Thursday, March 19, 2015

Tuna Melt Patties

So as a quick update, I've lost about 12 pounds on the "I just had my wisdom teeth pulled and eating hurts and is gross" diet.  I had some complications that made eating solid food even worse than it would have been, although lately I've been doing pretty good.

My blood pressure has been at a reasonable-for-now 135/85.  Not down to my goal yet, but getting there.

I thought I'd put up an recipe I made for something soft.  I took the picture back in January but I'll probably make a salmon version tonight (because I've recently learned tuna makes me feel awful).

Tuna Melt Patties

Ingredients: 
  • 2 cans of tuna (I've done this with solid albacore as well as chunk light; the former is higher in omega-3 fatty acids)
  • About a half cup of shredded cheddar cheese (you can omit this if you'd like but it'll be more a tuna burger than a tuna melt patty)
  • 1 egg
  • Friendly oil (butter, ghee, coconut oil, etc) for frying
Put the tuna and egg in a mixing bowl.  Mix it up good with a hand mixer so it's nice and smooth, almost like a mousse.  Add the cheese.

Oil the pan and heat it to medium-high.  Form the batter into patties... it can be difficult to get it to stay together, perseverance is key.  Lay them out on the pan.  I cooked them for about three minutes on each side.

Saturday, March 14, 2015

Like my recipes/resources? Please consider donating to my medical bills fund.

I've been updating this blog pretty regularly about my New Year Resolution, which was to get my dental care back to a reasonably adequate level.  I had my wisdom teeth removed on Friday the 6th, and although I've had some annoying-as-hell complications (notably a big old hole between my mouth and my sinus cavity due to the root of an upper tooth being long enough to reach into it), I'm recovering reasonably well and hopefully will be eating more solid food soon (I managed some chicken and broccoli today).

The thing is, the wisdom teeth were only step one.  My teeth have been neglected for years, and as such there is loads more work to be done.  Because of this, I'm sincerely asking for your help.

I've opened a campaign on YouCaring called "Help Save Jackson's Smile."  If you are able to in any way, please consider donating a few dollars to help me get cavities filled and other odds and ends that need to be dealt with.  If I by some miracle make the original amount, anything extra will go to helping pay off my wisdom tooth extraction as well as the other medical bills I have to pay.

Not a fan of YouCaring?  My PayPal donate button is also a great option, as pretty much any money I make anywhere is going to be eventually paying for my teeth anyway.

Can't donate?  I understand!  Please consider sharing the YouCaring page (or this one).  This would be extremely appreciated!

Monday, March 2, 2015

A Hypertension and Dental Health Update

I wrote already in A Tale of Medical Woo and Woe, which talks about how there was an extended period of time where I refused basic medical care under the impression that anything pharmaceutical was automatically just Big Pharma trying to make a buck off things that are harmless, cosmetic, etc.  As an update, I have oral surgery scheduled for this Friday to get all four wisdom teeth removed.  Right now I'm looking for some reasonably paleo foods to eat during the recovery period after.  For some clarity, I've been having a rough time keeping paleo at all due to finances, stress, food addiction, etc... but I'm hoping to get back on that train.

I have a feeling it's mostly going to be mashed potatoes, gravy, smoothies, and soup.  Yeah, mashed potatoes aren't the greatest choice for somebody my size, but they're better than what I've been eating lately.  According to the oral surgeon it'll only be a few days and I should be back reasonably solid food, and I should be back at work the following Monday, if achy.

Before going to the oral surgeon, I went to a regular dentist.  I know that I have at least two or three cavities, but since I was a vegan for three years without ever once visiting a dentist I have a feeling there are many more than that lurking in my teeth.  I have a comprehensive dental exam about a week after the wisdom tooth removal. So that's my dental health update.  My New Year resolution is to get my teeth back to a healthy state so I can once again focus on prevention.  So far it's going well!

I've been trying different hypertension medications.  I don't know if these are going to wind up being a "forever drug" like testosterone typically is and am still hoping that I'll be able to get off them in the future.  But regardless, it's a much better option that dying of a heart attack before I'm 35.  I know I wrote something about it and then recalled it as a draft due to some problems I was having with the med.  The first med I tried lowered my blood pressure so fast and so effectively that I was excited and wrote this essay about how relieved I was.  Then the side effects came and I thought "Maybe I jumped the gun, here."  So this is where I'm at now:

First Drug: Lisinopril HCTZ
This is actually two drugs, the lisinopril (an ACE inhibitor) and HCTZ (a diuretic).  This brought me down to a normal blood pressure very rapidly, but the side effects were just too damn much.  I started getting a weird sinus pressure in my face that felt like somebody was pinching the bridge of my nose, and it floated all around the sinus area (under the eyes, by the brows, all around the nose, sometimes it felt like it was behind my eyes).  It was almost constant.  I wound up with chills and went to the ER super dehydrated.  The worst, though, was that my limbs randomly started to stop working properly.  I'd get pins and needles, legs falling asleep, and crushing weakness.  I had to talk to my doctor about this because I was just about to start a new job, and that sort of weakness would impair me just too much.

Second Drug: Losartan
Losartan is an angiotensin II receptor antagonist, although I'm not entirely sure what that means.  Like ACE inhibitors I think it relaxes or widens your blood vessels.  Losartan was so much better than lisinopril as far as the side effects.  Everything went away except for the occasional sinus pressure, usually when I lay down and not for very long.  The main problem was that it hardly lowered my blood pressure at all.  Due to the side effect my doctor had me change again.

Third Drug: Metoprolol Succinate
This is a drug that I believe actually slows your heart rate.  I've only been on it a couple of days.  The sinus pressure is beginning to fade (with doctor supervision I did an experiment with the lisinopril HCTZ where I went off it for a week and started it again, and it took almost the week for it to go away, so we'll see how it goes).  Because I don't tolerate blood pressure medication very well, I'm starting on a low dose, so it's unlikely I'll reach my goal blood pressure on this dose.  I hear from the Internets that it'll take about a week to see the maximum effect, so fingers crossed I don't need a whole lot of it.


It's important that I start really working on my diet so that I can avoid sabotaging my medication and maybe even go off it in the future.  I've been working with a hypertension counselor from my insurance, but there's a problem:  She's really into standard dietary advice.  She insists I try things that I already know from experience don't work for me, like lowering sodium (although doing so while also increasing potassium certainly does help; it's shocking to me how none of the doctors talking to me about hypertension ever bring up potassium!), and will basically not let go of her irrational fear of saturated fat.  It's not her fault specifically, this is what all of us were taught in school, after all.  One of the great parts of this is that talking to her really does motivate me to do things that I do know work.

Which brings me to my last blood pressure update, and it's a scary one for me.  Due to work I've been walking for miles daily, up stairs, down stairs, down halls, for hours at a time.  This in the past has brought my blood pressure down a lot.  Back when I was trying harder to stay off blood pressure medication than I was trying to keep my blood pressure down, it used to be a sure thing to go for a good five mile walk daily for a couple days prior to a doctor appointment, which would bring it down enough to squeak by.  It's not doing anything this time, which suggests either that it's way worse than it was last year or the walking doesn't work anymore.  Whatever the case, I do need to start using my gym membership, whether it helps my blood pressure or not.