Sick again

Sheila · Post by **Sheila** » Sat Sep 21, 2013 7:25 am

I've been doing a lot of cooking for the freezer getting ready for arthroplasty surgery on my right thumb on Tuesday. I'll be in a cast for at least a month, have pins holding the thing together and I'm assuming I won't have much use of right hand.

So, things went well on my trip and I'm feeling rather pleased with myself. I brought back most of the tuna in water that I brought with me, actually only ate part of one package. For lunch I decided to have tuna salad on rice crackers. Had it Thursday and wasn't feeling especially well yesterday. I blamed it on trying a handful of commercial sweet potato fries. I had the rest of the tuna salad yesterday and this a.m. I am sick; stomach pains, gas, body aches, mild headache, no appetite, etc. I checked my MRT test and tuna is green, not even close to yellow. I managed to get through 11 days of eating in a different country without getting as sick as I am in my own home. So, could that little handful of sweet potato fries, containing tapioca and corn starch, make me so sick? Since I haven't eaten tuna fish in a couple of years, I'm thinking the culprit is tuna even though it is green on the MRT test. Tapioca is red on my MRT test and I know it was stupid to try the fries. I'm so tired of the marathon cooking I've been doing, it seemed to be a great idea if I could tolerate them. So, could the tiny amount of tapioca on a handful of sweet potato fries have caused such an awful reaction 2 days later? Thanks.

Sheila W

Post by **tex** » Sat Sep 21, 2013 10:50 am

Hi Sheila,

Sorry to hear that you're sick. We can only guess, but I wonder if the tuna might possibly have a bacterial problem of some type (or maybe you are currently vulnerable to foods that are high in histamines). Of course, for those of us who are sensitive to tapioca, it can throw us for a loop, too. The reaction may even be due to a combination of things.

I hope you'll be feeling much better before the day is over.

Tex

DebE13 · Post by **DebE13** » Sat Sep 21, 2013 3:22 pm

Sheila, sorry to hear about the slip. A little variety is so nice sometimes. It's amazing how just a little of something can whollup such a punch. I'd be more comfortable if we didn't have to guess what the offending food was. I went from 2 to 4 trips to the bathroom today and was trying to figure out why: anesthesia from surgery finally getting out of my system, decreased amount of the mega calcium I was taking, introduction of stress by returning to work, addition of iron to the. monstrosity of pills I'm taking..... It's frustrating.

I hope all goes well with your thumb. You will smile though when all you have to do us thaw a dinner from the freezer later. Instant good-for-me meals are such a blessing.

Joefnh · Post by **Joefnh** » Sat Sep 21, 2013 3:27 pm

H Sheila I'm sorry your under the weather, it does sound like maybe the tuna was the culprit. Have you tolerated sweet potato fries before?

I hope you feel better soon

Lesley · Post by **Lesley** » Sat Sep 21, 2013 5:02 pm

Sheila - all I have to have is a dusting of something I shouldn't have and whoops! It was 1/4 of a banana the last time.
Celery on my MRT is RED. By accident I put a couple of leaves in a big pot of soup I was making, and cooked it overnight. I found them the next day, and thought it would be OK. NOT!!!
So I guess tiny dabs of RED stuff is enough.

What are they doing to your thumb?

I sympathize with the marathon cooking. I HATE t, and haven't done it for a while. I ordered a batch of meat, and the pieces I got are SO big I will have to cook 'em up and freeze them. I cooked myself out the first year of this, and have not been able to bring myself to do it again.
Right now I can't stand, so there's my excuse.

Sheila · Post by **Sheila** » Sun Sep 22, 2013 8:50 am

Thanks Leslie. I'm still trying to figure out what caused this, could have been any one of three things. I still feel lousy, now have C, and bleeding from that. I guess it could have been helped along by the stress of traveling. God knows, the mess I got into at Quito airport was stressful. But that was last Saturday and I'm mystified. I rarely have C and sympathize with what you go through.

My thumb joint is extremely painful, with bone overgrowth, kind of like a bunion on your foot. The joint has been pushed out of place. The Doc said he would cut off the offending bone, bring a tendon down from my arm and somehow wrap it around the thumb joint. The whole thing is pinned together and put into a cast. The joint will not work nearly as well as the original but it should be painless. The month in the cast is going to be really inconvenient but should be worth it.

Sheila W

Lesley · Post by **Lesley** » Sun Sep 22, 2013 5:35 pm

Bleeding? I hope that stops soon.

Yes C is horrible, and I am always fighting it. I hope it doesn't last long for you. Get some stool softener and some prune juice. That should help. It could have been caused by different food, water, who knows?

As long as you can use your thumb your hand will be functional. I have problems with both my thumbs and will do anything necessary to keep them going.
Good for you getting really prepared for it.

I hope you feel better soon!

ldubois7 · Post by **ldubois7** » Sun Sep 22, 2013 6:06 pm

I have found that most commercial french fries use soy oil. Maybe that is part of the problem?