FUCKING AROUND AND FINDING OUT

  Hopefully, you are not too offended by this f-bomb. It will make sense soon. And you have my permission to use this wonderful phrase, invented by my youngest son, who has several health challenges as do I. We will often sit, of a visit, after some "safe" keto food, looking at keto cookbooks (I must have a dozen so far...) and thinking what would be good to make.

"I feel deprived," Char says. "I am only looking at deserts and breakfasts with coconut cream. 'Course, that has saturated fat in it, so wonder if there is a substitute?"

    In my son's various attempts to deal with different health issues, he takes an adventurous but informative way. He spends time on the internet, looking things up, checking in with the various communities he is in, because it's "Fucking Around and Finding Out, Mom." You take chances. If you have insulin resistance, you might go on the keto diet to see if it helps your blood sugar levels. 

(It does, dramatically. My son's went from over 100 to 73 after doing keto.) If you are trying to minimize the amount of carbs in your diet (see "helping insulin resistance") you might order Shirataki 

noodles from Amazon (gotta pay for those 25 bathrooms in Jeff Bezos' D.C. mansion)

 and make a Thai peanut sauce to go on top. Or, my version of "Fucking Around and Finding Out" involves:

--ordering Kelp noodles from Amazon ("le Sigh") to use under my marinara sauce, making sure there is hardly any sugar at all in the sauce and canned tomatoes. These sure are crunchy, as I found out.

--ordering a head of cauliflower from Instacart (because who wants to shop nowadays with wobbly, tingling legs and unvaccinated people?) and shredding it up in the food processor 'cause it is cheaper and fresher. Saute it in olive oil, 2 tbsp. because keto is all about consuming lots of fats, preferably mono-saturated, throw in some thyme, and put hard-boiled eggs cut up, sliced red pepper, some red onions, 1/4 cup shredded carrots (they are high in carbs), and a dressing of 2 tbsps. EVOO & 1 tbp. of tahini, plus dash of apple cider. You got yourself some safe keto food that will feed your nerves and give you more energy.  I have found that my energy has radically increased since going on keto. Is it easy? No. Annoying? Yes. But it works for some of us.

--For more finding out, go on an internet site called, "Stuffthatworks" 

which has many different health conditions people post: anything from osteoarthritis, POTS, to Peripheral Neuropathy, to many other conditions. I do PN and find out what helps some people, but not others; which drugs have minimized symptoms, which haven't; and more. I recently read about several people who started taking an anti-oxidant called, "Astaxanthin," from Bezos, of course. It's the chemical which turns lobsters pink among others. I wondered how it could improve PN and what was the mechanism by which it did so. I haven't found a difference since starting 5 days back, but maybe it will help? Trust me, under "Finding Out" I shall not smear my legs with Vick's Vapo Rub, then wrap them in saran wrap all day long, as someone recommended on this site. Menthol is meant to help PN, but I haven't found it to be so.

For sure we can drive our poor Trump and Covid-damaged brains crazy with this stuff. That's why I track my food (all about the macros in keto, meaning fats, protein, and carbs) and keep a symptom diary to figure out what works and what doesn't. And if nothing seems to help--no different drugs, no supplements, no doctor's visits--pray to St. Jude, the saint of impossible causes for help.

 Also, to cover all the bases, I made an appointment with my neurologist to see if any combo of drugs (possibly cymbalta and lyrica?) will help this aging broad. I shall keep you informed!