9 am, out the door, and off to the Spokane Eye Center—had a very fast rush into filling out paperwork, answering tons of questions: no fool I, I brought my previous meds with me so that was one set of blanks. Then we wait 30 minutes for the doc, who runs the usual things the optometrist does, then does a lesion scan with yellow eye drops, a pressure test with numbing drops, and finally dialation drops and sends me off to wait 20 minutes out in the lobby—Jane is in a political argument with 2 locals out there, but alas, I had to leave her, as I was nabbed back to another room to wait for 30 minutes (it is a busy place) and finally to get a really thorough once over: so—I appreciate the doc, who is very willing to talk science and what she’s seeing and how she reasons it: the upshot diagnosis: iritis, or inflamation of the iris. Which, no, I have never been diagnosed with betore: if I had they would worry, but not a big worry. It is an indicator of autoimmune disease, such as lupus, various others, but also arthritis, and I do have a bit of a problem in one finger, not the one I broke, but the one I overuse with the trackpoint mouse.
So the prescription is some prednisone-derivative eyedrops 5 x daily and a blood test for arthritis markers. Well, if that should be what it is, it might be a really lucky break to tag it early. Or it could just be from the contacts. I really hope I don’t have to go over to wearing glasses, but the fact is, I like seeing. And I am impressed this doc knows what she’s doing.
So no contacts, and these eyedrops—plus 2x daily I have to dilate my eyes (yep, the stuff they use) to give the iris a rest and try to calm that down.
So that’s the story. We went out to exchange my cable tv box, which had quietly died the death yesterday: all its little lights had gone out. We got my meds at Freddie Meyers, and we also got our flu shots. We were going to go to Costco, but I had begun to have that kind of ill-defined headache you get from having your eyes messed with and pressure-tested, so I decided we should leave off the last stop and go home.
We have also resolved to use up what we’ve got of carb-type food in the freezer, then go back on Atkins for a few months to get rid of the weight we’ve gained being bad. WE always feel better when we’re on Atkins, anyway, and I think it’s time. I’m going to have to do some shifting about in the kitchen, and we’ve got some things to eat up, (logical, eh) before we diet them off.
CJ, re: flu shot or shingles shot–both. They should be free. See:
http://www.healthcare.gov/news/factsheets/2010/07/preventive-services-list.html
(Shingles=Herpes Zoster)
Oh, this is a good one, Walt. Medicare refused to recognize me; I have a Medicare number that, on my card, ends in T. The clerk changed it to A, like most people. Immediately it went through. I think I got my physical CARD a shade before eligibility kicked in, in March: ie, I filed early. SO it may be I need to ask for a new card with an A. Clearly the government thinks I’m an A.
Check and see which of the carbs can be donated to the local food bank. I’m going through my panty this weekend…
are you sure you’d want to give any of those carbs to the food bank after they’ve been in your panty???? The Health Department might have something to say…..
C.J., glad the doc was able to give you something for it. I hope that the prednisone helps. It’s the same stuff they gave me for post-cataract surgery.
What could Jane be arguing about in the waiting room? I thought she was apolitical……;)
Booooo! Bad pun, bad! 😛 😀
If Jane is like most of the other people here, she is patient but does not suffer fools gladly. One or both of the locals probably pegged the meter for her.
joekc6nix: THHHHPPPPPTTT!
Oh, we’re not apolitical, far from it, but we don’t hold forth on our sites. In point of fact, without naming parties, I was party B when I first registered. I became party A, and was a precinct representative to the state convention, where I was on the Defense committee, and ended up doing an impromptu address to the Science committee, because they issued a general call for anybody with an opinion and information. I spoke; I sat down. They asked me to get up again and expand what I had said, then asked me to write a plank for the platform. Said plank, with very few alterations, went into the national platform. After that election, or rather, during the campaign, I then became disgusted with party A. I am now party B. Politically uninvolved, I am not, nor is Jane, but I don’t feel like using somebody’s liking for my writing as a lever to get them to listen to my political views. Do I think my views are right? You betcha. But there’s so much right as well as wrong on both sides of the divide I prefer to argue the good points without saying how I cast my personal ballot.
Excellent; a doctor you have confidence in, and a situation that requires lots of eye drops but is manageable. Yes, it is nice to be able to see! Entirely worth it!
Re the carbs, they’re frozens, mostly ravioli and some Chinese chicken.
Want a good way to fix killer ravioli?
Into boiling water, put ‘enough’ ravioli, frozen. Boil on reduced heat — ravioli, if buffeted about too much, can split. Meanwhile in a cup, dump a quarter to half a cup of grated Kraft parmesan cheese, some salt, some black pepper, some chili flake, and a good dash of dried basil and dried oregano—mix it.
When ravioli is done (you can also do this with ordinary spaghetti) drain it in a colander, return to heat, add enough olive oil to keep it from burning, then kill the heat, dump in the cup of stuff you made, and stir around to coat everything. Serve.
If you’re not allergic to garlic, add chopped garlic at the ‘add oil’ moment and stir around.
Good luck with the -A / -T business. -T = Teacher?
More info sent by COMLINK.
And…I have now proved (genealogy) that I am closely related to a pirate. My 10th-great-grandfather. http://new.wavewithoutashore.cwgservices.org/?page_id=72&cpage=17#comment-27293
He was NOT a ‘nice’ pirate. Some of his deeds deserve the darkest pit of hell; and others literally saved the-world-as-we-know it. Color him interesting, but of all the very violent and murderous people I’m also related to, he’s one of the most cold-blooded.
At least they do prednisone drops now. Back in the day when my godfather had iritis they gave the tablets. After the first bout his wife would confiscate their credit cards at the first pill. He went into the most incredible steroid highs, and went on shopping jags!
Hoping your eyes heal fine. And thanks, that reminds me that the next time I go for an exam (possibly a different doctor) to warn them first about my history, eye surgery, pressure, etc.
Carbs and dieting: During the holidays? Aw, c’mon, don’t martyr yourselves. Give yourselves some room to be off the wagon during the holidays. But donating what you can’t use / don’t need, fine idea.
Politics: I’ve never been only single-party. I’ve always voted for another candidate if I thought that person was better. I used to be primarily That Party, have voted lately for This Party, but truth be told, neither This nor That really suit me. More working together, less pouting, would suit me better. Conservative on many things, liberal on many others…all I really want is for things to get better, for me personally, my city and state, my country, and the planet full of us as a whole, much of which seems to go by the wayside during campaigning and after all the dust settles alike. Heh. Americans generally *like* holding their own opinions. Someone recently said there’s less division than the campaign runners / parties would like for us to think. Seems a lot of truth in that. Still convinced much of the world misreads Americans’ individualist nature as a weakness instead of a strength, where people can and do pull together. Or at least, the idealist in me wants it to be so. Mostly, just very glad we have a nice, half-civilized process, peaceful change in government, instead of fighting in the streets. Our system’s not perfect. Plenty needs changes. But, well, it works better than many others.
Back on topic — If resting your eyes helps, rest those peepers, jeepers creepers. Have you ever tried an audio recorder? There is now a Dragon Dictation app for iPhone (Android too, i think) that does much of the transcription into text for you. Probably have to spell out alien/faery and non-English words, but it’d sure beat transcribing audio to text manually. (I’ve done that, it’s gods-be-feathered tedious but it can be done.) I haven’t tried Dragon Dictation with switching bi-/trilingual or with SF&F made-up words, but it did remarkably well for plain vanilla English. Might be a way to be productive. — Or — listen to your favorite music and relax, or audiobooks, whatever suits you. 🙂 I suspect Seishi and Yushu will latch onto a certain writer post haste.
Ahh, carbs are my friend right now (recovering from the c-diff) all red meats make me so horribly sick. My vegan friends are holding me up as a poster child for the evils of red meat. Fortunately I can tolerate chicken, fish and yum… squid steaks. I’ve eaten more pasta and rice in the past 8 months than I have in 8 years.
If you can lay your hands on squid, you might like squid luau: simmer chunks of squid in coconut milk until tender, add spinach or possibly (if you can get it, it is the original) taro leaf. It comes off like a thick green stew, but oh so yummy!
sorry, can’t do coconut milk yet. sighghghghghg
Sable, try salmon panfried in olive oil, with Durkee’s chicken and fish spice. Delish. Serve with rice as a side. Or maybe broken up on spinach salad.
You would mention that when I don’t have salmon on hand. 😉
The steamer veggies, though, great too. Go for the broccoli,cauliflower, carrots, edamame, and celery. The stir-fry veggies are great too, but do have onion, sorry.
That foil-wrapped steamed/broiled fish, sans potatoes, is basically how I broil fish. Oven, in a pan, not campfire. But it’d work on a grill or as described under charcoal in a campfire pit.
Broil some fish and add it and a vegetable or two to ramen or other noodles. Simple, cheap, and tasty. Any meat would do. A dash of soy sauce.
I used Dragon once in the 1990’s, and it was bad. I had to talk like a robot to be understood—I’m sure it’s improved; and to end sentences with “period. Close quote. Italics close.” …sort of kills the mood of the story I’m composing.
Alas, no fried food. Fortunately I can have spinach but only cooked. raw vegies are pretty much out although every day gets a little better. The best way to describe having c-diff (for me) is to think of it as digesting #40 sandpaper followed by a draino chaser. It takes about a year for your guts to recover. But… a bit of a tarnished silver lining, I did lose about 20 pounds.
Ah. The new steamer packet veggies for microwave? I use a lot of those, being often in a hurry. And you can also bake salmon, 350 oven until it flakes, no extra oil.
At girls camp also we used to have a neat little packet: tinfoil, piece of fish, potato, veggies to our taste, wrapped up and buried under the campfire. We’d let the breakfast fire go out, with those packets under the cookfire coals, and have that waiting, nicely done, for supper. Yum!
You could easily do that with any sort of meat and veggies: cooking them together makes for a nice ‘boiled dinner’ and is easy to do.
may try that. red meat is totally out. a meal of it means i’m sick for days, even a couple weeks. The problem is, what works one day just about kills you the next day. And everyone is different. One person on my c-diff site can eat peanut butter. I’d kill for some peanut butter. On the other hand, 72% chocolate doesn’t bother me if I only have a piece or two. And lately a half glass of wine is okay, but only about once a week. I had a couple apple slices the other day and got sick.
Usually I use chicken broth, cook garlic and shallot or leek and spinach and put in either dover sole or squid steak, with pepper, tumeric and cumin. then rice or noodles on the side. I’m doing a lot better than some people and I’m lucky the only allergy I have is to arugula. One woman I know was on chicken broth, bananas and yogurt for about a couple months.
It’s just a matter of introducing a new food into your diet every couple of days or once a week and see what happens. Ah well, it could be worse.I’m way better off than others, just don’t let me walk past a steak house!
I know whereof you speak but only in a very minor way: my own allergies are garlic/onion/paprika, have to watch peanuts, somewhat; also don’t like chicken and most fish, but hey, when you’re hungry, even catfish looks good. I don’t get along well with potatoes, tomatoes and their ilk; I’m not fond of lettuce, but have to like it because it’s ‘good’ for me; and categorically hate turkey beyond my ability to choke it down under most circumstances unless smothered in gravy. I have to watch eating too much corn…not to overdo it. I’m genetically (tested) 93% British Isles, and New World plants are not necessarily my friends.
I’m an American Mutt… with enough Native American to show a bit. My system is DEFINITELY not ‘civilized’. Grains and most carbs (fruit, legume, bean, whatever) are out (Gluten intolerance and Insulin resistance). I feel best on a diet of mixed meats and green veggies with the occasional tuber/root.
FYI, eating lots of meat is associated with increased risk of autoimmune disease. This might not be the best time for you to go Atkins since it may exacerbate your problem. For example, this review:
Trends Mol Med. 2008 Oct;14(10):461-9. Epub 2008 Sep 4.
Arachidonic-acid-derived eicosanoids: roles in biology and immunopathology.
Harizi H, Corcuff JB, Gualde N.
“AA-derived eicosanoids seem to have important roles in immunopathology and have been implicated in inflammation, autoimmunity, allergic diseases and cancer.”
“Pharmacological and genetic evidence has shown that eicosanoids have crucial roles in autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA). In arthritis models, mice null for cPLA2, COX-2, PGE synthase, EP4 or IP receptors display reduced inflammation. In joint inflammation, intra-articular PGE2 is generated by synoviocytes and macrophages and has a proinflammatory role in the progression of RA [4]. This overproduction of PGE2 could also have an immunosuppressant function and could explain the observed low production rate of IL-2 by lymphocytes, upon which PGs might act either directly or through activation of CD8+ suppressor cells [66].”
Just something to think about before heading to Atkins land. This is a single review but the literature on this is substantial.
your friendly neighborhood biochemist…
Interesting. Thank you.
CJ: Sounds like you have some of the same tendencies towards auto-immune stuff as I do, but rheumatological testing didn’t come up with a diagnosis for me despite some pretty severe symptoms. My main clinical finding was C reactive protein levels through the roof. I got it all under control with diet (tailored anti-inflammatory diet) and supplements(anti-inflammatory) but did get my plan verified by a naturopath and my GP in case I was missing stuff. Having my IgG antibody panels done really helped me identify foods that caused problems but not at the overt level I’d be aware of without testing. I have’t had the debilitating migratory episodic pain flares since (whew). But I simply cannot eat at restaurants or buy most processed foods. The chemical trigges are insidious so sticking with homemade organic foods seem to have calmed some pretty debilitating stuff. Satisfaction may vary (wink)….
I got really sick with iritis this spring, but mine turned out to be complications with malnutrition and vitamin deficiency due to celiac. I was eating and eating and not really absorbing anything. Who knew that could lead to blindness? Sigh. When I started taking Digest Gold, taking additional vitamins, and going more paleo things improved. Turns out all grains were being a constant irritant to my system which was why I wasn’t healing from the celiac thing despite quitting gluten. Once I got my nutrition up the eye problem went away, but not before the doctor was saying scary stuff like sjogrens and installing tear duct plugs and stuff. Those are related auto immune things but I wasn’t about to concede to that suggestions until I fixed my related issues. Because I had scarring before the puzzle came together I can’t wear contacts anymore. I keep telling myself being a bit fugly with glasses is better than being blind but…I have my moments. I like how I look without glasses.