I hate food experiments

[kadi]

Tried new bread this weekend. Thought it was ok Sat when I had 1 piece. Had another piece at lunch on Sun. Still ok. Had a piece at dinner, middle of the night flare. Couldn't believe it was from the bread since I was ok with it Sat & Sun lunch. So, today I ate a sandwich w/ 2 pieces of the bread at lunch. Insta-flare 25 minutes later. Then had to teach class, go to an appt, & run errands with my bladder burning.

The only ingredient in it that was iffy was the "natural caramel coloring". Wonder what exactly it was in it that got me.

Dang it!!! I've been feeling so good lately, was hoping the IC was going into remission. But, I guess not. I just hope the flare will go away by tomorrow. I have to teach all day tomorrow & then have a midterm tomorrow night in Sign Language Class & there are no makeup tests.

I tried to give away the sandwich I'd made for lunch tomorrow, but no one wanted it. So, once again, money wasted on a loaf of bread & sandwich I can't eat & will throw away.

I went back to the store & today they had the bread I usually buy (they were out of it when I groc. shopped on Sat.) & bought 2 loaves. Will freeze 1-1/2, don't want to experiment again for awhile.

I know I'm whining, I just hate the rigidity of my diet!!!!
Just about everything I try in the middle column of the diet triggers off symptoms for me!!!
I guess I'm stuck in the left hand column indefinitely.

No one but another IC patient can understand how inconvenient & frustrating this illness is!!!

[Sally939]

I am so sorry. I hope it is gone in the morning. Drink water, flush it out. I am at the point where I have to start adding. One minute I am fine with my few foods and the next I am hungry and I want to eat something new and good. After reading that some people on here can have peanut butter I spent ten minutes at the store looking at the resse cups. I love them. I know they would be so bad. I have bought a lot of foods to later put them in my boyfriends food cabinet. One thing that kinda works well fo me it I have my own shelf in the fridge and food cabinet. That way I do not have to look at all the food I want and can not have.

[GriffsMommy]

Oh that sucks Kadi! It is frustrating to be so restricted. I hope your flare ends quickly. :grouphug:

[Trixie50]

I am so afraid of this scenario that I still haven't really ventured into trying new foods at all. I know sooner or later I need to start experimenting, but I'm scared. I went into a flare just from having a cold and that took a couple of weeks to go away. It's just so depressing to have a flare after making progress. Right now I'm eating the safest, safest food, and hardly eat any bread at all. The freshly made white bread seems ok, but I think whole wheat increased frequency for me, so I gave it up. I'm too chicken to try packaged bread.

[Sally939]

Trixie do you make your own bread?

[sasi]

Making bread is so easy and it tastes so much better.

Mix organic whole wheat (there is whole white wheat, too) with warm water, active yeast, just a bit of honey or sugar, salt. It's better if it's sticky. Cover the dough and let it sit on the counter for a few hours (or over night), put it in a pan and then bake it at 450 degrees. It'll be ready in 40-60 minutes.

I add some seeds, oatmeal, olives, herbs-whatever I want that day. I don't use enriched flour because it bothers me.

[Trixie50]

No, I don't make my own bread, but my boyfriend does. :) He has the machine that just lets you dump ingredients in it and it does all the rest of the work, including cooking it.

I do occasionally get away with eating the fresh wrapped bread from the deli section of my grocery store, but I have to watch the ingredients. I do better with just plain white.

I know some people can get way with eating store bought bread, but I wouldn't even dare try. I once had a flare from a single CRACKER. I'm slowly drawing the conclusion that I'm extremely food sensitive.

[Berkshire Road]

I know how irritating it is, Kadi! I was staying with a friend last week, and the first thing we did when I got there was go grocery shopping! And it was awful. She kept pointing things out and I'd be saying, "Nope, can't do it." Over and over. So we found some things we could both eat and some things where we could each prepare our own lunch. Naturally I paid for all the groceries but I felt like such an inconvenience for her. I've known her for thirty years, and she's used to me eating everything! :lmao:

Yeah, it gets boring. My husband bought a new kind of bakery bread -- whole grain, doesn't seem to have anything bad in it but -- BOOM, pain flare for the past two days and it's still going on. Sigh. You have my sympathy!

I do bake my own bread sometimes, not every day. It is pretty easy once you learn how.

[kari1980]

Sorry your feeling bad Kadi, I hope it goes away soon for you and your feeling better again. I know how you feel, I feel like no matter what I eat, I am in pain. It's so frustrating, especially when going to someone's house, or even at work when everyone is asking you if you want this or that and you have to keep saying, nope, sorry can't have it, and have to explain over and over again, I get so tired of it. Hope you feel better soon.

Kari

[Hypnogal]

Sasi - SO right enriched flours (rices/foods) bother me too! :mad: Maybe this should be on the food list somewhere? I didn't believe this was so, until I tested it by itself. Devastating. But I can get unenriched rice flours and rice.

Kadi - I'm just as sensitive as you are. :tsk: I'm SO wanting to try a smear of strawberry this week. NOT even a whole one, just a SMEAR for color on my oatmeal. Just for color/flavor...I can't have jams (citric acid or lemon in them) so I will make my own - just strawberries in the food processor and refridge with honey in it nothing else. Still I know what you mean, one bad flare on it and its in the trash / or given away. Terrible waste of $ too.

When you have a flare and hurt yourself by accident at least you don't blame yourself (too) like when you KNEW it might bother your bladder.

My diet is very restricted too.
I wonder about this "tolerance factor" you discuss. Like a little once a week is okay -but more than that is trouble. How are we to know?! :confused:

[Briza]

Hi Kadi:hi:
Sorry about the bread flare!
I do have and know my triggers and I'm not as food sensitive as you are, but like you, live alone, and I hate buying a loaf of bread...I know I'll never eat the entire loaf before it goes bad, so when I do find a bread I really like, I also freeze half of it for future use. I often buy bread from the health food store, it comes frozen...I'll pm you next time I buy from there and the ingredients so you can see if there is anything in it that is a known trigger for you. These are breads that you could probably easily find in Cal, but where i live only this one health food store sells them. They are yeast free, but may contain stuff that your are allergic too...so I will make sure to include all of the ingredients.:)

[Judy M]

I too hate food experiments. The same thing happens to me as well. I can try something and my bladder handles it well, so I will eat it again, maybe 3 or 4 times like yourself and "boom", another flare up :cussing: It happens with meds too. My kitchen cupboards and freezer are full of foods I don't want to eat, frustrating and costly. My husband can eat it, but he's a long-haul trucker who doesn't get home much, so some of the foods have to be tossed. :mad: Not a good thing when so much money is being spent on med's, antibiotics, and all sorts of "stuff" to conquer this beast GRRRRR!

Kadi, you hit a nerve for me and I guess I had to vent too. Sorry I wasn't much help. Here's to another dinner of a pork chop, baked potatoe and broccoli. :bow: (Sarcasim)
Judy

[Janvier2]

Sorry your feeling bad Kadi, I hope it goes away soon for you and your feeling better again. I know how you feel, I feel like no matter what I eat, I am in pain. It's so frustrating, especially when going to someone's house, or even at work when everyone is asking you if you want this or that and you have to keep saying, nope, sorry can't have it, and have to explain over and over again, I get so tired of it. Hope you feel better soon.

Kari



YES YES YES YES YES
I don't come here nearly as often as I should. Just last night I went to a friend's house and she had some pizza with this white sauce from Pappa John's or Pappa Murphey's as it was just sooooooo horrible and I was damn hungry so I started eating Halloween candy until I was about to burst.

What I hate about testing is that there is really no way to tell if the food being testing is OK, since paid could be with a million things, or the food is OK during full moon, but not any other time except when the moon is in the 7th house and Jupiter is alligned with Mars.

When it comes to friends saying, "What about this food, can u eat it" I just wish I had a sign I could flash "No I can't eat that" over and over so I wouldn't have to keep saying it.

Although I have no reason to be, I get irritated and frustrated when friends whom I have told a million times what I can and can't eat still offer me things with tomato in it. My brother gave me a fruit basket for my birthday and of course I said nothing...but I am thinking, "I told you so many times I can't eat this........." and then I feel bad because I know I shouldn't be pissy about it. It's just that you don't want it thrown in your face--that you can't eat a damned strawberry. And well-meaning friends and family who love you can't memorize this stuff. They probably wonder how I can memorize it. If someone said that to me I would smile and say, "It's much easier to memorize than you might think when it gives you agony when u eat the wrong thing.

I also need to count my blessings that there are a lot of things I can ear that others can't, especially here in this thread, preservatives and things.

I do get so TIRED of it all. I just wish I didn't have to eat at all. I feel sometimes like going on a hunger strike.

[Trixie50]

Yes, there are so many factors to consider. I still have a hard time isolating all the factors.

I ate a pecan dessert that I knew was risky Sat. night, but took three prelief first. I had gotten away with eating a chocolate cupcake after taking three prelief first, so I thought it would be safe. Sat. night everything seemed ok, so Sunday morning I ate another small piece, after two prelief this time. I seemed ok at first, but by lunchtime could tell things weren't right. More frequency, some irritation and minor burning. It continued today.

Then I realized I ate canned turkey Sunday for lunch, too. I never thought it would bother me, I still don't believe it could was the culprit. I eat canned chicken from this company all the time and it never bothers me. It just has turkey, salt, and water as ingredients, and specifically says no preservatives. So it MUST be the pecan dessert. Sheesh.

Sometimes I wonder if we eat one small bit of something, it will be ok, but then if we increase that amount, some tipping point is reached and irritation is the result.

I certainly won't eat the pecan thing anymore. It's good, but not THAT good.

And the there's the depression from knowing you've now got to recover from the "whoops". This is exactly why I hate experimenting, and am tempted to just stick to the same old foods I trust, no matter how boring it gets.

[kadi]

Hi there,
I've recovered from the bread flare, but did go on a buying frenzy & stuffed the pantry & freezer full of "safe" foods.
Just don't want to risk experimenting for awhile & can't always count on things being available every time at the store... I think some other IC patient got to the health food coop before me because every bottle of pear nectar was GONE (and there were tons of the other nectars right there)!!!
I swear I'll buy 6 the next time I see them:) But, I'll be nice & leave ONE on the shelf for somebody else.

It's obviously partly the discomfort, frequency & anxiety that bothers me when a food experiment fails, but also how it puts my life on "hold" til it's over.

I'm so grateful to be feeling good again most of the time, that I sometimes fantasize about going into remission. BUT the flares do remind me to stay on my medicines, do my PT exercises & follow the diet.

Honestly, no trigger food tastes good enough to be worth the flare afterwards...

[carissa]

Janvier2-

I completely agree!!! I wish that I didn't have to eat at all then I wouldn't have to worry about it! It is sooooo frustrating. I'm still trying to figure out if diet affects me or not. I think I need to give my bladder more time to calm down. I'm kind of a new believer in this diet thing. I'd given up on it for a few years.

I wish you well!

[Janvier2]

Hi there,
I've recovered from the bread flare, but did go on a buying frenzy & stuffed the pantry & freezer full of "safe" foods.
Just don't want to risk experimenting for awhile & can't always count on things being available every time at the store... I think some other IC patient got to the health food coop before me because every bottle of pear nectar was GONE (and there were tons of the other nectars right there)!!!
I swear I'll buy 6 the next time I see them:) But, I'll be nice & leave ONE on the shelf for somebody else.

It's obviously partly the discomfort, frequency & anxiety that bothers me when a food experiment fails, but also how it puts my life on "hold" til it's over.

I'm so grateful to be feeling good again most of the time, that I sometimes fantasize about going into remission. BUT the flares do remind me to stay on my medicines, do my PT exercises & follow the diet.

Honestly, no trigger food tastes good enough to be worth the flare afterwards...


What PT exercises?

[kadi]

I saw a physical therapist for 15 appointments this last summer for pelvic floor dysfunction & to be able to exercise again after several years of inactivity due to IC. The physical therapist evaluated me & created a program of home exercises & exercises I can do at the gym based on the strengths & weaknesses of my body. It's helped a lot.