Greetings to all of my familiar visitors and to the many newbies who stood up during my absence to keep this series going! (Yay! Give yourselves a round of applause and warm hugs from me:)
I won’t go into too much detail but in late June I started experiencing weakness and shakiness in my legs. It culminated in a trip to an Urgent Care which seemed to not realize just how bad it was. Well, over the weekend following that visit I got much worse suffering a couple of falls and I literally had to slowly drag myself across the carpet to get to my phone and ping for help from Mark! So when we were taken for the scheduled follow-up at my assigned clinic, the doctor who saw me made some quick assessments and immediately called to have me taken to the ER for an MRI/CAT scan. So off we went and from that day (July 12th) I was in the hospital and then a skilled nursing facility for physical and occupational therapy.
It turns out I had suffered severe ataxia due to dehydration and not eating enough. Plus I must admit my consumption of certain beverages played a large role. I was so weak and unable to get up and down without help. Everyone was very patient and as I took medications and ate more and more they were pleased with my progress and I finally came home to my kitties and creature comforts on Aug. 19th. I have since had in-home PT & OT as well as getting established with a PCP (Primary Care Physician) at the clinic. Sometimes I just feel overwhelmed and want to be left alone by strangers, let alone leave the house even when my sweetie is with me. But I must admit the work they have done has really helped. The tremors have been greatly reduced and my leg muscles are back to good strength. But my balance is still off, especially in my upper body but even that is coming along.
Here’s a somewhat blurry pic of me relaxing on the patio:
So, enough about my tribulation! Let’s get on to cooking!
(The descriptions of how the ataxia affects my cooking are in italics )
You may remember my old diary about Passotto? Perhaps you may want to go look back at it for some good ideas:)
Well one afternoon I decided I was going to make linguini and use up some ground beef & the remainder of a jar of pasta sauce. So I got the ground beef browning in a deep skillet, (and getting that deep skillet out of the very bottom drawer was a bit of a struggle!) and then seasoned it with lots of dehydrated onion flakes, garlic powder, oregano, and a bit of crushed red pepper flakes. The one thing I dislike about store-bought sauces is that they are always too sweet for my taste. This one was not too bad as it was a basil and tomato version.
I definitely did not feel safe trying to chop either the onion or mince garlic with sharp knives! With the tremors in my hands and fingers I could easily injure myself, so no nitpicking about not using the real things, please.
So I added the remaining sauce (about 1/3rd of the jar) and saw there were still bits clinging to the sides and bottom of the jar. Not wanting to waste that I carefully got to the sink behind me to add some water and give it a good swirl/shake.
Ok, so let me explain a bit about how difficult it was for me:
I started to turn my walker and the jar and slowly turned toward the sink. Moving with one hand holding the jar upright I was using the other hand and my legs to accomplish this. Then I turned the water on and ended up with too much. I poured some off doing my best to keep my hand and arm steady. At that point I turned slowly and focusing on holding the jar steady with both hands I made it to the stove and set it down. I stepped a bit to the side, keeping a wider stance for stability, and then while I grabbed the stirring spoon I added (oops!) the whole jar of liquid! As I stirred and pondered how to reduce the amount a little voice in my head said “Hey, this could be passotto!”
Ahhh, so I saved myself a lot of extra work with what I love to call “happy accidents” (Bob Ross, thank you for that phrase:)
So instead of cooking the linguini then draining and adding to the sauce as I had originally planned, I just portioned out a good handful and proceeded to twist & turn to break it in half right into the pan. I gave it a good stir to make sure it was submerged and then put the lid on.
Ahh, time to go sit and take a break. (My legs were starting to get shaky so I knew I needed to go sit.)
After about 10 minutes or so I went back and lifted the lid off to give it a stir. Still plenty of liquid to keep it cooking and soaking up all the flavors of the sauce until nicely al dente.
About this time my sweetie got home from work and he lit up as he came in and smelled the dinner soon to be done! He could see I was starting to feel the efforts of my work. I let him know it would probably not be done for a bit. So did his usual home-from-work stuff like getting into his comfy slippers and headed upstairs to his computer.
By this time I got up and gave it a stir and a taste (needed a bit more salt & pepper), stirred some more then got out two deep bowls and forks. Once done I went and sat and watched TRMS as it was just beginning. Mark came back downstairs and I let him know it was ready to serve and being awesome he brought mine to me here at my desk and then sat down to eat his over on the couch.
That is one thing that had proved difficult prior to bringing my computer desk downstairs. Sitting on the the couch I had to balance the plate or hold the bowl and utensil which was very straining on my back and shoulders, and with the tremors it was hard to keep my hands and arms from shaking. We did get out a “breakfast-in-bed” style tray but the couch was not very stable.
So that is just one story of my ongoing progress in returning to “pantry cooking”. I hope you enjoyed it and I have some more to share in the future, if you are interested? Let know in the comments or via a private message.
Oh, and lest I forget my manners; please grab a chair, beverage of your choice, and tell us what’s for dinner at your place!