It's both friend and foe. My doctor has me on metronidazole (Met) 2 weeks on and 2 weeks off. A couple of weeks ago I was off the Met and things were pretty good. THis past weekend I started my 2 week cycle of Met and boy, oh boy did the symptoms of Lyme Disease flare up. Flare ups suck because I was use to less pain and suddenly there is a spike in pain and symptoms. Even though I know it happens, it also always catches me by surprise when the flare up happen. Anyway since this past weekend it's been rough-ish. I have had it worst but still only a masochist is happy about it. What I am happy about is that when my symptoms are worst that means the Met is working and killing off this damn bacteria in my body that has taken so much from my life and has given nothing good in return. I am grateful that I figured out that it was Lyme and got a great doctor to treat my Lyme, now I just need to find a family doctor to follow me. I have two more appointments next month- I just might find a family doc to care for me then. I am still dumbfounded that doctors, medical professionals refusing to do their job of being doctors and treat a patient with a medical disease. The fight continues for me - good thing I am fiesty.
Until next time- stay tick free and toodles for now.
Tuesday, 25 October 2011
Thursday, 20 October 2011
Yeast Free Sugar Free
I felt overwhelmed in the beginning of this diet. Where I got lucky was in cooking. I always enjoyed cooking and getting creative with food and recipes. That made things easier..eventually. At first I didn't think I could do it or be able to figure it all out without starving to death. But like most things it was not as bad as I expected.
Breakfasts: Walmart has a Brown Rice Cereal by Natural Nutrition and Kashi's 7 Grain Puffed is good and follows the regime. Plain oatmeal is good but it tastes like spakle since it can not be doctored up with sweet and tasty stuff. What I do is I infuse the water with cinnamon stick, a bit of crushed nutmeg, cloves and cardamon. I bring the water to a boil then simmer it all for 5 minutes then I just let it steep for a few hours after which I strain it and use the infused water to make my oatmeal. I also add some nut butter to it for extra tasty goodness. It's actually pretty tasty.
Snacks: Smoothies with Kefir, milk and frozen fruit is good. Nuts and fruits (they ones we are allowed to eat) are good snacks as well. Amira makes these roasted green peas - tasty but you need strong teeth for it. Yogourt with toasted nuts and toasted coconut is yummy. I learned to peel my own coconut (actually my husband did the peeling of it- I supervised- my joints are not strong enough to peel yet)and then I shredded it and I toasted it in the oven (yes I did that part). Yogourt/ricotta parfait with homemade nut granola and homemade jam which I made with Stevia (my lyme doc allows for stevia).
Lunches and Dinners: Egg whites with a whole egg is a good quick food fix- add a salad or some veggies or an avacado and it fills me up. Summer was great for grilling. Grilled meats and veggies are great to have for meals and have as leftovers. I would create a pizza using a tortilla and adding the grilled leftover on it. Put it in the oven for 10 minutes or so to warm up and there is my meal. Pasta sauces are great. I made two batches - one meat and one tomato sauce. I made a lot of it and used my food saver to portion it out. I just had to reconstitute it once I was going to use it which is pretty easy to do. Whole wheat pasta - well I am not used to it yet but I'll get there. I made homemade beef and chicken stock and froze it in portion (love my food saver). Stocks are great to have on hand for soups and stews and pot roasts especially now that it's fall and the need for comfort food is there. I have not seen any store bought stocks that do not have yeast in them. Even the organic stuff have stuff in them I am not allowed to have. Ziploc has this product called Zip 'n Steam. It's great for quick meals that can be started from a frozen state. I also have frozen chicken breasts, pork cuts and fish along with lots of frozen veggies on hand for quick meals where I use the Zip 'n Steam or not.
What I have not been able to figure out is how to make carob or lettuce taste like chocolate.
Until next time- stay tick free and toodles for now.
Breakfasts: Walmart has a Brown Rice Cereal by Natural Nutrition and Kashi's 7 Grain Puffed is good and follows the regime. Plain oatmeal is good but it tastes like spakle since it can not be doctored up with sweet and tasty stuff. What I do is I infuse the water with cinnamon stick, a bit of crushed nutmeg, cloves and cardamon. I bring the water to a boil then simmer it all for 5 minutes then I just let it steep for a few hours after which I strain it and use the infused water to make my oatmeal. I also add some nut butter to it for extra tasty goodness. It's actually pretty tasty.
Snacks: Smoothies with Kefir, milk and frozen fruit is good. Nuts and fruits (they ones we are allowed to eat) are good snacks as well. Amira makes these roasted green peas - tasty but you need strong teeth for it. Yogourt with toasted nuts and toasted coconut is yummy. I learned to peel my own coconut (actually my husband did the peeling of it- I supervised- my joints are not strong enough to peel yet)and then I shredded it and I toasted it in the oven (yes I did that part). Yogourt/ricotta parfait with homemade nut granola and homemade jam which I made with Stevia (my lyme doc allows for stevia).
Lunches and Dinners: Egg whites with a whole egg is a good quick food fix- add a salad or some veggies or an avacado and it fills me up. Summer was great for grilling. Grilled meats and veggies are great to have for meals and have as leftovers. I would create a pizza using a tortilla and adding the grilled leftover on it. Put it in the oven for 10 minutes or so to warm up and there is my meal. Pasta sauces are great. I made two batches - one meat and one tomato sauce. I made a lot of it and used my food saver to portion it out. I just had to reconstitute it once I was going to use it which is pretty easy to do. Whole wheat pasta - well I am not used to it yet but I'll get there. I made homemade beef and chicken stock and froze it in portion (love my food saver). Stocks are great to have on hand for soups and stews and pot roasts especially now that it's fall and the need for comfort food is there. I have not seen any store bought stocks that do not have yeast in them. Even the organic stuff have stuff in them I am not allowed to have. Ziploc has this product called Zip 'n Steam. It's great for quick meals that can be started from a frozen state. I also have frozen chicken breasts, pork cuts and fish along with lots of frozen veggies on hand for quick meals where I use the Zip 'n Steam or not.
What I have not been able to figure out is how to make carob or lettuce taste like chocolate.
Until next time- stay tick free and toodles for now.
Wednesday, 19 October 2011
Cheating and frustrations
It's fall. The leaves are changing and falling to the ground. The temperature is dipping and I want hot buttered bread. Can't do that will on the Lyme disease yfsf diet...so I cheated...more than once. It started with a one night stand of sandwich eating to an orgie of food. I actually thought if I cheated a bit somehow I would get struck down by lightening or something equally crazy but nothing really happened. I was fine so I kept cheating from time to time until I realised that I had to get back to my strict food diet. So I did. And it's not so bad. I just got so tired and jealous of seeing everyone eating all this yummy comfort food and I couldn't. It was like having my nose pressed up against the window pane and I was outside whimpering at the bread. Damn I miss bread but only when it's cold outside. During the summer following the yfsf diet was easy. It's easy to eat healthy in the summer time but when it gets cold I want bread and cupcakes. Fall and winter is all about the comfort foods.
To help my comfort food cravings along I actually made beef and chicken stock for hearty winter soups and stews. The store bought stocks have yeast or something else that is not allowed. Okay so this was the cheating portion of my blog, now comes the frustrations.
My frustrations of late have once again come from the medical community and how they treat Lyme patients. I am still trying to find a family doctor to treat me alongside my lyme doctor. I had another appointment with yet another doctor who was 'not comfortable' treating me because he does not how much about the disease. I offer them many choices to educate themselves but they refuse. It is absolutely and incredibly rediculous that as doctors they will only treat what they know. Did medical school not cover all the diseases including lyme? I can understand not knowing everything about every disease known to man or woman but to refuse to learn about it is inexcusable. It's ignorant. It's willfull stupidity on the part of the medical community. Also arrogance for the doctor's that refuse to dicuss my blood results because they are not sure what they are reading and refuse to get informed by the patient. Lyme patients - we know more about this disease than almost all the family doctors out there.
I am finding out that these doctors are as good as their easiest patient to treat because they are clueless about a hard or difficult disease. There are some exceptions to that rule but most doctors I have found to be as useless as they come they just have the title of MD next to their name. I have determined after seeing countless unhelpful doctors that MD stands for Moronic Dickhead.
I have another appoitment next month with another doctor. I wish I was all optimistic about it but I am not. Getting my meds from an internet pharmacy is very expensive and it would be nice to not be hemorraghing money every month. Damn, Lyme disease takes a long time to treat properly and it does get expensive in a hurry.
The medical community and Public Health Canada is a major disappointment. Canada is all proud that they offer medical care (that is free) to all it's citizens but the reality of the situation they do not. I have yet to receive it here. I am going to the States for treatment because there is no specialist here in Quebec and the Quebec doctors are too uneducated and unfamiliar and refuse to change their narrow minded stance and get informed about Lyme disease. Also I am getting my antibiotics from the internet - not from Quebec. And I am paying taxes to fund a health care system that is not offering me any health care. I do believe that would change if a politician or the health care minister get Lyme disease but until someone in power that makes health care decisions that matter gets Lyme disease us patients just have to struggle through it and learn from each other how to navigate the tricky waters of this disease.
To help my comfort food cravings along I actually made beef and chicken stock for hearty winter soups and stews. The store bought stocks have yeast or something else that is not allowed. Okay so this was the cheating portion of my blog, now comes the frustrations.
My frustrations of late have once again come from the medical community and how they treat Lyme patients. I am still trying to find a family doctor to treat me alongside my lyme doctor. I had another appointment with yet another doctor who was 'not comfortable' treating me because he does not how much about the disease. I offer them many choices to educate themselves but they refuse. It is absolutely and incredibly rediculous that as doctors they will only treat what they know. Did medical school not cover all the diseases including lyme? I can understand not knowing everything about every disease known to man or woman but to refuse to learn about it is inexcusable. It's ignorant. It's willfull stupidity on the part of the medical community. Also arrogance for the doctor's that refuse to dicuss my blood results because they are not sure what they are reading and refuse to get informed by the patient. Lyme patients - we know more about this disease than almost all the family doctors out there.
I am finding out that these doctors are as good as their easiest patient to treat because they are clueless about a hard or difficult disease. There are some exceptions to that rule but most doctors I have found to be as useless as they come they just have the title of MD next to their name. I have determined after seeing countless unhelpful doctors that MD stands for Moronic Dickhead.
I have another appoitment next month with another doctor. I wish I was all optimistic about it but I am not. Getting my meds from an internet pharmacy is very expensive and it would be nice to not be hemorraghing money every month. Damn, Lyme disease takes a long time to treat properly and it does get expensive in a hurry.
The medical community and Public Health Canada is a major disappointment. Canada is all proud that they offer medical care (that is free) to all it's citizens but the reality of the situation they do not. I have yet to receive it here. I am going to the States for treatment because there is no specialist here in Quebec and the Quebec doctors are too uneducated and unfamiliar and refuse to change their narrow minded stance and get informed about Lyme disease. Also I am getting my antibiotics from the internet - not from Quebec. And I am paying taxes to fund a health care system that is not offering me any health care. I do believe that would change if a politician or the health care minister get Lyme disease but until someone in power that makes health care decisions that matter gets Lyme disease us patients just have to struggle through it and learn from each other how to navigate the tricky waters of this disease.
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