The TLDR version of the rest of this: health hell for 15 months…all kinds of tests…finally found out what was wrong…new med…feel like a new person…back on keto…super happy.
I have been to hell and back with all the health stuff. 🙁 Every time I thought I was finally turning a corner boom the lupus would hit me with something else.
I also made myself worse by eating wheat/gluten for months. In October I had to have an endoscopy and colonoscopy to try to figure out why I was coughing up and passing blood. So I wanted him to look at the celiac stuff while he was in there. I’ve tested positive twice and negative once. I’ve honestly never really thought I had it because I’ve never fully reacted to wheat the way I read about other people reacting to it. So anyway for the test you have to eat wheat for weeks (which turned into months). I did and of course it didn’t end well. At all.
BUT we finally seem to have some answers to all of the digestive issues. It hasn’t been my stomach (well not the primary cause anyway). It’s been my pancreas. I’m not producing the enzymes to break down food and after all the testing my dr put me on this miracle med:
I’m not exaggerating when I say this saved my life. Emotionally I’d slipped to a dark and scary place. I didn’t want to live in so much pain anymore.
I hadn’t slept thru a night without reflux in 15 months. I was on so much stomach / acid blocker meds and was having breakthrough reflux almost every single night. Basically the way I understand it now is that I wasn’t producing the enzymes to break down my food and that was in turn causing my stomach to way way way over produce all the acid.
The acid blocking meds are known iron blockers and my iron also plummeted to dangerously low levels.
2 DAYS on the CREON and I was like a new person. The stomach pain…the horrible never ending reflux almost immediately gone.
I went back on keto and feel like a completely different person.
So where I am now…
I started keto / low carb high fat on September 6, 2018. Between then and October 2, 2017 I lost almost 80 pounds. Then the ear misdiagnosis and all the unnecessary antibiotics sent me on a year long spiral.
I gained 35 back.
Happy to have not gained it all back but also not happy ya know?
Anyway that’s just a long update that wouldn’t fit on insta where you can find me more regularly. 🙂
The blog is back up and running. They got it transferred on the 18th but it’s taken until now for them to get it fixed where I could access my admin section to actually blog.
Hope y’all had a fantastic Christmas and holiday season. 🙂
(all baked goods made with gfjules flour except for the kolaches which were real for the rest of the fam)
All the usuals. Peppermint cookies. Cherry white chocolate chip cookies. Prune kolaches. Tamales, enchilada casserole, cheese rice and beans.
Do y’all’s Moms give y’all retro toys from you childhood for Christmas? Mama B does. I love love loved Holly Hobbie when I was little. 🙂
😉
Now for the best news…y’all know I’ve been going thru so much hell the last 3 months with all the antibiotics but starting Tuesday…
KETO is back and I can’t wait. 🙂
You can’t even imagine how rough the last 3 months have been on me mentally and physically. I hope that I will never have to go off of it again. 🙂
Hello, old friend. It’s been way too long. 😉
Ok that’s all for today. Y’all stay warm and have a safe New Year’s Eve / Happy New Year’s Day (eat your black eyed peas) and I’ll see you soon. 🙂
I’ve been having a really rough time with all the health stuff. 🙁
Last time we met I told y’all about the bone infection and the 6 months of antibiotics I’ll be taking. They are brutal, y’all. I’m taking 3500mg a day. My stomach and digestive system in general is a complete mess. I can’t keep anything really solid down at all.
Guided injection into my sacroiliac joint. My doctors have been trying to get me seen for several issues while I still have insurance. So in the middle of all of this bone stuff I’ve also been seeing a joint and pain specialist for some ongoing joint issues. They promised me that two guided steroid injections wouldn’t cause the same weight gain issues as ingested steroids.
Yeah, no. 🙁
In the 6 days between injection one and injection two I gained TWENTY pounds. From my face to just below my abdomen I puffed up like a water balloon. Of course a good chunk of that is fluid (that’s already coming off pretty easily) but still it’s so frustrating given how hard I’d been working for the last year.
And then the hits just keep coming. Tuesday of this week I went in for the first follow-up for the bone infection and he gave me some additional bad news. During the diagnosis phase for figuring out the bone stuff they ran so many tests and I had multiple scans and an MRI. Well all of the tests results were finally back in and one of scans found a lesion on my frontal cortex. The ENT thinks it’s probably lupus related (and a former rheumatologist did think I probably had some mild CNS lupus once before). They’re in the process of getting me back in to see the neurologist and I’m just hopeful that they will be able to see me before the end of the year when I’ll lose my insurance.
I’m so scared, y’all. 🙁
🙂
If you follow me on insta …and I’m sorry for the lack of posting there too…you know the brightest spot in the last couple months was birthday week trip to my most favorite place. 🙂
Take me back…please. 🙂
Now…the chocolate.
Have y’all seen this? scratch & grain gluten free baking kit.
All ingredients color coded for easy follow instructions.
Y’all this is the best boxed treat I’ve had since having to go gluten-free in 2013. The only place I’ve ever seen them is Target. I don’t know what kind of voodoo they’ve got going on with the flour in the brownie mix but it is perfect. Perfect fudgy texture.
Also…if you go to Target looking for it be careful. scratch & grain has other mixes and not all of them are gluten free.
Now…that brings me to this. Keto and lchf are completely out the window for the foreseeable future. I can’t do it. I tried going back on keto this week and I thought I was going to die. And I’m not being overly dramatic here. What these antibiotics are doing to my stomach…I just can’t fight thru it without some starch to buffer them. If you can do it. Great for you. You’re much stronger than me. But guess what? There’s no prize for that. 😉
My goal now is to get the real steroid gain off and then just maintain my losses from keto. If I can do that I’ll consider it a win.
In the meantime I will enjoy indulging in some gluten-free treats and I’ll share when they’re worthy…like these brownies. 🙂
Today would have been my pappy’s birthday. It was super bittersweet this year. He loved him some ‘stros baseball. I’ve written about this before but for the last 2 years of his life I saw him every single day. Each day when there was a day game we’d sit and watch it. Today was the parade. Papa B and I both cried for him a little more than usual. I also had some crack coke. An Icee…he always used to call it my crack coke. 🙂
Allrighty…that’s all for today. Y’all have a good weekend and I’ll see you soon-ish. 🙂
If you’re not following along on Insta we’re all safe and dry here from Hurricane Harvey. We had about 14 inches of rain spread out over 4 days. Friends and family weren’t so lucky. Please continue to keep Houston and the Texas coast in your thoughts and prayers now that the media attention has died down.
Reddit ftw today. #DACA
I mean seriously, y’all take a look around you today at the garbage in your lives who want innocent kids sent to places they’ve never even set foot in…and honestly how many of them are willing to take low paying jobs where they’d actually have to do something? Anything?
GT, doesn’t it seem like you could just roll this quote out every other day now?
Reminder this is my space. If you don’t like it here…don’t let the door hit ya…
Reminder 2: if you’re disgusted today (and every day)…join us. A lot of people are already putting in the hard work RIGHT NOW. Funnel the anger you’re feeling today (and every day) into meaningful action. 🙂
Let’s see…since we last met I’m loving
Blackened salmon.
Blackened Cajun salmon.
Dump nachos with chichies.
Mug cakes and brownies.
ICE CREAM. 🙂 This is called Bubblegum Bliss and it’s from a book called The Keto Ice Cream Scoop by Carrie Brown. It is so unbelievably good. It totally got me thru all the hurricane nerves.
Yeah, Minnesota. Stay in your lane. 😉
SO…
A year ago today I quit sugar and all grains cold turkey. Technically the calendar date was Sept 6th but it was the day after Labor Day and today is the day after Labor Day so I’m calling it year one in the books. 🙂
Those first 2 weeks were pure hell. I seriously thought I was going to die. But then the magic kicked in and my head started to clear. I spent the first 7 weeks doing pretty much hard-core keto. I lived on hamburger patties, cheese, chicken wings, blue cheese and mayonnaise.
I took the day off for my birthday in late October and then the next day went back to the way I was eating but removed diary.
I spent the next 60 days dairy free and edged more into paleo style eating.
And that’s when this whole thing got harder. Introducing more foods and allowing maple syrup and potatoes really set me back a little. I started jonesing for the next off day and inhaling every potato I ate.
I kept losing weight just fine but mentally I was out of it. I was just going thru the motions and counting down the days til my next off day.
In total from Sept 6, 2016 – April 16, 2017 I had 8 off plan days…on purpose. I planed for them.
On April 16, 2017 I went back to what I was doing in the beginning…Keto (25 net carbs or less) and haven’t looked back. I haven’t had one off plan lick, bite, taste, etc since then and don’t plan to anytime soon.
What changed?
Well I stopped making it harder than it needed to be. I like food. I like cheese. I like sweets. I like to cook.
And now I do. For me I think it’s far better to just go make me something safe and on plan (like a mug cake or brownie or ice cream) than to tough it out and then end up inhaling every real sugar sweet in sight on a planned off day.
Since I stopped making it hard…it’s easy. The other people in the house eat carbs all day long. I eat out with other people…and never flinch. It’s honestly just how I eat now. I don’t have to think about it anymore I just do it. And that freedom feels amazing.
I’ve lost 73 (point 4) pounds but even more important than that my iron is up for the first time in YEARS. I have energy for the first time in YEARS.
It still hasn’t helped my lupus / inflammation pain as much as I’d hoped it would and I’m going thru some inflammation stuff right now (why I was getting the MRI the other day) but I’m hopeful that eventually I’ll get those benefits too. Autoimmune stuff is just…hard. 🙁
So here’s the newest before / current pic. Left – shopping for fall 2016 Right – shopping for fall 2017. I didn’t buy the current dress because I don’t pay full price for anything. 😉 I’m having some issues with my vein surgery so that’s why I’m having to wear the black compression stocking again which totally sucks in this heat.
I’m still struggling to see the current me. I still see the left side me a lot of the time.
I’d like to lose 30 more pounds (15 would put me a couple below ‘normal’ and then 15 for a buffer) but if I stay right here I’m just fine with that. I’m going to keep on keeping on and let the weight land where it lands. I don’t plan on restricting my food anymore than I am now so I’m sure things will slow down but I want this to be something I can easily maintain…so I’m not chasing a number or a size. If I get there great if not I’m so far better off now than I was on the left…I’m good. 🙂
Tomorrow is Mama and Papa B’s 48th anniversary. I say this all the time but in the grand parental lottery we hit the super-duper power ball. 🙂 One number to the left or right on either side and…I shudder. We were so lucky to grow up in a home with two PEOPLE who are still head over heals in love with each other today. (Notice I said people there because…love is love, y’all.) More than anything I want to thank them for raising us in a home that taught us kindness, respect and empathy for those with less than us. Mama B’s a saint and Papa B is our comic relief. I love you both more than words on this silly blog could ever express. 🙂
(first…WordPress isn’t letting me spell check this right now so apologies for anything I missed)
Merry Christmas in July.
I celebrated twice.
Once on the weekend with the fam. And today with the boo.
Celebration 1: Cute beach Santa plates. Shrimp ‘pasta’ salad (minus the pasta for me) with seasoned Whisps as croutons.
Celebration 2: Carne Guisada with guac and queso. The ‘tortilla’ is the same mix as I used in this post for lasagna. I made them with a mix of cheddar and mozz plus 4 tbsp almond flour in place of the parm. I also left out the seasonings so they could go with anything. I just tore them up and used them kind of like torn up pieces of tortillas (that’s how I used to eat this meal when I could still eat corn). This was actually really really good.
Plus a half a piece of sugar free cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory. This was my first time having the sugar free cheesecake from there and it won’t be my last.
90 would be more accurate. 🙂
This is my new secret ingredient. I’m using it in all my baking now. Right now I’m adding 1/2 tbsp for any amount of ‘flour’ up to a cup and then 1 tbsp for each full cup.
Amen, Anon. Amen.
So first up…a chicken pot pie. The amounts I use here will make two.
I’ve been making a hybrid mayo pancake / 90 second bread. So 4 tbsp almond flour, 2 tbsp mayo, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tbsp collagen peptides, the yellow is some chicken broth powder in place of spices. Plus one egg. Forgot to take the pic after adding the egg. It’s best with an actual egg but I used egg whites for this one because I’m trying to use that carton up. I mix this all up right before topping time.
Now the filling. That’s 1 cup of chicken broth, 1/2 cup cream and 4 tbsp mascarpone (or cream cheese) thickened with a little xanthan gum. Then I added some chopped chicken breast, 2 tbsp peas and a little steamed cauli.
Poured half into each bowl.
Topped each bowl with half of the bread mixture. You kinda just have to drizzle it over and let it run together to fill it. You don’t want to spread it or shake it. If you do it will just mix in with the filling. Let it do it’s thing by itself. 🙂
Baked at 350* for about 14 minutes in the convection oven.
So unbelievably delicious. This is seriously one of my most favorite things I’ve made gluten free.
😉
I’ll close with my most recent before / current from last week.
Same dress. Summer 2015 vs last week. I can’t believe this is me. As you can see I’m just plugging along. 25g net carbs / day. It’s working and I’m working it. But it is boring so I don’t have much to post. I still eat so much of the same stuff over and over again because it simple.
I miss blogging but I ya know…how many times can I post the same food pics, anti devil personified (cheeto dust / GOP) memes and beg y’all to go out and get involved in changing this mess?
So I’ll continue to pop in when I have something new to share and in the meantime you can always check out Instagram here for more frequent updates. 🙂
😉
🙂
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