Archive for January 2012

We'll See - The Art of Waiting

A friend of mine once told me that the motto of the #rheum-mates seems to be “we’ll see.” It’s true. There are a lot of unknowns with RAD--including how your body and disease will respond to medications--which often coincide with periods of simply waiting. Wait and see if the treatment works. Wait and see if your symptoms wane. Wait and see if your lab results change. Wait and see.

A Cry for Mercy

As a Christian, I often turn to God’s word—the Bible—for encouragement, hope and even direction in life. Living life with an autoimmune disease raises lots of questions and fears, and I have no doubt that many often wonder (as I have done) where God’s hand is in all of this. People that don’t know the God of the Bible may see chronic illness as another reason to question his goodness or even his existence. Christians may struggle with keeping their focus on Christ and remembering where our hope is found. Because of this, I decided to put together a blog series reflecting on Scripture that I feel relates to living with rheumatoid autoimmune disease (aka rheumatoid arthritis / RA / RAD) in some way—e.g., as encouragement and hope, as prayer and honesty before God, or as learning to understand God and trust him through all situations in life. Wherever you're at in your spiritual journey, I hope you find this helpful.

The Thorn in My Flesh

In this first post, I want to focus on a passage of Scripture from the book of 2 Corinthians (a letter written from the apostle Paul to the early Christians in Corinth).

Chicken Tenders with Basmati Rice and Homegrown Broccoli

This is one of those recipes that I tend to change up a little bit every time. I had always wanted to make my own chicken nuggets, strips, tenders, or whatever you want to call them, and tried out a few different methods. I’ve found that pan-cooking them seems to yield the best results, and I’ll outline the basic recipe for you below, which is what I used to make chicken tenders last week.

Ingredients:
1 Boneless, skinless chicken breast
1 cup dry bread crumbs (plain)
1 egg
½ cup of milk
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
Garlic
Salt
Pepper
Spices to taste

Directions:
Cut the chicken into thin strips or small, nugget-sized pieces. Whisk egg and milk together in a small bowl (if you want spicy tenders, use Frank’s Red Hot sauce instead of milk). In another small bowl, mix bread crumbs and seasonings to taste. I also like to add in paprika, Italian seasoning and a little bit of some cayenne pepper. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Dip each piece of chicken in the egg mixture to coat, then place in the breadcrumbs and use a spoon to fully coat. Sometimes I do two coats of breading…so I dip it back in the egg and then back in the breading a second time. You can also do the first coat with flour. The double-coating helps it stick better while cooking. Once chicken is coated, place it in the skillet. Cook over medium heat for about 10-15 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink, carefully turning over each piece occasionally. You may need to add a little extra oil as you go, too, to be sure that the tenders don’t burn or stick to the pan.

I like to serve these with a side of rice and a veggie. This time, I was extra excited because I had some new basmati rice – which I must digress a bit here to tell you about. If you have never had basmati rice, I highly recommend trying it. It’s a long-grain rice, available in white or brown, that is fragrant and not sticky like normal white rice. I’m telling you: once you try it, you won’t go back. There’s one problem, though. Basmati rice is freaking expensive—compared to regular rice, anyways! I just double-checked pricing from my local grocery store, and the cheapest I can get it for is $4.99-$5.99 for a 2-lb bag.

Enter: the Costco Membership. A few years ago, we had a membership to Costco, but we eventually let it expire. It was at Costco that I first discovered basmati rice. I only bought it because I was cooking rice a lot at the time (hey, I was a poor college student!), and it came cheap and in BULK: a 20lb bag of basmati rice in a burlap sack that told me my new found love came from the “foothills of the Himalayas.” Since we canceled our membership, I’ve been lamenting the loss of my rice in a burlap sack. However, this past Christmas, Tom got me a new stainless steel cookware set from Costco and got a membership to avoid paying extra fees for it. Score! So, the other day we went to Costco for the first time in a few years, and lo and behold, I found my basmati rice. I think it’s a different brand than last time; the bag is not nearly as cool. But, $14 for 20lb sure sounded like a heck of a deal!

At any rate, the basmati rice pairs well with the chicken tenders, and I decided to go for a side of broccoli. I realized that I still had some broccoli in the freezer that came from my summer garden. I hadn’t actually tried using any of the frozen broccoli yet, so I was very curious how it would turn out.

It took a little while in the steamer for the broccoli/ice chunk to thaw, but once it did, it cooked quickly and it turned out way better than I imagined! It tasted so fresh! Unfortunately, I don’t think I’m going to do broccoli in my garden again this year. At least not without some more research first. They tend to get these caterpillar/worms that are really hard to find & get out. Yuck. Extra protein, anyone? Don’t be too grossed out, though. I was very careful to inspect this broccoli as I was blanching and prepping to freeze it. I think we were in the clear.

Well that’s it for this week’s (er..last week’s?) adventures in Dana’s kitchen!

The Saga Continues...

I had a bit of déjà vu this week. If you’ve been following my story, you may recall the start of my "Sed Rate Saga" -- my hesitation to get my blood drawn back in November and the immediate call from my doctor’s office after my lab results came in because my inflammation was high. That’s what prompted my switch from Enbrel to Humira to treat my rheumatoid autoimmune disease (aka, rheumatoid arthritis). I was told to try Humira for one month, as an every other week injection, then to get my labs done again. After a month of Humira, I felt no different. Not necessarily any worse, but not better, either. So, I kind of wanted to play a guessing game and try to predict what my sed rate would be (sed rate, or erythrocyte sedimentation rate [ESR] is a marker of inflammation). My labs from November revealed a sed rate of 41.

2011: A Year in Review

It’s a new year, and with that comes a good opportunity to reflect on the past one. While I don’t typically do New Year’s resolutions, I thought it’d be fun to reminisce a little bit and recap some of my life in 2011. Last year, we rang the New Year in down in Florida with some friends: a great way to kick off the year.

The One Month Marker: Third Time’s the Charm?

Today marks one month (er, 4 weeks, anyways) since I started Humira as a new treatment for my rheumatoid arthritis. Since it’s an every other week injection for right now, that means today I take my third shot. I am really hoping that the “third time’s the charm” idiom holds true here. I hadn’t noticed much of a difference the first couple of weeks on Humira. I had been experiencing an increase in disease activity on Enbrel, but the severity of the symptoms and number of joints involved had calmed down somewhat by the time I saw my doctor and made the switch. However, over the past couple weeks, symptoms have been creeping back. My wrists have been particularly sore, and I’m getting pain and stiffness in my elbows again. Also, I hate to admit this because it’s a new one, but I think that RA is affecting my neck. Then of course, there are the usual suspects: hands and feet. My knees have not gotten too bad again – mostly just stiffness – so I’ll count that as a blessing.