Monday, April 2, 2012

Please stand by...

When I was a kid, and we were living in Germany, I can remember the TV would sometimes show a cartoon drawing of an ostrich with his head in the sand and the words,'Please stand by, we are experiencing technical difficulties', or something to that effect. Well, along those same lines, a friend has reminded me that I have some ‘splaining to do regarding my activity (or rather, lack thereof) on the blog. I wrote in February about being sleep deprived, but I still haven’t returned to my normal pace of approximately a post a week, and she said that my readers must be wondering about me. I was hesitant, since everyone has their own problems without reading about mine, but I don’t want you to think I have lost interest in the blog and won’t be returning, so here goes.

As my readers know, I have to cook everything from scratch (because of food allergies), and I try to regularly create new recipes. Aside from my food issues, I have always had trouble with my back, and in recent months kneading, rolling, chopping, etc. leaves me in tears, and even sitting for any length of time to type on the computer puts me in agony (no gaming for me these days- good thing GW2 still has some time until release). We kept procrastinating on going to the chiropractor, in part to figure out the flaming insurance hoops we would need to jump through, partly worried about out-of-pocket costs, and partly just stupidly thinking I was just being a wimp and I could somehow work out the problem on my own. This approach, by the way, should be filed under ‘Don’t Do this ever.’. Just sayin’.

Anyway, I finally made my first appointment, and let me just say that there is something profoundly unsettling about hearing the doctor repeatedly ‘hmmm’ as he does his initial check-up on your back. I finally asked, ‘okay, what DOES ‘hmmm’ mean?’, and he responded with, ‘We have our work cut out for us’. He then asked me to follow him to get x-rays, and he took a series of radioactive ‘mug’ shots (including one lovely where I had to stand with my mouth wide open so that he could get the top of my spine from the front without the obstruction of my jaws/teeth). He developed the frames and said he would sit down with us at my next appointment to explain his treatment plan.

A couple days later, said appointment arrived, and I be-bopped in thinking ‘how bad could it be?’ (when will I learn not to ask that question?). Well, I can’t/wouldn’t (even if I could) share my x-rays, but I think it is safe to call me a mess. My cervical curvature was almost non-existent (in fact I had almost begun to curve the opposite direction), I was stretching my spinal cord and brain stem (not a stretch one should do, by the by), my lumbar curvature was also somewhat straightened, discs were being compressed and some calcification was starting on the vertebrae, I have 12° of scoliosis (10° is the minimum, so this is mild) in my upper back, and my right hip is appreciably higher and turned. I think that is all that he said. Truth be told I was sort of in shock, but in a weird way I was also relieved. I wasn’t just being a wimp, and this doctor had answers. I haven’t always fared so well with the medical profession, so maybe I was just glad to not have a doctor shrug and say, ‘beats me. Want an antidepressant?’.  Right now I am seeing the chiropractor a lot (three times a week), trying to rest to let my back heal, and am slowly working up to exercising to recover.

What this all boils down to is that while I am still cooking and experimenting, I am often too tired to photograph the food before we eat (especially since that means I have to derubble the kitchen enough to be able to take a photo that showcases the food- how do I manage to make such a total mess out of a clean kitchen?), and I have trouble sitting down to write about what I am doing. I am keeping notes on my new recipes and I hope to soon return to a more regular schedule, when I will share some new rice puddings, cookies, sausages, etc. and information about food and kitchen tools worthy of note. In the meantime, thanks for stopping by, and feel free to look around at the recipes and journal entries on file.

-Sincerely,
Heidi a/k/a Thistle & Dragonfly in the kitchen

Showing on this day in 2011: Review: My first impression- Virgin Coconut Oil