Up and Down

These last couple of months have been really up and down for me. I have some really good days with lots of energy and hardly any pain, and no sooner than I can blink the next day I'm exhausted and nauseated and at like a 5 or 6. I know that some of it is attributed to the fact that since both my husband and I are in school right now and there really is no set schedule. Add on top of that the fact that I haven't been able to make a meal schedule so I've been winging it on my meals and this last week my allergies started attacking me. Wednesday I was driving with the boys and all of a sudden the periphial vision of both eyes looked like they had disco balls on the side of them and whenever I would try to focus on one thing a white ball would appera in my vision.

So with all that going on, plus painting and getting carpet in my basement last week I got behind on all my housework and barely cooked any meals. Today I will be spending most of my time trying to get all the laundry done (probably about 4 loads) and kitchen cleaned up and taking photos before my class tonight.I was hoping that today would be a day full of energy, but seeing as how it's almost lunch time and I'm still feeling like it's time to go to bed I'm not thinking so. At least my pain is only at like a 3 so I'm pretty functional. Just got to find a way to get some energy before class tonight. My classroom is very warm and it's a four hour long class and sometimes it can be difficult to stay awake.

Let Them Eat Pound Cake!!

As I write this I am enjoying a delicious piece of Cream Cheese Pound Cake. This is an IC friendly recipe that can be found at Niki's Blog. This is a blog that I found last week that has a lot of IC friendly recipes. I'm really enjoying looking at all of the different recipes that are ones that I use a lot in my monthly meal planning, and am myself not very creative at looking at a non-IC friendly recipe and switching out the ingredients to make it more pleasing. And the best part is, the recipes that I have tried have been given the "thumbs up" by my families and other people who do not have IC. Which is a very good thing! I will be using a lot of Niki's recipes in the future.

Some other good news is that these last few days I have found myself with more energy than I have had EVER in I would say the last decade, maybe even 15 years. I don't know if I can attribute it to the taking of the Elmiron, but it definitely isn't hurting. I mean this week alone I've already done more housework than I usually have the energy to do in a month! Needless to say my husband is very much enjoying this. :) I don't know how long this energy supply will continue, but I'm definitely going to take advantage of it and use it to my benefit.

The other thing is if anybody has a  a recipe for a White Chocolate Shake I would love to have it. Steak n Shake makes one, but they only serve it November through January and as the only other shake they make that is IC friendly is vanilla (gross) and January is very quickly nearing an end, I would love to have a recipe that I can make at home.

Please feel free to leave comments if you do go to Niki's blog and tell me what you think of her recipes. Oh, in full disclosure, she does say that she has discovered she can tolerate lemon zest (I've not been daring enough to try this yet) and small amounts of onions, so she does include them in some of her recipes. But, like with her Pot Roast and Veggies that I made yesterday, I just left out the onions and it still tasted delicious!! I'm learning that a lot of the recipes you grew up with you can make IC friendly, and while they may not be exactly as you remember, they can still be quite tasty.

If this works....

I have been on Elmiron for almost 3 weeks now and, thankfully, I have had no negative side effects. At first I thought that it was causing me to be easily agitated, but then I realized that that was just happening because of other non-IC related stuff. It's hard to tell if it's actually doing anything, but I'll know more probably in a couple of months.

My husband asked me right after I started taking Elmiron "If this works, you're healed completely and can eat whatever you want. What would be the first meal you would eat?" I thought about it for all of five seconds and said "A brat topped with mustard, green peppers and onions, a side of sauerkraut and pasta salad." :) He laughed and I got hungry. Just thinking about having all of those things at one time and not having any ill side effects from it? That would be HEAVEN!! (How sad my little dreams are.) And now in thinking of that I would probably add on a chocolate shake or a huge glass of pop. (Again pitiful dreams.)

So, so far so good as far as my new medication goes. Which I'm very thankful for. I know that not everybody is so lucky when it comes to this medication or any other one they might be on. I hope you all enjoyed the holiday season. May the new year bring new answers for us and IC in general. :)