Archives for November 2010

So Much To Do, So Little Time

Filed Under: Allergies, General3 Comments

ClockLately I have been so overwhelmed with everything there is to do.  There just aren’t enough hours in the day to fit it all in and I feel like I am getting further and further behind on things.  I just can’t seem to keep up with everything… how do people do it??

Work.  I have been lucky enough to cut down my work schedule to four days a week now.  I have most Wednesdays off and then I come in a bit earlier the other four days to catch up on what I missed.  This has made a huge difference since traffic is much lighter at that time and it gives me an entire day to catch up on things.

Food.  Everything on our new diet is so time consuming to prepare.  I feel like my life is being planned around my allergies.  We can’t go out without first planning what food I need to bring with me since I can’t order from restaurants anymore.  Everything needs to be made from scratch.  This is taking a lot of adjustments for me as I’m used to quick and easy meals, not to mention the amount of dishes I accumulate cooking that way!

Shots.  One of the reasons I chose Wednesdays to be off was that it is my shots day.  Going in for my shots is not a very quick appointment.  After checking in, going over any reactions from last week’s shot, and then getting all four shots… they make you wait in the waiting room for thirty minutes to make sure you are okay before you leave.  I’m gone for at least two hours, on a good week, to get shots.

Life.  Between all the new time demands in my schedule, I haven’t found much (or any) time for fun stuff… no scrapbooking, no reading, not so much blogging.  All of that time has been replaced with extra grocery trips for more fresh foods, chopping fruits and veggies, chopping, more chopping, and cleaning (since I’m not allowed to have dust anymore)!  Plus there are always little projects we need to work on around the house, such as cleaning out the hall closet since it wont close anymore.

My brain is just too full always thinking ahead about all the stuff I need to do next.  I find my self sitting on the couch stressed out about all the stuff I need to get done that day, but I’m stuck there because I just don’t know where to start.

Make up Your Mind

Filed Under: General4 Comments

Jesse has been so, so supportive of all of my new diet requirements. However, I just have to make fun of him a little bit for how quickly he can change his mind about what foods he likes. This weekend it was pineapple. I had just cut up a whole pineapple for us to have with breakfasts.

When we were at the store the next day he said, “Can we buy another pineapple, so that it will be ripe and ready for when this one is gone? I love pineapple.”

PineappleSo we did and I cut up the next pineapple yesterday. Then this morning he didn’t take any and I told he had to have some or else it would go bad before we could finish it.

He said, “Pineapple just really isn’t my thing…”

This is very annoying because he does this all the time! When we go shopping together, he is always wanting to try new things. I’m all for it… as long as he eats it. The problem is that he will often change his mind about liking something before it’s gone. So, I try to talk him out of wanting to try new things as we walk down the isles at the grocery store.

Also in our pantry right now is a bag of mini bagels (which he was going to love with cream cheese), bags of almost stale chips (because he always loves chips), a humongous unopened jar of jalapeños from Sams (because he was going to go through them so fast now), and a few other items.  I wouldn’t be so bad if it was things I could eat, but I can’t have any of these things anymore… so they just sit there.  Maybe he will change his mind back soon?

Gastrocrom for Food Allergies

Filed Under: Allergies, Food Reviews3 Comments

I have had quite a week trying to figure out how this new medicine, Gastrocrom, works.  There is a bit of a learning curve on how much to take depending on what food I’m eating and how much I’m eating.  Overall it works fairly well… if I take the right amount.

It comes in these individual ampules of 5mL, and you mix them into water (plain water only) and drink it immediately.  It has no taste so it’s not at all unpleasant.  Then you have to wait half an hour before eating so that it has time to take effect.  I’ve figured out by trial and error that I need to take two doses before eating and then one dose about an hour after eating.Medicine with water

Gastrocrom works by preventing the release of inflammatory chemicals such as histamines from mast cells.  So while the medicine is in my system, my body doesn’t react to the foods I’m allergic to.  The problem I was having this week was that the medicine was wearing off while the food was still in my stomach.  I ate a huge meal (our anniversary dinner at Outback) and was fine perfectly fine for about two hours.  Then it hit me… hard.  I got the super bad headache (from the soy), and overwhelming nausea (from the wheat).  So that’s when I added the second half-dose after eating, while the food was still in my stomach.  I was able to eat my Outback leftovers with no problems.

I think I’ve got it mostly figured out now.  However, I am still experiencing some of the lasting effects of the foods such as needing my inhaler more often again and more ear/throat aggravations.  I think I still need to be avoiding the foods for the most part, but this week we’ve been enjoying lots of the foods we had been missing out on the last couple of weeks.Medicine box