Tiny Eye

I wrote this post last month but have hesitated to post it. It's been sitting in "Drafts", so here it is. 

Last October my health insurance sent a traveling health professional to my area. They called and said they wanted to set me up for a diabetic eye exam. Even though I already had an appointment with an eye doctor in November, they said it was free and I should still keep my appointment. 

The lady came with her apparatus for checking eyes. It looked like one of those virtual reality game thingies you look through. She took a picture of the inside of my right eye but was not able to line it up to get a picture of my left eye. It became a circus because she had me hold the thing myself, then she had me lie down, then she jabbed the edge of the thing in my eye, then she told me to hold my eye open with my finger. Then she gave up and told me I have a Tiny Eye.

What the heck.

November came around and I had my regular diabetic eye exam. My doctor told me my left eye is hooded which is slightly blocking a bit of my left peripheral vision. There's the tiny eye again. WTF

Most people just tell me I look sad or tired. I see that in the mirror, and I don't like to look that way. In case you are wondering, yes, I use Retinol and sun screen.

I have been using facelift tape for a few years. Only two little strips, just to smooth the nasolabial folds and marionette lines. It helps to ease the sad effect these lines give to my face. As for my eyes, I just relied on my glasses to hide them.

Then my daughter introduced me to to Peter Thomas Roth. Not the person, the Temporary Facelift Cream. She uses it on her neck. She told me to apply it above what I want to lift,

Lucky me it was 40% off (Amazon), so I bought some. One day I decided to try it on my forehead. Ten minutes later my eyebrows were lifted. It also reduced the hooding over my eyes. Wow! A temporary non-surgical solution. It does have a learning curve. Apply too much or apply it unevenly leads to some wonky effects, then I need to wash it off and start over. For the first time in years I added a little eye makeup, just pencil and mascara. I felt like it made a difference.

The tired me

The awake me

This cream works best on parts of the face that don't move a lot. It will last more than 8 hours on my forehead and 5 minutes around my mouth. It's expensive, but I feel it's worth it.

---End of original post---

That was January. I also had a regular doctor check up. I mentioned that sometimes, with certain foods, like hard boiled eggs yolks or chicken, food can get stuck in my throat temporarily. If I try to drink some water it has no where to go but to sputter up my sinuses. I am in danger of choking when that happens. Thankfully it rarely happens. I have consciously determined to be aware of this and not drink water if food gets stuck. Waiting a minute or so will allow me to swallow the food. And yes, I take small bites and chew well. My parents taught me to chew my food and eat slowly. I mentioned this to my doctor so she ordered a swallow study. 

In February I had to go to the hospital in Fond du Lac where they have a GI doctor. I had to drink barium and eat food with barium stirred into it, or spread on it. I had to eat applesauce, peaches and cookies (things I don't eat anymore), all mucked up with barium, live on x-ray camera. What fun. Anyway, I have a narrow place in my throat, so I'm supposed to go back this month for a consult with the GI doc.

In other health news, I finally had a DEXA scan. I don't know why some of my insurances in the past have denied that. I had a scan when I lived in Hammond and they told me my bones were strong like someone younger. Anyway, this time my scan showed this:

1. DIAGNOSIS: Osteopenia.

2. FRACTURE RISK: 10- year probability of a major osteoporotic fracture is 23%

and the 10 year probability of hip fracture is 14% in this patient based on the

WHO fracture risk assessment algorithm (FRAX).

I was surprised. Anyway, now I'm on calcium and vitamin D3, which constipates me more than the evil statin did. I'm increasing fiber and magnesium. I am wondering if the PPI (omeprazole) I was taking for heart burn for such a long time contributed because it can block calcium absorption. I was not able to stop taking it until I gave up sugar and severely reduced carbohydrates, and even then I needed to wean myself from taking it. I always take vitamin D3 but not always calcium, until now. I've never broken a bone. My mom fractured both hips in her 70's and had osteoporosis.

That's about it for now.

Is "Seed Oil" a Thing?

 Four years ago I stopped eating bread and cereal. My blood sugar was out of control, my A1C was up to 11 and my doctor was threatening to put me on insulin. I had tried switching to whole grains. I had tried increasing veggies (I'm not a great meat eater). I had ditched sugar years before. 

One slice of healthy grain seed bread sent me crashing on the couch. I had been doing that for awhile. Cereal....sleep, bread....sleep. I already knew that beans and potatoes raised my glucose too high, but I never tested after cereal or bread. So I pried my sleepy eyes open and tested, after white bread, after healthy bread, after cereal. Same results, in the 300's. I was literally "passing out" from high blood sugar.

A friend pointed me to a facebook group that practices a way of eating to control blood sugar. No bread, no cereal, no potatoes or beans, no corn, (no starchy vegetables), no grains of any type, no sugar, no hidden sugar (milk, fruit, many processed foods), and no seed oil.

Seed oil....what? Is this a "thing?" What is it and why is it supposed to be different than other oils? The short answer is that the "bad" oils are manufactured in a way that cause inflammation in the body. The "good oils" don't cause inflammation. Inflammation in the body is a huge driver of disease. There is a long-winded explanation for this that I would need to look up and create a whole post to explain it. Here is a picture of the list.

I use olive oil and butter, and should add tallow. I am certain that fast food is not fried in expensive "good" fats.  

From the Internet:

"Commercially, the most common oils used for deep-frying are canola oil, soybean oil, and refined peanut oil 

due to their high smoke points and neutral taste."

$>{400}^{\circ }\text{F}$, neutral flavors, and cost-effectiveness. These refined vegetable oils are chosen for their stability at high temperatures, allowing for consistent, high-volume cooking without ruining the food's taste."

Cheese curds, more specifically, Kwik Trip cheese curds are OH SO YUMMY. My hubby would buy them and offer some to me. I would eat one. Then two. Eventually he would buy two packs, one for him, one for me. Life was good, or so it seemed.

Do you see where I'm going with this? My labs are now out of whack. My cholesterol as a whole, and my Triglycerides.

Triglycerides 298 (up from 251 in November 2025)

HDL (good cholesterol) 51 (down from 53 in November 2025)

CHOL/HDL Ratio 5.5 (up from 5.1) Should be below 4.5 

I gave up cheese curds the day my labs came back and my Triglycerides were even higher. Not from the cheese, from the coating and the seed oil. 

Anyway, my doctor put me on a statin. I usually have bad reactions to statins. The last one I took for any length of time was Rosuvastatin. I stopped when I was in so much pain I could hardly walk. This time I'm taking Pravastatin. I started on Friday. By Tuesday night my stomach hurt and I felt like I needed to throw up, almost. I hate throwing up, so I didn't. I skipped my pill last night. I feel better today. I will try again, even though I don't agree with statin therapy, I do agree that my numbers are off far enough that I need to take it, for now.

That's enough ramblings about food for tonight. I have more to write about later.

Catching Up

 I haven't been writing much so I'm not sure where to begin. January came and went. We had some awful cold weather, down to minus 22 on January 23rd. The apartment got freaking cold, down to 63 degrees, which is way too cold for me. The radiators were barely warm. I called maintenance and he said turn the thermostat up as far as it would go, which is 90 degrees. Not much help, so we bought a little space heater. When I plugged it in I realized a massive amount of cold air was coming inside through the air conditioner (through the wall A/C), which was over my head where I plugged in the space heater. We then went to ACE Hardware and bought an outside cover and an inside cover. They made a huge difference! The good thing about the apartment being so cold is a week or two later all my orchids began to spike, all but one. In case you were wondering, we keep the apartment about 72. My hubby likes it warm.

We didn't let the cold slow down our weekend adventures. We like to stop at antique stores and drive home on country roads, often stopping in at some random little town we had not seen before. 

January 5 - Redgranite. Stopped for coffee and then drove to the former quarry. Will visit in spring/summer for sure!

Love the light bulbs!

Cute coffee shop, Dauntless Soul Brew Co.

ACE Hardware actually has this light bulb

Redgranite quarry. The stones are dark red, but the light was fading so you can't tell

January 9 - drove down some of the roads through the White River wilderness area. My pictures are tagged "Berlin". One of the roads was icy. Hubby wanted to test the SUV. It drove perfectly.

The icy road

me...

Jan 10 - Fond du Lac. Stopped to eat at a supper club. Great food! Would like to go back sometime. Red Cabin at Green Acres, W2701 Fourth Street Road, Co Rd T, Fond du Lac.

Jan 11 - Neshkoro. Stopped by the river.

January 25 - Briggsville and Wisconsin Dells.

Briggsville. We had a cottage a few miles out of town. We used to go to Foxy's!

Wisconsin Dells

The dark entrance to the forest! Creepy! I held hubby's hand.

Inside wasn't so bad. LOL

Walking back to the parking lot, pine trees and blue sky.

January 31 - Pardeeville, Baraboo, Packwaukee. We stopped at a big antique store in Pardeeville, then went to the antique mall in Baraboo. On the way home we stopped at Packwaukee, because we never went there before. There were houses all along the Buffalo River so we followed the signs to the public access, which is a series of piers along a roadway that crosses the lake.

We parked on the side next to a pier.

The moon

Named after Winnebago Chief Packwaukee. Packwaukee is Ojibwa, meaning shallow land.

Heading home I suddenly yelled, "THERE'S A BALD EAGLE SITTING IN THE FIELD!!!" Hubby stops the car. You scared me! "I'm sorry but there's a BALD EAGLE sitting in the field!!!" He backs up. I took a picture as it was flying away.

I think that's enough stories for tonight.

Photography

 One snowy night back in November, hubby and I went out for a drive, because who wants to stay home in a blizzard when the roads are slippery, say most people. Anyway, we stopped downtown and got out for a short walk (slip and slide). I told hubby I needed to cross the street to take some pictures. 

So I go tromping through the snow while he calls after me to be careful and watch out for cars. I took about a dozen pictures, and when we got home I realized I got some pretty good photos.

I posted three of them on the Hometown Ripon page and over the course of two days my post gathered 2.2 thousand likes. At lease 100 people joined the group just so they could comment, like and share. I read some of the comments with the shares (of those that were public). People were sharing to family and friends, "This is the town where I was (born, used to live, grew up, live now)". Wow, just wow. If I had a dollar for every like I would have 2 month's rent!

Forward to today. I got a message from Amy who is putting together the 2026 Destination Guide for the Green Lake Chamber of Commerce. She said she would love to include my photo in the "Explore our Area" page of the guide. She sent me this picture.

It's just a Samsung phone! I'm impressing myself lol

I guess I should find a way to offer some of my work for sale. I have some outstanding photos, here and there, through the years.

Look What It Did

 I guess it heard me threaten to replace it. So, yes, now I need to keep it because I can't throw away a perfectly healthy plant.

It's Good To Be Home

 The drive home went well. Traffic was light. We stopped at our favorite rest area, WisDOT Rest Area 64 near Lomira, WI.

 The trip to and back from the airport yesterday went well. Traffic was light. There were no problems at all at the airport. The new parking garage is awesome. 

After we got back to Indiana we decided to go to Anderson's Winery to enjoy some wine, cheese and live music. My daughter and her hubby gave us two bottles of Fuzzy Peach (Christmas gift).

My new plants are snuggled into their spots. All of my Oxalis "fainted". A couple of my succulents look dead. All of my Jades have wrinkled leaves. My orchid dropped its blooms and my pothos looks like cr@p. Most of them will recover. Some of my plants are like cast iron, surprisingly, my Hoya and Sanseveria.

My pothos has been looking worse and worse. Ya' know, I think I would like a heart leaf philodendron instead.

It has been developing dark spots and now it's severely wilted.

All of my Oxalis look like this so I trimmed all the leaves and watered lightly. Usually they recover.

The flowers on my Orchid dried up but it still has nice buds. The good news is all the flower spikes on the other orchids look good. I watered all of them.

The succulent in the center is struggling. The one above it to the left is dead. The pot of Little Spheroids in the front right has some wrinkles but they will be fine. 

Tomorrow!

 Hubby is coming home tomorrow! He should be landing at O'Hare about 2 pm. We will spend the night here and go home tomorrow. It's always nice to spend time with my daughter, but I really miss my hubby.

My daughter and her hubby and I had a nice time last night. Since the bowling alley was closed, we went to Rosati's in Crown Point. We watched Indiana beat the bageebers out of Alabama in the Rose Bowl game. Oh, we did also watch the rainy Rose Bowl Parade on TV.

Today, while everyone is at work, I'm going to vacuum the bedroom I'm staying in and pack most of my stuff. I'm taking another plant home. My daughter doesn't have time for them. This is a Sanseveria (on the left) my heavenly daughter bought years ago. It has white stripes. It is clinging to life but I think it will be fine. Sanseveria are pretty tough, as long as they don't get overwatered.

It will be interesting to see how my plants did while we were gone. It was only 2 weeks. We need to shop on the way home. I will post an update tomorrow sometime or Monday. Hubby goes back to work on Tuesday.

That's all for now. See you back in Wisconsin!