Practically Baby Food

So I have been having a lot, a lot, a lot, of digestion issues since the beginning of December.  At the time, the doctors thought it was viral gastroenteritis. My symptoms matched, it was going around... but it never got better.  Since I was on prednisone they figured that the 5-7 day normal period may last 2 to 3 weeks.  It is now 10 weeks. My Internal Med doctor thought it might be a pancreas issue, but I don't really have any other symptoms.  He ordered some tests though (I'm waiting for the results).

In early January I went on a "low residue diet" which actually kind of made things worse, so I was only on it for about 3 days.

Today I started, what I am not-so-lovingly referring to as "the practically baby food diet".   Easily digestible veggies, low fruit, low fat, low protein (since I have issues with protein anyway), low grains... basically I can eat the following:

I hate to say it (because I'm a foodie), but my digestion was already greatly improved today.  BLAH. After a few days I'm going to reintroduce foods back in, and see how they go.

For breakfast, I had an epic fail.  I apparently forgot that I don't really like sweet things.  I tried to make banana pancakes.   Mashed banana, egg, a bit of coconut flour... I found them really dry (I maybe shouldn't have added the flour) so I topped them with applesauce, and some cinnamon.  I ate about half and was done. The rest are currently sitting in my fridge while I figure out a solution because I hate to waste food.  I must be able to mix it or something (maybe more banana and freeze it...)

bleh. 

Lunch went WAY better.  I made risotto. Arborio rice, vegetable broth, asparagus (uh... that might not be on my list, but I had some and didn't want to waste it), topped with a bit of goat mozzarella.

so delicious and filling!

Supper was the highlight of the day.  I grated sweet potato and steamed them (they could have been steamed longer), added some mild curry spice, coconut flour, egg, and grilled them.  Topped with some probiotic active bacteria yogourt and mustard.  I have some left over for tomorrow!

I liked the ones with mustard the best.

For snacks, I made sweet potato, zucchini and goat feta muffins using banana flour.  I didn't like them warm, but absolutely love them cold.  There's only about a net of 11gr of carbs per muffin, and only 1gr of fat, and since I'm still dealing with steroid induced diabetes, it makes it a perfect snack.

 best snack ever (Banana flour is EXPENSIVE though!)

All of the ridiculousness of the past almost 7 months sometimes catches up with me.  This digestion thing just seems like something else on the long list of things I have to deal with. I try to remember that I'm alive. 20% of people who go through what I went through don't make it, I could have been that 20%. All of the crap I'm dealing with now has to be worth it, because I get to be alive. I get to go to school.  I get to study something I love, I get to work on my Honours research project that I absolutely love. I get to work, although it isn't as much as I'd like to, I get to help people. I get to connect with people.  I get to do things, even if I'm limited in the amount of things I can do. 

Sometimes life sucks. Sometimes people suck... but sometimes it's worth it to get to be alive, and do things you love, even if you can't do everything you want to. 

A little update

I haven't updated in awhile.  I'm not sure what to say.

I'm still looking at at least 4 more months before being off prednisone... but it's been "2 more months, 3 more months, blah blah blah" since August, so who knows.

I started Celexa again.  The first two weeks were absolute hell. The first week especially.  I was insanely nauseated all of the time.  Now I only get it at night, and if I take gravol at bedtime, it mostly helps.

I think I expected too much.  I wanted to feel like I felt last year on it.  I don't. I'm wondering if the fact I was also on Gabapentin for a good chunk of that time helped.  Last year it got rid of the anxiety, and dread, and I looked forward to things. Now I just feel... melancholy. Or maybe apathetic is a better term. Whichever it is, it makes it hard to get out of bed and do things. It's not depression though... well, not like I had before. Dread and anxiety about the future have turned into... complacency. So I guess we're moving in the right direction?

I went for lunch with some friends today.  It was really nice.  I didn't feel overwhelmed at all, which usually going out causes me to feel lately.  We went for a little walk downtown after and I got a smoothie at the juice place that just reopened.  It was nice to be social :)