Saturday 20 June 2015

catch up

It has been far too long. After that detailed post on my health, this will be a big jumble, but that's how it goes.

With the elimination diet, all I noticed troubling me was milk, so I added back everything else. But then after a week or so I started feeling chokey again, so I started over. I didn't cut coffee, cocoa, or corn this time, and it went a lot easier. After a few days I noticed that I felt so much better all over. But then I made a birthday cake, and some other incidents, and I ended up with bronchitis. Went to the doctor after several days of gasping for breath, and got steroids and an inhaler.

Long story short, I've decided that wheat makes me ache in my joints and also makes my coughing/sinuses worse. Milk just upsets my stomach a bit.

Taryn's allergy doctor retired in December, being about 80 yrs old, but her partner kept all existing patients. I asked about getting tested and was told no new patients on our (military) insurance. The only other allergist on the network is plumb on the other end of NWA's long, skinny metroplex. I got an appointment there, and finally went Wednesday.

They decided to do the children's test, which has groups of the most common allergens and is tested on the arms. Well. The "control" prick of straight histamine didn't cause a reaction, and the only thing that did within the test time was ragweed, which is only in season August/September. So I'm thinking it isn't working and should be redone. They were going to do more pricks on my upper arm, but my mouth and chin started itching so they didn't. She prescribed Singulair and told me to come back in Sept. THEN, as I got in the car to leave, suddenly two more spots got red on my arm. I called to ask what was where, so I could tell what caused the reactions. Wheat was small, and slightly larger was peanuts. Oh, dear. As you may know, peanut butter is one of the 4 food groups in our house.

So, while I still have my doubts about the efficacy of the test, I will try a wheat and nut-free diet for a while and see what happens. And take the pills if I need to.

Wednesday night Bob didn't go to bed because he had a belly ache. At 4am Thursday I woke to the sound of him moaning in the bathroom. Now, he has had episodes before of gut pain so bad he passes out, and it usually goes away before long. So I dabbed him with a washcloth and generally got in the way until he finally woke Ruth up about 5. Then I nursed her while he groaned, pottied, and thrashed around on the bed. She was almost asleep when he shouted at me to DO something, so I called an ambulance.

In short, he has a kidney stone and gallstones, and we discovered the ambulance takes less than 15 minutes to arrive, and the folks at Springdale's Northwest Hospital aren't very compassionate towards moaning men.

I got Bob home just in time to collect Cedwryck and go back to town to have his ingrown toenail removed. That went well, but I am just tired of doctors for now. And just pain tired, as Ruth wouldn't go to sleep until 12:30 this morning, so that's 2 night short sleep. Bob is hurting pretty bad by turns, and doesn't want to eat anything. I gave him a "sure fire" home remedy of 1/4 c each olive oil and lemon juice. He says I poisoned him.The book says the stone will go in less than 24 hours.  We'll see.