Paleo Strong and Chemo Night

Day 3 of recommitting my life (and mom’s) to Paleo. I rocked it! I made my own version of PF Chang’s spicy chicken! I don’t have measurements, but here’s what I did (measurements are NOT exact):
2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 cup unsweetened pineapple juice
2 tbs hot garlic sauce or siraccha (I like it hot. Use 1tbs first and see if you want more heat)
2 cloves crushed garlic
2 green onions chopped up
1-2 tbs soy vey (it’s a terriyaki mix) only sugary thing I used to give the spice a little sweetness

I cut the chicken into chunks and saute it 1 tsp sesame oil. While it’s browning I put the garlic and sliced onions in a pot and saute them for a minute with a tiny pinch of sesame oil. Then I add pineapple juice (I’ve used real pineapple mixed in a vitamix before…amazing!), garlic sauce, soy vey, Oh and chinese 5 spice. I let that come to a boil and then add it to the now browned chicken. I cook that in a low simmer for about 15 minutes. Then add a little cold water/arrowroot mix to thicken it. Voila! It’s finished! I don’t eat rice, but you could certainly eat this on top of rice, pasta, spinach…whatever floats your boat 😉 We had it with our big honkin’ salad. Mom loved it. This is day 1 of her going Paleo. I don’t know if she’ll make it LOL.

Secondly, I injected chemo tonight (methotrexate for vasculitis). I hate this stuff. I’ve been on it 9 years. I’m so over it. Tomorrow will be met with a bad headache, severe fatigue and an over all achy feeling. Tomorrow is a bed rest day I’m sure. Oh well, it could be worse!

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Vasculitis and Wegener’s granulomatosis

This picture is the key to raising awareness about vasculitis. It’s more common than most think, but there are thousands of regular doctors that just don’t know what it is…therefore, people die.

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If you’d like to friend me on Facebook ask me.  I’m pretty particular about who I share my daily life with,  but people with vasculitis are more than welcome.

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I’m not going to lie…I’ve been quite depressed since my dad died August 6, 2012.  He was a very sick man for over 20 years.  He had Crohn’s colitis and other AI (autoimmune diseases) diseases at such a young age.  He was lucky enough to have been diagnosed with these ailments considering how rare they were back then.  But the treatments were not cutting edge by any means.  In the end he ended up with a colostomy and took sulfa drugs for years.  He was on chemos, prednisone, and a plethora of other medications.  He gave up after a while.  He gained a ton of weight, retired early and although he enjoyed his retirement (especially moving from Chicago to Naples, FL), he was sick and tired.

Dad ended up dying from, of all things, a botched hernia operation, but he was in full kidney failure and had pain from his tailbone all the way down his leg.  I don’t mean pain like, “give me  a pain pill” pain.  I mean pain where you scream and hope to pass out to avoid it.  Not one doctor could really figure out what it was from.  So my dad died.  It killed a little bit of me, too.

From Jan 2010 to the end of 2011 I was pretty much a Paleo girl.  I ate very few carbs, stayed away from sugars, breads, dairy (I did cheat with cheese sometimes.  My bad) and I lost a LOT of weight (see I gained over 170 pounds while sick and on a ton of meds including high prednisone for Wegener’s granulomatosis).  The diet really helped me have more energy, lose weight and for the first time  in 5 years Wg (wegener’s granulomatosis) went quiet (meaning it wasn’t active).

Due to stress of my grams dying I flared and went on 80 mg of prednisone and thusly gained some weight and had mad cravings for carbs.  I stopped paleo (and stopped eating clean and healthy). Sure, I attempted to go back on that lifestyle, but mom and dad weren’t helping by eating everything bad under the sun.  I caved in.  I ate like a typical American and gained weight back and started feeling gross again.  Wg has stayed quiet, but I became more miserable.  Then dad died and I threw out all I learned.

Mom and I know we have to get our health back. We are going back on Paleo.  Mom sent me an article about this guy, http://thedomesticman.com/, and he has a similar disease like mine.  Paleo has worked for him so why not make it work for me again?!

I love his page and I’m so going to use some of his recipes!  I encourage you to ask me what Paleo is.  I will gladly give info.