What Are You Eating?

By Kiara Tatum

One of the many hardships when dealing with Pulmonary Hypertension is the diet and nutrition.  As young adults, we tend to be on the go and just grab something that's quick and easy.  However, as you are aware, most of us have to restrict our diets to either low carb diets, low sodium diets, and we have to watch our vitamin K intake.  It's uncomfortable to be at out with friends knowing that you can't eat and enjoy majority of the foods listed on the menu.  Since the holidays are upon us and many of us have been eating since Thanksgiving, I would like to share some tips to eating that have helped me to watch my sodium levels during this holiday season.

1. Limit your fast food.  As I have been doing my holiday shopping, I have been out for hours.  I try to eat before I go out and bring a granola bar with me.  This way I'm not eating at fast food restaurants while out and about.  Although if you do have to eat out, look at the nutrition menu for the restaurant.  I find that a hamburger and small fry no salt is high in sodium; however, not as bad as Chinese food or a cold cut sandwich.  If you can eat one slice of pizza, then you can also do that as well.  As a drink for each meal out, get a bottled water.  No extra sodium to worry about counting with water.

2. Don't add salt.  Don't use the salt shaker after a meal has been already cooked.  And if your cooking your own meal just don't add salt.  In fact, I stopped buying salt years ago.  I only use Mrs. Dash to add flavor to my foods, and I don' miss the salt. Also cooking with onions and peppers as well as different fresh herbs adds flavor to your food instead of salt.

3.  Say no to processed foods.  This means no mac and cheese, flavored noodled soups, flavored rice, etc.  And don't put cheese on your burger or your sandwich.  It will save you a lot of sodium. A slice of cheese can be almost 340mg of sodium alone.  There are some snacks you can find that have no or little sodium.  I found potato chips that have 15mg per serving of sodium and with a sandwich and a bottled water, I have very filling and tasty meal.

4.  Do your own cooking.  It's hard to cook especially if you're only cooking for one person, but leftovers are good if probably stored.  Using meat that isn't already seasoned or meat that isn't already cooked is best since most of those meats will have higher levels of sodium.  I've also found ways to make a low sodium pizza meal that isn't too bad.  Cooking my own meals allows me to be creative and learn more about cooking healthy meals that my eyes, taste buds, and stomach will all find savory.

5. Read food labels.  It's very important to read food labels for the amount of sodium that's listed.  This will help you in all areas of nutrition and eating healthier not just with sodium levels.  I found a spaghetti sauce that's 40mg of sodium per serving.  So with whole wheat spaghetti, ground beef and spaghetti sauce, I have a meal that's about 120mg of sodium.

6. Use a smaller plate.  If you are going to a holiday party or dinner at family's home, then ask for a smaller plate.  Especially since you won't be sure what was added to the meal for flavor.  Most plastic plates are smaller than a dinner plate, so if they are plastic plates, then you should be okay.  And don't pile up your plate with lots of food.  If you put food all over the smaller plate, then your eyes will think you have a lot of food.  Either way your stomach will get nutrients and be full.  And don't go back for seconds.  Wait 2-3 hours before eating again, which means no dessert right after you eat dinner.

These are just some of the tips that I have learned over the last years about eating healthier and keeping low sodium levels in mind.  For more information about pulmonary hypertension and diet and nutrition visit PHA website.

Life ... and Death

By Michelle Joy Guerrero

How bad could death be?

Life.  Death.  I've never tried looking at these as two intertwined points in our lives. I've always thought that they are two separate dots: one being the starting point, the other being the end point.  Never did I consider thinking about that one straight line connecting the two.

When I learned that I have this disease, death became my monster.  I feared that it may be too close, or, if not, this disease might be an end point stretched well enough to make a dash – a prolonged death, a lifetime uselessness.  I feared that I may not become anything but a parasite.  I spent 3 sleepless nights thinking about how my life would unfold from then on, and then a lot more days in denial that this has no cure.

But there are things we have to accept, and the first one of them is the fact that Pulmonary Hypertension has no cure and that, second, in the natural course of things we will die from it.  It’s only after that time of acceptance that we can really move on with life.  It’s only after we stop fantasizing that we will all be cured from this that we can clear our minds and think about how we want our lives, to be rewritten by us, and not by this disease.

With this disease, we turn 180 degrees and change our lives in an instant.  It’s sometimes one of the things we believe to be negative, because we have to lose and quit a lot of things.  But death has its own beauty.  We live our lives thinking that soon, all that we have may just disappear: our careers, our independence, our active lifestyles, our adventures.  All the things we have now and all the things we want to have later, will go on the same day our hearts and lungs give up.  But once we think a little deeper than all these worries, we discover that the only thing that we worry about is life.  We think about how we would all live despite having a disease that threatens us.  We start to lose interests over things of material values, and instead start living  a life we want to look back to on our death beds.

If I’m going to die next year, do I have to cry for a year or run away from the fact that I am indeed dying?  What do I gain if I cry?  Does life become better if I run away from it?  I gain nothing, and life does not become sweeter if I run.  It only becomes worse, and my condition will only worsen.

Everyone dies.  Even the richest man dies.  Even the greatest doctor dies.  The only difference between everyone’s deaths is how much one is prepared for it.  But how do we prepare for it?  We live in the moment.  We pursue careers we want to pursue.  We spend time with people we love.  We read books we've always wanted to read.  We listen to music.  We go out and get to know our neighborhood.  We watch movies we used to have no time for.  We tell people how much we love them.  We say sorry and thank you to people that deserve them.  We laugh, and we laugh harder.  We do things that will be good for our body.  We eat proper meals with our specific diet.  We exercise to keep us fit.  We take our medicines on time.  We sleep well.  We live our lives thinking and making sure that we don’t have regrets floating in our heads when it’s finally our time to go.  We do things that make us happy, and we do all the things we could to make sure our disease does not ruin our lives.  We live ensuring ourselves that when that time comes; we peacefully say it’s time.

I used to fear death, until I came to think that it’s too shallow to look at it as the last day everyone refuses to face.  Although it had always been the end point, the only thing that really matters is how beautifully and smoothly we've drawn the line from start to finish.  And although we know that there will always be an end point in the future, we are never really sure how close it is.  So go on, draw the line beautifully until you reach the end, or, better yet, draw the line as beautiful and long as you can so that when the day comes that PH finally has a cure, you can simply draw over that point and move the final point much, much further.