Gia-Gina Across the Pond: May 2005

Baby Sagrantino II

Baby Sagrantino I

Demetrio walking amoung the vines.

Hectares and hectares of Sagrantino grapevines.

My Thyroid is 100%

I had my Ecography today; basically that means sonogram of my thyroid. My general practitioner in Rome prescribed all the tests and this Monday I will go to see him again. We will present him with the first ½ of my blood work results and I need to get my prescriptions in order to start the therapy for my tummy troubles. The radiologist that did the sonogram today said everything looked fine but he still has to send the pictures out to get them properly analyzed. No photos of that procedure, he was a bit stiff and there was a full waiting room.

The bruise I received after my blood draw.

In a city like Turin or Rome the only way to get around quickly while avoiding parking tickets is to ride around on a moped. Here's Demetrio on his way to work. Next Thursday, an Italian holiday, I will try my hand at it, it's been years.

I finally found and unpacked Zavier's electric toothbrush and chicken flavored toothpaste.

Zavier loves the taste of flouride and poultry.

After a bit of scaling, we brush the canines.

We brush the molars and everything in between.

Dinner is Served

When I first saw Carbonara being made, it was with spaghetti and this usually the case in restaurants but my husband prefers it with rigatoni so we compromise and switch from spaghetti to rigatoni. I think Mario Batali was on Martha Stewart’s show and making this pasta when I had flashbacks on my mom eating raw eggs fresh from the chicken, yuck! I stayed away for about 3 years, and then gave in.

For 2 people and a 10 pound dog, you will need:

1/3 to 1/2 a pound of pasta or 300-400 grams
½ C. diced pancetta or not too smoky bacon
2 whole eggs + 1 yolk-at room temp. and lightly beaten
1/3 to ½ a cup of grated Parmigiano and more for sprinkling
S + P-to taste

1. Start pasta water, add your favorite pasta and cook until al dente.
2. Brown and crisp the pancetta/bacon until all the fat has been rendered and it golden and crisp. Set aside.
3. In large bowl, add the eggs, hot cooked pasta and toss to coat thoroughly, then add the pancetta and cheese.
4. If your pasta is a bit dry you can add a bit of the oil from the pancetta or a bit of olive oil. The consistency of the pasta should be creamy but in no way soupy.

For the Carpaccio:

This is a great starter; it is simple and very quick. The portions really depend on the appetites of those who come to the table.

Slice some fresh veal or beef into the thinnest possible slices you can manage. Arrange in a thin layer on a large plate. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, juice of ½ to 1 lemon, capers, freshly shaved Parmigiano cheese, drizzle with good olive oil and serve.

For the Veal Involtini

The tomato sauce is a simple one:

1. Sauté 3 T. finely diced onion in olive oil, add 1 pressed garlic clove, 1 bay leaf and a bit of thyme. Sauté until fragrant, add 1 15 oz. can of chopped tomatoes and let simmer for 10 minutes.

The veal needs to be sliced very thinly but not paper thin by you or your friendly neighborhood butcher.

To begin you will need:

5-6 slices of veal or beef
4 T pine nuts
2 garlic cloves
Handful of parsley, about 1/3 of a cup, stems removed, leaves only
¾ C. rough bread crumbs
1/3 C. Parmigiano cheese
Salt and Pepper to taste
Kitchen twine or toothpicks

1. In a food processor or by hand, chop the garlic, parsley and pine nuts roughly, add the bread crumbs and pulse until combined then add the cheese. Taste the stuffing and adjust with salt and pepper.
2. Dry the veal and season both sides with salt and pepper, now comes the tricky part. Spoon a bit of the stuffing onto one side of the veal; slowly roll up the veal slice. With stuffing that is too finely ground, this is difficult. Use your pinky fingers to prevent the stuffing from falling out. When the roll is complete, tie with string or impale with toothpicks to prevent unraveling.
3. Heat up a bit of oil and grill the veal rolls on moderately high heat, sear away until nice and brown on all sides. They will be medium rare.
4. If you make your rolls with toothpicks you may not be able to sear on all sides and may want to finish your rolls in a preheated 375 F oven for 5-7 minutes.
5. After they are cooked, let them rest for a few minutes, untie and cut them on a diagonal bias. Spoon a bit of tomato sauce on to your serving plate, lay the cut rolls in the sauce and serve immediately.
Dinner e' pronto!

Rigatoni Carbonara, notice the dog's portion at the far left.

Carpaccio

Veal Involtini with Grilled Treviso

We have no armadios for our clothing yet, so these 5 racks of "stuff" that I unpacked have amounted to 15 hours of ironing.

The view from my living room balcony, city sidewalks and tree lined streets.

I go for a full range of tests on Monday and I had to supply my own urine sample container. They are purchased from the pharmacy for 1 Euro, but I'm curious to know how they know if it'a really mine.

The handy man strikes again this weekend.

Italianese

Learning a new language is difficult, there is no question about it; but being between languages is a world of its own. So now that my lessons are over it’s up to me to practice what I have learned and to perfect my skills. Just yesterday a neighbor invited me up to her apartment for coffee. She is French but has been living in Italy for 35 years, and has two daughters, 30 and 25. All three of them speak Italian and French but she wants to better her English. We have decided to meet once in a while to speak Italian for an hour and English for another hour.

Demetrio has been no help whatsoever. He keeps telling me it’s too unnatural for him to speak to me in Italian. He speaks very fast and has a complicated vocabulary so many times I just don’t understand much of what he says. On the other hand when he speaks to his friends on the cell phone, I can usually pick up 80% of the conversation. When I complain he tries for a day or so then loses interest. Eventually we’ve reached a point in which a new way of communicating has emerged and it is a combination of English and Italian that we call “Italianese“. It goes something like this:

At dinner time I am usually trying to get him away from the computer.
“Amore, la cena e’ pronto.”=Honey, dinner is ready.
“Arrivo”=I’m coming!
“A tavola”=It’s on the table.
“Okay, in a second.”
“It’s getting cold.”
“Adesso.”=Now!

It’s a mix of Italian and English, kind of like Spanglish. Maybe someday he will speak Italian to me but for now he says he does not have the patience.

Here's the endoscopy machine, see the 2-3 feet of tubing the doctor guided down my throat, through my stomach and to my duodenum.

Swallow, Swallow, Swallow

I had my endoscopy done today; I have been nervous and worried about this procedure for years but it was surprisingly fast and relatively painless.

Here is a quick medical description of what I had done:

Endoscopy Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy (also known as esophago-gastro-duodenoscopy or EGD) EGD is a procedure in which a tube containing an optical system for visualization is swallowed. As the tube progresses down the gastrointestinal tract, the lining of the esophagus, stomach, and duodenum can be examined.

The doctor was so nice and he spoke a bit of English too. After chatting with me a bit about my medical history and why I was having this done; he reassured me it was only going to take 15-20 seconds and he was going to give me the pediatric tube to swallow. It was not too tiny, about the size and width of my pinky finger.

I lay down on my left side on the examining table as he sprayed a bitter anesthetic into the back of my throat. He then asked me to swallow the tube. I tried but the first time I gagged and could not, Demetrio peeked around the corner and told me to calm down as the doctor gave me a few more directions. The second time I tried I felt the tube go down into esophagus and into my stomach. I was told to have nothing for breakfast and lunch and no water 1 hour before the procedure so when the tube hit the bottom of my stomach, I felt it. I coughed, gagged and teared from the discomfort but really felt no pain. Afterwards, I had a bit of a sore throat but it went away very quickly. The whole office visit took less than and hour.

The doctor talked to Demetrio a bit more then gave me the results. He tested me for the bacterium Helicobacter pylori, this bacterium basically causes ulcers and since the test was negative, he concluded what I have known since college, my tummy troubles are probably from stress.

The lining of my esophagus was inflamed (esophagitis). Note the gastric bubbles in the photo below, he told me my esophageal sphincter did not close properly and was allowing acid to creep back into my esophagus. Usually people with this condition experience heartburn but I rarely do, mainly I have tummy aches and get nauseous quite a bit. Luckily I did not have any ulcers in my esophagus. He did see my old ulcer scar and a little tiny erosion near my duodenum.

Now I have to take 2 medications twice a day each, that 4 times a day plus my blood pressure medication. I am beginning to feel like a walking pharmacy. The worst part of the whole prescription is that I can’t eat any spicy foods, no fruit juices, no tomato, coffee or vinegar in my salad dressing for 40 days. After the 40 days I get to go back and have another endoscopy, Yippee!!

Here's a photo of the opening from my esophagus to my stomach aka esophageal sphincter.

The Full Medical Monty

I think everyone that knows me knows that I can be an anxious, “Oh no!” stressed out, nervous, worrywart. Maybe for these reasons and maybe others still unknown, I have high blood pressure. This condition has been plaguing me for about a year and a half; I have always joked that it coincides with me meeting Demetrio. In any case, my first concern after arriving to Italy was finding a good doctor. My prescriptions were due to run out in May so I need to see someone fast.

Italy has a universal health care system but to access this system you have to have a fiscal code number, it is equivalent to a US Social Security Number, except it is 3 times longer. No one will give you a loan without this number, you can’t open a bank account without this number, you can’t sign up for a parking permit, and can’t see a doctor in the health system without this number. We have medical insurance but to take advantage of it, you must have a fiscal code. Last week in Rome, I finally got one. I went to the trusted doctor of Demetrio’s mother for a check up. Demetrio was there to translate for me while he took my blood pressure, listened to my chest and asked me a barrage of questions.

“When was my last full blood work up?
“What medications am I taking and in what dosages?”
“Any past medical conditions?”

I gave him the answers to his questions. He then proceeded with his prescription:

1. Since I did have a blood work up a while ago, 8 months or so, he asked me about my thyroid levels, I told him they were fine at the time. He wants another full blood work up; he then prescribed an ultrasound of my thyroid, just in case. I don’t know if this is standard procedure but I don’t mind.

2. I’ve had stomach problems before and have been having a bit lately, so the doctor prescribed an endoscopy. They sedate you and take a little camera into your upper GI tract, esophagus and stomach. This really scares me because I don’t want to be sedated. I am also afraid of how my throat will feel afterwards. Many doctor friends of mine have been telling me to have this done but I’ve always avoided it. Demetrio knows I suffer from stomach problems and since the doctor thinks it is a good idea, he thinks it is better than doing nothing about it.

3. I was taking 10 mg of a diuretic and 10 mg of an ACE inhibitor for my blood pressure as prescribed by my doctor in Seattle. This doctor took me off the diuretic and reduced my ACE inhibitor to 4 mg. I don’t really know what the drug culture is like in Italy but I think he wants to start me lower and follow my condition before prescribing more drugs. Basically, I agree with him although I was very cautious when I first began to take medication for the high blood pressure.

All in all, I am quite nervous about all these tests but feel they are mostly necessary. I would rather know than let a preventable problem go untreated. My first procedure is this Friday and my hubby will be there to offer moral support and to drive me home after the sedation. Wish me luck!

I have no idea now Zavier sleeps through the chaos that is our bedroom; at least he's got his bed back along with his handmade blanket.

Our almost finished storage room, it is about 60% full right now.

My new and improved hairdryer

My Handy Man

Somewhere between holding up metal shelving with my shoulder and looking at the rust stains on my fingers as I organized tools, my husband proudly says to me,

“You never thought I was much of a handy man did you?”

“No darling, I never dreamed you could be so useful around the house” was my reply.

After this quick exchange, I began to reminisce about our first date; Demetrio wore a stylish shirt that I did not recognize as stylish at the time. He walks up to me as I am waiting in front of the theatre and when I catch a glimpse of him again after a week, I had second thoughts. He looked so Italian and so gay at the time; Prada shirt, gold chain and matching bracelet and strolling down the street rolling his own cigarettes. Needless to say I had no aspirations that he would be of any use around any house but I must say on record that my first impressions of him were WRONG! Even though he collects shoes and cologne, wears leather pants, has a coat, over coat and jacket for every occasion, he is still very handy around the house.

This weekend was spent at three hardware stores and our not so favorite kitchen store. Our kitchen needed a few more shelves, we needed a bathroom junk holder and Demetrio needed a cologne showcase, so we went to IKEA. The rest of our apartment needed major HELP!

Being the paranoid person that I am and living on the fourth, (5th in reality) floor of my building; I wanted very much to get some plastic fencing for the back balcony so the dog and his toys would not go flying down into the courtyard below. This weekend we accomplished quite a bit: We bought and hung towels bars, TP holders, metal shelving for our storage room, a coat rod, shelving for D’s office, and hung our dryer (yes, our dryer is so small it can be hung onto the wall). Also we bought mops, cleaning detergents, salt for the dishwasher, brooms, outlet changers, and tons of electrical stuff. Who knew that my hubby us a certified electrician? Thank goodness for this because for some strange reason here in Italy the plugs that are attached to appliances 80% of the time do not fit into the outlets of your home or apartment. If this happened in the US, I think it would be an outrage, here it is normal.

As someone I knew used to say “You need the right tool for the right job, we had so many right tools, I had to buy 4 extra little tool boxes to fit them the all into. With my handy little label maker, I tried to slowly organize our lives. Demetrio on the other hand was drilling, hammering and assembling all afternoon long and into the evening. I followed him around with the vacuum cleaner, mop, and damp rags and cleaned, cleaned and cleaned. Now that the shelves are put up and we have some available storage, I am putting things into place this week and moving used boxes into our basement storage space. Around 9:15 pm Sunday, we were both dead tired and starved. I made our second dinner in our new kitchen and we had our first meal at the table, with proper glasses and silverware, note the boxes in the background. We still have a long way to go.