I’ve been distracted over the past week. I’ve mainly cooked our version of comfort foods, like chicken fried rice, teriyaki beef stir fry, fish with veggies and couscous and plain ol’ tuna fish sandwiches. It has been my intention to share my journey, mostly with respect to food, cooking, recipes, diet and diet restrictions. So, that is what this post is about.
It seems I go through spurts each year where it feels like all I’m doing is going to doctor appointments, of one kind or another. And I’ve started this year off on a roll with my kidney stones episode. I did finally get the results of not only stones composition (which is a big deal because in 20 years of stones, I never previously manage to catch them) and I had to do a special kidney stone risk assessment, 24 hour urine study, all of which brought back enlightening results. I not only have calcium oxalate stones but uric acid as well. Also, with my repeated annual history of kidney stones, I’m currently being evaluated for preventative medicine. The truly unfortunate part is what my diet will consist of from now on. The list of foods you need to reduce and or eliminate for all of these conditions is rather large. It includes all of my most favorite foods and foods that are common everyday staples. My head is spinning, just a little, at the prospect of needing to cook separate meals for The Preacher and myself.
On top of that consideration, I am having liver problems (of the non-alcoholic kind). Luckily, I don’t drink or I’d probably be really bad off. And I’ve had repeated blood work done for some time now which, I was informed, indicates a strong possibility I have CLL (Chronic lymphocytic leukemia). So, I now have Urologist, Gastroenterologist, and Oncologist appointments coming up. That would be in addition to the audiologist I also need to schedule with and it is time for my annual mammogram. I’m exhausted just thinking about it. I know I haven’t felt well for quite a while, a slow progression of multiple procedures over the past 2 years has had me wondering what my body is going through. I thought it was just diabetic symptoms or issues and IBS. It turns out the one thing I am doing REALLY well at, in terms of my diet and eating habits, is managing my blood sugar. I just got my A1C results back that show I have kept my numbers in the high end of the NORMAL range for the past 3 months.
I can’t imagine not cooking regular meals for The Preacher, so I will still be posting every day recipes for unrestricted diets. I also hope to learn, fairly quickly, what I will be eating in terms of the large list of restrictions I’m now faced with. I will share those also, so others may benefit from them. I just received my low oxalate cookbook in the mail. It is very detailed in terms of listing foods and their respective oxalate concentrations and dividing them into categories of low, medium and high. It also seems I will be restricted from all animal proteins on some level. I’m just not sure what that is yet.
You just never know where your journey is going to take you next.
