From the Do It Sick Chef: Oatmeal!

Hey there Gentle Reader:  we all gotta eat right?  Well who likes a one-bowl meal that will satisfy your cravings for something sweet, savory, fatty/rich, and satisfying?  Me!

Check out this version of oatmeal that is good enough for a breakfast, lunch or dinner feast from the Do It Sick Chef (aka Just Julie).

To follow all of the Do It Self Chef videos and join in the chat, “Like” my Facebook page at Hope Beyond.  I’d love to hear from you and the strategies that are working for you while recovering from serious illness or just life in general, eh?

By following this blog and clicking on the Do It Sick Chef category, you can also keep track of the latest meals, tips, and survival strategies.

Lord willing, we are going to get well!

Take care, JJ

Do It Sick Chef

And heeeeeere’s an important announcement!

You are invited to join my Hope Beyond Facebook page for the first release of my new video series entitled the

Do It Sick Chef

This soon-to-be published YouTube video series will feature simple meals, meal preparation strategies, kitchen organization tips, and general silliness depicted in real life for persons on special diets recovering from serious illness.  The video will be minimally processed (no-make-up), Non-GMO (nothing fake or poisonous), organic (where possible), grass-fed (when affordable), and filled with an occasional bark from a cute German shepherd in the background.  And if I can convince a foodie friend or two to make me a video for us then they will share the venue too (Sherry, here is your hint, hint!).

Get introduced to foods I know you will love someday like TURNIPS, ghee butter, and frozen vegetables that actually transform into something wonderful when sautéed at ridiculous temperatures in  ghee!

Since I am exhausted from taping the first few segments, all I can share with you now is a picture of the first meal that came together before I collapsed.  Hey, this is real-life, real-food, and really wacky!  I know you are going to get a kick out of it, Gentle Reader.  And Lord willing if you follow maybe half of what is shown, we are all going to get well too (but I make no claims on the turnips part!).

Take care and watch the Hope Beyond FB page for updates (and maybe this blog if I get around to it!).  :JJ

UPDATE:  The first episode is now live on Vimeo!  Let’s make something that resembles lunch!

almond milk, coconut milk, special diet, mold free, gluten free, Candida, sugar free, Lyme, Mold, Mercury, Seizure diet, food as medicine
Sautéed Veggies and Meat, Oven-Roasted Applesauce, and Caila Farms Coconut Almond Milk for Lunch

Recovery is a jagged line

Today my words came back to me.  My beloved Steve was comforting with his encouragement that there can be many setbacks even when on the road to recovery.  Ah yes.  The old, “recovery is a jagged line” speech.  I have let those words fly many times when working with my patients as an occupational therapist.  There was the cardiac patient who was frustrated with having to restrict his activity level to basically mope-ing around the house for his first week home from the hospital.  I also recall a lady practically quarantined in a back bedroom of her home with a great view of the surrounding woodlands.  She had a portable refrigerator, phone, laptop, accessible bathroom, hospital bed, wheelchair, walker and many conveniences to help her recover from a knee replacement surgery.  I had to encourage her to push up her jagged line a bit lest she become too comfortable in her hospital room at home!

occupational_therapy_no_limitsOne of the many reasons I enjoyed working in home health care was the ability to use the person’s real-life situations, supplies, and responsibilities as part of his or her occupational therapy.  The role of an O.T. is to evaluate the daily activities of an individual and the skills needed to complete those activities.  When there is a breakdown due to an illness, surgery, mental health problem, developmental delay, disability, or disease process, the O.T. works with the patient and his or her resources to restore function.  I was always amazed at how “resourceful” some patients could be!  I think the farmers were the best.  I’ll never forget the industrious wife of a patient suffering after several failed back surgeries.  The lady of the house had built from scrap wood a rolling cart with a seat on top and rope attached to move it along the floors in her home.  What was she moving?  Well her husband of course!  He was eligible for a wheelchair rental but evidently the subject never came up.  I don’t think they even wanted one when it became available.  The downside:  the gentleman would not likely become independent in household mobility and related activities when sitting on a cart that had to be pulled by others.  Recovery is sometimes a flat line too:  no true recovery at all.

As for me, the recovery is moving forward.  I am 12 days into using high CBD hemp oil to attempt to control daily seizure-like tic episodes.  Today I had a setback for about 2 hours but at least the episode was low grade without a severe neck headache or pain.  And when night time rolled around to my bewitching hours of 9-11:00 p.m. there were pre-tic symptoms and nothing else.  This is the second night in a row with relief!  Every night prior to this and for the past 8 months I have had 2-4 hours of intermittent seizures.  Virtually every day or night for the past 2-1/2 years I have had intermittent waking seizures.   Praise the Lord, the pattern is changing!  At either set intervals or when noxious symptoms start I take a full or partial dose of high CBD hemp oil and get relief.  Nothing has ever done this before!

It’s not like I haven’t prayed, submitted, waited, or tried more diets/supplements/drugs/manual therapies/technologies/chiropractors/testing/remediation than, as they used to say, “Carter has got pills!”  I am actually still preparing to see methylation and biotoxin illness specialists in Michigan later this month.  It is likely that the cause of illness is related more to exposure to biotoxins than Lyme disease.  All that may be clearer sometime down the road.  At this time my husband and I are rejoicing for the relief from our hellish nights.  He just might start getting a full night of sleep before too long!  That is if we don’t stay up for other reasons . . . ;J

If you are curious about high CBD hemp oil then I offer this informational website:  www.mycbdresearch.com  and join the discussion on Facebook at:  www.facebook.com/CBDhempandseizures  There’s hope here for many with seizures and other neurological, intractable health conditions.  For all of us there is one ultimate source of hope that will sustain us whether recovery is a straight, jagged, or invisible line:  a relationship with the Lord, Jesus Christ.  To find Him we only need to get on our knees and open our hearts to His enduring love, His love letters to each of us in the Bible.  I would have never made it this far without my Jesus.  I am humbled and grateful for many aspects of these past 2 1/2 years:  I’m working on accepting the wretched parts.

Meeting you, Gentle Reader, along the way is a sweet gift.  Thank you for being a part of my recovery too.  JJ