Vickiauntmick's Journal, 05 May 2013

Great job on the weight loss! How do you make your Ferky? I'm curious, I LOVE beef jerky, but the salt amount is abysmal. I'm learning to live with my Irritable Bowel Syndrome, lactose intolerance and now possible gluten sensitivity. It pretty new to me since I had my gallbladder removed in 2011 (it was about to erupt and had a emergency removal when I was 12 weeks pregnant). You also mentioned swollen ankles... every summer (here in Canada) my ankles swell throughout the day like I was 9 months pregnant, is this similar to what you have? 

YESSSSS.... my swelling is soooo bad. Mostly the week or two during my period and right before. I've been progressively swelling worse and worse to the point I finally went to the doctor... then another doctor, then another doctor... My guess was it was linked to female hormones for sure, and sure enough, they found a golf ball sized polyp in my uterus. I have surgery tomorrow (say some prayers) to have it removed, so I hope it helps with the anemic feeling and swelling down the road. And, yes, summer makes it so much worse. I can remember camping over the past few summers and having to go inside the camper and prop my legs up on the wall to help them go down. Plus the excessive amounts of beer drinking didn't help. Ok, FERKY.... I have made my own recipe because I frequently make real jerky from beef and deer, so I took lots of advice from other websites and recipes, then used about 50% of it...lol. Most recipes for fake bacon (or Fakeon) call for thinly sliced eggplant, the jerky usually called for portabello mushrooms cut 1/2" thick or jicama (sliced very thin). For jerky I used 2-3 tablespoons raw soy sauce, a couple drops of smoke flavor (which isn't really raw, but I figured a few drops is ok), some smoked paprika, garlic powder, tablespoon of cider vinegar (to replace salt), tablespoon of agave nectar, lots of pepper, a little hot pepper oil (veg oil with red pepper flakes infused in it- I keep it around for oriental dishes), dehydrated onions, and lots of portabella mushrooms. The didnt have the big mushroom caps at Walmart last night, so i got the baby-bella's. So i ended up rough chopping the bella's and finely grinding a few with the sauce, then mixing it together like a spreadable paste on my drying sheet. Its like the difference between chopped and formed jerky, and whole flank sliced jerky. The mushrooms shrink to about 1 tenth the size, so be prepared for major shrinkage.  

Hope all goes well with the surgery :) I had two abdominal surgeries in 2011, one was my gallbladder removal (12 weeks pregnant) then an emergency c section (at 28 weeks pregnant)... so I can understand your anxiety! I had never had surgery before and was freaked right out but everyone worked out fine. You'll do great, and my prayers go out to you for a quick recovery. I'll have to see the doctor, I recently went off of hormonal birth control and my periods are finally normalizing. So hoping that will also help with the edema. If I continue to swell this year I'll get another doctor's advise as well, I'm sick of hearing (just cut back on salt). I LOVE mushrooms, will have to try that recipe :) Thanks :) 

My jerky is still drying, but i just checked it and tasted a corner... not bad! I spread it too thin, so ended up scraping the sticky pile together to make thicker slices. Now I have about an ounce of jerky. I had no idea it would shrink so small. Oh well... its all about trial and error, right? Thanks for the well wishes... and yes, I was so sick of being told to cut back on salt. I never salt anything and havent in years. One doctor told me to stop eating all those potato chips... I was like "screw you... you think I eat salty potato chip because I'm fat?". I don't even eat chips. The nerve of some doctors. I had my gallbladder out in an emergency surgery 10 years ago. That was a rough recuperation. I could not imagine being pregnant and going through that. You are more woman than I. How is the baby? Did all go well being born that early?  

I had some issues from the time I was 7 weeks pregnant (bleeding, in fact Christmas eve was the first bleed and we thought I was miscarrying, it was on Christmas morning the ultrasound showed he was still hanging in there)... so I knew I was already high risk and had bleeds every other week. I never knew the pains was my gallbladder, but they kept getting worse and worse and the doctor I saw said it was just anxiety and acid reflux. Within a few hours of seeing my doctor last I went home and had a piece of toast (anything heavier and i was wracking my body vomiting) and ended up in such severe pain I almost passed out - my boyfriend rushed me to the hospital. I didn't want the gallbladder removal surgery because I was worried I would lose the baby for sure. But sure enough, he STILL hung in there - I was told either risk losing baby or risk losing my OWN life. He's doing great, in fact his 2nd birthday is coming up on May 19th :) He's a very energetic little guy. He was So strong and did so well in the hospital, he was originally due August 10th - and came home on August 4th. Despite being born so early - we were blessed he didn't have any serious health problems. He was just small (2 lbs 10 oz, which was actually very good size for being born at 28 weeks). I know what you mean by doctors... there are so many that assume the worst before even finding out the facts. Definitely going to have to try that recipe :)  

Preemies are so cute. Glad he's alive and well!!!  

He charmed all the nurses hehe. How are you feeling? How was the surgery?  

Surgery went very well. I bled very little. I probably could have gone back to work today, but I figured I wouldn't push it. All in all, I feel pretty good.