Sunday 14 July 2019

One of those weekends . . .

A slightly watercolour-effect photo from Laugharne the other day.



We've had a slightly full-on weekend, very tiring, and sleep is at a premium where I am still struggling with my asthma and STILL on a full steroid dose, which isn't seeing me through 24 hours, so I am back to the GP today.  The crux of the problem now seems to be at least half (or more)from a leaky gut and low DAO enzyme levels, allowing histamine to flood my body from foodstuffs too - despite trying to eat a low-histamine diet.  (Update: just remembered what I ate yesterday and it was Dairy that was the culprit - I had two choc ices and then some ice cream at teatime, THEN a piece of cheese later on.  I have had a break from the probiotics for a week too, and my gut microflora report showed there were several gut "friends" which should be in my gut and there isn't ONE of them, Lactobacillus family included.

We had a Flood on Saturday night. Keith was in the bath - we both twigged to it at the same time as gallons of water hit the kitchen floor (via the airing cupboard and contents). He carried on laying in the bath, shouting instructions. Pull the switch in the attic, he said. In full panic mode (no half-measures, gallons of water pouring through house!) I shot upstairs and flung open the huge doors which hide the header tank etc in the attic. No sign of any switch, pull cord, whatever - moved a couple of things, no good. For some reason it did NOT occur to me to put end of pipe with water pouring out of it BACK INTO THE TANK. WHY? Because I was looking for the switch and because Keith had said that the header tank was overflowing. Ye Gods - I must learn NOT to panic. I was still yelling at Keith all the time, but he was still soaking in the bath . . . no sense of urgency. When he DID get upstairs, turns out the gizmo I am meant to be looking for is a tiny little toggle on a 1/2" piece of black cord BEHIND a plastic wotsit on a piece of wood at the back of the header tank. Yeah, sure, I'd recognize that straight away wouldn't I? Kitchen floor awash by this time, airing cupboard contents soaked on one side. 

Anyway, whilst we were out yesterday, we bought a new jacket for the hot water tank, as that had needed replacing for quite some while as it had gotten ripped, but fitting the new one (4 separate strips which you tie together at the top and then we belted round using the metal girdle from the last one) was something else. Keith is still not very dextrous because of his shoulder and arm problems, so I had to put my arms behind the tank, knowing there were oodles of spiders and webs there (yuk) and managed to get it all tucked in and sorted. In time-honoured fashion, the eyelets at the top are secured with binder twine as the piffling little length of cord they included was too short . . .

We spent a long morning at a car boot sale yesterday, and did very well (made up for the shortcomings of the last two Fairs), and we have decided that 90% of what we took and didn't sell can go to the next auction at Brecon.  It will make what it will make.

Despite being tired, I couldn't get to sleep last night and was still awake at 1.30 a.m.  I finally dropped off to sleep and then after just two hours, my asthma was bad.  I thought Keith hadn't washed the pollen off his hair and so went into the spare room, but by 5.30 I had to get up and take my inhaler, early.  Now it looks like it was something I ate (in the middle of the night! a piece of baking with Raspberries in it - raspberries are high in histamines) which have made me bad.

Still, I have already gone through my Literary bookcase and had a BIG purge (only left the books by or about Thomas Hardy and the Brontes.) I should have room to move my Edward Thomas books in there now, or most of them at any rate.  Next purge are the Cookery books downstairs.  I have far too many books purely because I have always had them, and we won't have room when we downsize.  In fact, SHOULD we sell this year and buy the cottage I like the best, 9/10 of the furniture will also have to go.  That should be quite liberating.  I am thankful to our son, who was here to help with some jobs on Saturday, who when I mentioned the cottage which was "too small for our furniture" said, well, you don't NEED all these big lumps of furniture.  We don't want them when you're gone, and he is completely correct.  We were trying to find room for the pieces they HAD spoken for though, and would need to use up bedrooms for storage until an outbuilding could be put on the ground above this particular cottage, should it come our way.  

Right, that's me done.  Off to find something bland and low-histamine for breakfast.

15 comments:

  1. No wonder you are shattered, that sounds like a really awful weekend - apart from the boot sale result.
    Hope today is 100% better

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    1. I tried coming down off the steroids last week - but too soon. I am still on 8 a day and desperate to come off them (have to do it slowly because of their effect on the adrenal glands).

      Resting today.

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  2. The house would not have appreciated being left in the care of thos people!! I knew someone with histamine issues and I know it's complicated. I'm a coeliac, and that's easy to manage in comparison. Will things improve as the hay-fever season passes?

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    1. You are absolutely right veg artist. It didn't give that lovely atmosphere it does when it likes people (families mainly). The histamine bit is complicated even more by the fact that I don't have the right gut flora, and to put it right I need to have Kefir - but that's incredibly high in histamines and makes my asthma worse . . . Hence I am booked in to bother a GP this afternoon. Once the hay fever season is over it calms down a lot - imagine having a histamine bucket full to the top even BEFORE you start eating, and you will see why I struggle. Plus I have been doing an elimination diet on some foods, and when you introduce them again (like the raspberries) they can suddenly hit. Sorry to hear that you have a Coeliac problem, I imagine that can be very problematical at times.

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    2. Like, I suspect, many coeliacs, I was delighted when I found out that gluten was causing all of my 'problems'. I remember the moment when I realised just how many foods, naturally, and as an added ingredient, contained gluten. It was like watching one of those arcade games where you pull the lever, all the oranges line up, and bells and whistles go off. Of course!! That's it!! And it was!
      Apart from buying gluten-free bread and pasta, I eat very little that I've not prepared myself, and it's actually a healthy way to eat.

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    3. Glad that you got everything stacked up and can eat well without side-effects. I cook everything from scratch but have to change the ingredients to cull the ones high in histamines or ones that affect DAO levels etc. Hoping I can get it all balanced out, and with NO cheating (no chocolate, no dairy, no ice cream, no alcohol, etc - most of those were sidelined anyway but I had too much dairy this weekend AND a home-made pizza so that was cheese and yeast to boot. Naughty me.

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  3. Hope you are feeling much better today BB. You sound to me as though you are doing far too much - nothing to do with me I know but I do know that I have to strike a happy medium now that I have retired - if I sit about doing nothing I get bored and if I do too much I get overtired and can't sleep.

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    1. Pat - I am doing VERY little today as I slept so badly. I didn't have much choice but to go to the boot sale yesterday as only I can sell my stuff as I know what I want for it/how much it cost (clear-out from stock from when we had the Unit). I didn't want to go, but needs must. I have got the edge bits out for my jigsaw and was putting them together but brain just too tired for that at the mo.

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    1. I am glad to say that today is a bit more relaxed and I've seen the nurse-practitioner and it's back to see my favourite expert Asthma nurse, who is brilliant.

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  5. I do hope you get sorted. I have always found the nurses to be better than the gp. I like my gp but havent seen him in ages.

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  6. Me too Jill. I got on well with the nurse today - lovely lady. I have had a very healthy tea and doing more research into anti-inflammatory, low-histamine meals.

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  7. Oh, and I'm starting to meditate every day now (LOTS of stress around house-selling) and will be able to start walking daily again this week. I can't WAIT for that. Pollen levels meant to be M tomorrow, which means I can get out again.

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  8. I so hope your asthma improves soon and sleeping gets easier. It is horrible to feel absolutely shattered and not well :(

    I would have panicked over the water tank too! I am so glad at least the boot sale went so well. Good luck with culling some cookery books - I have two shelves in the pantry if not three! full of them as well as folders stuffed with favourite recipes and ones to try. I really do need to get rid of the files with recipes to try which I probably never will and cull some of those books and just keep the ones I use the most!

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  9. I'm feeling better this evening RR, but longing for ice cream which I can't have. The ice lollies I got from Lidl today for hot days aren't quite the same . . .

    The Charity table at Tesco was graced with about 10 big old cookery books. Some I'd not opened for years so I knew I didn't have a leg to stand on! Oh dear, I think I have some files of recipes to try sometime too . . . ah well, tomorrow is another day!

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