Survival tips: the veg box

So back in ye olden days (a couple months ago) I used to do my grocery shopping on foot. Kiddo and I would walk to the store on Sunday afternoon with four canvas bags (one for each shoulder) and load up. Shopping this way saves money and reduces impulse purchases because at a certain point you realise, “If the basket is getting too heavy to carry around the store, imagine what this will feel like walking home.” When kiddo moved away for school, my grocery shops got somewhat more random (the kid being the one with the muscles and particularity about food) and I would grab things on my way to and fro, or see what looked interesting at the greengrocer. 

Now of course I’m not going anywhere or carrying anything, so I decided to investigate getting a veg box delivered, like we used to back in the pandemic.

The one we used to get is no more, sadly. We used to get the Good Food Box, a social enterprise run by Foodshare. They no longer do that. So, I investigated other options: the ones that popped up when I was searching for the Good Food Box, the ones whose trucks I see driving around town, etc. 

Eventually, I ended up at Odd Bunch. I love it!

The Odd Bunch box for one

Firstly, it was the only service I came across that had a box for one. Other sample boxes started at two people, and although I thought about seeing if I could get it delivered only every second week (which we did with the Good Food Box), seeing sample box contents made me think, “No way am I gonna get through that many potatoes.” It’s a very reasonable size for a single!

It’s also fantastic value. I did the math last week, just to see, while I was ordering some groceries from Voilà (coffee filters, gallon of milk) and the savings are amazing:

4.99	1 acorn Squash
2.49	3 Local Cippolini Onions
4.99	15 Local Brussels Sprouts
3.98	2 Local Sweet Potatoes
2.99	1 bunch Radish
3.47	3 Local Pears
3.99	Cherry Tomatoes
2.58	2 cobs Fresh Corn
7.99	1 Fresh Pineapple
2.99	1 eggplant
TOTAL: $40.46 at Voilà

Fully a 50% saving!

Mind you, I am still finding it something of a challenge to get through the whole thing, but I think as much as anything that’s because I have a reduced appetite due to not going anywhere or doing anything. Right now my mouth is on fire from trying to finish off a whole fresh pineapple. But, I was never a pineapple eater before, so if nothing else it has introduced variety into my diet, as well as fibre! 

Survival tips: easy healthy snacks

Saving this link here because I keep losing track of it somehow: Frozen Baked Sweet Potato

(Funny, after I typed that, I remembered, oh yeah, I have concussion, that’s why I need a recipe for something this simple, and why I keep losing it.)

This was shared on Ravelry a while back, and I bought a bag of sweet potatoes at the Korean market, baked them, put them in the freezer, and forgot about them. Oh, the delight to discover a ready-to-eat yummy snack in my freezer!

My sweet potatoes were little—40-80g only, but very good snack size—and I found 40 minutes roasting at 450° f was perfect. I eat them in the skins and they are so yummy! The good thing about them being small, not only are they the right size for me, but also there were a dozen or so in the bag, so I am still snacking a month later. Yay! 

So I went to the dentist

And it wasn’t that bad!

I mean it wasn’t great either, I just imagined it being a lot worse.

I wore and eye mask, and let everyone know what had happened with me, and everyone was very calm and soothing. Helped too I think that it was a pretty minor filling, I was done in about thirty minutes. I did find myself weeping randomly in the chair, and sat for about ten minutes in the waiting room before I felt ready to go, and then sat at the subway station for about another 15 minutes waiting for my bus.

Stars aligned so that a vintage red velvet coat I had been pining for was available to pick up not far away, pretty much on my way home, and near the home of the best sandwich in the city. My dentist is also conveniently located near some nice bakeries and a bookstore where I had an order waiting (totally forgot about that—was supposed to pick it up six weeks ago, the day before my fall!), so I had picked up a book and a slice of cake on my way there, and went to the vintage & arts market and deli on my way home.

The day had started looking fairly grim (I was worried I would get rained on) but by the time I got off the bus near the market, the sun was glorious. I feel so much better when it’s sunny! I arrived a little early, so meandered around the store a bit. Wandering in junky antique stores has been a favourite pastime since I was in school, so it was really nice to do something that felt “normal,” like I’m me again. Even if I did need to leave my bag because it was feeling too heavy. I found a cute bracelet in red quartzite which supposedly brings “power, concentration, and strength” (all things I desperately need!) and is also a lovely colour. I saw some glasses I might go back for. And the coat is perfect—the most gorgeous colour, and in mint condition.

It felt so nice to be doing things I like doing, and feeling able to to them!

I was super exhausted when I got home and today my arm hurts like crazy, but what can you do. Had planned to get my glasses adjusted today, but I think I need to stay home. I walked over 2km yesterday, so a rest day is well earned. Maybe I’ll bake something; I need to outpace my veg box.

Best coat ever

The Honest Abe from When the Pig Came Home

Smetanyk slice from Cake Smith

The hard days

Occasionally I will remember a thing, or realise a thing, that leaves me feeling kinda sad.

I’ve already given away tickets to the opera, the symphony, the ballet. I’ve already accepted that we won’t be able to go the the panto this year.

But as holiday season approaches, all kinds of things are hitting me.

I decided weeks ago not to try to host my annual eggnog party this year, but just realised we probably won’t have a tree either. Getting the tree and getting it in the house is one thing; hauling the ornaments out of the closet, decorating, and then putting it all away again after is another.

And I just realised that candlelight Christmas Eve service—which I love, love, love—may well be torture. It will be our congregation’s first in our new home. I was so looking forward to it. But all that flickering... maybe we can check it out and leave early if need be? I could make my kid hold my candle, and keep a sleep mask handy in case slipping it on briefly helps? We’ll see…

I keep hoping I’ll just magically feel better—I do feel a lot better than before!—but it also hit me today that Saturday will be the six week mark. My concussion pal told me that people usually feel better in three to six weeks, or three months, or it becomes chronic. I wanted to be a six-week person. Can’t help thinking I’d be farther along if my shoulder weren’t broken as well.  

Survival tips: what to wear

Getting dressed with one arm has been a real struggle. I can somewhat use my forearm now, but I have severe pain if I don’t keep my bicep basically glued to my ribcage. So, no sleeves, pretty much. Definitely no pullovers of any kind. Bottoms are difficult too—I struggle with fasteners one-handed, as well as just getting things on.

I have really been struggling with this! In part just, literally, struggling, because it’s colder now, so can’t just bum around in tank tops or whatever (although spaghetti-strap tank tops have been a lifesaver, because you can just step in an pull them up). But also, it is just really demoralising. I normally enjoy dressing—used to work in vintage clothing, have all sorts of fun pieces, but they’re mostly not injury friendly. I prefer tailored and fitted to baggy and loose, so I can’t button my shirts over my sling easily (I had my arm buttoned into a shirt all day once, and by the end my hand was numb). I can’t wear the tank top with nothing over, because it’s too cold. Pencil skirts that zip up on the left are difficult to put on. It’s too cold for bare legs and tights are impossible. I owned precisely one pair of jogging pants before this, because they’re just not my style. Now I own about six, and I look into the mirror and it’s not my own self looking back. Whiny, but it bugs me.

But I figured out a solution. I ordered a bunch of snap tape. I took a few expendable tops—a couple of hand-me-downs that my kid outgrew, and a black mock-neck pullover I made years ago—ripped out the left side seams (if I really want, I can always re-sew them later, I guess?) and sewed in the snap tape. Voilà! Shirts I can put on. Doing up the snaps is not easy, and on cold days the feel is breezy. But it’s so much better than nothing.

Looks like a normal polo shirt!

Awkward pose, but you can see the snaps!

Then an email popped up, saying, “a seller has offered you a discount on a vintage red cape.” After sighing and wishing I could splurge on such a thing, it occurred to me—capes are perfect when you can’t wear sleeves! It should be here any minute; I keep anxiously running to the porch every time I hear a sound. (My new glasses came today too—almost as good as my old glasses!)

Glasses, new and old

I am sick of the constant jogging pants though (even if I did manage to find one cool pair). And finally, it hit me this morning—suspender tights (warning: NSFW)! Regular tights would be a nightmare to get on one-handed, not to mention having to deal with them again every time you go to the loo. With suspender tights, they’re easier to get into since the hip-to-waist area is basically missing, and once they’re on, underpants go on top, and can go up and down as needed without involving the tights. I think (hope) I have another pair somewhere! 

Survival tips: my bed

A few adjustments I made. Just sharing for fun. And if someone finds it useful.

My bed

The Pillow Wall

I arranged my pillows to form a pillow wall to prop up my arm and keep me from rolling onto my bad shoulder. Basically took my two firmest pillows, stacked them, and placed them to the side going lengthwise along the bed instead of widthwise at the top. The rest of my pillows are at the top where pillows normally are. This allows me to extend my arm and keeps me from rolling over in my sleep. Yes I have a lot of pillows. My ex used to complain about it. So glad he is gone from my life! These pillows make a much better partner!

The Dimmer Cord

I have an extension cord dimmer switch so I can adjust the light without having to reach. See that lamp on the bedside table in the background? It was too far away. The dimmer cord is basically an extension cord you can plug one thing into, controlled by a dimmer switch, and enough length that you can keep the dimmer close to you even if the plug and lamp are not. I got this when my kid (now grown and away at university) was a baby, to use in the nursery when he fell asleep in my arms. I have no idea where I bought this one so many years ago, but this dimmer cord is pretty much the same.

The Bedside Box

That bedside table, so near yet so far. Couldn’t get to it without leaning on my arm. Couldn’t move it to the other side of the bed, as there’s a dresser there. Can’t move that, and it’ too high and too far to use as a bedside table. So, I put a cardboard box on top of my wastepaper basket for a makeshift reachable bedside table. Because it is a box, things stay inside/don’t fall off. It is ugly, but who cares! It works and cost nothing!

Actually, none of these solutions cost me anything; they’re just stuff I had on hand. But they have been so helpful to me!

One thing after another!

Be warned this is kinda gross. The yucky pics are at the bottom of this post; if you don’t want to see them, don’t scroll all the way.

After my fall I got a fitness watch so I could track my heartrate and know when to take a break before things got too far. I am including this pic mainly so one of the gross pics doesn’t end up being the thumbnail for this post.

Mainly putting this pic here as a buffer

The watch was suggested by my concussion pal. Current wisdom says that rather than avoiding everything completely when you have concussion, it’s better to do a little bit, rest a little bit. But take that rest break before you are really feeling that you need it (i.e., before you get symptoms, like headache and nausea in my case).

It’s pretty basic, but does the job. Or, did the job. It was wild to see my heartrate spike to 132 as I slowly shuffled around the grocery store, occasionally needing to lean against the shelving when I lost my balance. It was set to warn me if my heartrate went above 100 or below 50 (I got warned for both of those!) For the first two weeks, it regularly warned me that my resting heartrate (50) was too low, and now it’s happier with me because my resting heartrate is more normal (60). My sleep is crappy and irregular, but no surprise there.

It was also “fun” to count my steps. I’ve never been a pedometer person, but it was instructive to see my daily average of 600 steps climb to 1,200 steps. Just 9,000 more and I’ll be an average sedentary person!

Anyway I’ve been wearing it for three weeks now, taking if off to bathe. 

As my shoulder gets a little better, I can do more with my left hand as long as it isn’t weightbearing (I’ll post about exercises and physio later). One thing I’ve done is go back to two-handed typing. I can only do it for a little while though, and then I start to feel sore. Today I figured out why.

(This is where it gets yucky!)

My skin is rubbing off under the watch strap. I swear it was not like this two days ago! But now I am rubbed raw.

For the time being, my fitness watch has been replaced by ointment and bandages. Photos of my wounds below, so I can find them if I need to show them to one of the docs. I can’t figure out a way to “spoiler” them, so consider yourself warned and stop reading now if you don’t want to see! No more heartrate tracking for me, I guess. It just seems to be one thing after another these days and I am tired of it. 

So that’s why it’s so tender

I had a different worse gross extra problem last week that I don’t even want to talk about.

A lesson learned

One of the hardest parts of this whole thing is seeing reminders pop up on my phone for events I booked months ago.

Last night was a Masterclass in Charcuterie led by the owner and charcutier at Sanagan’s Meat Locker. 

Charcuterie from Sanagan’s Meat Locker

I reached out to the organisers to ask some questions beforehand: 

Is it likely to be very noisy, a bunch of people talking at once, or mostly one person talking while other people listen?

Is it a very bright/highly-lit environment, or more like “mood lighting” ?

Is there participation involved where I’d need to use both arms?

They answered my questions, and based on that and knowing how I’d get to the location, I decided this might be a good “test run” to see how I do with attending something that isn’t a medical appointment of some sort.

(Earlier I thought a theatre usher volunteer shift this week might be my test-run, but after asking if there were any environmental warnings like strobe or haze (lots of haze) and if they expected it to be a very busy full house (not a full house, but with two shows concurrently the lobby would get hectic) I decided against that one.)

So I am glad I went, as it was a lovely evening and I enjoyed the event, but it did demonstrate that I am not really up for going out yet.

Getting there was straightforward, but this was the first time I’d gone out at night in over a month, and the darkness punctuated by bright lights was a lot to deal with. There was an elevator up to the fifth floor, but it was old and a little jerky—fine for a normal person, but not for me right now.

The listening atmosphere was mostly great—one person talking at a time, no amplification, some quiet conversation—but there were a couple of occasions where people applauded, and honestly it could have been a gun going off next to me. Even though there were only maybe two dozen of us, it was a lot for me.

The lighting was nice. Enough to see everything clearly without eyestrain, but not overly bright and no fluorescents. Thing is, there were candles on the tables, which seemed fine at first, but there was this thing where the flickering of candles reflecting off the surface of water in a glass was like lights flashing in my periphery. I never would have thought candles would be a problem! Now I know.

The only shoulder-related issue I had to deal with was trying to hang up my coat. Many people had already arrived, and the coat hooks were kind of high on the wall, so most of the lower coat hooks were taken when I got there. I did manage to find one though. The hosts were kind about helping me find a seat where I wouldn’t get jostled, and my table-mates were very kind about serving the food for me and making sure my water glass was full.

So it was a lovely evening, but about 90 minutes in I just wanted to lie down and rest. Will definitely check out their events in the future—after I have fully recovered.

Meanwhile, I just cancelled all of my plans for the rest of 2025. Hoping enough rest will help me recover by the holidays. 

It’s honestly pretty upsetting to think that I won’t get to do any of the fun things I normally enjoy. All of the things I normally do to keep my cup filled are no longer available to me. I have been able to do a small amount of knitting, maybe that will be my salvation. It will be nice too to have my arm back so I can at least clean the house.

Well that was unexpected

One of the symptoms some people experience with concussion is loss of taste. This didn’t happen to me.

Except for this one thing.

Ginger.

Weirdly, I’ve also been craving ginger.

One of my regular things to make and eat is granola, and it’s also (happily) easy to make and eat despite my injuries. You can do it all with one hand (recipe below). I switch up the nuts and spices, but usually make it with cinnamon (classic), sometimes nutmeg, or allspice, or cardamom (with pistachios!) I usually also make it with regular all-purpose flour, more butter, and more sugar, but trying to be a little more mindful of that stuff (concussion is largely about inflammation, so the more anti-inflammatory, the better).

My concussion pal had brought over a giant bag of frozen blueberries (so grateful!!) so making granola seemed like the obvious thing to do. This time, I was craving almonds and ginger. 

Funny thing, it didn’t taste gingery.

Next time I made it, I did the obvious thing—double the ginger. This time it tasted… kind of burn-y? I don’t really know how to describe it. There was heat, but no flavour. Then I thought back to one of my daily walks to a coffee shop with a friend—I had ordered a ginger cookie which had no flavour at all. Last time my kid (who goes mad for novelty flavoured chips) visited, I got the “Limited Edition” jerk chicken flavour, which similarly had a small amount of heat but no flavour—and ginger is often a component of jerk seasoning. All very suspicious…

Anyway I’ve still been eating my blueberries, yogurt, and gluten-free granola every day like a good girl, so I’ve run out again and need to make more. This time, I’m not using ginger, hoping for something flavourful. Wish me luck.

Home-made Granola

Granola

Ingredients:

1½ cups rolled oats

¾ cup chopped nuts (almonds, walnuts, pecans, pistachios—whatever you like, or mix them up)

½ cup brown sugar

1½ tsp spice (cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, cardamom, even ginger would work in theory)

1 tbs chestnut flour (or all-purpose if you like gluten)

½ tsp salt

½  cup butter, melted

Directions:

Spread oats on a rimmed baking sheet in an even layer.

Sprinkle nuts evenly over oats.

Combine sugar, spice, flour, and salt. Stir with a fork to ensure it’s evenly mixed and there aren’t any lumps. Sprinkle evenly over oats and nuts.

Drizzle melted butter over all. Stir gently on baking sheet to ensure even distribution.

Bake at 350° f for 10 minutes. Stir gently, then bake another 10 minutes.

Let sit for a couple of minutes, then use spatula to gently lift so it doesn’t stick to the bottom. Allow to cool on baking sheet.

Store in a jar in the cupboard for up to a couple of weeks.

Learning my limits

Wow, yesterday was horrible!

A 2½ hour morning meeting at 9 o’clock, and then my boss said, “Let’s do a 10 minute huddle before the meeting for our team,” so that was scheduled for 8:30. I had a bad night sleep-wise, but dragged myself to my laptop for 8:30, figuring I’d have time to make coffee between the huddle and the meeting. After waiting a couple of minutes, my other team-mate appeared and said, “Did you see boss’s email? They can’t start till 8:40.” Then they started telling me about a traumatic event they experienced over the weekend. Boss eventually joined as well, and our huddle ran right up to 9 o’clock, and I tried to grab some coffee and breakfast but was called back. So, 2½ hour meeting on half a cup of coffee and no food. 

By an hour in, I was experiencing nausea, tremors, and heart palpitations. My body temperature went up. I felt on the verge of a panic attack. I turned off my camera and lights so I could put my head down and just listen, but then someone shared a PowerPoint so I had to open my eyes again. By the time we got a little snack break almost 2 hours in (2½ for me, because of the huddle that wasn’t) I was sobbing. As soon as the meeting was over I lay down on the sofa with my eyes closed for about 45 minutes. 

And of course, I had another meeting to get through, my regular one-on-one with my boss. I started by letting them know that it had been too much for me in the morning, and they offered to reschedule, but I said that there were a couple of things I needed their input on. After briefly touching on one, they pivoted to talk about their own project, which has a lot of people involved and keeps changing, and invited another person to the meeting. It got really confusing for me at that point, and at one point my boss made the comment that they should be able to just hand the details to me and they can’t. I felt a bit blamed for my injury, but I was so tired at the time I just felt fairly apathetic about it.

Now I’m wondering about how to approach an upcoming team meeting, which is always a big headache (long, lots of attendees, lots of details that aren’t specifically relevant to my work and very jargonny to the point where it feels like a foreign language). And this meeting usually gets rescheduled repeatedly. I really want to say “Hey, I can’t do more than one hour, and I need 30 minutes buffer on either side, so if you’re going to change the time of meetings I need an hour’s notice so that I can adjust the rest of my schedule,” but I wonder how that would go over.

I feel a bit better today (although I cried a bit typing this) because I woke up with the sun and was able to eat breakfast outside on the front porch, soaking up some vitamin D. Can’t wait for my full-spectrum SAD therapy light to arrive.

The story so far

So my fall happened on Saturday 11 October, when my kid was visiting for Thanksgiving and reading week (great to have them here to help out, although it must have sucked for them, and I was probably pushing myself to appear “fine” when I was not). 

Saturday night is never a good time to go to ER, and I did not have a good time. More on that later maybe.

They stitched up my forehead, said nothing was broken asked me to come back Sunday morning at 6:50 for fracture clinic, and if I wanted anything for the pain I would have to wait until then. At fracture clinic, the orthopaedic surgeon told me I did have a fracture, it was just hard to see because the x-ray was not clear, so the night doc missed it. My elbow x-rays had to be re-done because they were not clear at all. Fracture clinic doc said no weightbearing, keep it in the sling (even while sleeping), lost of rest etc., and come back in three weeks (actually the doc said two weeks; the straight-talking admin said it would be three as they’re overbooked and also even with an appointment, I should expect to spend 1-3 hours waiting). I asked if I could see my physio (I already had an appointment that Thursday for my shoulder, more on that later) and he said okay, but not to move my shoulder, only to work on elbow and wrist mobility.

On Thursday, while my kid was visiting their dad, I saw my physio and pretty much broke down crying in his office because I felt so shaky and awful, and it might have been the first time I felt I could cry—the first time I felt someone really saw and understood my pain. I was all vague about how bad my injuries were (because I was in a general cloud of vagueness at that point) and showed him the notes the ER doc sent me home with, but he saw immediately that I had a broken shoulder, I had a concussion, I needed lots of rest and minimal activity. He made sure I was going to see my doctor asap before he let me leave the office.

Then I went to a random clinic to get my stitches out (ER should have provided me with a stitch removal kit, but chose to withhold that, so I had to call around to find a walk-in clinic that had one) followed by a trip to my family doc to get a check-up and a referral to a neuro clinic (I should have given him the one my friend recommended right then! But that’s the thing about concussion, you forget stuff!) and bought myself a doughnut on the way home. I was a wreck. I bumped into someone I knew, almost didn’t recognize them, and then started crying while they backed awkwardly away (part of me wonders—how did he not see that I needed help? I can’t imagine seeing someone in the shape I was in, and not making sure they got home safely).

Oof, that was all hard to write. What an awful first few days. And I left out the hardest parts. Maybe I’ll fill that in later.

Oh boy...

Another year, another injury : (

I feel bad that I didn’t share more about my Bike Rally ride this summer—just too busy!

Strange to think that just a few short months ago I was tackling incredible feats of athletic endurance, and now, I struggle to walk around the block.

Yep, sidelined by an injury.

And just like the start of this blog, I wasn’t doing anything exciting or (seemingly risky) when it happened—I was on foot, and tripped on a curb. Walking (or rather, running to catch a traffic light) and wearing sensible shoes.

I have a fractured shoulder (specifically, a minimally displaced fracture of the greater tuberosity of the humeral head) and concussion. These are things that do not go together well—balance issues from the concussion, and with only one arm functioning, an extremely limited ability to catch myself if I fall. Pain seems to make a lot of my concussion symptoms (headache, nausea, fatigue, brain fog and overwhelm) a lot worse. So yesterday when I had my follow-up at the fracture clinic, which meant I had to move my arm for x-rays, the pain from that made my brain kinda shut down.

Wild that this is almost exactly 15 years from my first injury.

I’ll end this post the same way I ended the first post, since it is exactly true for today too:

Anyway tomorrow I start physio, and I wanted a place to keep track of what I’m doing exercise-wise, diet-wise, and otherwise-wise.

How it started, & how it’s going