The anti-inflammatory diet: My self-improvement kick update

Here's the anti-inflammatory diet food pyramid,
just in case you forgot.

So. It's been nearly two months since I have been on the anti-inflammatory (A-I) diet. My glucose levels, which used to be slightly high once in awhile are great! ET symptoms of brain fog and scattered concentration have improved except when I am really stressed. I am a little more energetic, but I am also back on my Bike to Nowhere (stationary bike), so diet or exercise? Not sure.

I can't say that these are huge changes. I doubt if I have lost much weight; I don't own a scale, but my clothes fit about the same. Time will tell whether my cholesterol levels are better. Both weight and cholesterol are factors in strokes, so reductions here would be a plus. All of us with ET have elevated clot risks.

Sticking with the diet does pose a few challenges. The biggest one is all those vegetables and fruits! Those are at the bottom of the A-I food pyramid, which means you have to eat more servings of broccoli than bread, and that is a challenge.

Also difficult is listening to the complaints of Others Who Live Here about increasing the variety of whole grains. However, in adding more oats, barley, and brown rice to the daily mix, I'm eating less wheat. And I'm less bloated. That was an interesting development. I never put any stock in "wheat belly" claims, but the variety of grains does make me feel better.

New procedure underscores need for stroke awareness

Kurt Hinrichs was treated with mechanical thrombectomy,
this cool little "fishing line" that snagged a clot from his
brain.

All of us with essential thrombocytosis are aware that we are at increased risk for clots and strokes. National Public Radio this morning reported about a cool new stroke treatment that works a little like a teeny fishing net on a flexible line to remove clots from the brain. That report also raises some issues you may want to consider as an ET patient.

First the procedure: Kurt Hinrichs woke up one morning and fell down, paralyzed on one side. His wife immediately called 911, and he was taken to the hospital where doctors realized he was having a stroke. To remove the stroke from his brain, doctors used a procedure called a "mechanical thrombectomy." The procedure involves running a flexible tube via the groin into the aortic artery and up into the brain. At the end of the tube is a tiny little net that "caught" the clot like a fish. Doctors were then able to remove the clot from his body by reeling in the little tube.

Doctors called Hinrichs a "Lazarus patient" because of his remarkable transformation; within minutes after the mechanical thrombectomy, the stroke symptoms subsided.