Thinking about starting a "flush"

It's been just about four months since I started on this crazy gallbladder diet and I am debating whether or not to start doing a "flush" of my gallbladder. I've been really nervous about the side effects that might come with said flush, but was reassured yesterday when I talked to someone who's sister is also trying to get rid of gallstones naturally and is having success with the flushes.

Still, the idea of dumping a bunch of oil and stuff in to my stomach so the gallstones with flush themselves out of my GB and then out of my system is a bit daunting. There are all sorts of different flushes to try and I am leaning towards doing the "mild" flush for liver/gallbladder. Not sure though. Perhaps I should finally set up that phone consultation with the gallbladder attack lady and see what she recommends...

Too much to worry about! But I want my gallbladder to be cleaned and stopped aggravating me, even though it is much less irritated than it was before. Not only that, a cleanse could help to fix a lot of things that are wrong with my health. Check out this excerpt from the GB Attack website:

What might improve from a Liver/Gallbladder Flush?

Apart from helping with the pain and discomfort of a poorly functioning digestive system, all of the symptoms mentioned above may also be helped by a series of flushes. They are:
1. Digestive problems (such as burping often, bloating, intestinal gas, stomach pain)
2. Food allergies and sensitivities
3. Chemical sensitivities (such as reactions to gasoline, cleaning agents, soaps, cosmetics, etc.)
4. Rashes, various kinds of skin problems
5. Eye problems (such as blurred vision, eye pain, decreasing eyesight, eye flutters or twitches, etc.)
6. Difficulty sleeping
7. Irritability, frequent anger, depression
8. Tendon or muscle problems (such as frequent sprains/strains, muscle injuries, delayed healing)
9. Swelling of the breasts
10. Menstrual problems (such as too little or too much blood flow, blood clotting, cramps)
11. Testicular problems
12. Headaches (especially pain at the vertex of the head, and throbbing headaches). A headache of the gallbladder is most commonly over the right eye, at the temples or on one side of the head.)

Let's see. I have #1, 2, 3, 4, 5, used to have 6 until acupuncture, 7 which has also improved with acupuncture and diet changes, 8, and 12. Pretty much covers them all! Can you say, messed up? Seriously!? Which is why I want to do a flush despite being scared sh*tless.

Okay. I'm biting the bullet and calling now to set up my consultation with the GB lady. I don't think I want to fly blind on this one!

Dining Out for the Food Allergic Community

This is so cool. One of the blogs I follow, Allergic Girl, happens to be a professional advocate for food allergic people. She recently did this interview for the Culinary Institute of America about how to have a successful dining out experience as a food allergic consumer, which in turn is also used to teach the chefs at CIA about food allergic diners. How awesome is that!?!?

I have to tell you that from personal experience this is an invaluable resource that the CIA is providing to it's students. My brother is a chef and when dining out at his (very fancy) restaurant a few years ago, he was quite intolerant to my needs. While the restaurant did accommodate both my little brother (who has severe shellfish and nut/tree nut allergies) and I, and my brother did work with me to find menu items I could eat ahead of time, after the meal that night brother actually scolded me for having to eat my tuna fully cooked. I can't eat raw fish, it makes my eyes and throat swell so in order to still enjoy fish I just make sure to only eat it when it is fully cooked. The reaction is worse if I eat shellfish, and I actually get hives in my throat. So when the waiter told us that we would be having a free course of seared scallop both my little brother and I immediately spoke up. The substitution was to be tuna for us and I made it clear that under no circumstances could I eat it raw, so they brought mine out completely cooked through. For my little brother, they simply seared it and left the tuna raw in the middle. Being a very cautious food allergic person (he gets full blown anaphylaxis) he refused to eat it because it wasn't cooked through. Don't blame him. Here is the kicker, everyone in my family, but me, told him he would be fine and to just eat it. yeah, that's my family. So both my little brother and I got scolded and harrassed for not eating something that could potentially harm us, and from the chef , too, our brother!

Needless to say, I could not be more excited that this video is being shown to CIA students. A sympathetic chef is priceless for us food allergic. It allows us to live like the rest of the world, safely. And there is no better feeling than that. Thanks CIA for being so proactive for the food allergic community!

Slacking on Posting, but Serious on Cooking

I haven't been quite as good at posting the last few weeks, as my time has been eaten up by house shopping and all the chaos that comes with being a "potential" first time home buyer. It's exhausting and stressful!

Anyway, in managing my hectic schedule I have still managed to get some good cooking in, mostly out of necessity for needing to have healthy food to eat for my gallbladder (*sigh* I miss the days of eating overly processed nutritionless food). This week's featured meals are my homemade vegetable noodle soup, a recipe I made up myself in a quest to have allergy free- note: carrot free- chicken noodle soup, and the other recipe is one I got out of the fall issue of Natural Health magazine for Butternut Squash, Chili, and Cranberry Risotto. The vegetable noodle soup turned out wonderfully, as usual, though I do kind of miss the chicken in it. For some reason the chicken adds an extra level of flavor, and probably fat content, to the soup that rounds it out nicely. Granted my soup still has it's usual lovely aroma, just minus an element. If you want to try my homemade chicken noodle soup, the recipe is on my facebook page (for my facebook friends). Someday I will post it on here, I'm just not posting recipes yet.

Yesterday morning I slaved over the Butternut Squash Risotto recipe from Natural Health mag. It was quite good, and even better, dairy free! Since dairy and I don't quite get along yet (soon though I hope), this was a nice way for me to have one of my absolute fall favorites, butternut squash risotto. The recipe I usually make is from a book I got from Crate and Barrel, it has dried hot chilis and sage in it. To die for savory and sweet combo. And it's so creamy, which probably has something to do with the massive amounts of butter and cheese in it. However, in like of not being able to enjoy massive amounts of cheese, this butternut, chili, and cranberry risotto recipe definitely worked well and is made creamy by coconut milk, which was quite nice. Didn't miss the dairy at all. Plus there are all sorts of good spices and flavors in there, including: ginger, garlic, nutmeg, cinnamon, and lime. Here is a pic for your drooling pleasure.

Friday night I also experimented with a new Vietnamese recipe from my favorite Vietnamese cookbook. The recipe was for Cha Ca Fish, which is marinated in ginger and turmeric (GB friendly!), and then cooked with dill and green onions. While mine didn't look near as pretty as the one in the book, I made a valiant effort and the taste came out quite nice. We all especially liked the flavor of the "everyday dipping sauce" that was poured over it. The sauce was made with limes, garlic, garlic chili sauce, sugar, and water. I still have some left and need to find a use for it! Again, for your drooling pleasure, the Cha Ca Fish picture.

Sorry about the awful lighting. Can't wait until I get a house with lots of windows and natural light! But we will see what happens there...

And just to wrap up, I am officially still shrinking. Down another five pounds and counting. I hope the weight stabablizes soon though because I am going to need to buy another new wardrobe soon and I can't afford it!

Bet you didn't know...

I discovered something interesting this weekend- both Skittles and Starburst have apple juice in them. Now, to most people this would seem to be a rather mundane point of interest, but for me, who happens to be allergic to apples, it's actually a big find. I am quickly running out of sweets that I can eat!!! It is interesting that these to junk food items have apple juice in them to make them somewhat natural and "healthy" so I don't want to dismiss that fact. Nonetheless, it's upsetting that I can't eat them, though I have eaten them for years now. I think this change must have been recent, because I have eaten both candies with little to no irritation for a while. However, the test of the Skittles this weekend proved that, yes, there is in fact apple juice in there. I got a hive on my tongue and the rest of the day my mouth felt weird, which is what will happen when I ingest trace amounts of an allergen.

Anyway, now you can wow your friends with the useless knowledge that Skittles and Starburst do in fact contain real fruit juice in them. There is your useless trivia for the day, folks!

Working my way back.

Today has gone much better than yesterday. No more gallbladder attacks, spasms, etc today. Very negligible residual nausea, and I have been a bit worn out after last night's upheaval, but I don't feel like someone is running a stake through the right side of my torso anymore, and that is massive improvement.

I decided to play it easy today and only eat small meals and focus heavily on gallbladder friendly food. I even brought out the Jack LaLane Juicer and made fresh pressed organic grape juice. Granted, it didn't make much, but it made enough for a small glass to round out with my breakfast of gluten free flax waffles, and raspberries with some butter and honey. Yummy.

Like I said, it didn't make a ton of juice, but it was enough. For lunch I made gluten free pasta with vegetables sauteed in EVOO and herbs. I was surprised by how tasty the gluten free pasta was. Not sure how it would hold up to pasta sauce, but it did well with the veggies. Dinner was leftover butternut squash soup, some organic flax and wheat crackers, cucumber, and some grapes. Not so sure the onions in the butternut squash soup are settling 100% with my tummy after yesterday's GB attack, but I think I will make it through.

After sleeping sitting up on the couch last night my back was in some awful shape, and not surprisingly, my chiropractor noticed. She thought it was from my car trip to Chicago last week still and I corrected her and told her about the GB attack. I think my back was very thankful for the adjustment. Just goes to show how important chiropractic can be. You can mess your spine up with something as simple as taking a nap on the couch!

Gallbladder Attack Resurfaces It's Ugly Head

Ugh. Last night was rough. I had my first full-fledged gallbladder attack in months. Probably since I went on all of the supplements. The offending foods? Raw shallots and tortilla chips, and a little overeating to boot. I was miserable last night. Thankfully my Phos drops helped to make the pain subside within an hour or so, but the nausea and generally feeling of unease and distress in my body took quite a bit longer to go away. Gallbladder attacks are quite possibly the most uncomfortable thing in the world, and it's no wonder so many people opt to have theirs removed after a single attack. Goodness knows that last night I was considering it. Alas, I hunker on, but definitely avoiding raw shallots/onions and corn products. I should probably watch the overeating too, I've let myself slip this last week.

I've actually been having gallbladder flair-ups since Thursday, for various things. Thursday was from eating a McDonald's hash brown (did that one to myself, I was traveling and hungry, should have known better), Friday was from eating too many Dove chocolates before lunch (again, did that to myself), and Saturday was from eating a sweet potato, which is actually on the list of approved foods for gallbladder but nonetheless bothers me. I believe a lot of the sensitivity this weekend has to do with the time of the month. There is a definite pattern of gallbladder flair-ups right before my period. (Yes, TMI for those of you who can't handle such discussion, but again, I am dedicated to be totally open and honest on this blog, so deal). As a result, I am going to be ridiculously overly-conscious of what I eat this week so as to avoid any further gallbladder attacks or flair-ups.


The interesting thing about last night's gallbladder attack is that I was able to make the resulting headache and body discomfort/nausea go away for a short time by simply taking a shower. Somehow the hot water running down my head calmed my body down and I felt normal again. Of course, the second I was out of the shower I felt awful again, but at least for that brief time I was able to feel good again. Still ended up sleeping sitting up on the couch for three hours, but felt relief for fifteen minutes prior.


I leave you with a picture of the offending meal, which I actually took because I thought it was such a healthy meal. Not so much for me! Homemade turkey burgers on roasted garlic loaf bread, with homemade guacamole and baked tostitos. A lot less shallot and only half the turkey burger next time, I guess.

Taking the Slow and Steady Route

Sometimes our health is dependent on being able to admit to some hard truths about ourselves. And today I did that. I had a nice conversation with my voice teacher- that involved much crying on my part- talking about how it was okay for me to decide not to do the Met auditions this year. That had been the goal for the majority of the year, and we both new that vocally I was in the right place. Unfortunately, my gallbladder and body had other ideas and have slowed me down. Tonight I admitted that my health had to remain the top priority and the auditions would have to wait one more year. And although next year will be the last year I can do the auditions, it's okay. It has to be okay. Keeping on track with improve my health and well-being has to stay the priority for a bit longer before I can truly prioritize on other large, intense, goals.

For some people, going fast works well and they thrive on that type of pressure. In my case, I thought for a long time that I was good at going fast and could thrive under pressure. I ignored signs from my body that it was too much, that I wasn't ready, and that I needed to slow down. As a result I am dealing with some really not fun health issues at a young age and having to slow down to the point of a screeching halt to address them. Granted, I had slowed down before then, but now I have to slow down mentally as well. Which is quite possibly the hardest part for me because my brain has always run at a mile a minute. This is due in large part to how I was brought up and what I was taught. I internalize so much negativity and pressure and other bad things (and things that I make worse than they are) that my brain is cluttered with incessant mental chatter. I am sure this is evidenced by the rambling nature of my blogging... which is much like my brain. I don't know how to stop talking, and it is a compulsive habit of mine to say too much. So I am focusing on slowing down. Slowing down how I think, how I act, what and how many things I prioritize, and the pace at which I work towards my goals and every day activities.

It's taking a lot of baby steps, and admitting it out loud today was a just another baby step towards achieving a true state of well-being.

The great corn-holio

I discovered today why it is recommended that you not eat corn if you are having gallbladder problems. That stuff, tasty as it is, does not digest. I saw the proof today, if you know what I mean. Last night I indulged on a bit too much corn (admittedly), and I paid for it today with lots of gas, indigestion, discomfort, and seeing the undigested pieces... well, you know. So, as tasty as it is, I think I will forgo the corn again.

The funny thing is that as a result I didn't feel hungry at all today. First thing this morning I was hungry, but as soon as I sat down to eat breakfast I wanted nothing to do with food the rest of the day. Granted, I still ate because I know how important it is to eat your three squares a day, but I did not snack at all (which is weird for me) and literally forced myself to eat something for dinner. But then again, I guess we all have days like that where our stomach just needs a break.

In other news, I realized the true and full benefit of chiropractic today. This weekend I slipped and fell while we were at a Quizno's and ended up undoing all the good work we had done fixing my back the prior week. Now, I knew I had done this when my back starting to bother me pretty bad from a nerve pinching in my lower back that just made me want to start punching things from the sheer discomfort (not pain, mind you) that it caused throughout my whole body. So, I got an adjustment today and told my doc that I had fallen, blah, blah blah. She told me that I had actually managed to get my uneven hips to become uneven on the opposite side! In other words, the one hip that had been higher was now lower than the other hip. Anyway, she worked wonders on my back, adjusting all the way up my spine and I feel a lot better. Thank goodness for chiropractors!

Random Allergic Reactions... Again

Friday was a weird day. About an hour or so after lunch I had developed a rather swollen lip for no apparent reason. What felt like a few large hives formed on the the lower right side of my lip and my throat on the right side also felt kind of swollen and tingly. I resisted the urge to take Benedryl because I was at work and didn't want to get too drowsy. Luckily, the hive started to go away after about an hour, however, I then developed a rather severe headache and felt slightly off the rest of the day.

Here is the worst part- I can't figure out what the heck caused the allergic reaction! Everything I ate that day were things that I had eaten all week with no problems (including chocolate). My body certainly operates in mysterious ways and I'm not quite sure what to make of this occurrence. Perhaps I need to do a serious detox again and lay off the chocolate... which, as we've discussed this week is hard for me to do with constant temptation. Or maybe there is something else going on, or I really did eat something I was allergic to and didn't know it. Long story short, I don't know, but I am grateful that the reaction cleared on it's own and I was able to avoid the Benedryl this time.

On a positive note, my husband and I travelled to Chicago yesterday to see the Lyric Opera perform Manon, which was awesome- Dessay and Kaufman were absolutely brilliant- and we stayed overnight at the new Aloft hotel by O'Hare. While it would seem the positive was that we went to the opera, the biggest positive for me was that even though I forgot to pack my non-allergic shampoo and conditioner I successfully used the hotel's highly fragranced shampoo and conditioner without getting a crazy, itchy, burny scalp!!!! Such is the life of an allergic person. :) We take pleasure in the silliest victories.

The lure of chocolate

Chocolate and I have a long history together. Even after almost three months apart I still get a pretty intense craving for it's sweet smoothness, and as soon as it touches my lips the cravings get even more intense.

This week at work I have been eating some of the chocolate candy we have hanging out at the front desk. Go figure, the stash is located at my desk in particular. So, a few times a day my co-workers are coming by to get a piece or two. This is no good for me. For the first few weeks I did really well in resisting the temptation... which was helped by the labels all saying that they contained tree nuts (as discussed in an earlier post). Forget about it. Ever since the Ghiradelli showed up I've been a really bad girl, eating at least a few pieces every day, and about mid-day today (on my day off) I was stressing out and tired and got myself a bar of it. The espresso flavored dark is truly sinful, it's so good. And, yet again, the Ghiradelli went over just fine with my gallbladder and stomach which only makes it worse for this very addicted chocoholic!!!! I wish I would have an allergic reaction or something so that I have incentive to not eat it! Ugh! At least I kept myself to a single serving size of chocolate, unlike my pre-GB issue days when I would eat the whole thing in one sitting. Yeah. The chocolate addiction is that bad... and I still would want more.

Chocolate wasn't the only bad thing I ate today. I also ate chips and salsa as a snack. While this may seem harmless to anyone else, for me, the extra meal can put extra stress on my GB and the corn in the chips also is rough on the gallbladder. Surprisingly, that went over fine, too! Does this mean I'm getting better? Well, maybe, but my stomach did finally start to revolt on me with some nausea after dinner. I probably would have been fine if I hadn't done dessert, but I was being bad today because my brother-in-law was visiting.

Which brings me to another subject- the strong association I have with eating and family get togethers/celebrations. Growing up, eating was the central focus of all of our family get togethers: holidays, graduations, out of town relatives visiting, etc. The main discussion of any event was what are we eating and who is bringing what? Unfortunately, I have an extended family full of wonderful home cooks who all can whip up some pretty darn tasty food, no matter the occasion. Get togethers were spent with hours of appetizers, followed by a full dinner, and an extravagant dessert of some sort. Not to mention, while eating the appetizers my aunts and female cousins and I would all sit around the table of appetizers eating while we socialized. Family and food (and overeating) go hand in hand for me, and even though I made a great effort to make everything healthy today I still ended up binging throughout the day.

I think that changing this habit and mindset is going to take a while, and perhaps I need to work a lot more on the emotional side of things to break the compulsion to prepare an extravagant spread (seriously, you should have seen me at the grocery store stocking up on snacks and food this morning, just for the three of us) before I can truly change those habits. For me, it is very much tied in to the need to please people and win their love and affection with food, because, truthfully, that was the only form of love I really knew growing up. I've spent 29 years feeling and expressing love and affection through food, and it might just take another 29 to learn how to feel and express love in other ways. Recognizing this, I think, is a start in the right direction.

The consequence of bad behavior

Clearly, I am not ready for some foods yet. That cheese I had Sunday in the risotto? I could tell it was still effecting my digestion, because my lunch of avocado with EVOO and lime and some millet bread was sluggish in it's digestion and made me nauseous enough to take some acid drops. That meal usually goes over much better than that. Then, being the glutton for punishment that I am, I ate some Dove chocolates pieces before dinner last night which resulted in some nausea, indigestion once I did eat dinner, and some mild allergic reactions (they are serious when they say it may contain trace amounts of tree nuts). Ugh! Darn gallbladder!

That being said though, the question that keeps coming to mind is why it is virtually impossible to find a chocolate that is completely free of traces of nuts? How do us allergic people enjoy the wonderful taste of chocolate without fearing reaction? I, for one, happen to me really addicted to chocolate (to the point where it gives me a feeling of a high when I eat it, bad, I know), but it's hard to find chocolates that are safe to eat. My brother and one of my friends are severely allergic to peanuts (for me, it's just the tree nuts) and it's hard to even find chocolate chips for homemade cookies that don't have trace amounts in them. For a while I used Ghiradelli chocolate chips for my friend when I made things with chocolate, but I believe they even now have the warning label on them. At some point I should just start making it home made! Which is completely ridiculous, but in this cross contamination filled manufacturing society we have it's probably the best solution for allergic people!

Risky Behavior

I've been living on the edge these last few days, let me tell you! Eating all sorts of things that aren't on the diet, and crossing my fingers everytime that I don't get sick! Thankfully, I haven't gotten sick though I can't say my gallbladder didn't struggle to digest a few things.

During my indulgences I discovered that while I can surprisingly digest turkey bacon avocado sandwiches like a champ (aka a person with a normal and healthy digestive system), having them two days in a row starts to cause some frustration for my digestive track. I also discovered that I actually now feel bad if I am not eating enough vegetables. I had a wonderful Tofu Pineapple Curry at dinner last tonight (at our favorite restaurant in the Quad Cities, Le MeKong) but there was not a single piece of pineapple in there and I had to hunt down the three slices of zucchini that were actually in there. Plenty of tofu and curry sauce was there, just no veggies and pineapple. I was upset!


I also had a few glasses of wine this weekend, some of which I did not have with a meal or follow up with my gallbladder helping drugs. And I did fine! No gallbladder attacks, no nausea, I was fine! We are definitely making progress and I am very excited about it. Because I have been doing so well digestively I thought I might get really adventurous and include some cheese with my dinner tonight. Not a lot, just a little to see how it would go. Eh. Mixed reviews, I think. I'm not sick, but I definitely had some really thick and gross tasting mucos in my mouth for a while afterwards with a slight unease in my stomach. We will see as the night progresses how I fair. The dinner I decided to add cheese to was a butternut squash risotto recipe I saw Giada De Laurentiis make yesterday that I had to try. It was good, but my husband and I agreed the butternut squash risotto recipe we have from our Crate & Barrel cookbook is much better.

Acupuncture as an alternative to drugs

A really really cool thing happened today. I learned that acupuncture can actually induce labor. A patient who is slightly overdue called up today in tears because she had not gone in to labor yet and her ob-gyn wanted to chemically induce her. She was already scheduled for an acupuncture appointment for Friday in the case that she had not gone in to labor yet, but due to the pressuring for chemical induction from her ob-gyn she had to move the appointment up a day.

Although she did not go in to labor immediately after the acupuncture session, she told me that she could feel a change happening in her body and that things felt like they were starting to move a bit. I am hoping that the session was effective and that we will hear news that the baby was born today as a result of the acupuncture inducing labor. I would hate to see her doctor make her resort to chemicals.

Curious about the effectiveness of acupuncture inducing labor, I started to do some googling and found many articles discussing it. This one in particular I found very informative and interesting. How I was unaware of this use for acupuncture until today, I don't know, but I am so excited to have learned about it.

Acupuncture's benefit seems to be getting a lot of press lately. Just last week the Today Show did a segment on acupuncture helping with infertility, and during the Olympics there was a segment on the athletes using acupuncture to recover from playing their sports quicker and more effectively. It is thrilling to see this natural treatment used in Asia for centuries finally getting some serious recognition for it's effectiveness here in the States.