Thursday, April 16, 2015

Frustration.

So.  Back in February, I got a stomach bug that took a week for me to get over.  It was no fun at all.  And I developed an intolerance to eating things made with wheat.

Everything is made with wheat: my favorite gravy mix, cream of mushroom soup, cream of chicken soup.  Everything I like to cook with is made with at least a little bit of wheat. 

Restaurants are an interesting minefield: apparently, either the pulled pork or the twice-baked mashed potatoes yesterday had wheat ingredients.  The Mexican restaurant brought me flour tortillas instead of the corn ones I asked for. 

Yeah, they make stuff that's supposed to help when symptoms have set in, but that's all it does: help.  A bit.  For a while.

I can't make and eat beef enchilada or chicken enchilada casseroles, anymore.  I can't use dry onion soup mix to make roast.  I can't make and eat the potato soup by the recipe I have.  No more cookies, unless I make them with special flour.  Same with biscuits.

I thought this would go away.  I thought it was a temporary thing, brought on by my entire digestive system deciding to scour itself over a five day virus, and causing some sort of imbalance.  So, I avoided the foods, and didn't bother looking up my symptoms.

Until yesterday.

And I've been having symptoms for a lot longer than I'd thought: frequent headaches (often migraine level), brain fog, and chronic fatigue are also symptoms of this.  It's not just a painful gut--there's a lot more to it that has only come clear months after I stopped eating most things with any wheat in them (and the rest of the symptoms mostly vanished).  Yes, my energy levels are still limited; I still have an underactive thyroid. 

But a lot of the other symptoms have mostly abated, with exceptions for times when I eat something that I don't know has wheat in it. 

It's frustrating, honestly.  I can't carelessly and thoughtlessly eat a burger, anymore, complete with bun and salad.  I can't eat a cheesy hash-brown casserole (cream of mushroom soup) if I don't want to be having to curl up somewhere out of the way to not bother the rest of the family visiting.  I can't just eat, anymore, without having to carefully consider whether I'm going to be in pain later. 

Thank God this doesn't seem to extend to bourbon.  If it did, I think I might cry.

2 comments:

  1. I hate to say "give it more time" but last fall I had a bout of what I now suspect was Shigella. It took me a couple months to get over it....to be able to eat normally (for me, many fruits did me in). Eventually things resolved. Apparently the gut flora has to reestablish to normal levels after some kind of bad-bug infestation.

    I didn't have the brain fog or migraines, though. But maybe you'll see some digestive improvement in time?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's been two months, and it's only gotten worse. I've actually felt better with not eating wheat products than I have since before my imp was born.

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