Meniere's and Where Did My Salt Go?

So back in April I was diagnosed with Meniere's Disease. Just freakin peachy. Well I guess I shouldn't say that I was diagnosed with it because this is the words out of the doctors mouth. "I don't want to put you in a box you don't need to be in, so because you don't have hearing loss, I'm going to say that you "might" have Meniere's." With that he recommended I go on a low sodium diet and sent me off to a Vestibular Therapist (funny how when I was going I could never remember the name of the therapy and now, not only can I remember it but I spelled it right the first time.)to learn how to walk with the vertigo, dizziness that hits me at times. Well I didn't really need to go there, because this had been going on for over a year, and I kinda figured it out as I stumbled about. Sort of. He referred me to have a CAT scan of my sinuses to make sure there wasn't anything funny going on there. He ended the appointment with a goodbye and good luck.

There wasn't a follow-up appointment with him, although when I had the CAT scan done they did say I had beautiful sinuses. Which considering all the sinus infections I get, kinda surprised me. So here I was left to go to therapy and reduce the amount of sodium I ate. 

At first my therapist thought my problems were because of my seizure meds, because if you take Dilantin at high levels for several years you run the risk of Neuropathy. She noticed that after I had seen her for a couple of weeks my balance seemed a bit better. The only thing different was I was I had cut my sodium intake by 75% and stopped drinking my pop. In the end she even admitted that I probably had Meniere's since reducing my sodium intake seemed to help. 

So now where does that leave me? Well, I guess no where. I was doing well on the diet, and even began to think I really didn't have anything wrong with me. Until this week that is, when out of no where I got laid out for a week. The vertigo, and dizziness was crazy, and brain fog, and the need to sleep were intense. A couple of times I thought my stomach was going to revolt, but I just went to bed. The constant feeling of the need to "pop" my ears drove me nuts. 

I have no idea what brought this episode upon me, but holy hannah it sucked. Walking down the hallway was interesting as I bounced off one wall only to bounce off the other wall. I have bruises that I don't remember getting. I can only assume they came from me smacking into something. During this week I vaguely remember the doctor saying that he would give me a letter stating I had Meniere's so that if I needed it I could prove that I am in fact not drunk. Must remember to get that. 

It kinda sucks that my bubble was popped on me, and I have come to the realization that I do in fact have a balance problem. There isn't a cure for it, and eventually I will loose my hearing. The fortunate thing I guess for me is that so far there is no damage to my ears and my hearing is perfect even though I have to constantly ask people to repeat what they say. Not sure how that works. There are many things for me to try, and hopefully put it in remission, but there isn't any one perfect thing. Every person with Meniere's has it to different degrees, and what works for one person will probably not work for another.


So off to re-evaluate my diet, which while I was following the low sodium part, I was not following the carb, protein, calorie part of it. For some reason even though I'm on a low sodium diet, I have swelled up, and gained weight. My left leg and ankle get much more swollen than my right, and I find walking to be difficult. It never seems to end with me. So back to the super strict diet which I hate. I like variety and eating green leafy things all the time is not called variety in my book.

Kale? Really? Well Ok Then.

I have decided that it is time to get healthier and loose some weight...ok like a lot of weight. About 60 lbs or so. Yep ya'll I'm a tubby. I usually don't eat a lot of junk food, and we usually don't have much processed food here. Most of what we eat is homemade straight from my heart. Yeah right, it is homemade though. So with that being said...


I have a pop addiction. Yeah big time. I love my pop, which is weird since I don't like to put a bunch of crap I can't pronounce in my body. I guess it is what it is, and it's bad for my health and body so it must go. Problem...I have no idea what to replace it with. I can manage to drink tea, but only with a ton of sugar( kinda defeats the purpose there). I hate the taste and smell of coffee. OMG when DH makes his espresso's I really want to puke. Water...it's so...blah. The only time that I can actually suck water down is when it's hotter than a witches tit (where did that saying come from? I just can't picture a witch's tit being hot, can you?) outside and then that is the only thing that will quench my thirst as long as there are tons of ice cubes.
Diet anything is for sure out. I do not like the taste of it, nor will I allow myself to grow attached to the taste of something artificial. I have a hard enough time getting used to the taste of stuff that's actually good for me. Juice is not cost effective enough, and shouldn't be sucked down like there's no tomorrow anyhow. So as you can see...I'm screwed.


Moving on...a couple of months ago, well I guess sometime before Christmas I saw a documentary about some guy doing a 60 day juice fast. It got me thinking, and that's about all it did. When I told DH about it he on the other hand was like, "hell yeah, why not?" So I found him a juicer. Then I got him the recipe for the Mean Green Juice. Then I got him the ingredients. Can you guess what came next? Yep, I made the juice for him. Can't you see it's all about the patterns here people?


This recipe had Kale in it, not a lot, but it had it. I don't know about you, but Kale is not my thing. At all. It stinks when you juice it and it is so strong and, and unpleasant tasting. The next time I made him a batch of this juice, I cut the amount of Kale in half and it still overpowered everything but the ginger. 


So I have established the fact that I do not like Kale. I don't care if it is the new super food to eat, and will wipe out every disease on earth. (Damn would't that be awesome?)  I do not like it. With that being said...


Last night, or rather early this morning I decided to try making my own veggie chips. So I looked it up on the good ole net, cuz that's were it's all at right. I found a recipe for carrot chips or rather strips, and since that's all I really had in the house that's what I made. So at 12:51am I started making them. Turned out pretty good too, and DH liked them. Think I will do things a bit different next time.


Now this brings me on to today. Guess what I'm making? Come on try and guess. Re-read over the last couple of paragraphs. Did you figure it out yet? Jeez...I'm making Kale chips with fresh shredded Parmesan. Bwahahaha! Guess what? They are pretty damn good, for Kale. I wouldn't call them chips though like everyone out there is calling them. Just cuz something is dried out and crunches don't mean it's a chip. You sure could never dip these things. They are fricken dried leaves for crying out loud, but I'll eat them. In fact, I can't seem to stop eating them. If DH don't get his butt up soon there wont be any for him to try out.


Here's what I did if you would like to try these:


I only made a small amount just in case they were gross.


four stems of kale
olive oil spray
sea salt
fresh Parmesan


Pre-heat oven to 350F


Wash and make sure you dry the kale well. Very important that it's dry.


Remove the leaves from the stems and place on a cookie sheet that has been sprayed with olive oil.


Spray the leaves with the olive oil


Take the sea salt and with your fingers sprinkle on the leaves of kale.


Shred some fresh parmesan and sprinkle lightly on each kale leaf.


Bake in heated oven for about twelve minutes. They will be done when the edges dry out and they feel crispy.