(no subject)

[the_rck]

I have not looked at my reading list at all today, and I rather expect that I won't go all the way back to where I left off reading yesterday. Since I lurk rather than commenting most of the time, that will likely only be noticeable by me, but I'm mentioning it in case there's something I really ought to have responded to and just didn't see.

I took propranolol every day this week, and I think it's a bad choice for me as a thing to take every day for something like essential tremors. It's mildly beneficial for the tremors most of the time and sometimes (maybe?) decreases my physical pain, but when I hit something that I find stressful, it wrecks me mentally. Apparently, controlling my physical tension just means that my anxiety disrupts my brain instead.

I'd rather have a constant mild headache than be so precarious that Scott answering a question that I asked him specifically because I thought there was a problem with my story leaves me mentally paralyzed for 12 hours. I have an exchange fic due tomorrow, but I spent most of yesterday reading a long Harry Potter fic because I was freaking out.

Food is remaining complicated. I think that apple cider vinegar is a problem for both reflux and IBS. Sunday through Wednesday, I ate a bowl of mixed bean salad and rice every day and had horribly stinky gas up through yesterday. (I don't have that issue today, so I think it's not the propranolol doing it. I took that yesterday and today and would expect to still have issues if it were that.)

I've been trying to figure out what it is in raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries that makes me sick. Whatever it is isn't in cranberries or apples or stone fruits or bananas. I can eat all of those in largish quantities, even prunes, without an effect on my digestion. For some reason, it's really hard to find a comprehensive list of compounds in any particular species of fruit. Possibly because that depends on sub-species and weather and local soil and... Yeah.

This led me to discover that sorbitol is naturally occurring in apples and stone fruits (and some other fruits). In a Previous Episode, I got very sick from 4 gummie bears that had sorbitol as a tertiary sweetener (after sugar and HFCS). I'm kind of boggled that I'd get that sick from the amount in 4 gummies but not from the amount in two apples or in a cup of applesauce, but I'm good with apricots, peaches, pears, apples, cranberries, cherries, pineapple, bananas, and dates in fairly large amounts. I'm not so great with juice from most of those, apart from the pineapple, but that tends to be more on the reflux side.

I've been deliberately testing increasing amounts of the fruits that seem to be fine. None of them have given me trouble yet. I mean, there's a limit as to how many apples I'm willing to eat in a day, and most of these are out of season. Possibly having the fiber from the fruit matters? The cranberries are all the dried and sugar and/or cherry juice sweetened kind, so maybe that matters?

I can tell the end of this story exists somewhere in the foggy distance. It's likely closer than I currently think, but I'm not sure what it's going to look like. I haven't figured out what decisions the characters will make. Scott actually suggested something that's mushier than I'm likely to go for.

Comments

[fred_mouse]

on apples -- I'm pretty sure that there is something about eating the fruit but not the juice. Last time I drank apple juice I bloated like a balloon, but I can't physically eat that amount of apple. I still get some reaction, but nothing so painful.

[lunabee34]

Good luck on your story.