Festive Sweet Potatoes

This is one of my favorite holiday recipes.  I think cranberries make things look festive. I managed to lose the original recipe and had modified it anyway, so just go by memory, thus it is probably a little different each time I make it.  Below is what I did this time.

Sweet Potato Casserole

~4 lb sweet potatoes (I think this was closer to 4.5 lb)

1 red apple (I think I used Fuji because that was what I had)

1 12-oz pkg cranberries

1/4 c honey

cinnamon

-Scrub, cut up, boil sweet potatoes until tender.  Drain, peel, cut into desired size, layer in 9x13" pan (this step can be done in advance and the sweet potatoes stored in fridge until ready to finish/bake).

-Rinse and drain cranberries.  Boil cranberries and honey until the sauce is desired consistency (~10-15 minutes? berries will pop and soften)

-Thinly slice apple over sweet potatoes

-Pour cranberries over top of apple/sweet potatoes

-Sprinkle cinnamon over top of cranberries (I don't ever measure this, just sprinkle liberally)

-Bake @ 350 until hot through and apple is tender (~45 minutes)
Please note that infants less than one year of age should not have honey. 

Enjoy!

Update Thanksgiving 2018
These are very good using pure maple syrup in place of the honey and dotting the top with butter before baking. They are also very good served with chopped pecans.

Update Thanksgiving 2021

These are very good using a 12-ounce can of undiluted apple juice concentrate in the cranberry sauce in place of the honey. I also sprinkled the cinnamon on top of the apples and then topped everything with the cranberry sauce. 

Notes 

This can be made with frozen cranberries. The sauce will take a little longer. 

Cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, and/or ginger can be added to the cranberry sauce. 

The cranberry sauce is also very good on pumpkin pancakes. 

Sweet potatoes ready for the oven. 

Copyright © 2016 by Steph. All rights reserved.

Life is Rarely Boring

This past week has been difficult, but not from anything related to surgery.  I had gone into the weekend with far worse pain than usual from what I was suspecting to be a reaction to the new medication. However, Monday, the prescribing physician was surprised at the reaction and did not think it cause and effect, thus asked me to give it another try. Second try also resulted in dramatic exacerbation of the pain. Thus, the medication was stopped.  It took the majority of the week for all of the effects to clear.

The medication reaction set things back with PT and rehab as pain was so high it was hard to want to move very much. PT checked and my hips and body were still able to move and respond well and not acting like a normal flare (she has seen me through several so knows what is normal for me), so she also really thought it was a reaction to the new medication and not an actual flare.  She did back me off exercises as she could tell I was not doing well.  By later in the week when the reaction was finally mostly resolved, she increased things back up.

I had been so excited about finally making progress again last week after the injection only to end up with another week long set back from a medication reaction.  Sigh.  Sometimes, I feel as if no matter what I or those supporting me do, I cannot win. Anyway, I am grateful that the reaction effects have cleared and I am back to "normal" baseline pain levels again.  I never thought I would say I was this grateful for the usual pain. I am also grateful that the non op hip is finally cooperating!  It is handling strengthening exercises, handling more weight bearing, handling sitting, standing, etc.  Finally!  It is still weaker than op hip, but we are at least able to work on strengthening it.

I am currently looking forward to a bit of a break.  Life in general has been rather more "interesting" than I prefer.  I am ready for quiet and rest.

Matthew 11:28
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Copyright © 2016 by Steph. All rights reserved.

Progress Again Finally

It has been an interesting week and I wrote thoughts as the week progressed. Far more occurred than I am sharing here, but these are the major happenings. I am so grateful for progress and I am choosing to focus on the progress and not the unexpected challenges. I feel like this week is less of surgery progress report as a collision between the multiple other chronic medical conditions.

11/7/16

After another challenging week, another weekend of being in recovery mode, I received a call this morning asking if I could come in yet this afternoon for the injection?  Yes! Oh my, that was fast once they called!  I already felt better as I left and had an amazing rest of the afternoon actually being able to walk and sit pain-free or minimal pain in both hips!  So relieved!  It took over two months to finally get the injection, but it is definitely working! With the anesthetic part of the injection in effect, I find I am actually starting to do things more normally and more balanced again--less shifting of weight onto the op side hip to give the painful non-op hip a break.  It is still habit to shift onto op side, though as it has been so long from compensating. Funny how fast new compensation patterns develop.  I used to always stand with weight shifted onto right hip before surgery--hence it always getting irritated every time left hip flared before surgery.  I had been told, and learned how, to force myself to evenly distribute weight in spite of pain before surgery.  But after surgery, as left hip got stronger and right failed to calm down as we tapered prednisone, I gradually shifted to using left side more and protecting right side.

I am far more hopeful again, but honestly also a little apprehensive as the true test starts--tapering the oral prednisone the rest of the way.  The past tapers have flared all pain, but especially hips and shoulder. I am hoping things do not get too bad and that the shoulder will stay pretty stable. The left hips was tolerating the taper fine for the first time ever when we began tapering in August six weeks after surgery.  But, that is when the right hip and the left shoulder flared back up again and have not calmed since except for the high-dose prednisone burst several weeks ago.

It has been a rough evening after the anesthetic wore off, but by this time, I have had so many injections, I know normal response and knew it was going to be even more painful once the first part wore off than prior to the injection.  Hoping the cortisone takes effects as well and quickly this time as it has in the past.  But, hoping it lasts longer this time.

Probably worth noting, but trying not to think about what this may mean: the anesthetic worked 100%, as in completely pain-free.  As it wore off and pain returned, I only felt pain in all of the normal areas, with exception of muscle soreness. Things were reminiscent of injections in the other hip prior to surgery.  I am intentionally choosing not to think too hard about any of this or try to sort out what it might mean. I honestly do not want to know.  Normally, I am curious, inquisitive, wanting to know and understand everything I encounter.  Normally, I think of knowledge as being power.  But, sometimes ignorance truly is bliss.

11/10/16

By later in the week, I noticed definite times of no pain in the injected hip, suggesting the cortisone is starting to take effect!  This afternoon PT checked motion on both hips and said both were moving well and with full normal motion!  So exciting and encouraging!  She was really pleased!  I was pleased that someone other than myself could tell--that I was not imagining things out of too high of hope. We are again working on slowly adding strengthening exercises for the right hip and it is amazing how weak it got when we were trying to get it calmed down.

Now that I was finally able to get the injection, we are again tapering the oral prednisone.  So, that means now the other problematic joint (shoulder) that we had actually tried to check about getting injected a couple of months ago but not able to, is now flaring up.  But, since the right hip is finally calming down and both hips are doing well, there is more time to work on the irritated shoulder.  It could be frustrating, but I am grateful that at least things are sort of taking turns now, rather than hitting me all at once. The shoulder is limiting but less so than the hip has been, so this is still improvement compared to early in the week.

I also allowed myself to be persuaded into trying a new medication to try to help support my body as we taper the prednisone.  I am notoriously unpredictable in my responses to medications, so I am being as optimistic as possible and asked how to improve the chances that my body tolerates this medication and it actually does what it is supposed to do.  So far, not really noticing anything at all.  Pain in general is worsening, but suspecting prednisone taper for that and not concerned.

Still so relieved and excited. Finally!  Progress!  It has been a difficult couple of months of fighting, almost giving up so many times--including earlier this week.

11/12/16

I was so encouraged with finally making progress, finally getting pain under better control!  But then almost ended up in the emergency room last night. The best guess at present is severe exacerbation of pain as a side effect to the new medication that was started a few days ago in an attempt to support me during the prednisone taper as tapers have historically not gone well for me.  Well, this medication certainly did not help and maybe made things worse.  Pain spiked far faster and higher than with normal flares and compared to past prednisone tapers as well. This is certainly not normal for me. I went from pretty functional Friday afternoon to barely able to finish getting groceries, leaning on the shopping cart for support, barely getting things up the stairs to my apartment (left all non perishable items in the car to carry up another time), then lying on the floor with ice packs the rest of the evening unable to sit or stand longer than a few moments at a time.  I had intended to go to another couple of stores and start laundry but those ideas were completely abandoned due to pain levels and inability to stand or walk very far.   Discouraged as this means yet another weekend spent in recovery mode after all. I am very grateful that I was able to go to a family function that I had been looking forward to, but I had to take it easy.  This set back has been discouraging and last night in particular was difficult.  It is getting easier to want to quit fighting and just give up.  I am still hanging on but not sure how long.  This evening is better than this morning, which was better than last night.  So, slight hope is returning, but much more cautiously optimistic at present than the past few days before this situation happened.  I am at the moment completely back off the break through pain medication and being careful, but trying to see if I can stay off of it if things are calming back down.  The new medication has been stopped and it should be fully clearing my system relatively soon as I had not been on it that long. (There were multiple discussions with medical resources last night and this morning, but more will have to be discussed and decided Monday.)

11/13/16

Seemingly making progress again.  Things are still challenging, but grateful for any progress again at this point,  Praying for wisdom for my doctors tomorrow when they see the notes of what happened over the weekend. Praying for acceptance for me of whatever new plan is suggested.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Copyright © 2016 by Steph. All rights reserved.

Mexican Casserole Recipe

This is a super easy crock pot recipe, as are most of my recipes.  This one was made up sort of on accident, again like most of my recipes are.  This actually started out with the intention of making chili, but part way through I changed my mind and started just adding things that sounded good.  It turned out really well.  I was planning to make chili again today, but once I got it started, began to think of changing it into this recipe...which is exactly what ended up happening.  This is modified from the chili recipe I posted a few years ago.

Easy Crock Pot Mexican Casserole

1 cup pinto beans
1 cup black beans
1 cup red beans
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon cumin
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 teaspoons onion powder
2 teaspoons celery seed
1-2 pounds ground beef or turkey
1 cup brown rice
1 10-ounce package frozen, chopped spinach
~1 ½ teaspoons salt (to taste)
1 can tomato paste
V8 (a few cups, I just poured)

Sort and rinse beans, cover with several inches of water and let soak overnight.  In the morning, drain the beans, pour beans into crock pot and cover with plenty of fresh water.  Add all seasonings except salt. Cook on high.  If using at least 90% lean ground beef or turkey, I crumble it in raw and let it cook with the beans.  If not, then I brown and drain the meat before adding it.  The spinach may be added frozen, and it will thaw and cook. I usually add the spinach and rice once the beans are mostly tender.  Once beans and rice are both tender, I add the tomato paste, V8, and salt. I usually turn the crock pot to low at this point, but it does not really matter. The V8 I add until it reaches the consistency I want. I did add additional onion powder, garlic powder, and chili powder but did not measure any of them.  This works best in a large crock pot. This does freeze and thaw well.

You can use any mix of dry beans, but I usually use the ones listed.  The meat is optional, the spinach is optional. Even the rice is optional, but I like the combination of all of them.

Copyright © 2016 by Steph. All rights reserved.

Patience, Perspective, and Persistence

This is not really a progress report--it seems as if there is not much, if any, progress again right now.  This is more about the real keys to success in recovering from pretty much anything.  These are not new concepts for me after many years of dealing with chronic pain and various other medical conditions, and other surgeries/recoveries.  However, there have been some differences this time that caught me by surprise, so choosing to take a step back to regroup and intentionally refocus on the basics.

This is a long recovery and much comes down to patience, perspective, and persistence. It is worth taking the time to let the body heal, not to push things or try to make things go faster than the body is ready. Perspective--this is where I have been struggling. The op hip is doing well and I try to keep my focus on that, but non op hip is not. Thus every time op hip is ready to try something new, PT says not to even try because non op hip cannot handle it. This makes it difficult to see any progress through rehab because I am still incredibly restricted. I was prepared for things to be very limited and to have to regain ability slowly. I was not prepared for other hip to interfere to the extent that I am unable to regain ability at all with some things--at least not yet. It has been exciting to see how well op hip is doing but this has often been overshadowed by how poorly non op hip is doing. 

For example, I still cannot walk other than just what is essential to get around as non op hip gets mad. But, I can handle sitting longer, and I can stand longer, Yesterday, I did PT exercises and elliptical in the morning, walked in the pool and did other PT exercises in the pool after lunch, did my own grocery shopping in the evening, carried the groceries up the two flights of stairs to my apartment, etc. I can do things and have to focus on what I can do and not on what non op hip is limiting me from doing. 

I am confused. The right hip has always flared up when left hip flared even prior to surgery. We have always gotten it calmed down again once left was calmed (usually with an injection). The left hip is doing really well after surgery, is getting stronger, is doing its own work, carrying its own load, and even starting to compensate for right. However, right is not calming down, but rather getting worse. So, I really am not sure why we cannot get the right hip to calm down this time without high dose steroid. Puzzling. I keep wondering if I have just become too sensitive.  However, when providers can tell without me telling where the problem is that the hip is swollen, gait is off, etc., I do not think I am being hypersensitive or imagining things.  

This weeks has its highs and lows.  My hips and shoulder were letting me do more again in PT early in the week, only to end up on the strong pain killer just from walking to class the next day. Sigh.  It is the right hip that keeps throwing fits.  We are trying to find the balance between giving it a break to calm it down, but not let it get weak. It is thus far defying that such a balance exists. It is now weaker than left hip, but it is still not calming down.  Persistence is essential to keep up with daily rehab work even when it feels like it is not doing any good. 

2 Corinthians 12:9-10

And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Copyright © 2016 by Steph. All rights reserved.