Here's what's up...

You may have noticed that I haven't been posting much lately... I wish I could say that it was because of the business of summer and hectic-ness of having 2 kids. That's not it.

The main reason is because my doctor put me on an elimination diet. What does that mean? Well, for 5 weeks, I'm allowed to eat only rice, potatoes, fresh fruit/veggies (no citrus), turkey/lamb/pork/rabbit, and pure vegetable oil. NOTHING else. No sauces, no dairy, no eggs, no chicken, no pasta... if you can tell from my recipes, I've basically had to completely cut out my entire diet!

That's the gist of it... you can stop reading here if you want. Or you can read more ;)

The reason for this elimination diet is because I've had chronic hives for a year now. Every single morning, I wake up with hives. Some days it's a few spots on my legs, other days it's basically head-to-toe and I'm so swollen that it hurts to walk or use my hands for a few hours.

I've pretty much made peace with this.. for the most part. But then my doctor figured that since it's been so long with no change, he wanted me to see multiple other doctors. My regular doctor gave up on me (his actual words). I was bounced from one doctor to another and from one medication (antihistamine) to another, none of which worked. All the antihistamines have accomplished is making me feel hung-over the next day, making me feel drunk, making me incapable of waking up even when I'm fully aware that my children are crying... making me super tired all.the.time. But they don't make the hives go away... And based on nothing changing when I had to go off the meds for a few days for allergy testing, they basically do nothing at all.

So while I have (or had) made peace with it, and don't stress about it too much day-to-day anymore, being bounced from one doctor to another and one med to another and having millions of tests run on me (blood work, allergy testing, CAT scans, chest Xrays, I could go on). Having all this done in a few weeks time can wear a person down. Or it did me at least. I started feeling like a freak. Add that to the exhaustion of the meds, and I've been pretty down for the last month.

And now this stupid diet. Which I would love to say is working (allergist wanted to see if I was allergic or sensitive to something they couldn't test for; like preservatives or food colorings) but being on a boring bland diet hasn't changed a thing.

I promise this isn't a pity party! I truly am back to the point where I've just accepted this and am moving on with my life not dwelling on it. But I'm also trying to be more pro-active at finding a cause (yes, I'm fully aware that in the majority of chronic hives cases, they NEVER find a cause or a solution). I have a hard time with not knowing the reason, and with me, it's a very delicate balance between letting the search overtake my life and becoming "obsessed" with finding unfindable answers...and just keeping my eyes open and hope that one day this will either go away or I'll figure it out.

Anyway, so there's my reason for no-posts lately.. I've just been down. And on this awful "diet". Which I'm slowly breaking since it's not helping anyway!

And I also post this with the slim chance that maybe someone has gone through the same thing and can give me an answer. I know there are about a bajillion possible reasons for hives, which is part of what makes it so hard to find answers. But maybe someone will have the same cause that I might have. So if you might have an answer, I'm all ears! ;)

Thanks for listening :) I promise I'll start back with the recipes sometime soon!