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FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE.
Yeah. I can't eat bread. It turns out I'm INCREDIBLY allergic to yeast (including brewer's, so NO MORE BEER... NO MORE BEER!), so I can't eat anything that has it. This includes all breads. I can't eat fucking bread!
...Weeks ago I had a blood test that determined what and how much I'm allergic to certain things/foods. It turns out that yeast is a huge no-no for me.
The good news is that, by cutting out of my diet everything that has yeast (just about everything), I should feel better.
I'll still have fibro -- neither my trigger points, the alpha-wave intrusion into my delta-wave sleep, nor the constant pain I live with are going to go away as I exclude all yeast-containing products from my diet -- but I may feel more awake, and maybe even a little better overall.
I'm also supposed to avoid sugar and pretty much all sweeteners. Eating properly is going to be very difficult, but worth it if I can feel a bit better. Especially if my allergy is making my chronic fatigue worse. (It's been horrendous lately, as up-to-date readers know... I've even been able to sleep for hours after taking 20mg of Ritalin for crissake!)
But oh well. Like I've said since I was diagnosed with fibro: I'd walk The Mall (in DC) from Congress to Lincoln barefoot over broken glass to feel better.
...It's too bad that's pretty much what I have to do now.
But I will. I feel so bad all the time that I'll do whatever it takes to improve my condition even slightly.
I was sent the info on my allergies yesterday, and immediately went on a short fast. I ate lunch today, and realized that from now on I will have to cook, myself, almost everything I can eat. Almost everything has yeast in it.
This afternoon I spent 45 minutes cooking a chicken breast. ...I haven't cooked in a very long time, but give myself kudos for my improv skills. I don't measure anything, nor do I know how I'm going to prepare what I'm going to cook when I put it in the pan (I have always stayed away from ovens). I just look in the cupboard and pantry and pick out whatever spices/herbs/oils/etc smell like they'd work together.
I ended up with seared garlic and rosemary chicken with a red wine (though I'm not supposed to drink wine anymore, I figured it would be OK to cook with it since I reduced it to practically nothing... Maybe that just made it all the worse by concentrating it, though) and roasted peanut oil sauce. (The two don't seem like they'd work together, but I added the oil after I had added the chicken back to the pan and the wine had reduced to a tablespoon, so I needed just a touch of oil in the sauce.) The finished product somehow turned out quite well.
...Perhaps I'll eventually get incredibly tired of preparing everything I eat, and wind up having to be fed intravenously...
But until then I shouldn't have a problem losing the rest of the weight I want to. (I dropped twenty-five in the month after I stopped taking Lyrica, but would like to get rid of another twenty-five or so.) That's another plus.
I will keep you posted on my yeast-free existence... It will be interesting to see if I begin to sour on having to live with this allergy (did I mention I can't eat bread, the very thing that allowed humanity to cease living as hunter-gatherers?), which is yet another kick in the nuts from a professional field goal kicker.
Mixx it!
7 comments:
Hey, make sure you avoid vinegar and anything with vinegar in it -- that is a killer for me.
I found out about my, almost identical, allergies but have since seen a specialist in allergies and environmental medicine and with daily immunotherapy injections (allergy shots, but not the typical "build you up to a tolerance level" but a dose that negates the allergen). I can now do whole grain breads about twice a week.
I also have huge problems with petrochemicals - diesel fumes, gas, tar, blacktop and most other chemicals like formaldehyde but can counter those now with treatments.
Anyway, I have been so tired lately I just stand there to cook dinner and I want to cry -- or throw a pan. But my allergies are better -- didn't help yet with the exhaustion.
Hope you can figure out how to work it -- My Doc says part of the problem is that while healthy people roll with the natural changes all day I have to do it all manually and avoid most of the changes.
Oh, why didn't you approve my comment on your 10 commandments post?
David
David,
I wanted to let you know that your comments weren't published until now because Blogger didn't send me an e-mail notification of their existence until today. (And I want to let everyone know that I publish ALL comments as soon as I'm made aware of them.)
I also wanted to thank you profusely for reading, and for your comments. Your comment on this particular post has made me aware that I need to ask my doctor about immunotherapy injections -- thanks a ton!
And I also wanted to comment re Your comment on the 10 Commandments post. Put simply: YOU GOT ME!
Ha ha!
From a Christian standpoint, you've got me dead to rights. The only thing I would point out is that it is Christian Tradition that has the ethical commandments as those written on Moses' tablets. I maintain that the commandments I list in the post are, in fact -- based on reading the Bible alone -- the ones that Actually went on the tablets.
(And I apologize for having to use capitalization for emphasis. The comments section won't allow me to use italics, which I love to over-employ...)
However, your comment goes on to make the above point... pointless.
Since I am a former Catholic, you reminded me of what I already knew: That Jesus fulfilled certain parts of scripture, and went so far as to remind the people that certain laws were to prepare them for the coming of the Messiah, and that those Specific Laws no longer needed to be followed in his presence which, it can be argued, Christians remain.
I'm also very happy that your comment is so erudite and learned, when usually the kind of bile I spit in that post (I admit it... I wrote it in haste and with with a certain gleeful meanness) only causes more bile to come forth from readers. Which would be my fault, of course.
But you took a much higher road, and I say well done.
I'm very happy to have you as a reader. Please continue to keep me in check!
Also hoping you feel as well as you can!
(Fibro plus an allergy to YEAST... Man.
...It's nice to know I'm not alone in the life-raft...)
Ha, I got a chuckle out of your pun!
Anyway, I think you can use italics, and bold if you do th codes - see right below the, "Leave your comment," box where it lists HTML tags you use < and >. I can't give you an example but you CAN type the comment in the regular blogger window and the cut and paste the HTML version here.
I think I explained to you on the SSDI thread a while ago that my main problem diagnosis is Chronic Fatigue. As time has gone on I have become more allergic to virtually everything -- have developed Multiple Chemical Sensitivities (MCS) that are beyond belief (try puking every 45 minutes for 3 days because they patched thr road by my house -- and more tired, not one of those lucky ones who, "improve," with time.
If you ask your Doctor about allergy treatment make sure he understands the right type. Here is a web side of a doc (not mine, mine is here in Illinois) that explains some of it better.
http://allergycenter.com/food-allergy.html
The key is you need to find a doctor who is appointed by the American Board of Environmental Medicine (typically Occupational and Environmental Medicine)-- they usually know what to do. Oh, and I think you mentioned Michigan and Google gives quite a few there about 10 times what Illinois lists.
Anyway, on to religion -- okay, I will save that for another post.
David
Thanks for the kind words on the religion posts -- I try to keep things civil but as you know that isn't always easy online. It amazes me what people will do when you just know they would never do that if they met you in a bar! (Yea right, like I can drink with my yeast and alcohol allergy -- brewers yeast is a big no no for me, but I can do about a glass of wine at certain times of the year -- the mold in the wine and the alcohol counter some of my mold and alcohol allergies like an allergy shot, but other times of the year they are a BIG no no! Oh and avoid dark colored spirits (whiskey) stick to the non grain based, rum, vodka(potato), just an FYI oh and as I mentioned avoid vinegar products!)
Sorry got distracted.
Regarding religion, as I said I am far from religious. But I have a hard time fathoming some of the hatred for the people who practice or for atheists. You alluded to that in your comment above. I just happened to have discussed the very thing you had posted about with a friend of mine not too long ago.
I am not a member and don't attend any organized religion. Sometimes I think they are really what people hate, not the concept of a God or a spiritual being -- after all the concept of George Lucas' Force turned out to be pretty popular!
Personally I think every person has an innate desire to believe in something greater then themselves, what ever that may be.
Okay, just lost my train completely. Sorry.
David
David,
Please see the comment I left on your LifeTrek blog. I propose posting your comment re the 10 Commandments as a counterpoint to my own post. (I want the counterpoint where people can easily find it.)
The details are in that comment on your site. Please let me know what you think, and thanks a lot!
Okay, I just read my comment, #3 above and realized that today is a day I should not be allowed to comment. The spelling and grammar is beyond atrocious! I completely lost the ability to spell a few years ago -- sometimes I stare at a simple word and wonder why it looks so, "wrong," but can't remember how to make it right.
I'm going to take a nap now -- hopefully I can sleep my way to some intelligence -- hahahah llloooollll -- if that were the case I would be the guy Stephen Hawking called when he had a problem he couldn't solve.
David
Hey, please go ahead and post my reply. I don't think I need to review it before hand, but thank you very much for asking and for the link. (Just don't make me look like a moron, please, haha! Like I said I am FAR not very religious and far from an expert on the subject. Hell, I'm gay (said so years ago on my blog) so, as my friend says, I am probably driving the bus everyone else is just riding to hell!)
David
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