Intermittent Fasting: 20 Months In

 June 2022: I think this is around the time that I discovered that my AIC levels were high -- creeping above 6.0. At this time I decided to cut sugar out of my diet, and make some reasonable attempt to curb my bad carbohydrate intake. I cut out sweets, desserts, and ice cream. I'd stopped drinking sodas several years before. I didn't think it was doable to stop eating carbs altogether, but I switched to wheat bread with zero added sugars. Otherwise, however, I did not change my eating. I continued to have breakfast as soon as I got up in the morning, and I usually had a snack of popcorn in the evenings.

September, 2022: My AIC was 6.3. My doctor informed me that my diet changes were not working. She strongly advised me to start on pre-diabetic medications. I did not want to do this. I asked for more time.

Previously, Adam had used intermittent fasting for weight loss in 2014 with very good success. He did long fasts -- 2 or 3 days. It didn't last, and when he stopped fasting, he regained the weight. But intermittent fasting stuck in my mind. Adam had read Dr. Jason Fung's book and watched his videos on Youtube. Fung is a real doctor, a kidney specialist, from Toronto. He did not seem like a quack, and he'd had good success getting his obese patients to lose weight and regain health with intermittent fasting.

I've never found weight-loss to be a sufficient motivator for dieting, much less fasting. But avoiding daily diabetic medications? Metformin? Insulin injections? Finger pricks? YIKES! I'd watched my daddy battle that for 50 years, and I was determined -- very determined -- to avoid that road if I could. I resisted my doctor, who called intermittent fasting a "crazy diet." I started intermittent fasting in September, 2022. That was 20 months ago.

First, weight loss. I lost a little over 30 pounds and have kept it off. That's nice, but wasn't my goal.

Second, intermittent fasting is not easy. It requires a significant change to how most Americans eat -- WHEN we eat. We're used to focusing on WHAT we eat (which is also important, of course), but our attitude to our eating schedule is: when you want to eat, eat.

December, 2022: My AIC was 6.2.

July, 2023: My AIC was 6.1. The reversal of my pre-diabetes was slow, but it was happening!

I do a 16 hour fast every day. I eat dinner at about 4:00 pm, and I don't have anything except water until about 8:00 am the next morning. I'm not perfectly consistent, I occasionally cheat, but not often, and if I do jump off-wagon over a holiday or a vacation, I immediately resume my schedule when I get back home.

Third, no you're not hungry. I thought I was starving at first. I desperately wanted snacks in the evening. I craved chocolate. I wanted to put something in my mouth. But it's all in the mind, and not in the stomach. After about a year of intermittent fasting, I no longer craved anything, and I no longer wanted food outside of my eating window. I remind myself, during my eating window, to eat! Enjoy food! I still don't eat sweets, but I do enjoy carbs and other things. I don't crave sweets much at all. I eat more fruit than I used to. 

Then, during my fasting window, I remind myself that my body is healing, it's getting rid of all those calories and quieting the sugar down. Now, when I'm fasting, I feel very good. I don't want big meals. I never want to stuff myself. Fasting really does make your body -- your gut especially -- feel good.

January, 2024: My AIC was 6.2 again, and my doctor is not pleased. However, that was after Thanksgiving and Christmas, traveling and celebrating. I'm not too worried.

I know I can control my AIC with intermittent fasting. I know I can successfully do fasting for the rest of my life without much trouble. It feels normal now to eat on this schedule. If, one evening, I can't eat dinner early and I eat at 6:00 pm, then the next morning I delay breakfast until 10:00 am. It's not that hard. I just had to overcome my mindset about eating whenever I wanted. 

I can't guarantee success for anybody else, but I can recommend that you read and research for yourself. It takes commitment, probably a commitment for the rest of your life. That's hard. But I know that diabetic meds are rough on the body, and I want to be healthy, not medicated -- if possible.  

Today, it's raining.

 The high today will be 76 degrees. It feels like fall. I know it's early August, but everything within me longs for autumn. I know we have two months of heat remaining, but it's so easy to imagine that today is October, that today I will put on a sweater, that today I will walk among the fallen leaves.

So in honor of October-that-is-not-here, I'll share this poem ... again.

October

by Robert Frost

O hushed October morning mild,

Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;

Tomorrow's wind, if it be wild,

Should waste them all.

The crows above the forest call;

Tomorrow they may form and go.

O hushed October morning mild

Begin the hours of this day slow.

Make the day seem to us less brief.

Hearts not averse to being beguiled,

Beguile us in the way you know.

Release one leaf at break of day;

At noon release another leaf;

One from our trees, one far away;

Retard the sun with gentle mist;

Enchant the land with amethyst.

Slow, slow!

For the grapes' sake, if they were all.

Whose leaves already are burnt with frost.

Whose clustered fruit must else be lost --

For the grapes' sake along the wall.

There are many elegant poems whose every word seems wondrously and perfectly placed, but to me, I think this is the most perfect poem for subject, rhythm, technique, and effect.

The rain is not insignificant. My chicken pen is a mass of soggy mud, and the hens don't know where to go, to get their little feet out of the wet. Their feathers droop with sogginess. Brownie is being broody and is in the final days of sitting on a clutch of a dozen eggs. She is the only dry hen, hunkered in her broody box with her feathers fluffed over the eggs.

Beau and I are on the couch watching the Olympic runners give it their all in Tokyo. It's a day to stay inside, so I think I'll go back to painting, which I've taken a break from for a couple of weeks. Instead, I've been weaving and making youtube videos, which is creative in its own right.

It's been exactly a year since Adam was diagnosed with his illness and we began this long road of treatment. This morning he is at the internist's getting lots of blood drawn for various tests. One of them will determine whether he is heading into remission and can come off of his immunosuppressant medication. (Most organ transplant patients take between 1500-200 mg of this med each day; Adam takes 4500 mg daily.) We are very eager for him to be off this drug, and give his immune system a chance to work again. He has been full of so much anxiety lately regarding all this. We hope for good news.

But today -- I'm loving the sound of rain outside, and a snug, dry house inside. Time for a good, hot cup of tea and some time in my studio. I may paint. But I may stare out the window.

To the Dreaded Doctor I Go!

 Well, hello friends! How are you? We are tootling along okay here in our little corner of the planet. But tomorrow ... oh, tomorrow!! Tomorrow will be quite awful. Tomorrow:

Most of you know what that means. And what follows the day after! Adam says a colonoscopy just feels like a very nice nap. I'm hoping!

I wove a scarf using some of my newly handspun yarn! The warp yarn is a store-bought acrylic (for strength under the warp tension), and the weft yarn is homespun.

The little lady below is an treetop Christmas angel. She's very old. A dear friend asked me if I could give her (I'm calling her Angela) a serious make-over, so I started that project today. I'll have a youtube video about that later.

Adam is trying so hard to cook for my health. I'm pre-diabetic. Long-grain brown rice. Lots of fruits, veggies, and lean meats. No more ice cream in the evenings!

For at least one meal each day I eat an assortment of some of these: prunes, crackers/cheese, cherry tomatoes, cucumber slices, celery with PB, natural applesauce, walnuts, raw carrots. No more sweet drinks or juice. I'm drinking my herbal tea each day.

Here's the blue/pink yarn I spun.

Back before my doctor read me the riot act about my eating habits, back when we were still eating naughty ...

bread pudding and rum sauce for dinner ~

and a pumpkin danish from the bakery in town ~

No more of that!

The other day I was cleaning out an old purse, and I found some items I'd forgotten I'd left in there. One was a very precious thing, a small photo of my brother and me, taken on the seawall steps leading into Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans. I was 5 years old.

My mother gave me that short haircut. We lived there for only one year. I think this photo was taken by a couple who babysat Marshall and me for the weekend while my parents traveled somewhere. The steps are still there, just the same.

One more yarn photo. I think it's the prettiest one so far.

If you haven't seen my recent youtube videos, here are a few. Some are longer and chatty, some are shorter. Feel free to fast forward through any boring parts! Spinning is so exciting right now, it's hard for me to do anything else!

This is about making herbal tea:

This is about my brand new spinning wheel that I was able to buy!!

This is a long chatty video about lots of things, but mostly finishing handspun yarn:

Thanks, dear friends. I have lots of various medical things coming up, and will be in and out of blogland 😁 Subscribe to my youtube channel, if you like, and you might see me over there! 

Much love ~

Here's to Happier Days!

 Two days away from Facebook has been a pleasant, healing thing. It takes me about two minutes to check a few groups I like for new posts, and maybe look in on a friend or two's pages for anything new. I still enjoy reading my friends' comments on pictures I post there.

Another friend mentioned privately that she's deactivating her account, and several of you commented on my last post that you've also left Facebook. I'm heading over to Instagram for my daily "social media" scrolling fix, haha. Instagram is a happier place and doesn't allow for threads of conversation. 

I've caught up on my reading of your blogs! Yay! And I've pondered getting back into spinning. Yes! How far have I gotten in that? Well, I took the big black bag of dark brown alpaca fleece and put it into the freezer. It has old mouse poop all through it, and I figured if I froze it, I might easily shake most of the poop out. Can you believe that mouse poop has kept me from spinning for over 2 years? Actually, that's not true. Not knowing what to do with the yarn I make is what's keeping me from spinning.

I want to order some gorgeous, brightly-colored rolags from some lovely sheep farm, and spin with it. It's already clean. However, I do enjoy combing and dizzing the fleece. I need fleece that's clean, dyed, but not otherwise processed.

Adam made bread last night.

He didn't sleep well. His Cellcept has been steeply increased. (People recovering from a kidney transplant take about 700 mg/day. He takes 3000 right now. Might get increased again.) The doctor is trying to taper down his prednisone dosage. Yesterday afternoon he said he felt better than he had in a while -- less exhausted. So we went for a walk. That didn't last long! He wore out again. This morning (after little sleep) he says he feels ill inside himself again. This is an up-and-down disease.

So today I'm labeling soap, examining that fleece, perhaps knitting, making lunch, doing laundry, and taking a nap. Throw some youtube channels in there too. I won't be painting cards; I have too many cards, and nobody's buying them right now, so I'll stop for a bit. Back to the farmer's market (hopefully) in a few weeks, and maybe that'll help with sales.

I've started putting a sort of watermark on my photos of art. 
Have a lovely day, all! May you find peace and joy in the day!

What's on my Camera?

Hmm. Let's see if I have anything to share with my dear blogging friends ....

I visited the thrift store and spent some leisure time in the bookstacks. Books were half-price, so I indulged in some that I normally wouldn't. I'm calling these "because the library is closed indefinitely" books. Also, "books I don't mind donating back" books.  That was a freeing feeling!

I have a little familiarity with all those titles except the Snow Flower novel by Lisa See. I've never read a Rosamund Pilcher book before, but I have an inordinate love of The Shell Seekers movie with Angela Landsbury.

Adam made "BLAT"s for lunch --  Bacon, Lettuce, Avocado Dip, Tomato Sandwiches. And yes, it IS that much better than a BLT. You're welcome!

My creative juices have been squeezed out of my brain lately, thanks to unrelenting worry. But here's one.

I sewed another stack of masks for the Masketeers group.

I found sewing easier on the mind than painting, so I turned  my attention to my cranky old sewing  machine. I cleaned the lint from the bobbin area.

I decided to clean it a bit more, needed instructions to do so, and discovered my grandmother's scribbles in the manual.

I'd love to ask her what "slow hand" means.

I began to disassemble some parts and give squirts of oil.

This is a hefty, sturdy machine with metal parts.

Our anniversary is coming up, and I want to make a second vest for Adam from the pattern I bought online. Below are the pattern pieces and fabric, all cut out. The brown fabric is the vest front; the lavender linen is the back and the inside lining.

Today I actually finished the sewing of the vest and tried it on him. It's a lovely fit, and I fixed the problems with the first vest. I have no photos yet; I'll show you it next time. It needs top-stitching, buttons/holes, and the strap along the back.

Adam is feeling a  bit better and is able to eat and (more importantly), cook! Here are a  few things he made in recent days:

Eggs Benedict for breakfast

Squash breaded (in corn starch) and fried in peanut oil. Guacamole dip in the back.

Homemade gnocchi with fresh basil and Parmesan cheese

Maybe that'll get you hungry for dinner! 

Today is a day for waiting. We're waiting for biopsy results from the dermatologist about Adam's illness. At this point they think it is probably Pemphigus Vulgaris, a very rare autoimmune illness, a skin-blistering disease. Not a very good disease to have, although it is treatable, and most sufferers live normal lives once the illness is gotten into remission. Usually that requires heavy rounds of steroids for a while, followed by other medications that keep it in check. So today, we are nervous, waiting for the call this week. It is the kind of diagnosis that can be a little life-altering. But I hope it will be better than the insane stress of the past 4-5 months of alarmingly increasing illness with no idea what's causing it, and nobody to help us. That's the worst. Many of you have been through these very rough patches in life, and come out the other side. We will this time too. Many thanks for your prayers.

Breathing Again

It's Saturday now. On Wednesday I took Adam to the E.R. in Greenville, on the rheumatologist's strong advice. He'd found nothing in his testing to indicate he could help Adam. "Take him to the E.R.," he said. We hoped to find more help at a large teaching hospital. And although it was hectic there and even scary from the influx of Covid patients, we were not disappointed. Adam was in bad shape (his tongue was so swollen it filled his mouth), but the worst part was the hopelessness of thinking we might not find help, that we would be sent home with him just the same. I cannot express the despair and fear of that.

But an internal medicine doctor who studied Adam's mouth sores decided to keep him overnight to do a culture on them. He is pretty certain the sores are viral infection. He also prescribed a steroid dental paste -- a steroid paste that you apply to your teeth so that it will transfer to your tongue and cheeks. This is a paste we already had at home, that had been prescribed by an ENT two months ago! But he gave Adam the wrong instructions for applying it (rubbing it into the open sores was not the correct way -- excruciating!), so it sat, unused. And Adam suffered for two months unnecessarily.

At the hospital he was also prescribed an anti-viral and a steroid mouthwash. He feels so much better -- his symptoms are under better control than when he was on steroid shots or pills. Will it last? We don't know. Is this caused by a virus? We don't know. Will it go away on its own? We don't know. We hope so. If this is also a virus, that means Adam contracted THREE viruses this spring. Somehow that seems bizarre and unlikely.

I have my own troubles: anxiety. I've struggled with anxiety for years, but these latest difficulties have made it a bit more debilitating. The trouble with anxiety is that it grows. The more distress you experience, the more anxiety you have, and each new event gives you a bit more. This is my own health issue to cope with, and I'll be addressing that, hopefully in more productive ways than I have in the past, on my own.

Since Adam feels better, he is cooking again! He didn't cook for about two months.

He made Chinese stir fry.

My tummy was so happy to meet Adam's cooking again!

I'm sewing masks again.

I've found a group of ladies in our county who make masks for charitable organizations to give out to their people who need them.

Hope Clinic is one, a free medical clinic in the county.

They provide the fabric and elastic. I'd stopped making masks because I had no more elastic.

I made 8 masks today: 3 large, 3 medium, and 3 child size.

I've done a little painting. I like these faded flowers.

This is a larger piece, not a card.

And some speckled eggs for fall:

A Facebook watercolor group sets a challenge each week. This week it's butterflies:

See the same fading technique here as with the flowers?

To be honest, I'm mostly resting at home, trying to convince my suspicious brain that things might be getting back to normal, that I'm not losing my husband, that there is hope for his future again. We really were losing that hope, watching it slip away day after day. There's no guarantee that this improvement will last ... but there's hope. We thank God for listening to the many prayers thrown up to heaven, and for answering. We hope in Him.

Keep On Keeping On

I toyed with titling this post "Struggling Along," but I didn't want to be too depressing! Adam is home from the hospital, and his medications helped so much. He did a little video thanking the hospital staff for his good care. (He's kind that way. They were not always eminently competent.) 

But as the steroid doses have tapered down, his symptoms are returning. His tongue is swelling; his pain is increasing. He's had much difficulty swallowing and especially eating. He is "soldiering on," as they say. 

The new ENT in Greenville said his symptoms are not a result of allergies. Good to know. He also refers Adam to a rheumatologist. The opthamalogist on Wednesday confirmed that Adam still has active Adenovirus in both eyes. A long regimen of steroid drops will keep his eyes under control. We just need a doctor for his mouth/throat to do the same! He returns to our P.T. today, and we hope she will prescribe an ongoing dose of steroids to manage his pain and symptoms until either 1) a diagnosis is found or 2) both viruses run their course and his symptoms go away.

Phew! What else have we been doing? Honestly, we've devoted so much of our time to his health, we haven't done much else. I have been painting, however. I've sent out many packages in the mail to customers! Very exciting. If you want to see my M.K. Christiansen Watercolor facebook page, click here. If you want to see what cards I have right now, click here.

I loved painting this rooster.

The chicken cards were requested by a friend.

Lavender:

Geraniums:

This is my favorite of the orange tulip buds yet.

The piece below is larger, 9" x 12". It was a commission for a friend, for her husband. A bit tricky, but I enjoyed it.

Adam has worked on his youtube video channels whenever his speaking voice has allowed him too. He taught Bible study on Tuesday night and met some workmen at the church today. Life goes on.

Guess what happens tomorrow?! Baby Isaac is coming for a visit! His parents are coming along too (heehee!) We are so very excited. Next week will include a lot of family vacation time. I'll check back with you later!

Rescuing Limoges

Adam has been so sick (more about that in a second), and sometimes I need a break to cope. Yesterday I went down to the thrift store just before they closed. Granny Marigold, this is for you! I rescued some Limoges china! Yes, I did!

 It was so lovely and delicate, I could not leave it there, sad in its cardboard box on the shelf among the ugly mugs. 

I'm making these photos nice and big, Granny Marigold!

There were 3 plates (salad plates, I think?), 4 saucers, and a single cup. All for $4. That tea cup is lighter than air, the bone china is so thin.

Now, on to Adam. Yesterday afternoon he said quietly to me, "Now, I don't want to scare you or anything, but I think it's time to go to the E.R."

So we went. They do triage in a tent in the parking lot because of coronavirus. This is as far as I got. That's Adam's knee in the orange shorts. Why do men wear their ugliest clothing to the hospital?

He was in very bad shape. With a CT scan, they discovered he has a peritonsillar abscess in his throat. This can result from Mononucleosis (so says Google), which he's had since late March. They will do an endoscopy today of his throat and then an ENT surgeon will address the abscess. They're also treating his very swollen mouth/tongue/lips with steroids and are doing a biopsy because of the appalling, large sores in his mouth and on his tongue. The poor man has suffered like Job with this for many weeks. He's been sick since at least March 24, when I noticed he had started bandaging his eye. 

I wish I could get him back home today. A home is a very lonely place when one's beloved spouse is gone. The dogs are moping. I woke at 4:26. We've already been texting back and forth before 6:00 a.m. He says he is remarkably comfortable. He has 2 IV's with steroids, antibiotics, and antifungals, plus fluids. He was dehydrated. 

Just as a reminder to me in future, and as a cautionary tale for you readers -- Adam went to an ENT doctor in New Bern on May 18, two and a half weeks ago. Adam was referred by his P.T., who requested an endoscopy of his throat. This would have shown the abscess, but Dr. Grant did not do that. He felt Adam's throat, wondered why the P.T. had even sent Adam to him, told Adam he did not have cancer, and sent him on his way with a blister pack of steriods that lasted 5 days, and a prescription for "Duke's Magic Mouthwash" that cost us $25. 

Today, Dr. Grant is the ENT the hospital has called in to do an endoscopy to determine the size of the abscess, before another ENT surgeon comes in to address it. I bet it's bigger than it was on May 18, when he should have done this procedure at much less expense to us, in his office. 

We finally got an appointment with a different ENT in Greenville that would have happened next Tuesday, over 3 weeks after the previous visit to Dr. Grant. Because he did not do his job, my husband ended up in the hospital coughing up blood and tissue. 

It is time to get to the bottom of this, and when you have to admit yourself to the E.R. to get any answers at all from the medical community, it is a sorry state. That's expensive healthcare, in a country where healthcare is more expensive than just about anywhere else, and not as high quality. We pay a lot for ineptitude. 

Okay, enough griping! I've had my first cup of fabulous coffee and a bit of toast. Time to take the dogs out, tend to chickens, and decide how to occupy myself while pretending not to worry about my husband. Blessings to you all!

I Wore My Legs Out ...

... already this morning!

I jumped in the car early and went to Family Dollar, Dollar General, and WalMart, all within 7 minutes of my house. In addition to a few groceries, I wanted to see 1) if they had any hand sanitizer left, and 2) if they had aloe vera gel so I could make my own hand sanitizer. 

If you hadn't heard, there's a virus spreading around the world. The first case came to North Carolina yesterday. I figured it would be good to be prepared, and if we don't need it, I can always sell it, right? I wouldn't be worried much, since I'm in my 50s and and healthy, but Adam has had asthma for decades, and his lungs are already compromised. I want him to keep the coronavirus at bay!

Oh - I meant to say, WalMart was sold out of hand sanitizer. Family Dollar still had one kind left. I did find aloe vera gel -- it's chock full of various chemicals, but short of buying aloe plants and scraping the muck out of the middle of the leaves, I don't know how else to get pure gel. I'll combine the gel with some witch hazel, vitamin E oil, and essential oils, and hopefully be set for the next couple of months. Honestly I'm hoping that, here in the back-end-of-no-where in rural Pamlico County, the coronavirus won't find us. One can hope.

This week I'm also painting our church's road sign.

Nice bright new blue paint!

The paint was very faded and chipped. When Adam brought it home and lifted it onto the saw horses, the whole rounded top edge came off! So it needed repair. It's stood outside through many hurricanes, bless its heart. It will be bright and snazzy again! I don't know how many years since it was last painted. I got the first side done today, and standing on that cement in the garage "wore my legs plum out," as they say. I am on the couch now for the afternoon. The sign is made of wood full of knot holes and chips -- very uneven.

But it should look okay to anybody flying by at 45 mph.

I stopped by the library and picked up another Mary Stewart book.

I finished This Rough Magic. It was wonderful.

Y'all stay healthy out there! Especially dear Gretchen in north California. It seems that staying at home when you can, washing your hands frequently and well, and using hand sanitizer whenever you have been in public, is the best approach to keeping oneself and others healthy.  Sounds like wise advice.