Of puppies and late autumn flowers and eating acid-free

Sorry about not blogging last week.  Steve and I both had speaking assignments in the Mexico Ward last Sunday.  The drive there and back plus the three-hour block just took more time than I thought it would....Oh, and we had to bump family dinner time up in order to attend a special fireside that evening with J'den Cox, Columbia's own Olympic bronze medal winner!  He is a wrestler and the manager of the MU wrestling team is a member of our ward who also served a mission to Brazil so he got to travel down to Rio with J'den and his family for the Olympics in August.  J'den, a devout Christian but not Mormon, has other LDS connections.  His great-grandmother was Virginia Mutrux, a charming and one-of-a-kind lady in our ward when we first moved to Columbia in 1981.  So, many of his extended relations are members of the church.   It was a great evening.

The past two weeks have been fairly average.  Lots of walks and bike rides.  One day, the local Canada goose population was grazing on the Albert-Oakland park trail so I took a picture.
 
 Steve and I traveled to Fulton on Wednesday, the 12th to attend a funeral for a dear woman who died of early Alzheimers.  She was a year older than me!

I have been enjoying Season 1 of Poldark.  Imagine my dismay when I learned that Season 2 is currently being aired on PBS but it is already half-way through.  And, if I want to watch the first 3 episodes, I will have to pay for it.  So be it!

Health-wise, I am taking part in a breathing study to lower blood pressure through the medical school at MU.  I hope it works because it would be nice to reduce my medications.  I HAVE stopped taking my statin drug for cholesterol.  I hope changing my diet and ramping up my exercise can keep my numbers low.  And, I sure hope the side effects of the statin leave (joint pain, fuzzy brain).  Breaking news:  I have yet another dietary restriction added to my life, as if having to eat gluten-free was not enough.  I have interstitial cystitis - an inflammation of the bladder lining.  I believe I have had it for several years but it never really flared up until July when I started taking 1 tablespoon of vinegar in water every day for cholesterol reducing.  That increase of acidity  REALLY aggravated my bladder.  Lots of pain.  Like a bladder infection only I didn't think it could be that because I had no chills/fever which have accompanied my bladder infections in the past.  I looked up how to treat IC (interstitial cystitis) and diet is the first way to treat it - and it is even more restrictive than gluten-free.  NOTHING acidic at all.  The only fruits I can eat are blueberries, pears, and certain kinds of apples.  No chocolate!  Good grief.  But, I started to follow the diet and it seemed to help a bit.   And, I finally got a urinalysis about two weeks ago.  And, it WAS an infection!  I started medicine and I started to eat regularly again because - wahoo - it was NOT IC.  Well, by the end of my antibiotics, I was still having lots of pain.  And, to make things more complicated, my primary care physician is on leave - I suspect medical because she has had cancer in the past - and our e-mail communications about this condition were very irregular.  Darn.  I LIKED my doctor and I didn't really want to go to someone new.  But, last Monday, at the end of my antibiotics and still in pain, I finally just called the clinic and made an appointment for the next day with another doctor on the team.  And, I am DELIGHTED with this new doctor!  She really answered my questions and provided support and I have a consult with the urology clinic on November 2nd.  Yes, it really was an infection.  IC can make it easier for infections to occur.  Yes, I need to go back on the acid-free diet to allow my bladder to heal.  And, I have discovered an inexpensive, over-the-counter medicine called Prelief that eliminates 98% of the acid in whatever I eat.  So, if I know I will be eating acidic foods, I can take two of these pills and viola!  No pain.  Oh, how wonderful to not have this constant pain anymore.  

Yesterday, the 22nd, Steve and I spent the day enjoying autumn in Missouri.  We began with some grocery shopping at the Amish.  Baking supplies AND a bushel of apples (the less-acid kind that I can eat) so I can make some applesauce.  Then, we drove westward for some pecans from King Hill Farms in Brunswick.  (pecans are NOT on the good list - only almonds and cashews - but hopefully, once my bladder heals, I can resume eating some of the stuff I used to eat).  Then, we drove up to Brookfield where the Marceline Branch has a new meetinghouse (actually, it is an old Baptist church that has been remodeled) because Steve had a couple of interviews.  And, then, on our way home, we visited an older couple from the Marceline Branch who raise and breed Yorkies!  They live with a woman who also raises and breeds Yorkies.  It was Yorkie heaven!  I must have held two dozen puppies or full grown dogs.  So cute and so friendly. 

They also had these two miniature horses!

Speaking of dogs, Trissy has been battling something in her paw.  It didn't really respond to the antibiotic we got for it.   Being on the top of her foot, it hasn't made her lame.  But, it is sure ugly and she has really been worrying it with her tongue.  The current medicine the vet gave her does seem to keep her from licking it as much as she did.  

 

 Finally, some shots of my zinnias and of my morning glories.  The latter I had given up hope that they would ever bloom.  LOTS of green growth all summer long but no flowers until about a week and a half ago.