Sunday Scoffings

Wow, the week ran away with me again. I've been doing some heavy duty editing and research this week, in addition to trying to keep on the straight and narrow. Not easy!

I accompanied Mr G to the Pain Clinic earlier this week. Sometimes you need things spelling out to you, especially when it comes to the medical, even if it's not what you want to hear. And it was spelled out in no uncertain terms that further surgery is off the table (which we already knew, as further surgery would make the problem worse, not better) but we also found out something else, that there was no pain relief that would work on this chronic pain. We also (kind of) knew this already, seeing as he's tried everything from paracetamol to pethidine. 'He's even had morphine.' said his specialist, as he stared at us. He didn't have to say it, but if morphine doesn't work, then you're pretty much screwed.

So, now we are looking at pain management for Mr G. There will be no pain 'relief' ever. There will be no miracle cure. He will not ever be pain free. But it can certainly be better than this. And it all starts and ends with the mind. Because that is the only way that it can be moderated and controlled.

We arrive home, fairly optimistic. We know now what we're up against. We bandy ideas around. I open a new word document and chronicle them all. I read articles out loud to him, about people who are in a similar boat, and take note of the things that work for them. We have things like yoga, massage, sounds of nature audios, guided meditation, gentle stretching on the list.

"What about hypnosis?" he asks.

I look into this. I find a sleep hypnosis track for chronic pain suffers on YouTube. And, amazingly, the guy is offering a free mp3 download of the track. So, I download this, and I make a new playlist on Mr G's iPod. The hypnosis track, and two sounds of nature audio tracks. Water. As requested by him.

So, I wake up the next morning, and I get out of bed. Mr G opens one eye and looks at me.

"Did it work?" I asked.

"Did it work?" he replied. "Jesus Christ, what a boring b**tard! I fell asleep listening to his bloody voice!"

You can imagine my face. I nearly wet myself laughing.

"That was the point?" I said.

"And then, the bloody water tracks kicked in and woke me up. Really scared me." he added. "And I kept having to go to the toilet then, all night."

So, that's where we're up to and it's going to be trial and error for a long while yet.

Back at the ranch, we've had some top scran this week!

Wednesday - we had Hunter's Chicken from the Pinch of Nom website (recipe link here). This was lush, but the sauce was a little acidic. I might tone it down a little the next time I make it.

On Thursday we had the Balsamic Braised Beef from Slimming Eats (recipe link here).

Now, I don't know about you, but I seriously can't think about beef stew without dumplings. So I look into it, and Mr G and I decide to sacrifice some of our daily Syns for a couple. They're at the bottom of the plate. The picture doesn't do it justice as to how small they are, they look much bigger in the photo. They were about the size of a walnut. That is ten syns worth right there. The dough for the four dumplings I made, I would have used on one dumpling in the past (Reasons Why I'm Fat number 439). Those two, tiny dumplings were ten Syns. Ten.

And when it came to eating them, they weren't cooked. I was so hungry and so impatient that they were still quite raw inside.

"Ah well." said Mr G. "We can have a Solero instead."

Silver linings.

The stew was lush, though, another recipe to add to the 'keepers' list!

On Friday we had Crispy Chilli Beef from the Pinch of Nom website (recipe link here)

This was really good, but it was faffy AF. Dredging those tiny matchstick thin slices of steak in the tiniest amount of flour and egg? In the end, I tipped the beef into the egg and then sprinkled the flour on top of it on the oven sheet. The other thing I would do differently if I made it again, would be to use shop bought soy sauce. The 'real' stuff (that you get from Asian grocery stores) seems to be far more potent and so the sauce was a bit 'in your face'. But chances are, as nice as it was, this one isn't going to be made again any time soon. 

Oh, I nearly forgot our old favourite, Cock and Bull with Basmati rice, which we had on Tuesday (this is taken from the Pinch of Nom cookbook).

I know it looks like a lot of rice in the photo, but it really isn't. Believe it or not, it's a measured 75g dry weight of rice. I have started putting it around the plate as it gives the impression of 'more'.

Boring but quick and easy Burger Salad last night, with our one white roll. And did my stomach let me know I'd eaten that white roll too, all night it was making all manner of noises.

Today, I'm making the Shepherd's Pie in tortilla boats with vegetables. And now, while the house is quiet, I am going to make myself another coffee, and meal plan ahead for next week. I can get the shopping done after weigh in tomorrow. I'm not confident this week, not confident at all, despite how good we've been. It seems that the weeks that I really try, things go pear shaped. The weeks that I wing it, I lose three and a half pounds. Typical.