TURKEY WITH A SIDE OF SCURVY

today is significant. on this very day, exactly a year ago, i threw up. and thus began my season of barfing - in fact, i have barfed nearly every day since then...305 days to be exact. yes, i kept track of it. 


it began nov 4, 2010
and
it ended sept 5, 2011


i have been barf free for 60 days now. i hope it's safe to say, my season of barfing is behind me.


what was the cause of my barf-tastic year anyway? ummm, a little tricky to totally assess because how the barfing manifested in the beginning and then what it morphed into is an entirely different cause. albeit, they are not separate issues.


when the barfing first manifested, it was not associated with any nausea or gastro issues at all. i only barfed in the evening. hello weird. it began within days of my first several limbic seizures - and those were definitely related to my bartonella infection.


so we hit the bart infection hard, with specific IV and oral abx for it. the treatment for bart helped and my woo-hoo psych symptoms and limbic seizures responded. the barfing, however, did not resolve but it became more subdued. 


then in late spring, the barfing began to ramp up again. an onslaught of new symptoms hit. i began to have significant head and eye pressure, headaches, and most notably, there was now nausea associated with the barfing. then i began to have problems with my balance and my fatigue and stamina took a nose dive.


as august progressed, those symptoms worsened dramatically. and so did my barfing. by the end of august, i was vomiting morning, noon and night. and every intermediate time in between.


at the end of august, DR H diagnosed the IIH and started me on treatment for it. my symptoms of head pressure, headaches, and nausea rapidly responded. we saw almost immediate improvement within 3 days..but it still took all of september to regain my balance, my strength, and my appetite. 


today, i continue on the treatment for the IIH. it is needed. it's taken awhile to balance out the dosing etc... if we're not careful or i'm not on top of precise dosing than my nausea and balance issues flare. once my dosing was better managed, my hyperacusis improved as well. whether that is anecdotal or not i don't know but for right now it is working and for that i am grateful.


so what's with the title of this post then?
what in the world does turkey and scurvy have to do with the resolved barfing issue?


because, my nausea and barfing have finally stopped (oh happy day) but i still can't eat. and that SUCKS! (cry me a river)


at the beginning of september, while we were getting the IIH all under control, i became highly reactive to fruits and vegetables. yeah. nice. i have never, ever had issues with food allergies. yes, i adhere try to adhere to a "lyme diet" but that is because a "lyme diet" gives my body a better fighting chance against beating the disease...not because i have food allergy issues. so this sudden occurrence of food reactivity was weird, inconvenient, beyond frustrating, and it was irritating... but given the fact that i'd had an excess of fluid putting pressure on my cranium for who knows how long, we weren't alarmed by it. in fact, it made perfect sense that all sorts of weird things could be triggered by the inflammation that the IIH caused. after all, excess fluid on the brain messes up the head. 


we expected the reactivity to go away once the inflammation was relieved.


ummm, still waiting for that happen.

currently, i break out in hives, itch incessantly, swell up like the stay puft marshmallow man and get ahem, the runs, if i eat tomatoes, lettuce, brussel sprouts, red peppers, green peppers, onions, celery, cucumbers, bok choy, green beans, 
AND
watermelon, cantelope, honeydew, apples, oranges, lemon, pineapple, strawberries, blueberries...


the list goes on and on


avoiding fruits and veggies can cause scurvy
yet
i now have to avoid them like the plague!
even TOUCHING some fruits and veggies has caused issues...



i touched an avocado with my finger tips. they immediately began to tingle.
i picked up a piece of bok choy and my hands turned red and puffed up.
i ate brussel sprouts and i swelled up 8 lbs in 3 hours.



so, what can i eat?
rice cakes
almond butter
and
turkey.
this week, graham cooked me a turkey stayed up until 2am cooking me a turkey. my husband is awesome. 


aside from my grossly imbalanced diet (and my docs are working on this), i am doing okay. some days are still pretty grim but my health has improved greatly over the past 2 months. i'm not barfing. i'm able to drive again. i'm showering more than once a week. i'm not spending every day in pajamas. we're using real cutlery and plates again.

and i'm eating turkey. a lot of it. i just hope i can avoid a side of scurvy with it.