After publishing “A Personal Experience with Chronic Pain” I received many helpful tips in the comment area on how to deal with my pain. So, I decided to start a log and do some personal experiments to see if any kinds of foods triggered my episodes, or flares. I took my lead from the comments area of my article and went from there. I’m hoping to establish causation for my episodes and eventually take that back to my doctor, who seems to have given up on me or just doesn’t care. With what I’m learning about myself and my condition I hope to get a diagnosis and some treatment.
I started with tomatoes. Someone suggested that too many tomatoes in my diet can contribute to my episodes and I thought that to be plausible. I love tomatoes, tomato sauce, pizza sauce, and salsa. I have been heard to say tomatoes are fruits of the gods. So, I went out into my garden and picked the biggest, reddest one I could find. Thankfully it didn’t seem to effect my pain or energy levels. That was definitely good news.
So then I tried processed (white) sugar. I ate some jam on wheat bread and experienced a small episode. I realized that one of the foods on my list was bleached flour and thought maybe there was some of that in my bread. So, I tried a chocolate bar. Nothing. Whew. Then, to be certain, I drank a regular Pepsi, which used to be my favorite soda. I immediately felt fatigued and my skin started burning. That’s how an episode starts for me. Before long I was lying down, trying to recuperate. It wasn’t a horrible episode, but it was enough. No more processed sugar for me.
My final test, for now, was with bleached (white) flour. From my experience with the sugar, I decided to go straight to the source. I didn’t have any white bread in the house and flour is bleh. So, I opened a box of Ritz crackers, my absolute favorite, and took out a sleeve. I ate the entire thing. It was wonderful, until my body started to digest all that flour. I was immediately thrown into one of the worst episodes I’d ever experienced. My body bypassed all of the usual warning signs. I was engulfed in pain, from head to toe, and my body was too tired to even sit up. I had to lie down. It was horrible. I felt like I was fighting for my life. My three year-old was upset because I couldn’t even bear for her to touch me. I went in and out of sleep. I don’t remember how long that episode lasted, but it was a while. Thinking back, I wish someone else had been here with me so that they could take me to the emergency room. I’m sure they would have found out what’s wrong with me then. They would have seen how horrible my condition can be. Alas, I suffered alone. And I’m not brave enough to repeat that phase of my experiment even with someone here to help me.
So, some of the things that throw me into episodes are:
- The sun
- White Flour
- Stress
- Lack of sleep
Hopefully when I find a new doctor and take this to him or her I’ll finally get some answers.
I hope that by conducting these completely non-scientific experiments on myself, I’ve helped someone else find their own diagnosis. Living with chronic illness is hard, but not knowing what the illness is is excruciating.
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"Heroes"- Season Two
I’m disappointed in their Boogie man, though. His entrance was a little too much like Sylar’s last season. I wish they wouldn’t have shown him (to be fair, her) in the hoody. I think it would have been more interesting to just seen Hiro’s father fall or maybe just the back of a dark figure take him over the side. I also didn’t like the symbol on the picture. I recognized that it was similar to Kensei’s crest, but it was a little cheezy on the pictures.
This season was hyped to be a completely new start for our heroes, with no residual left from last season. During the summer there was a marathon wherein the NBC announcer man kept assuring new viewers: “If you missed the first season of Heroes, don’t worry. Season two is a whole new beginning.” It took me a little while to get used to that idea (I readily admit to being a soap opera fan). Then the finale picked up where the old left off, well, I was a little disappointed. They did do a good job of wrapping some things up, though. I liked that. Also, I was intrigued by Maya and her brother. I’m sure someone is going to try to recruit poor Maya.
What is going on with Hiro in medieval Japan? It’s almost like it’s a whole other show, trapped inside a show. I love Hiro and Ando and want for them to be doing there thing together. I think, though, finding out his hero isn’t really a hero is going to toughen Hiro up. Make him stronger. Maybe he’ll even go back and save his father. I can’t imagine Hiro just letting him go over the edge like that. That’s one of my predictions for this season.
How many people think Mohinder is going to go bad? I think he’s going to pick up where Claire’s father left off, trying to control the heroes. I don’t think I like the idea of Mohinder trying to control them, especially since his father lost his life trying to help them. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that he doesn’t go over to the “dark” side and leaves our heroes alone. Yeah, right. Where would the drama be then?
Of course, I can’t wait until next week. I’ll have to catch it on NBC.com, though. I have class until 10 Mondays. Argh! I missed this week because I wasn’t feeling well enough to go in. It was nice lying on the couch watching season premiers (”Journeyman” looks promising, but I’m not going to get attached yet). Next week I’ll have to catch it Tuesday morning. Hopefully I can avoid the spoilers until then.
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