”Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions.” – Dalai Lama
I am typing this post for those who might be following with tremors themselves and debating treatment, for those who have other medical conditions that this is triguring them to seek out treatment, and also for my friends and family who are following to let them know that just because you have the procedure not every day is 100%. I still have to work to find what I call my new normal. I will take a pause here in my post to let you in on the factors that can make essential tremors worse.
- Caffeine intake or cigarette smoking.
- Emotional stress or anxiety.
- Exercise, fatigue, or lack of sleep.
- Hunger.
- Illness.
- Specific medications.
- Temperature extremes.
When I woke on Tuesday January 9th, 2024 I was excited as remember the post before this one when I arrived home from Columbus the day before my tremors were 100% gone. Everything was great. One of my days off through the week is Tuesdays. I had plans to go out to lunch with my friends (aka my older folks) that day as I hadn’t been in awhile. Then I had my first time going to small group in the evening. I was looking forward to both. It was also going to be my first time to drive since the end of November. Well my tremors were no longer 100% gone when I woke. Now don’t get me wrong they were nowhere close to where they were before surgery, but my right hand did have a slight tremor. My first thing I did when I noticed the slight tremor was cry. I thought how could it be so perfect the day before and now I have a tremor. I thought about switching the remote back to program one, but decided I needed to give it more time on the new program. I did bump the strength of it up two notches which is only one point total. Now that I have had time to look at that day I realize I was a little anxious to drive again, and to go to my small group. I can’t help that as it’s in my makeup that I get nervous anytime I do something new. I feel that is why I had a what I call bad day with my right hand. It was still more manageable than way before surgery, but it’s just hard to go from a perfect day to a little bit of tremor. That is what people need to understand that just because we have had the surgery we can still have a bad day every now and then. From my personal experience though I would say the bad days are still 80-90% better than my old bad days so that is a good thing. And as my mom and oldest nephew both told me when I explained this day to them. “It hasn’t been that long Kelli so you need to give it time.” Until next time…..
COOKING WITH GRANDMA JUDY
BROCCOLI CHEESE SOUP
2 c coffee cream. 4 T chicken bouillon (4 cubes)
1/2 c butter. 1 T Worcestershire sauce
1/2 c chopped onion. 2 c shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 c flour. 2 pkg frozen chopped broccoli,
3 c water. Cooked and drained. (20 oz)
In Dutch oven or large stock pot, melt butter. Add onion and cook until tender; stir in flour. Gradually stir in water, cream, bouillon, and Worcestershire sauce. Cook 10 minutes, stirring until thickened. Do not boil. Stir in cheese. Add broccoli and cook until heated through. Serves 6-8.