Tag Archive: Stomach


The struggle is real

Filed under: Health, Personal not private
October 24, 2015

Recently I wrote about my stomach problems. I’m here to give you an update. I finally went to the doctor and he diagnosed me with Gerd. Which I had already decided I had from googling the symptoms i was experiencing. I didn’t want to have it, but it was that or stomach cancer. He gave me some medicine and a list of foods to avoid. I took the medicine for a month and a half, then i starting having side effects. Now i am just trying to manage it with diet, avoiding acidic foods (tomatoes and citrus), coffee (very hard) and alcohol. I discovered i don’t have to avoid all alcohol and when i do eat or drink something i shouldn’t the flair ups are not severe because most of the time i’m being good but sometimes ….. I just have to have that cup of coffee.

Some of my symptoms are caused by allergies and intolerance. I discovered i’m lactose intolerant and allergic to eggs. In the midst of all this i decided to go back to being vegetarian further limiting my food choices. A friend asked me “Can you eat real food at all?” “No not really.” So its challenging, but i’m up to it. I feel so much better now. 

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Making progress

Filed under: Family N Friends, Health, Personal not private
February 4, 2015

Since I eliminated some foods: soda, processed meat, coffee and cutting back on others I have noticed some changes. For one thing, I really miss coffee. And my stomach is getting better. I am starting to pinpoint some foods that should definitely be avoided and some that I probably should eat more of. Also I need to eat more regularly and eat real meals instead of just snacking. I should eat less sugar also.

All this is an attempt to avoid going to a Gastroenterologist since I did that when I thought I had an ulcer. Meaning I know what tests they are going to want to do and I am not ready for that.

In the interest of healing myself, I googled probiotics and found some sites with lists of foods high in probiotics. There is a good slide show at Livestrong.com. Briefly the list is:

  • Green peas – raw
  • Dark chocolate
  • Natto – Japanese breakfast food
  • Kefir
  • Miso
  • Kombucha tea
  • Umeboshi plums -eaten by Samurai
  • Yogurt
  • Sauerkraut – unpasturized
  • Pickles – made with fermentation
  • Cheese
  • Tempeh
  • Kimchi

Looking over this list, there are some foods I recognize, some I don’t and some I never eat. I knew about yogurt and kefir, in fact I have been having a half cup of kefir in the morning and evening. I didn’t know about green peas although eating carrots and celery seemed to help. I knew dark chocolate had some good things for you. The fact that miso contains probiotics explains why I can eat the miso ramen. 6 foods are Asian, apparently the Asian way of fermenting foods either produces probiotics or doesn’t kill them. I never eat pickles, sauerkraut and never tried Kimchi because of the vinegar allergy, also I don’t like sauerkraut. Now I can claim that my allergies are killing me.

Progress is being made. I am writing down everything I eat so when I do have an ‘attack’, which is still happening I can look at what I’ve been eating and make adjustments. If nothing else, I know what to do to get relief. The pain doesn’t go away as quickly as it I had a pill to take, but it does go away.

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Here’s the plan

Filed under: Health
January 22, 2015

Lately I’ve been complaining about my stomach. Sometimes it really hurts, so bad at times I have trouble walking. Nothing has made it feel better, when it hurts I have to lie down with an ice pack and sleep. I was trying to adjust my diet, but since I don’t know what foods are aggravating it, this is a very hit or miss proposition.

I’ve been googling the symptoms and that is an exercise in futility, there are so many things it could be, symptoms matched GERD, so I started avoiding cola, coffee and alcohol, but that didn’t seem to help.

While scrolling through Facebook I came across this video, “Vampire Fungus”, which said, if you have problems with bloating etc etc watch this video. I normally don’t, but I was feeling desperate for some relief. It was long, the man referred to doctors with laughable names. Seriously I laughed at their names, until he said Dr. Oz. (Wait a minute! Wasn’t Dr. Oz exposed as a fraud? Not sure about that) Now I had to listen to the end, just to see how ridiculous he was. What gets me is the promises, I will tell you now what you need to do now to get relief, oh but first, I’m going to tell you five reasons blah blah. I might have bought his product, but he annoyed me.

So what was he selling? Probiotics. Which I can buy at the health food store, of course not the super de duper ones he sells for $70. I bought some and am giving them a try. I’m glad I didn’t buy his, since the best ones at the health food store had coconut oil in them. Yeah, that would have been great.

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Upstate

Filed under: Family N Friends, Health
August 13, 2012

I spent Saturday night at my old place. I used to rage against people who said I lived upstate, “I don’t live upstate, I live in the Hudson Valley.” Saturday when Em was in the city and the Greenpeace guy was asking us for money, the first question they always ask is “Where are you from?” Em answers, “Upstate.” So ….

I slept in my old bedroom, except it wasn’t my old bedroom. The bed was where my sewing machine used to be, they actually turned the two rooms into one, so there is a sleeping area and a sitting area, so Sarah can have a friend over. Em got corn and roasted it on the grill. It was so good, but I was sick, I am still sick. Blech.

Yankees lost on Sunday, CC went on the DL, I told Alex, “The Yankees are doomed, that means no more half-price Papa John’s.” His reply was they better start winning again because he wants his pizza!

So my head is going to explode anytime now. I should post the rest of my pictures before that happens.

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Outside the Today Show

Filed under: Family N Friends, Health
October 24, 2011

Thursday Em came to the City, she and I were planning on going to the Today Show to watch Coldplay perform. I don’t know how she found out about my huge crush on Chris Martin, but she did so when she got Fan Passes for Coldplay she invited me.

She spent Thursday night at my apartment. I woke up at 2:00 am, I don’t know why but then I couldn’t get back to sleep, partly because someone was snoring (whoever said people don’t snore when sleeping on their side was LYING!) and partly because I wasn’t feeling well. About 4:30 I couldn’t take it anymore and started to get dressed, I was going to find out if Duane Reade really does stay open all night (the one near my apartment does). I got some medicine for my tummy, then I took some Tylenol for my head. We left to catch the subway our destination the Today Show.

The show is free, but you still pay. You pay by signing up online hoping to get fan passes. We did. You pay by getting up earlier than you normally do, for some of us, like me. You pay by standing in the cold from 6:00 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. to hear them play, while you can’t see them because you are too short/there are too many people/some skanky girl is standing on the barricade you are standing behind. They played 5 songs. The sound wasn’t good, not for the music but for the interviews. It was fantastic.

Afterwards we got breakfast and then Em had an appointment for a salt scrub. I wandered around, kind of dead on my feet from lack of sleep and standing in one spot for 2-½ hours. Looking for shoes at TJ Maxx and then Marshall’s. Then she was done and we were trying to meet up, the other store she wanted to go to was closed. She had managed to move her nail appointment to earlier so we went back to my place so she could get her stuff. She told me I could stay there, she getting her nails done and going home. I was so tired, so tired, that was kind of it for me.

And that’s all, she says.

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Already falling behind

Filed under: Health, Manhattan, Miscellanea, Personal not private — 1 Comment
August 5, 2011

but I have decided not to stress about it. I was moving for one, getting settled in, and I got sick. First a cold, then today all day I have been feeling like I was going to throw up. So bad that I decided to just stay home tonight even though it was supposed to be my first night at church.

Sitting here watching the Yankee game and live blogging, I realize I need a lamp, this half of the apartment gets rather dark at night. I didn’t realize it until I was spending the evenings here. I just wonder where I am going to put a lamp.

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and again today

Filed under: Manhattan, Miscellanea
July 16, 2011

more cleaning, more packing, more feeling like crap.

It is so hard to think about what to take and what to leave, what you need and what you don’t, and what to do with the stuff you don’t need.

The stress is building, so I just keep reminding myself of the benefits of moving, the shorter commute, my own space. More sleep, more sleep, more sleep.

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My day off

Filed under: Family N Friends, Health, Work
April 6, 2011

As mentioned before, I have every other Wednesday off, as I was eating my cereal this morning, and Gwen was talking to me, I kept thinking how much nicer it would be if I could get a day off and be alone. Not that I don’t like her, I just sometimes prefer to be alone. Of course after I move, I will be spending almost all my mornings alone.

Gwen and I were supposed to do something this morning but she didn’t feel well so we both went back to bed. There it was quiet. Until Gwen came downstairs and started doing her laundry, she is excited for tomorrow, that is why she is washing clothes.

Then we went shopping, she said she needed tops, we found some great sales, when it was rung up, the amount she spent and the amount she saved was 40¢ different. I didn’t save as much on mine. Then Fred called because he wanted to be picked up, he was upset I wasn’t home, but agreed to meet at Ron’s (please follow), since I had to go back there to get my sunglasses.

Then home, and I don’t know why, but lately everything I eat is making me sick.

Well, I have to go now. I might be back for more randomness.

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Three days

Filed under: Family N Friends, Health, Work
March 16, 2011

Three days and no posts from me. I am blaming it on the flu or a stomach bug, or whatever it is that is floating around the house making us sick. I tried hiding in the basement, the darn germs found me. When I got home from the city Monday, I was so sick I slept right through the stop. That has never happened before. NEVER. Then I started throwing up. So when Stitch asked, “So am I driving to New Hamburg?” The answer was no. I needed to go to Poughkeepsie cause I needed a bathroom so I could get cleaned up somewhat.

When I told Stitch what time, he said that is about how long it would take him to get there, so I just waited for the train and came home on it. The people working at the Poughkeepsie train station are icky. Not very nice at all.

Blogging was the last thing on my mind when I got home. I thought about it yesterday, but couldn’t come up with anything to say and so just didn’t write anything. So now I am behind. I am going to try posting two today, and two tomorrow.

I hope the post-a-day people don’t ban me from the clubhouse.

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Why does my tummy hurt?

Filed under: Health, Manhattan
February 5, 2011

Friday (yesterday) Em came to meet me at Sabrina’s because she had broken a nail and needed it fixed. All of my nails had to be removed and redone because I had broken them when I fell. After the nail appointment we went down to Maria Tash because Em’s earring was in.

Em and I wandered around for awhile looking for a restaurant to have dinner in. She had her Groupon’s with her and we were trying it find someplace downtown to eat. The first place was a bar/pub/grill sort of place, it was happy hour and so was packed, we left. She had a couple of places to go, one said ‘Reservations Required’, but it was close so we stopped and they showed us to a table.

The food was billed as North African. The tables were so close together I felt like we were sitting on top of the other diners. This lady at the table next to us, every time I looked over at her she have me a look. I almost said to her, “Lady I’m almost sitting on top of you, where do you want me to look?” We were in an alcove, the waiters had to sidle in to get to the tables. The food was worth it. To a point.

We had an appetizer, toasted pita bread with dips, hummus, fava beans and yogurt with cucumbers (blech – don’t like cucumbers, Em loved it), Em tried the hummus (she liked it so much she made me buy some for her today), she got these chicken appetizer things, wrapped up with almonds, I got a veggie burger, black beans, eggplant and portobello mushrooms. I couldn’t eat it as a burger, had to eat it with my fork and it fell apart.

Then at 2 a.m., I had the worst stomachache ever. I don’t know if it was the beans, the hummus, too much of all that, or the beer I had on the way home. Beer doesn’t usually affect me this way, at least not if it’s the beer I’m used to. But I was sitting here thinking I needed to write something, and I can’t think of anything because my tummy is hurting so bad. But the food was really yummy. The waiter was slightly creepy.

That is all, says she.

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