Now what's for dinner?

A lot has happened since my last post: a bit more research, a whole lot of good food, and a new diagnosis!

Now, I could cover these topics in order, but then I know you’d scroll all the way to the bottom and skip over all the food, so I’ll hurry up and tell you about the new diagnosis. I had a much-anticipated appointment a couple of weeks ago with my neurologist, who during our last appointment asked me to get a blood test checking for a list of things two pages long. <insert cringe-face here> The result showed that I actually have something that’s not MS. That’s right: I don’t have MS, y’all… What?!

The thing I do have is called neuromyelitis optica, or NMO. Now, friends, pinky-swear with me right this second that you will not google “NMO”. My neurologist warned me that, on publicly-edited sites like Wikipedia and WebMD, people post truckloads of misinformation, some of it malintended. Seriously, don’t google it.

Here are some good ones for ya: http://myelitis.org/symptoms-conditions/rare-neuro-immunologic-disorders/

http://www.guthyjacksonfoundation.org/

The short version: NMO looks a whole lot like MS and is often misdiagnosed as such, and that’s easy to do because MS is much more common, whereas NMO is super, super-duper rare. When untreated, this disorder gets bad and scary, fast. But, Doc says, when you’re being treated with the right meds and doing all the physical therapy and resting you’re supposed to (which I have been since October!), folks get better as much as they will (which is different for everybody), and then, a relapse may happen in some number of years -- maybe 15 or 20 -- or not at all! If a relapse does happen it is super treatable, and I sure as heck will go to the doctor a lot more quickly than I did the first time around. Regardless, I vote for no relapses ever again. Keep your fingers crossed and your prayers lifted, y’all. The moral of the story is that it’s gonna be okay.

As I walked (walked! yay!) out of the appointment, I was struck by an imperative question:

Now what’s for dinner?

Does this change what I should eat? Looks like I have more reading to do.

During the whirlwind following this new diagnosis, I finished reading Overcoming Multiple Sclerosis. In the last ⅓ of the book Professor Jelinek covers in a positive way many “now what?” topics, including exercise, meditation and faith as well as food. I was relieved to get to the part where he says what to eat after two hundred pages of scientific detail about what not to eat. Imagine the guilty hindsight of this lady, who five years ago opened a Southern homestyle catering company called Bacon & Bakin’, and who now is considering near-veganism. Even in those days I did, however, cook some pretty great vegetable side dishes, which I am now serving at home as entrees. Ta-da!

It’s been too long since my last post; I’ve cooked a lot of good food since then. Here are a few pictures of things I’ve made lately:

Salad. Lots and lots and lots of salad!

Roasted beets

Excitement over the (gradual) return of my knife skills!

First attempt at half-cheese-half-vegan pizza

and a new whole-wheat crust recipe

My favorite new super-hearty breakfast.

Under all that goodness is homemade yogurt

made out of soymilk!

I tied on an apron this week, a thing I haven't done in six months.

I'm excited about this because my fingers work well enough

to tie this bow, and because I'm cooking for people,

which gives me a reason to wear an apron.

--

Please comment here to tell me which of the above you’d like the recipe for next!

Bon appetit, y’all.

Salad Days

I’m reading a book very, very slowly: Overcoming Multiple Sclerosis by Professor George Jelinek. It’s quite dense in new vocabulary and new information for me, with a lot of science-y discussion of various trials in diet changes and their effects on folks with MS. This is the first of what I foresee being a long journey in changing lifestyle patterns to get me back to as close to 100% as is possible

So far, being ⅓ of the way through the book, I have already learned a ton about a lot of topics surrounding MS. The most pertinent and interesting information is, of course, about food. Here’s the really short version:

-Saturated fats are BAD. Like, kill-you bad.

-This means you, Omega-6s.

-Food that comes from land animals contains this stuff.

-Having only a little is still no good.

-Unsaturated fats in moderate amounts are good! Hooray!

-All hail Omega-3s.

-Fish is good.

-Vitamins A and E, when taken in supplement form, are bad.

-Get these vitamins from food instead.

-Do, however, take B vitamins, some of which are missing from no-meat diets.

-The proteins in dairy products might also be bad. Science isn’t sure yet, but maybe.

-*insert sad face here*

Any questions? Oh, about a million. After another two hundred and something pages, I hope to have some of them answered, and I’m sure I’ll have added another million to the queue. I’m keeping in mind that this is just one theory, albeit one scientifically tested around the world for many years. There are other theories and books and websites that I’ll be reading too. Do you know of a book or website you’d like me to read? Feel free to suggest it in comments below.

In the meantime, let’s talk about food and good company.

A dear friend came to visit this past weekend. We’ve been friends for years, and back when I owned a catering company, she worked with me in the kitchen for several big events. I was very much looking forward to cooking with her, and eating, talking, and visiting with her all weekend. It was a positive, rejuvenating time. When I thanked her for bringing me her healing friendship, she reported that, in the three days she’d been there, my walking ability had drastically improved! It's amazing what having fun can do for one's health. 
Status update: I’m now walking around the house using two canes, pretending to be snowshoeing in order to work on my steps and my gate. I am still using a walker outside the house, though in most places, that walker gets in the way more than it helps. I’d love any suggestions as to how to carry around two canes while using a walker, so I may alternate their use.

While my friend was visiting, she taught me how to make her favorite salad dressing, which will make the big pile of veggies my diet is about to become more pleasant:

Honey Sherry Vinaigrette

1c oil of your choice (Pick one with as little saturated fat and as much unsaturated fat as possible, like olive or a few kinds of vegetable oil. Welcome to being a super-nerdy label reader! I am now one too.)

1/2c sherry vinegar

1/2c honey

1 shallot, peeled and roughly chopped

1 pinch each salt & pepper

Throw it all into a blender. Blend until the shallot has been sufficiently pulverized and the dressing looks creamy.

Tossing this dressing with raw kale or other tough greens, letting it wilt the kale while you make the rest of dinner, makes you an instant rock star. Bonus points if you top your salad with yummy things like this:

Wilted kale and rainbow chard topped with pear, apple, 

red bell pepper, pecans, and goat cheese. 

I obviously made this salad before I got to the part 

in the book that talked about dairy and saturated fat. Sigh.

I use about half of this recipe's amount of dressing on a large dinner-for-four-hungry-foodies salad bowl full of green things. In this salad, we used a bag of kale and a bag of rainbow chard, which I can’t believe I’d never used in a salad before!

Refrigerate any unused dressing, which you know you’re gonna use tomorrow for an encore.

Bon appétit, et a votre santé!

There will be snacks

This blog is about two things: my journey back to health after a rough patch and subsequent diagnosis with MS, and food. Mostly food.

Food has been an important force in my life, beyond the obvious bit about needing to eat to survive. In my family, cooking together and eating together are very important. Recipes and their accompanying anecdotes are passed down to each new generation. A family get-together means large quantities of laughter, love, and incredibly good food.

Food brings people together. Gathering around a table for a meal bonds a family together and creates community. Sharing food with others tells them that you wish to spend time with them, that you care about their health, you wish for them to survive, and that you want them to have a good time. I like to tell people all of these things by handing them something really good to eat; and I mean it, too.

In his song, “Tables and Chairs”, Andrew Bird tells the story of a post-apocalyptic world where everything has fallen apart, but it’s okay, because of the presence of friends and food:

I know we're gonna meet someday in the crumbled financial institutions of this land

there will be tables and chairs

pony rides and dancing bears

there'll even be a band

'cause listen after the fall there'll be no more countries

no currencies at all

we're gonna live on our wits

throw away survival kits

trade butterfly knives for adderal

and that's not all

woah!

there will be snacks, there will

there will be snacks, there will be

there will be snacks!

This song has been a recurring theme of the last several years of my life, reminding me that, no matter how much it seems the world has fallen apart, things are vastly improved by getting together for food with good friends.

In 2013, things changed a lot concerning my health. In May, I felt a little tightness in my lower back, and found a need to hold onto the railing when going up and down stairs. In July, by the end of a day at a theme park, my left foot felt very tired in a strange way and wanted to drag behind a bit. Over the month of September I lost my ability to do many things on my own like stand up, lie down, and get dressed. In October, in a wheelchair, my team of health care professionals finally convinced me to go to the emergency room. Two MRIs later, they declared it to be multiple sclerosis. After a week in the hospital, several grams of steroids and months of physical and occupational therapy, along with the endless support of one amazing husband, family and a veritable army of wonderful friends, I am now able to walk with a footed cane, write (nearly) legibly, and chop a halfway decent mirepoix, albeit sitting down.

I have received several wonderful emails and messages from friends telling me that their Aunt So-and-so has MS, and they’d love to be in touch with me and offer their support. Right after my diagnosis, I was not ready for these new friendships. My whole world had suddenly changed, leaving me questioning even the color of the sky so how was I to trust anything else new? After taking a few months to simmer down, I’m now beginning to feel like a human being again, and that means I’m beginning to cook.

My massage therapist told me a while back that she’d seen a TED talk where a doctor with MS drastically lowered her symptoms by changing her diet. In nearly every one of these messages inviting me to contact Aunt So-and-so, there’s a story of changing diet to combat MS. Now that I’m ready, I’m about to contact all these new friends, and I hope they’ll share with me their stories, their advice, and hopefully, their recipes!

From the flurry of initial information I’ve gathered that there are several schools of thought concerning MS diet needs. Not knowing yet what’s best but really wanting some muffins, I made a batch today that are gluten-free, low(er) fat and halfway paleo, and darned tasty.

woah!

there will be snacks, there will

there will be snacks, there will be

there will be snacks!