Death To Bloating!
Hello,
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What an excellent sleep I had last night.
I woke up without the aches and pains that both Big H and I have suffered from for the past week since we moved to our last rented accommodations whilst we were away.
The culprit was a bloody awful soft bed that we had to sleep on.
It was saggy and squashy, especially dreadful to people who usually sleep on a very firm mattress.
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As you are supposed to change your mattress every ten years at the least, I think that the last one was probably being used in the Boer War!
The resulting aches and pains probably put the Boers in such a a rotten mood that it helped them to be even more savage as guerrilla fighters.
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I think that the birds have been missing me somewhat because they were very excited to be given free food again this morning.
They were the surprised recipients of a whole pack of lightly toasted Warburtons Potato Pancakes which I found in the freezer, because I have decided never to eat them again, much as I still enjoy them.
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The reason for this is that I seem to have become allergic to wheat in the same way that my father was later in his life.
Over the past year or so I began to notice that I was getting awful stomach bloating after eating anything containing wheat…which unfortunately includes most beers!!!
In order not to be caught out by this during a very important wedding, I was very brave and determined to avoid wheat for about three weeks previous to that, eating oatmeal for breakfast, and oatcakes instead of bread.
(On that link above I looked up the symptoms but only really have the bloating….so that is lucky!)
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After a few days the problem stopped and my stomach stayed flat.
It was also very noticeable that my rings were slacker on my fingers, which were noticeably slimmer all the time.
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It then became possible for me to finally wear a pretty watch that had belonged to my mother.
It had been far too tight around my wrist until then, so much so that I had been deciding to take it to the jewellers, to see if the rather complicated bracelet could possibly be expanded in some, no doubt, very expensive way.
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Once the important occasion was over, I decided to relax for the remainder of the break and have a less restricted diet.
I thought that it would be very interesting to see what happened!
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The result is that I am still wearing my mum’s wedding and engagement rings but they are now so tight that I cannot move them from the grooves in my swollen finger.
My stomach is also swollen and my trousers are once again too tight!
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Eeek!
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This means that I am not going to eat wheat again…..EVER.
The results are just not worth it!!!!
What other effects might there be, that I cannot see so easily?
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I shall try to find some Rye type bread perhaps….but could gluten be a part of the problem too?
We shall see!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am going to look up ‘gluten allergy’ right now
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OOOOH, I did not like that …..but the only extra thing that applies to me is asthma….which my doctor said I had a few years ago when my lungs got so bad that the test showed my lungs to be working at only half their full capacity.
I was given lots of steroid inhalers, but I did not use them, because although it had grown extremely bad by then, it was thought to be due also to an extremely hairy dog that we had at that time.
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My elder brother has been allergic to animal fur etc., for many many years now, and has always needed inhalers because he cannot breathe at all during an attack.
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He was not very impressed by my cavalier attitude because apparently if you don’t behave properly then you can go into anaphylactic shock and die from it.
Luckily that has not yet happened to me, although my habit of self diagnosing does annoy the family a bit, but luckily we are still allowed the freedom to do as we please with regard to our own bodies.
So far so good anyway, but I would never advise anyone else to do as I do!!!!!!!!
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When I spoke to my brother recently, he told me that he is also allergic to wheat, just like dad was.
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There are so many allergies nowadays….like E Numbers!
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Ain’t life….and genetics….interesting!
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Sorry to be boring, but you can wake up now, I am finished.
Jaksie,x.
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interesting about you developing what allergies later on in life. I was/am going through something similar. Three years ago, when I moved back home from uni, I developed pollen allergies – pretty bad from April to July. All of a sudden, despite having lived in most climates, it just hit me one day.
Last year was awful, and I got into a bit of a problem when i went hiking in a place that was filled with chiggers and black flies (which I thought were mozzies, so didn’t really worry about the bites I was racking up throughout the day). By the time I got home, I couldn’t breathe so we had to go to the doc and it turns out I was very close to going into an anaphylactic shock. two weeks at home, with antibiotics, creams, inhalers, teas, etc.. and I was somewhat okay, although to this day I have some marks and bites and if I get bitten by an insect, all the previous bite spots come back (78 bites from last year’s outing!)
this year, my allergies seem to have genuinely calmed down, and I’m hoping by next year I’ll have none!
in terms of wheat-free things, a lot of people in Ottawa are allergic so we have a few bakeries, restos and the like catering to the group and the food has been amazing (!) plus, I saw a non-wheat brew at the local liquor store, so the UK surly must have goodies made for people just like you !
*re: yesterday’s comment: it rained, then the sun came out strong so I had bad photo snapping conditions. I just went on a location-scouting trip and hopefully go back next weekend.
Have a great Sunday~
nelly.
Hey,
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WOW, that sounds like a bloody nightmare for you….and I thought that I had a problem!
I can understand how awful the bites were for you because I had a problem with the big horseflies here when I was in my twenties, although I had never had a problem with them previously.
One day I got bitten on the legs about eight or ten times, resulting in inflamed swollen lumps….nothing too bad I thought….but the things just kept on spreading out in raised-up, seeping, hard, stippled circular patches, with a definate raised hard edge.
Eventually the raised patches were like dinner plates…and then they all joined up….my legs were massive!
The doctor said it was very dangerous because of this reaction and treated me for it.
He told me that if I got bitten anywhere near my neck, then I should go straight to hospital, in case my throat swelled up and I choked to death.
Needless to say, although it all eventually returned to normal, I was terrified to be bitten again.
Eventually it did happen, but the reaction had returned to the normal swollen itchy bites and lymph seepage at the bite site, instead of all out war
Since then…and we are talking about many years and many bites from various flies….I have never had that reaction again, so hopefully you will be as lucky too.
I never knew why it got so bad at that particular time!
I particularly hate it when we go on walks now, in the woods and by the river, and I get bitten by flies which have landed on my hair because afterwards the top of my head is all horrible and lumpy for days and it gets scraped sometimes when I comb my hair.
Now, if the flies are bad, I dab some tea tree oil on the top of my head in the hope that they will be discouraged and bite someone else instead.
Big H is unable to do this because he gets an allergic reaction to the Tea Tree, so he wears a hat instead.
In actual fact, I think that I shall start wearing a fancy hat myself too, perhaps something in black straw, with a few black silk roses on it!
I hope you do something similar!
You are correct about the wheat free beers, I have just looked ‘em up on Google, so that is an idea….plus the fact that I think Guinness is made from roasted barley (I shall check it out and begin drinking that one, if there is no wheat at all, because I already like that a lot).
It must be my Irish blood.
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I don’t think there is a lot of ‘wheat-free conciousness’ here, but then again I have not really looked too deeply yet, so time will tell.
Take care this weekend ‘cos flies suck!
Jaksie,x.
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