Returning to healthy eating.

While on holiday we pigged out. It is part of being on holiday isn’t it?

Getting in and out of the swimming pool every day made me realise I have let my good deeds of last year slide so much they were out of sight. Hubby agreed when I said we needed to get back to healthy eating. I also need to get back to exercising – Hubby cycles 15 miles a day so that’s not a problem for him.

Coming home to the Easter weekend, meant there was a lot of chocolate in the house – even though I didn’t get an egg, when I gave Hubby his, he asked if I had bought one for him to give to me!!!! It wouldn’t be fair for the boys to have these delights in front of them and tell them they were unable to eat them, so instead, we have told them they can have a little each day. My theory being once they are gone they are gone, and I wont be buying sweets for in the house, so if they aren’t there they can’t have them!!!

Yesterday I got on the wii-fit for the first time in months and to say it was hard work would be an understatement! At the same time though it felt good too, and I must try to find half an hour a day to do it. I have checked the times of open sessions at the local swimming pool and they have morning sessions most days, so I intend to try to get there at least once a week. I used to swim every morning before work and found it a really invigorating way to start the day.

I have knocked the dust off the myfitnesspal.com app, as I found it really helpful to track what I was eating last year. It is a great app where you can see exactly what food you are taking and the calories from it. It really makes you think about if you need the snack in the evening!!!

Today Hubby is working from home, and so I have gone for a healthy lunch for us. I have made Pea and Herb soup with oat cakes. Now, anyone that knows me, is well aware I don’t do soup, unless in is comes in a tin and is bright orange. I was therefore making the soup for Hubby and Old person, but when I tasted it to check the seasoning I was amazed how lovely it is, and have decided to give it a go – I must be getting brave in my old age!

Pea and Vegetable Soup
1 tbsp. Olive Oil
1 clove garlic – crushed
480g Frozen peas
1 tbsp. cornflour
500ml vegetable stock
30 g fresh coriander
15 g fresh mint – I didn’t have fresh so used a teaspoon of dried
salt and pepper

Heat the oil and add the garlic and peas. Stir until the peas have defrosted.
Mix the cornflour with 1 tbsp. of cold water and add to the pan.
Slowly add the stock, stirring well.
Bring to a simmer for 15 minutes.
Put into a liquidiser with the herbs and seasoning.
Warm through.

Oatcakes
115g oatmeal
1/4 tsp salt
pinch of bicarbonate of soda.
1 tbsp. oil
3 tbsp. hot water

Mix dry ingredients.
Add the oil, and half the water. Mix well.
Add more water to form a soft but crumble dough.
Kneed until smooth.
Cut dough into 2 pieces and roll each into a round.
Cut each circle into quarters.
Put into a dry frying pan over a medium low heat. cook for a couple of minutes on each side.

You piece of education for the day is that the quarters are called FARLS. You probably knew this but I didn’t and so thought it was interesting!!!

I will update you in a few weeks about if I keep I the healthy eating, and defiantly if I get back into he exercise but I feel I need to!

Now to go and eat this soup!!!

Docs again!

I was off to the doctors AGAIN today.

When you are young and can’t wait to get older, you don’t think about things starting to go wrong.    But go wrong they certainly do.

Before the children, I rarely, if ever went to the doctors, but since them, I seem to have started falling apart fast!

About 5 years ago I was diagnosed with early signs of arthritis in my knees.    I had a course of acupuncture, and was told to get used to the pain, but if it got any worse, to go back to my GP.    Well, the last few weeks, I have been more and more aware of the pain, and normal over the counter painkillers don’t seem to touch it, so I gave in and made an appointment with the doctors.

The doctor was a 13-year-old locum – another sign I’m getting old I think that these sort of people look so young!       She was matchstick thin, and so I was expecting the lose weight speech from her.    I was however shocked by what she said after I gave her my background history to my knees.     She asked if anything had changed in my life that could have caused the flare up, and I said I was trying to lose weight, and she actually said loosing weight could set them off, as it is a change of pressure on the joint!    Now I never thought I would hear a doctor telling me something like that!         She advised if I was doing exercise then swimming was probably the best as the water takes the strain.      She was going to give me some anti-inflamitories, until I mentioned my stomach, and then she read the notes about that.      After a bit of thought she decided upon a gel to apply 4 times a day – so if you’re in the supermarket and you see me  and I lift the leg of my trousers, then don’t be surprised as its gel time!        She also suggest I self refer to the physis at the surgery, as some exercises to strengthen the muscles around the knee might ease some of the pain – anything is worth a try.       She then talked about if this wasn’t enough, there were other possibilities such as acupuncture or steroid injections, and ultimately knee replacements!     Good to know they are looking at the long-term for me.

I left their happy she had listened to me, and willing to try anything to stop them feeling so achy.     Time will tell if the gel does the trick.

When I was first diagnosed with the arthritis I wasn’t overly shocked, as my Mum was crippled with it from her 40’s and had her first hip replacement in her 50’s.    She is now waiting for her 5th one, and she also has both knees done.   She is the bionic lady!   The pain of arthritis, while something I hadn’t experience before, it was something I was aware of, and therefore something I don’t intend to put up with if there is another option.   My Mum  wasn’t keen to take tablets when she first became aware of it, and ended up house bond for months while she waited for her first op, as the pain was too much for her.        I have no intention of going down that route.    While I’m not keen on taking tablets, I would rather pop a few pills than walk around, or hobble around in agony.

This family history of arthritis, got me thinking as to if D’s hyper-mobility is related.   I think this is something I need to research as I have read there is connections between the two things but never before really put them together in our circumstance.

In the mean time, I will rub in the gel and hope to be running around like a 2-year-old again soon – oh no, they are two steps forward and one fall down, so maybe that’s not such a good idea!

D and the Doc.

Yesterday was the long-awaited appointment with the school doctors service for D.           My GP had referred me to them after us asking for a referral to occupational therapy on the recommendation of the school.

D was a mixture of excited and nervous about the appointment.     He asked what it was about and I explained that it was trying to get him some help because of his funny hands.      His fingers have hyper mobility, which basically means they bend in ways they shouldn’t!   His knuckles look like those of an old person riddle with arthritis.     He is not in any pain with them, but he has problems with his fine motor skills, which is why at his end of year meeting last term, they had suggested the referral.

I wasn’t looking forward to it, as I thought it was a box ticking exercise to see if he actually needed to see OT.      Their waiting list is at them moment about 6 months, so I imagine they are doing everything they can to only make sure those that really need to see them get put on the waiting list, which I suppose is understandable.

The appointment was at 10:30am, so it wasn’t worth putting D into school in the morning, just to pull him out again less than an hour later.      He therefore made the most of winding M up as he headed out to school!

I managed to time it right getting there so he didn’t have too long to wait before the doctor came and got us.

The first ten minutes were spent talking about family medical history, and my pregnancy with D.   I was getting a little annoyed by this, as D was getting agitated by the time she seemed to notice him.    When she said his notes were missing and she only knew about his diagnosis, and his referral, I was flabbergasted!     No wonder she needed all the background information.

She then had D doing some block building and peg placing to see how his hands were coping.    She agreed he was having some difficulty.

Then the nasty part started as she had him up on the bed and manipulated his hips, knees, and ankles, until he was almost in tears.       She then repeated the process with his arms.     The poor wee man was holding it totally together, but I could see the discomfort he was in.     This went on for a good 20 minutes.

She then had him running up and down the corridor.       Then walking foot in front of each other as if on a tightrope.     It is only when you are observing things like this, and someone asks if things are always that way, that you see things that you don’t notice everyday!     D couldn’t put his feet toe to heel, as his feet splay to a ridiculous degree, it is what my Dad would have called ten to two feet – as in if he was stood on a clock face that’s the time he would be pointing to!        Also his bandy knees were pointed out.    I know when I try to cut his toenails, he can’t straighten his leg at a forward facing angle, but just took it as he was being awkward!       I don’t think he will every stop a pig in a passage anyway!

She then did his height and weight.    I stopped her before she started on this, and said I wasn’t prepared to discuss it in front of D as he was already becoming paranoid about his weight because of bullying and comments at school.       To my surprise, she was quite understanding!     I said if she needed to talk about it, I would do so over the phone or at an appointment when he wasn’t in the room.     She said as long as we were monitoring things then she was happy with that – I did however hear the “for now” that wasn’t actually spoken!

After all this D sat down, and half lay onto my lap, he wasn’t happy, but was keeping quiet.

She then said that there was quite a plan of action she wanted to discuss with her team as to moving D forward.    Firstly she said she would refer him for physio which would help him to be moving his problematic joints correctly.      She will also refer him to OT as there are definitely things they can do for him to make his life easier.     Lastly though is the slightly more worrying thing, and that is she wants him to been seen by orthopedics to have his joints properly assessed.     She believes he has hyper-mobility definitely in his knees, and probably in his hips and ankles, and his arms need to be checked as this is probably be why he refuses to lift his shoulders.

It was a whoosh of information!

She will see him in 6 months to see how he is getting on.

As we came out, he just let rip about the things she had done to him, and how he didn’t like it.       I’m sure he will remember this when we do go back!      We didn’t head back to school, instead, I let him run his anger off in the park.   He would have achieved nothing had he attended for the afternoon.

I put my hands up and say I was wrong to have been annoyed at the GP not giving me the referral I had asked for.    If we had of just gone to OT, then the rest of his problems would not be in the system.

I feel so sorry for the wee man, as he copes with things with little or no complaint, and yet you see that he struggles.        I of course feel guilty for the times I shout at him for dawdling, as I now believe there is a reason for it other than laziness!

It is moving forward, and as always, doing things to help him cope better it always the priority.