Oh no, I think I got Glutened.

On By WendyIn Recipe1 Comment

Stuart and I decided to go out for lunch on Saturday.  We went to this little Mexican/El Salvadorian restaurant.  We’ve been there before and I haven’t had a problem. but I ate something different this time.  I still can’t figure out what may have had the gluten in it.

I had a bean enchilada, something I’ve had there before, with no problems.  (they are made with corn tortillas).   I also had a Pupusa, this is something I haven’t had before, but the waitress assured me that it was made completely from corn.  After reading the description on Wikipedia, it also says that the batter is corn.  It looks like a polenta pocket with a filling inside.  I had beans inside.

 

Pupusa with Curtido - photo courtesy of Wikipedia

 

“Pupusas are similar to corn tortillas, only thicker and stuffed with cheese, beans or meat. The pupusa originated in El Salvador, but it is also popular in neighboring Honduras.” – whats for eats.com

“Pupusas are typically served with curtido (lightly fermented cabbage slaw with red chilies and vinegar) and a watery tomato salsa.” – Wikipedia

Both the Pupusas and the curtido were very good.  The enchilada was good too.  The only other thing I ate were some of the tortilla chips, and a little salsa.  Their chips have always been 100% corn, but I didn’t ask this time, so maybe they changed them.

All I know is that as soon as I got home I was running to the bathroom with the worst cramping and you know…..  However, the way my GI track has been acting lately maybe I wasn’t glutened.  Maybe it just didn’t like something else.  The biggest reason I was pretty sure it was gluten was because of the pain.  All the other GI problems I’ve been having haven’t caused pain.  However, every time I get glutened it hurts.  The reason I think I may not have been glutened is because it didn’t last long.  Curiouser, and curiouser.

I know I should go on the elimination diet, but it is so hard.  I think I need help.  I can’t imagine cooking for my husband or watching him eat all this good food, and I have such a limited palette.   I have found that soy milk really bothers me.  High fat dairy bothers me.  Although, I can eat most cheese.  And I’ve found that really anything with much fat bothers me a lot.  I’m trying to slowly stop eating meat.  (for 2 reasons, 1- most of it seems to make me feel bad., and 2- for ethical reasons.)  However, I decided I needed to clean out the freezer of all the meat we had in there first.  Mostly it’s just some chicken, and some sausage left.

This weekend I made an 11 bean and sausage soup.  (I will insert a picture later)

I found an 11 bean soup bag that is gluten free at Whole Foods.  It says to add a whole lot of meat to it: ham hock, sausage, chicken breast…    I didn’t do all of that.

11 Bean and Sausage Soup

  • 1 bag 11 Bean Soup mixture with seasoning packet (the seasoning were mostly italian seasonings)
  • 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes (or you can do what I did, I had some crushed tomatoes and some spaghetti sauce in the refrigerator and I mixed that together so I wouldn’t waste it)
  • 1 package (4 sausages sliced into about 1″ sections) Aidell’s Italian Style with Mozzarella cheese.  (you could use any sausage you want here, including one of the many meatless sausages.  There is a soy chirizo from Trader Joes’s that is meat and wheat free.)
  • 1 medium sized onion chopped (large pieces are fine)
  • about 4-5 cloves of garlic minced
  • 2-3 cups unsalted Chicken Stock (or Vegetable Stock)  I use Kitchen Basics unsalted stocks.
  • 1 tablespoon liquid smoke
  • You will need to add more water as this cooks.

This soup turned out to be very good.  But I made a very major mistake.  I didn’t soak my beans.  I thought since they were going to be cooking for so long that I really didn’t need to.  All I can say is: Soak Your Beans!

I put all of the ingredients in my slow cooker and cranked it up on high, thinking we could eat in 4 maybe 6 hours.  Well, That was at noon and at 8pm the beans still weren’t done.  We decided to turn it off and start again in the morning.  At about 8am my husband turned it back on, but low this time, and it cooked until nearly noon.  Finally, the soup was ready and really good.  My husband loved it.  I ate around the sausage.  I thought the beans were delicious without.  Of course, the flavors from the sausage were in there, but hopefully  I didn’t get as much fat.

I don’t salt anything.  I’m on a low salt diet, and I find I’ve started really enjoying the flavor of the foods I eat without salt.  So the only salt in this recipe came from the sausage.

This made about 12 servings, 1 cup each.  It will probably be about 8 servings for us.   We ate on it Sunday, I put a container in the refrigerator for left overs, and I put a pint in the freezer for later.

My Slow Cooker is such a saving grace on days I simply can not stand up long enough to cook a meal.  If I don’t feel like standing up long enough to put things in the slow cooker, I can usually talk my husband through that one.  He tries hard to make life as easy as possible for me with all that has been going on.

What I've been Cooking Lately.

On By WendyIn Recipe1 Comment

Before going running errands with my hubby the other day I thought I’d throw some dinner in the slow cooker.

Homemade Chicken and Vegetable Soup

I had 2 chicken breast thawed, and then I just used all the left over veggies I had in the refrigerator.

  • 3 carrots going limp (peeled and cut into chunks)
  • about 5 stalks of celery (chopped into medium size slices)
  • about a cup of green peas  (frozen)
  • about a cup of corn (frozen)
  • about a cup of chopped onion (frozen)
  • Italian Seasoning – a Tablespoon full, give or take
  • Dried Mustard – not sure why I put this in, you didn’t really taste it in the end.
  • Chicken Stock – enough to cover the chicken and veggies. (I prefer Kitchen Basics Unsalted)

Oil the crock.  I sprayed it with olive oil.  I cut the chicken into bite size pieces, put spices on them.  Then I just tossed everything in the slow cooker.  Cooked on low for about 6 hours.  I’m not exactly sure how long this cooked because I was so sick when we got home my husband is the one who cut it off, and he doesn’t remember what time it was.

I love the fact that you can put whatever veggies you want in this soup.  Just use what you have left over in the refrigerator or freezer.

This turned out pretty good.  The first night the chicken seemed a bit dry, but the bowl I had today was just right.  I have very fresh Italian Seasoning that I just bought (It’s made by Frontier), and I keep forgetting I don’t need as much of this as I did my old brand.  This seasoning gives a lot of flavor, with just a little bit.  So if you have really good Italian Seasoning, you can probably use less than I did.  Today, I added just a little Tamari Sauce to my bowl of soup and it made it even tastier.  (I also watered down the soup a little because the Italian Seasoning was so over whelming).

This is Creamy Crock Pot Risotto, the original recipe is from Shirley’s blog, A Year of Slow Cooking.

I changed one thing when I made this, I didn’t have an open bottle of wine and didn’t want to open one for just the little bit this called for, so I used Mirin instead.

I loved this!  Hubby liked it but not as much as I did.  He likes his risotto with more kick.  Next time I make this I’ll probably change the ingredients a bit to accommodate him more.  I just love that I can make Risotto in the slow cooker.  It is so much harder to make on the stove.  This is a very creamy rice dish, with a big cheese taste.  I’m wondering if I could use Daiya Cheese and Veggie broth to make this dish vegan.  It would be a different kind of cheese taste (mozzarella or cheddar), but I bet it would still be very good.

Today I’m making Roasted Root Vegetables in the Slow Cooker

The only other  time I’ve made this recipe was last Christmas.  However, that time I went by the original recipe on Food Network. Com, and cooked them in the oven.   Everyone who came to Christmas Dinner (11 of us in all) enjoyed the original recipe, I hope it turns out just as good in the slow cooker.

The only alterations I made to the original recipe are, I replaced the 2 tablespoons of Brown Sugar with 1 1/2 tablespoons of Molasses; and of course, I cooked them in the slow cooker instead of the oven.  Oh, and I picked up a rutabaga instead of a turnip.  The sign said turnips, but I’m pretty positive it’s a rutabaga.  Oh, and I used a Butter Cup Squash peeled, instead of Butter Nut Squash.

I looked up Roasted Root Vegetables on Shirley’s, A Year of Slow Cooking site to get an idea of how long to cook them.  She said about 8 hours on low, or 4-6 on high.  I started mine on low for the first 2 hours, then decided I wanted them done sooner and turned it to high.

This is the end result.  They had much more of a Thyme taste than I remember the original recipe having, and they didn’t have quite the same texture.   The Butter Cup Squash cooked much faster than the rest of the root vegetables, so they are almost mushy and the rest of the veggies still have a crunch.

However, they were still good.  Next time I think I’ll change the flavors up a bit, and I will use Butter Nut Squash instead of Butter Cup, I never thought it would be that big of a difference in how fast they cooked.

So that’s what I’ve been cooking lately.

More on Cerebrospinal Fluid leaks and Meniere’s

On By WendyIn Meniere's Disease2 Comments

After my last post I was asked a few questions about what this means and how it works.  I will admit that I don’t really understand everything about how decreases or increases in Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF) affects Meniere’s but I think I can answer some of the questions.

Nicki asked:  “if they find the leak, could your hearing come back?” From my understanding, yes, at least part of it.  And it would stop deteriorating.

“what’s their theory behind all of this?” I found a pretty decent explination on Dizziness and Balanace.com “The hearing loss of CSF leak likely results from lowering of CSF pressure, which lowers perilymphatic (inner ear) pressure, and results in a picture similar to Meniere’s Disease.”  (Walsted et al., 1991)  My doctors also think that too much CSF could cause Meniere’s symptoms, that explains why a low salt diet and diuretics work for some people.  They may be the people who have just a little too much CSF.

“is this something they think would work for all meniere’s patients or just certain subsets?” I don’t know.  I will ask my doctors when I see them again.  Since there is still no known cause for Meniere’s there may be many different causes.    I’m sure a lot of doctors who would have checked my opening pressure would have said, “oh, you are in the normal range, so it can’t be this.”  This is one of my biggest complaints about most doctors, they believe everyone has the same “normal” range.

“could i think of anymore questions to ask you?” Probably, but I don’t know if I’d have the answers.  : )

Some of the information from the Dizziness and Balance.com site sounds like what my doctors have said, other parts do not.  They don’t mention that an increase in CSF can also cause these symptoms.  I know my ear doctor originally expected me to have higher spinal fluid pressure.  They think it may also be why shunt surgery works on some people, because they are displacing some of the CSF.

I had a freak accident when I was 28 years old, I was in a commercial kitchen at a nursing home and one of the huge exhaust fans had a blade break and it knocked the cover of the fan off and they hit me in the back of the head and neck, it actually fractured the C-7 vertebra.  Dr. Gray thinks this is probably where they will find my leak.  The first Meniere’s attack I can remember happened a little over a year after my accident.

I will see my otolaryngologist, Dr. Kaylie, on Monday.  I’ll see if he can explain things better to me.

A little good (lumbar puncture results) and a little bad (a very bad night).

On By WendyIn Meniere's Disease3 Comments
Dancers - painting by Wendy Holcombe

I thought about posting a picture of a lumbar puncture here, but it’s really kinda scary looking.  So I thought I’d just post a picture of something happy.  After all, the results were pretty amazing.

I went to Duke University Hospital’s Neuroradiology department yesterday and had a lumbar puncture to measure the opening pressure of my spinal fluid.  Dr. Gray does this with the help of a CT scan to make sure she is in just the right spot.  She also completely numbed the area so I didn’t really feel anything.  (Except the stinging from the numbing medicine, but it doesn’t last.)  The hardest part of this test for me is that I couldn’t talk and I couldn’t see what they were doing.  When I’m nervous I crack jokes and generally just talk a lot, so keeping quiet was not easy for me.  I’m so very grateful to Dr. Gray for allowing my husband to come back with me during the procedure.   He stayed right there and held my had the whole time, he really does doat on me during times like this.  (Thank you honey.)

The insertion of the needle doesn’t take very long at all, but it takes a long time to actually measure the opening pressure.  Before the procedure Dr. Gray told us that “normally” below 10 is low and above 20 is high, but she realizes that not everyone has the same “normal” reading.  So my opening pressure was 15!  Can you believe it?  How much more in the “normal” range could you get?  Luckily, Dr. Gray uses emperical evidence instead of just saying, ok, you’re normal when test read normal.  She decided to add a little artificial cerebral spinal fluid in to see what happened.  At first I didn’t really notice anything, I was concentrating so much on my back, I didn’t realize my headache was gone.  Then she kept talking to me and I realized I could actually hear her.  Not just a word here and there so I could figure out what she was saying, I could HEAR her!   More than that, I could hear her out of my right ear, the ear that I have severe hearing loss and haven’t been able to hear someone’s speech clearly in that ear for a very long time.  No, my hearing wasn’t perfect, it was still a little muffled, but I could hear.  I had been getting pretty dizzy during the procedure and it was gone.  How cool is that?

The results?  Dr. Gray says I am leaking spinal fluid and she needs to find it and patch it.  So I will be having a myelogram on November 24th.  They will insert a contrast dye in the fluid filled space around the spinal column.  Then I will have a CT scan and the leak should show up.  Dr. Gray will then patch the leak(s) with my own blood.  (I thought that was cool.)

I asked Dr. Gray, “What if you don’t find a leak?” She answered, “We will.”  She is a very up beat doctor who gets so excited when she discovers something.  She is making such a difference in so many people’s lives.  She told us about a couple of her patients, one had not been able to hear for over 18 months, during her procedure she started hear again.  She has taken the pain of migraines away from many patients.  She is a very open and caring person, you just can’t help but like her as soon as you meet her.

I stayed in recovery for an hour, got a little to drink and ate a banana.  Then I walked myself out.  On the way home we stopped and got something to eat.  My back really started hurting while we were sitting there, but as soon as I got up it helped, and when I got home and lay on the couch I felt much better.

 

Chilled Disequilibrium by Wendy Holcombe

 

Unfortunately, about 12:30am I woke up with the vertigo starting.  I took Valium, and Phenergan but everything just got worse.  I had the complete spinning fast rotational vertigo complete with some of the most violent vomiting I’ve ever had until about 4:30am.  At that time I simply collapsed from complete exhaustion.  (during all of this I had 3 Phenergan suppositories, the first was lost with diarrhea.)  I do not remember being that bad off since the time my husband called for an ambulance because I was scaring him so much.  He asked many times last night if I wanted to go to the hospital, but he had to agree with me that the last time I went they couldn’t do anything that we weren’t doing here.

Does anyone else hear unusual sounds during an attack?  I don’t mean just tinnitus (the roaring was so bad last night it was driving me insane).  But I hear things that sound like words off in a distance.  It’s most disconcerting.  Lately, with my tinnitus I’ve been hearing a tick.  When I’m trying to go to sleep at night I really notice it.  It’s not a rhythmic ticking sound, just once in a while I’ll hear something tick or click.  I’ve asked my husband if he can hear it and he can’t, I thought maybe I was just hearing a certain frequency when I couldn’t hear the others so I put in an ear plug and I could still hear it.  This new noise is most annoying, I’ll be almost asleep and then, Tick, and it startles me awake.

Today, I feel horrible.  I haven’t been out of bed, except for the many trips to the bathroom with diarrhea.  My stomach hurts so much every time I eat or drink anything.

Stuart talked to Dr. Gray today.  She is sure that this severe attack was caused because she made things better yesterday and now it is leaking out again.

I will be so happy when this is over.  I don’t know if she will find a leak, I hope so.  If she doesn’t, I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.

Right now, this looks so very promising.   Of course, I will keep you informed.

It just amazes me at how much we have to search and search to find the right doctors.  I’ve seen so many doctors and, let’s face it, some of them shouldn’t be practicing medicine.  Many are just in it for the money.  Many get very uncomfortable when your symptoms are out of their comfort zone and they just drop you.  I’ve had a doctor who did that, he actually called me on the phone and said he couldn’t see how to help me and didn’t think I needed to come back.  No referral to a doctor he thought might be able to help, no option to for my medications, nothing.  Those are doctors who just don’t care about their patients.

You could also do a lot of research trying to find the right doctor, but then not have the resources to go and see him or her.  This really bothers me.  I wish there was some way I could help.

I feel very fortunate I finally found Dr. Kaylie, who sent me to see Dr. Gray.  These 2 doctors have given me hope that I haven’t had for a very long time, and they treat me like a person, I believe they really care about what they are doing and want to help people.   I’m also very lucky because I only live a few miles from Duke.  (I know I give Duke a lot of praise but I know, not all the doctors at Duke are as caring and through as these two are.  It was a doctor from Duke who dismissed me as a patient over the phone.)

 

 

Waiting…

On By WendyIn Meniere's Disease2 Comments

I get the Lumbar Puncture today at 3pm.  I’m nervous, a little excited, and getting hungry.

As I said, the procedure is at 3pm, they don’t normally sedate you for this procedure, but just in case they have to they don’t let you eat anything for at least 6 hours before the procedure time.  So I had a pretty big breakfast at 8:50am and I can’t eat anything else until after they are through with me.

I’m really not a good person without food.  I already have a headache, and I’ll get dizzy, my stomach will actually hurt, and I’m just not going to be a pleasant person to be around.  Right now I think I’ll go take a shower and then, I’m going to try to take a nap.  If I’m asleep, I won’t notice I’m hungry, right?

I’ll let you know how it goes.  I probably won’t find out the results until Monday when I see Dr. Kaylie.  It would be such a miracle if this is what is causing the Meniere’s.  I’m very grateful that I’m seeing a doctor who is working on finding a cause for Meniere’s.  It’s so exciting to be a part of this.  I’m trying so hard not to get my hopes up, but it is very hard not to.  After all the suffering that this disease causes, we all need a little hope.  If not this, then there will be something else.  I’ll keep on trying, and I know my doctors will too.

On another note.  I think I’ve figured out another trigger for my GI distress.  Anything with fat in it.  It seems that every time I eat meat I get sick.  The lower the fat in the meat, the less GI distress I have, but still.  I think it’s time to seriously look into becoming a vegetarian.  I’d like to go vegan at some point, but one step at a time.  I really like cheese, and eggs.  I don’t look forward to figuring out how to bake without eggs.  Maybe I’ll just do egg whites for a while, after all the yoke is where all the saturated fat is.  I already buy my eggs from a local farm where the chickens are allowed to roam and aren’t feed all that nasty stuff.  We are very lucky here in Durham, NC because there are a lot of local farmers who are very eco-conscious.  It’s easy to find local organic produce.   You can even tour the farms and on some you can go and work.  (you can literally work for food – haha)

I do have a hard time in the winter with local produce though.  I like winter squash and stuff, but long before spring, I am really missing the summer fruits and vegetables.  We lived in Palm Springs, California for a couple of years and it was just so nice in the winter you could go out and just pick lemons and oranges and limes right off the trees.  The streets were lined with fruit trees and they would be so heavy with fruit, when I would take my afternoon walk I would often just reach up and grab an orange to snack on along the way.  We had a lemon tree in out yard, I loved having fresh lemons to keep the house all fresh smelling and fresh lemonade!  (of course, summers there weren’t any fun at all)

If I could just spend the spring – fall here and the winter out west I think that would be ideal.  I must say, when we were in CA my Meniere’s didn’t give me near as many problems.  But who’s to say I wasn’t just having a good spell anyway?

Off I go on my little adventure for the day….

The Importance of Organ Donation

On By WendyIn Meniere's DiseaseLeave a comment

As you may have noticed I added a Social Vibe Badge to my blog.  If you participate through my blog you will be helping to educate people about organ and tissue donation.

I signed up to be an organ donor years ago.  Why?  That’s simple, there are many people who will not survive if they don’t receive a new organ.  If I die, and any of my organs are healthy enough to help a person survive, I think it would a miraculous thing.  All you have to do in most states is register when you get or renew your driver’s license.  Or you can go to Donate Life.net to find out more about organ donation and how to register in your state.

There is one thing that anyone with Meniere’s should consider donating.  Your Temporal Bone.

The following information comes from the  NIDCD (National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders) National Temporal Bone Hearing and Balance Pathology Research Registry.

“Millions of people have a hearing or balance disorder. The Registry is a non-profit research organization seeking new knowledge to help such individuals. You can help to find new treatments and cures for ear problems by donating your ears (temporal bones) to scientific research.”  – 

“Millions of people are affected by hearing loss and other ear problems.  Research into the causes of these problems is difficult.  That’s because our hearing and balance organs are found deep within the skull, hidden and protected inside the temporal bones.  For researchers trying to learn about ear problems, it is not easy to examine these hidden organs directly in living people.  So, studying donated temporal bones after death is one of the best ways to learn about the causes of ear disorders, and to devise new treatments and cures.”

How had Temporal Bone Donation Helped with Meniere’s Research?

“People with Meniere’s disease suffer from bouts of dizziness, ringing in the ears, and hearing loss that comes and goes.  In studying temporal bones donated by people with Meniere’s disease, researchers found the condition was caused by an increase in the amount of fluid in the inner ear.  This knowledge has led to several medical and surgical approaches to relieve the symptoms of this disease.”

Donation of your temporal bone is easy.  You simply fill out a few forms and the Registry does the rest.  Please take the time to look into the possibility to donating your Temporal Bone.  Here’s the link to The NIDCD National Temporal Bone, Hearing and Balance Pathology Resource Registry, you can find out information about donation there, and you can find out about all the ways donating your Temporal Bone can help with the research of Hearing and Balance Disorders.

I haven’t filled out my paperwork to register to donate my Temporal Bone yet, but I vow to get this done by the end of the week.

Won’t you join me and help researchers find help for people with Hearing and Balance Disorders?  Sign the Registry to donate your Temporal Bone.

Also please consider signing up to donate needed organs when you no longer need them.  Go to Donate Life.net for more information, and read some very inspirational stories.

How I made it a better day.

On By WendyIn Meniere's Disease, Recipe, whole nutrition1 Comment

One of the things I do when I’m having a down day is create.  Sometimes I work on my artwork, other times, like today, I create in the kitchen.

Organic Kale from Durham's Farmer's Market

It all started with a bunch of Kale.  I decided I’d try my hand at Kale Chips.  I’ve heard so much about them but I’ve never tried any.

Simply tear the Kale into small pieces, and arrange them on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper.  I then sprayed them with olive oil.  (I used one of my favorite products, Pampered Chef’s Spritzer)

Bake them at 350F for about 10 minutes.  You want them crisp, but not brown.   I found if I put a little bit larger pieces around the edges and smaller pieces in the middle of the sheet they get ready about the same timeSprinkle them with your flavoring of choice.  Many people just use salt, but you know I don’t eat much salt, so I used a mixture of Onion Powder, Garlic Powder, and a little of regular Mrs. Dash.  Even Stuart liked these, and he has an aversion to most things green.  : )

Then I decided to start a batch of Raw Sauerkraut.  I got the recipe from my new Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook.

It’s really very easy, and I hope it turns out.  I’ll let you know in a few days.

Here’s the mess I was making while getting the cabbage the way I wanted it.   You have to pound shredded cabbage and make the juice come out to make Sauerkraut.   I started doing this in a bowl, and decided this was just way to hard for me.  So I decided to try putting the plastic blade in my food processor and let it do some pounding for me.  Then I transferred it to my jar.

I used the mortar from my mortar and pestle to pound the cabbage down in the jar.

I was so surprised at how much liquid there was in this cabbage.

It only takes cabbage and a little salt to make sauerkraut.   I didn’t use as much salt as they called for in the recipe, I hope my cabbage ferments well and turns into some wonderful sauerkraut.

Then came time to fix dinner.  I had some chicken left over from cooking some Split Chicken Breasts with about 30 cloves of garlic in the slow cooker this weekend.   All I did there was oil my crock, then I put the breast in skin side down and threw in all the peeled cloves I got out of one big head of garlic.  Put the cooker on low for a little over 6 hours and that’s it.  The chicken just fell off the bone.

I decided to stir fry up some veggies with San-J Gluten Free Asian BBQ sauce.

I threw these plus some onion and garlic in a wok with the left over chicken and the San-J Gluten Free Asian BBQ Sauce.

We had this over brown rice.  I wasn’t very impressed the Asian BBQ Sauce.  It tasted like I had a stir fry with regular BBQ sauce on it.  It was ok, but it wasn’t the Asian flavor I was looking for.  I don’t think I’ll bother with this sauce again.

After a day of not only feeling creative but also productive, I feel much better than I did at the beginning of the day.

I was very lucky today that I was able to work in the kitchen.  When I have these feelings and I can’t get around enough to really work them out, it makes things much harder.  On those days, I try to write, or read.  Usually, even when I’m not able to walk, if I focus on something up close to me I can usually accomplish something.  Those are the days I’m so grateful I have a laptop, and that I love to read.

What do you do to help when you are having a bad day?

 

 

 

Guess where I spent last night.

On By WendyIn Meniere's Disease6 Comments

Ok, can you guess where I spent from 9:10pm to about 1:00am last night?

 

Mr. Pumkin Head

You may have guessed, “A great Halloween Party?”, or possibly “Sound asleep in your comfy bed?”, or maybe even “Having Wild Monkey Love with your hubby?”   Well all of those would be wrong.  Darn it!  The Wile Monkey Love sounded kinda interesting.

 

I was at:

Duke Hospital Emergency Room

At 8:45pm last night, after giving out candy and other treats to over 30 some odd trick-or-treaters, I sat down in my living room and I started feeling funny.  I felt like my heart was going to beat out of my chest.  When I tried to take my pulse my heart was beating so fast I couldn’t count it.  I couldn’t take a deep breath without excruciating pain.  It hurt all up my jaw line on both sides of my face, and the tightness in my chest was nearly unbearable.  So my dear husband rushes me to the emergency room.  I wouldn’t let him call an ambulance, because it cost too much.  Of course, about the time we get there I’m feeling much better.

(I should put in that I have had these episodes before, but this one lasted much longer than the others have.  They don’t happen very often.  My doctor had me wear a heart monitor for a week and, of course, it didn’t happen.  I did have some times when my heart would flutter, but she said most people have that happen, usually they don’t even notice.)

My heart was still a bit fast when they hooked me up to the heart monitor, about 120 beats per minute.  Now I usually have a fairly high heart rate, it’s usually in the high 80’s and into the 90’s, occasionally it’s even been a little over 100 when I’ve been to see the doctor, but only when I was too hot and too nervous.  My blood pressure was a little high too, which is surprising because my blood pressure is usually on the low side.

So they had to take lab work.  This is much easier said than done on me sometimes.  The poor nurses could not find a good vein.  They finally got an IV started in my right inner wrist.  Let me tell you, that is a very painful place to have someone stick you.  I said words I try very hard not to say, especially when someone is only trying to help me.  But, oh my goodness, that did hurt.

Of course, then the world started to spin.  They didn’t like it at all that my husband gave me a Valium right then, instead of waiting for them to order one from their pharmacy and giving it to me themselves.  We explained by the time it came I would be having total vertigo with vomiting and it wouldn’t stop until it ran its course.  They decided they really didn’t want to deal with that too.

All of my blood work came back normal.  My heart was beating a little fast while I was there, but it had a steady rhythm.  After they gave me a bag of fluids, my heart rate came down a little.  Probably, because it was so cold.  So after being poked and prodded once again, the doctors come in and tell me that they found nothing wrong.  All of my blood work came back normal.  Everything was just find.

My diagnosis?  1. Chest pain (Unspecified)  2. Tachycardia (Unspecified)

It appears that some people have an abnormally rapid heart rate (Tachycardia) occasionally for no known reason.  If it last for a long period of time it can be very dangerous, but if you just have it happen now and then, it’s not supposed to be a big deal.  Especially, since I don’t have any of the other risk factors for heart problems.

Then she gave me a prescription for anti-reflux medication.  This makes no sense to me.  If they don’t think I was having heartburn why give me a prescription for a drug to prevent it?  I think most people think doctors have to give them a prescription and so they just hand them out.  I told her, I don’t take anti-heartburn or reflux medications.  I think the  risk from the side effects are simply too high.  If I have a little indigestion I eat something that is alkaline and that takes care of it.

So I left the ER with these instructions:

“Make a follow-up appointment with your regular doctor within 3-5 days.”  Well, I have a Lumbar Puncture scheduled for Wednesday, and I see the Digestive Health Specialist (I’m not sure why.) on Friday.  Oh, and I go to see my ear doctor on Monday.  When is my husband supposed to take another few hours off work to take me to the doctor for a follow-up from this ER visit that showed nothing?

Emmmm.  Can we hear the negativity in my voice?

I try, I try so hard to keep a positive attitude, but sometimes, it just isn’t there.

Today is one of those days.

Warning,  I’m having a very hard day today and the following is a harsh view into how I’m feeling.

Continue reading “Guess where I spent last night.” →

Easy Apple Dessert

On By WendyIn RecipeLeave a comment

Last night I decided I’d like to have something a little sweet, but didn’t really know what I wanted.

We just bought some lovely organic apples, and my husband loves my Apple Crisp, but I didn’t want to take that much time.  So I came up with this:

 

Easy Apple Desert

 

 

  • 2 Honey Crisp Apples cut into thin slices
  • A little bit of Earth Balance Buttery spread, a couple of teaspoons probably.  (you might be able to leave this out.
  • 1/4 cup apple juice , or a little more depending on your apples.  You will be reducing the apple juice and this will add a good amount of sweetness.
  • ground cinnamon and nutmeg to taste.
  • a little bit of agave or other sweetener if they aren’t sweet enough.  (this is to taste.  I added light agave, it comes in a squeeze bottle so I just squeezed a little over the apples.)
  • gluten-free oats (I blended these in the food processor so they’d be more like quick oats)   (I’m not sure how much I added, I just sprinkled some in to see how it would work, then added a little more.  Probably no more than 2-3 tablespoons)

Put the apple juice and apples in a small skillet and cook over med-low heat until the apple juice is reduced  and the apples are as tender as you like.  (we like ours a little crunchy)  Add the Agave, or sweetener now.  The Agave made it a little thicker and a tad sweeter.  Add the Earth Balance and oats, they won’t get crispy like they do when you make apple crisp, but they add a good texture.   Sprinkle with cinnamon and nutmeg to taste.  I didn’t add enough at first, but it can be easily added when you are eating them.  That way if one person likes more cinnamon or nutmeg they can add more.

I enjoyed this a lot.  I kept thinking it needed ice cream (well Rice Dream would have been better for my tummy).  My husband said it was good, but missing something.  I asked him if he really wanted ice cream with it, and he agreed he thought that was the missing ingredient.  He still prefers the Apple Crisp because he likes it when the oat topping gets crunchy, and I think he also likes it more because it has sugar and brown sugar in it.

All in all, this was a very good, light desert.  You can play with it to get the taste the way you want it.  I’m trying to reduce my sugar intake, but you could add sugar if you wanted.

Recipe Testing – Citrus Black Bean Soup

On By WendyIn Diet, Gluten-Free, UncategorizedLeave a comment

I’ve been a tastetester for recipes for Kathy Hester’s upcoming Healthy Slow Cooking Vegan Cookbook.  (No, this isn’t the name, I don’t know what the name will be yet.)

I made the most delicious meal from one of her recipes yesterday, and it was so easy.  I just put everything in the slow cooker and let it go, then we had Citrus Black Bean Soup that evening.  The recipe makes this a pureed soup, but we liked it chunky with all the beans, it kind of had the consistency of a chili.  Oh but it didn’t taste like chili.  The seasonings worked so well together.  I was just thrilled.

I decided to have mine on top of brown rice, and then I mixed in some steamed collard greens to make this a complete nutrition meal.

I know you are just dying for the recipe, but you will have to wait until Kathy’s cookbook comes out.  However, you can check out many of her other recipes on her blog: Healthy Slow Cooking. I started following her blog right after she first started it and became a fan immediately.  I love food that is easy, good, and nutritious.  How great is that?  So check out her blog, and keep a look out for her cookbook.  I’ll keep you posted.