I'b god a code

So what do I do?

In the past, whenever I had a cold, I treated myself to a large, steaming mug of tea with a teaspoon of lemon juice and two teaspoons of sugar.  Without the sugar, I can't quite do the lemon juice.

I'd begin the day with pancakes (or crepes) so that I could swallow down many tablespoons of lovely maple syrup.  Oooooh, that felt good.

Later, I'd make a batch of rice pudding.  With white rice, no less.  I'd cook the white rice and milk until the rice was just about to disintegrate, add a couple tablespoons of brown sugar, sprinkle with cinnamon, and nutmeg.  I'd throw in a handful of raisins.  Atop each serving I'dd add more raisins, more brown sugar.  Pecans.  Cream. Carbs, carbs, carbs, and cream.

Without carbs I'm drinking plain black tea.  I've had an Airborne (didn't check the carbs on that) and will eat my usual cottage cheese and fruit breakfast.

What else is good to eat when a lo-carb eater has a cold?

Headache!

Got a headache on Friday.  It's news because it's my first headache since mid-July, and here it is mid-September.

This is a good reminder that there is no 'cure' for migraines.  There are only strategies for coping with them.

I believe I got the headache for two reasons:  I had my period.  This is the first cycle I've experienced on only 50 mg of Nortriptyline, so it's not surprising I had a little headache pain.  Also, I just wasn't hungry from late Thursday to early Saturday, so naturally I got a headache for eating so light.

What kind of headache was it?  I'd say it was about a 2 or 3 on the pain scale.  It was so slight that I ignored all the early signs, "treating" it with caffiene and snacks.  By nightfall I needed to Excedrin Migraine and in the middle of the night I took two more (with a Mylanta tablet).

Lesson learned.

Barometric Pressure

I don't know the exact relationship, but when the clouds roll in and it begins to rain, I've typically gotten a migraine.

For a while we had one of those hang-on-the-wall weather information plaques that told me whether the barometer was rising or falling, but I never quite determined which weather bothered me.  Was is the lowered pressure?  Was it the change to the pressure?  Was it something else entirely?  I don't know.

Well, the clouds have rolled in and my magical lo-carb diet continues to protect me. 

I should be clear about something, though.

I'm still taking 50 mg of Nortriptyline each night.  And a handful of vitamins and supplements.  The diet isn't my only weapon here.  I intend to experiment a bit by adding in a few carbs (I want some fruit juice!) to see if I notice a change in the headaches.  I also need to spend some time working to see if I can successfully pack a lo-carb lunch.

But I've cut my Nortriptyline in half.  And I've got the energy of a normal person.  I like it.

Energy--Passion--Vigor--Gusto--Zest

I've made three changes recently.  I've stopped eating sugar.  I've stopped eating gluten.  I've cut my dose of Nortriptyline in half.

And been rewarded with a gratifying dose of energy.

Ever since starting on Topamax in 2009, I've experienced lethargy in one form or another.  On Topamax, nicknamed Dopamax, I was just plain tired.  If I sat in a chair, I'd fall asleep.  The fatigue was so bad that I slowly dropped my dosage down to 25 mg, the lowest possible dose. 

After deciding Topamax wasn't for me, I switched to Nortriptyline.  I wasn't tired, but I became listless.  I spent days on end in my recliner.  If I felt any stray energy, I channelled it into my work.

But yesterday I felt the way I used to feel.  I felt like making the bed.  I felt like reorganizing the shelves in my closet.  I felt like dusting them.  I felt like putting away clean laundry.  I felt like running to the store for more storage bins.  I felt like organizing the hall closet.  I felt the same way again today!!  I took apart our bed and washed the dust ruffle.  I vacuumed under the bed and even behind it.  When my husband gets home, we'll flip the mattress.  I ran an errand.  I organized all my knitting yarn.  I started a load of laundry.

Was it the sugar?  Was it the gluten?  Was it the drugs?

I don't know.  But I do know this:  I like it.

Six Pounds

I got on the scale this morning, something I try not to do each day, and discovered I've lost six pounds.  This is amazing.

When I devoted my life to fitness and low-fat, high-fiber eating, I lost nine pounds in six months, or a pound and a quarter each month.  And I was exhausted.

I've now lost three pounds per month and I feel pretty good.

Oh, and I cut my nightly dose of nortriptyline in half.

Regular Headaches

I had some headaches this week that weren't migraines.  This is extremely unusual for me. I had them because my head hurt.  But to explain this, I'll have to back up a bit.

I have sensitivities.  I tried for years to pretend these sensitivities didn't exist, but learned eventually to treat them with care.

I have sensitive skin.  "Medicated" lotions hurt my skin.  I need extra emolient lotions, such as those with shea butter, to soothe my skin.  Jojoba oil also works well.

I have sensitive teeth.  I brush daily with Sensodyne and occasionally use the prescription toothpase my dentist gives me.  After any procedure, such as a cap or a filling, the affected tooth is extra-sensitive for weeks.

I have a sensitive scalp.  Many shampoos make my head itch.  I use Sebulex occasionally to fight the weepy rash that forms at the crown.  Enough about that.

And my food-processing system is also sensitive. I'm lactose-intolerant. I've got seasonal allergies and some food allergies. I'm allergic to Midol. I've got exercise-induced asthma.  I am big fun on vacation, where I can't walk too far and have to quiz waiters on the contents of my food.

But worst of all is my sensitive skin.  It's virtually translucent except for the freckles.  And when my immigrant parents, who survived World War II, found themselves living in Charleston, South Carolina in the early Sixties, they spent ages at the beach soaking up the sun and the surf.  Me, I burned to a crisp.  I remember burns that gave me fevers, chills, and shivers.  At the time, the only treatment was to apply cold cream and wait it out.

I was eleven when I noticed the first strange bump:  a pearlized patch of skin with a slight depression in the center.  It sat there, to the right of my nose, neither changing nor healing, until I was nineteen and living in a college dorm.  I'd exit the shower to the sounds of other girls crying "Ewww..."  My spot had bled in the shower.  And it wasn't standard facial bleeding.  Instead of a trickle of red blood, a single dark droplet hung from the depressed center of my bump.  I appeared to be leaking motor oil.

That was my first basal cell carcinoma.  It's very unusual to notice a bump at age eleven.  BCC is common among Senior Citizens, not sixth-graders.  The BCC is the most benign of the skin cancers, and when it's not a pearly bump it's a sore that won't heal.  I've now had a total of five of these, and two required follow-up surgery.  This past week, I had the second of the two follow-up surgeries.  Also, I turned fifty-two, so I'm finally the 'right' age to get these things.

Most spots are no big deal, but this BCC sat between the bridge of my nose and my right eye, where there's very little extra skin to work with.  Removal required the expertise of a dermatologist AND an opthamologist.

On day one, I went to Group Health to have the cancer removed and examined by the dermatologist.  First, they gave me lidocaine.  I have a love/hate relationship with lidocaine.  It's significantly better than the novocaine that made me cry and made my teeth chatter.  But it still burns, and I still need more shots than the average person.  (Irony:  I'm apparently not "sensitive" where lidocaine is concerned.)  The doctor took one layer out, examined it, and found cancer cells at one edge.  So she went in again for another layer, and examined that one.  It was clear on all sides.  They bandaged me up and sent me home.

On day two, I went to Virginia Mason for the stitches from the opthamologist.  More lidocaine, but this time the nurse massaged me a bit during the shots.  Also, when the doctor began "undermining," he hit a spot that wasn't numbed.  Eeek!!  More lidocaine!  Undermining is just what it sounds like:  the doctor separates the skin around the wound from the layer underneath it, which allows him to pull the sparse skin together.  This is what causes the eventual swelling.  Fortune smiled on us that day:  he thought he would need to grab a skin patch from my eyelid, but was instead able to simply close the wound.

The following day was a bit of a blur.  My right eye swelled completely shut and the skin of my eyelid and its environs turned a lovely shade of fuschia.  I spent most of the day with a cloth-covered ice cube on my eyelid, though when I removed it my eyelid and the bridge of my nose still felt hot to the touch.  I took a Percocet, and took a nap.

Today, the swelling is down, but the color remains.  I'm still pressing an ice cube on the area, but it's no longer hot to the touch.  I was told to avoid reading and the computer and television (leaving what, I wondered) and noticed that if I tried to do any of the three it hurt, like a "regular headache."

So there you go.  Now I know what it's like to get a regular headache.

So what do you eat??

My biggest worry about eating no carbs (and let's clear one thing up right away:  I have been eating some low-carb fruit.  I'm eating *virtually* no carbs.  But it's extremely difficult to eat *no* carbs.)

Where was I?

Right--my biggest worry about this eating plan was that I didn't know what I'd eat for my meals.

Breakfast was a challenge.  I had been eating natural peanut butter on whole wheat toast for ages, and was reluctant to give it up.  A friend happened to mention that she ate frozen blueberries on cottage cheese, so I tried it.  I love it!  And eating it each morning is no more or less boring than eating peanut butter on whole wheat toast.  While they are in season, I'm adding fresh raspberries and strawberries.

I usually eat some leftovers for lunch, but worried I wouldn't have enough leftovers.  We keep frozen hamburger patties on hand, and these make the perfect lunch.  I cook mine in my Cuisinart grill (I love this thing), top it with cheddar cheese, and eat it with a sliced tomato or a packet of edamame.  This is so filling and satisfying that I often don't want dinner.

For our dinners, my husband and I are eating many of the same things night after night.  But that's OK for now.  We'll grill some steaks or some salmon (thank you, Costco) with sauteed onions.  Some nights, we throw chicken breasts in the Cuisinart and eat them with peanut sauce.  We are glad we can continue to eat my home-made Caesar salads (my dressing is lemon juice, olive oil, mustard, garlic, parmesan, salt, and pepper).  We keep field greens and tomatoes on hand to make salads with our leftover meat.  Recently I made Beef Stroganoff and served it without the noodles.  Wonderful!  There are other meals that we normally eat over rice or mashed potatoes or pasta that we can still eat:  Chicken Marsala.  Garlic Chicken.  The possibilities are endless, and I expect we will eat them when the weather cools.

If we're not particularly hungry at mealtime, we often make up a batch of tuna salad and eat it with celery.  Of course, celery and peanut butter makes a fine snack.  We eat beef jerky or cheese or nuts.  These snacks are so filling that we seldom find ourselves wanting more.

I still miss juice.  I haven't had soda in ages, and had turned to lemonade and apple juice (cut with half water) to quench my thirst.  Right now it's water, herbal tea, or coffee.  Once I've lost some weight, I will try to add this particular carb back in.

But that's really all I miss.  And I don't miss the headaches.