Posted by BarbaraCat on September 6, 2003, at 14:51:41
In reply to Re: talking lettuce Barbara, posted by katia on September 6, 2003, at 13:33:04
Katia,
Got your message, yay! This is probably a more appropriate board for now because I'm going to be concentrating on REDUCING my meds, looking at my substance abuse, and increasing my overall health.I got the Metabolic Type Diet book a while back and it looked very interesting. I've been wanting to get the testing done but forgot about it until you mentioned it. How did you find this testing person? I've also been working with a high protein/fat low carb diet. I know I don't do well on simple sugars (hence the no alcohol - waaah!) but haven't always been a big protein eater or liker. I now eat fish and chicken 4-5 times a week, and meat every so often. I still hear that lettuce scream on occasion, so you can imagine the effect of a rare juicy hunk of steak.
The alcohol abstinence is very encouraging, it sounds like for you too, even though it's damned hard to give up such a delectable treat. I've had at least one glass of wine every night for at least 20 years now, and a few years back was taking Vicodin (a half a pill only) with it. It was such a lovely euphoric high that would have me feeling so mellow in no time. Plus it prevented any bad morning after headache. But whew, not good for a steady nightly diet. My poor liver.
Wouldn't it be a hoot to find out that after all this time it was booze that's been causing a large chunk of our problem? And that laying off it will make us feel even better than being on it? I really encourage you to abstain totally for at least 30 days, you'd have a good baseline to compare things from and that's enough time to detox and heal the nerves and see if this diet is making a difference for you. I don't know about you, but 5 glasses of D a week is more like a tease, and whooo boy, some glasses can sure hold a whole lotta liquid!
About lamictal, I never had The Rash, only an intense itching that was definitely NOT the rash. At first I thought I was developing an allergy to our cats (oh no!) then I thought I was getting flea bites or chiggers or some other microscopic beastie. I never associated lamictal with itching until I did a web search and got quite a few hits on anecdotal reports, some on this board, rather than from the medical literature.
The itching felt like little bees stinging and prickling, especially on my scalp, and nothing relieved it. I scratched until I bled. I felt terribly embarrassed in public, especially at a restaurant, because I must've looked like I had cooties. Eventually the itch moved into my ear canals and vagina. I was up to 175mg lamical and on the advice of my pdoc, reduced to 125mg. This made the itching subside in about 2 days and the lower dose felt better all around cause I was getting a little too hyped up on the higher amount. I'm really trying to not go beyond that point cause my fervent prayer is to get balanced enough to not need it, although I'll probably always need lithium (especially if it's good for the old brain cells). - Barbara
poster:BarbaraCat
thread:257391
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/subs/20030903/msgs/257607.html