mangofandango: (ff/drankmywar/problematic)
So I temporarily cut out gluten this past week, just because my chiropractor suggested it might be helpful to let up on the wheat a bit for a while and see if that is supportive of my skin condition, and I felt like I'd been eating a ton of wheat anyway so it felt like a good plan to back off a little. I'll add it back in a little bit probably next week. It hasn't made any difference really, but it's causing me to diversify my food choices a bit and that's nice. Today Sophie and I tried a (gluten-free AND Sophie-safe) gluten free pasta that wasn't gross! (I am sorry, gluten-free people, but as a semolina lover I have historically found gluten-free pastas pretty sad.) It is made from beans - just beans. Red lentils to be exact. Plain, it was kind of weird and beany, but we put butter and pesto on it and then it was a reasonable fascilime of pasta with pesto, and Sophie consumed her whole bowl. So hey, red lentils! (I have never found gluten-free pasta to remotely resemble semolina pasta texture-wise. Neither does this one, exactly, but it is the closest I've ever had - sort of like a firm al dente pasta.)

Anyway, the reason for my post was this: I am noticing that without gluten, I'm all like GIVE ME THE FAT, SUGAR, AND PROTEIN. I am not sure what this means, except perhaps that I was relying on wheat for a lot of my calories? We are a big veggie-and-fruit-eating people, with a fair amount of beans, but we do eat a lot of pasta, bread, flour tortillas, etc., and also a lot of oats (which I cut out this week too, but will add back in soon). I'm also really into the spicy almonds I very carefully eat after Sophie goes to bed lately (she's allergic, so it requires being careful, washing hands and face after, and so on, and until I was pregnant I just generally didn't bring them into the house). Annnnd Talenti salted caramel gelato. Also not Sophie safe, also eaten carefully at night. I feel like some kind of food outlaw.

ANyway, still itchy. But also having interesting eating experiences. Also ALSO looking forward to eating a croissant again. ;)
mangofandango: (ff/drankmywar/problematic)
And it's not pretty.

Sophie's detailed results of her recent allergy testing arrived today. This post provides a little background about the numbers and stuff, but: last year, her peanut result was 51.9 - strongly positive. (The threshold for "100% likely to react if exposed" is 14.) This year, her result was 85.9. That is a number, when it comes to peanuts especially, that scares the crap out of me.

Eggs went up too, but they are not as dramatic either in increase or level. This year egg white was 27.9 and yolk is 11 (last year it was 18 something and 9). She's still nearly 100% likely to react if exposed, but odds are better with egg in terms of the severity of the reaction.

I used to say that if I could pick one, I hoped she'd outgrow egg. I totally take that back. Egg is something people don't understand as well, and eggs are harder, I think, to avoid. But egg is generally less likely to result in anaphylaxis. Peanuts are generally much more dangerous. And I read that news not too long ago about the 13 year old girl who died because she took one bite of a peanut butter rice krispie treat, by accident, and then spit it out, was given antihistamines and stuck with 3 Epi-pens and died anyway.

Screw making life easier, I just want Sophie to NOT DIE.

(I am grateful that we are as lucky as we are, in so many ways, with her. She is generally healthy and happy and doesn't face certain death or anything. But sometimes I still get really, really upset that she can be killed by a fucking peanut. Or a trace of a peanut. It could happen so easily, and I know that's true of car accidents and everything else but you know, it's a fucking peanut. It's nothing. It's like everyone around us carries bombs that might go off any minute.)

After the results came in the mail, Sophie noticed I was a bit snappy with her, and I decided to be honest. I said "I'm sorry, it's just that your allergy test results came and the numbers were higher this year, which means you're still very very allergic to peanuts and eggs. I'm just feeling a little bit sad about that." She said "You don't have to worry about it Mama, that's just how life is." Yes. And yet, little girl, and yet.
mangofandango: (ff/drankmywar/problematic)
I am going to write all this down for my own sanity, to sort it all out and to be able to find things later. I figure maybe someone will be interested, also, but if not, please scroll on by. :)


Things I have learned about allergy blood tests results, no thanks to the allergist: )

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March 2016

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