Thursday

 Most of my days are so normal and predictable that most anything that is out of the ordinary seems weird. Today was out of the ordinary and a bit frustrating.

When we lived in Nevada, MO and in Texas, I loved my doctors. Here . . not so much. Every year when I see the doctor for my annual Medicare visit, I say I'm not going back. We do have a doctor that we pay a membership fee and can go as often as we like. I go there for things like ear infection, or allergy shots but I don't go to the doctor but once or twice a year. If it's anything I need Medicare to pay for, I have to go to a Medicare doctor and the membership doctor isn't a Medicare doctor.

We also have a naturopath that we talk to every few months and she does us more good than any MD around here. Obviously, I'm not happy with our medical care.

You know I have alpha gal -- maybe I'm over it. I've read that can happen. I have a colonoscopy coming up and the doctor and anesthesiologist always ask questions about that . . When was my last reaction? Do I ever eat beef? Do I eat any products that contain or were made from beef? Their questioning always makes me nervous, though I know there won't be any problems. Yesterday I was thinking . . what if I get an alpha gal test done and it shows I no longer have it . . then I won't have to go through the alpha gal questions. I sent my doctor's office a note asking if they would order an alpha gal test. I explained that I haven't had any incidents in years, I'm eating EVERYTHING now and would like to know if I can stop going through the alpha gal protocol for every procedure - even dental work. 

NO. They wrote me back and said something like "We have no diagnosis of alpha gal. We can talk about this at your next visit." Next visit is AFTER colonoscopy - two months after. 

I looked back through my records and from my first visit with this doctor in 2020, I told them I have alpha gal and it's on all my records, in the notes of every visit I've made. Not only that but they prescribed an epi-pen for me to keep because the ones I had were expired. What on earth would it hurt for me to get a blood test to see if I still have it??

So, I thought . . fine . . I'll get my medical records. Called the hospital in Kentucky where I went at least three times between 2002 and 2006. Nope, they only keep records for 10 years. Called the hospital in Nevada, MO and they were by far the most helpful. They only keep records for 10 years and we've been gone from there 15 years. They MAY have them in off sight storage so they're checking that. The lady I talked to . . her son-in-law has alpha gal so she was understanding. 

Called the hospital in Louisiana where I had to go once while visiting family. Nope - they only keep the records 10 years.

Called the hospital in Texas, who would have the records from when I did get tested in 2013. Nope . . only keep the records 10 years.

I can go to Quest and get a blood test on my own and pay for it for $149. I will do that next week. I should have done that and not even bothered with contacting the doctor. 

When I think about this whole thing . . I got bit by a tick and got a disease that no one even knew existed. I had numerous ER visits to four hospitals and no one had a clue what it was. The last ER visits was July 15, 2009. I had one more incident in about 2013 when a neighbor gave us ground beef from a cow they had raised and had butchered and they were complaining because there was so much fat. Vince grilled burgers and he was complaining about the fat flaming up. About midnight, I had an episode. The doctor in Nevada, MO had told me he had no idea what was causing it but he told me to take a cold shower and Benadryl and that might help. That night I did that - took a Benadryl and a cold shower and that stopped the reaction. I didn't want to go back to bed because I was afraid after taking the Benadryl, I would fall back asleep and then not wake up if my air passages closed up and I couldn't breathe so I stayed up and played on the computer. I knew all I had eaten that day was the hamburger so I googled "hamburger, hives, itching". Alpha gal popped up, along with Dr. Platts-Mills, who pretty much made the connection between the reaction and the tick and is really one of those on the forefront of so much that's been done to help those suffering with alpha-gal. I sent him an email at about 3 a.m. and said something like "I think I have alpha-gal" and told him my story. He wrote me back and we corresponded a couple of times. 

The naturopath told me that there are other issues alpha gal can cause besides the anaphylaxis issues and she thinks I should get tested before I say I decide on my own that I no longer have it.

So, I kinda feel like I've done all the work with getting myself through these reactions, discovering what was causing it, and here I am, thinking I'm over it and my doctor will not even order a blood test. 

It's frustrating!

Then . . I got up this morning planning to make sourdough sandwich bread, which I make every week. Then Vince asked me to make the sourdough rye too. OK . . I can do that. 

The rye dough needs to spend about 24 hours in the fridge so I will bake it tomorrow. 

But  . . the sandwich bread . . turned into the dough on steroids! I did everything as I always do - every week!! I always use my wall oven for all the baking. I put the bread in there. It needs to bake for 45 - 50 minutes. About 20 minutes into the baking, I was downstairs and I could smell something weird. I tried to ignore it but decided I'd better go upstairs and check it. The bread had risen so high, it was touching the top of the oven!

It was too big to leave in the wall oven so I had to take all the cast iron out of the stove/oven, turn the oven on, let it pre-heat and finish baking the bread.

When I bake bread or cornbread in cast iron, I don't clean the pan. I just stick it in the oven, then when I'm ready to use it again, I use a brush, scrub it (dry), then wipe it out with a damp towel, oil it, and heat on the stove. Then it's ready to go again. So . . most of my cast iron pans have crumbs in them!

I can't get over how much that bread rose in the oven. Here's what it looked like going into the oven.

Has anyone ever had that happen before? It's just sourdough . . no added yeast.

The bread tastes great. I told Vince it should last twice as long because one slice is as big as two regular slices. Vince did volunteer to try a slice of it and he says it tastes great. Just weird!