Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Out Of Action & Best Ever Banana Cake...


Have been somewhat out of action with sciatic pain this week, I needed some serious painkillers just to get out of bed and be mobile. Mind you, I had overdone it on Saturday while helping out at Matilda's cheerleading carnival. I offered to supervise the sub-juniors...they are 3-4 years old and were the sweetest group of little ones. Between myself and one other parent we had 4 children to care for for about an hour and a half. We needed to dress them in their costumes for their dance and keep them amused until their second routine. At interval they went back to their parents who were in the audience in the stands. It was a fantastic night...the moon was full, there were around 2,700 dancers and cheerleaders. It was an organisers nightmare but it seemed to go off without a hitch.

I digress a little...

It proved to be too much for my back. A little history first for you...I have an extra vertebrae, most people have 5 lumbar vertebrae, I have an L6 and it's this that is causing me problems. L6 has slipped underneath L5 so instead of sitting neatly on top of each other allowing my spinal cord to pass through, L6 has compressed my spinal cord causing significant sciatic pain...also quite a bit of pain in my bladder, bowel and other internal organs...all nerves leading to these organs branch out from where the compression is occurring. Some days are better than others. Physio has helped somewhat but will not cure me. It is seeming like surgery is my only "choice". I have been under the care of a neurosurgeon for about a year now and had an MRI last Saturday morning to check how things have changed since my last one (Dec, 2007).

I don't particularly like my Neurosurgeon...he is somewhat of a perfectionist, arrogant and aloof, his bedside manner needs significant work. I see him for no more than ten minutes at a time and for this privilege I pay him no less than $120.00.

However...

If someone is going to be cutting into me and playing God with my spine, an arrogant, aloof perfectionist is the person I want for the job. I am more than happy to forego the warm fuzzies providing my ability to move about unimpaired is not compromised and even improved. I have an appointment in the 2nd October to discuss the MRI results and what comes next. I'll keep you posted and in the meantime will keep up the drugs.

I digress again...I'm good at that...

While laid up yesterday I watched an older episode of Better Homes & Gardens on Foxtel. Maeve O'Meara cooked a fantastic Banana Cake with Caramel Custard Topping. I took down the recipe and made it this afternoon. It's sitting waiting for Matilda & myles to get home from school to cut into...I am hanging out for some but just can't bring myself to do it on my own, that would not be right, I like to enjoy such treats with others.

I tried before to copy the recipe but silly blogger kept trying to change the text colour & font so I gave up and instead you will find the link HERE...

Enjoy, it's quite easy and looks just like the photo...!!!

8 comments:

Lynda said...

I sure hope your pain eases soon. And the cake...it looks fabulous. I couldn't cook in the Metric system though...that would wig me right out - lol

Mouthy Girl said...

You poor thing! Pain like that is unbearable.

Like you, I'd rather have some snooty, arrogant huff who is a complete perfectionist than someone who puts more thought into holding my hand than holding a scalpel.

Please keep us updated. You're on my mind!

The cake - holy mackeral! Buddha will have to eat it!

Anonymous said...

An extra lumbar vertebrae?! Very interesting. I hope the pain subsides soon - I honestly can't imagine what having surgery to remove that would entail!

The banana bread looks amazing, but damn the metric system! I am off to find a conversion table!

Lissy said...

We LOVE Banana Cake here! After a solid work out at the gym this morning I splurged on a slice of toasted banana "bread" at the cafe right above the gym! YUM!
I'm off to check out the Better Homes & Gardens one...

I am so sorry to hear that you are in some pain Kerrie. You poor thing...David has been trying to get lots of rest this week after overdoing it last week & his back has "gone out" so he's just back from some physio. Ai ai ai...

I just wanted to add that my mum was a nurse & she used to always say that those Drs with no bedside manner were the ones you wanted operating on you! She said they were brilliant but had hopeless people skills...but when they are cutting into us we want the ones who KNOW THEIR STUFF. However, it's nice to have a Dr who is pleasant to deal with...they certainly earn the big bucks, you think they could be at least civil!

Love you sweetie. Hope those kids know how spoilt they are with you cooking them all these delicacies :-)

Kelly said...

back pain is like tooth pain; fundamentally B.A.D. Healing thoughts to you and your lumbar. And as for that cake with custard icing...too wicked for words. YUM!

Louisa Claire said...

Hi Kerrie,

Sorry to hear about the back pain!! I found your blog via Debbie at Blog Around the World and would love to tell you about a little project I've got going for Aussie bloggers that will launch on Monday. The website is bloggingaussie.blogspot.com and my email is thebloggingaussie@gmail.com. If you are interested I'd love to hear from you at that email address!
Cheers,
Louisa

Anonymous said...

Hi Kerrie;
Hope to hear that you have had the operation and all has gone well.
You are in my thoughts and send healing to you.
Amazing who you meet when you are just looking for a banana cake recipe.
Thanks for posting it.
Maree

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