Whoa, What Month Is It?

I have officially been gone way too long. Like, WAY. TOO. LONG. Whoa.

I'm trying a new twist on this blog. I love to cook (not including cleaning up the messes) and am going to try to come up with recipes that are healthy and don't involve a lot of ingredients that can cause acid reflux. I don't want to give up favorite foods, spices, and drinks, so I'm hopefully going to flip them around so they're healthy acid reflux wise, AND healthy calorie/fat/carbs/etc wise!

Wish me luck :) I'm picking up ingredients tomorrow and will start cooking and posting tomorrow as well!

Amazing Recipe!

If you like chicken and broccoli, this is for you! I found this recipe on a site, but being a college student, I didn't have all of the ingredients AND I don't have a car, so I kind of just threw stuff together! This is really filling, looks great, and tastes awesome!

2 cans chicken breast (like you find tuna in)
1 cup broccoli (fresh or frozen)
1/4 cup diced onion
2 cloves diced garlic
1 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 cup fat free mayonnaise
1 pkg. crescent rolls
1 egg white

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a large bowl, mix chicken, broccoli, onion, garlic, oregano, salt, pepper, and mayonnaise. Stir until all is well combined.

On a medium sized baking sheet, spread out crescent rolls and spoon mixture of chicken and broccoli onto one side of the crescent roll and cover with the other side of the roll.

Spread the egg whites across the rolls and sprinkle the tops with more oregano and a little bit of garlic salt.

Bake for 25-28 minutes or until top is golden brown and flaky.

THEY ARE SO GOOD.

Summer

I can't believe it's almost August. That's terrifying. August is the biggest month of summer (for me):

-August 1: Rent is due. Gag.
-August 7: Back from vacation! And moving out of our house :(
-August 10: Mom and little siblings start back to school. This means I get the car more. Win!
-August 15: I turn 22. So old. AND this year John Mayer comes to town! YES!
-August 16: Move back to Muncie.
-August 23: SENIOR YEAR STARTS. SCARY.

That's really it. But still. It's nuts! Anyways...

After experimenting with food and such and figuring out that within the past month it's hard to eat certain things, I am no longer allowed: pasta, bread, bagels, fries, tortillas, rice, and my meat must be cut up into very small bites. Ew :(

I've been getting sick again lately, and it's a tad concerning, considering uhhh, I had surgery to "correct" this problem. I'm making an appointment for another endoscopy before I go back to school to see how everything's looking. Hopefully this not eating the above items will help out a lot.

Anyone have suggestions for things I should/shouldn't eat? My mom thinks I can have all of those carb-y type things, but they might have to be gluten free. Guess we'll try them out! Also, does anyone know anyone else with achalasia?

Thanks for bearing with me in the "I haven't blogged in so long" area :) Hope you all are doing well!

Uh-Oh

Almost 4 months later, I've gained 30 pounds. I'm up a size in my jeans, my face is no longer clear, I feel sluggish and gross, and I'm just unhappy with myself. I'm all talk when it comes to anything, and have said I've wanted to start dieting, but just can't get motivated.

Until today...

It's officially the first day of spring on campus, which means it's in the 70s and I'm trying on my "cute" clothes and nothing is fitting. Well, it fits, but I look gross.

I'm unhappy.

Diet starts RIGHT NOW.

Any support would be fabulous. This isn't easy -- it's hard when I don't have a mom on my butt, but I NEED this to happen. I need to get healthy. I need to be happy!

3 Months Later

It's been quite awhile since my last post here, but things are going well! It's officially 3 months after my surgery, and it's 12:15 p.m. right now. I believe I went into surgery on December 4, 2009 at 12:29 p.m., so it's ALMOST dead on!

Since then, a lot has changed in my life. Not only can I eat, but I can eat pretty much anything! I was extremely sore for quite awhile afterwards and was put on a diet of no meat or bread until after Christmas, but keeping food down was amazing, and still is.

I believe I posted this in a blog somewhere before, but I remember taking my first sip of water and crying because I felt it go down my throat, and didn't come back up. It was so cold, and felt so good; I barely remembered what that felt like.

Again, I had a Heller Myotomy, and Dr. Freeman moved my stomach up higher, as well, so I wouldn't get acid reflux as bad anymore.

Now, I'm back to eating normal again! I still can't have a lot of bread or meat (burgers are hard) or I get sick, and I've learned that I seem to get sick off of rice and fettucini noodles, so I just avoid those at all costs. I still get sick around once a week, but I'd rather that than after everything I put into my mouth. I've put on about 20 pounds the past three months which I'm NOT happy about, but it was weird getting used to eating again, so I'm starting a diet, wahoo :-\ Also, I'm on Nexium for probably, ohhh the rest of my life haha, and take that everyday, and don't have NEARLY as much acid reflux as I used to. It still flares up on me every now and then, but again, it's not everyday, and doesn't wake me up in the middle of the night anymore.

Everyone says I look a lot better, a lot healthier, and they're glad to see color back in my face. I had no idea that was even the case, until people started pointing it out to me.

I was starting to get sick again recently, and stress doesn't help my situation out, so I've had to cut back and drop out of certain activities that mean the world to me, but it's all for the better. I need my health to be at 100% and hopefully it will be very soon with my new "less-stressful" lifestyle.

These past 18 months or so have taught me a lot about myself, my character, my perseverance, and even more. I know who's really there for me, and who's not. I know what's important in my life and what's not, and I know what matters more. I try not to take anything for granted, and definitely don't judge people as much. If anything, I'd say that take out of these posts you read from me. You have no clue what people are feeling like at any given time...Yeah, I had a smile on my face for the last year, but inside I was dying! I'm so incredibly blessed to have had this surgery, and to have had the support system that I still have today from all of my friends and family. Thank you all so much!

I'll keep updating this, not as often, but enough, especially if anything else happens.

Thanks for reading - hope you all have great weekends :)

Well, it's 3 days after my surgery. And I woke up at 7 a.m., BOOOOO. So early! Yesterday, I found out I had to stay the night again. But in the morning, they took my epidural out, along with my catheter, so I was finally able to get up some on my own. Well, I had to if I needed to use the bathroom. I also got to put underwear and my favorite sweatpants on, so I was definitely comfier! After I got off of my epidural, they gave me 2 vicoden pills which helped, and made me really tired. Also, I had some fabulous visitors yesterday! Thank you for coming, Lauren Mason, Amy Voth, Sara Gerlich, Alison Morphey, Nick Neary, and Matt Robinson!! I loved seeing all of you, and it really made my day :)

I watched the Colts game here , had some more visitors, and then got my "yummy" dinner - vegetable soup broth, mushy zucchini, applesauce, and sierra mist. A not-so-great dinner last night, but that's okay. My dad came back last night towards the end of my dinner and we hung out for a big. We ended up going on a walk around the 2nd floor, and I came back and was really sore. The walk really wore me out, and we took a tiny lap. Fail, haha. After that, I took some more vicoden to help the pain, and went to bed for the night around 7:30. My dad left, and here I am, up at 7:20 on Monday morning updating this and watching "Twilight."

My doctor will be in today to most-likely tell me I'm going home, thank goodness! I'm unattached to everything right now, and my nurse even took my IV out. The only thing I have right now is my heart monitor, but even then, I'm allowed to be up and moving when dealing with all of that. So, I can't wait to go home! They let me shower yesterday, and that felt amazing! Bah, I Just can't wait to be in my own home :)

Again, thank you all so much for all you've done. I hope this blog has been helping to understand what achalasia really is, and all of that. Love you all :)

Good morning everyone!

I am very sore today, but that's definitely expected. I'm still in the intensive care unit, but without oxygen, as it was taken off this morning. I still have a trillion tubes coming out of everywhere but that's okay. I'll be moving rooms here in a little bit to a room just in the general hospital where I'll be allowed to use my phone and I can have visitors! You know what that means :) Haha kidding.

I got SOME sleep last night, but was woken up about every hour to have my blood pressure checked, get more labs drawn, etc. So I sleep at odd hours and for weird periods of time. But I discovered the free movie channel! So today I've been up since around 6, and have watched Elf, Kung Fu Panda, and now my mom and I are watching Nights in Rodanthe. Wahoo.

My surgeon, Dr. Freeman, told me I could drink clear liquids today; water, apple juice, and jello are some of the options. So I asked for some water and I'm keeping it down. I started to cry. It's so cold! I can't remember what I said in yesterday's blog, but I had a different surgery than I thought I would, the Heller Myotomy. Dr. Freeman said this time next week, I'll be eating normally again. GRILLED CHEESE!!! YES! But I cried last night too when I heard about that. I still can't get over that I'm keeping water down...it's so exciting. I Just cried again.

I've been having to do breathing exercises, and it's super hard! That sounds weird, but my throat hurts so bad and I'm like, panting after I get up to move to a chair like, inches away.

I'm definitely on the road to recovery, and will be eating with you all so soon! That means I can sit on the inside of a booth now! Haha.

Thank you again for your love and support!