with Kaiser Permanente (KP), my current insurance. The Molina insurance started on the 1st. Apparently they’re not letting new members use KP. There are exemptions, however. Like, if they have been with KP for more than a year. I’ve been with it for many years. I plan to call on Monday about it. Hopefully I can use KP through them this way.

I’m losing weight again. This time through more exercise, eating a bit better, and tapering hydrocortisone. I’m down to 7.5 mg of the hydrocortisone in the morning and 2.5 mg in the afternoon. So far no crazy symptoms of withdrawal yet. Hopefully I can get off of it soon. I’ll switch to 5 mg and 2.5 mg of it soon. Also, just got a letter saying my endocrinologist will be going out of network. So, I'll probably have to find a new one and tell that one about my progress. Hopefully before I get to the point of getting off of it. I don't know what will happen if I don't have it anymore, and I'll get an attack of some sort. They say if I get an attack right now, I need to take something like double what I take now. It's weird. I'm not even sure what an 'attack' would be like with this. 

I’ve gotten back into walking. I made a ‘plan’ to ease into it. I hope to get back up to my 2-mile walks 3 times a day again. Right now I’m doing 2 indoor walks and an outdoor 1 twice around, in a loop where the mailboxes are and a street in between where the tennis courts are and the house. The next outdoor one will be one loop around where the tennis courts are and the house. A bit longer of one. I’m not sure if it’ll just end up being the same distance as my current one. I think it’ll be a little longer. On weekly grocery days, it’s different. I turn the indoor workout on my watch, and pause it when I stop. It ends up being more. If I go out and don’t come home until it’s dark out, I walk inside for 10 minutes. It works out similar. Might have to increase it when I get to walking longer.

I’ve lost enough weight to go down (smaller) another jean size. I’m now 3 jean sizes smaller than at my heaviest. I got new jeans, since the old ones were really falling off me. I’ll get another pair soon, since it fits me like a glove. I got 3 more shirts (like lightweight sweaters) recently. I lost 3 inches from my waist, so that opened up more options with clothes. They seem a bit big on me. Although, it looks like they’re supposed to be. I bought another shirt recently. I should get it today.

I got a haircut today. They’ve been ‘free’ ever since my stylist has known about my cancer. I’m getting more bald spots/lines. It’s a little disturbing to me. I haven’t gone back to the hats yet, but I might.

It’s been pretty cold out lately. When it gets even cooler, it’ll be perfect for my ‘new’ shirts I got last year. They’re more like heavy sweaters. It actually looks like fall now. The trees have turned beautiful colors.