This week I watched all three Toy Story movies. Toy Story 3 makes me cry, every single time. It just makes me so sad to see Andy and Bonnie play with Buzz, Jessie, Bullseye, Rex, Ham, the Potatoheads, the aliens from Pizza Planet, Slinky and Woody. I loved Toy Story when I was little and I felt like I grew up with Andy. It just breaks my heart to watch him drive away without his toys.
It's pathetic. I know. It's just a movie. But still, every single time the last 5 or so minutes just is hard.
And that's my confession today.
9.07.2012
9.05.2012
Progress!
I finished The Old Testament today! I'm only a few weeks behind now!
Also, I started walking at the park by my house with a few ladies in my ward. It's not quite like my old walking group, but it's pretty great! We walk four days a week, and my plan for the one day that we don't walk is to do a combo of Wii Fit and Just Dance!
Also, I started walking at the park by my house with a few ladies in my ward. It's not quite like my old walking group, but it's pretty great! We walk four days a week, and my plan for the one day that we don't walk is to do a combo of Wii Fit and Just Dance!
8.28.2012
Catch Up
I've been meaning to blog for a while now, but today I found myself with a little time and nothing specific to do.
Chris has been back at work for two weeks now (I think) and seems to be doing really well! His first few days were hard, as he had to get used to all the walking around and such, but we make sure he takes his anti-dizziness meds with him so that he can take them if needed. He hasn't even had to be using his cane recently! We're so happy to be seeing these improvements! He goes back to our PCP in a few weeks, and then at the end of October he goes back to the ENT to have the fluid levels checked.
I don't know if I ever mentioned this, but as part of all his testing he got allergy testing done, which revealed some major allergies to dustmites and specific types of pollens and grasses and lots of other stuff. I've gotten to increase how often I mop our entire house to help take care of all the dust. It's quite the task, since there is no carpet in our house, just tile floor. I've also stepped up on some other cleaning, like the vents for our AC. They get really dusty, and I tend to ignore them. Not anymore. Overall our house is less cluttered and cleaner because I spend a good chunk of time each day cleaning it.
In the two weeks that he's been at work it seems like I've done a ton of stuff. I had to get all caught up on my visiting teaching, and then get visit taught, and then I hadn't seen my friends in like 2 months so I got to get together with them for lunch one day. A friend had a baby recently, so I made sure to go over to her place so I could meet the baby and chat with her for a little while. I've been quickly catching up on my scripture study challenge for the year. I'll be able to finish the complete standard works by the end of the year, it will just be a little more each day than I had anticipated. The young women need to start preparing two songs to sing later this year-one for YW in Excellence, and another for some combined RS/YW activity that will happen in December. Then I know they'll be working on something for New Beginnings... seems like I spend a lot of time trying to figure out songs they could sing then actually learning them. I got to accompany our ward choir for a few practices while the regular pianist was out of town-that took me at least an hour a day for two weeks to be comfortable with some of those songs. Years ago it wouldn't have taken me as long; I definitely need to work on my piano skills.
I've spent an insane amount of time in the last two months flipping through cookbooks, calculating sodium contents, and reading labels to make sure that things don't have MSG in them. I have a whole new list of food additives that contain MSG as well, so now I have an even longer list to check for. Made life a lot more complicated too. We finally had found some good options and then I realized that dang it, Yeast Extract is in a lot of things and that is a food additive that contains MSG.
Both of our cars had to be taken in for the Texas Vehicle Inspection this month, so I got to go through the Inspection Station 3 times in two weeks! And in the middle of those two weeks my car got to go spend some time with our friend Mario who fixed the brake line and the muffler so that my car could actually pass the inspection. I went to the same little Inspection Station each time, and on my last trip for the month the lady who had inspected my cars each time told me that if I came back one more time this month we would be automatic BFFs. I was tempted to take the car through again, but didn't want to pay the $14.50 again. I do look forward to next year when the cars have to go again, and hope that Stacy is still at that inspection station.
I also went to the library the other day. I checked out 6 books. I've finished a few of them, just reading at night while Chris reads his tech news, and on Sunday. Oh I love books! Once I finish the rest of these books I think I'll have to ban myself from the library (with the exception of the day that my already reserved copy of Gretchen Rubin's new book, Happier at Home comes in) and start plowing through school again. I have to finish my class by February 14th, and I'm not even halfway done. It's going to take some serious self discipline to finish on time. Yikes!
I'm trying to get back into exercising as well... while Chris was on disability leave we lived a pretty sedentary lifestyle since he couldn't do a whole lot. I think I'm posting this so that I'll feel like I have to do it since I told someone about it. I haven't decided exactly what I want to do... in a month or so I'll probably start running again, but right now it's still just too hot even early in the morning, so I'll probably do a combo of Wii Fit and Just Dance for now so I can do that in my air conditioned house. We've been forced to think so much about our health, and every little bit helps.
Chris has been back at work for two weeks now (I think) and seems to be doing really well! His first few days were hard, as he had to get used to all the walking around and such, but we make sure he takes his anti-dizziness meds with him so that he can take them if needed. He hasn't even had to be using his cane recently! We're so happy to be seeing these improvements! He goes back to our PCP in a few weeks, and then at the end of October he goes back to the ENT to have the fluid levels checked.
I don't know if I ever mentioned this, but as part of all his testing he got allergy testing done, which revealed some major allergies to dustmites and specific types of pollens and grasses and lots of other stuff. I've gotten to increase how often I mop our entire house to help take care of all the dust. It's quite the task, since there is no carpet in our house, just tile floor. I've also stepped up on some other cleaning, like the vents for our AC. They get really dusty, and I tend to ignore them. Not anymore. Overall our house is less cluttered and cleaner because I spend a good chunk of time each day cleaning it.
In the two weeks that he's been at work it seems like I've done a ton of stuff. I had to get all caught up on my visiting teaching, and then get visit taught, and then I hadn't seen my friends in like 2 months so I got to get together with them for lunch one day. A friend had a baby recently, so I made sure to go over to her place so I could meet the baby and chat with her for a little while. I've been quickly catching up on my scripture study challenge for the year. I'll be able to finish the complete standard works by the end of the year, it will just be a little more each day than I had anticipated. The young women need to start preparing two songs to sing later this year-one for YW in Excellence, and another for some combined RS/YW activity that will happen in December. Then I know they'll be working on something for New Beginnings... seems like I spend a lot of time trying to figure out songs they could sing then actually learning them. I got to accompany our ward choir for a few practices while the regular pianist was out of town-that took me at least an hour a day for two weeks to be comfortable with some of those songs. Years ago it wouldn't have taken me as long; I definitely need to work on my piano skills.
I've spent an insane amount of time in the last two months flipping through cookbooks, calculating sodium contents, and reading labels to make sure that things don't have MSG in them. I have a whole new list of food additives that contain MSG as well, so now I have an even longer list to check for. Made life a lot more complicated too. We finally had found some good options and then I realized that dang it, Yeast Extract is in a lot of things and that is a food additive that contains MSG.
Both of our cars had to be taken in for the Texas Vehicle Inspection this month, so I got to go through the Inspection Station 3 times in two weeks! And in the middle of those two weeks my car got to go spend some time with our friend Mario who fixed the brake line and the muffler so that my car could actually pass the inspection. I went to the same little Inspection Station each time, and on my last trip for the month the lady who had inspected my cars each time told me that if I came back one more time this month we would be automatic BFFs. I was tempted to take the car through again, but didn't want to pay the $14.50 again. I do look forward to next year when the cars have to go again, and hope that Stacy is still at that inspection station.
I also went to the library the other day. I checked out 6 books. I've finished a few of them, just reading at night while Chris reads his tech news, and on Sunday. Oh I love books! Once I finish the rest of these books I think I'll have to ban myself from the library (with the exception of the day that my already reserved copy of Gretchen Rubin's new book, Happier at Home comes in) and start plowing through school again. I have to finish my class by February 14th, and I'm not even halfway done. It's going to take some serious self discipline to finish on time. Yikes!
I'm trying to get back into exercising as well... while Chris was on disability leave we lived a pretty sedentary lifestyle since he couldn't do a whole lot. I think I'm posting this so that I'll feel like I have to do it since I told someone about it. I haven't decided exactly what I want to do... in a month or so I'll probably start running again, but right now it's still just too hot even early in the morning, so I'll probably do a combo of Wii Fit and Just Dance for now so I can do that in my air conditioned house. We've been forced to think so much about our health, and every little bit helps.
8.08.2012
more slightly scattered thoughts
I guess it's been two weeks since I posted last. Since my last post, we've seen improvement! We had our one month follow up appointment with the ENT, where we got good and bad news. The good news was that there is less fluid in the inner ears, although there still is a way to go. The bad news was that the low sodium diet which we had been told could just be a temporary thing gets to become our new lifestyle. For good. That's kind of hard. I'd been holding back a little, clinging to what our Primary Care doctor had said about it being temporary. I hadn't done enough homework or found enough recipes because I thought we could survive off the same 8 recipes or so for a few months.
We got to travel to my brothers wedding, which was fantastic! We didn't think we would be able to, but the ENT gave us the okay! It was fun to be with all of my siblings, even if it was for a short amount of time. Chris did really well while we were gone, able to cut back on some of his medications and still participate in everything we needed to do (except that we didn't stay up til 1:30 [or was it later?] with my siblings the night before the wedding).
Today we went to run a few errands, and for the first time since May... Chris drove! We went to HEB, Bed Bath and Beyond, Costco, and Sam's Club. It was 102 degrees outside, but he did a fantastic job the whole time. We're noticing that he doesn't rely on his cane quite as much!
We see our Primary Care Physician again on Friday where we anticipate getting the official letter allowing Chris to go back to work next week. According to the ENT, he'll still be on some of the meds for another 10 months, but we don't go back to see them til the end of October.
After talking to some women in the ward I learned that there is a family who has dealt with Meniere's before, so I talked to the wife about diet restrictions. She told me about a bread that has no sodium, about a specific brand of lunch meats that has no nitrates/nitrates, no msg, and depending on how many slices you use, a low(er) amount of sodium.
I'm still working on finding more meals that we can eat without having to leave out too many ingredients or doing substitutions. We're getting better at this! I'm figuring out what I'll need to send with Chris when he goes back to work next week-gotta make sure he has all the food that he needs so that he doesn't end up having to go supplement it with things from their cafeteria. We've been eating a bunch of bananas and grapes lately, and those are both easy things to add to his lunch.
Something else that we're struggling with now is getting back into a more normal sleep schedule. We've been letting Chris sleep as late as he needs without setting an alarm, and that then means going to bed later at night. That also means that I've been sleeping as late as I wanted to because I wasn't about to set an alarm to wake me up. We've got to kick that habit so that he'll be rested enough to go back to work and so that I'll be rested enough to lead a normal life.
I haven't really touched my schoolwork in the last few months, so once he gets back to work I've got to jump on that and get caught up. I also fell behind on my challenge to finish the complete Standard Works in 2012. I just didn't have the mental capacity to read all 7 pages a day that I needed to to stay caught up, so now I'm playing catch up.
We got to travel to my brothers wedding, which was fantastic! We didn't think we would be able to, but the ENT gave us the okay! It was fun to be with all of my siblings, even if it was for a short amount of time. Chris did really well while we were gone, able to cut back on some of his medications and still participate in everything we needed to do (except that we didn't stay up til 1:30 [or was it later?] with my siblings the night before the wedding).
Today we went to run a few errands, and for the first time since May... Chris drove! We went to HEB, Bed Bath and Beyond, Costco, and Sam's Club. It was 102 degrees outside, but he did a fantastic job the whole time. We're noticing that he doesn't rely on his cane quite as much!
We see our Primary Care Physician again on Friday where we anticipate getting the official letter allowing Chris to go back to work next week. According to the ENT, he'll still be on some of the meds for another 10 months, but we don't go back to see them til the end of October.
After talking to some women in the ward I learned that there is a family who has dealt with Meniere's before, so I talked to the wife about diet restrictions. She told me about a bread that has no sodium, about a specific brand of lunch meats that has no nitrates/nitrates, no msg, and depending on how many slices you use, a low(er) amount of sodium.
I'm still working on finding more meals that we can eat without having to leave out too many ingredients or doing substitutions. We're getting better at this! I'm figuring out what I'll need to send with Chris when he goes back to work next week-gotta make sure he has all the food that he needs so that he doesn't end up having to go supplement it with things from their cafeteria. We've been eating a bunch of bananas and grapes lately, and those are both easy things to add to his lunch.
Something else that we're struggling with now is getting back into a more normal sleep schedule. We've been letting Chris sleep as late as he needs without setting an alarm, and that then means going to bed later at night. That also means that I've been sleeping as late as I wanted to because I wasn't about to set an alarm to wake me up. We've got to kick that habit so that he'll be rested enough to go back to work and so that I'll be rested enough to lead a normal life.
I haven't really touched my schoolwork in the last few months, so once he gets back to work I've got to jump on that and get caught up. I also fell behind on my challenge to finish the complete Standard Works in 2012. I just didn't have the mental capacity to read all 7 pages a day that I needed to to stay caught up, so now I'm playing catch up.
7.27.2012
Anniversary
On our first anniversary we spent the day moving from our apartment to our duplex. My visiting teachers didn't show up to help me like they said they would, so I spent several hours that day cleaning every inch of that apartment on my own while Chris and a bunch of nice nice guys from our ward moved everything. I think we had Wendy's for lunch that day because it was in between our two places.
For our second anniversary we get to wake up super early (for us, recently at least) to go to an appointment with the ENT to see how much fluid has drained out of Chris' ears and to see what our game plan is. Then we get to go to two different pharmacies to pick up prescriptions, come home, and pack because the day after we are going to my brothers wedding! We are splurging a little on the diet and using a Groupon we bought a while back... we're having lunch at Red Robin! We're super excited to eat out somewhere, but know it will be hard on the diet.
Since Chris can't drive right now and he knew we were going to be going out of town right after our actual anniversary, he picked up a few surprises for me when we went to HEB today. We went to return some OTC medicine we ended up not needing, and then to buy bananas. The line for returns was a mile and a half long (okay, maybe only 4 people) so I got in line and Chris went to go find some good bananas. I found him sitting in a chair waiting at the door with some flowers as well as bananas. He felt bad that it was a little early and that it wasn't much of a surprise, since he couldn't just go to the store on his own, but I was excited.
The last two months have been pretty hard for both of us with him being sick. We were hoping when this all started that by our anniversary he would be feeling better and that we'd get to do something fun-a day at Six Flags, or getting massages...
I've decided that next year we aren't allowed to move or be sick on our anniversary so we can do something fun to celebrate!
For our second anniversary we get to wake up super early (for us, recently at least) to go to an appointment with the ENT to see how much fluid has drained out of Chris' ears and to see what our game plan is. Then we get to go to two different pharmacies to pick up prescriptions, come home, and pack because the day after we are going to my brothers wedding! We are splurging a little on the diet and using a Groupon we bought a while back... we're having lunch at Red Robin! We're super excited to eat out somewhere, but know it will be hard on the diet.
Since Chris can't drive right now and he knew we were going to be going out of town right after our actual anniversary, he picked up a few surprises for me when we went to HEB today. We went to return some OTC medicine we ended up not needing, and then to buy bananas. The line for returns was a mile and a half long (okay, maybe only 4 people) so I got in line and Chris went to go find some good bananas. I found him sitting in a chair waiting at the door with some flowers as well as bananas. He felt bad that it was a little early and that it wasn't much of a surprise, since he couldn't just go to the store on his own, but I was excited.
The last two months have been pretty hard for both of us with him being sick. We were hoping when this all started that by our anniversary he would be feeling better and that we'd get to do something fun-a day at Six Flags, or getting massages...
I've decided that next year we aren't allowed to move or be sick on our anniversary so we can do something fun to celebrate!
7.17.2012
Hangin' in there...
Last Sunday (the 8th) I cracked. Like hard.
Before church I had to tell Steph that I officially was canceling my trip to Utah for her wedding. We just hadn't seen enough improvement with Chris, so I couldn't leave him behind for 4 days.
After taking Chris home after Sacrament Meeting, I was heading to Sunday School when a member of the bishopric approached me and asked how Chris was doing. I explained the latest to him, and turned to head to class. Then he asked how I was doing. Oh man did he regret asking that question. He told me not to try to be a hero, but to let people step in and help us out. He encouraged me to ask for help with meals (which I was super hesitant to do because of the diet restrictions), and to let someone else mow my lawn, and to let my visiting teaching companion worry about doing the visits this month. He also told me not to feel bad about taking some time for myself every once in a while. He had been caring for a family member who was ill and knew how draining it can be on the loved ones, so he told me to make sure I was looking out for my well-being too.
I don't think I stopped crying until after I got home, except for a few minutes that I pulled myself together to play the piano in Young Women's. I didn't ever make it to Sunday School. Instead I sat in the hallway with two parents who were each out with their almost 1 year olds. I talked to a lady in my ward named Jenny, and she just let me cry and tell her everything. It felt so good!
After church I was approached by a couple who has had a rough year because of various health problems. He's been hospitalized like 3 times since March... basically it's been a rough rough year. He asked me how Chris was doing, and asked about Chris's cane. He asked if Chris had gotten a blessing recently and then offered to come give him one (when I said that I was looking for someone to come give him one--both our home teachers were out of town). He and Jenny's husband came over later to give Chris a blessing. And then they offered to give me one too. Yeah... cried the whole time they were at our house. It was great to have them come and just talk with us for a few minutes. We laughed so hard, it was hilarious.
Monday morning I got a text from Jenny asking if she could bring us dinner around 5:00. Bless her! This meant I could spend my day cleaning and doing laundry instead of researching meals, counting sodium content, and grocery shopping. I just had to be alive when she brought the food. It's been more than a week and we are STILL talking about the delicious crock pot chicken that she brought us. The chicken was so dang tasty, the sauce was INCREDIBLE, and Chris was convinced that the broccoli was homegrown. It was all just so tasty. And low sodium! It was so worth asking for help, I learned a new recipe that we LOVED and that is totally fine for Chris to eat.
Thursday night was hard, I knew that I would've been at a surprise bachelorette party for Steph, and having one last sleepover with her before she got married the next morning. Friday morning was even harder. I cried when I looked at the clock and thought "oh, I would've been arriving at the temple about now" and "they're getting married now" and "now it's time for the luncheon". It was hard not being there, but I was so happy to know that while she was sad I wasn't there, she totally understood why I wasn't there, and actually felt bad for me. She was sad knowing that she couldn't even just come down here and have a girls night and make things better. I'm looking forward to the day that Chris is feeling better and I get to use my flight to head up to see her! I'm thinking General Conference weekend in October would be awesome, because of our tradition of watching conference together, but we'll see. I'll go whenever!
Friday the couple with lots of health problems invited us over to their house for dinner, and some time to sit in their reclining massage chair that they had gotten to help alleviate some of their pain. Oh man, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. We hung out at their house for several hours, with all 4 adults taking turns in the massage chair, with soothing music in the background, and having a delicious dinner! Chicken Parmesan. So good, and not too high in sodium count if you either make your own sauce or take the time to go through every bottle of sauce at the store to find the lowest sodium count. Their 5 year old asked if I could come back sometime and just play with her, it was so cute.
Later this week I'm getting together with my visiting teacher to make some no/low-sodium foods. She's been looking all over pinterest trying to help me find some things that we could enjoy. She found a no sodium granola that would be excellent at breakfast or as a snack, and it would be fantastic to have some totally sodium free snacks/breakfasts so that we can save our sodium allowance for lunch and dinners!
Tonight we're having Manicotti, and with the specific sauces/cheeses/everything I have to use with it Chris will only get 665 mg of sodium for 2 stuffed shells, and that should be enough with our side veggies to get him full! Since he's supposed to limit himself to 1500-2000 mg per day, we're pretty excited to see that this Manicotti is totally fine for him! I still am going to keep looking for lower sodium sauce, because that's where the bulk of the sodium comes from. I may just make my own!
We're getting better at finding meals. It definitely helped to have a few meals brought to us which sparked some more ideas of things to try. Oh, and we invested in a few different bottles of Mrs. Dash which is AMAZING! It's a seasoning that has no salt, no msg, and adds a ton of great flavor, depending on which variety you get. We got one that is for grilling chicken, one that is like garlic and herb, and I don't remember which other two we bought... Mrs Dash also makes some marinades that I'm looking into since they also would meet his diet restrictions! It's always fun to find something delicious with no sodium in it!
With all that said... Chris is kind of doing better? I guess. He is able to sit for longer periods of time. He doesn't get the headaches too often anymore which is AWESOME! It's actually pretty nice. He's to the point where we can play a few rounds of MarioKart Wii without having to pause it (unless we pause for a bathroom break... he's on a diuretic and goes to the bathroom way more often). He also asked if we could watch an old season of The Biggest Loser, so we started that this morning. With the most recent season he sometimes would catch little pieces here or there as I'd watch it, and he thought it was interesting, but wanted to watch a whole season. Hulu has most of the seasons, so I picked a season that I really enjoyed in the past and decided we'd start with that one! For any of you Biggest Loser fans, we're watching Season 9-the one with Sam & Koli, and Michael (who starts out at 526 pounds!). I think that Season 11 will be the next one we watch, if Chris wants to watch another season.
Before church I had to tell Steph that I officially was canceling my trip to Utah for her wedding. We just hadn't seen enough improvement with Chris, so I couldn't leave him behind for 4 days.
After taking Chris home after Sacrament Meeting, I was heading to Sunday School when a member of the bishopric approached me and asked how Chris was doing. I explained the latest to him, and turned to head to class. Then he asked how I was doing. Oh man did he regret asking that question. He told me not to try to be a hero, but to let people step in and help us out. He encouraged me to ask for help with meals (which I was super hesitant to do because of the diet restrictions), and to let someone else mow my lawn, and to let my visiting teaching companion worry about doing the visits this month. He also told me not to feel bad about taking some time for myself every once in a while. He had been caring for a family member who was ill and knew how draining it can be on the loved ones, so he told me to make sure I was looking out for my well-being too.
I don't think I stopped crying until after I got home, except for a few minutes that I pulled myself together to play the piano in Young Women's. I didn't ever make it to Sunday School. Instead I sat in the hallway with two parents who were each out with their almost 1 year olds. I talked to a lady in my ward named Jenny, and she just let me cry and tell her everything. It felt so good!
After church I was approached by a couple who has had a rough year because of various health problems. He's been hospitalized like 3 times since March... basically it's been a rough rough year. He asked me how Chris was doing, and asked about Chris's cane. He asked if Chris had gotten a blessing recently and then offered to come give him one (when I said that I was looking for someone to come give him one--both our home teachers were out of town). He and Jenny's husband came over later to give Chris a blessing. And then they offered to give me one too. Yeah... cried the whole time they were at our house. It was great to have them come and just talk with us for a few minutes. We laughed so hard, it was hilarious.
Monday morning I got a text from Jenny asking if she could bring us dinner around 5:00. Bless her! This meant I could spend my day cleaning and doing laundry instead of researching meals, counting sodium content, and grocery shopping. I just had to be alive when she brought the food. It's been more than a week and we are STILL talking about the delicious crock pot chicken that she brought us. The chicken was so dang tasty, the sauce was INCREDIBLE, and Chris was convinced that the broccoli was homegrown. It was all just so tasty. And low sodium! It was so worth asking for help, I learned a new recipe that we LOVED and that is totally fine for Chris to eat.
Thursday night was hard, I knew that I would've been at a surprise bachelorette party for Steph, and having one last sleepover with her before she got married the next morning. Friday morning was even harder. I cried when I looked at the clock and thought "oh, I would've been arriving at the temple about now" and "they're getting married now" and "now it's time for the luncheon". It was hard not being there, but I was so happy to know that while she was sad I wasn't there, she totally understood why I wasn't there, and actually felt bad for me. She was sad knowing that she couldn't even just come down here and have a girls night and make things better. I'm looking forward to the day that Chris is feeling better and I get to use my flight to head up to see her! I'm thinking General Conference weekend in October would be awesome, because of our tradition of watching conference together, but we'll see. I'll go whenever!
Friday the couple with lots of health problems invited us over to their house for dinner, and some time to sit in their reclining massage chair that they had gotten to help alleviate some of their pain. Oh man, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. We hung out at their house for several hours, with all 4 adults taking turns in the massage chair, with soothing music in the background, and having a delicious dinner! Chicken Parmesan. So good, and not too high in sodium count if you either make your own sauce or take the time to go through every bottle of sauce at the store to find the lowest sodium count. Their 5 year old asked if I could come back sometime and just play with her, it was so cute.
Later this week I'm getting together with my visiting teacher to make some no/low-sodium foods. She's been looking all over pinterest trying to help me find some things that we could enjoy. She found a no sodium granola that would be excellent at breakfast or as a snack, and it would be fantastic to have some totally sodium free snacks/breakfasts so that we can save our sodium allowance for lunch and dinners!
Tonight we're having Manicotti, and with the specific sauces/cheeses/everything I have to use with it Chris will only get 665 mg of sodium for 2 stuffed shells, and that should be enough with our side veggies to get him full! Since he's supposed to limit himself to 1500-2000 mg per day, we're pretty excited to see that this Manicotti is totally fine for him! I still am going to keep looking for lower sodium sauce, because that's where the bulk of the sodium comes from. I may just make my own!
We're getting better at finding meals. It definitely helped to have a few meals brought to us which sparked some more ideas of things to try. Oh, and we invested in a few different bottles of Mrs. Dash which is AMAZING! It's a seasoning that has no salt, no msg, and adds a ton of great flavor, depending on which variety you get. We got one that is for grilling chicken, one that is like garlic and herb, and I don't remember which other two we bought... Mrs Dash also makes some marinades that I'm looking into since they also would meet his diet restrictions! It's always fun to find something delicious with no sodium in it!
With all that said... Chris is kind of doing better? I guess. He is able to sit for longer periods of time. He doesn't get the headaches too often anymore which is AWESOME! It's actually pretty nice. He's to the point where we can play a few rounds of MarioKart Wii without having to pause it (unless we pause for a bathroom break... he's on a diuretic and goes to the bathroom way more often). He also asked if we could watch an old season of The Biggest Loser, so we started that this morning. With the most recent season he sometimes would catch little pieces here or there as I'd watch it, and he thought it was interesting, but wanted to watch a whole season. Hulu has most of the seasons, so I picked a season that I really enjoyed in the past and decided we'd start with that one! For any of you Biggest Loser fans, we're watching Season 9-the one with Sam & Koli, and Michael (who starts out at 526 pounds!). I think that Season 11 will be the next one we watch, if Chris wants to watch another season.
7.07.2012
How ATK saved the day!
This book is my new best friend. For reals. When ATK compiled this cookbook one of the things they considered in each recipe was the sodium content. We ordered this book the day that Chris was told to eat less sodium, and when it came I started reading it. I was full of hope after seeing the nutrition info. The next five dinners that we have will be coming from this cookbook, and because of the low sodium content in each recipe, Chris can still have tasty lunches. Hopefully these foods still taste delicious!
Sadly, my Mexican Rice that I made last week using the Organic, Free Range, Chicken Broth that only had 70 mg of sodium in it... turned out pretty disgusting. Apparently Mexican Rice really needs sodium to taste good. Next time I'll just use a broth that has more sodium and control how much Chris actually eats. To eat it we ended up adding a bunch of salsa, which made it tolerable, but still kinda gross.
I love America's Test Kitchen and am so grateful for the friends who introduced me to ATK over a year ago!
Also... Costco's Pesto is delicious, and only has a little bit of sodium, and pasta has no sodium... So we'll be having Pesto Pasta often.
A few questions have been asked, so here are a few answers:
We don't know if this low-sodium diet is a permanent thing or if it's just when he's having episodes that we have to go with it. Even if it isn't permanent we will definitely consume less sodium than previously, but I won't try to track every single mg of sodium. We're working on getting him accustomed to different types of snacks that have no sodium, or minimal amounts of sodium, so that he can save his sodium allowance for the big meals.
There currently is no cure for Meniere's Disease. There are medications that can help control the individual symptoms, and once the extra fluid drains out of his inner ears, Chris will undergo Vestibular Rehab, to help train his brain again. After this, it is likely that he will be okay, however he can have episodes at any time in the future. Apparently the first episode is the worst, and they get a little better each subsequent time.
We also don't know what caused all of this in the first place. A lot more research needs to be done to understand Meniere's better.
We got Chris a cane last week, and it's pretty schnazzy. It goes really nicely with the Handicapped Parking Placard that he got yesterday. The line at the Disability Window at the Tax Collector Office (where you register your car, pay your property tax, and apparently get Handicapped Parking Permits) is a lot shorter than the regular line, and you get to sit while you wait. That was a nice experience.
On a different note... we enjoyed our 4th of July by watching our little city's parade from our back yard. Then we watched a movie with some friends, and turned on the New York firework show! We've also got the Boston show on our DVR, I want to watch it soon too. That was also the day we had nasty Mexican Rice and Chicken Fajitas. The fajitas were good though, not nasty. Nothing says 4th of July like Mexican food, right?
7.02.2012
This is HARD!
Dietary restrictions suck. And this is my angry post. You don't have to read it.
-Low sodium.
-No nitrates/nitrites.
-Very low amounts of cheeses.
-No MSG.
-Very low amounts of nuts.
-only 1 serving of citrus a day.
-only 1 serving of caffeine a day (that includes chocolate) [I'm not following this part. I'm getting as much chocolate as I can to cope with all of this]
= WHAT THE CRAP DO YOU EAT?
We're finding that it's been so incredibly hard to do this diet restriction. I almost started crying when Chris asked what was for lunch today because I had no idea what to tell him he could eat. Pasta and rice are great, but you have to eat something with it (at least I can't picture him eating just plain pasta or rice), but the sauces you'd think to put on it are always problematic!
Salads can work... if your salad has no dressing (or just a teeny tiny bit), but when Chris has a salad he dumps the dressing on to make the vegetables more manageable.
Tacos or Fajitas can be a great option... if you make your own seasoning for it (which I do), but then the problem is that he wants like 4 of them, and that is almost 1000 mg of sodium just in the tortillas.
Maybe I just need to start making my own tortillas and bread, because holy cow, bread has so much sodium! Especially when you're making a sandwich and that requires 2 slices of bread, which can be like 300 mg of sodium.
I realized that our chicken broth that we normally use has about 800 mg per serving, but found some organic chicken broth with only 70mg per the same serving size. That makes a huge difference, but it also costs a significant more. I told Chris we may have to increase our grocery budget if we're going to keep eating like this. And I may need to buy more kitchen equipment if I'm going to be making our own bread.
Tomorrow in the mail we are getting a new cookbook that is all light and healthy meals. I like the idea of it because it has all of the nutrition info right in it, and tells you what to do to cut back on sodium.
The other hard thing is the foods that are in our pantry/freezer don't really go along with this diet. Chris will ask for a snack and I keep having to say no to everything he is asking for (mostly because of the sodium content) and instead am handing him applesauce (only 10mg per serving!) or grapes. He sees the crackers he used to always have and he wants them. Heck no, they're like 1/3 of his sodium allowance. Or the hot dogs that are chilling in our fridge. Nope, they've got nitrates. And sodium. Sorry, bud.
Some day I'm going to figure this out. In the meantime... maybe we'll just have Southwest Stuffed Peppers over and over again. If you leave out the tbsp of salt it calls for, and rinse your black beans really well, they aren't too bad.
-Low sodium.
-No nitrates/nitrites.
-Very low amounts of cheeses.
-No MSG.
-Very low amounts of nuts.
-only 1 serving of citrus a day.
-only 1 serving of caffeine a day (that includes chocolate) [I'm not following this part. I'm getting as much chocolate as I can to cope with all of this]
= WHAT THE CRAP DO YOU EAT?
We're finding that it's been so incredibly hard to do this diet restriction. I almost started crying when Chris asked what was for lunch today because I had no idea what to tell him he could eat. Pasta and rice are great, but you have to eat something with it (at least I can't picture him eating just plain pasta or rice), but the sauces you'd think to put on it are always problematic!
Salads can work... if your salad has no dressing (or just a teeny tiny bit), but when Chris has a salad he dumps the dressing on to make the vegetables more manageable.
Tacos or Fajitas can be a great option... if you make your own seasoning for it (which I do), but then the problem is that he wants like 4 of them, and that is almost 1000 mg of sodium just in the tortillas.
Maybe I just need to start making my own tortillas and bread, because holy cow, bread has so much sodium! Especially when you're making a sandwich and that requires 2 slices of bread, which can be like 300 mg of sodium.
I realized that our chicken broth that we normally use has about 800 mg per serving, but found some organic chicken broth with only 70mg per the same serving size. That makes a huge difference, but it also costs a significant more. I told Chris we may have to increase our grocery budget if we're going to keep eating like this. And I may need to buy more kitchen equipment if I'm going to be making our own bread.
Tomorrow in the mail we are getting a new cookbook that is all light and healthy meals. I like the idea of it because it has all of the nutrition info right in it, and tells you what to do to cut back on sodium.
The other hard thing is the foods that are in our pantry/freezer don't really go along with this diet. Chris will ask for a snack and I keep having to say no to everything he is asking for (mostly because of the sodium content) and instead am handing him applesauce (only 10mg per serving!) or grapes. He sees the crackers he used to always have and he wants them. Heck no, they're like 1/3 of his sodium allowance. Or the hot dogs that are chilling in our fridge. Nope, they've got nitrates. And sodium. Sorry, bud.
Some day I'm going to figure this out. In the meantime... maybe we'll just have Southwest Stuffed Peppers over and over again. If you leave out the tbsp of salt it calls for, and rinse your black beans really well, they aren't too bad.
6.28.2012
The Past Week
This may be/seem super scattered, but I need to get this out while I remember stuff as it has happened. Here's what we've learned in the past week:
Chris went to the Opthamologist, where we learned that his contact lens/glasses prescription is too strong. After getting new contacts and waiting a few days to get used to them, his headaches seem to be less often and less severe.
We had our initial appointment with the ENT. After some quick initial tests we were told we needed some more extensive tests run. Those tests happened yesterday. We just got home from getting the results. For a 9:00 appointment we finally left the waiting room at 10:30, talked to the nurse for about 5 minutes as she took his vitals, and then at 11:00 we saw the doctor. He had results though, so we're feeling ok with it.
Chris has excess fluid in his inner ear, in both of his ears. The doctor said a whole lot of other stuff, but used a bajillion big words. I got that that was the problem and that it's totally treatable. There also was some other problem, but we need to address the inner ear fluid first because it may actually be causing the other problem. In three weeks we get blood work done, and in one month we go back to the ENT to see how his fluid levels have changed. He has to get allergy testing done, and that happens in 3 weeks. Apparently his allergies played a little role as well. I forget how allergies were connected.
Our diets have to change as well. Two different diets. A low sodium diet (1000-1500 mg/day), and a Migraine Diet. We have to avoid caffeine (no big deal, for Chris at least), eliminate nitrage/nitrite (kind of a big deal-lunch meats, hot dogs, ham and bacon... we love those), avoid cheeses (goodbye, Quesadillas and Grilled Cheese), and avoid MSG (we should've been doing this anyway, now we just have to start paying more attention).
A lot of those changes are fine with us, and are things we should've been more careful about anyway, this just gives us the push that we need. We just bought a groupon for Red Robin... guess we'll blow that low-sodium diet when we use it (oops!).
Tomorrow we follow up with our Primary Care Physician, and try and sift through everything that has happened since we last saw him.
If anyone is looking for something to fast for on Sunday (if you're the fasting type) I know we'll be fasting for Chris to recover, and we invite anyone to join us in that.
Chris went to the Opthamologist, where we learned that his contact lens/glasses prescription is too strong. After getting new contacts and waiting a few days to get used to them, his headaches seem to be less often and less severe.
We had our initial appointment with the ENT. After some quick initial tests we were told we needed some more extensive tests run. Those tests happened yesterday. We just got home from getting the results. For a 9:00 appointment we finally left the waiting room at 10:30, talked to the nurse for about 5 minutes as she took his vitals, and then at 11:00 we saw the doctor. He had results though, so we're feeling ok with it.
Chris has excess fluid in his inner ear, in both of his ears. The doctor said a whole lot of other stuff, but used a bajillion big words. I got that that was the problem and that it's totally treatable. There also was some other problem, but we need to address the inner ear fluid first because it may actually be causing the other problem. In three weeks we get blood work done, and in one month we go back to the ENT to see how his fluid levels have changed. He has to get allergy testing done, and that happens in 3 weeks. Apparently his allergies played a little role as well. I forget how allergies were connected.
Our diets have to change as well. Two different diets. A low sodium diet (1000-1500 mg/day), and a Migraine Diet. We have to avoid caffeine (no big deal, for Chris at least), eliminate nitrage/nitrite (kind of a big deal-lunch meats, hot dogs, ham and bacon... we love those), avoid cheeses (goodbye, Quesadillas and Grilled Cheese), and avoid MSG (we should've been doing this anyway, now we just have to start paying more attention).
A lot of those changes are fine with us, and are things we should've been more careful about anyway, this just gives us the push that we need. We just bought a groupon for Red Robin... guess we'll blow that low-sodium diet when we use it (oops!).
Tomorrow we follow up with our Primary Care Physician, and try and sift through everything that has happened since we last saw him.
If anyone is looking for something to fast for on Sunday (if you're the fasting type) I know we'll be fasting for Chris to recover, and we invite anyone to join us in that.
6.20.2012
Surprise Packages
After all these posts complaining about how Chris is still sick, I have had a few bright, happy moments. Like the other day when the mail man showed up with a package for me. A package that I knew was coming, but didn't know the contents of, and didn't know when it would arrive. Turns out the package was full of all of these things:
Turns out I have a best friend back in Redmond who tried sending me this package months and months ago (was it for my anniversary? or for my birthday? I don't remember) but her grandma stole it because she saw a box full of candy. She just had gotten around to replacing everything, and the timing couldn't have been more perfect. There was a card that said for us to enjoy a movie night together and to share the food. Pretty sure I'm not sharing most of this. Pretty sure the last 3 weeks have been absurdly insane, and I have driven to so many doctors appointments and made countless trips to the pharmacy and grocery store to get everything we needed... I earned all of this. I'll be smart of course and not eat it all at one time, I don't want to gain that much weight.
The other fun surprise package that showed up at my door came from the UPS man. It had this inside:
.
It was from my husband, who pretended like he had no clue what was until after I opened it. It was his way of saying "thanks for putting up with me, here is a movie I know you've been keeping your eye on for a very long time." And then he watched it with me. And it was glorious. In case you were wondering, the hills are still alive (with the sound of music), and I learned how to solve a problem like Maria. And high on a hill was a lowly goat herd. And man alive, I love Edelweiss. Also, while we watched it I was reading some trivia about it on IMDB. Apparently Christopher Plummer (Captain Von Trapp) hated filming this movie and really didn't like working with Julie Andrews. He showed up drunk on several occasions so it wasn't as painful for himself. Who knew?
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