Critical Day 3: The aftermath

Hello everyone.  Critical Day 3 ended yesterday.  No more lamb required.  I can go back to eating normally with the exception of the foods that I have gained through the LDA (low dose antigen) process.  I still can’t have my almonds, lettuce, tomatoes, oats, etc.).

I got up this morning to the thought of NO MORE LAMB!  However, there was still some ground lamb left.  At $9.00 a pound I wasn’t going to throw it out so I had a patty with an egg.  The egg was delicious – the lamb just didn’t do it for me today.  Unfortunately there is still a good amount of lamb stew left over.  It doesn’t freeze well and I can’t throw food out.  My husband and I will both have stew for lunch.  Tonight will be beef, chicken, pork, or anything but lamb!

I am still dealing with a headache and being discombobulated.  I also still have itchy arms.  More information about my LDA this go around can be found here, here, and  here.

I hope you are all having a good day.  Me, I need to go and rest and let my head calm down.  I came into the office to do a little bit and have been in front of the computer far longer than I thought I would be or needed to be.

Critical Day 2: Shot Day

Food & Chemical Shots

The welt closest to my elbow is food and the second is my chemical shot.

This is from my inhalant injection.

I am not feeling well so will post more tomorrow.

So, What’s Cooking?

What is that smell  aroma throughout my home?  Could it be?  Dare it be?  Yes, it is the overwhelming smell aroma of lamb cooking.  Lamb in a pot for stew, lamb fat being rendered down to use when cooking my potatoes and ground lamb patties in the morning.  Yes, I am prepping for my LDA (low dose antigen therapy) treatment.  Tomorrow starts Day 1 of my three critical days.  What’s on the menu for those days?

DAY 1

Breakfast:  Ground Lamb Patty &  Organic Potatoes fried in none other than rendered lamb fat.

Lunch:  Lamb stew and a glass of cold sparkling water.

Dinner:  Lamb stew and a glass of cold sparkling water.

Snacks:  More Lamb Stew or a naked baked potato or sweet potato.

DAY 2 

(Repeat Day 1)

DAY 3

(Repeat Day 1 & 2)

WARNING! THE PICTURES YOU ARE ABOUT TO SEE MAY BE TOO MUCH FOR THE VEGETARIAN OR VEGETARIAN AT HEART. THERE WILL BE PICTURES OF MEAT, MORE MEAT, AND MEAT FAT.  THERE WILL, HOWEVER, BE A PICTURE OF VEGETABLES.

Step 1 – Get the lamb roast on a cutting board and prepped for cutting into cubes.

Lamb Roast

Step 2 – Cube lamb roast and place in large Dutch Oven.

Cubed Lamb Roast

Step 3 – Place fatty pieces in skillet to render down into fat to be used for frying potatoes and ground lamb during breakfast meals.

Fatty Lamb Pieces

Cooked Lamb and rendered Lamb Fat

Step 4 – Cut up potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, celery, and cabbage.

Cut up veggies.

This is what the final project should look like.

Dinner is ready!

Tomorrow I will post a picture of my wonderful lamb breakfast of a ground lamb patty, potatoes, and a glass of water.

Back home (LDA Day 2 continued)

Bless my dear husband.  Once again, he drove me to San Francisco for my LDA treatments.  We left at 8:00 a.m. for an 11:00 a.m. appt.  The drive usually takes 2 1/2 hours giving him a little leeway with traffic.  Traffic was great and we got into the city an hour early.   Since we were early he decided to make a quick stop at the SF Giants’ store to look for some t-shirts.  He made it back to the car in plenty of time to get back on the highway and head to my doctor appointment.  Then we got lost.  Somehow we went the wrong direction and the highway was nowhere in sight.  We asked a taxi cab driver who was a jerk.  Then we got directions from city workers but I think we missed the last part of the directions because we still didn’t make it to the highway.  Finally my husband asked a security guard getting into his car how to get to the highway.  He started to give us directions and then said to my husband to just turn around and follow him and he would take us there.  I have no idea how much further out of his way he went for us but it was much appreciated.  With all the getting lost and asking for directions we made it to my appointment right on time.

I met with the new doctor and had to give him some background on me and talk a little about some questions I had regarding my protocol and if things had changed any.  He felt that because I had been on the therapy for five years that I could start adding foods back in at 7-10 days instead of 15.  PERFECT!  My daughter gets here about that time and I will not have to miss out on many foods because of dietary restrictions.  I really enjoyed this new doctor and look forward to working with him more.

The downside to my treatment, as it is every time, is the headache.  Oh the headache.  And the welts where the injections are given and the itchiness.  There is only one that actually gives me a lot of trouble.

My poor arm!

I am home and yes my headache is with me (nothing unusual about that).  I got it about 3o minutes after I left the office.  My brain is also a little fuzzy and my concentration is not so great.  On the positive side is that I am not itching nearly as much with the inhalant component of the treatment as I usually do.  Maybe this is a good sign that I won’t be flailing my arm around tonight to distract myself.  I am not allowed to scratch the wheals, put anything on them or ice them.

I ate my lamb stew on the way home as my dear husband munched on his Jack in the Box burger and fries.

I received three injections today.  In my left arm I received the Inhalants (pollens, dust, molds).

On my way (Day 2 of LDA)

Hello Everyone.

I just finished eating day two of ground lamb and hash browns for breakfast.  My lunch time meal of lamb stew is heating on the stove in preparation for the thermos that I have finally purchased.   My water is in the car, my ipod has been charged, and my Kindle is charged and loaded with a new book.   I am preparing for the 2 1/2 hour trip each way to get my LDA.  I am anxious to get it done and to be one day closer to finishing the critical 3 days and to getting all those yummy foods back into my diet.

Today I am meeting with a new doctor because my doctor left the practice.  I am looking forward to meeting the new doctor (a naturopath) and getting and having him sign off to continue with the protocol there.

I am not looking forward to the headache that usually follows for a day and the itching arms that usually last for 2-3 days.  In the end it is all worth it.  If I am not feeling too uncomfortable later today I will post more.  I will also try to respond to all comments as well.

What’s for breakfast?

Breakfast for LDA

Today is day 1 of the 3 critical day period for my LDA treatment.  I made myself a lamb patty and some hash browns.  My beverage of choice (or the only one allowed me) was a glass of water (Mountain Valley Spring Water in a glass bottle).   You can read more about Day 1 of the critical day diet and LDA on a previous blog post  here.

Let the lamb extravaganza begin!

NOTHING SAYS LDA LIKE THE SMELL OF LAMB COOKING IN THE KITCHEN!

My lamb stew ingredients.

Yes, it is that time again!  My housework is done and I am prepping for my three-day critical LDA (low dose antigen therapy) period.  The lamb fat is rendered into lard for my breakfast hash browns, the ground lamb is thawing for breakfast starting tomorrow, and my lamb stew is on the stove in anticipation of tomorrow’s lunch and dinner and lunch and dinner (or snacks)

Lamb Meat in the Dutch Oven.

for the next three days.  You can read more about prepping for LDA here.

Dinner is ready!

My Three-Day Lamb Stew

I have commented about what I eat during the three-critical days during my LDA (low dose antigen) therapy. For breakfast I have hashbrowns (made from fresh organic potatoes and no added ingredients) seasoned with iodine-free sea salt and a ground lamb patty. I am not allowed to use any oils so I render the fat from the lamb roast into a lard that I can fry the potatoes in.

Rendering the lamb fat into lard.

The rendered fat.

For lunch, dinner and any time I am hungry in between I eat lamb stew or a plain baked potato or sweet potato.  My lamb stew is made with 4 1/2 to 5 lbs. of lamb roast cut into stew size chunks (this has to last me for three days).

Lamb Meat in the Dutch Oven.

Next come all the vegetables that I am allowed to have:

1 pkg. organic celery, chopped

32 oz. organic baby carrots, chopped

Outer leaves of one organic green cabbage, chopped

3 organic sweet potatoes, cubed

4 organic potatoes, cubed

3 litre bottles Mountain Valley Spring Water in Glass

Sea Salt (non iodized)

My lamb stew ingredients.

Dinner is ready!

 

I have my next LDA treatment this coming Friday. The three-day protocol starts on Thursday. I have bought my lamb and other necessary ingredients for the three day diet and will make my lamb stew on Wednesday so that I will be all set. I will also be reblogging LDA Days 1-3 again as well.

allergictolifemybattle

Tomorrow starts my three critical days during my LDA treatment which is the day before treatment, the day of treatment and the day after.  It is during these days that I have to be the most careful.  The diet for those three days because I am receiving treatment for food allergies/sensitivities is very specific.  If I veer from the foods allowed I risk becoming sensitized to them and could possibly lose them until my next treatment.  I am now doing treatments every four to five months so that would be miserable to lose a food for that long because I didn’t follow the protocol.

My house smells of lamb; the smell of lamb stewing in a pot and the smell of lamb frying in a skillet in attempt at rendering out the fat.   During the critical three days I am not able to use any spice other than non iodized…

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Oh the pain of it all!

I have talked in several posts about trigeminal neuralgia and the fact that I suffer from it.  For some unknown reason it has picked today to rear its ugly head.  The nerves on the left side of my face hurt and burn.  It hurts to blink my left eye and the left side of my lip feels numb.

There isn’t much I can do for it.  I am preparing for my LDA treatment on the 15th of this month and have to be especially careful of anything that I take.  I have compounded Tylenol but am not supposed to be using it right now.   The only option right now is to heat up my bean bag and place it on my face to see if the heat will calm it down.