The Power of Silence and Support

Tune Tuesday anyone?

This song came from my car ride home tonight.  Never heard it before but I like it.

Breakfast today was super, super yummy and eaten on the way to HIPAA compliance training class.

Peanut butter breakfast cake topped with Nutella, maple, and chia.  Nomnom.  It was incredibly scrumptious.  I can’t even tell you.

HIPAA class went fine and we were out early.  It was more of the same “don’t say this, don’t put stuff here, lock your desk”…  Being silent about medical records and such seems to be the best defense.  Our compliance officer said he’d be listening for us to slip up in elevators and the cafeteria.  Now I think I’ll just avoid those places.  Creeper, anyone? I will say that I am hoping our department never deals with a sanction.  It is beyond expensive.  Wow.  Plus we heard stories about institutions that lost thousands, yes THOUSANDS, of medical records in one fell swoop.  It’s insane for sure.

After compliance training we headed back to the student room and I took off to get my free “wellness screen”.  They measured my height and weight, used those to calculate my BMI, and then did my cholesterol levels, blood pressure, as well as my body fat percentage.  They were supposed to do my glucose levels too but didn’t have the equipment.  To summarize, my BMI was normal, both my body fat and blood pressure were considered low, my cholesterol was good, and life was happy.  Turns out, according to my last wellness screen 11 months ago, that I have since slashed my body fat in half.  Wow.

I came back to the student room and began to work on my dysmorphology presentation.  I am assigned to do abnormalities of the nose and perioral region and let me just tell you, some of the pictures are gruesome.  I can’t imagine what I would do if my child was born with one of these.  I have no idea.  In the midst of working I busted out my hummus, Old Bay, and smoked gouda sandwich with a side of plantain crunchers, regular pretzels, crunchmaster crackers, peanut butter filled pretzels, and some butterscotch chips.

This was yummy and I’ll admit I saved the butterscotch chips for last and they were oh so good.

At two we had Foundations class (rescheduled because of compliance training) which discussed fetal anomalies on ultrasound as well as maternal disease during pregnancy.  Interesting topics.  A lot to remember for sure.

On my way home I had a snack of a Bartlett pear.

Those hazelnuts and honey roasted peanuts never got eaten mostly because they were forgotten at the bottom of my lunch bag.  When I arrived home I changed and did 20 minutes on each the elliptical and stationary bike in the fitness center.  I burned 350 calories, got sweaty, and worked up an appetite.  I couldn’t indulge it right then though because I needed to shower in order to make sure I wasn’t late to the autism support group meeting I was set to observe.

Time got away from me and instead of the salad I had planned I had to settle for a dinner of a piece of 10 grain toast spread with homemade sunbutter and fig & ginger jam.  Remember, I told you I would be having more of this jam soon.  It is beyond delish.

This toast was great and totally hit the spot as I ran off to the meeting.  It went from 6:30-8:50 (despite the fact it was supposed to end at 8:30) and the people there talked about a million and one concerns, thoughts, feelings, and challenges.  It was very neat to watch everyone open up and acknowledge each other.  They drew so much strength from their conversation.  I was blown away.  It was honestly enlightening.  I’m glad I went and it feels great to check that assignment off the list.

When I got home from the meeting I had a chocolate peanut butter s’more.

Capital A Awesome.

I then took the time to run through my role play one more time since I have to give it tomorrow morning at 9am.  As a reward for both getting through it and feeling great about it still I had a peanut butter Oreo stuffed brownie with lots of ice cream and chocolate syrup.

Nomnom.

I should really go and prep food for tomorrow and get o bed.  I have to rearrange my day to make sure I get to the gym in the AM tomorrow because the rest of the day is just go-go-go packed.  Highlight of tomorrow: dinner with my best friend.  Can’t wait.

G’night one and all!

Questions: Have you ever been to a support group meeting? What did you think?