Wow! That is great. I've been reading about this lately, too, and trying to decide on a good time to start. No time like the present, I know... :) Do you have any favorite resources online? I haven't bought or borrowed the book, but have read quite a bit on the website.

This is my question as well - how is it pronounced? I've never heard it either.

Yes, same mistake here! I'd call it a regional thing, but Jean is on the opposite end of the country from us.

I'll take your butter then. DS is allergic to dairy, too, so no butter in our house.

Non GM or hybridized, and gluten free popcorn only here. :)

Don't give me any ideas!

That could be. I may have put words in her mouth, just assuming she meant GM. She had a lengthy, technical discussion with me about it, but I admit I did not carry away the details of what she said, only the gist of it. FWIW, she's a western, allopathic doc, very focused on peer-reviewed science. I was surprised to hear her thoughts on it.

Oh no. How did you fare? And how did you find out it was a brown recluse? (And ... Please tell me I'd know by now, it's been a bit more than 24 hours.) P.S. Adore your avatar!

That's good to know. :)

Oh! You know what I did? Our laundry room is in the basement (worst. place. ever.) and I carried up clean, folded clothes. They had been sitting on the couch in our studio/office for a few days. I wonder if I picked up a spider along with the clothes? :ack2: Okay, so now I won't ever be doing laundry again, either! :lol: DH is going to just love this spider. He'll arrive home from his latest trip and I'll have torched the bathroom, exterminated the basement, and now I'm scared to do laundry! Yikes. I'm laughing, but seriously - trying not to scratch my finger off as I type this. It's an intense itching burn. I sure hope it wasn't a brown recluse. I would know by now, right? ... I am not googling those bites, either. We have allergies in our family, so I'm guessing that a fairly harmless spider bit me, but I've had an allergic reaction to the venom, thus the prolonged swelling/itching. And the shaking, etc right after the bite. I hate spiders. Really.

Yes, it probably does. So ... I won't be venturing into our studio office until DH is home either! The house keeps shrinking. :)

Aack. I hope not! I was in our basement just prior to the shower. Eeek.

Torching the bathroom is a perfect idea! :lol: ...DH is out of town for the next week, too, so I can't even play scared-of-the-spider and ask him to go hunt it down. I'll just use the kids' bath for showering! I haven't googled pics for fear of what I'll see. Google always brings up the ickiest photos of bites or rashes, and mine isn't terrible. Just swollen and red, with a lump underneath both areas. It doesn't sound like a black widow bite, thankfully, if that normally has a ring around it. Whew.

Of course you can claim a problem with gluten, and you may well have one. I have no issue with that. And you can go into a restaurant and ask for your burger with no bun and a salad because you have a problem with gluten, and tell the server that you have a problem with it, and order accordingly. I do have a problem, as does my son's board certified allergist, with people who walk into a restaurant and claim they have an "allergy" when they do not have an allergy, with an IgE-mediated allergy being the standard. If anyone suspects they have an IgE-mediated allergy to a food, getting tested is of paramount importance as past reactions don't predict future reactions, and an epipen is necessary, so there isn't really any "wondering" about it and eating out in the meantime, there's not much gray area there. Any other intolerance is not an "allergy" even though it may indeed be important to avoid that type of food. Calling it an allergy trivializes what people with true allergies live on a daily basis, and yes, I think it lulls servers/chefs/managers into a sense of safety about a small amount of cross contamination. So, yes, avoid the foods that you need to avoid. But don't call it an allergy unless it is one. We rarely eat out, because doing so is putting the life of our child in someone else's hands. But when we do, it is sad that I have to clarify to the server/chef/manager (and yes, we speak to each of them) that DS has a true allergy, that a slip up can mean epipens and ambulances at their establishment. Not a stomach ache in the privacy of our own home later, not eczema, not some other random symptom that might show up later. I do think there's a difference. And it is life and death. That said, I do think there are people who benefit from being GF and who are not diagnosed as having Celiac yet. My doctor is one who advocates that most of her patients go GF because she feels, based on attendance at conferences and her own research, that genetically modified wheat is contributing to the rise of gluten intolerance, etc, and that we'd all benefit from going completely wheat free or eating only ancient grains.

Hmmmm. Spider was my guess, too. I don't think we have fire ants here. We are in VA. I didn't hear or see a flying insect. It seems to be improving, but if it gets worse I will get it checked out. I just wish I could find the little bugger. I'm paranoid about using that bathroom now. :(

Oh dear. Be sure to mention the bathroom symptoms to the allergist. They are significant. That counts as one body system, in our "2 body system" scenario. On the tachycardia, discuss with your doc, but generally epipens are fairly safe - I don't know about your situation though. It makes me realize I need to mention tachycardia to my doc, too, since I have that as well. Never connected it with the epi. Oops!

I hate that, too. (the bolded) ...And totally agree with everything else you wrote, too. It is so hard not to hesitate, and not to secondguess. I've been scolded, too. :( Then again, I've used it in the past, so you'd think we'd be over the hump. But still, I worry each time that I'm overreacting. In general, 2 body systems = anaphylaxis. But when those two body systems are involved in a mild way, or one is mild, I just ... hesitate. Then I think of the stories I've read, after the fact, and that the tragedies always happen when someone delays the epi, and... Oooooh, the regret for hesitating. It's a tough situation, to be on high alert all the time.

Yes, yes, and yes. This is the danger I see, too. Someone walks into a restaurant claiming an "allergy" when they don't have one, and the chefs/servers come to expect that the level of cross contamination those people can handle is the norm. Then someone with Celiac, or in DS's case, an actual allergy to a food walks in ... The chef/server expects the same level of "allergy." There is a tiny bit of cross contamination. And the next thing everyone sees is an ambulance, as the allergic individual goes into shock. It's serious. This danger is discussed by allergists, by doctors, by patients. It is real, and it is growing as more and more people walk into restaurants and claim "allergy" or Celiac when what they deal with is not the same.

Or maybe it was a sting? I was getting ready for an appt, and while in the shower my hand started burning. I saw what looked like a tiny scrape on a finger, and thought the soap had irritated it. No big deal. By the time I finished the shower, my finger looked like a sausage, and my entire arm was shaking. I started itching everywhere. We could clearly see two punctures, where I'd thought there might be a scrape. I actually got a bit spacey, and just sat down. I took Benadryl. Slept a lot. Kept the epipens close. Today it feels like my finger is on fire, and I can see there were three puncture marks, all on the same finger. Swelling is mostly down, but there are hard lumps under each mark, with some swelling. Ick. I haven't found the culprit, but I'd hate for the 2 year old to get a bite like this. Any ideas on what it might have been?

DS has had a similar reaction - he looks sort of spacey and out of it. MomatHWTK, would you have epi'd for the above? I often find myself secondguessing, so it's helpful to read when others use the epi. Sedated + congestions = 2 body systems, so it sounds right. Still, I am terrible about secondguessing unless there is a screaming neon sign. Trying to improve about that, after many discussions with the allergist. :(

On first reading your post, I wanted to say that I love the name Ruth. Love it, love it. But so many others beat me to it that it didn't seem necessary. Between yesterday and today, though, Mabel has really grown on me. Like you said, I can see it on a baby, on a toddler, on an 8 year old, and so on. I like it. :) Mabel Ina... Not so much. :lol: Mabel Rose. Love it. But it lacks the family history. Mabel Ruth. It's meaningful, it's a pretty name, and it will make you smile. I say go for it.

Can I join today? Paint trim in kitchen & powder room off kitchen DS needs to clean his room Vision Therapy for DS Dinner is already cooking, woo hoo! Laundry Hunt down the spider or other creature (ick!) that bit me in the shower yesterday (wow, did I have a scary reaction! Yikes.) Lizzie and Rowan - big hugs. Are you prepared for the herx train that will be stopping in front of your house soon? My days on Rocephin were rough. I had a ton of co-infections, too, and they were a tough, long road. If you need a cheerleader - life improves and gets better, it just takes patience, lots of it. ...Oh, and please, please, don't neglect your probiotics and S. Boulardii! (Oh, and if you are seeing Dr. J or Dr. H in CT - they both rock!)

Yep, we pick up the crud every time we go to the doc. Or we did, until we started religiously washing before leaving the office and the moment we walk into our house.

It wouldn't hurt to have him take you, or even drop off/pick up. I had a shot of Toradol for something else recently (colitis) but the kicker was that I was at the tail end of one of those 4 day migraines. The Toradol knocked the migraine right out. Loved it. So it could be worth the inconvenience, plus you'd have the worry of the fever checked out, too. Hope you feel better soon!

That was my question, too. I have migraines that last 4 days at a time, and don't recall running a fever. It's possible, but... You might want to get checked out, rather than take a chance. :(