"Having a cooking good time!"

That was mom's report when I called this afternoon. She was busy puttering around in her kitchen, and she said that she feels like one of the chefs on a Food Network cooking show. She decided that she was hungry for split pea soup, so she went downstairs to her freezer and took out "a nice big hunk of ham with the bone in," and she was busy putting all the ingredients into her big slow cooker. She said she didn't have any onions so she was improvising with green onions and "lovely thin carrots." She has to go into town tomorrow to pick up a prescription refill, and she was looking forward to having some nice split pea soup ready when she gets home.

She said that she is definitely feeling better. She has been making an effort to exercise, both by going downstairs to the underhouse and by just walking around the house. She said that she can feel it in her thighs and calves, but it feels good.

One of her quilter pals called to see if she is planning to come to the Tuesday quilters meeting tomorrow and told her that the quilters look forward to her coming, which really made her feel good. She mentioned that she had been a bit down, missing Ray, and that she is deliberately trying not to let herself get depressed. She said that talking to her quilter pal is "always a riot," and she is looking forward to the hilarity that always ensues on Tuesday mornings at the fire house.

I asked about her Protime test since she does it every Monday, and she said that this morning it was 2.5, which is within her "normal" range of 2.5 - 3.5. She said that she thinks she is getting stabilized with her new diuretic, and even though it gets her up three or four times a night to go to the bathroom, she doesn't mind because she definitely feels better overall (and she makes up for it by napping every day). She said she feels like she is getting "back on track."

Tomorrow when she goes to town she is going to get another blood test in preparation for her follow-up appointment with Dr. Kubac on Friday morning at 10am. Bill is planning to come back down to take her in for that appointment.