Category: Chronic Illness

For only having 3 hours of sleep I’m doing pretty good.

On By WendyIn Chronic Illness2 Comments

A little tattered around the edges, but all in all, not bad.

I could not sleep last night.  Hopefully, that will be rectified soon.  All day today I’ve been feeling like I’ve been right on the verge of an attack.

We went out this morning.  (I was determined.)  To go to the Farmer’s Market.  There were icy patches, so I stayed in the car and just let Stuart run up and get our pre-ordered box of goodies from one of the local farms.  (Carrots, Radishes, Italian Leaf Broccoli, and Spinach)  Next stop, pick up a prescription for me at a local pharmacy. (Not the pharmacy we usually use, but my insurance won’t cover one of my prescriptions and the drug company has a plan with a certain kind of drug store and if I buy from them it only cost me $60 a month instead of about $200.  I’ll buy from them.)  Then off to breakfast.

After a small breakfast we went to the library, and I was running to their bathroom…I just love having to be close to a bathroom all the time.  We dropped off read books, and picked up ones that were on hold.  I started feeling funny so I took a Valium and Phenergan.  (and dropped all of the pills in my little holder all over the floor right were people have to walk through to get in the library, *a thank you to my lovely husband for picking them up for me.*)

Then off to our regular pharmacy, but as we pulled in I said, “I need to go home.”  Yes. the world was starting to spin.  We got home, got a suppository, and settled down.  All was decent with the world.

However, about 7pm I started getting a migraine.  Guess what we were picking up at the drug store?  You guessed it, my migraine pills.  So now, my head hurts.

I hope I can sleep.

Stuart and I had a long talk about what happened yesterday.  I feel much better about things.  I think he does to.  We have to work hard to not let things escalate to that point again.

Sometimes in the middle of the night I will wake up and write.  Well, the other night I wrote about living in fear.  This disease leaves us living in fear all the time.  We aren’t just afraid of an attack.  We’re afraid to make plans, we’re afraid to be happy because it could be taken away so quickly….I’m just so afraid.

Well, I’m not going to be locked in this cage with fear any more!  Yes, I will respectfully be afraid of an attack, but I have symptoms that tell me one is coming on.  Why should I be so afraid when I’m not having symptoms?

I need to make the most of my Good Days!  A lot of the time I use those days to catch up on house work.  Well, that’s all well and good, but I need to start having fun.  And Stuart has decided that on my really good days he’s going to take time off work and we are just going to go and spend the day together.  (he has a lot of vacation time built up, and if he wants he can work odd hours or on the weekend to make up time.)  The point is, we need to start taking time for us.

I’m also thinking about getting a maid to help out with the house.  We usually have a service come in and help with spring and fall cleaning, but I’m thinking I may need more help than that.  I have nearly $3000 saved from birthday and Christmas gifts, I think I’m going to take some of it and get a maid to start coming once a month.  This would take a huge load off of my mind, and it take a lot of responsibility off of Stuart.  (I think he will agree.)

So considering the fact that I’m running on 3 hours of sleep.  I think today is looking pretty good.  Tomorrow, has to be even better.

The Meaning of Health.

On By WendyIn Chronic Illness, Health, Life2 Comments

One of the first things I need to do on my journey to better my health is to define the meaning of Health. Look at each part of the definition, and see if I already fit in to it, or decide what I need to do to get to it.

Most people define Health as the absence of disease. If you aren’t sick, you are healthy.
However, according to the World Health Organization:
“Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”

The American Holistic Health Association describes 4 aspects of one self and each aspect must work in harmony for the whole to be healthy.

  • The physical you requires good nutrition, appropriate weight, beneficial exercise and adequate rest.
  • The emotional you needs to give and receive forgiveness, love and compassion; needs to laugh and experience happiness; needs joyful relationships with yourself and others.
  • The mental you needs self-supportive attitudes, positive thoughts and viewpoints and a positive self-image.
  • The spiritual you requires inner calmness, openness to your creativity, and trust in your inner knowing.

We are responsible for our own health! So many of us have grown up believing that our health is in direct correlation with the health care we receive.  However, we are the only one who can make the lifestyle decisions that create well-being (or health).

The American Holistic Health Association has developed a quiz to help you determine your current degree of wellness.  (Let’s see how I do?)

Wellness Quiz

  1. Do you wake up with enthusiasm for the day ahead? (very often not.  I often wake up and think, what’s the point.  I can’t do anything….but I try, every day, I try.)
  2. Do you have the high energy you need to do what you want? (very rarely)
  3. Do you laugh easily and often, especially at yourself? (yes, most of the time I find it easy to laugh at myself and other silly things in my life.  This is why I watch cartoons.)
  4. Do you confidently find solutions for the challenges in your life? (I’m trying very hard to do this.  Sometimes I get overwhelmed, but I’m trying.)
  5. Do you feel valued and appreciated? (I feel loved.  Valued and Appreciated?  I don’t know.  I think my husband feels these things for me, I just often don’t see why.)
  6. Do you appreciate others and let them know it? (I do try my best to let others know how much I appreciate them and care for them.)
  7. Do you have a circle of warm, caring friends? (I think so, but lately I’ve been feeling like that circle is getting smaller.)
  8. Do the choices you make every day get you what you want? (I don’t know.  Sometimes I think they do, other days, no I don’t think so.  So I’d have to say, the choices I make on some days get me closer to what I want.)

“If you answered “no” to any of these questions, congratulations! You have identified areas in your life that you may want to change. This can be valuable information.”

So I have some work to do.  Of course, that’s why I’m here.

Any Suggestions?

I enjoyed reading and getting much of this information from AHHA web site. I’m sure I will refer to it many times in the future.


Doctors, Stir fry, and Hearing

On By WendyIn Chronic Illness, Gluten-Free, RecipeLeave a comment

The Digestive Health doctor called to let me know my results from the “procedure” (colonoscopy) I had done on Tuesday.  However, I was unable to answer the when they called.  She called at 1:09pm and left a message that she wanted to discuss the findings with me.  She said not to worry “it’s not bad”, but she still wanted to talk with me and for me to call her back.  Today is Friday, their office closes at 1:00pm on Fridays, how was I supposed to call her back?  Now I have to wait until Monday to find out what the findings were.

I did make an appointment with a Naturopathic and Holistic physician for next Wednesday.  The first appointment if for one hour and thirty minutes.  Hopefully, she can give me some guidance.  I guess it will depend on what the results from my procedure turn out to be.  I do feel like this is a move it the right direction.

Last night I made a really good stir fry.  I love how you can just throw some stuff in the wok with a little sauce and in just a few minutes it turns into a wonderful meal.  I already had rice made so all I had to do was warm that up.  I didn’t have a lot of on hand so I scrounged the kitchen and found a bag of frozen Thai style vegetables, a can of black beans, garlic, San-J Gluten Free Tamari Sauce and heated up a little olive oil and then threw everything in the wok.  I was very pleased with the outcome.

I did another stir fry recently with black beans, fresh veggies, tamari, garlic, onions, and a splash of Mirin.   I served this stir fry over Mung Bean Fettuccine Noodles.  I like these noodles, but I actually like them better in a cold salad.  They are great left over, and make a wonderful pasta salad.  However, when we’ve eaten them in hot dishes they just seem a little off.  The texture doesn’t seem quite right.  Don’t get me wrong, the dish was still good, but I think I would have liked it better with either rice, or a different type noodle.

We went to our therapist today for the first time in 3 months.  (We started going to see her when I was having such a hard time being disabled from the Meniere’s disease.)  Now that I’ve so much going on again I decided it would be a good idea to start going back to see her.  It’s much better to voice my anger there than to take it out on my husband all the time.  Stuart is wonderful and very understanding about when I get so grumpy and everything starts to get on my nerves.  He understands I’m not really mad at him, I’m just so mad at life.  I still don’t think it’s right for me to be mean to him, but it is nice that we can talk about it and that he understands that my anger is displaced.

Unfortunately, I’m having increased Meniere’s symptoms.  It started this afternoon, I noticed I couldn’t hear everything that was said.  Then tonight I couldn’t hear Stuart unless he was looking at me and there was no other noise in the room.  The tinnitus is so loud it’s very hard to hear over it.  The fullness in my ears is worse.  Now, all I have left is the vertigo.  I really hope it doesn’t start, but I won’t be surprised if it does.

Exercise for the day:

We took our dog, Sandy, for another walk around the block, this time we went clockwise instead of counter-clockwise and there is much more of an incline that way.  My hip was not fond of that at all, but I kept going, and kept my heart rate up for most of the walk.  I also worked in the little gardening area in the front of the house.  I dug up old plants, and worked with the dirt some.  It needs much more work, but I didn’t have what I needed to finish the rest.

Williamsburg, VA, Food for Thought – Original Post from Glutenfree Greenie

On By WendyIn Chronic IllnessLeave a comment

this post originally appeared on GlutenFree Greenie on November 11, 2009   (placing on this blog to document in one place when my Meniere’s Disease went Bilateral)

First I’d like to apologize for not being around very much lately. I know I don’t usually get into my personal life on here, but I feel I should explain a little why I haven’t been around very much. As I’ve mentioned before I had hip surgery on October 13th, to repair another torn labrum.

 

On Halloween night at the end of a very nice party full of wonderful gluten free food from lots of glorious friends, I started having an acute Meniere’s attack. Meniere’s Disease affects the fluid balance in the ear. They don’t know what causes it or how to correct it. An acute attack causes fluctuating hearing loss, vertigo, extreme tinnitus, and various other symptoms. I went to the ENT on Monday and found out that one of the tubes I had put in in March had fallen out. So, on November 13th I had new T-tubes put in. I’m still having an acute attack, it’s not as bad. My hearing is still in flux, and the tinnitus is really bad, but at least the vertigo has pretty much leveled off.

 

We are vacationing in Williamsburg, VA this week thanks to some wonderful friends who invited stay with them. It’s been really nice to just relax after my surgeries.

 

We’re staying at a place that has a full kitchen so we’ve been eating in a lot, but last night we ventured out and ate at a place called Food For Thought. I found them on an internet search before we came to Williamsburg, I saw on someone’s blog that they have a gluten free menu, but they don’t have it on their website, so I emailed them. The owner was kind enough to email me back with a pdf version of the gluten free menu. The prices there are a little steeper than I’m used to, but the food and service was excellent!

There aren’t a ton of things on the gluten free menu, and I was in a comfort food kind of mood, so I had the selection on the menu where you can pick 3 sides and have a side salad or soup. I decided to up scale my salad to a mini-cobb salad and my 3 sides were mashed red skins, steamed broccoli and grilled asparagus (the asparagus was a special).

My husband had grilled medium rare tuna, some special rice, and french green beans. He cleaned every morsel off his plate.

 

My asparagus came with a sauce on it and I asked the waitress to make sure it was gluten free, and come to find out it wasn’t. But it wasn’t on the gluten free menu since it was a special, she was so sweet and very embarrassed that she didn’t think to check, I wasn’t worried and understood completely. She offered the asparagus with the sauce to my husband which he just gobbled up! And I received the most delicious grilled asparagus ever.

 

For desert I had a flourless chocolate tort with vanilla ice cream. Very smooth. My husband had something that looked like a huge sopapilla with ice cream and apples. He loved it.

 

Our final bill came to less than $50 before tip, so not so bad after all. Of course. We both drank water, that really makes a difference.

 

Would I go back there? You bet ya! But I do wish it had more gluten free options.

And I would really scrutinize the gluten free menu. I wasn’t positive about all of the options.