Positive Thoughts

Good Morning!  Let’s start this day with positive thoughts, shall we?

I was able to get an appointment with an ENT in Jacksonville yesterday afternoon.  First, they put me in a little room and tested my hearing.  The girl that was testing me was super nice and was sure to let me know that “I’m definitely experiencing a little hearing loss.”  Really? I had no idea.    After the testing, I was put in a room and waited for the doctor.  He looked in my ears, nose & throat. He confirmed that I definitely have Eustachian Tube Dysfunction and asked me to plug my nose and blow to see if I could pop my ears.  Little did he know, I’ve tried this 158589352145 times.  The right one will pop a tiny little bit and then plug again, the left one, nothing.  He saw a tiny bit of dried wax on my right ear drum, so he scraped that off but it didn’t seem to make any difference in my hearing.  He explained to me that the blockage is taking place behind my eardrum, so putting anything directly into my ear isn’t going to solve anything.  He suggested trying a nasal spray like Afrin.  I’m supposed to put it in my nose and hope it reaches the Eustachian Tube.  Yikes.  So, as far as the ears go, I’m supposed to just wait it out.  Nasal spray every day and continue to plug my nose and blow.  If I’m still experiencing problems with my ears in a couple of weeks, I’ve been given the option to go back to the ENT to have holes poked in my ears.  <———— Really hoping to avoid that.

When this all started, I was diagnosed with Pharyngitis and had a nasty infection in my throat.  I had the white spots and everything but tested negative for strep throat.  The doctor at Urgent Care prescribed a Zpack (3 day antibiotic) and sent me on my way.  The doctor that I saw today said that sometimes a Zpack just isn’t enough to get rid of infection, so there’s a good chance it was still lingering.  Then I was put on Prednisone for 9 days.  Prednisone is known for lowering the immune system which explains why I ended up feeling worse!  So, now I’m on another antibiotic to hopefully knock this crap out of me for good.  I have to take this one twice a day for 10 days.  Positive thoughts that this will take away the swelling in my throat and bring back some energy that I’ve been completely lacking.

This is my new favorite hangout. 

Yesterday morning started with some yummy overnight oats. Love all of the colors!  This is the first time I tried almond butter in my oats.  Yum!

Later in the morning, I had a sandwich thin and some roasted red pepper hummus.

My doctor appointment was at 12:45pm, so I didn’t have lunch until I got back to the office.  Dane’s yummy stuffed cabbage!

Dane asked me to stop by Publix on the way home for some Cilantro.  I, unknowingly came home with this.

I didn’t even notice!  Have you ever heard of Culantro?  Apparently it’s Cilantro’s cousin.  Who knew?  I read that it’s a “much utilized, little understood herb.”  Poor thing.  You can read more about it here.  Anywho, it ended up working out.

We had plans to have to fish tacos for dinner.  When Dane’s sister was here, they had lunch at a new place in town called Riptides.  Dane had the fish tacos and they were served with a mango salsa.  When we were at Publix on Saturday, we saw Mangos in the produce section so we got a few so we could attempt to duplicate the salsa.  He did a good job, it turned out yummy.

Salsa ingredients – Mango, red onion, cucumber, jalapeno, culantro and lime juice.

We served the fish tacos with quinoa and black beans.

I used Mission 80 Calorie Carb Balance tortillas.

After dinner, I made an iced coffee with the leftover coffee from this morning.  I used Stevia for the first time.

I also had a Blueberry-Raspberry Muffin.  I’m really happy with how these turned out.

I hope you have a great Tuesday!  Here’s some kitty cuteness for you.  Think he’s comfy?

Related posts:

Please excuse my excuses Pharyngitis A different kind of taper Short week