The Four Levels of Food He… Allergies. I Meant Allergies.

food allergy

I recently had an appointment with Dr N to go over the results of my food allergy testing. There are four reaction levels (allergy levels) for the skin test (well, five I suppose if you decide to count “no reaction” as a level): +1, +2, +3, +4. Levels 1 and 2 are not allergies yet, but are definitely sensitivities and are accumulating in your system, while levels 3 and 4 are allergies. All of the allergens are treated similarly: rotation diets. In the discussion that follows, A designates a day where you can have as much of the food as you want, L designates a day where the intake of the food is limited, and X designates a day in which the food needs to be completely eliminated.

Continue reading

Mermaids and Griffins and Dragons, Oh My!

On Saturday, August 22nd, we went to the Natural History Museum. We have a membership, so we can get in for free anytime we want. I didn’t actually feel too fantastic, but I REALLY wanted to see the Mythic Creatures exhibit! The MC exhibit opened on my birthday (March 19), and is leaving either this weekend or the next. Missing it wasn’t an option for me, really, and I knew I wouldn’t be up to it after the surgery… so off we went on Saturday!

001 kraken at entrance

First thing you see when you enter the exhibit

Continue reading

POTS Things

http://myheart.net/pots-syndrome/

This article contains a lot of information about POTS. It is also the largest survey of POTS patients ever conducted, with over 900 respondents. I haven’t read the entire thing yet (fatigue and headache, so will need to finish later), but I really wanted to share it with all of you!

The Sock Problem

I have a problem. A sock problem.

Yes, you read that correctly… socks.

What in the world is a sock problem? I’m obsessed with “fun” socks. I don’t care about basic socks, I like patterned, crazy colored, and unusual socks! How many socks make a problem? Well, according to Dan, it’s the amount of socks that are currently in my closet. Yes, they’re in the closet. I have enough socks they have their own drawers (yup, plural) that go in my closet.

drawers signed

Continue reading

Post-Surgery Update: Dan’s Perspective

So, I wanted this post to be entirely written from Dan’s perspective, but he isn’t comfortable with doing that. He wanted me to do it Mad-Libs style for him… but I’m not comfortable doing that. What am I going to do instead? Well, I’m going to do it survey style. By writing out questions that he can answer on his own, he has the freedom to elaborate as much as he wants to, or doesn’t want to. The questions are going to be in third person, which can be kind of odd to read, but should feel more natural after the first few.

Lizz and Dan pre-surgery

Continue reading

Class, Surgery, Life, Anxiety… The List Goes On…

I’m sorry that I don’t have time for a long post… I need to be waking up in just over four hours. Blogging has been something I really enjoy, and not having had time to post has been rough. But, I can at least give you a quick update about today and my feelings about tomorrow.

Continue reading

Oops! M.I.A. Lizz…

The last few days have been pretty crazy, which is why I’ve been missing in action. I do apologize! I have been really enjoying my blogging, and I am hoping to get a good post up tomorrow, then have Dan get up some posts while I recover from surgery.

Continue reading

Insomnia is Always Unwelcome

Going to the museum tomorrow (super excited! we’ve been meaning to go for months now for special exhibits). Fantastic, except I can’t get to sleep…

I even took a Tramadol… which usually helps me get to sleep pretty quickly. If nothing else, it’ll make me sleep very soundly.

And I’m dead tired because I’m fighting off a head cold (or awful allergy season, hard to tell)… and have been doing lots of chores… and I’m still recovering from the Botanic Gardens.

Off to try to sleep, again.

The PreOp Highlights

I had my pre-op appointment yesterday. My heart kept racing, and I was having a very difficult time calming it down, even with Dan being completely ridiculous in his attempt to distract me 😛 I think my heart kept panicking because everyone kept using the word “surgery.” Yes, that is what it is, and I’m not really sure what else they could have said (maybe procedure?) to keep me from panicking… The word just makes me panic! I got a lot of good information at the appointment however, and some of it made me feel a little better about my recovery period… but I really hate reading the risks waivers. Though, this time, there were some kind of amusing ones.

Continue reading