dlp252

Happy Birthday!!

Donna,

Why do I suspect the meds you are taking are bringing you down......especially when you felt better before your next dose......could be the meds wearing off.

Hope you get this figured out real soon.

Yep, it's definitely the meds. It happened again last night. About 1-1/2 to 2 hours after I took the evening dose I started feeling the lightheadedness and nausea.

Pretty definitely sure I have a sinus infection, lol. Had lots of signs this morning. May also now have an ear infection.

As bad as the meds make me feel, I think they are clearing the head infections, yay.

Have you tried throat coat tea for your cough- just an idea

I haven't tried that yet, but regular white tea seems to make it feel better. I'll look for it when I go grocery shopping today (never made it anywhere yesterday morning). However the cough only seems to happen in the middle of the night. Last night it was midnight. I felt just fine, but got up to go the restroom and could feel the junk in my chest...not long after that I started coughing. I cough until it's basically all clear then I dose off again. A while later I wake up and go through the process again.

It's frustrating being sick, lol. This is exactly the time we need our rest, but the sickness makes it hard to get it.

We have always requested anytime dining because we just hate to have to be somewhere at a certain time each day when we are on vacation.

I had no idea how they could provide a gluten free diet for me...thanks for the info...I will hope that letter is in my mailbox. I am not a real fan of the buffet except for breakfast...and I will be able to eat yougurt, fruit, bacon so that should not be a problem. I have stressed about this whole gluten free thing but feel a little better knowing that you had a good experience...a friend of mine has a sister that has cruised Princess before and she said that her sister hated to get off the ship at the end of the cruise because she never had to worry about being gluttoned...I hope that I have that much confidence in the food while I am cruising. I don't know if you read my previous post...we have a 31 day cruise planned for 4/08 and wanted to use this cruise as a gluten-free experiment...I think I will not only fax the gluten free menu request to them at Princess before the cruise but I will also send a letter to the head chef and Maitre'D on the Sapphire Princess with my food restrictions...31 days is a very long time to be on a ship if the food is not gluten-free! Sissy

Thats for sure! Your upcoming cruise sounds wonderful, but definitely 31 days is a long time if you can't eat, lol. You'll for sure want to take some extra goodies to supplement just in case.

On the Princess website there is a section called "cruise personalizer"...under there somewhere is a place for special dietary needs. I checked the box for gluten-free, but noticed there was a link beside it, which basically said to fax a letter to Princess outlining your needs. There's a fax number listed there.

Thanks Rachel!

Hope all is well and healing nicely!

I had both colonoscopy and endoscopy done at the same time back in April. It combo procedure wasn't bad at all, but you're right, that darned prep is not that fun, lol.

Oh Laura, YAY!!!!! Sounds like a great doctor!!!!

For Lyme experts, lol. How long AFTER you stop antibiotics would it be safe to test for Lyme? I'm thinking of making an appointment with the LLMD now, and not wait until the Bioset results....

Had a really rough afternoon...felt really weird around 10:00...very lightheaded and very weird...couldn't even sit up at the computer. Stayed that way until I left for my PT/Chiro appointment...felt icky through that, but now feel pretty good. Course, I just took another dose of the antibiotics, so we'll see if that's the culprit in a while, lol.

I think I may have to do traction. The chiropractor re-evaluated me today, and the good news is that I have gained a lot of strength in many of the items he tested me on, so I AM improving in some areas. My neck not so much. He wants me to get a cervical roll and spend 10 minutes a day on it...heated would be better. He thinks the traction might help my muscles to loosen up a bit--they have machines in the office that can do that. At least I didn't get a look when I said I thought the muscles were tight because of mercury, lyme or TMJ, lol. He agreed that any of those things could be contributing, but he still wants to try traction.

I hope it doesn't kill everything in your head!!

Ha, that was TOAST a long time ago, lol.

So I just looked at HOW much of each antibiotic I'm taking, lol. I'm taking 1000 mg of Biaxin (clarithromycin) and 500 mg of Amoxicillin, both TWICE a day, lol. Now THAT should take care of whatever is going on in my head, lol.

Hi, thanks for welcoming me :-) I'm not sure about a "leaky gut".... I think he is just using this term to mean that shes not absorbing nutrients properly... or.... something. He was very vague and quite unhelpful. We'll see after x-mas what tests they are going to do, or maybe its just an elimination diet. I'm starting to think that maybe its milk thats affecting her.

It could be the dairy. I went gluten-free first, then had to cut out dair because of the casein (the protein in dairy as opposed to lactose which is the sugar) when I got my results back from Enterolab. Cutting out those two things took care of a lot of my major issues, but not all...I still have some smaller issues like diarrhea and dizziness which no one had been able to find the source of. So I'm on an elimination diet right now, and so far I'm finding it very hard to tell which foods bother me because I can't get to a healthy enough state to tell the difference, lol.

Dlp252, I am so happy to hear that your cruise went well...we leave in about 6 weeks for 7 days on the Grand Princess...this will be our first cruise since my dx...it is reassuring to hear that they were on top of things...I have already faxed Princess with a gluten free menu request and your post just takes some of my pre cruise food stress away...I am already worrying about one of our excursions that has lunch included...visions of glutenized food are dancing in my mind as I type I will have to get a few goodies to take with me .....Sissy

Sissy, I had not heard from Princess at all by the time we left, but I had faxed in the gluten/casein free request before hand. When we got to our cabin, there was "mail" in our slot (by the cabin door), when we opened it there was a letter from Princess saying they had my special diet request on file and to show the letter from them to the maitre'd. We had AnyTime Dining, so the very first night we ate in one of the restaurants, and I showed that letter to the person who seated us. They in turn got the maitre'd, who listened to my restrictions, then showed me what I could have at any time from the menu, and the necessary modifications I'd need to ask for. Then he told me that if I talked to him the day before that they could substitute gluten-free pasta, bread etc. on some of the other menu items as well.

In the end, I ended up not talking to him again, simply because with my friend, we can never really tell what we'll feel like doing a day in advance, lol. I did take a chance eating at the buffet, but luckily I found someone who sort of looked after me there. I think the whole process is easier if you eat in the restaurants or have Traditional Dining.

I already know I'm allergic to molds...highly allergic. That showed up on my initial scratch test 4 or 5 years ago, and it showed up again when we retested last year, still at high levels. That's why my original ENT alway thought I had a candida issue, well that, and the fact that he prescribed TONS of antibiotics for me.

I'll be so interested to see what the bioset thing says about molds for me, lol.

And, I just want to say to EVERYONE that I'm thankful you all post your appointment info and results. I'm hoping much of it is getting stored somewhere in my fogged brain. I may or may not have an issue with Lyme...it would explain a lot, but reading everyone's stuff is helping me in other ways regardless, so it almost doesn't matter if I have it or not. Same with the mercury stuff, which I'm sure I DO have an issue with.

Well, I woke up at 1:00 a.m. again...but this time I waited until 2:00 to start coughing...coughed for about 30 minutes, then just layed there thinking about sleep, lol. Eventually I dozed off again, but don't feel very rested right now. (Course it's 6:40 a.m. (and I've already been up for a while) on a day where I don't have to work, so what does THAT say, lol.)

I'm undecided if I want to make my morning trip out to the grocery store or to Safeway for gift card for my mom...decisions, decisions....don't think I can do both, but what I don't do today, I have to do tomorrow, ugh, lol.

This afternoon I have a chiropractic (and PT??) re-evaluation.

Just really wanted to say hello and welcome to the boards!

GERD can be related to gluten, but it can also be a condition of some other things and a condition by itself. After a year gluten free, it may be something else though.

Don't know about your daughter, but I'm curious what test they do for leaky gut...is that the one where you drink sugary substance?

Sorry, not much help I'm afraid.

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday dearest Judy,

Happy Birthday to you!

(And thankfully you can't actually hear me sing that with my throat so sore, lol).

Speaking of "stessors" and adrenals. I got into a little "spat" with a customer today.

She was seriously lacking Hoilday CHEER.

Ever since I got sick I cant handle arguements or anything stressful like that. I'll get a worse reaction than any food can cause. So this "exchange" lasted only a couple minutes but my body reacted to the stress. Instant swelling in my head, heat flash....it resulted in a migraine and some pretty bad pressure behind my eyes. It lasted several hours.

I have to learn how to shrug some stuff off but its HARD. I was upset with myself but one of my co-workers said "Sheeesh...your only human...you may be sick but you're STILL human." So I guess I let the customer get to me and then I payed for it.

Well that stinks!!! I really is hard to shrug it off. Why is it so hard to shrug it off? I have to get out in the next couple of days and get some gift cards for my mother and aunt and am dreading it cuz people can be so rude at this time of year, and in years past it wouldn't bother me as much, but now, it really gets to me.

But yeah....I totally remembered what you told me and I bit my tongue and I didnt say anything about how I could relate to her frusterations.

Good girl, lol.

Donna,

I dont blame you....I would've been doing the same!! I would have forgot all about being sick and pushed myself to the max.

I had the sore throat a week and then got some antibiotics. By the end of the 2nd week - the throat was mostly better but had a cough that was worse at night and would 'spasm'. I was trying all the normal OTC meds by this time. Then during that 3rd week I started to choke and spasm and vomit, and that's when w cough was dx. Its quite easy by then to dx it. Too late then for treatment. I think if you get the right type of antibiotics early you can reduce the weeks you have it and you aren't as contagious. There is heaps of it here in Aust now.

Thanks Georgie! Sheesh, I stood and stared at the cough medicines on the shelves...there are so many, but I ended up not getting any because they all have sugar or glucose and/or dyes in them. I am going to Whole Foods tomorrow and I'll see if they have anything there that sounds better. I have some prescription stuff that I got last year (hopefully it's still good), which I can use if it gets really bad tonight. So far this evening I'm not coughing at all--hopefully it's not as serious as w cough.

Thanks Patti and Rachel.

I kind of felt like I was pushing it while I was IN Disneyworld, but it's so hard to relax with all that fun minnie appearal to see and buy.

Patti - about to send a PM, I thought of a couple of more things re the surgery.

Donna, I hope the antibiotics help with whatever it is you have in addition to what they were prescribed for.

Thanks Carla, and I hope you feel better soon!!! Speaking of herxing, lol, I've been taking 2.5 grams of Vitamin C for the last 2 days (and took 1500mg the day before that) and so far no herxing...or maybe whatever I have is worse because I'm herxing.

Sometimes I'm just too tired to try to figure it out.

Take care Donna. That is how my whooping cough started a month ago. www.whoopingcough.net Stage 2 of W cough starts after 2 weeks but its too late to do much about it by then. I thought I had a normal sore throat / cough until stage 2 - and when I was nearly choking all the time - read up on it. Stay away from babies if you are suspicious for w cough !

Hum, maybe I'll go read there tomorrow (too tired now, lol). I've had the sore throat for 4.5 days now...it was worse today after the good effects of the coughing wore off. But the cough just started early this morning...3 hours in the middle of the night and about 30 minutes this afternoon. What did they give you to combat it?

The medicine I am starting this evening is a combo of amoxicylin, clarithromycin and prevacid...so two antibiotics and a proton pump inhibitor. I'm also going to be taking bepto-bismol with it...all that is for H.Plylori, but I'm hoping it will work on whatever infection is raging in my head region, lol.

Well, whatever I've got has moved up into my ear. I can't hear out of my right ear, and earlier it hurt a lot (until I took a tylenol). I woke up this morning at 1:00 and coughed my head off for about 3 hours, which oddly made my throat feel better, I gess cuz it cleared some junk out. I just picked up my antibiotic cocktail for the H.Pylori stuff, and I'm hoping it will help with whatever I've got going on now...it contains Clarithromycin, amoxicillin and previcid. Sheesh, the darned things came in a box in a brown paper bag...I'm used to getting my prescriptions in a little Walgreens pouch thing...this thing looked like a lumberjack's lunch bag, lol.

Anyway, I stayed home from work today and will tomorrow to. I already talked to the office assistant who said I can "borrow" some time off, so that way I can just rest without having to go through the process in the morning of feeling guilty cuz I'm calling in sick.

Hi Julie...about to email you!

Pink - glad your dad had a great time with no problems.

I just got back from a 10 night cruise on Princess, who did a wonderful job making sure I could eat something. I was even able to eat at the buffet safely--one of the head cooks noticed me staring at all the food and asked what I was looking for, so when I started asking him about ingredients, he offered to go back and make something for me. I normally wouldn't have done that, but he said it wouldn't take much time. Normally I would eat in one of the restaurants, where you can always get a steak or chicken breast fairly safely. Anyway, this cook sort of looked out for me whenever he saw me.

I took some of my own food....a jar of peanut butter, some energy bars, nuts, etc. to supplement and because the friend I travel with is a late riser and I get up early....so an energy bar + peanut butter was just perfect to allow me to take some meds and hold out until we got to eat breakfast.

The one thing I want to mention to future cruisers is shore excursions. That was something I had the most problem with. We went to the Panama Canal/Caribbean and ALL of the ports we visited had a restriction on food allowed into their ports. Some allowed food as long as it was individually wrapped (at the factory--zip lock bag was not good enough), but some didn't allow anything. So basically if you were on a long excursion, you would have to rely on local food. That was scarey to me. I did have one lunch in Jamaica which seemed safe and did not make me sick, lol, but truly it was sort of a gamble to eat it.

Ha, when I lived in Hawaii, it was really hard to get used to Christmas...it just didn't seem natural for it to be near 70, lol.

Speaking of becoming more sensitive. The one thing I DO remember the doctor saying yesterday, is that since I have adrenal fatigue and all this other stuff going on that it only takes a little extra stress to push me over the edge...stress can be anything out of the ordinary, and there was a whole list of things from the obvious to just eating something your system doesn't like or not getting enough rest. He is convinced Disneyworld put me over the top because I wasn't following my elimination diet, ate more sugar (in the form of fruit and maple syrup) than normal and wasn't getting enough rest. He thinks I did okay on the cruise because I was getting plenty of rest and my only eating sin was extra fruit. It's like how on earth can anyone get better if EVERYTHING turns out to be a stressor, lol. Truly, you all are the only ones who can related to it.

Georgie - could be Lyme. After reading about it lately, it seems like it might be much more common than people think.

Mia - I'm sort of opposite, since I've been sick having things to do makes me overwhelmed and a little mad, lol. I don't have the energy to do anything so I just don't do it.

I love puzzle type stuff!

Meeee tooo!

We already think your a special person, but let us know when your doctor thinks so.

I just signed on to see, just in case and I was 2 pages behind.

I've been a bit gabby today for some reason...even almost posted a reply to myself.