Okay, so I’m pretty new to the blogging world. The main reason for this blog is to be able to share and possibly gain new information on our recent diet, or better yet, lifestyle change we have to make. I’m hoping that my recipes and food finds will be beneficial for others. Also please feel free to share any of your recipes or food finds.
So here’s a little background info on me. My husband and I have been married for three years and we have two great “kids.” Our oldest is our Golden Retriever Riley. She’s three years old and we think she’s the best dog ever! She’s so sweet and obedient and a big time daddy’s girl. Our other kid is our shelter dog Olive a.k.a Bug. She’s cocker spaniel, whippet/greyhound, and a lab mix. She’s the most cuddly and sweetest shelter dog ever. She’s totally a momma’s girl. We are true dog lovers and we consider them to be part of the family (they even have their own puppy book with pics of them from their first year of life). Oh, and they are totally spoiled with my homemade dog treats.
Enough about our kids lets get to the real reason for this blog. Last March 2010 my husband told me that he was filling out an application for the FBI so that he could become a special agent. He passed the test and was then selected for an interview. He passed the interview and then had to pass the fit test (which is grueling, just insane). He worked out non-stop for months on hand and got into great shape. He took the fit test, but didn’t pass the first time (you get three chances then your done, forever). So while he was waiting to take the fit test again he went ahead and did the full physical. About a week after the physical the FBI sent him a letter stating that he needed to see a Nephrologist. So in January of 2011 he saw a Nephrologist and a week later he was scheduled to have a kidney biopsy to decide if he had Lupus or IgAN (Immunoglobulin A Nephropathy). The results came back and he was diagnosed with IgAN. He and I both went to the next appointment with the Nephrologist and were told his outlook was good and that he just had to take Lisinopril and see the Nephrologist every six months for the rest of his life.
Fast forward to July 2011 my husband went back for his six-month follow-up and his creatinine levels were a lot higher than the Nephrologist was expecting. He had to get some blood work done that confirmed that he as Acute IgAN, which is more aggressive than IgAN. At that appointment he was told that he could either up his dosage of Lisinopril or go a very strict diet (lifestyle change). The Nephrologist strongly suggested that we do the diet change and that my husband work out routinely. The Nephrologist told my husband that if the Acute IgAN had not been caught so early that within less than 10 years he would have gone into complete kidney failure (also at some point in his lifetime he will be on dialysis, when will be up to us and how strict we follow the diet). This is kind of scary news when your only 28 years old.
So the diet change consists of little to no soda, no fast food, little meat (basically vegetarian), and a very low sodium diet (no more than 2000mg of sodium). So my first thought was, “Okay, we’ll do what we need to do and we’ll change whatever we need to change.” So we had out “Last Supper” with my husband’s siblings and their husbands and kids, which consisted of his favorite food, pizza, and soda.
Today, with notebook and pen in hand, we headed out to our Kroger Marketplace and Whole Foods to try and find some low to no sodium foods. I was pleasantly surprised at the number of items we found and how all of our options weren’t going to be that much more expensive than what we are currently buying. We bought a bag of Terra brand sweet potato chips (10mg for 17 chips) and Boulder Canyon brand kettle cooked potato chips (70 mg for 14 chips). Both brands of chips were really good so we’ve got two options for chips. We also found organic peanut butter, whole wheat bread crumbs, tortilla chips, ketchup and bread all with 0mg of sodium!
Unfortunately there are no low sodium cookbooks out there so this is going to be an interesting experience. Luckily for my husband I have been a vegetarian for the past 20 years and I’ve got some great vegetarian cookbooks. He has been a real trooper for the past three years of not getting to eat meat at every meal, but as it turns out it has been a good thing. Who knows, maybe we’ll be the ones to come up with a great low sodium cookbook. That’s certainly not our goal now, but maybe in the future. So for now we’re just taking it day by day and hopefully the changes we make will slow the progression of his Acute IgAN and will delay him from starting dialysis so early.
Tomorrow we’ll be making our first big shopping trip and starting our low sodium lifestyle.
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