It’s been a lovely weekend in the Yorkshire Dales despite not feeling fully well with the wolf. We decided to get away in our van, Casper for the weekend. A lovely escape from all our house-moving stresses. We ummed and ahhed about going away, as we have loads of boxing up to do at home. But we decided, we need a break and it was the right decision without a doubt! Plus, it might be the last chance we get away this year as we are just weeks away from completion with the house. But we will see. We might get away around Christmas time too!
No matter how busy life can get, it’s always important you make time for yourself! A time where you can switch off from it all, and give yourself chance to recharge your batteries.
I felt ok yesterday until I got halfway along the walk. I suddenly started to feel really unwell. As gutting as it was, we ended up having to cut the walk short and missing out on seeing some caves. This is something I’ve not had to do in so long! But without a doubt, it was definitely the right decision. When you are out walking in the country, you have to know your limits and know when enough is enough.
Last night I was in bed by 7.30 pm. My whole body just hurt from head to toe. We watched a bit of YouTube then went to sleep, but annoying I kept getting woken up every half an hour until just after midnight by my stomach. If I lay in slightly the wrong position, my stomach acid wakes me up. I end up waking up feeling so sick. Some nights are worse than others. Last night was a bad night! Just so frustrating when you want to sleep, but your stomach has other ideas.
This morning I’ve woken up feeling pretty rubbish with the wolf. Bit gutted! We were going to head out to Skipton Woods this morning for a walk to see all the autumn colours. But the wolf isn’t playing ball! So sadly, a day of rest is needed to try and make the wolf happy again.
Despite feeling a bit rubbish this weekend, I’ve still had a lovely weekend away in Casper. I prefer to be ill in Casper than stuck at home being ill. At least I’ve been surrounded by beautiful views and I did get out for a walk, even if I did have to cut it short. We’ve even had Highland Coo’s strolling by our van. That’s not something you get every day, waking up to Highland Coo’s chilling next to you. One of the things I love about van life!
Here are some of the highlights of our weekend away in the beautiful Yorkshire Dales National Park:
Methotrexate
I’ve been taking Methotrexate for years now. Why it has taken until this week for me to realise what I am about to tell you, I do not know. But I tell you one thing, I’m always learning new things!
Every Wednesday, I inject myself with Methotrexate. Every Wednesday, I feel unwell. It was only until this week when I messed up my medication, I realised the link between the Methotrexate and me feeling unwell.
On the day I inject myself with Methotrexate, I do not take my Folic Acid as this can stop the Methotrexate from working so well. This Wednesday, I accidentally took my Folic Acid. I mean this is just a normal day in my life being forgetful! I even went to work one day last week forgetting to take half of my breakfast meds. Luckily, it wasn’t any super important ones and could wait until I was home in the evening.
As I messed up taking my Folic Acid on Wednesday, I couldn’t inject myself. Oddly, I felt wonderful all day long! I couldn’t believe it! I didn’t even need a coffee or two to get me through the day. This is not like me at all on a Wednesday! Then Thursday morning came, I woke up feeling fine. I then went ahead and injected myself with the Methotrexate. That was it, I felt rubbish all day long! The same feeling I normally feel on a Wednesday. At first, I thought it was because I had delayed my injection by a day. But then after some thinking about it, I don’t think that was the case.
I know a lot of people suffer the same. I just thought for some reason it didn’t make me feel unwell. Like I was the lucky one. So now I realised my Methotrexate does make me feel unwell, I’m going to see about injecting myself on a Wednesday evening. Then hopefully, I will feel unwell when I’m sleeping and not during the day. Hopefully, now, I will stop feeling unwell every Wednesday too!
Chinese Takeaways
For years, Chinese takeaways have made me feel unwell. To a point where I end up crawling into bed in crippling pain in my stomach. Over the years I’ve blamed it on eating too late as that can cause this kind of pain in my stomach. Getting too hungry before eating, again can cause this kind of pain in my stomach.
Last weekend, I was over the moon. I have finally found a Chinese takeaway that has a vegan choice. First one since I’ve become vegan! I was so happy! But the happiness didn’t last long. I was in crippling pain in my stomach that night. If you read my blog last week, I talked about how I woke up feeling sick with a bad headache and blamed it on the wolf, which kind of is still his fault. It’s these drugs I take just to keep him happy, that’s destroying my stomach and causing me these issues!
Basically, long story short, I’m sensitive to something called Monosodium glutamate (MSG). When I eat something that is high in MSG, it triggers too much acid to form in my stomach, which then leaves me in crippling pain. It also gives me nasty headaches and nausea for a few days after. It then can leave my stomach inflamed and agrivated for days, until it slowly heals again.
From a Chinese, I always order sweet and sour sauce. It’s my all-time favourite. Well, it was! Apparently sweet and sour dishes from a Chinese takeaway are very rich in MSG. There is other food too, which have MSG in them. Depending on how much, depends on how well my body can tolerate it. But now I understand why, when my stomach is inflamed, there’s so much food that becomes so painful to eat, yet I didn’t think was acidic i.e. chips, tinned soups, ready meals, and the list goes on. MSG is added to so many foods!
I can tolerate some MSG, but not high amounts, like Chinese takeaway (which is known for using high amounts in their food). But now I also understand why when my stomach is ok, I can eat tinned soups with no problem at all. But when my stomach is inflamed, I struggle with so much food that shouldn’t even be acidic.
MSG is also found naturally in some foods like tomatoes. This now makes sense why my body struggles to tolerate a lot of tomatoes, why they are so acidic. I can eat tomato-based food, but only in small portions. However, if I eat whole raw tomatoes, I will be in a lot of pain in my stomach.
The wolf causes me many problems, every day to day. From my hair falling out to pain in my joints, to fatigue, to eye trouble, to low mood, and so on. But if I could get rid of just one, I would get rid of my gastro problems. It’s a consistent battle of watching what I eat, the consistent battle of nausea, making sure I’m monitoring the amount of acidic food I’m eating in a day so I don’t aggravate my stomach. Having such a restrictive diet on the foods my body can actually tolerate without making me unwell. If I order a takeaway, often there is only one choice on the menu I can eat, two if I’m extremely lucky! I then have the constant battle of not letting myself get hungry, always having to carry food with me anywhere I go. Then there’s feeling nauseous every time I get a bit too much acid building up in my stomach. Then at night, I can’t even lay down flat in bed to go to sleep. Instead, I have to sleep on a giant cheese wedge pillow, that props up my body, almost like I’m sat up in bed every night. But even on that, if my head slides down too much, or I sleep on the wrong angle, my stomach acid will soon wake me up, leaving me feeling ever so nauseous.
Anyways, that’s it from me this week. I’m seeing my Rheumatology nurse next week, then I’m at the hospital with my eyes the week after, then I think 2 weeks after that I have my lung function test for my asthma. Inbetween all that, I have my monthly bloods. I always find my appointments all seem to come through at once!
Until next week
Goodbye for now
Emma
xox
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