zeptember

Breakfast:
2 bowls Gorilla Munch cereal (contains organic corn meal, organic evaporated cane juice, sea salt).
Cereal eaten with Almond Breeze Original flavor (contains purified water, evaporated cane juice, almonds, tricalcium phosphate, sea salt, potassium citrate, carrageenan, soy lecithin, vitamin A palmitate, vitamin D2, natural vitamin E).

Noted reactions: none

Morning snack:
1 Peanut Butter Lara Bar (contains dates, peanuts, salt)

Noted reactions: none

Lunch:
1/2 cup of homemade Seven Vegetable Soup (contains turnip, celery, collard greens, sweet potato, carrots, parsley, leeks and sea salt).

Leftover Thai coconut soup from last night .

Water to drink.

Afternoon snacks:
At school I had one Dole Sugar-free raspberry juice pop (contains Water, Raspberries, White Grape Juice Concentrate, Maltodextrin, Sorbitol, Raspberry Juice Concentrate, Natural Flavors, Stabilizer (Guar Gum And Locust Bean Gum), Aspartame, Citric Acid)

After work I had 1.5 cups of ice cream and one Trader Joe’s waffle:

Mint Galactica Coconut Bliss (organic coconut milk [organic coconut, water, guar gum], organic agave syrup, organic fair trade dark chocolate [organic chocolate liquor, organic sugar, organic cocoa powder - processed with alkali, organic cocoa butter, organic vanilla extract], organic coconut oil, organic peppermint extract, organic vanilla extract).

Dark Chocolate Coconut Bliss (organic coconut milk [organic coconut, water, guar gum], organic agave syrup, organic fair trade cocoa - processed with alkali, organic vanilla extract).

Trader Joe’s gluten-free freezer waffle (water, potato starch, corn starch, sweet rice flour, canola and/or soybean oil, brown rice flour, organic evaporated cane juice, leavening [sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium bicarbonate, monocalcium phosphate], potato flour, fruit juice sweetener [pineapple, pear, peach], soy lecithin, sea salt).

Water to drink.

Noted reactions: none

Dinner:
1 Trader Joe’s Indian style crepe (contains sesame seeds, peanut butter, honey).
Barry’s Golden Irish Tea to drink.

Noted reactions:
Gurgly stomach from the crepe.

Ongoing health issues and reactions: Thumb and right pinky finger are recovering from a dermatitis attack. Daily MCS issues.

Breakfast:
2 Trader Joe’s gluten-free freezer to toaster waffles, covered in cow’s milk smoked cheddar cheese and drizzled with Earth Balance butter and syrup.
(Butter contains: expeller-pressed natural oil blend [soybean, palm fruit, canola and olive], filtered water, pure salt, natural flavor [derived from corn, no msg, no alcohol, no gluten], soy protein, soy lecithin, lactic acid [non-dairy, derived from sugar beets], and naturally extracted annatto for color).
(Syrup contains: 2009 Harvest grade B Canadian syrup)

Noted reactions: none

Lunch:
2 brown rice tortillas,
Each tortilla covered with cow’s milk pepper jack cheese.
Red salsa on the side (contains tomatoes, yellow chiles, vinegar distilled from corn, salt, onion, spice)
1 child sized juice box of apple juice (contains apple juice concentrate, natural flavors, ascorbic acid)
Water to drink

Noted reactions: Simulated hypoglycemia, flushing in the face, gutted feeling in the stomach. Culprit likely was the vinegar, since I have a sulfite sensitivity.

Snacks: 2 scoops Galactic Mint Coconut Bliss ice cream with a Trader Joe’s gluten-free freezer to toaster waffle.

Dinner:
2 Thai egg rolls
2 Thai chicken satay, dipped in peanut sauce and dipped in pepper oil mixture containing cucumbers and onions.
1 bowl Thai coconut soup, containing tofu (which I did not eat), broccoli, cabbage, mushrooms, tomatoes.
1 cup Trader Joe’s Bedtime Tea to drink (contains chamomile flowers, lemon grass, spearmint leaves, tilia flowers, peppermint leaves, passionflower leaves, blackberry leaves, orange blossoms, hawthorn berries, rosebuds).

Noted reactions: none

Ongoing health issues or reactions:

Today is the second day in a row that I did not have diarrhea upon waking. Today is the second day in a row that my stomach and intestines tried to stabilise - until I fed myself something other than Cream of Rice with mashed banana.

Last night it resulted in 8 episodes of diarrhea. This afternoon it resulted in moderate nausea and stomach and intestinal gurgles. I’m worn out. I’m tired as hell. And I worked a full day today on top of it.

I was supposed to see a physical trainer today, but instead I went to the doctor.

That’s when I found out that it’s not JUST a food reaction I’ve been having, and it WASN’T food poisoning.

My doctor is certain that I have an enterovirus. She said it’s going around - she’s seen patients with my exact symptoms for over a week, now.

I know that what’s going on with me IS also a food reaction on top of the enterovirus, because my left thumb is covered in flaky dermatitis, and my thumb is cracked and will probably start bleeding tomorrow.

According to MedScape, I was harbouring the enterovirus for up to a week before the diarrhea hit me on Friday. It says, “The average incubation period is 3-10 days, during which the virus migrates to regional lymphoid tissue and replicates. Minor viremia results, which is associated with the onset of symptoms and viral spread to the reticuloendothelial system (spleen, liver, bone marrow).”

Another MedScape article says, “The enterovirus enters the human host through the GI or respiratory tract. The cell surfaces of the GI tract serve as viral receptors, and initial replication begins in the local lymphatic GI tissue. The virus seeds into the bloodstream, causing a minor viremia on the third day of infection. The virus then invades organ systems, causing a second viremic episode on days 3-7. This second viremic episode is consistent with the biphasic prodromal illness. The infection can progress to CNS involvement during the major viremic phase or at a later time. Antibody production in response to enteroviral infections occurs within the first 7-10 days.”

I could have caught it at my neighbor’s house when we went over there last Tuesday to watch the season premier of the last season of LOST.
I could have caught it from my new psychiatrist’s office on my first visit.
I could have caught it at work.
I could have caught it anywhere.

The bum deal out of all of this is that I went from being bedridden with endometriosis pain right into being laid out flat with massive diarrhea for three days. I lost two weekends of fun out of that deal. I didn’t get to see an old high school acquaintance who was in town for the weekend. Worst of all, I went out on Sunday to a party while still sick with the virus, because I was convinced it was food poisoning and/or food reaction I was still dealing with. I ate some home cooked food at the party after having been on mush earlier that day, and the stomach cramps returned with a fury. When I got home at 9pm Sunday night, the diarrhea returned and I had 8 rounds of it.

I didn’t want to go in to work today, but I was still partially in denial about actually being SICK sick…even though I called to cancel my physical trainer appointment on my way to work. To be fair, I took my temperature at work and it was 99.8°F at 11am. I hinted that I should go home, but the director told me I was fine. The secretary told me I was fine.
What they meant was, “Lunch rush is coming up in the next half hour, and we’re short staffed. You have to stay, we need you.”

I did stay on, but that’s when I called my doctor and scored an appointment after work.

When I left out of the doctor’s office, it was raining, and I hadn’t brought my raincoat with me. I walked in the rain back to my car, parked a block and a half away. When I got home, I took a blow dryer to my hair, put some dishes in the new dishwasher my husband recently bought, scooped the cat litter, and got into my jammies and crawled into bed.

I’ll be staying home tomorrow - I made sure to get a doctor’s note the moment the doctor suggested I stay home. I called work the moment I left the doctor’s office to let everyone know I won’t be in.

Once again, I’m kicked when I’m down, thanks to my immune system being deficient, thanks to endometriosis and allergies and lord knows what else I have going on immunologically.

I guess if one can find a silver lining… I lost 6 pounds in 3 days. I’m down to 158lbs.

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!