November 15, 2010

Written November 14 to post November 15
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My internist wants me to get my shrink to increase my antidepressants. But I’m already on two different kinds, and I suspect it might just be the ongoing pain that’s keeping me so depressed–the cortisone injections into both knees have worn off, and my right knee hates me. I told her I was arriving at the hospital at 7:30 AM on Monday. I told her I’d still be there Tuesday morning and possibly Wednesday, if she wanted to stick her head in and say hi. If she doesn’t, I won’t feel neglected. T isn’t going to visit me in the hospital because he’s got some sorting out to do, and I will not feel neglected by him either. I will have 2000 books (on my Kindle) and the shawl I’m crocheting. I couldn’t take my CD player because I’ve got a bag and the carrier that goes with my walker filled up all ready, and keeping track of my Kindle is hard enough without trying to keep track of a CD player too.
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I hate the sound and smell of a bone saw, due to the number of autopsies I saw when I was a CSI and the fact that they were normally being used to saw off the skull cap when I was there, but if the surgeon and his PA need to use one I will firmly tell myself they are removing the source of the pain, and I can live with the smell and sound.
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My brother who broke his neck falling off a horse ten years ago now has developed very serious aftereffects. He has calcium lumps building up inside his spinal column. They are pushing on the spinal cord, which is pushing back. He is partially paralyzed on one side, and in severe pain. He has pain meds, but unlike me, he can’t work if he’s taking narcotics. So he’s compromised: he works half the day and then takes the pain meds. The doctors are trying to figure out what to do. Obviously they’ve got to remove the calcium lumps, but that must be done very carefully and delicately to avoid more damage to his spinal cord. Monday I’ll be too busy worrying about him to have time to worry about me.
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We put him on the Temple prayer roll for the Salt Lake Temple, which means the in effect he’s on the prayer roll of all the Temples. So he has prayer groups all over the country and in other places praying for him, besides everybody in the family.
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I’ll be on Dilaudid the first week and a half after the surgery. (When I was in CSI there was no stronger pain killer, and Dilaudid was given only for last-stage cancer patients. There are now both stronger and longer-lasting pain pills, and Dilaudid has lost its position at the top of the ladder. But it’s still pretty strong, and I gather I’ll need it. The physical therapist explained that the bone will be cemented to the metal and plastic, so it will be POSSIBLE for me to put my whole weight on the joint immediately after surgery, but I definitely won’t want to. He says the source of the pain is mainly the muscles, sinews, and ligaments that have been slowly pushed out of shape over years trying to get back into the right shape after the surgery. It took them years to get out of position, but it’ll probably take less than three months to get them back into position, assuming I behave myself and do my exercises as required.
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Presumably, next late spring I’ll be able to sit down or kneel on the ground in the garden and get back up without help. That will be WONDERFUL. It’s been so long since I’ve been able to do that. But I have promised T that I’ll still take my cane and cell phone whenever I go to the garden. After those two bad falls I had last month, he didn’t have any trouble extracting that promise.
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I promised to post a book review as part of each post. This one is Microgreens: A Guide to Growing Nutrient-Packed Greens, by Eric Franks and Jasmine Richardson. When we think of microgreens, we most often think of bean sprouts and alfalfa sprouts. But there’s another stage between sprouts–which are by no means limited to those two most common–and adult veggies. They’re baby lettuce and baby greens of many kinds, including some that you couldn’t eat if they were full grown. Most of them take less than two weeks to grow in a standard flat. Have you ever looked at the price of them in the grocery store? Ouch. Have you ever thought about ordering them in a restaurant? DOUBLE OUCH! But they’re delicious, and at the baby stage they have many more nutrients than they have before or after. Of course you do still need full grown vegetables also, because baby greens haven’t had time, even if you are growing them in soil, to absorb very many minerals. But they’re overflowing with vitamins. They make great salad, or great garnish on many kinds of salads and other foods, and you don’t have to eat much to get your day’s supply of greens.
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This lavishly illustrated book, which I stupidly bought from Kindle before my husband brought it home from the library, shows the different colors that different foods come in. For example, if you eat amaranth as grains, you get sort of grain-color or red; if you eat the leaves as a spinach substitute, you get green. But if you eat them at the mini-green stage, they’re a lovely shade of magenta, with a mild but spicy flavor.
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You probably know that broccoli sprouts are delicious and very highly nutritious, but did you know that they’re also edible at the baby green stage? So are radishes and many other crops in the cabbage family. In fact, there are vegetables from at least fifteen different families available at the microgreen stage, and as I said earlier, some of them are inedible as grown plants. Very few humans, for example, can digest alfalfa at any stage larger than that of microgreens, but they have nutrients that defend against several serious diseases.
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Microgreens is a very clearly written book that tells you exactly what microgreens you can grow, how you go at it, where you get your supplies, what you can do with the space you have available, how to get your soil just right (hint: buy litmus paper), and everything else you need to know.
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To tell the truth, I’m not quite through reading the book yet. But I have to stay up till midnight to take a couple of meds, and then be back up at six to get to the hospital on time, and I’m likely to finish the book before I go to bed.
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To sum up: If you want to please your taste buds and the part of your body that tells you what nutrients you want, and if you want to be a farmer and you live in fifth-story apartment, you can meet your goals if you follow the instructions in this book. I can tell you that as soon as I’m home from the hospital, a whole lot of minigreens will begin growing in my barn.
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Well, maybe I’ll wait a couple of weeks, until I can walk without saying OUCH OUCH OUCH OUCH at every step.
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Hey, somebody! I’m all prepared to answer questions and nobody will ask me one. Remember the comments and address site is gardenwindow@aol.com. Foi, don’t you want to know what will make Molly’s coat glossier and make J come home on time for supper more often?
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Izzybella, don’t you want to know what greens your dad might like? (Hint: Get him bleu cheese dressing for it, and he won’t care what the veggies look like or taste like.)
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Clover, do you want to know whether clover with a small c is edible by humans? Hint: It isn’t in this book, but it is. You just need to know when to serve it. (Somebody send this column to Clover.)
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Freaky Angel, don’t you want to know what veggies you can grow in a shady backyard that are easy to grow and Lunatic Writer will eat them?
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SOMEBODY I DON’T KNOW, ASK ME A QUESTION OR MAKE A COMMENT. Let’s be friends, okay?

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