I think I know...

I bet cashews, coconut and oat (oatmeal) are my issues! Of course, I think I will still get the ones with alcohol and weather changes... but I bet these three are problem issues. Guess we will see!

Okay, Courtney, you need to do it now!

Regina's Food Sensitivities

Regina's blood serum reacted to the following foods:

Kidney bean, buckwheat, cashew nut, coconut, cranberry, cow's milk, goat's milk, oat, quinoa, sesame, walnut, baker's yeast and brewer's yeast

* the items in red are the ones Regina and I have in common.

Week #2 of Food Elimination Diet

The other day Katie told me she can take care of herself. So, I asked her if she can drive herself to school and she said, "Well, no." "And, can you cook your own dinner", I asked. She thought about it for a second and admitted, "No, I can't. But, Mom you have to help me to take care of myself!"

This is week #2 of my food elimination diet. I'm surprisingly satisfied with the foods that I can have. I was concerned that I'd spend a lot of energy fighting cravings for all the foods I can't have right now. That's a relief. So far, anyway.

Almost every day this past week, I woke up with a pounding headache. Some of them migraines. However, today I woke up feeling good and felt good all day! Wow, what a treat. Maybe it's the beginning of feeling better.

I messed up a few times during the first week when I unintentionally ate food on my elimination list because it was hidden and I either didn't read the label closely enough or forgot to read it at all! For instance, it never occurred to me that wheat would be in soy sauce! Or, canola oil in peanut butter! And, some companies put wheat in deli meat. Good grief. Even though I made a few mistakes that first week, I haven't made any this week, that I know of.

Bonnie's Results...

She is reactive to the following 18 foods:

Almond, Amaranth, Barley, Kidney Bean, Cheese, Coconut, Egg, Cow's Milk, Goat's Milk, Mustard, Pork, Canola, Rye, Sesame, Spinach, Wheat, Baker's Yeast, Brewer's Yeast

*The red items are the ones she and I have in common.

Managing Food Sensitivities

Here's what I have to do... Eliminate all 26 foods on my list for 12 weeks. On the 13th week, begin adding one food item back into my diet, each week. If I experience no symptoms after adding that food, then I can keep it. However, it's important not to eat it every day because my body would likely develop a reaction again.

So, it's possible that I could end up adding all of those foods on my list back into my diet. But first, I have to get through the 12 weeks of abstinence.

The Results Are In...

The following 26 foods make up my list of

things that could be the cause of my chronic aches and pains:

almond, asparagus, brazil nut, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, cashew nut, cauliflower, chili pepper, egg, eggplant, garlic, cow's milk, millet, mustard, onion, pineapple, sweet potato, white potato, canola, radish, tomato, wheat, yam, baker's yeast, brewer's yeast.

My doctor gave me a lot of information to read about how to go about elminating these foods and suggested I use the next week to figure it all out and wait until I'm comfortable with how to do it before I actually start.

My goal is to begin eliminating all these foods next Monday.

Yikes. It's not gonna be easy, but I'm willing to try it.

Headache Update

I had an appointment with a naturopathic physician a couple of days ago. My primary care physician urged me to do so in hopes that he can help me with my chronic headaches.

I do think my sinus surgery was beneficial in that I am finally infection-free and congestion-free. However, I am NOT headache-free. I continue to wake up pretty much every day with a headache. Some days, like yesterday, it was a relentless, pounding pain that negatively impacted most of my day. It was a three-pain-pill day and I went to bed early. Today I woke up with a headache as well, though not quite as intense. About two hours after taking pain medicine, it had subsided enough that I could function normally. I'm grateful for that because I had to be able to take Katie to a classmate's birthday party.

Anyway, back to my appointment with the naturopathic physician. His name is Dr. John Nowicki (he introduces himself as Dr. John) and I have to say, I was NOT looking forward to telling yet another doctor my sad and depressing headache history. But, he's one of those people you instantly feel comfortable around and I had no problem sharing my story with him.

He said he LOVES treating people with chronic headaches, especially migraines. He, himself, used to suffer from them, but he no longer does. The cause of his own headaches turned out to be the same cause of headaches in most of his patients. Food allergies. He's not talking about the people who are allergic to peanuts, or shellfish, etc., where they have to carry an epi-pen around at all times, but it's possible to be allergic to foods without really realizing it because the symptoms are so common, like headaches or depression or aches and pains, etc. He found out which foods he is allergic to, he now avoids those foods, and he no longer suffers from migraines. So, that's where he wants me to start, by taking a food allergy blood test. I went to the lab yesterday to get my blood drawn. I should know something within the next 7-10 days. I'm excited to find out if this could be the cause of my chronic headaches, but also fearful it'll come back and say I need to eliminate huge food groups, like wheat or dairy. That's very hard to do, but if that's what I have to do to live headache-free, I'll give it a try.

Something else he recommended is that I begin to eliminate artificial ingredients from my diet. That means fewer processed foods, more time in the kitchen making things from scratch. He specifically said to get rid of artificial sweeteners. Well, I love my coffee every morning and in every cup I add a packet of equal or something comparable. He told me to throw that stuff out and use xylitol instead. It's a completely natural sugar substitute, has fewer calories than sugar and actually tastes good without an aftertaste. It can be used in baking and cooking, although I read there's some reason it can't be used in recipes for yeast-based breads. It reacts with the yeast, somehow. Maybe prevents it from rising. Oh, and also, it has several health benefits.

Anyway, I found it at PCC in Issaquah and it's about $8/lb. So, it's more expensive than regular sugar, but I really don't use that much on a daily basis anyway.

In addition to being more expensive than regular sugar, it also has another negative. It has a laxative effect on your body. So, if you decide to switch to it (like I am trying to), you'll want to do so slowly to allow your body time time to adjust. So far I'm having it only in the morning with my coffee and I haven't had any trouble. However, if you have trouble with constipation or irregularity, this laxative effect could work in your favor.

So, that's the latest development in my quest to rid my life of headaches. I'll keep ya posted.