Saturday, April 24, 2021

busy day and bone health


*I'm keeping this up for a while to make sure everyone who checks in now and then sees it. I assume those who already get email notices will continue to get them up until July when the 'follow by email' stops functioning. I've reinstalled the blogger 'follow me' widget.

I did manage to download the subscriber list with over 1,000 spam 'subscribers' all from outlook.com and all within a couple of months after I first put the widget on my sidebar. I ended up with 23 legit subscribers. So, starting in July, my intention is to email links to the group when I publish a new post. If you are in this group but do not wish to continue receiving notices of new posts, just reply with 'remove'.

Still can't figure out why my pictures won't open full size when you click on them. Most my images are 10” in the longest dimension, sometimes 12”, sometimes 8”. There must be a setting somewhere but I can't find it. I usually drag my images from the desktop to the post body but this time I'll use the 'add image' function to see if that makes a difference.

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Thursday was a busy day. Spent my morning at SHARE, then after lunch I used the trimmer to cut the ditch in front of Pam's house (two gas tanks worth of time) including the large patch of poison ivy (that I've poisoned TWICE) that had started growing and while I was wearing a hat, sunglasses, long pants, and boots, I did have on a short sleeved shirt so when I finished that I peeled off the long pants full of poison ivy juice and jumped in the car (yes, I did put on other pants) and went to the feed store for the poison ivy soap they sell and another container of brush/stump killer to treat the poison ivy with again when it puts on more new growth. Then I scrubbed the exposed skin on my arms and neck with the soap and so far so good.

Next was walking the dog, then washing the dishes of which I only got the plates done because I was also fixing the roasted cauliflower recipe that Ms Moon sent me (and it is really good). I figured I would have time to wash the utensils during one of the two 15 minute roasting times but alas that did not happen. I had asked my sister to pick me up a small jar of green olives when she went to the store which she did saying it was the only small jar they had and I didn't realize they weren't pitted until the cauliflower was in the oven and I was ready to make the dressing. With chopped up green olives. Turns out you can't just pit a green olive like you can a cherry. I had to pare as much of the olive off the seed as I could until I had 1/3 cup. So there went my utensil washing time. Also, the recipe called for pancetta or bacon, no pancetta, I'll just use bacon but it wasn't until I was making it that I realized they must have meant canadian bacon because I was supposed to cut it up into 1/8” cubes. No way was I going to cut up four slices of raw bacon into 1/8” cubes so I fried it and crumbled it and just sprinkled it on after the cauliflower had finished roasting.

If you're not interested in my bone health you can skip the next paragraph.

Yesterday I had a follow up appointment with my primary care doc to discuss the results of my bone scan. They scan two areas, the femur and the lumbar spine and there are two scores for each, the T score which is a healthy woman of childbearing age and the Z score which is the average norm for post-menopausal women. Women tend to lose bone density as the estrogen levels decline. My previous scan was five years ago so in five years, my femur went from a Tscore of -2.2 to -2.6 and a Zscore of -0.6 to -0.9 so a slight decrease. The lumbar spine went from a Tscore of -2.5 to -3.1 and a Zscore of -0.5 to -1.0 so a larger decrease in bone density there. Five years ago my chance of a bone fracture was 12.5% within 10 years. My doc calculated my current risk of fracture with the new data and that has increased to 13.something% now. Still pretty good odds. She didn't recommend the medication because she knows I won't take it (heinous side effects and not that effective) and because of my general health and activity levels. She did recommend exercises to strengthen core muscles (which I do some already) to help protect my lumbar spine. I really like my doctor, she's an osteopath so open to proactive health measures like diet and exercise and supplements as opposed insisting on meds for every condition though she will prescribe them if/when needed.

It rained off and on all day yesterday which we really needed and I spent the rest of the day doing nothing including not washing the utensils.

Since I need an image or two to test the whole embiggin thing here's a picture of my sister, brother and me taken the night before he left. Pam is the oldest, then me (on the left), the rebellious middle child, then John, the baby. Not a great picture of me but whatcha gonna do?

And this of two carpenter bees on the rocket larkspur.


Edit: yay! The images embiggin!

 

21 comments:

  1. To my eyes, that is a great picture of you and your siblings. Thank you for posting it.

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  2. I think it's a fine picture. And of course I love the bees on the larkspur. That color is royal! Glad to hear your bones aren't deteriorating at too rapid a pace. I haven't had a bone scan in years. I sometimes wonder since I broke my ribs if mine are crumbling but that was such a severe blow that I think it would have broken anyone's ribs. Who knows? Not me.

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  3. Also? I just use regular bacon. Like one slice and I just cut it into small pieces.

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  4. I'm glad. you shared your osteoporosis follow-up. I'm curious about the exercise your doctor recommended. I was diagnosed many years ago with osteoporosis and also chose not to do any medication. I do stretching exercises everyday for my back, but that's mostly for muscle strength. I also try to walk at least a mile a day. But I don't think any of the things I do help protect my lumbar spine. Now I'll go on a google search for that!
    Love the photos. It's lovely to see you and your siblings together.

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    1. she didn't recommend any specific exercises, just core strengthening and abs. there's quite a few yoga exercises for abs and core. I don't do sit-ups but I do crunches, hands clasped behind my head elbow to opposite bent knee, and leg lifts (flat on my back, arms out to the side, 20 lifts without the feet touching the floor and then hold my feet an inch or two off the ground for ten breaths). these are all in my daily routine. I've recently added the locust pose holding it for 15 breaths and repeat three times. I also hold low plank for 10 - 20 breaths. if you start doing leg lifts you may want to start with palms down under your bottom until it gets too easy.

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    2. ellen-- thank you so much for this. I'm going on a google search now to find what these exercises look like and how they work. Thank you!

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  5. Great photo of you! All sassy and cute, skinny bitch!! (I had to say it) Anyway I am jealous as I waddle around trying to pick up one foot and then another. Great news for bones! Fit as a fiddle and cuter than a basket full of kittens, i swear. You look like the baby of the family.
    The larkspur is amazing! The bees agree, looks like. Fantastic color!

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  6. I won't take bone meds either. No one knows where they really go, in your body.

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    1. and give a false sense of security since they increase the density of your bones by preventing the old weak bone from dissolving so they aren't really making them stronger.

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  7. What an utterly cool photo of your sister, brother and you. Your sister must have made a remark because she isn't smiling and your brother is looking down at her as though he wanted to make a retort of some kind. LOL The photos are great!! I hope my e-mail continues to ride along with others who want to keep in touch with you via your blog posts. We shall see...

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    1. ha! except that I'm the one on the left. my husband was taking the pictures and he never said anything like ready? or smile! to warn us to look at the camera. there's another picture in which we are all looking forward but I look like I'm grimacing instead of smiling.

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  8. I'm scheduled for my first bone density test in years. Can't wait. I definitely need to brace up my very weak core. I don't think any of us like our photographs. I will only let my siblings take my picture if they swear on a stack of bibles that they will never release them on social media or any other platform.

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  9. I need some of that poison ivy soap. I also need to pay more attention when I'm in the woods, but that's a different issue. I've always tended toward cure rather than prevention, and not always by choice. Love the photo -- and I'm glad you finally figured out the embiggen trick!

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  10. And do they "embiggen" because you're now using the "add image" function rather than dragging and dropping? Nice to see a pic of you and your siblings! I admire your dedication to e-mail your posts; I'm just allowing that whole thing to end, I think.

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    1. well, that was the only difference so I guess I'll be using the add image function from now on. it's not that much effort to email the link. create a group in your contact list, send the link to yourself and blind copy the group and hit send.

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  11. I had a bone density test years ago before my first hip surgery. I guess it was ok since they let me have the surgery.

    I can't figure out how to download my list of email subscribers. I looked at the instructions & was defeated by the very first one. I apparently don't even know where to go to do that first thing. Ha! I'm not at all sure it matters for my blog though. I probably only have one email subscriber who actually reads it (Shoreacres).

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  12. Is embiggen a word? Just asking...

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  13. Love seeing the picture of you with your siblings. Do you have one of the three of you from when you were children. I love few things more than a then and now pairing!

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    Replies
    1. I did post one of when we were very small my first post of this month. here's the link: https://ellenshead.blogspot.com/2021/04/just-another-day.html There's a couple more of when we were older but still children.

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  14. Great news about the bones, old or not, and, seriously, you ARE siblings simply by the looks.

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I opened my big mouth, now it's your turn.