zeptember

So those boxes of chocolate my ma got for us?

I began chowing on them on Tuesday. Within two days, my fingers began splitting open. This is usually the sign of a wheat reaction, so today I popped out of my complete denial and began looking up the ingredients in the chocolates.

Whitman’s chocolate contains a bunch of stuff, but for me the red flags are invert sugar, sodium metabisulfite, confectioner’s glaze and invertase.

According to sugar.org, “Sucrose can be split into its two component sugars (glucose and fructose). This process is called inversion, and the product is called invert sugar. Commercial invert sugar is a liquid product that contains equal amounts of glucose and fructose.” Ok, so no gluten to worry about, but I don’t want fructose in my diet. Whitman’s chocolates have invert sugar AND corn syrup, so it’s out.

Sodium metabisulfite contains the word ’sulfite’, and according to wikipedia, “may cause allergic reactions in those who are sensitive to sulfites”. Hi that’s me! Well I didn’t rash out or get diarrhea like I do when drinking wine or eating stuff with too much vinegar, but still…Whitman’s chocolates contain sulfites so I shouldn’t have it.

Confectioner’s glaze, aside from the gross potentiality of being made from scaly mealy bugs, does not appear to contain an allergen for me.

According to enzymeindia.com, “Invertase is a yeast-derived enzyme”. Because I have a yeast sensitivity, I should not be consuming invertase.

The Queen Anne’s cherry cordials also have corn syrup and invertase in them, so of course they’re out.

Sorry ma, no more Whitman’s or Queen Anne’s chocolate deliveries.

Besides, after having eaten gourmet chocolates in the time I have lived in California, Whitman’s tastes like crap now, anyway.

Whitman’s therefore becomes another childhood favourite to fall dead, along with Baskin Robbins ice cream and Taco Bell…killed dead by becoming enlightened through California cuisine.

So…my fingers. It’s my right ring finger and my right pinky finger, both split open and started bleeding on the right side of each digit. I bandaged them up last night and all of today, and they seem to be healing up nicely…until I got home from work today and chowed down on some more chocolates. And then remembered…oh yeah, my fingers split open.
So they’ll be splitting open again, heh.

My mom sent us a late Christmas present - stuff of family tradition that I’ve been so homesick for!
Whitman’s chocolate and Queen Anne cordial cherries!

I feel like my mama just hugged me.
Bugger the fact that it’s all corn syrup! My mama sent me something straight outta my childhood!

On December 24, 2009 I drank 1/2 glass of red wine. The wine tasted gross, but more importantly my face, neck and chest rashed out immediately. My ears turned beet red and felt like they were sunburnt.

On January 5, 2010, I drank another brand of red wine, which also tasted gross. Once again, my face, neck and chest rashed out immediately. My ears turned beet red and felt like they were sunburnt.

On January 16, 2010, I had a sushi dinner with my husband at a local restaurant. Just over an hour later, I had diarrhea. I went back in my mind and examined everything I ate for dinner. I did not have any sauces or salad with dressing or soy sauce or miso soup. I called the restaurant and asked how they prepare their rice - it’s just rice vinegar with some salt and sugar - just your basic.
This is at least the third, if not fourth time I have had a reaction after eating at that restaurant. All of the fish was super fresh and tasty, so it wasn’t bad fish. I do not have food poisoning. This does not happen every single time I eat at that restaurant, either. All I can assume is that sometimes, they use more vinegar in preparing the rice than they normally would. Vinegar contains sulfites, just like wine does.

I have known for awhile that I have a sulfite sensitivity, because I’ve been noting it or photoing myself after drinking wine or alcohol. Now I just need to make a point of omitting sulfites from my diet. Woo, one more thing to cut from my diet. Wheee, on my way to not being able to eat anything at all.

Today is Day 2 of headache and 99.2F average temp… again.

Honestly I should say the temperature thing is a continuation of what has been going on since December 7, 2009, when I noticed I had a fever from the flu for the first time.

Since December, my temperature has returned to MY normal of 97.5F only once or twice. Since December, my temperature has gotten to 98.6F a handful of times. But the prevailing temperature has been in the 99F range.

This morning when I woke for work, my head hurt, my sinuses hurt, my eyes hurt, my joints ache and my upper back aches - but not in the flu sort of way. My head, sinuses and eyes are likely all tied with either a continuation of the last virus I had, or a new virus caught while back to work yesterday.
The joint pain is because I went dancing for two nights in a row this past weekend. The back pain is because george is due in 48 hours, and so my body is trying to fold in on itself from the top down as it usually does each month.

I have to leave for work in 10 minutes, and yet I feel like my head is going to explode and I feel like I could expel one of my sinus cavities right here on the keyboard. And just in time, the stabbing right side ovarian pain has awakened for its day at work on my body.

It’s 44°F outside, and we have one ambient heat lamp installed, which does absolutely nothing to warm the “outdoor classroom”. The teachers probably won’t want to send me any children when it’s below 55°F, which means I have to float around from classroom to classroom, assisting other teachers all morning. It’s awkward work.

But off I go.