u/Ashnicobell

* Weekday dinners +$1-2 for a side.
Hi everyone. I’ve done a mini bulk meal prep and I thought I’d share what I’ve been doing for weekend dinners in case it’s of interest to someone.

These meals in freezer bags freeze well, and I just need to defrost, heat and steam my veg for weekday dinners.

Weekday dinner meals are generally around 120/150g meat per serve and fresh steamed veg adds $1-2 a meal. Using rice, pasta, potato or possibly frozen veg instead might make it cheaper.

Having a second freezer helps, and I go for easier recipes as I’m not a great cook. It takes time but less than cooking every night overall, less lunch prep, makes my day to day easier and I’m not tempted to buy takeaway.

I use my own herbs, mushrooms, eggs, and home made stock but the costs listed are as if buying these, and I haven’t included the cost for basic pantry items (oil, cornflour, sauces etc).

I buy from a local F&V shop, Spudshed (WA), and Woolworths which I get a 13% discount through rewards extra once a month and gift card discount (not included in the prices below). Whole free range chickens or drumsticks are around $5-6 a kilo, I allow for 50% finished meat and I now make my own stock.

Recipe links and other meal ideas are in the first post.

Sweet and sour pork (slow cooker): variations on the recipe include 2k pork leg (cheaper and meant to be leaner), doubling the tomato sauce and adding a 3/4 tinned baby corn. It’s not the take away sweet and sour, or the kantong sauce type, but still very tasty. Around $26, 9 serves.

Honey mustard chicken, an old favourite I’d forgotten and suggested by a member in another post: about 600g cooked chicken and a jar of honey mustard sauce. $9-10, 4 serves

Weekend dinners
For a cheap Chinese I have been buying frozen spring rolls and gyoza having 2 each a serve with a sauce, a take away special fried rice (4 serves) and making (fresh, doesn’t freeze well) plain Egg foo (Chinese omelette). Estimating due to the eggs, around $28 for 4 serves.
I may start adding some of the sweet and sour pork (adds $3 a serve) or make Mongolian beef again (adds maybe $3.50 a serve). Seeing how well the omelette went I’ll be trying it again on its own with some with veg soon.

Chicken Parma: coles/woolies deli large chicken schnitzel, ham slice, passata/tomato puree and cheese, with chips. I have a half but a whole with chips is around $4.50 a serve.

Honey soy chicken wings and drumsticks: Using wings and drumsticks from whole chickens used for meals (otherwise I’ve seen them from $5 a kilo) they taste and smell amazing.

Tacos: lean beef mince with packet seasoning (bulk cooked and frozen in portions), tomato, lettuce, tomato sauce, and a little cheese and lite sour cream. 3 are around $4 a serve, cheaper using other mince and making your own seasoning. Lighter using turkey mince.

For lunches
Quesadilla: around 250g cooked chicken, Tortillas, cooked onion and garlic; lightly sautéed capsicum mushroom and tomato; fresh baby spinach, a little BBQ sauce and cheese. Lightly toasted in a flat sandwich maker then frozen. 5 serves, approx. $7.

Asian chicken rice noodle soup: 500g cooked shredded chicken, carrot, baby corn, spring onion/onion/leek, capsicum, bok/pak choy, snow peas (if cheap), bean sprouts, some mushrooms, rice noodles, homemade chicken stock, Shaoxi (Chinese) cooking wine, soy sauce and garlic. 6 450/500ml serves, $14 (if buying stock).

A new breakie for the rotation
Egg and ham muffins: 6 each of English muffins (toasted), eggs, and ham; and bbq sauce. They freeze and reheat well. 6 serves, around $9.

I’ve been off my Jak inhibitor for about 5 weeks but getting back on it soon.

I’ve had 2 awful upper back flares, shoulder blade and ribs top to bottom, likely from overdoing things despite trying to be careful. Intense pain, restriction, shallow breathing and unable to cough with force. I’m recovering from back surgery and have had a cold for 3 weeks.

I’ve looked up costochondritis and it doesn’t seem to fit as I have no issues at the front of my chest and ribs. I wondered if this is Enthesitis but not sure if that fits either as it is all over the ribs and blade. I also have hEDS but don’t think it’s that.

My AS damage is in my neck and lower back, nothing in my upper back and ribs but I used to pull muscles here easily before starting the Jak.

Has anyone experienced this please or know what I can look into to understand it more? Prednisone (short course) is helping a lot now and I’ll be back on the Jak soon but I’m surprised at the severity of it.

Epic post! Apologies, hope it’s helpful to someone somewhere.
I (47, Aussie) had a L4/5 helilaminectomy two weeks ago by a neurosurgeon. I woke up with no sciatica after 3 years, the first of 2 which were so debilitating I was starting to make loose plans for my exit.

The most pain during recovery was on my left where they moved the muscles. This still didn’t compare to the sciatica. I also caught a head cold while in hospital. Coughing and sneezing after back surgery and needing both my hands to hold my sore bits just felt like I had really bad karma 😂 Being restricted for bending, lifting and twisting, and no driving has been difficult.

No complications so far, the neurosurgeon has said I’m healing well and I’m feeling very positive about it. I’m so very relieved, and just need to make sure I go easy for a little longer.

I went through process of trying different things - meds, physio and 3 RF nerve ablations for 2 years. I was diagnosed with an autoimmune condition primarily affecting the spine (Ankylosing spondylitis) in the third year, which explained the level of damage throughout my neck and lower back and a few other things. I needed to see how much the medication helped me and left this about 6 months longer than I should have which is on me.

But my experiences with medical folk unnecessarily prolonged the process when I was at my worst.
I have basic private health cover which I kept even when things were very tight, and I’m so very glad I did. The delays weren’t due to waitlists as I was triaged to much earlier appointments for 3 of 4 specialists within weeks/a month instead 6-9 months. It was 2 weeks to see the neurosurgeon and 7 weeks to the surgery (as I had already tried other methods).

I did wait 3 months before seeking medical care to see if it would pass. For 2 years I had constant foot drop, foot swelling, foot at an angle of about 25 degrees, limping, tingling, shooting, pain 4-8 progressing throughout the day with some 10s (including a CRP/inflammatory marker once when tested at 92 almost in fracture/pneumonia territory) and restriction. I didn’t respond to a few anti inflams and pain killers. The foot drop, swelling, tingling and pains improved late in the second year due to the last higher frequency ablation, and continued in the third year with AS meds but were still there and not great, and the rest stayed.

My Pain specialist and latest physio who were very good otherwise had constantly told me to put back surgery off for as long as possible for the last few years due to my age. Actually, everyone told me to put it off. For me, I agree with this for a fuse but not something like a helilaminectomy given the issues I was experiencing.

Getting onto a better GP (general doctor) earlier and requesting a referral to a specialist and getting an MRI sooner would have made a big difference. And better physiotherapists from the start unlike one that told me I had Weekend warrior syndrome when 8 months in and struggling to walk, let alone do physical work. There are many more examples.

I will need more intensive surgery in the future due to the other damage from the AS before diagnosis and treatment but am hoping the meds will keep it at bay for awhile. I now have some really competent medical folk who are also lovely human beings. Despite having a bit of a whine here due to revisiting this (very sorry), without even trying to they have helped me recover from a lot of the anger I was feeling for a long time.

I hope this comes across as intended (if anyone’s read this far!). Understand that surgery does not always go so well and we do need to try different things to avoid it if possible. I’m not meaning to push surgery, but really hope to encourage those who feel that their medical folk aren’t understanding the impact it’s having on them, and those being dismissed, to pursue better care if they can.

Hope everyone is doing as best as they can 😊

Starting a Jak inhibitor (similar to a biologic) a year ago once diagnosed helped me to identify that it was not age/posture/genetics (they weren’t thinking of HLA B27) as I had been told for 15-20+ years, what was actually due to AS and what was likely due to hEDS (hyper mobility, diagnosed at the same time) by what the Jak did and didn’t help.

So much seems to be focused on the SI joints, pre diagnosis and treatment I thought my neck and other lower back issues where due to age/posture/genetics as I had been told for so long, 46 at diagnosis. With a good and rapid response to the Jak, and digging online for my specific issues, I realised otherwise.

I also realised the TMJ (jaw), pulling muscles stupidly easily and swollen glands is an AS thing.

Later while I knew I had mechanical damage, the Jak gave me a very clear view decreasing my sciatica and lower back pain by maybe half, no more drop foot or swelling and lesser restriction. I still had it in my head for a long time these issues were due to mechanical damage - bone/joint damage, disc movement and extra growth - which wasn’t wrong, but it took me awhile to get my head around the mechanical damage being due to undiagnosed and untreated AS.

I’ve had a week of tapering and now a week off my Jak due to upcoming back surgery. The lower back issues have amped up which I was expecting. My jaw has become tight already, my neck is okay so far but for a bit more clicking.

I’ve been surprised by my sunlight sensitivity (vision) which I had for a long time before the Jak. I had completely forgotten about it. I had forgotten the bed pain too. The insomnia is back, due to some pain but it’s not at the level it was, so I imagine it’s stress too atm.

The level of clumsiness is pretty amazing. 4-6+ incidents a day of dropping things, missing distance etc. I seem to have lost a lot of coordination, this is in addition to the movement issues from AS restriction (like turning and my feet don’t follow). I’ve know this to be due to hEDS (hyper mobility) and am aware that immunosuppressants don’t affect it. It has to be coincidental or due to other factors but I find it so strange that it’s increased so much and so quickly.

A year on from learning of AS and a further year diagnosed, I am still learning about AS and how it affects me. And for me, I am just so thankful that I have good medical folk now and can access biologics/jaks and surgery when needed. I’ll be getting back on the meds as soon as recovery is sorted.

Has anyone else learnt more things about their AS too?

I’m not sure if everyone is aware, but biologics/Jak inhibitors are meant to slow or stop progression, they are for managing the disease and often don’t ‘fix’ everything.

Leading up to diagnosis (2 years ago) I had read, and a rheumatologist had mentioned, that a 60% improvement through use of a biologic/Jak was considered to be successful. And that this disease can only be managed, not cured. I am thankful that I got my head around this early on. 

I had a look online again - what level of improvement from biologics for Ankylosing spondylitis is considered effective - and am seeing different things according to different benchmarks/tests/trials. I  am now seeing 20/40/50% improvement is considered successful at a surface level search.

Many of us experience issues for years, challenges with medical folk, eventually diagnosed and then take meds, and we may experience side effects from these meds. 

As with AS and its forms, people experience things differently. Some people do experience complete relief with biologics/Jak inhibitors, others don’t. Some still have pain and/or restriction after a good period, however lesser than before taking the meds. And many of us will need to change meds along the way. 

Biologics/jaks are meant to slow or stop the progression of AS. There is no cure, and everything I’ve read and been told is about managing it. 

Biologics/Jaks will also not undo mechanical damage caused before diagnosis if it’s delayed. This is not just damage to the SI joints.

I’m really not trying to be a downer, we all have enough to deal with. It’s absolutely worth looking into it further if we’re taking a biologic/jak and still experiencing issues, and doing a med change, incorporating exercise, physio, diet, heat etc, but some issues may remain no matter what we do.

For me, being a grade 2 for the SI joints and mechanical damage to the lower back and neck, and aware that a biologic/Jak would not ‘fix’ it all, I’m really grateful for the relief my Jak has given me. I understand that I’m lucky that my first med worked well and quickly. My ‘management’ is having surgery soon for my worst affected area, getting more nerve ablations in the future, more surgery when needed, and keep using non medical interventions like pillow positioning for sleep, using a tens machine, heat, etc. If the relief from the Jak lessens in the future, I will be looking into trying another Jak or Biologic. I will also be keeping an eye on my scan results for progression, and getting onto medical interventions (ablations/surgery) sooner if needed. 

There are people with AS and its forms who don’t take biologics/jaks with their own legitimate reasoning or medical issues restricting it. This post is not about this.