(no subject)

[the_rck]

Sunday morning, about three a.m., I woke in pain. I don't think I got much more sleep that night. The whole thing was shunted aside by Scott being dreadfully ill (not a way to have a good Father's Day) due to our dinner out the night before. We now officially have no restaurants that are safe for both Scott and Cordelia.

My pain continued, in spite of medication. We went to Scott's sister's place for dinner. Usually, Scott would have played golf with his father, brother-in-law, nephew and brother-in-law's father, but he was too sick to manage that. He's still a little upset over missing the tradition. He only golfs once or twice a year, always with his father, and he feels like he's let his Dad down.

Monday, I went to the doctor. My pcp was away at a conference, so I saw a doctor I'd not seen before. I expected him to tell me that it was just more fibromyalgia pain, but he poked and prodded and said it's probably gall bladder. I have an ultrasound scheduled for Monday (which, sadly, interferes with Scott's chance to golf with his father then) to see if there are stones.

Scott offered to cancel our Origins trip when he realized just how much pain I was experiencing. I told him no. I figured that I'd be in pain no matter where I was and that he and Cordelia might as well have fun. Packing was challenging, and the drive down was miserable. The pain has decreased, though. Right now, I'm just dealing with side effects from the pain killers (Ultram causes constipation. This is more painful than expected when all the muscles in my torso feel like they've been pulled).

I managed one event yesterday. I have two scheduled for today but have already decided that I'm blowing one of them off. I'm not up to two hours on my feet, and it's by the same folks who ran yesterday's event which wasn't awful but wasn't really good either. I expect more preparation from a LARP than these folks did.

I haven't decided yet whether I'll spend those two hours in the hotel room, trying to recover, or spend them in the Dealers' Room, shopping. Both have some appeal. The former has the charm of not setting off my anxiety, but the latter appeals because this is my best opportunity. I'll have time on Saturday, but I'll also have responsibility for Cordelia then.

I suppose I'll see.

Comments

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

Oooogoog, gall bladder pain.

Be very very careful about what you eat. I can't recall at the moment what your eating situation is like. French fries and other fried foods are Right Out. Probably dairy fats are too (if they aren't out for other reasons). Anything that's heavy on oils that triggers the bile reflex from the gall bladder will antagonize your gall bladder something fierce.

Also, since you have ongoing pain, watch your skin color (and white-of-the-eye color, and underside of your tongue) for jaundice yellowing, which could indicate that a stone is blocking things in a chronic way. (Also, mad ongoing skin itching is an indication that bile salts are backing up into the tissues, another blockage hint.)

Best of luck! I hope you have fun, despite the trick gall bladder.

[the_rck]

I've hardly been eating at all. I'm simply not hungry.

The doctor said to stay away from 'fatty foods' but wasn't more specific. I wish he had been or that I'd been well enough to demand more information. I'm to follow up with my primary care physician after I get home (and after the ultrasound).

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

I know that when akycha had her two attacks, the first one was set off by Thai food, though I can no longer recall what she had -- possibly something fried -- and the second was seemingly set off by chocolate (we'd just had a nice dinner -- pretty low in oils -- and I'd gotten her chocolates for our anniversary...) The latter was the one that brought us into the ER.

[the_rck]

My best guess on this one, if it was caused by fatty foods, is the butter I had on the seafood I ate for dinner. Not that crab and shrimp are low fat in and of themselves, just that the butter adds a layer of extra nothing but fat.

There's part of me that would rather this were just a fibromyalgia flare. That would be unpredictable and untreatable but not necessarily likely to recur if I make misstep in eating. Food is fraught at the best of times.

[evalerie.livejournal.com]

I had that itching due to a complication in my last pregnancy. It was pretty crazy. They induced the delivery of my baby early because the backed up bile salts could have abruptly killed him.

[evalerie.livejournal.com]

Feel better soon! *hug*

I wonder if Seva would work for both Scott and Cordelia's food allergies. They certainly wouldn't have beef, and they've recently committed themselves to being very allergy-aware, so I think they could pretty easily make food that was safe for Cordelia.

[the_rck]

We have such a long list of things that we need to avoid-- Dairy, soy, beef, tomatoes, peppers, nuts. It's hard to find a place that's really safe. Soy sneaks into everything.

[evalerie.livejournal.com]

I hear ya on that. I think Seva would do well at avoiding soy and nuts, because they are top-eight allergens. And of course beef isn't an issue there since they're a vegetarian restaurant. But I'm not sure they'd do so well at avoiding peppers and tomatoes. They do have a "book of ingredients" there that you can look through to find out exactly what's in everything on the menu. I like that a lot. By the way, don't get the guacamole there -- the book of ingredients says that it contains tomato sauce.

We ate at a fabulous Indian restaurant in Columbus, Ohio, the other day that was super-amazing about allergens. I wish we had something like that here! That was the first time I'd been to Columbus, and it's far enough away that we wouldn't be likely to go back anytime soon. (Though it's tempting to go back just to eat at that great restaurant again! :) ) I am not suggesting this restaurant for your family, since I think they were more aligned with my family's allergens than yours -- just sharing my happiness at finding a restaurant that really did work well for my family *and* which has amazing food, too.

[the_rck]

Tomatoes and peppers are colorful and flavorful, so they turn up in everything. It's very frustrating. I can't eat them (tomatoes are iffy. They seem to be all right if they're not mixed with the wrong spices), and Scott and Cordelia won't.

The thing I've noticed at Seva is that, as one goes to the vegan options (for avoiding dairy and eggs), one hits more nuts and soy. It's a tapdance in a minefield. There's probably a safe option on the menu, but it may or may not be an appealing option.

[evalerie.livejournal.com]

That makes sense.

If it's not too nosy a question, I am curious what foods your family usually eats for protein. Maybe that will give some more restaurant ideas.

[the_rck]

Mostly, we eat chicken or pork with occasional ground turkey or bison/buffalo thrown in. When we go out, we often eat seafood (Seafood is too much work to prepare most of the time, so we seldom have it at home).

For a while, I was making that spinach bean soup a lot, but Cordelia has taken against it for no reason I can fathom. Then again, she's taken against most everything I serve. She eats a lot of hotdogs.

[evalerie.livejournal.com]

Hm. Not much overlap between your proteins and the ones that my family eats, so I think I'm not much help with restaurant ideas. :-S

I think taking against all foods except hotdogs is pretty normal at Cordelia's age. Interestingly, one time I was at a 4H meeting at my kids' school. The icebreaker question was for each kid to say what their favorite food was. I noticed that up to about the end of elementary school, all of the kids picked traditional kid favorites, like hot dogs and french fries. But suddenly at about middle school age, the kids all named favorite foods like sushi and Indian food and generally much more interesting and complicated foods like that. This gives me hope that kids naturally broaden their tastes at about that age.

[evalerie.livejournal.com]

(ps. If I've mentioned that story 37 times, I apologize. It made a big impression on me!)

[the_rck]

I don't recall hearing the story before.

[evalerie.livejournal.com]

Whew! :) Hey, let me tell you a story about a 4H meeting.....

[the_rck]

::grins::

[the_rck]

I didn't expect protein overlap, really, what with us avoiding soy and dairy completely and eggs for the most part. I wish I could get Cordelia to eat eggs again. She's gone off them entirely for months now.

The hard part about restaurants is the way that soy sneaks into everything invisibly. We can't tell it's there (or if it isn't). Most restaurants won't promise that anything is soy-free.

[evalerie.livejournal.com]

At my house we are soy-free dairy-free, and in theory trying not to go too overboard with eggs, so that part isn't that different between us. But we use a lot of nuts and eggs for protein, so that's fairly different from you.

[the_rck]

Ah. Nuts are also on our forbidden list due to my allergies. I didn't think to list them, and I should have.

Basically, Cordelia could have eggs and nuts, at least in theory, and I could have soy and dairy. Scott can have any of them. It's trying to keep all of us safe that's hard.

[anderyn.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry to hear you're in pain. From what I understand, gall bladder pain is a close second to childbirth in the pain department. Ew.

Hope you do enjoy what you can of Origins.

[the_rck]

Gall bladder pain is lasting longer than childbirth, so I'm hating it more (of course, I had a very short labor).

I'm doing my best to enjoy my time here. Sadly, I'm finding it difficult. I'm no more miserable than I'd be at home, though, apart from not having a place to plug in my computer (constantly running on battery power and having to stop using it while it charges again is hard).