Another great (non-toxic) salad dressing!



Salad with Lemon Basil Vinaigrette, Blueberry Goat Cheese, and Toasted Pecans

Sitting in my fridge is a bottle of homemade Lemon Basil Vinaigrette which I whipped up this afternoon.  I can't wait for my salad at dinner tonight!

So, why is this on a Lyme blog?  Two reasons.

First, it's going under my "Eating Well" subheading.  In order to recover from illness and give our bodies a fighting chance, we need to eliminate the chemicals that are found in so many foods, salad dressings being one of them.  Have you read the label of your store-bought salad dressing lately?  Are there a few words you can't pronounce, that sound like chemicals?  Do your liver a favour and make your own dressing!  It's so easy, and with the right oils, so good for your body.  By the right oils, I mean extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, avocado oil, or grapeseed oil.  Never use vegetable oil or canola oil.

Secondly, this Lemon Basil Vinaigrette comes from the U.S. restaurant Pizzeria Uno.  This was one of my favourite restaurants to frequent when we travelled to the U.S. for my Lyme appointments.  Now that I've finished my Lyme treatment, I'll definitely miss my visits to this restaurant.  It was always one of the highlights in an otherwise difficult and stressful trip.

This is not just any pizzeria.  Pizzeria Uno features some very unique and delicious pizzas.  I always loved the ones that had a whole-grain rustic crust that was slathered in olive oil, and topped with different varieties of mushrooms.  Fairly healthy, as far as pizza goes.

One day while dining there, I fell in love with their salad that had a generous helping of a delicious lemony, garlicky dressing on it.  I asked the waiter if they sold the dressing, and even though they didn't have any for sale, they did something even better.  The manager came and gave me a photocopy of the recipe!  Bonus!!!  Had I been able to buy a bottle, it would have eventually run out.  Now, I will have the dressing for life!  I must say that that was so very generous of them, and I am very appreciative, being the recipe addict that I am.

I have had the recipe in my possession for quite some time, but only made it for the first time today.  That's because I needed to do a little math to reduce the amounts in the recipe.  The recipe is written for restaurant use, and I don't usually keep 6 cups of olive oil on hand! LOL  With the recipe reduced to a more manageable size, I finally made it today.  I'm hoping that it tastes as wonderful as it does in the restaurant.

I am going to include both versions of the recipe:  the original one, with restaurant-sized quantities, and the reduced recipe.  I first divided the original recipe by 6, and then in half once more to come to the final numbers.  I hope I didn't mess up the math!  That's why I'm including the original for you to see, just in case.

Lemon Olive Oil Vinaigrette (which I have re-named Lemon Basil Vinaigrette because it sounds better!)

kosher salt                           2 tbsp.
black pepper                        2 tbsp.
seasoned minced garlic*     1/2 cup
fresh chopped basil             3/4 cup
fresh lemon juice                 1 1/2 cups
olive oil                                6 cups

*To season the minced garlic, add 1/4 tsp. Italian seasoning and a pinch of crushed red pepper.

Here is the reduced recipe.

Lemon Basil Vinaigrette

kosher salt (or sea salt)        1/2 tsp.                                       
black pepper                        1/2 tsp.                      
seasoned minced garlic*      2 tsp.     
fresh chopped basil              3 tsp. (= 1 tsp. dried, but fresh is better)            
fresh lemon juice                 6 tsp. 
olive oil                                1/2 cup                               

*To season the minced garlic, add a pinch of Italian seasoning and less than a pinch of crushed red pepper.

Method

1. Measure all ingredients except olive oil and place into a mixing bowl.
2. Using a wire whisk, briskly mix the ingredients while slowly adding the olive oil to blend.
3. Store in the refregerator until ready to use. 

Shelf life:  3 days

I think that the dressing needs time for the flavours to mesh together, so I'm refrigerating it for a few hours before using.  Beware.....it is REALLY garlicky!

The restaurant served this over a salad of field greens, with goat cheese and candied pecans.  Yum!

I ♥ Pizzeria Uno!  Please come to Canada!

The Phases of Lyme

I finally started reading this book today.  Although I knew it to be an excellent resource, I just couldn't find it in me to read it while I was really ill.  I think, at the time, I just couldn't handle the information.  I was too scared.  But now that I've emerged from this illness, I think I can look at the topic more objectively.

Pamela Weintraub is a medical journalist who contracted Lyme disease in the early 1990s, along with her husband and two children.  So far, I've only read the Foreward and Introduction, but one statement really rang true for me and so many others with Lyme:

"When the head of infectious disease at Northern Westchester Hospital put his imprimatur on the diagnosis, we had an explanation for Jason's illness and an inkling as to what might be wrong with the rest of us, at last.

Our nightmare had just begun."  (p. 2)

Doesn't that sum it up?!  "Our nightmare had just begun."

This got me thinking about the whole process you go through from first symptoms to cure/remission.  In my opinion, Lyme sufferers go through 4 phases.

Phase 1 is when you are trying desperately to figure out what is wrong with you.  The doctors can't find anything conclusive, you have testing done, and nothing jumps out at even the specialists.  They might even tell you it's stress or anxiety!  You fight back.  You research things on your own.  You come up with the possibility of Lyme disease, and you send your blood to Igenex.  You discover that it IS Lyme!  You are so relieved that you have figured this out, without even the help of the local medical community.  Now, you can start treatment and get your life back!

Not so fast. 

You enter Phase 2.....the real beginning of the nightmare!  You search for a physician who will treat you.  No doctor around will touch you with a ten-foot pole.  They don't believe your Igenex results.  You search for a Lyme-literate medical doctor.  You contact Lyme groups for information.  You finally find a doctor, but he is in another country!  You get on a waiting list....and you wait, and wait, and wait....helpless at this point.  And you wonder how you will manage to get to appointments when you're feeling so weak and horrible.  Not to mention how you are going to pay for this treatment.  It's all so mindboggling, as you try to figure this out in your Lyme-fogged brain. 

But the story continues.....Phase 3.  You get the logistics all ironed out, and you begin treatment.  You're afraid because your doctor is so far away.  What if you have side-effects from the medication?  What do you do if you get worse?  You experience your first herxheimer reaction and you get really scared.  You read, and read, and read.  Looking things up on the internet practically becomes an obsession.  You search for websites and blogs.  You connect with other Lyme sufferers who can encourage you.  You have your ups and downs.  But slowly, over time, you start to improve.  You get a little better with each passing month.  You gain more confidence in your LLMD (who family and friends, and certainly your GP may think is a quack), and you're so grateful to have found him. 

And then comes the last phase.....Phase 4.  You actually recover!  You realize that you haven't herxed in a few months, and your symptoms have just faded away.  You are sleeping so much better, and the pain is gone.  It's a miracle!  And now it's time to come off the medication.  You can hardly believe that you made it through, but you did.  And now you try to take the best care of yourself that you can, to keep your immune system strong so you don't relapse.  You get back to your job, your friends, and your favourite activities.  You begin to enjoy life again, and are forever thankful for everyone who helped you along the way, and for your LLMD. 

After all you've been through, you are forever changed.  You truly have a new perspective on life.

Victory!

Last January, when we were preparing our income tax return, we made the decision to claim all of my Lyme-related expenses.  I checked the Canada Revenue Agency guidelines, and medical treatments that are obtained outside of Canada are eligible for the medical deduction, provided that those services are not available in Canada.

Well, as you all know by now, long-term antibiotic treatment for Lyme disease is NOT available in Canada.  Therefore, we went ahead and claimed the physicians' bills, travel costs, accommodation, meals, IGeneX tests, other lab work in the U.S., as well as payments to other paramedical practitioners who supported me throughout my ordeal, e.g. naturopath and psychologist.  Our total came to around $9 000.

Because we had e-filed the tax return, the CRA later requested that we send in all of the pertinent documents, receipts, etc. to support our claim.  This was no problem, as we had everything well documented and organized.  The only thing that might have caused this situation to turn disastrous was the requirement that my Canadian doctor submit a letter stating that the treatment I received in the U.S. was not available in Canada.

Immediately I had my doubts that my physician would comply with this request.  I hoped that the doctor would see that they only had to make a simple declaration, which really had nothing to do with whether they actually agreed with the treatment.  It should have been cut-and-dried.  But as I suspected, this doctor refused to issue the letter I needed.  My doctor told me that it was my choice to seek this treatment, that antibiotics are available in Canada, and that this kind of treatment is not what the CRA is talking about when referring to income tax deductions.  The doctor was very adamant about this.  I explained my point of view, to no avail.  So, I left my appointment empty-handed.

This caused us a great deal of stress, knowing that we were likely in for a fight with the CRA.  But more than that, I left that conversation with my doctor with a heavy heart and great disappointment. Did this doctor, whom I have known for over 20 years, not believe my Lyme diagnosis?  I had hoped that after seeing my miraculous recovery over the course of the previous 16 months, that they would have been persuaded that there was truth to this whole Lyme situation, and that perhaps the medical community needed to re-visit and update the guidelines for treatment.  What will it take for doctors to believe that 3 weeks of antibiotics is NOT enough to cure Lyme disease?  There are so many people, like myself, who are living proof that the long-term treatment works!

This past summer, my hubby and I gathered all of our documents to send to the Canada Revenue Agency, along with a letter of explanation for why we could not obtain a statement from my doctor that the treatment is not available in Canada.  We briefly explained the political situation surrounding Lyme disease, the differing opinions regarding treatment, and the fact that there is currently a bill in Parliament (Elizabeth May's bill C-442) which is calling for a review of the current practices regarding Lyme Disease in Canada.  In the meantime, I also investigated what lawyer I might call should the CRA refuse our medical claim.

We waited a couple of months for the CRA's decision, and today, we finally received our letter in the mail!  The CRA had concluded its review of our documents, and it approved ALL of our medical claims!  (And without the doctor's note!)  My kids had a chuckle as I did my happy dance!  (...which, by the way, would have been a physical impossibility a year and a half ago.)

I truly hope that this has set some sort of precedent with the CRA.  I love endings like this.  What a sweet victory!

THE END

Today is the day of No Mores!!!!!  I just got off the phone with my Lyme-literate medical doctor.  After 18 months of treatment for Lyme disease, I'm now D*O*N*E!!!  Yep!  No more antibiotics!  No more medication side-effects!  No more drug claims to submit!  No more bumpy rides through Michigan on I-69 every 6 weeks!  No more visits to Frankenmuth!  No more visits to Birch Run! (Wait a minute, what am I saying? We'll probably squeeze in Frankenmuth and Birch Run now and then, just for old times' sake!)

Thank you, Dr. L, for saving my life!  But the glory goes ultimately to God, who guided my steps, led me out of this crazy maze, and walked with me the whole way.  My prayer is now for those who will come after me, who will face these similar struggles.  I will do whatever I can to help anyone who asks, and to fight for changes in the way Lyme disease is recognized and treated in this country.  No one should have to go through this when we have the knowledge and ability to prevent this kind of suffering.

If you, or someone you know suspects that they may have Lyme disease, it is important to be evaluated by a Lyme-literate medical doctor.  Remission is definitely within the realm of possibility, with the right treatment.  I am living proof of this!