Strawberries for dessert
Wednesday December 01st 2010, 10:56 pm
Filed under: Family,Food,Lupus

I’m not knitting.

I have a rheumatologist who, the last time my lupus attacked my fingers, exclaimed, “But you NEED your knitting! We have to *do* something!”

And with that, he finally got me to try plaquenil, an antimalarial drug that, like aspirin, nobody reacts to, and as long as you get your eyes checked regularly for retina damage, everybody can take it.

And you know how well aspirin and I get along. (A thank you forever to my ENT and to heaven above for the rare chance to thank Rachel Remen in person as well; story in that first link.)

I got the most massive case of upper-body hives and we crossed another med category off my list.

I knitted yesterday anyway when I had a half hour wait at the pharmacy and then just couldn’t do it again. Hopefully this will all be a very brief interruption, but I’m afraid to push it for now.  I’m realizing I was getting casual about sun exposure: add it all up and I might have spent ten minutes outside in the sunlight yesterday, way beyond my safe point, rationalizing about the low UV levels this time of year. The cage does get old. And there’s so much that’s so pretty outside in a California winter.

Well, hey, there are other ways to be creative, and desserts have been calling me. Here’s one:

First, turn off your hearing aids, this is going to be loud. Ready?  Okay.  Frozen strawberries, a little sugar to taste, add some cream in the food processor.  Whirr for about a century, stopping every now and then to break up the strawberries that are absorbing just a bit of heat from the friction of the blade, (or maybe I just have to do that because my Cuisinart is very old), whirr some more till it’s smooth, serve immediately and there you go.

I used to use egg whites to make it a non-fat strawberry mousse, but after my daughter drove her friend Natalie to the hospital for salmonella poisoning during the egg scare last summer (no no she didn’t eat here), I’ve stopped doing that.

I handed my sweetie his.

“This is better than usual!”

Yes, well. Cream does that for it. It’s the side effects you have to be careful of.

Here’s hoping a good night’s sleep will leave me embarrassed for saying anything too soon and that my hands will be fine in the morning. I’m hoping.


18 Comments so far
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Well, ugh. You DO need your knitting, so I hope all is well with your hands very, very soon. My hands hate me right now, too. Stupid Fibro is acting up quite a bit, and yes, like you, I think I have a clue as to why. Sigh. Worked way past my limits last night to finish a hat. Not. One. Stitch. today.

Comment by Ruth 12.02.10 @ 12:08 am

It’s morning here now, so hope you’ll be feeling better in a few hours when your day starts.

Comment by LynnM 12.02.10 @ 1:24 am

So glad that you got to meet Dr. Remen! One of my favorite writers. If you ever get to see her again, thank her for me, as well.

Comment by Lynn 12.02.10 @ 5:32 am

need your knitting, indeed! We all need something that keeps us sane – for us, it’s knitting. Hope you get it back soon.

Comment by Sandra 12.02.10 @ 7:51 am

Okay, it’s morning here. I know you’re no early bird, so I’ll be waiting and praying as patiently as possible… because you do need your kniting, and many of us need your next book!! 😉

Comment by Channon 12.02.10 @ 7:52 am

I do believe the little boxes of frozen egg whites have been pasteurized, so are safe to use in uncooked things like this. Sadly, they won’t whip up to peaks, so are only “so” useful.

Comment by Barbara S. 12.02.10 @ 8:47 am

Oh, the strawberries sound so good and easy too. I have have a dear one coming home soon that would love that!
I have a thumb that is being un-cooperative like that lately. It is a hard thing to give hands a rest! Hope that yours are better today, but know that you will find a way to occupy yourself regardless!

Comment by kmom 12.02.10 @ 8:47 am

Rest, rest, rest, then try again. I pray it all works out. The sawbones MUST find something that works on hands without doing bad things to the rest of us–don’t they know that we have to knit to keep from killing people?

Comment by Sherry in Idaho 12.02.10 @ 9:08 am

I have the same problem with sunlight, I like it, but it doesn’t like me. Bright sunlight triggers migraines for me, and some of my medications say “avoid over exposure.”I am a candidate for SAD.
My hands hurt here too, have you tried parafin wax treatments, the beauty shops around here have them, but I know you can do it at home. The warm wax eases the swelling in the joints and takes the pain away plus the added side effects of softer hands.
I too knit to stay sane,I need that Bumper Sticker “I Knit so I won’t kill people.

Comment by kris 12.02.10 @ 9:36 am

the Egg Beater type things in the dairy case that are “just whites” have been pasteurized, so they are safe to eat “raw”

(this discovery by my pregnant daughter who is being very careful, but can’t resist sometimes eating the raw cookie dough!)

hope your hands are better soon

Comment by Bev 12.02.10 @ 9:57 am

Sandra is right — we all need something to keep us sane. I read – a lot!

Wow, that strawberries and cream sounds luscious! Might be something even I could try. Would probably work with frozen raspberries, too.

Comment by Don Meyer 12.02.10 @ 10:12 am

🙁

Stay inside with a good book! I just started Russian Winter, and it’s pretty good so far.

Comment by Lanafactrix 12.02.10 @ 12:50 pm

Oh I am sorry to hear that. I was told the same thing before I was put on that drug and I became 1 giant hive. Bad thing was the drug worked on my ra.

Feel better soon

Comment by Denise 12.02.10 @ 3:03 pm

Rest can work wonders. Last night just before bedtime my left arm muscles below the elbow froze up on me and hurt, a lot. From over knitting.
I got up this morning and it felt much better. But I know joints don;t heal as quickly as muscles sometimes do. Wishing you all the best.

Comment by Diana Troldahl 12.02.10 @ 3:21 pm

Sorry to hear about your hands and all.

For egg white substitute, also check in the cake decorating aisle at crafts stores (or have someone do it for you) for the egg white powder one can use to make royal icing. I think you can reconsitute it for other purposes.

Comment by Margo Lynn 12.02.10 @ 4:33 pm

You are at the top of my list of “People most likely to be able to learn to knit with their toes” but I sure hope it doesn’t come to that.

Comment by LauraN 12.02.10 @ 8:18 pm

You aren’t hoping alone.

Comment by twinsetellen 12.02.10 @ 8:46 pm

I hope you were able to knit later. I got to this quite late so I’m behind times. I too suffer from Fibro like Ruth, so I know some of the feelings. My hands have been in clawed position when I wake up in the AM. I have to use one hand to straighten out the other… Not a good feeling.

My hands get stiff and just slightly achy after I’ve knit a lot. Kinda scares me about the future. Ah, well, I’ll deal no matter how it works out in the future.

You take care!

Comment by Mary 12.05.10 @ 8:36 pm



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