I wrote this at 2am. When I was up to pee… again. That’s another awesome MS symptom. Going to the bathroom ALL. THE. TIME.
People with MS can display different symptoms and those symptoms may not even present themselves every day. I know people that have had flare ups early in life and have presented with no symptoms since! Some of mine are with me all day, every day but in varying degrees. Some only come out when I’m triggered.
But I feel some sort of my MS, every day.
On bad days my body feels heavy and exhausted. My eyesight is horrible, my balance is off, my words are messed up, my left side feels like white noise or static… constantly… even in my sleep. My left hand goes into a fist and I have to coax my fingers to straighten and then try through my headache to remember to keep the hand that can only feel shooting nerve pain, straight. My left thigh feels like it’s gone, like just not there. I get hot which exacerbates all those things and my right fingertips feel like thousands of needles. Actually now that I write that, it kinda feels like I’m constantly being tattooed.
On a good day I have more energy and my eyesight is normal! My brain is quicker but my balance is still off. I breathe in and swallow at the same time and choke on water, chocolate, and basically air 😆. My left hand still stays in a fist but I use balls and squeeze tools to try to strengthen it. I might have tingles throughout my left side but nothing like some days so it is tolerable… I find there are a LOT more things I deem tolerable now!!
Are you watching Dancing with the Stars on Disney+? This year Selma Blair is a star contestant. Selma Blair has MS. She has been very vocal about her battle with MS. I hate saying battle. Like there is some sort of fight or some sort of control that the person suffering from this disease has.
Over the years I have had conflicting feelings about Selma Blair. At first I was angry with her. She was diagnosed in 2018 and started trying to find “cures” for her disease. She talked about expensive diets, stem cell treatments, chemotherapy and other extreme experiments that NO normal person could afford to try. It made me bitter that because she was a celebrity with money she might be able to “get out” out of a disease that I watched my Mom struggle with for years. I watched her Instastories and felt like she was cheating because she had personal doctors, nutritionists, massage therapists, and help with her son that most of the MS world had no access to. I felt like she was minimizing MS and making MSers think there was hope for all of us. Obviously most people cannot afford ANY of her treatments or therapies nor can they take work off whenever they feel awful. My Mom wasn’t rich and famous and the majority of people suffering from MS aren’t either.
And then I saw her dress up and go on the red carpet with her specialty cane and I began to feel sorry for her. All the money and celebrity in the world couldn’t help her escape the natural progression of this horrible disease.
After I was diagnosed I started seeing things through a different lens. I saw her stories that were so raw and emotional. I saw her bravery and perseverance in her quest to maintain a life. Not a lifestyle but just a life with some sort of normalcy. I watched her give a platform to this disease that affects over 2.8 million people around the world. I saw her fighting to try anything to stop the progression. I watched her be experimented on so that one day a treatment will be there for ALL.
And for that I am grateful 💛.
Check out How Was Your Week, Honey? Episode #295: To the Beat of the MRI HERE! This week, topics include: modern TV, clothing styles, square dancing, Chris’ brain, Queen’s funeral, Charles Adler, Thursday, SOW, song selection & Vancouver riots.
I want to share this recipe because it is bright and delicious and it feels like sunshine and we have been having a beautiful start to our autumn! This sauce is so good I could drink it! Actually with some rum… 🤔🤣. SBean loves meatballs so I like to try different ways and this one was freaking awesome! I had leftovers for lunch the next day and I was excited to get home to it! The creamy sauce, the flavour bomb meatballs and the crunch of the peanuts!! Yummm!
Turkey Meatballs in Mango Coconut Sauce
Adapted from Ambitious Kitchen
1 pound lean ground turkey
1 egg
½ cup panko
1/3 cup cilantro, chopped
1/4 cup white onion, finely diced
1/2 jalapeño, seeded and finely diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tablespoon ginger, grated
½ teaspoon cumin
½ teaspoon turmeric
salt & pepper
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
1 (15 ounce) can light coconut milk
1 ½ cup mango, diced
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 red bell pepper, julienned
3/4 cup frozen edamame
1/4 cup peanuts, chopped
2 green onions, chopped
Add coconut milk, mango, and soy sauce to a blender (I used my immersion blender it is AMAZEBALLS! *my affiliated link*) and blend until smooth. Set aside.
In a large bowl, add turkey, egg, panko, cilantro, onion, jalapeño, garlic, ginger, cumin, turmeric, cayenne, and season with salt and pepper. Mix and form into 12 meatballs.
Place a large deep skillet over medium-high heat and add in sesame oil. Add the meatballs and brown on all sides, about 5-6 minutes.
Reduce the heat to medium-low and add your mango coconut sauce to the pan with the meatballs.
After 20 minutes, remove lid and gently stir in the edamame and red bell pepper. Simmer for 5 more minutes uncovered.
Serve over rice and garnish with chopped peanuts and green onions.
It was a busy week! The dog had a bad belly on our way out to school/work and then there was surprise construction, and then I ripped out half of the van’s trunk buuuut I finally made it to work! Yesterday would have been my Mom’s 64th birthday so Dad and I donated $64 to each of the Kid’s Terry Fox runs at school in her honour. Ninja and I stopped in for a flight at Tin Whistle Brewing while SBean was in gymnastics and then went to her open house at her school. It was SO nice to be in the school and meeting her teachers again! I picked up some witchy autumn books at the library, Oliver got love bombed, I continued my daily fitness challenge, Ninja got me beautiful flowers and we bought a new work computer/printer. On Saturday Dad was hanging out on his deck I we were out on our balcony so he came up for a beer and then stayed for Ninja’s famous roast dinner 💛. On Sunday we supported local! We started with a lazy morning and then we hit up Peach City Radio‘s Vinylfest! We each bought a record or 2, Ninja got a Clash album, SBean got ABBA, HBear got The Beatles and an electronic record and I picked Sarah Vaughn and Oscar Peterson! We then went for a walk on the beach and got a delicious lemonade from The Peachand headed to Slackwater Brewing. We enjoyed the grand opening of Slack Alley, it was a blast! Then we had dinner at The Neighbourhood Brewing, my new favourite burrito is the Portlandia!! OMG what a great way to end a great day!
1 thought on “Celebrity MS & Turkey Meatballs in Mango Coconut Sauce”
Fun family photos! Your meatball recipe sounds so delicious. I wish that there will be a cure for MS someday. I know another blogger who has it–Lisa of Grandma's Briefs. She has been getting an IV infusion that has been helpful to her. I wish you well—hugs