Sweet Strategy

Here's my weirdo Julia story for the week. Ready?

Honestly, I could tell weirdo Julia stories every day of the week but I do have some compassion for my readers, so I try to limit myself.

Ahem.

So. I had my appointment with Dr. Young Guy a few days ago. We set the date for my next infusion cycle which will begin on April 3rd. Initially we were shooting for April Fool's day, but the infusion center didn't have any appointments available that date. Dang.  I think this fool getting her mousie drugs on April Fool's day would be appropriate.

During my appointment, I showed Dr. YG my mousie energy graph. He was amused, but also was actually interested in the eyeball and snout part of the paper. "If you're going to be taking rituximab long term, it would be a good idea for us to manage that phase of the cycle, since you've told me that you feel really crummy then."

No kidding, I thought as I sat there makeup-less, hair barely combed into place, and wearing a stained set of sweatpants. Feeling less crummy sounds like a great idea.

We began discussing how I could experiment with my prednisone dosages during that time period -- within certain prescribed parameters, of course -- with the idea that bumping up my pred in a burst then taper mode immediately before the infusion may change the shape of that energy graph right around the eyeball.

So two days I began the burst phase of the dose, meaning that I doubled my usual daily dose of prednisone. And boy, howdy, do I ever FEEL as though I've doubled my dose of prednisone. A prednisone buzz is such a strange feeling, isn't it? Which brings me to the weirdo Julia part of the story here.

I always love sweet treats, but increasing my prednisone turns my sweet tooth into a sweet giant-sized-full-set-of-dentures. In this particular episode of pred-induced carb  cravings, my sweet of choice happens to be lemon pie.

I love lemon meringue pie....always have. But this week it's turned into an obsession precipitated by the dangerous combination of drug-related carb cravings and this seemingly innocent little facebook game:

I play this stupid game every day. It's addictive, so if you haven't played facebook Bake Shop Drop, don't start. 

I think that the grumpy chocolate chip cookies and red cupcakes and dopey donuts don't really look so appetizing, but see those cuuuuuttteeee plump delicious creamy tangy smiling little slices of lemon meringue pie?  Don't they look like the tastiest little things EVAR? One and a half day into my doubled dose as I was playing this game, as those little pie slices appeared on the screen my desire for lemon pie exploded, and hasn't diminished one little bit as the days have gone by. I think about lemon pie. I dream about lemon pie. Check out my refrigerator:

These little goodies are meant to duplicate a slice of lemon pie minus the crust........but I thought they tasted overwhelmingly artificial. I'll bet that this stuff was only threatened with a real lemon. Bleah.

I then moved on to cooking up a box of lemon pudding mix. I seem to recall liking this in the past, but hm. It just didn't do it for me.

So I caved and bought some bonafide real life lemons. And utilizing my new prednisone fake energy, will just get it over with and bake the stupid pie. Myself. Using a tried and true REAL homemade lemon filling.

Dessert at our house on Friday. C'mon over after supper.

Oh, and Terese? I'll leave the meringue off the pie just for you...