is it possible?

Is it possible that she will be one of the lucky ones? When I talk to people about her illness, which is pretty rare these days, I always add that she is one of the lucky ones. Relatively speaking, things are going extremely well. Her life is practically normal given the fact that she no longer attends regular school and is highly medicated. I really can't and won't complain. She is unbelievably social - so much so that I lose sleep, so I guess we're normal! We're counting our blessings and, as always, remaining hopeful.

and speaking of being medicated...

See the highly medicated box? I almost bought this for her yesterday but didn't for only one reason. You may think that the reason is that it's kinda, sorta odd to put a pillbox holder that is sparkly and has "highly medicated" written across the top into the hands of a 17 year old. Well, that's not the reason. I didn't buy it because it was $29.00. $29.00! Anyway, it was sized perfectly - large enough compartments to hold her pills, a.m. and p.m., AND the best thing (aside from the fact that it was kind of cute) was that it was small, about 5-6 inches by 4 inches, zipped closed and housed a perfectly sized pillbox for traveling. Call me crazy, but I loved it. (I'm going to have to figure out how to make one of those suckers.)

So, for the medication. Believe it or not, we FINALLY weaned her off of her morning dose of Lyrica. Hooray! It only took five months, but it finally took. She's now on Lyrica at night, 25 mg. She still takes the Pamelor, 50 mg at night, Florinef twice a day, and a multitude of supplements. Dropping that Lyrica was a milestone. No more splitting capsules - Yay!

I sincerely think of you all often and hope you're enjoying life.

Stay happy and full of hope. Until next time.

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just in case you needed a laugh

Hope your Sunday is beautiful.

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Here We Are

Well friends, here we are. I've reached a conclusion and am ready to admit that I need to take a break from writing (or feeling guilty for NOT writing) here at Living Chronically. Lately, Jessie has been blessed with wonderful health. We are so thrilled and hopeful.

Here at LC, I feel as though it's a little silly to give updates for someone who is well. This blog will still be here because I love reading about and staying in touch with all the wonderful friends I've "met" over the past two years. So I'll be checking my blogroll daily and staying in touch.

Please stay around, too. I will be giving updates from time to time. But it's kind of like when you leave the doctor and say, "Hope I don't see you any time soon, doc!" Know what I mean?

Until then, here's hoping I don't have any updates to report. Take care. :)

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Hello Friends

Just a quick hello. Jes and I returned last night from a weekend visit to my mom's. We had a great time, eating strawberries and chocolate, watching movies (such as the one above), lunching, and even a little shoe shopping - pretty nice, huh?

Jessie is doing well. On the way back last yesterday, we stopped off at the BCBG outlet to shop for a prom dress. What felt like 50+ dresses and no decision. I think she gets her decision-making ability from her mom - poor thing. She's been living so "normally" lately that we're able to enjoy extended time out as long as we bring along salty, gluten-free treats.

We found little snack bags of salty peanuts at Sam's - perfect to keep in the purse. The small bottles of Powerade also tend to tag along as well as Kind bars (fruit and nut are SO good).

If you have orthostatic intolerance, what do you like to take along as your safety net?

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Well Said - My Favorite Word...

Well said.

If you can't trust a fortune cookie, now what can you trust?

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Check Out

{What a picture! Me in the studio w/ Jessie and her face scrunching}

I have had to check out a little for the past week. With spring quickly approaching, business has taken over and I'm barely coming up for a breath!

I do have a quick little update:

Started backing Jessie off of her morning dose of Lyrica and every time I do, she gets those pesky little headaches. I called the doctor and the pharmacist yesterday and asked it I could actually split a capsule. Unfortunately Lyrica only comes in capsules and 25mg is the lowest dose. What we decided to do is to give her half of a capsule each morning (cutting her to 12.5mg - a little easier). So, we just did that yesterday. After a week or so we'll know if it's working. Dropping 25mg cold turkey was just too much for my little munchkin.

Also, we went to the gastroenterologist last a couple of weeks ago for a recheck and he did the blood work to check for gluten. He found it. So either I'm missing something in the diet or the little munchkin is sneaking a few gluttonous bites! Actually, when she was originally tested, her level was very low, but still positive for celiac. This time, the levels were much higher! Hmm...

It seems that while Jes had no outward symptoms of celiac originally upon diagnosis, she has begun to get stomach cramps and all the other bad stomach stuff when she's accidentally exposed. So maybe her celiac is getting worse as she ages? Just an uneducated theory.

Anyway, I'm in my studio as this is being written and MUST return to the grindstone.

Hope you're having a splendid introduction to spring.

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Gluten-Free Potato Soup for the Soul

*Note: I posted this here and here. So, this is really cheesy,but it's soup week at The Gluten Free Homemaker! So sue me - I'm proud of my soup!

My apologies if you're reading this for the second, or perhaps the third time. :)

It's a well known fact that I'm a gourmet wanna-be, but oh so bad, and not in a good way. I toil - sometimes, I slave - once in a while, I plan my meals - weekly, I stick to the chart - rarely.

Being the good, money-saving wife that I am, I searched high and low for something, anything to cook with this humongous bag of potatoes that had been purchased in bulk. What was I thinking? That I had a family of fifteen or something? Anyway, after researching and pondering and thinking about the weather (a snowy day in Atlanta - so much for thoughts of spring!), I decided to make a big pot of potato soup.

Normally when I try something new it's not well received.

Who knew that carbs, cream, and butter would be the miracle drug my family needed? Go figure.

Someone gave me this simple recipe yesterday and it provided that additional shot of warmth that we needed. I whipped up a fruit salad and that's all it took to complete this easy meal.

Homemade Potato Soup

{{I'll try to be accurate with the ingredients. Don't laugh - I'm an eye-baller}}

about 8 or so (maybe more) small russet potatoes

one large onion - diced

4 carrots - diced

2 stalks of celery - diced

olive oil

chicken broth (I used a carton - 32 oz.)

salt and pepper

butter

cream (I used fat free half & half) - about 3/4 cup

In a large stock pot, bring the cubed potatoes to a boil - oh, add water. :)

Reduce heat and simmer until soft.

While that's cooking, saute the onion, celery, and carrots in your olive oil

(in another pan - duh).

Hmm... a little minced garlic might be good at this point, too.

Be sure to salt & pepper the veggies pretty well.

Saute until soft.

Once the potatoes are done, pour off about half of the water.

Add in the chicken broth and the veggies to the potatoes.

Add more pepper and salt to taste.

In a separate saucepan over low heat, warm the fat free half & half and to that,

add about 3 lbs. tbs. of butter to melt.

Once the creamer is warm, add it into the soup mixture. At this point, I took my handy dandy potato masher and mashed some of the potatoes right there in the pot. This way, the soup became more starchy and thick. At least that's what I like to tell myself.

You can garnish with crumbled bacon. I didn't because I hate frying bacon - makes me feel greasy. The family complained, but they got over it and STILL thought I was a rock star.

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