Well, after a false start, I’m back. At least for a little while. I’ve already got some more recipe posts queued up, so I will at least give you some new recipes before disappearing again. Even after that false start and very long unplanned absence, I’m surprised, happy, and humbled to see that during that time some of you out there have continued to find your way here nonetheless. Your views and likes on my recipe posts have warmed my cold metallic robot heart (J/k it’s still only my stomach that’s robotic, not my heart… yet). Thank you!

In the spirit of openness and community and whatnot, here’s the story. In mid-2018 I started feeling constantly fatigued, and eventually my gastroparesis symptoms came back and wouldn’t subside. I got the first appointment I could with my gastroenterologist, who agreed to turn my stomach robot (aka gastric neurostimulator) up a notch. Within a few weeks my stomach symptoms were better, but not the fatigue. I had gone to my primary care doctor about the fatigue, who thankfully is awesome; she took it seriously, ran tests, and referred me to cardiology, rheumatology, neurology, but nothing turned up. The neurologist referred me to another neurologist outside the hospital system I usually go to, but I left two messages and his office still didn’t call me back for an appointment. Fast forward to March 2019, one morning while in a meeting at work the room suddenly started spinning and I nearly passed out (not embarrassing AT ALL). One ambulance ride later I was in the hospital’s emergency department; they did tests and discharged me at the end of the day. I landed back in the ED a few days later for similar symptoms (which occurred while at home, thank goodness), and they called the elusive neurologist for me to get me an appointment with him asap. Thankfully it didn’t take him too long to figure out I have POTS.

POTS stands for Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome. The website my neurologist pointed me to for more info about my diagnosis was this one, which I will refer you to now: http://www.dysautonomiainternational.org/page.php?ID=30. (Since I have become an established patient, his office has been much better at returning my calls.) Basically, because of POTS, I am prone to fatigue, lightheadedness, dizziness, pain, and brain fog (which, turns out, is an actual real thing, studied and documented in the literature. In medical terms, “it sucks”). Even when I’m not particularly symptomatic, I seem to be pretty light-sensitive, get tired easily and randomly, and, you guessed it, I’ve got ANOTHER food sensitivity! I am sensitive to anything with a high glycemic index. It’s not typical for me to be quite that sensitive all the time, but sugars are definitely now another thing to add to the food sensitivity list. Like I needed more.

In 2019 almost no one had heard about POTS. It may be ringing a tiny bell for some of you now, as COVID can induce POTS long-term (or permanently?) in rare cases. “Long-COVID” also shares quite a lot of the same symptoms as POTS as well, so much so, that I’m not even sure what the differences are. But, I totally got POTS before it was cool. Just so you know ;P

In retrospect it is little to no surprise that my POTS is caused by dysfunction of the same nerve group, the vagus nerve, that causes my gastroparesis. While POTS and gastroparesis can occur in some people from other causes, there is apparently a big overlap of people who have idiopathic gastroparesis and idiopathic POTS as a result of the same idiotic vagus nerve. (Anyone else out there? Anyone in Seattle want to start a Dr. Zia / Dr. Armitano fan club? Holler at me in the comments! Comisery loves company!)

So after I got diagnosed, I also did the FODMAP elimination diet, mainly as some of my more annoying, but less debilitating, gastroparesis symptoms seemed to be much more frequent and uncomfortable and there seemed to be evidence to suggest a low-FODMAP diet could help. Long story short, I learned all about FODMAPs, and found a few new foods I don’t tolerate well, like garlic, which is one of the highest FODMAP foods. (But also, cassava and camomile?! Dear stomach, you are a freak). Thankfully, it turns out I am ok with most FODMAP foods (and I have since had a real nutritionist, referred by my gastroenterologist, who recommended I NOT avoid all FODMAP foods). The thing is, with all the health stuff going on and the food restrictions in play, I was feeling really down about food. For a while I just physically wasn’t able to do much of anything, and after I had recovered some, it sounds strange, but I was kind of mad at food in general and the trouble it has caused me, and was still causing me. Fortunately, about three years later, I am now in a better place – both with what I can eat, now that I’m NOT avoiding most/all high-FODMAP foods in addition to avoiding fats and most grains for my gastroparesis, and meat for my conscience. Also, I’ve just been slowly finding my passion for food again. Only now I have to be more strategic about how I spend my limited energy. Though when I do spend it cooking or baking, it means that much more to me; I hope others that I cook and bake for recognize that as well.

So now that I’m back, here are my terms for Robot Recipes 2.0: I will continue to share vegetarian food I love to eat and/or love to cook. I am still not very good at food styling, or food photography, and I don’t have the spoons to care about that, especially when I usually just want to eat the yummy thing I made. I am not trying to make money or a career off of food blogging, so my pictures of food CAN, and WILL, be mediocre. The actual taste of the dish once you’ve made it is going to have to speak for itself. Given that this is not my day-job and that I have limited energy, I’m going to go at my own pace with making and publishing recipe posts. (P.S. These terms are mostly meant to set expectations for me about myself. Everyone else will have to take or leave them. That said, I’d love it if you, dear reader, wanted to post more in the comments section with positive messages / constructive criticisms / life observations / contemplations of the meaning of the universe and interpretations of the ramifications that time is just an emergent property of quantum entanglement / pictures of your kitchen timers shaped like hedgehogs and other cute animals.)

You may notice eventually, dear blog reader, that POTS has changed the way I cook a little bit. I now unapologetically tend to make large batches of everything, so I can have leftovers and freeze some for later (for “food-mergencies”). Cooking larger batches also minimizes the time and energy I have to spend standing around prepping and cooking per meal eaten. My experience being temporarily low-FODMAP made me wary of excessive alliums, even though I think I can tolerate them pretty well. Even so, I omit onions and garlic from quite a few recipes where they might normally be found, and keep them to what I consider a minimum in others. (Pro-tip: sautéed carrots with a pinch of hing (a.k.a. asafoetida) is a pretty decent substitute for sautéed onions and garlic in terms of volume and flavor.) Increasing salt intake can also help prevent and relieve POTS symptoms, as it helps keep blood pressure up; since POTS, I have definitely noticed I have an enhanced affinity for salt as well, so you may find my recipes these days to be on the saltier side of normal. Fortunately salt is an easy one to cut back, and/or adjust to taste at the end of most recipes, so this is my note of caution and I leave it to you, dear reader, to use however much salt you’re comfortable with.

And now the recipe! With POTS it’s important to stay hydrated, increase salt intake, and keep electrolytes up, and that’s exactly what this drink does. Also, it tastes good and doesn’t have weird dyes or any sugar, and doesn’t cost 2 bucks for a single-serve plastic bottle that will spend the next 10,000 years in a landfill leaching toxins as it struggles and fails to decompose. I have used this drink in order to help prevent POTS symptoms, and also when that brick wall of symptoms starts hitting it has helped me feel noticeably a little better within minutes. It’s not a magic cure of course, and it doesn’t do enough to make me feel perfect, just gives me a much-appreciated push back towards functional. It’s not much of a recipe, but I wanted to share it particularly in case it helps anyone else who has POTS (is there a name for us… other than spoonies or sickies? POTSies? POTSheads? No?), or even anyone who wants a good, light, super hydrating drink after a workout, or whatever you normies do.

POTS-ade

(Like lemonade, or a certain sports drink whose name ends in “ade”… but for POTS)
Makes one 12 fl. oz. serving

Bits:

Algorithm:

Combine all ingredients in a glass and stir to dissolve the salt. Drink whenever you need extra hydration, salt, and electrolytes.