I was asked on short notice to make a rare business trip to Indianapolis so I arrived in my never worn wool coat to the first snow of the year. So messy traffic and white lint all over my black pants. A delightful day all around! But the people here are so wonderful that it truly has been a wonderful trip.
I rescheduled my allergist appointment for the 17th. I told them of my fairly dire circumstances and they were able to get me in before the new year. For that I'm grateful.
In the meantime, I'm trying to do a good job of hiding this allergy from my coworkers and employer while away from my own kitchen. It's an interesting day when you can look back at the last few weeks and realize your eating habits are completely bizarre. I know if I'd read about anybody else eating bananas, brown rice, and meat that I'd call them a looney tune or that I'd consider them in the eating disorder realm. But when it's you, well, it's different. It's amazing that you can develop coping mechanisms for just about anything if it keeps you feeling well.
Fortunately, my boss told me before I left that I should eat like when I'm at home. Ok. I eat meat. And meat at a restaurant is expensive. But I found a place about a 1/2 mile walk down the way where I go every evening for dinner. I get free bananas at the hotel, lunch at Lilly's cafeteria is inexpensive and healthy, and then I get a real dinner. I'm feeling a bit peaked after tonight's steak, though. I need some carbs besides a banana, so I might need to go get a bowl of plain white rice at the asian place nearby and try to see if I can eat it with my steak since they know me at the bar by now. And by bar, I mean very nice restaurant, and by bar, I mean I am not eating in the restaurant by myself. And the wine is good.
The lunch will be my biggest challenge. I had sushi today and my stomach has been upset and my face puffy. I'll have to see if I can find plain rice or meat tomorrow. I can't stomach eating bananas all day and then just meat at night. And no diet coke tomorrow. I caved and had murmurs of chest something within the hour. We'll see how tomorrow goes.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Finally some answers, even if I had to figure it out myself
December 1, 2009
I've read through my old posts and can't believe how sick I was this summer and fall. I've had so many questions about how I'm doing now so thought I'd update the blog.
I kept putting off writing because every time I turned around I was waiting for another appointment or answer or had another question. I just wanted to put the final answer on the update. Well, see where that got me? Three months later. But possibly with some real answers so here goes.
About 6 or 7 weeks ago I had some odd reactions to food. I've been mildly allergic to eggs (shown by blood test and evidenced by facial swelling and feeling really bad when I eat them) and various forms of corn (evidenced by blisters while eating or under my skin on my fingers or dead skin in my mouth or being in severe abdominal pain when consuming the corn syrup variety). Sorry about the graphics, but had to explain as I get this question constantly. Folks think that because you don't go into shock and your throat doesn't close that you aren't allergic. Not true.
So 6 or 7 weeks ago I ate some pasta salad with mayo (it should be it's own food group) and my tongue swelled up and filled my mouth pretty well. Under my eyes swelled up and were very black. Not my normal mayo eating self for sure. Hmmm, I thought. Mayo has eggs in it, but I've never had this reaction.
The next weekend I ate Smithfield fried chicken and a ton of their fries. I worked outside landscaping all day and I deserved all of its greasy goodness. But I didn't deserve the mass of blisters behind each ear. Well, I thought. Not sure what was in the crunch coating on the chicken or the fries. And I was excessively exhausted all week. Power for the course. Felt normal.
Then I ate drank 1 1/2 cosmopolitan drinks and a small bite of a smore the following Saturday. I was still sick on Monday. Oh good God, I thought. Corn syrup in some of the drink flavoring (not much) and corn and such in the smore. All 1/8 of a bite of it...
I had HAD it. Every time I turned around I would go from ok to exhausted, swollen face, baggy and black eyes, raw tongue, hard to breathe, heart would race, chest would hurt, and I generally felt like crap. Or shit. Depended on the day.
So after some research, I decided to go on the good old pet formula diet...lamb and rice. Go down to the bare bones food that is known to be minimally bothersome to most people, and then add foods from there. So for the first few days I felt like a dog, but mostly because I felt sick from the drinks and smore. Then the clouds started to part.
I kept a journal of how I felt each day and what I ate, down to the kosher salt I put on my dinner. And I ate a lot of salt. When you are suspicious of everything on your plate, salt becomes a very important spice so food isn't so bland.
And I started to feel better. And better. And well. As in healthy. But the end of that first week I actually wanted to go running. I worked at landscaping for an entire day of hard physical labor and felt fine the next day. This could be something, I thought.
The following Wednesday, 16 days after starting the Alpo routine (with bananas), I about had a sugar fit mid-afternoon. I broke down and put a small blob of honey on my tongue. By evening my tongue was raw and the edge was covered in hard lumps and my tongue filled my mouth. I felt like I was going to have an asthma attack at any moment...it was hard to breath like I wasn't getting enough air...but I wasn't wheezing. I went up the stairs and I about collapsed from sheer exhaustion. And my face puffed up. I had a flashback to how I felt right before I went to the hospital. Odd, I thought. It really couldn't be THIS simple.
The following weekend we went to a movie and I broke down and had my first diet coke in a couple of weeks. Ahhhh, canned crack. Delightful! Then really NOT. I started having sharp chest pains half way through my big cup of carbonated delight and wasn't so delighted anymore. Are you friggin' kidding me, I thought...almost out loud in a yelling sort of voice.
A few days later I had 2 glasses of red wine, a big deal for Ms. Lightweight. Yummy! Then I went upstairs to go to bed. And had to rest with my head on the bathroom counter panting for air like I'd sprinted up the block. Those stairs took all my air and my heart started to race. And laying there in bed I put all the pieces together. Chest pain-check. Shortness of breath-check. Going up the stairs causing odd and extreme exhaustion-check. Asthma attack with no wheezing-check. Facial swelling-check. Racing heart-check. Food-oh no.
So now that I've been on this very careful diet for a while, I've weened off all my medication. I no longer take heart medication or steroids. My hair has stopped falling out. And I feel brilliantly good when I eat well for several days in a row. I have had some of the best workouts in well over a year. And going up the stairs doesn't make me feel odd.
I do have to be exceptionally careful with what I eat. I'm hoping that my appt. with an allergist on the 8th will help me formalize an approach for finding other food to eat. So far it's brown rice, any kind of meat or fish (not shellfish yet as scallops made me sick), and bananas. and avocados and olive oil. I work on other veggies and fruit, but most make my tongue raw and cause some facial swelling among other things. I'm hoping that as things calm down that the reactions to many things will die down. I was careful over the holidays, but opened up a bit and had fun eating some other things and have felt extremely run down and exhausted for a few days. I've eaten clean for 2 days and am starting to pick right back up again and am feeling good.
The good part is that I think I've found the answer and have made it come and go. A scientist's dream. But this is possibly a foodie's worst nightmare. My husband and I have very briefly discussed that we'll talk about my possible limitations after I see the allergist and after we are really certain what's going to happen.
On a side note, if I am still healthy in January and my food experiment is going well, Dr. Ley has decided he will take out 1/2 my thyroid where the nodule is. He still has more questions than answers about it and with the calcification and blood supply, it doesn't make him feel any better. At least it hasn't grown. He's just glad I'm feeling so well and doesn't want to introduce any new huge variable until I've stabilized for a few months. He'll also get me in to see his dietician when things stabilize as well, to make sure I'm not going to end up sick if I have to eat a limited diet.
I'll post more after my appointment on the 8th. Thank you for all your well wishes and prayers. They obviously worked :)
I've read through my old posts and can't believe how sick I was this summer and fall. I've had so many questions about how I'm doing now so thought I'd update the blog.
I kept putting off writing because every time I turned around I was waiting for another appointment or answer or had another question. I just wanted to put the final answer on the update. Well, see where that got me? Three months later. But possibly with some real answers so here goes.
About 6 or 7 weeks ago I had some odd reactions to food. I've been mildly allergic to eggs (shown by blood test and evidenced by facial swelling and feeling really bad when I eat them) and various forms of corn (evidenced by blisters while eating or under my skin on my fingers or dead skin in my mouth or being in severe abdominal pain when consuming the corn syrup variety). Sorry about the graphics, but had to explain as I get this question constantly. Folks think that because you don't go into shock and your throat doesn't close that you aren't allergic. Not true.
So 6 or 7 weeks ago I ate some pasta salad with mayo (it should be it's own food group) and my tongue swelled up and filled my mouth pretty well. Under my eyes swelled up and were very black. Not my normal mayo eating self for sure. Hmmm, I thought. Mayo has eggs in it, but I've never had this reaction.
The next weekend I ate Smithfield fried chicken and a ton of their fries. I worked outside landscaping all day and I deserved all of its greasy goodness. But I didn't deserve the mass of blisters behind each ear. Well, I thought. Not sure what was in the crunch coating on the chicken or the fries. And I was excessively exhausted all week. Power for the course. Felt normal.
Then I ate drank 1 1/2 cosmopolitan drinks and a small bite of a smore the following Saturday. I was still sick on Monday. Oh good God, I thought. Corn syrup in some of the drink flavoring (not much) and corn and such in the smore. All 1/8 of a bite of it...
I had HAD it. Every time I turned around I would go from ok to exhausted, swollen face, baggy and black eyes, raw tongue, hard to breathe, heart would race, chest would hurt, and I generally felt like crap. Or shit. Depended on the day.
So after some research, I decided to go on the good old pet formula diet...lamb and rice. Go down to the bare bones food that is known to be minimally bothersome to most people, and then add foods from there. So for the first few days I felt like a dog, but mostly because I felt sick from the drinks and smore. Then the clouds started to part.
I kept a journal of how I felt each day and what I ate, down to the kosher salt I put on my dinner. And I ate a lot of salt. When you are suspicious of everything on your plate, salt becomes a very important spice so food isn't so bland.
And I started to feel better. And better. And well. As in healthy. But the end of that first week I actually wanted to go running. I worked at landscaping for an entire day of hard physical labor and felt fine the next day. This could be something, I thought.
The following Wednesday, 16 days after starting the Alpo routine (with bananas), I about had a sugar fit mid-afternoon. I broke down and put a small blob of honey on my tongue. By evening my tongue was raw and the edge was covered in hard lumps and my tongue filled my mouth. I felt like I was going to have an asthma attack at any moment...it was hard to breath like I wasn't getting enough air...but I wasn't wheezing. I went up the stairs and I about collapsed from sheer exhaustion. And my face puffed up. I had a flashback to how I felt right before I went to the hospital. Odd, I thought. It really couldn't be THIS simple.
The following weekend we went to a movie and I broke down and had my first diet coke in a couple of weeks. Ahhhh, canned crack. Delightful! Then really NOT. I started having sharp chest pains half way through my big cup of carbonated delight and wasn't so delighted anymore. Are you friggin' kidding me, I thought...almost out loud in a yelling sort of voice.
A few days later I had 2 glasses of red wine, a big deal for Ms. Lightweight. Yummy! Then I went upstairs to go to bed. And had to rest with my head on the bathroom counter panting for air like I'd sprinted up the block. Those stairs took all my air and my heart started to race. And laying there in bed I put all the pieces together. Chest pain-check. Shortness of breath-check. Going up the stairs causing odd and extreme exhaustion-check. Asthma attack with no wheezing-check. Facial swelling-check. Racing heart-check. Food-oh no.
So now that I've been on this very careful diet for a while, I've weened off all my medication. I no longer take heart medication or steroids. My hair has stopped falling out. And I feel brilliantly good when I eat well for several days in a row. I have had some of the best workouts in well over a year. And going up the stairs doesn't make me feel odd.
I do have to be exceptionally careful with what I eat. I'm hoping that my appt. with an allergist on the 8th will help me formalize an approach for finding other food to eat. So far it's brown rice, any kind of meat or fish (not shellfish yet as scallops made me sick), and bananas. and avocados and olive oil. I work on other veggies and fruit, but most make my tongue raw and cause some facial swelling among other things. I'm hoping that as things calm down that the reactions to many things will die down. I was careful over the holidays, but opened up a bit and had fun eating some other things and have felt extremely run down and exhausted for a few days. I've eaten clean for 2 days and am starting to pick right back up again and am feeling good.
The good part is that I think I've found the answer and have made it come and go. A scientist's dream. But this is possibly a foodie's worst nightmare. My husband and I have very briefly discussed that we'll talk about my possible limitations after I see the allergist and after we are really certain what's going to happen.
On a side note, if I am still healthy in January and my food experiment is going well, Dr. Ley has decided he will take out 1/2 my thyroid where the nodule is. He still has more questions than answers about it and with the calcification and blood supply, it doesn't make him feel any better. At least it hasn't grown. He's just glad I'm feeling so well and doesn't want to introduce any new huge variable until I've stabilized for a few months. He'll also get me in to see his dietician when things stabilize as well, to make sure I'm not going to end up sick if I have to eat a limited diet.
I'll post more after my appointment on the 8th. Thank you for all your well wishes and prayers. They obviously worked :)
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