Yeah, sorry to be so indelicate about, but it did.

I tried to work on this great story in Vanouver and called multiple times only to never even get one return phone call from the business. We pulled the plug and switched me to a different story at 12:30pm.

I contacted a PR gal with a local hospital to try and find a doctor to talk about this hypertension/breathing story. She worked really hard to line someone up but got shot down by doctors right and left who were just too busy-- not to mention it was already after noon.

At 2:45pm I called OHSU which has a couple things going for it when it comes to the media. #1) It has a full complement of PR people who tend to have relationships with the people we need to interview-- making those people more willing to help them out in a pinch.. #2) A fair number of their doctors split time between patients and research which means generally I have a better shot of getting someone who isn't overwhelmed with patients.

OHSU could do it and set a time of 3:50pm. Yup, 3:50pm. As in 1 hour and 10 minutes before the news begins. As in I am writing this blog before I have even shot my interview. We'll just have to see if it makes air. ;-)

Now, onto the important stuff!!! Here are a few key things you can do to lower your blood pressure that don't involve medication.

http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/hbp/treat/treat.htm

Let me say this about the "reduce salt" tip... you can do it, but it's awful at first. Your tastebuds crave the salt and everything tastes bland BUT after a few weeks you actually do get used to it and then when you eventually try something salty it blows your tastebuds apart! At least that's what happened to me. I cut out the salt because high blood pressure runs in my family so I figured I'd better get used to it now, rather than later. I don't miss it... honestly.

AND... here are the things that can lead to high blood pressure in women!

http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/hbp/issues/issues.htm

Response time!!

Mark must have been psychic as he emailed me today to say:

Going to the doctor sure put the crimp in the old diet... Now, I have to
watch every single gram of sodium, all because of my stationary edema.

Now I have to relearn how to eat... Oh YUM! Remember, Old dogs, new
tricks... Well, new tricks are hard to learn for this old dog. Not that I'm
not willing to give it a shot, but it may take me a while to get into the
groove of how to do things differently.

And boy did you let 'er rip on the Landis front.. here is a sampling!!

James writes:

One of the world's best known experts on the use of performance enhancing drugs is in town today for the LiveStrong Ride in North Portland. Why don't you just ask Lance Armstrong how he got away with blood doping all these years. Also ask why he didn't teach Floyd his secrets.

Pat writes:

The damage is done? By whom? I get pretty frustrated with the "news" media's tendency to declare people guilty before all the facts are in. But you seem to have taken that a step further by making Landis a poster boy for doping -- even if he's innocent. Do you really think that's fair?

Ryan sent this picture.. aren't they the CUTEST?! Carter and Hailey:

And here is the fast skinny on my pathetic attempt at BBQ'ing. I followed this recipe I read in a local magazine for brining chicken although clearly I messed something up along the way.. like, oh.. I don't know, switching water for rocket fuel.

The chicken exploded on the grill.. you saw the flames ((see previous posting)). Joe wrote me to helpfully suggest I call it cajun chicken. Ryan wondered if that was my husband grilling (it is). Poor guy.

The best part-- I was over at our friends Matt and Heather's house. I was super excited to have this great chicken recipe and was so pumped to bring it all over. they have this fabulous place in Battleground and have had us over before. We're remodeling so I though it would be nice to bring dinner to them.

This is the final photo.. as snapped my Matt's cell phone camera. It looks like a lump of charcoal with a side of barf. I *promise* you the pasta tastes better than it looks in this photo. :-)

Email me: sstricklen@kgw.com