Poison Ivy and An AHA Moment

Last Wednesday night Small Fry came up to me and told me that he had to go to the nurse that day at school.  He lifted up his shirt and said his right side was kind of itching him.

He...had....full....blown....poison ivy! 

First of all, I couldn't believe no one at the school had called me and second of all, I couldn't believe he had waited until 9pm to let me know, silly boy!

We stayed home from school and work on Thursday and went to the doctor, where he gave us some topical steroids to apply to the rash.  I felt so bad for Small Fry because he kept getting in the shower to try and make the itching stop.  So sad. 

It's finally getting better and I let him spend the night at his friend Matthew's house for Matt's birthday.  I just talked to him and he said they had a great time.  They went to the Renaissance Fair in Muskogee, OK which is a medieval fair with jousting and fun games.  I so glad he didn't have to miss it because of the poison ivy.

It's the first time Small Fry has spent the night at someones house.  I just don't encourage it because my boys like to be at home and honestly, unless I know the parents and what goes on in their house, I don't want my boys spending the night away at a strangers house.  Luckily we live in a small town and several of the parents in town went to school with Mr. H.  He knows every member of some of the kids families.

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I have to share an AHA moment I had on Friday night. 

Some history,  I have had constant stomach problems for the last four years or so.  At the time it started, I worked an extremely stressful job as a Marketing Director for an aerial photography and mapping company.  The stress of the economy tanking on my job and working late at night everyday was killing me, literally.  Almost everyday, I would suffer from stomach pains.  Most of the time, it would feel like I had a strange trapped gas kind of feeling, with no way to relieve the pain. 

About two years ago, I went through every testing the Gastroenterologist could do without putting me to sleep and scoping me.  The tests came back and said I was perfectly healthy.  He wanted to do the next test, which was a colonoscopy and scope down my throat.  I told him I'd have to think about it because I'm a horrible chicken when it comes to medical procedures.

After that doctors visit, I decided that my health was more important than any job and the time was right to quit.  I resigned and for a year, never had a horrible stomachache, just minor ones.  I thought I probably had just had an ulcer.  I never put it together, but I also had started eating a lower amount of carbs at that time. 

Last Friday night on Twitter, I happened to notice a conversation between two bloggers about stomach issues and one of them said they had been to an endocrinologist who told her that she couldn't process refined starches and sugars and recommended a no carb then low carb diet. 

She said it had worked like a charm and she felt better than she ever had.  No IBS symptoms, no ulcer symptoms, just a normal stomach everyday, no pain.

So....I think I'm going to try the no carb induction phase and see what happens.  Two weeks isn't going to be too bad, and I might just feel better in the end.

We'll see what happens.  I really hope this provides me some relief.  And it wouldn't hurt if I lost some pounds in the process!