For the most part, I am vegetarian. Although every now and then bacon gets me to fall off the wagon! I also love my slow cooker. I turn it on in the morning and come home to dinner. But all my recipes hinged on meat. Browsing the cookbooks in my public library, I discoverd several slow cooker books for vegetarians and vegans.

I made this very yummy recipe from The Vegan Slow Cooker by Kathy Hester:

Tempeh Braised with Figs and Port Wine
2 tablespoons (30 ml) olive oil
1 small onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 package (8 ounces or 25 g) tempeh* cubed
8 fresh figs (may substitute dried figs)
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon (15 ml) balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon (6 g) vegan chicken flavored bouillon
1 sprig fresh rosemary
1 sprig fresh thyme
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat and saute the onion until translucent, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the garlic and saute one minute longer. Combine all ingredients in the slow cooker. Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours.

Yield 4 servings.

*Tempeh is a soy product and a good source of protein. In this recipe, it totally absorbs the all the flavors. The texture is more "toothsome" than tofu. I am not overly fond of tofu, but I love tempeh. You can find it in the refrigerated section with other meat substitutes at health food stores or in the organic part of the produce section of some grocery stores like Publix.

Happy eating!

I Choose

This is the newest post to the pantry door which is becoming "Life Central" for me.

What SHOULD you do? What do you HAVE to do?

What do you choose to do? What is your choice right this minute?

Mortality

Last Tuesday, I spoke to a cancer support group. It was difficult for me to do. I spent a great deal of time preparing. Talking about our own mortality is difficult. Those of us who can do that have learned to truly embrace the present moment and all the good things life has to offer.

As I looked around the room, my mind went back to a dinner about a year ago. The dinner guests included lupus researcher, a top rheumatologist, and potential donors. During the meal they naturally talked about lupus. When it came to mortality from lupus, I spoke up saying, "It's really hard for those of us with lupus to hear you talk about mortality statistics." And it was. And it is.

One of my fellow teachers has a husband with severe lupus. On Wednesday of this past week, he died from complications of lupus, leaving behind a wife and two young children. Camilo Molina, rest in peace and my light perpetual shine upon you.

My Insurance Company: The Pill Police

I thought I was over it. I thought I was over dealing with gross stupidity and annoyance when it comes to my medical care. I was wrong!

I went on line today to order a refill for my Cellcept, the wonder drug that suppresses my immune system and allows me to keep my kidneys. I entered all the information and clicked "check out" and then...I got a message that the order could not be processed and that I needed to call customer service. Sigh. I tried again on line and then surrendered and called.

When I calmly and sweetly (yes I really did that) mentioned that the new website would not let me order on line and that perhaps, in the interest of customer service, they might want to check out the website issue the order taker MADE UP a stupid answer. "Well, Ma'am some medication, well you have to call you know. I don't know why, but it happens." I took a deep breath and said, "I have been doing this on line for years. And you are guessing that it all of a sudden changed?" We went on with the transaction. She was slow as molasses and mumbled like she had a mouth full of marbles.

And then...then came the questions from the order taker turned pill police. "Do you ever forget to take your medication? Do you take two pills a day every day?" Any time I need to call this pharmacy, which, by the way is owned by United Health Care, they ask the pill police questions. Once I said, "Excuse me, are you the pill police?" Another time I asked,"And where did you get your medical degree?" Yes, I know it is their job, but I find it intrusive.

Some kind of old anger surfaced today when the mumble mouthed, order taking, answer faking pill police started the questions. I said, "Look here, I give lectures on these medications. I am the program director for the Lupus Foundation of Florida. This is a discussion I will have with my doctor but not with you." To her credit she said, "Ma'am you can just say you don't want to answer the questions." I said, "Fine, I donl't want to answer the questions so please don't ask any more."

What troubles me here is that I thought I was well over the anger of my encounters with all things medical. I trust and respect my rheumy. I am glad labs exist. I give thanks several times a day for my medications. But today, out of the blue, an old batch of anger surfaced. I felt all the sensations of anger and defensiveness in my body.

This afternoon, I sat for meditation. The pill police incident was nowhere in my conscious my thoughts. Tonight I realize that my anger was not the anger of having a chronic illness like lupus. My anger was about the system that controls our care, patronizes us, and treats us as less than human.

The Pantry Door

I forget things, probably because I always have lots of projects and ideas buzzing around inside my head all the time. I have tried lists. I have tried breaking projects down to specific tasks and putting each task on a note card. I have tried sticky notes. I have tried notebooks. All of these things have helped, but I still end up with that constant background noise of unfinished projects draining my energy.

Recently I read a book about mind mapping. Honestly, the book was horribly written. I decided to try the concept anyway. I sat down with paper and colored Sharpies and quickly made a bunch of mind maps for different projects. Of course, I ended up with a pile of mind maps! Last week, I made a mind map for the week. There were lots of things on the map. As I looked at it, I thought, "You are nuts. You are never going to get through all this stuff this week! You are setting yourself up for failure."

I posted the mind map at eye level on the pantry door, a place that I pass at least a gazillion times a day. Much to my surprise, by the end of the week everything was done. Instead of being immobilized because I could not figure out which thing to tackle next, I just looked at the map and picked one thing. My week was peaceful and productive. I could get into this!

This is a picture of my mind map for this week.

Lupus Isolates

Lupus isolates people. Chronic illness isolates people. After the diagnosis, you are forever changed. You realize very quickly that the people who live in the land of the healthy have no idea what it is like to live in the land of the chronically ill. We have learned a new language and culture that they cannot understand unless they come to this land.

I gave a Lupus 101 presentation today. I watched the faces of the newly diagnosed as they learned about what lupus can do to a person. I watched the faces of the lupus veterans, nodding their heads. The presentation was heavy on the science. The questions afterwards were on social and emotional. I let the veterans answer.

One thing that every newly diagnosed person mentioned was that they had felt alone and isolated. They have no one in their lives who understands what it is like to have lupus. For the first time, they were in a room full of people who do understand. That's what support groups are about. We do not have to go it alone!

Chloroquine Retinopathy

Last month I had my field of vision screening for chloroquine retinopathy. I take a drug called hydroxychloroquine (Plaquenil) an anti-malarial that helps control lupus. It takes about 6 months to take full effect. I have been on it for 9.5 years.

It's a great maintenance drug, but it can mess with your eyes. My field of vision was not good. The opthamologist sent me to the retina dude. After another hour and a half of testing, he concluded that the field of vision issues were not caused by the drug, but that I require serious monitoring every six months.

The drug can build up on the retina affecting the rods and cones. Apparently, they change color and sometimes that shows as a bulls eye lesion as in this picture. I saw the pictures and this is not happening in my eyes. Yay!

People who take plaquenil, please follow your schedule of eye exams. People who have been on plaquenil for over 5 years and those over age 60 are at particular risk. Just do it!