The Lady Doctor

**warning** Any dudes not comfortable talking or reading about a woman's tender bits in a nonsexual way should just leave now.

So hey, yeah, now that we're all in the right frame of mind, I finally had my annual last week with an OB/GYN. Actually, I guess she was just a GYN because her receptionist informed me when I made the appointment that the doctor was no longer handling pregnancies and if I had the nerve to get pregnant, I'd have to find another doctor. Okay, she didn't quite say that, but you get the general drift.

Anyhow, there was a moment when I considered hanging up and finding a different doctor, because I do hope to get pregnant at some point, but I was already 3 months late in getting my annual and I'd already done my research (it would be helpful if the doctor kept her info up to date, I'm just sayin') , and with the whole health care coverage switch at the start of the year I figured I'd better just make the appointment and deal with switching doctors later.

So last week was the big day! On the up side, I worked from home that day because I knew I wasn't going to want to drive to work and sit at my desk in an office after having my tender bits prodded. The downside, I had to have my bits prodded. I don't care how often doctors say there are no nerve endings in there and I'm not really experiencing any pain, I'm freaking experiencing pain. Thankfully, this doctor never said anything like that.

Anyhow, at my last annual I had screened positive for human papillomavirus (HPV) and the Kaiser folks called (even though I'm no longer on Kaiser) to make sure I didn't forget to re screen. There are roughly 100 different types of HPV and normally our immune systems will deal with the low-risk HPVs and when you re screen, it will be gone. It's the 15 or so high-risk HPVs that we have to worry about. These types can lead to cervical cancer.

The doctor called me at work yesterday and informed me that my pap came back abnormal and that I'm still screening positive for HPV. So I sat there at my desk thinking, "Okay, I need to change that call sheet I filled out for the doctor because I've changed my mind and I really don't want to receive news like this while I'm at work."And then I sort of put it out of my mind.

Scoob was a dear when I got home, though I could tell he didn't really quite know what to do or say. He's one of those folks that warning was directed at. He's all about the hooha until it gets clinical. Even though I could tell he was uncomfortable, he tried, and that's what counts. There was much hugging and cuddling, and that's never a bad thing.

Oh, and apparently I hadn't put it out of my mind as much as I thought. I started and finished an entire bottle of wine.
By. My. Self. Ouch. Yeah, today was not fun.

I've scheduled an appointment for a biopsy at the end of the month. The doctor said to take a couple of Advil before I come in because it will be uncomfortable. Okay, hey, I take Advil before my paps and I still think those are uncomfortable, so what the hell does that mean the biopsy is going to be like?

Screw ibuprofen. Daizepam would work. That's what the dentist used when removing my wisdom teeth. There was no anxiety (nope, none whatsoever) going in for surgery and I have to say I was pain-free for a good 6 - 8 hours afterwards too. Aside from the fact I kept waking up during the surgery asking to see my teeth, that seemed to work well.

Holy Frijoles, Twinkly Black Bean Bake

When lunchtime rolled around on Sunday, I realized I didn't have a plan. No big surprise. I don't typically plan specific meals for specific days unless we're talking about something like Thanksgiving, in which case my plan is to be at mom's. But even when I don't have a plan, I generally have a clue. I was fresh out of those on Sunday too.

As I was rummaging in the cupboards I came up with something I thought would be passable, would use up some of the ingredients Scoob had leftover from making menudo during the week (yeah, I so didn't touch that), and wouldn't reveal to Scoob that I had still not gone grocery shopping.

What I ended up with was something far better than passable. Scoob even had seconds for lunch and wanted it again for dinner. I had the last bit of it for lunch at the office today. Of course, since I didn't think it was really going to be any good, I wasn't exactly writing down measurements or instructions, and I certainly didn't go to the trouble of giving it a name. So for lack of anything better to call it, I dub thee Twinkly Black Bean Bake.

Twinkly Black Bean Bake

Cooking time: 40 minutes
Prep time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

1 15oz can of black beans, drained and rinsed

1 15oz can of diced, peeled tomatoes

5 small corn tortillas (2 quartered, 2 whole, 1 cut into thin

in strips)

1 Tbsp ground cumin

½ Tbsp dried onion

½ Tbsp dried oregano

1 cup shredded cheese

2 serrano chiles, seeded and diced

1 jalapeño chile, seeded and diced

1 poblano chile

cooking spray

Directions

1. Char the poblano chile over an open flame then place in a sealed container to sweat for about 15 minutes. Once the pepper has had a chance to sweat, the charred skin should slip off easily. (This is the time consuming bit.) Seed and dice the poblano.
2. While the poblano sweats, preheat the oven to 375°.
3. While the oven preheats, dump everything except the tortillas, cheese, and cooking spray in a bowl and mix well.
4. Spray an 8in x 8in baking dish with the cooking spray
5. Place a layer of tortillas in the bottom of the dish using one of the quartered tortillas (fitting the corners into the corner of the dish) and one of the whole tortillas in the center. Spoon about half the contents of the bowl on top of the tortillas. Sprinkle about half the cheese over the top.
6. Repeat, making a second layer. Sprinkle the thinly sliced tortilla over the top.
7. Bake for 40 minutes.

Since I hadn't been grocery shopping, I didn't quite have a cup of shredded mozzarella like I thought I had (I only had about ¼ cup) and the only other cheeses in the house were non-fat crumbled feta and a hard Irish cheddar. I didn't want either of those to "take over" so I ended up using all 3 types of cheese. It was cheesy enough to taste the cheese, but it wasn't oozing when you cut into it.

I have to think this was pretty healthy—black beans=high fiber, high protein, low fat; no added salt; and not a ton of cheese.

Happy Mothers Day

Happy Mothers Day to all the moms out there. This is for you.



Around here, this is what's known as the Mothers Day poppy. Okay, okay, so only mom and I call it the Mothers Day poppy. When mom was still living in San Jose, she asked for one of these, a Matilija poppy, for mothers day years ago, and in the Bay Area, it begins blooming around Mothers Day. I saw my first open poppy bloom on this past Wednesday.



The Matilija poppy typically likes a hot, dry climate and when mom moved to Oregon, she transplanted part of the Mitilija poppy to see if it would take. Thankfully, she didn't move to the soggy Willamette Valley and it seems to like her area just fine, only it now blooms a few weeks after Mothers Day.

Vacuuming Sucks

Vacuuming sucks. It always has. But then again, I guess it should, because if vacuuming didn't suck, you wouldn't be vacuuming. But vacuuming has always been my least favorite household chore, so it sucks in that way too. I think it's mostly the noise that bothers me. When the vacuum cleaner comes out, I want to run and hide like the cats do.

I'd rather scrub our toilets than vacuum. (Notice I said our toilets. If I were cleaning someone else's house, I think I'd have to rank vacuuming as more pleasant than cleaning the toilets.)

Anyhow. The Hoover Windtunnel we bought a few years ago has reached the point where it is more trouble than it is worth. Scoob and I both have longish hair, combine that with the hair from two cats and we've been burning through belts every third time we vacuum for about the past year. Lately though, it has gotten to the point now that we cannot even fully vacuum a single room in the house without burning through the belt.

Not only do we need to replace the beater bar belt frequently, there's also the lovely burnt rubber smell that lingers in the house for hours after vacuuming whether or not the belt breaks. You know, that's just not the smell I'm going for when I clean house.

Since we know long hair is often a problem, ever since we bought the machine we've made it a habit to clean the beater brush after every vacuuming session. I have even taken to getting on my hands and knees to use an old hair brush to brush the carpets before using the vacuum. Vacuum cleaners are supposed to make cleaning easier not more complicated.

Anyhow, Scoob and I decided today that it's time to cut our losses with the Hoover and buy a new vacuum. I started doing some research online today, but given how long it took us to actually purchase the Hoover, there's really no telling how quickly we'll buy the replacement. Given our issues with storage space, we'll probably go with another upright model. I think we're leaning toward a Dyson, but we're still considering the options. However, I find it very unlikely that we'll be getting another Hoover.

Have any of you had a vacuum that you've particularly loved or hated? Please share.

This Week So Far

This picture pretty much represents what this week has felt like so far.



I feel like I'm getting caught up in details. They're not unimportant, but they're overshadowing the larger and more pressing issues, like the bridge being out ahead.

A Justice for All

Supreme Court Justice Souter has officially announced plans for retirement following the current court term and the search for candidates to fill the vacancy on the bench are underway.

The difference between justice candidate chatter now as opposed to in February, when Justice Ginsberg underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer, is that we know for certain that an Obama appointment to the Supreme Court is eminent whereas in February it was speculative. And surprisingly, or not, conservative talking heads have already begun their partisan spew before any nominations have been made. Gah.

The media is tossing about several names for the shortlist, though the White House has not officially commented on any of them. In the running are:
Jennifer Granholm (Governor of Michigan)
Elena Kagan (Solicitor General)
Harold Hongju Koh (Dean, Yale Law School)
Kim McLane Wardlaw (Federal Justice, 9th Circuit Court of Appeals)
Janet Napolitano (Secretary if Homeland Security)
Deval Patrick (Governor of Massachusetts)
Johnnie Rawlinson (Federal Justice, 9th Circuit Court of Appeals)
Sonia Sotomayor (Federal Justice, 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals)
Kathleen M. Sullivan (Professor, Stanford Law School)
Leah Ward Sears (Chief Justice, Georgia Supreme Court)
Diane Wood (Federal Justice, 7th Circuit Court of Appeals)

I hope that the Obama nominee will be a moderate and I still think that Sotomayor is the best choice for nomination as I think she'll appeal to both sides of the aisle.

It's interesting that Senator Spector switched party affiliations last week trading in his well-worn R for a shiny new D. Specter is quoted as saying "I have found myself increasingly at odds with the Republican philosophy and more in line with the philosophy of the Democratic Party." His voting record supports his statement.

Specter's new party alignment, along with the anticipated confirmation of Senator Al Franken from Minnesota will give Democrats a filibuster-proof Senate, which all but ensures any Obama nominated justice will be confirmed by the Senate.

Spastic

Memo to April:

"April showers bring May flowers" means that you keep your showers to yourself once May starts.

May is off to a soggy start here, and so far I've been flat on my back for most of it. Last May-June I was having sharp chest pains that would last about 3 days. The pain usually went away after a large yawn or stretch would cause something in my sternum area to pop. Then I had an episode where the pain had been constant for about 2 weeks despite much popping in the sternum, and I finally went to the doctor.

The doctor said it was costochondritis, a swelling of the cartilage in the rib area, wasn't anything serious, told me to take an over-the-counter anti-inflammatory, and set me up with some physical therapy. The physical therapist was great and I gradually got better. Turns out that the costochondritis was being triggered by a muscle spasm in my back. Cutting to the chase, my back muscle has been spasming again and that's why I'm mostly out of commission.

Yesterday I started taking cyclobenzaprine I had left over from when I pulled a muscle in my neck a few years ago. It definitely brought some relief and I'm sure taking the day off from work and sitting at my desk helped too. Today I'll switch to over-the-counter stuff and see if I can maintain some level of relief.

Scoob has convinced me to see the doctor again. I'm not looking forward to it, mostly because I'm navigating Blue Shield now instead of Kaiser. Oh, and my company uses Blue Shield of Tennessee, so anything I do winds up in an out-of-state provider process. My company has offices in at least 6 states, but we all have to use the BS of Tennessee because that's where the Human Resources office is located. At least I think that's their rationale.