It was the beginning of Spring and an absolutely perfect day – mild temperature, mild breeze, and blue, blue skies… An absolutely perfect day for a dinner salad.

I headed off to the grocery store walking a bit gimpy with compression socks and a sore knee. It seemed that for no really discernable reason, my left leg and foot decided to swell. I didn’t think a lot about it at first, but it seemed to be getting bigger – and bigger… I know the weight loss has not been all that dramatic, but neither has the weight gain – especially on just one side of my body. Time to look into things.

A quick trip to Dr Google let me know that men of a certain (old) age who have prostate cancer are more susceptible to blood clots that those without. I decided it was time to seek actual medical advice from an actual person. Off to Immediate Care.

I saw a great Doc who did the exam and wanted an ultrasound asap. Alas, it was a Sunday and the Imaging Dept was closed for the day. He suggested heading to the ER – which I was not in favor of – so he gave me a blood thinner to get me safely through the night – and an order to get an Ultrasound immediately the following morning. In the meantime, I had several vials of blood taken out and a complete blood workup ordered. to try and rule out every possible cause.

Actually following Drs orders, I had the Ultrasound on Monday and fortunately, it came back negative. No clots, no issues, Good blood flow. Leg still swollen. My PCP called me later that afternoon – she gets notified when something is added to my chart – and said she wanted to see me Tuesday morning so right after my quarterly Urology appointment, I headed to see her – bringing an elastic knee brace I had started wearing because my knee has been bothering me – the same knee I had arthroscopic surgery on 11 years ago. She had the results of the Ultrasound and the bloodwork, and did a thorough exam of my leg. It appears that the elastic brace was the most likely cause of the swelling.

To address the problem of the knee, she sent me upstairs for x-rays. The knee surgery is past its warranty and I’m scheduled for a steroid injection to help alleviate things. The compression socks have reduced the swelling immensely in just a day, and all of my bloodwork came back perfect.

To add perfection to an already stellar medical experience, the Dr who saw me on Sunday at the Immediate Care office called this morning to see how I was doing! It’s like old fashioned medicine in the 21st Century!

To celebrate the great news and absolutely gorgeous day, we decided on salads for dinner. Limping through the store , I picked up some fresh tuna kabobs – marinated in teriyaki – and the basic salad ingredients we didn’t already have. I made a bean salad, a farrow salad, and I made a salad dressing – a garlicky buttermilk ranch.

Bean Salad was simplicity and based on my old Trader Joe training – 3 cans of beans, diced pimento, diced red onion, a can of diced green chilis, and about a half-cup of Trader Joe’s Salsa Verde. A pinch of salt and pepper. Absolutely no muss or fuss – and no-effort really good.

The Farro Salad was another no-recipe recipe. Cooked farro, diced bell pepper, green onion, celery, chopped parsley, olive oil, and coconut vinegar – because we have a dozen (at least) different vinegars and I have to use them up!

There’s a little dollop of a local goat cheese with honey and vanilla that tastes like cheesecake – and some marinated veggies from the olive bar. Delish!

The salad dressing was a take on a dressing I’ve made in the past. This version had a lot of roasted garlic in it.

Garlicky Buttermilk Ranch Dressing

  • 1/2 cup buttermilk
  • 1/3 cup mayonnaise
  • 1/3 cup crème fraîche
  • 2 tsp. minced onion
  • 1-1/2 tsp. lemon juice
  • 1-1/2 tsp. flat leaf parsley
  • 5 cloves roasted garlic
  • Pinch dried thyme
  • Pinch paprika
  • S&P to taste

Place everything into a good blender and process until creamy. (I used the smoothie cup to my Ninja)

Taste for seasoning and add more S&P, if desired.

After yesterday’s great weather, we have cold, cloudy, rainy weather with snow in the higher elevations – welcome to Spring in the Pacific Northwest! But that’s okay. I’ll be doing nothing today, sitting with leg elevated when i think of it, and dreaming of Cabo San Lucas in a few weeks.

Little glitches here and there, but life does not suck!