I have now officially moved FFT to a new site - hopefully for the last time! Check it out here (fructosefreeteens.wordpress.com). All the recipes and such will be updated periodically over the next few weeks, but all the information is still there. If you enjoy it, don't forget to comment and follow me, guys! I love you all and I hope you enjoy the new domain. <3
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Hello!
It's Natalya, again. So, after that extremely depressing post last time, I figured I'd try and give you a positive, optimistic one this time!!! Unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, that isn't happening for another week or two. I've decided to cut lactose-free milk out of my diet, for the entire month of June (incidentally, my birth month *cough* June 22nd *cough*). I just felt so full after having it, with rice pudding, frozen yogurt, hot cocoa, etc. The only time I don't remember feeling super full afterwards is when I have it with Corn Chex, and I suspect that's because I've always tried to get as little milk as possible in my mouth, even back in pre-diagnosis days. I only like the milk because it makes the cereal taste better, not because I actually drink the milk. Who does that?? ;) And sadly, just when I thought I'd figured out the solution to why I haven't been feeling up to par lately, school ended and I had a very enjoyable Saturday slash first day of summer. The day was pretty good, tummy-wise, and only at the end, around 6pmish, did I start to feel a little... off. I brushed it off, because after dinner I get a bit of discomfort (just a little) more often than I prefer. That's not normal either, but one problem at a time, right? And I really don't want to go on an elimination diet because I don't feel that it's necessary... although it's summer, which is the perfect time to start one... even though I'm going on vacation in two weeks... Anyways, I woke up on Sunday and had eggs and bacon with a carrot muffin instead of toast, and I didn't feel that great afterwards. I walked my dog, like I do every morning, but when we arrived back at the house, I still didn't feel better. I got up every hour for ten minutes to move around (something I've started doing to keep my digestive system moving, mimicking what I did at school in between periods). My dad asked me if I felt okay and I said I was. Which was a bit of a lie. And then four hours passed. Now, if you don't remember, I'm supposed to eat every two to three hours, and once it gets past three and a half, I start getting cranky and "starved." Usually. Now, I was aggressively unhungry (quote from The Fault in our Stars, which I saw on Friday, a day I felt perfectly fine and also my last day of school) and did not want to put even a piece of toast in my body. But I did, anyways, because even if I wasn't feeling all that great, I still needed food. It's not really an option for me to not eat, seeing as my weight is on such a delicate balance (I've already lost four pounds from... well, I'll get to that in a second). Now, let's go back in time for a few moments. From Thursday night to sometime on Saturday, my dad had apparently eaten some shrimp (which he is very allergic to) and gotten food poisoning (with similar symptoms to *dun dun dun* gastroenteritis, or more commonly known as the stomach flu). From what I've heard, food poisoning lasts about 24 hours and the stomach flu symptoms last about one to three days. Hmm... So, I felt very unhungry and nauseous all day Sunday, which is not a fun feeling, and I got various suggestions from an FM Support Group on Facebook that I joined: were the eggs bad (I'm not sure)? can you tolerate carrots (yes, better than most I guess)? was the bacon cured (yes)? have you had that meal combo before (admittedly not)? And now I'm afraid of the eggs my mom just bought. Sigh. And I won't be having a carrot muffin with eggs and bacon anytime soon, either. Monday morning came, and I woke up at 5am because my mom had to go to work and I had originally wanted to go with her. Well, obviously I didn't anymore!!! My day consisted of napping, watching Harry Potter movies, and reading, whilst laying on the couch. Luckily, my symptoms did not include throwing up. Instead, they included moderate D, minor to moderate abdominal cramps/pain (more so at night), occasional muscle aches, and a headache (I took a Tylenol!). I did not miss the nausea (I actually got hungry throughout the day), and I had no fever, which was good. And now it's Tuesday, marking the second or third day of symptoms, and I'm really hoping they'll go away tomorrow, because I'm tired of them!!! My mom left for work again. I ate breakfast. I laid on the couch, slowly killing my brain cells watching Nick Jr. I had soup four hours later. I napped. My dad apologized for giving me the stomach flu (I'll forgive you when these symptoms disappear). I managed to eat a sandwich two hours later, which is more typical for me!! YAY! I read online that you should return to a normal diet about a day or so after symptoms start so that you don't lose proteins and fats and whatever. And I lost weight, too, which sucks but I'll gain it back once this nasty virus leaves my system. Hey everyone! I know I haven't posted in a while, but the school year has kept me busy. I haven't been feeling 100% these past couple months, but I'm figuring things out still about my diet. For instance, I'm one of those people who can't tolerate nuts. At all. I tried almond flour and it did not go well. I also cut celery out of my diet, unfortunately, after hearing that it was high in fodmaps. I still eat Bok choy, even though the newest update says it contains polyols. I have a suspicion that I do well with some types of polyols, but I'm not sure which ones because I don't have the app...yet. ;) Apart from that, I've also had some tummy trouble with bloating and gas and slight constipation, but not much. For a while, I had D and C, which wasn't fun either. And just today, after a couple weeks of perfectness, I had another reaction. Before I launch into my tale, I'd like to point out that (1) everyone is different on their tolerance level, and (2) napping. really. helps. About three weeks ago, I forgot to drink water during track and regretted it afterwards when I had one of the worst stomach aches since my diagnosis... not fun, at all. I had to take a shower, a walk, and then finally nap because neither of those worked very well. And guess what--when I woke up an hour later, I felt fine (although I wasn't hungry for the rest of the night, 6pm-9:30pm). Today, I was so excited to try this Hot Cocoa mix (dextrose, unsweetened cocoa powder, cornstarch, and salt) from a website called deliciousasitlooks.com (great low-fodmap, egg-free, gluten-free, and gum-free website). And here is how my day went. • 1 egg, 2 pieces of bacon, 2 slices of GF toast = normal (+ 8oz water) • carrot muffin, 2 pieces of bacon, dollop of sunbutter = normal (+ some water) • can of Chobani Greek blueberry yogurt, 1/3 cup of Corn Chex, a few added blueberries, 4oz of hot cocoa = normal but admittedly full from the lactose-free milk in cocoa (+ some water) • 2 slices of french toast from GF toast, 2 pieces of bacon, slathered with sunbutter = sudden, awful reaction This bothers me. A lot. I took a long walk to the store to buy some new shoes that I had seen earlier while at Starbucks drinking my homemade cocoa, and when I got to the store I was in so much discomfort/pain that I had to ask my dad to try and drive to the store so I wouldn't have to walk back. I was extremely distracted in the store but did get the shoes I wanted. :) My mom and I were literally 5-10 minutes away from my house on for when my dad pulled up, a bit late, but it was okay. I didn't feel any motion sickness in the car or anything for the 3 minutes I was in it. On the walk back, I had felt something in the back of my throat, but I kept swallowing. I then proceeded to pull myself to my mom's bedroom (bigger, more comfortable bed) and fell asleep almost instantly. I had been really tired on the entire walk too, and hot. Looking back, 3 weeks ago, I had been extremely hot (warm outside, today it was raining but almost 70F) and extremely tired as well. When I woke up, I was fine, but I didn't eat anything for the rest of the day (4pm-11pm-- worrying!!!). So, you see my problem. What caused me to react so violently? I don't want to say it was the hot cocoa, because I tolerate unsweetened cocoa powder just fine in other things and this was less than a tbsp of powder anyways, with lots more dextrose in the mix (1.25:0.5 ratio). The yogurt was admittedly past its expiration date, but it looked, smelled, and tasted fine. The Chex did have a questionable ingredient, but I've always been fine with it, since diagnosis. Was it too much fodmaps in one meal? Too much bacon in one day? I honestly don't know. I'm scared to try anything from the third meal or he fourth meal again. My reaction was worse than it's ever been, since diagnosis, and I thought it wouldn't end. :( Sorry for the depressing post! I'll post something happier next time, I promise. Adios! Natalya It's been one year since I was diagnosed with fructose malabsorption, and I've come so far. I used to think that I would never get through this; but I have! And you will too.
This is going to be a little "day in the life" thing with the food I eat every day, and a link to the recipes for them. This is a typical school day - on the weekends my choices vary, as I have more time to prepare. Just a typical day... I wake up at 6:00am every morning (sometimes even on weekends) and I'm not hungry, at all. However, you have to have breakfast every day (most important meal of the day!), and my mom and I have a staple for breakfast. So, I take a shower, and by that time, my stomach is growling. On weekends, I have pancakes, waffles, or even French toast, but during the week, there's something else. It has been christened "bacon egg toast" by my mom and I, and it's exactly what it sounds like. Seeing as this isn't really a recipe, there isn't a link to it. All you need is turkey bacon, regular eggs, and fructose-friendly bread (I use Udi's white sandwich bread - mmm). Cook the bacon, scramble the eggs (with a bit of colby or mozzerella cheese), and toast the bread. Then, put the eggs onto one of the pieces of toast (it should stick with the little bit of cheese), put the bacon on top of it (not too much, but enough to give it crunch), and finish with the second piece of toast and cut it in half! Done, with a delicious breakfast sandwich. After eating that, usually with a half cup of fruit (kiwi, banana, pineapple, strawberries, or blueberries), I brush my teeth, put new rubber bands in my braces, and take a walk to let my digestive system work. At about 7:30am, I head off to school. I have 1st and 2nd period before our morning break, and I'm usually hungry again in the middle of 2nd period. So, we have our morning snack of the day, at about 10:00am. On the weekends, this is just a second breakfast, but during the week, it's a small snack as our lunch is only 45 minutes later. This morning snack is a carrot muffin. My mom changed one of my grandma's recipes around to make it fructose-friendly, and they're amazing. I always want to have more of them! They do have a few semi-sweet chocolate chips in them, because I love chocolate, but that's optional. I'll put the link up to this recipe later. After 3rd period, it's lunch time! I love lunch, especially on the weekends. But during the week, it's good too. I have lunch way later on the weekends, by the way. The lunch I always have is a turkey, cheese, and lettuce sandwich, Pirate's Booty, and a cookie. The sandwich is simple: get some turkey out (the lunch meat kind, you can also use other meats, or, if you're a vegetarian/vegan, just skip this), then some spinich, red leaf or iceburg lettuce (note: Radicchio lettuce is not fructose-friendly), and a bit of colby cheese, or other safe hard cheeses. Also, make sure you have fructose-friendly bread on hand (again, Udi's). If you know how to make a sandwich, make it. If you don't, put the ingredients in between the two slices of bread and cut the sandwich in half. Pirate's Booty can be bought at many stores, including WinCo, possibly Costco, and sometimes even at school snack bars. The cookie recipes will be posted on the Recipes page soon. After that satisfying lunch, I have 4th and 5th period, and then 6th period. On some days, 6th period is my performing arts, but on other days, it's our assembly day. Assembly day makes afternoon snack easy, but on normal days, I have to wait until a little later. I have rice crackers for my afternoon snack, and the brand is Blue Diamond. I've found these at Fred Meyer and WinCo. If it's not assembly day, I wolf these crackers down in the locker room before sports, which is right after 6th period. I then have volleyball for 2 hours, and go to the after-school program (my mom works longer than my school time). In the afterschool program, I have my afterschool snack to hold me over until dinner. This is around 3:30pm. This is usually a rice cake with assorted vegetables and sunflower seed butter. Just get a (white rice) rice cake (I can handle brown rice, but I know most people can't) and spread sunflower seed butter on it. Then, put the assorted (possibly shredded) vegetables on (they should stick to the sunbutter) and enjoy! My mom picks me up a while later, and we get home at about 5:15pm. I have dinner at about 5:30pm, and this varies greatly. Check the Recipes page a little later for more information and ideas. Finally, after doing my homework and relaxing for a while, at around 7:30pm I have my evening snack. This stays the same whether it be weekend or weekday. I toast a slice of Udi's bread and spread sunflower seed butter on it, and have it with a nice, cold glass of water (water = good). At about 9:30pm, I go to bed. That's a day in the life of me! :) Hope this gave you ideas and hope for the future. My website is still under construction, so expect more recipes and pages to go up over these next few weeks. Chow! Natalya Hey, everyone! I have so much to say right now, and this will probably take up a lot of space, so I'll get started immediately.
The last time I posted was in April. Lots has changed since then. For one, I'm now 82 pounds, which is perfectly healthy for me!!! I was so, so, so happy when I saw that number on the scale. :) I haven't had any packaged mixes (even if they were okay) except for Bisquick and Pure Pantry for pancakes/waffles. They work for me, and I hope that they work for you if you choose to look into them. I do have some of those days where I'm not hungry, or I just feel a little...off. Actually, these past few days, I have been feeling a little off. I'll explain more about that later. For now, I'll just put a little section on what I do when I'm not feeling my normal self. What if I start feeling abnormal? If you start to feel unlike your normal self, don't ignore you. You are intune to your own body and even though fructose malabsorption can cause you to become more sensitive about your stomach or feelings, don't brush it off as overeacting. I find that taking walks, taking showers, taking baths, and/or eating something. I know the last one is like" What?!" but sometimes, you may actually be hungry. Be careful on that one; you don't want to feel worse. I would recommend taking a walk as your first course of action, and see if it helps you feel better. It certainly helps me. If you're feeling empty, however, eat something. Anyways, back to the changes. I had a great summer, and my mom and I called it a "redo summer" because the summer of '12 was awful - I felt awful, I looked awful, and it was just...yeah. I had so much fun this summer and I'm so glad that I feel better. Well, I'm SO SO SO glad that I feel better. I can't put it into words, really. The website is undergoing some changes right now, and may be moved to a different web-hosting website, but I'm not sure yet. Weebly and Wordpress are ideas. There may be some more in the future. I've started a new school year, and I'm in seventh grade now, and at a new school. No one has really gone in depth in trying to figure out why I'm not eating what they are. Sometimes I get the occasional "Why can't you have _____ again?" and sometimes I'll say I'm allergic, sometimes I'll say that I'm not hungry, and sometimes I'll explain, depending on my mood. They seem to know that fructose is in everything though, which I found somewhat amusing. "Wait, is fructose in cookies?" Yes. They then proceeded to go into a sympathetic stage for me. xD I do have volleyball everyday, and I'm usually quite hungry by the time it finishes. See, I have lots of water during the day and eat 6-7 small meals a day. Research actually shows that many small meals are better than three big ones - I even did that when I wasn't Dx. I strongly recommend drinking lots of water and having many small meals a day. But my point here is that, since Thursday/Friday, I've been feeling a little off. From Friday morning: ...my stomach felt very off. I was hungry and full at the same time, I think, but I felt pretty empty and it wasn't a nice feeling. Especially during the night - I could barely get to sleep and I had to shift my position a lot. Finally, my mom got me rice crackers from Blue Diamond and I had 3 of them with a glass of water. I felt better after that (this sounds weird but I almost like being full rather than empty if I have to feel something, because I know what full feels like and can fix it easily) but slept with my head high so I wouldn't feel sick from eating and lying down. This morning I can still taste the rice crackers (it's almost 7am here and I had the crackers at around 2-3am) but I'm not hungry, and I tried taking a walk but I only feel a bit better. I might mention that after eating a medium-sized dinner, I felt the best I had felt all day. It was very strange, to say the least. At first, I thought I had a stomach bug, and then I realized that the feeling was hunger. I was so hungry that it hurt my stomach and made me feel empty! However, yesterday, I still wasn't back to normal, and last night I had to shift positions a lot...I also had some "nightmares" that weren't really nightmares, but kept me somewhat awake. I moved to my mom's room at about midnight. This morning, I woke up, took a long shower, and spent some time in the bathroom with loose stools. Afterwards, I felt better, but I only had a piece of toast for my first meal, instead of pancakes or eggs, bacon, and toast. I'm hoping that tomorrow I feel better! On Friday, it will have been one year since being Dx. I'm not sure how I feel about that. It'll be bittersweet, that's for sure. I'll be sure to post on that day, like I said on the Home page under Announcements. Be sure to check that section every week for updates. Also, the dreaded H-holiday is coming up, and it'll definitely be hard to hear all that candy talk. I'll post here though, so you guys have some inspiration. Feel free to comment on these blog posts! I'll be updating weekly or bi-weekly from now on, every Sunday, and usually before 9:00pm, unlike today. As weird as this sounds, I'd like to hear about some of your "down" days, when you don't feel well, but also your "up" days. Until next time. - Natalya :3 I haven't posted in forever! Sorry! I have lots of news, though.
Another major reaction I had was from Bob's Red Mill (hey, see a pattern?) gluten-free cinnamon roll mix. I think it was the same situation from above: I had too much, and it had the same strange ingredient. That lasted for a little over a week, and it was not fun. I strongly recommend that you do not buy Bob's Red Mill products, even if they are gluten-free. Here are the desserts that my mom has made for me. Most of these will eventually be posted on the recipes page.
- Natalya :) There were three reasons why my stomach hurt so badly.
Yes, there were three big events/holidays after I was diagnosed. One was Halloween, and as you can imagine, I was in tears; hearing others talk about candy and junk only a few weeks after diagnosis is depressing. Another was Thanksgiving, but my mom made all the food fructose-friendly. The last was Christmas, and I had a small reaction to the cinnamon rolls (never try Bob's Red Mill mixes) that lasted for about a week (well, until today), but other than that, it was fun. I always remember that some people don't even have food on their tables, or haven't been diagnosed and feel as awful as I did. I hope that all those people feel better soon. The next posts I make will be telling about my experiences from now on, and the website is always under construction. Keep checking back for more! The last test they decided to take was the fructose intolerance breath test. It was on the Friday before my sixth grade camp. They had me go into a room and drink 8 oz. of pure fructose, then go out of the room and do whatever I wanted to in the waiting room for three and a half hours. Every fifteen minutes I had to take a breath into a special bag, then every thirty minutes, then an hour, until it had been three hours. I was reading, drawing, writing, playing on my iPod, that sort of thing. The only thing I wasn't allowed to do was eat or drink. They told us that the test results would come by Sunday or so, and if not, definitely the next week.
We left, and we were thinking that I didn't have it, because I had felt fine after I drank all that fructose. Fun fact: I did not have fructose intolerance, so technically we were right. Malabsorption is not as bad as intolerance. If you have fructose intolerance, hats off to you. The test results did not come back by Sunday, like we thought. I went to camp on Wednesday, and I had fun, because I was still thinking I didn't have it. I came back Friday afternoon. My mom was talking to somebody, but she stopped when she saw me. We went home a few hours later (because she worked at my school). We arrived home and she gave me chicken, rice, and spinach...but with a different flavor. "Mom, what did you flavor this with? It doesn't taste bad, but it's different." "Garlic-infused oil," she had replied. I kept eating, when suddenly she holds out this small white pill. "Sweetie, I talked to the doctor over the phone, and he wants you to have this antibiotic." At that point I was on the verge of tears, because if she had talked to the doctor, that probably meant... "Did they...call?" She nodded. "Was it positive?" She nodded again, and I started crying. The Upper GI was next. By that time, the results of the endoscopy had come back, and "revealed" that I had eucinophiliac gastritis, which meant that I had food allergies of some kind. We didn't know what "revealed" meant, but we did know that there was bacteria in my stomach.
But anyways, we went into the Upper GI room, and they made me change into a gown instead of my t-shirt. Then they put me, standing up, on this machine thing, so I was standing against it. I had to drink this fizzy stuff, kinda like pop rocks in water, except softer (and they didn't pop). They told me to try not to burp, but I didn't have to. Next, they mixed the barium with this orange flavored stuff (if you ever have to have barium or orange flavored powder, I wish you luck) and I had to drink it. They had a machine that could tell how much I was drinking at a time. I was barely sipping, and of course they noticed. "Drink up!" they reprimanded (in a nice way), so I tried. It tasted good, for the first few seconds, and then it tasted horrible when I realized I had to drink two cups of it. Then the machine tilted back and I was laying down on it. They flipped me over onto my stomach and X-rayed me, while continuing to tell me to turn over and over. That wasn't that bad, actually, just the drinking part. The barium began to coat my stomach, like it was supposed to. After that, they gave me another cup and told us to walk around the hospital while drinking it. I really didn't want to drink another full cup, but I had to in order for them to do the X-ray. And if they didn't do the X-ray because I didn't drink enough, we would have to do it another time. I managed to drink almost all of it while we were walking, but they said that the last few sips could be thrown away. They took the X-ray, and then I went home...or to school (I can't remember). My stools, as they had warned me, were white and watery for about two days, then they were "normal (as normal as they could be with MiraLax). That was actually the worst test that they took. The next one changed everything. Another week and a half passed by, and my gastroenterologist called saying that he would schedule the tests earlier rather than later, just in case. I thought I would feel better by then, but it didn't turn out that way.
On the day of the endoscopy, I left school at about 1:30pm and went to Mary Bridge. I had only been able to have white rice, white potatoes, and white fish that day so it wouldn't "taint" the coloring of my stomach. I also had green Jello and an orange Popsicle. They told me to lay down on the cot, holding the stuffed animal I had brought. They then put on some numbing cream on my arm, and proceeded to stick the IV needle into my arm six times. I was like, "Seriously?" Next, they attached the IV to my arm, put a blood pressure measure on my finger, and wheeled me into the anesthesia room. I was really nervous - that was my first time under anesthesia. They put the anesthesia into the IV needle and I drifted off... I woke up really faint and they offered me apple juice and goldfish. I sipped on the juice and ate some of the goldfish. After about forty-five minutes (during which I tried and failed to stand up), we were able to go home. I stayed on the couch watching TV until 9:00pm. I woke up the next morning feeling normal (well, except for the whole stomach thing). |