weird blood spots

Recap and Randoms

Hey, y’all.  Hope you survived the holiday weekend.  🙂

Since I had to rejigger my ingredients I spent a good part of Wed mixing up all the gluten – free dry ingredients I could ahead of time…

Cooked a turkey breast in my pressure cooker and let me tell y’all what I did…see that blob that looks like ketchup? It’s not.  It’s homemade apple butter.  I mixed up some salt / pepper / onion powder and a little dry chicken broth base plus a couple of tablespoons apple butter and a tablespoon mustard.  I slathered it all over the top / bottom of the breast.

Wrapped it up tight and into the ice box for about 24 hours.

Pressure cooked on high for 25 minutes and then let the pressure release naturally instead of forcing it to release.  The flavor was amazing.  I decided to try that combo because I always slather mustard / seasoning mix all over / inside and then stuff my big bird with onions and apple slices.  I wanted to try to recreate that flavor with the breast.  Mission accomplished. 🙂

This is what I used to cake mix for…apple cake.  It wasn’t all that great so I didn’t get an after shot.

I made gluten – free green bean cass and left the fried onions off a small portion for me.  Mama B took our family dressing recipe and made me a gluten – free version that was so ridiculously good.

The meal turned out really well esp for having to change plans.  Everything was gluten – free except the pie crust (which I didn’t eat) and Mama B made gluten – full dressing for everyone else.

The next day I whipped up some of my most favorite gluten – free whipped butter cookies.  They’re good but I have to get some fresh cup4cup. I ordered some today so hopefully it’s here in a few days.  The whole time I was eating wheat this year they had cup4cup in our local grocery store.  Now that I have to eat it?  Of course they’re not carrying it anymore and it’s back to ordering it.

49* in the middle of the day (Sat).  I pulled out the UGG boots. 🙂  I don’t care if you think UGG boots are silly. 🙂  I ordered another pair on cyber Monday.  Oh y’all know y’all did it too…used the deals to shop for yourselves. 😉  I ended up getting pretty much all of my shopping done and got some pretty good deals…but can’t really talk about them here since most of the recipients read here.

Look at that bottom pic.  That’s bubbling with a gluten – free pancake.  You might understand then why I had such high hopes for these. They turned out to be the most vile tasting thing I’ve had in ages.  I couldn’t get the taste out of my mouth for several hours.  I picked them up at HEB because they had a store coupon and because Kirby Lane is one of Sister B’s fav restaurants.  Big mistake.  It might be a fabulous gluten – full place but gluten – free?  Yuck.

Got the tree up and decorated.  Love it so much.  🙂  Decided to do all red and white this year. I’m looking for a different skirt but not having any luck.

 

Randoms:

  • Media, I’m gonna need y’all to start labeling these horrible people exactly what they are…Christian terrorists.  Just like their Muslim counterparts they don’t speak for every or even the majority of Christians everywhere but it’s time to start identifying them as exactly what they are.

 

  • I’ve been to Planned Parenthood two different times in my life.  Guess what?  Just because some people are too stubborn and / or intellectually challenged to actually research and decipher the statistics for themselves it doesn’t change that fact that far more people use PP for well women, well pregnancy and well baby care than they do for abortions.  So while you’re advocating violence in the name of life just remember your violence could very well end up killing a LIVING breathing baby doing nothing more than getting his / her well baby checkup.  So much pro life, y’all.  Said with all the sarcasm and disgust in the world.

 

  • Remember this post? I was very passionate about not supporting organizations (specifically the Salvation Army) that support domestic abusers. A reader contacted me and told me that the Salvation Army also actively supports anti-gay organizations.  I truly did not know that.  Some of y’all know that my favorite day of the year is when I (and Mama B) go shopping for the Angel tree kids and elderly each Christmas.  At first I was a little bit torn because the trees are primarily for disadvantaged children who most likely have no idea what religious hate even is.  But I like to practice what I rant about so I decided to no longer support the Salvation Army in any way.  Instead I went around to several churches in my own little town and found a way to do basically the same thing.  I’ll still be helping children and their families but without also being in any way associated with the Salvation Army.  If you’re someone who feels the same way…call around to the churches, the chamber of commerce or you local newspaper office in your own towns. Even if they don’t have an organized angel type program they all know someone in their church and / or community who can use a little help.  🙂  Somebody reading this will no doubt contact me and say “but texas girl…churches hate gay people too”.  Uhmm no.  Every single church around doesn’t spew hate.

 

  • It’s time for me to switch over to Christmas music here on the blog but I really need somebody to tell me what Chris Janson is saying about a Yeti something in his song Buy Me A Boat.  I mean my idea of roughing it is a 3 star hotel instead of 5  😉 so I don’t really have a need for a cooler.  The only way I even knew Yeti = some sort of cooler is because I see people buying them / putting ice and beer in them in the Bucees parking lot when I’m getting my ‘medication’…aka crack coke…aka coke icees.  😉 But still…I must know what he’s saying.

 

  • Can y’all believe that removing gluten was all it took to stop those awful blood spots?  I haven’t had one new spot since I stopped the gluten and most of the ones I already had…cleared up within days.  My arms haven’t been this clear for this long since mid July.

 

  • There are a few more hours left of giving Tuesday.  Did you give?  If you’re looking for a good cause I know they’re all good but this is where I donated today…The Lotus Project.

 

 

Ok that’s enough for today.  I have a Dr’s appointment Wed and then one more in a couple of weeks.  After that hopefully I can be done with Dr’s and tests until mid January when I’m going to see some big deal scleroderma specialist at the medical center.  🙂

Y’all have a good week. 🙂

 

Make this Now + Arm Update

Hey, y’all.  Happy Monday.  🙂

So I did it.  I got in the kitchen this weekend and made a couple things.

I think y’all know me well enough by now to know that we’ll just go ahead and start with dessert first. 😉

This was really good and so easy to make.  Perfect for fall apple / cinnamon time.

Apple Dumplings

I was pretty much done with the recipe by the time I realized the camera lens has a smudge of something on it.  Sorry for the haze on some of these.

1/2 cup White Sugar 

1/4 cup Brown Sugar

Couple dashes of Cinnamon Spice

1 can Crescent Rolls

Apple Pie Filling.  You can use real apples but I wasn’t in the mood to mess with peeling and coring.

Rolled up.

1 stick melted Butter  and a splash of Vanilla added to the cinnamon / sugar mixture.

Mixed well.

Pour over dumplings.

6 oz of Mountain Dew poured around and over dumplings.

Baked for 25 minutes at 350*.  I used my convection oven which cooks a little faster.  Regular oven will probably be closer to 30 – 35 minutes.

Blue Bell.  All the Blue Bell.  😉    If you know me in real life you know that I only tolerate 2 kinds of ice cream…homemade and Blue Bell.  Blue Bell you were gone way too long.  🙂

Not that I wouldn’t eat 3 big scoops…but those are little scoops of ice cream.

This got thumbs up all around in the texas girl household.  So simple and definitely a keeper.  🙂

I’ll have the main dish up later in the week.

I have more doctor stuff tomorrow but not sure what else the week has in store.

****Gross Pic Warning****

So this was how my left arm looked a couple weeks ago when I first shared pics here…

…and this is how it looks today…

A lot better.  But…

…this is how the right arm looks today…

…worse than it’s ever looked.  🙁

This is just so frustrating.  Oh well…maybe I’ll get some for sure answers someday soon.

In the meantime…

See y’all soon.  🙂

 

Well Hey there, Bloggy Long Time No See

So…Hi, y’all.  🙂  It’s been a while.

So many things have happened since the last time we met.

Mostly bad. But not all. Hey, you. 😉

Let’s see…first, turns out that after a couple of years of believing I was celiac…and making all the required changes…I am indeed NOT celiac. I won’t waste time ranting or whining about the misdiagnosis but my PSA for today is…if you ever think you or esp your child might be celiac…get the biopsy.  We relied on blood testing for my diagnosis (because of my blood thinner issue) but if I had to do it over again I’d definitely risk the bleeding for a biopsy.  It’s crazy expensive…not to mention time consuming…to switch to a gluten-free life style.  Better to be absolutely sure than to waste all that time / money / energy if you don’t need to do it.

After I found out about the misdiagnosis I eased back into regular eating. It went surprisingly well.  My 3+ year iron struggle improved a lot.  I guess because I was eating real bread / cereal / ect…stuff that is fortified with extra vitamins and minerals.

Then in July something horrible started happening.

****Gross Pic Warning****

arm sore1

First ‘blood spot’ showed up last month.

arm sore5

Then a few more.

arm7

Then worse.

chest

And then today this grapefruit size ‘thing’ on my side.

I’m seeing a hematologist, a new rheumatologist and my normal dr.  My regular Dr initially thought it was petechiae.  Sent me to the hematologist who said it wasn’t petechiae but bruising.  I haven’t bumped myself in any of these areas prior to these things showing up.  I just don’t get it.  I feel like I’m bleeding to death or something.  It’s so scary.  I can’t get into the rheumatologist until next Monday so I’m left here worried for days still.  My iron has plummeted again but my blood thinner is barely in the required range (between 2 – 3) so it’s not high at all.  If it was at least that might explain the weird bruising.

Have y’all seen anything like this before?  What did it turn out to be?

Anyway…there’s a lot to catch up on but I’ll end here for now.  I’m going to try to get back to blogging if for nothing else than to get stuff out of my head.  Haven’t been doing much cooking…but I’m also wanting to try to get back into that for the same reason.  The kitchen has always been my creative escape.  I think I need that right now.

See ya soon.  🙂