Farewell to 2012

2012 was an interesting year.  Instead of focussing on doing everything I could possibly do to beat my diagnosis, I did my best to ignore it and pretend that it doesn’t exist.  Mentally, it made for a much more relaxing year.

In 2012, I learned that I love teaching little kids how to swim.  One of the first things I had to give up after my RA diagnosis was working with kids.  I missed it terribly, but too many shared germs led to too many illnesses.  What a delight to discover that parents don’t take sick kids to swimming lessons!  Even when kids are well enough to attend PE class and share their colds with everyone, parents don’t think their children can function well in the pool if they might be getting sick – some silly little detail about being able to breathe.  This means I can volunteer all the time I want in the pool without the high risk of illness associated with other types of interaction with kids.  I’m going to continue teaching in 2013, and last month took a swim-instructors course to improve my skills.  I’m also working on the endurance needed to (hopefully) pass my lifeguard certification in the spring.

2012 brought a change in family dynamics since my oldest child left for his freshman year of college.  Because I’ve homeschooled my children, I was a bit apprehensive about how college classes would be handled.  I’m happy to report that my son got a 4.0 gpa for his first semester (calculus, chemistry, engineering intro, Eng 101, manufacturing processes).  I can breathe sigh of relief, and know that continuing on the path I’ve set should have the other kids well-prepared for college when their turns come.

Canning in 2012 was different because my oldest helper was gone (to college).  With less help, I took a different approach and found a few ways to modify activities to make things easier.  Next year I’ll lose helper #2, and the following year helper #3, so I have to figure out how to do this all on my own!  One good aspect of 2012 is that I discovered a few ways to adapt my old system to do some RA-friendly canning.

In 2012, my body seemed more determined than ever to decimate my bank account, and I’m to the point that I need to see a better return on investment before sinking even more money into improvement options.  Consequently, I dropped a couple meds that didn’t seem to be helping, and did my best to limit appointments with my doctors.  Two-month follow-ups were stretched to three, three-month follow-ups were stretched to four.  Six-week labs were stretched to eight.  Rheumy suggestions to return to derm were declined.  No more trips to PT when I can do the exercises just as well at home for free.  I tried to just live my life as normally as possible, replacing as many doctor’s appointments as possible with normal activities.  It was nice.

Yes, 2012 was a nice year.  I had fun with my family.  I can walk, despite having a limited number of medical appointments.  Life is pretty good.

May you have a wonderful 2013!

RA & Dental Work

When my son was four years old, he hated the word “dentist.”  I started saying “tooth doctor” and his whole attitude changed.  Well, my spine hates going to the dentist and it doesn’t really matter what terminology is used.  Sitting in the dental chair as long as it takes to get work done on my teeth isn’t so bad, it’s the change in position afterwards that’s a problem.

Stiff spines need to change position gradually.  That means raise the chair a little bit, then wait a second for the back to adjust.  Once the spine is okay, raise a little more, wait, raise a little more, and so on.  It probably takes an extra 30 seconds.  After repeated requests that we take it slowly when returning me to vertical were ignored, a few years ago I started looking for a new dentist.

The dental offices closest to home got a chance at my business.  One place required a five-month wait for new patients, which might mean they’re really good. Turns out it just means they have scheduling issues.  The other place had better scheduling, but I didn’t like the office or the dentist. Finally I skipped two cleanings because I couldn’t stand the thought of enduring another appointment.  I am not a rocket ship. Do not launch me out of that chair!

I am happy to report that I finally found a fantastic dentist!  Unfortunately, I have to drive a distance to see him.  What a contrast, though.  The guy in town put me in a closet-sized windowless room.  He never introduced himself.  It seemed I was just another boring mouth to look at and then launch out of the chair so he could see another mouth.  The new dentist (I’ve been twice) introduced himself.  He actually read all my paperwork.  The staff was friendly and helpful.  He addressed my concern about going vertical slowly — then confessed that he’d probably forget and asked me to remind him.  When I did remind him, he apologized, paused, and waited for me to give the go-ahead.  It was really nice to be treated like a person, not a mouth.

Another thing I liked about the new dentist is that he’s using current technology.  No more molds and waiting weeks for the lab to create the needed cap/crown.  There’s a CAD program for dentists (that would be Computer Aided Design, not Coronary Artery Disease).  Special pictures of my teeth and their alignment were taken and loaded directly into a computer.  The computer created a 3D image and designed the needed cap to fit exactly into the tooth in need of repair. The design was then sent to a little machine and created on the spot.  Instead of waiting weeks and needing a second appointment, I waited 20 minutes and was done the same day.  That’s an amazing machine!

I am happy to have finally found a good dentist, and no longer need to dread the back pain associated with time spent in a dental chair.

Simplify Holiday Meals and Go GF

It seems like Thanksgiving was just yesterday, so how can Christmas be next week?  I love hosting the annual Thanksgiving/Christmas meals, but it can take a week for me to recover.  Five years ago I had no idea that an RA diagnosis would affect everything I do.  In combatting this disease, I am always trying to find ways to make holidays fun and not quite so exhausting.

Through a weird quirk of the calendar, I’m hosting both holidays this year.  Searching for a way to survive, my quest was three-fold:

• simplify the menu
• simplify the food prep
• simplify clean-up

Menu

I’m happy to report that everyone enjoyed our simplified Thanksgiving.  Changes to the menu were long overdue.  After all, do we really need both turkey and ham?  Dinner rolls and stuffing?  No.  Nutritionally, we can do better than the standard fare.  Also, I try to accommodate everybody’s dietary restrictions:  one diabetic, two gluten-free, a wide variety of food allergies including dairy, soy, onions, chicken eggs, pork, peanuts, banana, and avocado.  The pared-down menu was still quite a feast:

• turkey
• mashed potatoes
• green salad
• veggie tray with lots of olives
• cranberry sauce
• corn gravy
• dinner rolls
• apple, pumpkin, and pecan pie

Prep

With the simplified menu, I next addressed food prep.  This part I’ve been working on for a few years and have gotten good at having everybody help.  One person was assigned to bring a green salad, another was asked to bring a veggie tray, and the person who eats GF was in charge of bringing gluten-free dinner rolls.  The person who requested pecan pie was asked to bring it.  Aside from the $70 for specialty flours for the GF dinner rolls, everyone was happy with the way things worked out.

That left only a few things for me to cook.  The week prior to Thanksgiving, I checked the pantry to ensure that all the ingredients were there (unlike today, when I had to stop in the middle of my pie preparation and send someone to the grocery store for ginger and lard).  On Sunday morning (four days before Thanksgiving) I prepared the cranberry sauce.  We used it in place of syrup on our hotcakes Sunday, then refrigerated the rest for Thanksgiving (it’s much tastier over turkey than gravy).  On Monday I moved the frozen turkey into the ice chest to thaw.  I know the powers that be claim this should take place in the refrigerator, but I don’t have space in my refrigerator and the ice chest works perfectly.  Two days before the holiday, I baked pies:  three pumpkin pies (with gluten-free pie crust) and four apple pies (also GF).  The day before the big day I tried to rest so that I could enjoy my company on the big day.  In the past, I boiled the potatoes and put them through a ricer so they could just be warmed, but in the spirit of simplifying, I now used boxed mashed potatoes.  Part of me feels guilty about this because I usually do everything from scratch, but Safeway’s store-brand mashed potatoes in a box don’t contain dairy or soy, and it works for our family.  Doing a little bit each day spread the work out, and there wasn’t much to be done on the big day.

When the holiday arrived, about 8 a.m. I put the turkey in to roast so it would be done about noon.  Next I put the corn gravy on to cook (it’s the only thing that wasn’t dairy-free, and this year I made a small batch with coconut milk for those who can’t tolerate cream).  While the turkey and corn cooked, I cleaned the kitchen.  A spotless kitchen before the meal made after-dinner cleanup much easier.  When the turkey came out of the oven, I reheated the cranberry sauce and made the mashed potatoes while the turkey carver separated meat from bone.

Clean-Up

The thing that saved the largest amount of work was serving the meal buffet style.  We seat nearly twenty people, so need two tables.  In the past, I’ve had two serving dishes for everything so that both tables can be set completely.  That’s a lot of work to set the food out, and double clean-up when the meal is over.  There were significantly fewer serving dishes to deal with this year.  I arranged all the food on the kitchen counters, and people filled their plates in the kitchen, then moved into the dining room to sit at a table to eat.

Not only was serving easier, so was clean-up!  Instead of the 90 minute clean-up we usually face, all the leftovers were put away and the dishwasher was loaded within half an hour.  I cut a whole hour off the clean-up time, and got to spend that time relaxing and visiting with friends and family.

This was our first year with a gluten-free Thanksgiving, and I was concerned that it would be difficult.  Instead, it was easy.  Everyone had plenty to eat, nobody felt deprived, and simplifying the work let us have more time to enjoy one another’s company.