Day 20 of the Detox

6:30 am.  Day 20 ... of the new year and my 31-day Detox effort following Dr. Amy Myers book "The Autoimmune Solution."   

My first injection / infusion of chemotherapy was yesterday. So far, not too bad. I do have a "buzzy"  headache and I don't get headaches too often. So that may be a side effect. I don't know ...!

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Misery DOES love company!  

And, annoying symptoms love to have company! I doubt that all these cuts on my fingers have anything to do with the autoimmune condition, but who knows? Anyway, here's a picture of one of my hands. Took 20 minutes last night to wrap up all these cuts. Wish I knew how they got there. If I did I wouldn't do THAT again!    

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And, here, below, is a picture of dinner tonight. Sometimes it's just the right combination of things rather than any convoluted recipe that can make the difference between delicious and inedible.  

What's in this bowl?            

* taking up the bottom of the bowl are "power greens" - spinach, mizuna, chard & kale

* the little white stuff is "riced" organic cauliflower - that's NOT cheese!

* organic, non-GMO shredded carrots

* one organic sliced avocado

* broccoli florets (more on broccoli to come) 

* some olives 

* bacon

What?!  bacon!  Well it's uncured, vegetarian-fed, no preservatives, no antibiotics, or hormones, and for a while longer I have to eat some small amount of meat.

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I just watched "The Big FAT Lie" documentary that can be found on Amazon. It's set in New Zealand. If you've got Prime, it's free.  This is another one to watch and raises questions about whether or not we should be eating any animal products at all. It really discourages processed meat. And milk. It pushes a whole foods, plant-based diet.

I kind of already agree with it. In my heart I'm a vegetarian. However, I have a history of anemia throughout my life and on the current plan wanted to keep eating meat to get my scores up.  The hematologist/oncologist says I've succeeded. For the first time in my adult life I'm not anemic. The fatigue is either being caused by the autoimmune disease or the medications I'm on.

Anyway, I digress, as usual. Watch the documentary, but watch all the way through. Some things come up that don't get mentioned in the beginning that are interesting indeed. I'm always afraid folks will miss some good stuff because they think "oh this documentary is only about this one thing and I'm not interested so I'll turn it off." 

So stay with it the whole way through. Lots to think about.  Get it HERE.

Put the Lime in the Coconut - Another Doctor - Jan 18, 2021

Put the lime in the coconut ... so many doctors, so little time, so many ideas!  Went to see a practice that specializes in PAIN this afternoon about the itching (hoping to get acupuncture and try that) - nope have to sign up and start physical therapy. Rats! another appointment to book, remember, and show up to!

The Coconut song kept playing in my head the whole time ...I guess because there's grain in there, there's gluten, so can't have that.  Hmmm ... let's devise a gluten-free party drink.

Play the Practical Magic "Coconut" video HERE.        

That's ok - my left foot is not working right and it's affecting my leg and so now I'm limping!  They want to try some PT on that and maybe talk me to an injection in my ankle, although they were saying it's probably a lower back issue (!) and let's do ANOTHER MRI - my 2nd so far this year and it's only Jan. 18.

It's hard to sew, paint, and do some of the things I would like to do because my hands are unsteady.  But I do like to read and look at decorating books. I have one out from the library by Carolyne Roehm called A Passion for Blue & White.  Gorgeous pictures of gorgeous rooms that calm my nerves. I'm also going through a blue and white decorating phase now so that's good. Color is everything to me. Right now this autoimmune disease is RED. I used to love red. Not so much now.

So, tomorrow at 7 am my friend Pam will take me for my first chemotherapy  - they call it Rituxan or Ritiximab - in an effort to deal with the inflammation. Anyway, it's like 5 hours long and they told me to pack a lunch!

Should go to bed now. More on how that goes later.

It's 5 am ...!

Blog#1

Jan 4, 2021

It’s  5 am and I’m up blogging.  Hey – Hemingway was an early writer too!  I think I successfully let my sleeping dog lie –my little, most adorable Gracie, a perfect yorkie-poo is still zonked out in the middle of the bed. (why have all my dogs insisted in sleeping the middle and forced me to the side of a queen size bed?)

 

I’m awake because of the Prednisone, I imagine, and the itching and skin-crawling; but I just took 30 mg of Hydroxyzine to work on that. (I’m afraid it’s also going to make me a bit groggy this morning just when I’m trying to go see one of my doctors.)

 

As I was lying there debating in my head about the merits of “Oh hell, I may as well get up …”

I did come up with some topics for the blog and featurettes that I’d like to add in this blog occasionally. These include:

 

• Questions for YOU dear reader
• Quick quizzes – either about the Autoimmune spectrum or various odds and ends
• Interesting (and hopefully sometimes fund) facts – about anything
• “Yeah, you’re right, it’s a good thing, Martha” – tips, etc.
• Recipes – my own and comments on others
• What I ate today
• Update on what meds I’m on and what impact they are having
• How I’ve felt in the last 24 hours or so
• Daily accomplishments 

 

This morning, however, I thought I’d give you a bit of info about the name of this blog:

 

I’m calling this blog “Wellness Explorations” because I am new to this whole autoimmune thing and am just beginning to explore how to handle it.  I also think that smart people would agree you can never stop learning, investigating, researching, exploring …about anything, but we’ll try to stay on track here mainly about autoimmunity and general wellness, physical and mental.  I hope that you will interact with me and share what YOU have learned, heard, read about, and picked up from the official medical community and even on the street.  Let’s explore together!

 

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Recipe:  I concocted this last night, right about midnight, while I had “Deadpool” on You Tube TV for the 50^thtime in the background. (Ryan Reynolds, so cute.)  and drank the whole glass without gagging (which is more than one could say about that stuff you have to drink before a colonoscopy!)  Actually, it was surprisingly “not too bad.”

 

Midnight in the Garden of Good … Quick Basic Green Smoothie

        Fast but nutritious for lazy or busy people who can’t get their butt in the bed at a reasonable hour

 

In a blender, starting on the grind / chop salsa setting, drop in:

 

• A handful of kale
• Handful of spinach
• About 1 cup apple juice
• About a third of avocado 
• Enough distilled water to make it drinkable – add a little as you grind to get the desired consistency. We'll talk more in the future about WHY distilled water.

 

Grind down the big pieces on chop/ salsa setting, then mess around with the settings on your blender to get a well-blended drink.  I ended up on “puree whip” to get some froth.

 

Drink it. Now. Not later.

 

Let’s say for now that this is my baseline for my green smoothie. You could throw anything additional in there.  I’ll post more successful recipes that I concoct as we go along, OR post some great ones I find from other folks, crediting of course.  Any ideas, please comment.

 

Quick Quiz:

Why do I call the above recipe the Midnight in the Garden of Good … basic smoothie:

 

1.     The first time I concocted it, it was midnight

2.     It’s got a garden of good in it and safe for autoimmune folk

3.     I just liked the movie

4.     plus I was born in Savannah, and my people know/knew the people in the book

 

 

Answer:  ding, ding. All of the above.

 

Time to go take the levothyroxine. See you later alligator  (Which are also green, like the smoothie!)

 

Question for YOU dear reader - Garlic

 

So, what’s the deal with garlic?  Some places I read autoimmune folk can eat it, other places say it’s a no-no.  What’s your experience?