Re: Dr Goldner. I pulled out her book last night. I bought the autoimmune one, which - doing a light skim through - says “For further information, read the lupus book…” I had a lot of kindle credits, so spent them on the lupus book, then stayed up late and read the entire book. It is really good. I am doing quite a bit of what she recommends, though I don’t get anywhere near as much omega 3/flax or drink near enough water. Thanks for suggesting her books, etc. It makes me feel like I am on the right track. I am looking forward to reading her autoimmune book, as it has a number of success stories. Re: internist. Oh! I have a great friend who sees an internist. I will ask her who she sees and look in to that.

Breakfast: mango and a few walnuts Lunch: salad with greens and greenhouse grown tomato from farmers market, herbs from my garden, topped with pumpkin seeds, hemp hearts and flax, Dr Fuhrman’s recipe for homemade dressing. Vegan gluten free chocolate cupcake from one of the vendors at the market. (I buy sprouted seeds and nuts for him, but occasionally buy one of his baked items. It has been a rough three weeks and the cupcake looked yummy.) Supper, out: chips/salsa, three vegan tacos I will likely have a bowl of frozen cherries later

Excited to be able to go to our local farmer’s market this morning. The microgreen vendor was featured on Growing your Greens several years ago. I love supporting local farmers and getting super fresh produce.

Re: Rheumatologist Until this episode, I really liked her. I was seeing an absolute jerk, who I later found out is part of a large rheumatology network and they absolutely won’t let you switch doctors. When I found the rheumatologist I have now been seeing for the past three years, I absolutely loved her. Now I am not at all happy with her. I have a routine appt coming up soon so will see how that goes, but am going to start looking around for a new one. (Ugh. I need a new gyn, too, and just hate finding new doctors!) Re: Dr Goldner Oh! I bought one of her books just before I got sick. I haven’t even cracked it open yet. Off to find it. (Too many stacks of books!) I am already following a nutrition plan that some people might find extreme. I try to get about 1/2 of my food raw vegan, but have been thinking about adding in more raw.

Selkie, glad you and your family are safe. I hate tornadoes! I grew up on the north end of tornado alley and moved to the southern end of it as a young adult. Seems I can’t escape them!

Oh my goodness. I feel your pain. Seriously. Feel your pain. I am so sorry about your health issues. As if health issues aren’t hard enough, navigating multiple doctors drives me nuts! My DS has hemiplegia, a type of cerebral palsy. When he was younger, we went to the CP clinic at a large children’s medical center. One appointment and it was one doctor right after the other. Hand orthopedic doctor worked with general orthopedic doctor who oversaw the spine and gait, neurologist worked with both. Saw all three specialists with one appointment.

. This is a spin off on my swollen parotid gland. (Titled lymph node because that is what I first thought it was.) Which doctors would one see for various autoimmune issues? Is there one type of specialist that can take care of multiple autoimmune issues? Experience with alternative doctors or therapies? (I want to see traditional specialists when needed, but I am also trying to heal my body through diet and lifestyle.) Also, any book recommendations? I have Hashimoto’s thyroid and celiac. I have chronic Epstein Barr issues. Not autoimmune but I was diagnosed with young onset Parkinson’s three-four years ago. With this latest health issue, lupus and Sjogren’s were again discussed. Sjogren’s, in particular, seems to be - complicated? My dentist has mentioned it because of chronic dry mouth. My eye Dr has mentioned it because of dry eyes. ENT has now mentioned it. But rheumatologist brushed it off since my last labs were okay. With the Parkinson’s diagnosis, DH and I talked about going to the Mayo Clinic because every few years my body tries to kill me. It has gotten much worse since I survived a HELLP syndrome seizure. I was sent to a liver specialist afterward for additional testing but that was two decades ago and DH and I don’t recall anything beyond that. (DS was premature with hemiplegia, so our memories about my health are hazy.) DH and I decided we would go to our region’s leading medical facility instead of the Mayo. The first appointment was canceled the day before the appointment due to Covid lockdown. After the lockdown was lifted, we scheduled again but it was months out due to their backlog. As we were walking out the door for that appointment, they called to apologize because they had erroneously scheduled the doctor with the wrong type of neurologist. At that point we gave up trying with them, but now we are rethinking either trying them again or maybe going to the Mayo. Part of me thinks I just need to focus on healing my body through diet/lifestyle and through therapy. edited to add: I mention the HELLP because my labs are consistently running extremely high in ferritin. I have asked if the liver issues from HELLP could still be affecting my liver, leading to the Parkinson’s, but every doctor says they don’t know enough about HELLP to weigh in. WWYD?

Four doses of new antibiotic and it is so much better! The lump is now about the size of a pea. No pain. But the lump feels much harder now that the inflammation is down. I have an ENT appt on Monday. Re: Testing for autoimmune When I had issues previously (same? eerily similar?) the rheumatologist told me to always go to her for this, which is why I started with her this time. Rheumatologist and neurologist tag team my labs and have been testing for lupus (not sure about Sjogren’s but know neurologist ordered that the last time). Every six months, I have extensive labs. The last time was exactly five months ago. So they could have ordered new labs now, I would have thought, because it isn’t like I just had labs run. Our insurance has covered repeated labs numerous times. (Which is why we now have rheumatologist and neurologist order together and do them all in one draw.) The rheumatologist said it didn’t look like an autoimmune issues because it was just on one side, while autoimmune would involve both glands. She told me I needed to see an ENT. Then ENT told me it looked like autoimmune and I needed to see my rheumatologist. My DH is going to my appt on Monday, to see if he can advocate better for me than I am.

I love fresh juice. Will be juicing as soon as I wake up more. I will do an orange/carrot/turmeric/bit of ginger one and a kale/spinach/celery/lemon/ginger one. I am finally starting to feel human after two weeks of being down with some mutant unknown thing. DH asked if I wanted to go out for supper to celebrate and suggested my fav Mexican food place. I got their vegan salad - lots of greens, roasted chili peppers, grated carrots, roasted corn, black beans and avocado. I order with extra avocado and use their salsa as a dressing. It hit the spot. I had been making green smoothies over the past two weeks, but I hadn’t been up to eating a salad and really missed them. Super tonight will be leftover vegan mushroom soup that I made a few days ago, along with a salad. I am pulling some of the greens from my winter garden, to make room for summer veggies. Yesterday, I puttered around in my “driveway food garden” and harvested a large bowl of kale for meals today. Re: Driveway food garden: We needed to replace our driveway several years ago and the city wouldn’t let us do a non-concrete, more environmentally friendly option. We don’t use our garage for vehicles and - at most - only have three vehicles in a large driveway. I decided last year to expand my food production to the area a fourth vehicle would park. I had a number of larger containers from 20+ years of gardening, then went to an auction and scored a truck load of very large containers for around $30. I have citrus and tropical guavas, a few smaller fig trees, two olive trees, additional peppers and cherry tomatoes, additional herbs, etc. I have fava beans going in one large container, first time I have grown them from seed. (I like to eat them fresh/raw..) Next fall, I will put in a full bed of fava beans, as this fall/winter was a test of how they would do here. When we were on vacation three weeks ago, I bought two varieties of starfruit, which still need potted up. (Need to find two more affordable large containers!) Our driveway is visible from the front of the house, so I try to keep the area tidy and “arranged” so it doesn’t just look a mess. Our house sits down from the street and we are in a quiet cul de sac, so it isn’t glaringly obvious that I have 100 or so containers. LOL On the plus, when I water the containers, run off does channel around to the side garden.(No Home Owners Association)

I have those symptoms that were attributed to my young onset Parkinson’s diagnosis. The doctors said being hyper sensitive to smells often goes with losing sense of smell, which is a main symptom of Parkinson’s. Brain goes in to overdrive, trying to sort out smells, but is getting mixed signals. I didnt believe it at the time. I felt like I was in my first trimester of pregnancy all over again. I was going through menopause at the time and every single doctor did a pregnancy test first. I felt like I was always smelling rotting spinach. Fast forward a few years, last night DH asked me why the kitchen smelled like vomit. I couldn’t smell anything. Alas. The compost bucket had gone icky and needed dumped outside. (I have been sick and didn’t think about taking it out. Oops.)

Re: turmeric Anyone growing turmeric? Or edible gingers? I planted some last year for the first time but am hoping to expand beyond the basic ones. I planted blue turmeric late last year. I need to see if survived my overwintering attempt. And I have Thai Galangal sitting in the kitchen that I need to get potted up and outside. I am wanting to grow more of the superfoods and brightly colorful foods. Selkie! More guava! So yum. I grew up in the rural Midwest in the ‘60s and ‘70s. The only fruit we had was apples and maybe a few oranges around Christmas. My great aunt and uncle lived in Arizona and would ship my great grandparents and grandparents a box of grapefruit at Christmas. It was a real treat to get to eat a grapefruit. (My mother hated them so refused to buy anything like that.) The neighborhood kids knew where to pick and eat wild mulberries. And my aunt and uncle would pick wild plums along the country roads they lived on and those were also a big treat. I don’t think I was exposed to much beyond those few fruits as a kid. Certainly not apricots or dragonfruit or even blueberries. And all vegetables were cooked beyond recognition!

I feel like I am back to square one. On the plus, the biopsy was negative for cancer. Obviously major relief there. It did show a lot of infection, so Dr wants me to try yet another antibiotic, which I started tonight. (3rd antibiotic in 2 weeks. My poor tummy.) Drs still don’t want to specifically test for autoimmune, which I just don’t understand. I am frustrated and upset. I feel like I have been fighting so hard for my health and just can’t catch a break.

SpyCar, Super fascinating about the lupini beans. I an anxious to hear how your beans end up tasting. I bought some lupini flour earlier this year, but have yet to use it. I am hoping to get in to making no knead gluten free breads.

I am just now catching up on this thread. Have missed it so much, but - Our spring break beach vacation turned in to a health nightmare for me and - here we are, two weeks later. I haven’t been eating very much, though - thankfully! - I haven’t fallen off the wagon, deep in to comfort foods. I have been very dependent on the DH doing the grocery shopping right now. He did surprise me the other day and brought home some fresh mangoes. (He said he googled how to select mangoes. LOL) selkie - 16 pounds of guava! Super jealous. What a lovely gift. I did buy another tropical guava shrub/tree to add to my food forest while we were on vacation so maybe some year I can harvest 16 pounds! I tried dried goldenberries recently because of your breakfast bowls and am now hooked on them. Yum! I got my DHA labs back while we were on vacation. I was really low in several different things, but I haven’t had the energy to delve deeper in to the results yet.

Thank you.

I was called in for a biopsy today. Waiting on results, but it sounds like I will be having surgery in the next week. They wanted biopsy first so they know what they are dealing with prior to going in and to know how long to schedule for. Thanks again!

Oh, no. I am so sorry for your experience. That is horrible.

I am so sorry. My heart hurts for you and your community.

I am in a local “buy nothing” group. People will take almost anything for free, even old furniture. I am a reseller and sometimes do auctions where I get a “lot” for x amount because I want one or three items out of a dozen in a lot. I often list things up on the buy nothing group. This has connected me with several people who volunteer with organizations that help settle refugees in to apartments or homeless people into housing. They seriously need everything and to someone that is trying to settle here from another country or someone living on the street, they may be very grateful for most anything.

No. 🙁 Now I have to go through the weekend without knowing and still swollen and sore.

Oh, that is good to know. I looked back and saw the link to the one you have. Will be trying it out. I have three heating pads and none of them get hot enough to my liking.

Yes. Multiple times a day, plus standing in hot shower with water hitting the area and soaking in the tub with that side of face in the water. Nothing has helped. 😞

I have been living on the couch with a heating pad on my neck for the past week. I think all new heating pads are awful. New regulations seem to be that they can’t get very hot. I bought a really old heating pad at an estate sale several years ago because I wanted the adorable floral fabric cover. I tossed the heating pad because it didn’t look safe to use. Seriously regretting that now.

I think it is rude. I would tell the front desk and ask them to send housekeeping up, esp if it was smelly or messy.

Small update: I had an MRI today to determine source of the mass. DH took the disc to ENT, to hopefully expedite results. It isn’t any better, possibly getting worse as it is now pulling under my chin area. Thanks for suggestions and kind words@,