Nyxie's Blog

I wanted to find out if my reaction was to just wheat or to gluten. Decided to do a barley challenge to find out for sure. Had a teaspoon of cooked barley last night. Had some lightheadedness and very minor reflux, but otherwise ok. No bloating, no pain, none of what I had with the wheat challenge. Will probably take a couple of days for everything to work its way out (so to speak) but so far so good. Some minor tummy problems this morning (belching, slight hearburn, repeating), but not bad at all.

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I'm having other issues today, but don't think they're related. Once again, I don't want to lay everything on gluten's doorstep. A muscle in my upper left arm was twitching so hard this morning it woke me up! Its finally calmed down, but that was certainly a first. Am also having a problem with my right hand, although this started last night. The joint just below the thumb hurts like a bugger! No swelling, no redness, no nuthin. But it hurts! It came on suddenly. One minute its just fine and then WHAM! The thumb is also very weak and I can't lift anything with that hand. The only reason I can type now is because I put a brace on, so its immobilized. Thinking its tendonitis, but have no idea what could have caused it.

Have an appt with the GI tomorrow. Want to talk to him about the challenge results and the "mystery pain" I've been having on and off. Also need to get another hemoccult kit, do that, and turn it in. Getting the hemoccult kit done will be the end of the investigation into my low ferritin.

I don't like this! In the last 10 months, I've gone from being very casual about my health to being super-vigilant and paranoid. I feel like a hypochrondriac, just waiting for the next thing to jump out. Is everything that happens a symptom of something else or just part of getting older? And is it a real problem or isn't it? I'm sure things will calm down in time. I've become much more relaxed about the thyroid stuff. Not even seriously stressing about the nodule biopsy results, which were done 2 weeks ago. Its just that everytime I become "used" to something that's going on, something else pops up. There's humor in there somewhere. Just need to find it.

I've been feeling physically better this past week, but that doesn't seem to be helping my mental status lately. Part of that may be the holidays. Its always a difficult time of year. I haven't had my annual "funk", which is pleasantly surprising. Slightly down and weepy from time to time, but still not nearly as debilitating as years past. Think the vit D is helping in this regard.

Weird thing is I always tend to have perimenopausal symptoms at the same time as the funk. I know what causes the funk - it's grief (not going to go into detail on this. suffice it to say I lost several people very close to me during this time of year). Periods get spotty, if and when they come at all. This is only between Sept and January tho. The rest of the year, you could set your calendar by my cycles. This year, no funk, but am still having the same cycle problems. Suppressed stress? Gonna talk to the doc when I see her.

And on that note, my Holistic MD's retiring at the end of the year. He's referred me to another doc in his practice who specializes more in hormone-y stuff. Hopefully, she'll be able to give me a better idea of what could be going on.

Edit: Ok, in spite of hardly any immediate reactions to the barley, I think I'm still going to avoid gluten. Apparently it binds me up like a load of cement. Had C for 4 days after that challenge. Ugh!