jebbypal

Okay, so I'm all about operation get in shape. Because I've been a couch potato for a solid 3-4 years now, not much better before that due to injuries, and at the post-35 age of "my health is only going to go downhill if I don't because I no longer have youth on my side" (assuming I ever did).

( this gets long )

So now I'm home. I've had a benadryl and no longer feel like a floppy doll and the pain in my chest is just a slight ache where I can feel it trying to get rid of the inflammation it had flare up and my ear is mostly back to normal. And I've written the training studio owner so he and the trainer know I'm fine and I guess I'll see if he decides to keep working with me or not. I have requested that he find out when the massage appointments on weekends are and I'll go ahead and get my ass out of bed early on a saturday if it means we can work out before the massage part starts up (since I doubt that they'll just stop using incense with their clients because of 1 training client).

So moral of the story: I should stop being overconfident idiot and take my benadryl everywhere.
Also, I was stupid to go ahead and pay all money up front for 10 sessions just because 2 times went great.
Third, when I've gone for 2 months without an inhalation reaction, it is oddly nice to be reminded of the magic of benadryl in chasing away the various symptoms of a full blown allergy attack (chest pain, nausea, full head phlegm, muscle weakness, and unreasonable anxiety/anger)

And lastly. I hate being a human canary. I have also decided that since incense is supposed to be used to please the gods and/or repel spirits, that instead of saying i have allergies, I will now claim to be a demon instead. :P

Oy vey.

It's never a good sign when you reveal to a doctor your phd in immunology, and their response is a story about how complicated that they find the complement system to be (critical for innate immunity and clotting). Or when you make offhand remark that you specialized in autoimmunity rather than allergy, and they say that maybe you can explain the issues that they are having.

*head desk*

When I told him I had diagnosed corn allergy, his response: "wow, not to say that you're wrong, but that's really rare, and I have busy practice and have never had a case myself". At this point, I started thinking that a part of healthcare reform should be to allow patients to interview doctors before actually having to reimburse them or pay a copay. Becuase I just wasted half an hour of my life.

To my description of GI reactions lasting for 6-8 hours, "Well, that's probably just a food intolerance as that's not an allergic response".

He's very keen to do allergy testing, preferably skin, as he definitely doubts this and he basically called my previous UPenn allergist stupid when I said that he hadn't done a skin test after hearing my description of my GI reactions for fear of sensitizing me to anaphylactic responses. And he's asked me to drive over to see him the next time I have an inhallation reaction to the bagel days. (Hey, fleshlycherry, you want to pop popcorn the monday before you leave and then you can drop me off at his office :P:P).

I was definitely brain fogged since I stupidly tried new marinara sauce Sunday night and gave myself a GI reaction that required benadryl, otherwise, I don't think I would have been anywhere near as pleasant to him (and I was..was in my talk too fast try to explain myself because we obviously speak different languages mode...and no, he wasn't foreign, english was his first language. Just one of those very inept docs that couldn't even read my body language and kept interrupting me).

So what I got out of this other than the fact that I'm a very intelligent girl who has probably connected the dots between disparate unrelated causes and symptoms, and that I need to make sure I don't let this whole breathing problem interfere with my work environment:
-prescription for xyzal
-assurance that I don't overall have asthma as my lung function tests when not irrated by corny bagels is 98%
-prescription for singular which is probably too expensive to get compounded and I don't think I want to be taking that much medicine anyways! I'm fine as long as I don't have to sit in corny air.
-paperwork for allergy blood tests since my benadryl the night before prevents a skin test

I was starting to get snarky enough that before I left (after he asked me to come over the next time I had a reaction and I replied that my reactions do clear when I get away from allergen polluted air), that I did offer to let him pop a bag of popcorn and see what happens. He didn't take me up on it.

It's a good thing that I actually like paychecks, because idiots like that tempt me to go back to med school at times.

1) i think chrome has converted me from firefox. Many fewer image rendering issues and omg umpteen times faster. Safari has also made inroads thanks to easy syncing of fanfic to my phone and ipad.

2) Anyplace with >60% humidity needs a/c to pull said humidity out of air and not make 80 degree temps sweltering. Just not quite enough breeze off the lake in Lugano to do the trick. Not looking forward to slogging around in business wear tomorrow and friday in this.

3) a/c especially important in said circumstances to aid with headache treatment. Climbing stairs in a hot muggy unairconditioned hotel is enough to make one think you're having an aneurysm instead of very unhappy sinus migraine thanks to 9 hours of plane flight that included about 3 barometric pressure changes.

4) wow is this congress set up weird. The poster session and exhibitor area is in party tents. Tents!! Unairconditioned tents.

5) new work computer is oh so light, and oh so fast even if it has puny harddrive compared to my old one (which wasn't really old, but had developed annoying habit every few months of having a quirk of shutting itself off spontaneously for no reason.).

6) Very glad I have the work cell phone. I've already managed to have > 100 dollars of data charges.

ETA:
7) Can someone please explain to me why Europe hates shower curtains? Or at least the hotels do? It seems like it would be cheaper to deal with than the mold.

8) in the same vein, wash cloths. I've gotten to the point that I always pack one, but still. I'm not limber enough to wash my back without one, thank you very much.

9) I was convinced I'd overpacked on food. I'm beginning to think I didn't. Then again, I'm also paranoid that the heat and humidity means my hamburger buns will start molding by Friday. Sigh. I really miss being an uncomplicated person

Okay, I have a fair number of kitchen gadgets, and I've totally been guilty about buying something that I thought would transform my cooking life only to be unable to operate *I'm looking at you Williams Sonoma Veggie Chopper which could not have blades removed no matter what the box said*

The Vitamix? Does not fit into that category. It is also easily the most expensive thing in my kitchen. However, this fits into levels of bread machine trasformation. It possibly exceeds the bread machine.

Smoothies :) Yes, I might actually eat fruit year round now instead of just when I can get it that it's perfectly ripe and unbruised. Today, I'm trying out my first "green" smoothing in which I added kale to the orange and apple. YUMMY, and without any added sugar. :)

I also just watched the dvd that came with the machine and the cookbook (yeah, I splurged on basically the most expensive home model). The cookbook had confused me as it kept having soup recipes that did not involve transfer to a pan. I couldn't believe it so I finally watched the dvd.

THIS MACHINE WILL COOK MY SOUP FOR ME. So basically, as long as I keep homemade stock on hand, then I can pretty much have homemade soup < 15 minutes. This is transformational for someone who cannot eat canned soup people. SO TRANSFORMATIONAL.

Basically, as I told Cherry, if this machine could also do laundry and clean, I'd marry it. Or declare it to be my deity. It's a tossup.

So, my summer travel just got bumped up by a thousand or so miles as I'll now be working on a project that the client lead wants me to fly to amsterdam to participate in a team meeting. Which yay for work and accounts, but boo for having a likely there and back trip w/ maybe 1 night of sleep in between. Of course, they haven't scheduled said meeting that will be occurring in a month's time, so I can't start arranging any travel yet. :(

Also found out last week that Organic Valley finally decided that it's whole milk needs vitamin D added, which is bad for the corn allergy (the vitamin is typically added in emulsion of corn oil - enough to give me a sinus headache w/in half an hour of drinking). They'll still have shelf stable UHT whole milk without vitamin D, but it doesn't really taste the same. I guess on the bright side, I can use it as an excuse to keep chocolate syrup stocked for chocolate milk.

But seriously, today at target just kinda was the straw that broke the camel's back.
( female TMI )

Got hit with the same type of headache as what I had last friday. Did the exact same thing of start with muscle above the ear and ache in side and back of my head that spread down my neck, though this time there was also lovely sinus pain in the front on that side as well. Caffeine, food, and aleve did nothing. Took a claritin and that didn't see to help either. Definitely not a blood pressure headache, doesn't feel like an allergy migraine, especially as there was nothing the same that I ate last week and this week other than oatmeal (and if it was that, surely I'd be having them more frequently). Weather was changing....if this is the new weather migraine, i DO NOT WANT. Today, feel the same "hangover" that I felt last week combined with a bit of pain in the other side of the head (though nowhere near as severe). And really, this is the only type of headache I've had that well and truly comes accompanied by honest to goodness nausea. If I'm getting the migraines like my mom used to get when I was a kid, i DO NOT WANT. I now understand her feeling of "pain such that it seems like it must feel better if i did go ahead and throw up".

Really, I have enough going on that I don't need weird cluster headaches or whatever this is. It can knock it off.

Uggh. So, I'll be working this weekend to make up for the time I was just staring at the tv in pain yesterday when trying to wfh.

I may be having a baking catastrophe...

a 9x13 pan is apparently not equivalent to long baking sheet....doh..hopefully it's risen as much as it will.....Or will be very very sturdy....

Whoo, it didn't rise over the sides of the baking sheet..though that may have been due to my continuous poking.

In case you are curious, I was making this recipe of oatmeal fruit bars. The baker was right when they advised me to not cut down on any of the liquids even if I was using whole milk and whole yogurt. It did end up quite dry when mixing the final step. Overall, very easy recipe to follow, though I attempted to line my baking sheet with silicone paper and that didn't quite work since the mix was a gooey and stickey and moved the paper more than it spread. Should be fun to clean the pan.

However, it is very yummy. And I don't have to feel bad about the chocolate for breakfast given the amount of fiber (plus some fruit) in them. This plus a glass of milk will make a nice change from plain oats in the morning. Oooh, I should see about figuring out the taking a picture of these with the iphone and posting it...

Ooh, and as a bonus, the chocolate glaze mixture can serve as my lazy-man's version of icing when I make doughnuts (or cake if I get adventurous) next. *claps hands*

So the day after my mp3 player died, I've found out that in september I may be traveling 2x in one week, and possibly overseas (if my passport arrives in time). Granted, I knew there were going to be times of intense travel etc, but I was hoping for a couple of small trial runs to wrap my head around how this will work with my dietary restrictions..

so, multiple questions:
1) how does the US iphone and its associated apps work when one is out of the country? I know most US phones don't work overseas, and I can handle that if the internet and apps (especially the restaurant ones) still work. Anyone have a clue?

2) Can someone give me guidance on abilities to take food on international flights and into other countries? I'm mostly referring to Canada and the EU right now. Food I'd be taking ranges from nuts, to packaged raw candy bars (Lara bars) (possibly whole boxes of these). I know whole raw fruit is probably a no-no, but wasn't sure on these things. Possibly beef jerky as well. Having a backup snack source is kind of required if I end up at a convention where there's just crap vendor food/sandwiches/fruit, or if I'm in long meetings where the catered food might be risky (especially since my symptoms can range or be combos of migraine/brain fog/multi-hour GI distress).

About the only good thing is I know europe tends to use corn a little less to the extent (at least in the past). However, if/when I do travel to a foreign country, I'll probably be looking for translation help for the big corny words I have to watch for.

Might be time to look into forking over the money for bioset treatments on the off chance the witch hoo-doo makes it where I'm not destroyed if I mess up.

Well, no, this LJ isn't completely friends only, but I do tend to keep most of my RL stuff under wraps nowadays (something I've done every since escaping Hell Lab and doubly so now that I'm out working in the real world with industrial overlords).

Anyways, as the flist knows, I'm going to be trying NAET to hopefully get rid of my allergies (translation: corn and corn byproduct allergies). I never really know how many lurkers I have around, probably fewer since I've stopped doing much news blogging and my muse has gotten fickle.

So the point of the post is, comment on this post if you'd like to be included on the NAET filter. If you aren't currently friended by me (or vice versa) and are interested, the previous goes doubly. ETA - if you're on my close friend filter, I'll probably include you in unless you want to opt out - either way, things will be under cut tags.

(Fair warning, public spamming will occur the first time I get to eat barbecue, swiss miss cake rolls, mexican food, and chocolate milk if this hocus pocus works.).

That's all, nothing more to see here.

Sometimes, my large portion of my life as an avoider of fruit (oddly, me and veggies always got along) becomes difficult.

It took me a few days to adjust to the pecan pie Lara bars (pecans, almonds, dates). But I did and can now scarf them down admirably and really enjoy them (though, they taste NOTHING like pecan pies. At least, not the pecan pies that my Aunt Juney makes. And trust me, she makes the best!).

After surfing over their website, I decided to try the apple pie bars (dates, almonds, unsweetened apples, walnuts, raisins, and cinnamon). *cough* Mistake (20 dollar mistake). I'm going to send some to my parents to see if they like them before offering them up here. I think I'd be fine with it after some adjustment to the raisins, except there's too much cinnamon. And yes, raisins take an adjustment. I was the weird girl in your kindergarten class that would rather have a beating than eat raisins and marshmellows. Don't ask me why, but both grossed me out. Now, when I find unsulfited raisins, I find them waaaay too sweet on their own. Add that to the overpowering cinnamon and the only way it could be worse is if you dumped a bottle of nutmeg in there (yes, I'm really selling these, aren't I?) I may give them another go, but...gah. Though, if you love cinnamon, I think you'd actually love these. I'm just a cinnamon in moderation girl.

And of course, today, I finally notice that Trader Joes actually sells individual bars of a few Lara bar flavors. Would have been nice to know last week, stupid TJ's. Never putting anything truly useful in your flyers. But I did decide to try out the cashew cookie and the cherry pie prior to dropping moocha bucks on a box.

Cherry pie (dates, almonds and cherries) is much more tolerable than the apple pie. Still a tad too sweet and bit bitey for me, but I can make it through an entire bar (in about an hour). I think once I adjust to the intensity of the dehydrated cherries I'll be good. So the only question will be how I'll deal with the cashew cookie -- I think rather well since it's just cashews and dates. Hopefully unsalted cashews.

However, the good news is I'm not reacting to any of these so far. Some people on the avoiding corn board are reporting issues. Which just goes to show that I should be thankful that I'm not reacting to the amounts of corn that are used for the ethylene gas spraying of fruits and stuff. *yay, body, keep up the good work*

And GIP!! I don't know if I've gotten to use this one for a full post before. heee!