New Year's Eve was a very nice, low-key evening with my family. I had dinner with my sister at the Wild Tuna in Naperville - I didn't take my husband because he isn't a fan of sushi. If you live in the Naperville area, I strongly suggest going to the Wild Tuna at least once. The restaurant is South on Rt. 59, closer to Plainfied. It's a strip-mall restaurant, but it has the best sushi I have ever tasted. My sister and I ordered five rolls, and each one was amazing! However, the only complaint I have is that Wild Tuna did not put in the roll description whether anything was "fried" - to be honest, I may not have been looking at the menu's description all that closely. I ordered the B-52 roll, which was yummy, but had a breaded, crunchy taste to it. Whoops! I had no idea this roll wasn't gluten free. Needless to say, my sister ate the remainder of the roll. I ate the piece of sushi - even though I could taste the breading- because once wheat has entered my mouth I'm already in trouble. I didn't finish the roll because I didn't want to get super sick. I spent the rest of the night being able to breath and my stomach wasn't knotting up, so I thought I had dodged a bullet.
On New Year's morning I woke up with my right ear throbbing. At first I thought I slept on it wrong; I completely forgot about the B-52 roll. I was irritable, sluggish and I was starting to get a sinus headache. For anyone with allergies, I'm sure you can relate to these symptoms. I was also pooping more than usual (I apologize for the bluntness, but unusual bowel movements is a symptom of gluten intolerance. I promise, I will write about bowel movements in a future post.). It wasn't until later on in the evening that I realized my body has been reacting the little amount of wheat I ingested from the B-52 roll. At this point it was too late to go the pharmacy to get some decongestant medication. This morning I woke up with my eyes a little sticky, my throat is scratchy, and I'm coughing. Plus, my ear has gone from throbbing to feeling clogged, which makes me a little deaf.
So, now what? If I wait too long to treat my symptoms, it will become a sinus infection and I will need to take antibiotics to get better. However, today I will be going to the pharmacy to pick up the generic version of Claritin-D 24-hour medication. I will also be sucking on cough drops to help with my chest cold. Thankfully, most cough drops state gluten free on the packaging. Since my immune system is in overdrive, I'm going to feed my body as much fresh fruits and vegetables to help myself get better faster. I'm also going to try to stay away from dairy, because dairy helps your body produce flem. Outside of a piece of cake today, since yesterday was my birthday and today is when my husband was able to make me a birthday cake (He's so sweet!), I'm going to cut sugar from my diet since I find eating sweets while I'm sick only keeps me sick. Plus, a chiropractor once told me I should drink V-8 when I'm sick, not orange juice, because bacteria grows in sugar and that will make me sick longer.
Now for the fun news. It's not just food you have to worry about being gluten free. It's also your medication and beauty products. Since I'm talking about medications today, I'll write about beauty products later. Wait?! What?! I have to worry about medication being gluten free, too?! Unfortunately, yes. Everything that you ingest has to be gluten free. Here is a list of the latest gluten-free medication. You need to check this list every time you get a new medication. Also, you need to tell your doctor and pharmacist you have gluten intolerance. Both may be able to check your prescription is gluten free - I say "may be able" because I cannot speak with authority on this statement.
I hope you had an amazing New Year's Eve and were able to have a relaxing New Year's day.
