Ice!

 Three, small, fillings at the dentist today - the first I've had for a long time.

That's not bad considering I haven't used toothpaste for six years. But three fillings in one day is too many and expensive also.

So I've resolved to do better.This will be my belated New Year resolution. I had a think about things and realised I'm not drinking as much water as before. I used to alternate it with my half-pints of decaf coffee and I've stopped doing it. I just drink decaf by the pint.

So even though I was eating a lot of cheap chocolate the water, which is fluoridated here, must have swilled my mouth out.

And here's how I'm going to make this happen. We are going to keep the freezer stocked with ice cubes, just like we do on holiday. This will have another great spin-off. For while instant decaf does nothing to keep me awake when I'm working, iced water surely will.

RAS

Kill or cure!

Sometimes silence here simply means I haven't got a clue what the h... is happening.

So I thought I shook off my cold in December by drinking redbush tea. And I kept to my resolution not to drink wine over Christmas. Quite a lot of whisky was consumed.

And then I came out of Christmas with a chronic stuffy nose. I thought maybe I had overdone the redbush tea and small things seemed to be causing reactions. For instance at the weekend I had nachos at the cinema but I did have them with cheese sauce. That definitely made my throat a little sore.

Now I am not so convinced. I woke up the other day and my left wrist was sore. In fact today my throat is sore on the left side and so is my eye and my leg is starting to feel sore. I am feeling hard done by because it is exactly why I didn't touch wine over Christmas to avoid these sort of symptoms.

Nevertheless I am beginning to think the problem is a lingering virus, maybe even .... flu. In fact I am feeling quite run down. This may be aggravated by the British freeze. Temperatures plunging to at least minus three have caused power cuts and put our central heating off. No wonder I'm a little shivery.

So I'm back on the redbush tea. Kill or cure!

RAS

Christmas cold

It arrived suddenly on Sunday - a torrent of cold. It's my second bad cold in two years so maybe my immune system's getting better!

I've had the pleasure of drinking redbush tea all week to give the immune system a kick. It's not obviously worked. The cold has simply gone through the phases of a bad cold - a nose that doesn't stop running, a lost voice and attempts to get a cough going. Tonight it seems to be trying to get a cough and a fever going.

The tea must have been well past it's sell-by date. I soon finished the half-a-dozen sachets in the box and went out to get another one.

So has the redbush tea made things better or worse? It could have aggravated the runny nose and sore throat for all I know, like a combined cold and hay fever.

If you remember my theory from last autumn, the allergic reactions seem to give a broad response which see off most viral attacks early. If the virus gets past this, it may cause problems. You could call it a salicylate-resistant virus. Because the fine-tuned parts of the immune system don't have to deal with many viruses, they are less prepared.

I haven't helped myself by not getting enough sleep. Pre-Christmas stress. I've no plans to drink wine to see it off - as I have in the past. That's a medicine with side-effects and usually leaves me with stiff joints for weeks.

RAS

Backache

It arrived at the weekend. Actually the real problem is with the digestive system but I don't like to talk about that. That may be why I have not posted much in the last few weeks.

The rule of thumb is that raw food hits the mouth and throat and you can tell almost instantly if there is a problem. Big offenders are onions and pepper and they tend to crop up in plain English cooking, such as shepherd or cottage pies, or in coleslaw. Somebody served me a delicious shepherd's pie the other day, no pepper, but stuffed with onions and as a result my throat seized up and my nose ran - but it lasted no more than a few hours.

My skin is generally fine, clear as a bell. The Splodge has stayed away, even in spite of the occasional indulgence with Stilton and other blue cheeses. And there have been no rashes. That's because essentially I stick to a low-salicylate diet and mostly to a zero salicylate diet.

But if the food is processed or highly prepared it slips past the throat into the digestive system. That's happening all the time. I may take a pill if I'm having somebody else's food and I may think I get away with it. But the truth is that in spite of keeping pretty fit I've got serious inflammation around the abdomen - I'm pussy-footing around descriptions - and all that goes with it.

Well that caught up with me at the weekend when a muscle at the back of the abdomen pulled. It's taking a while to heal. There were all sorts of reasons but you cannot kid me that the state of my digestive system is not part of it

RAS

Holiday disaster

It was two years ago that a good dose of holiday sunshine burnt the original Splodge from my chest.

So my hopes were high as we set off for holiday climes this year. Surely the resurgent branding on my chest would also burn off rapidly, I thought.

It's a little too early to say - but maybe I did not help myself. A holiday's a break. I took a montelukast every day and let myself indulge in wine and olives. The pill, the sunshine and plenty of fresh air and activity should do the trick, I thought. I try to use sensitive skin or clear sun creams or oils - there seems to be no reaction.

And indeed, while on holiday, it was terrific. No problems - except that the new Splodge faded but did not go away.

Back home? I've had to take a paracetamol tonight. I have sporadic shooting pains all over my limbs, up my left leg and arm and down my right arm. This has happened before: I get it into my head that I can drink a little wine on holiday - and I spend weeks paying for it afterwards.

RAS

Qorn

I think I have an explanation for the return and growth of the splodge on my chest. Over the last few weeks I've spent some time in the company of a vegetarian. I have nothing against vegetarians. But meals tend to get produced  which appear to be chicken but are in fact made with the Qorn meat substitute.

What is Qorn? It's a fungus, like mushroom. So this tends to confirm the theory that I am reacting to fungi. Originally the dietitian said mushrooms were problematic and it depended where they were grown. I assumed this meant that if they were grown in salicylate rich compost - as most commercial mushrooms would be - they were off limits. On this basis Qorn should be okay as, according to Wikipedia, it's grown in vats, not in compost, and fed merely with glucose, vitamins and minerals. But it's obviously not okay.

Thanks to a small amount of sunshine over the weekend the splodge is fading a little and is less red and itchy. Let's hope this continues. Meanwhile I have told everyone, sorry, I won't be eating Qorn again.

RAS

Vinegar and mayonnaise

The returned Splodge is now about the size of a 2p piece. I have been trying to work out what I am doing wrong as my diet has been pretty well controlled for the last few weeks.

Two theories. One is that I have become rather casual about vinegar as though it is okay. As vinegar is merely a kind of wine, of course it is not ok. In particular I've been downing the mayonnaise liberally. You can't have coleslaw without mayonnaise and we're making our own now. I even made tuna mayo with sweetcorn the other night. I decided that mayo must be okay because it's mainly egg - but it's also got vinegar. And certainly at one point last week the speckled rash was back on my tummy.

But there's a second idea. The original Splodge was triggered by penicillin and stilton cheese (the green mould in stilton contains penicillin). So this report about fungus allergy was interesting. Is penicillin allergy actually a fungus allergy? Now our kitchen fridge doesn't seem very cold and there's been quite a bit of mould appearing. I had a slice of cheddar cheese a couple of days ago which tasted quite like stilton. Could it be mould?

Roll on the summer holidays when I might be able to burn off the Splodge. No chance in this wet, wet English weather!

RAS

Branded!

The splodge is on the way back and it looks as though I've been branded. There are two neat markings on my chest, one a half moon and the other slightly larger than a penny. The truth is they itch a little - and the itching makes me scratch. They are clearly growing.

I've not been taking penicillin or eating stilton cheese so it's a bit of a mystery.

However after several weeks of indulgence - could this possibly be the reason? - I've resolved to carry a stock of montelukast with me at all times and to take it daily. There have been weddings and banquets and business meals and all sorts of events. And frankly I've nearly given up  trying to get my special diet recognised. When I have a choice I choose fish - but the chances are it's cooked in a rich broth of herbs. And at weddings and set piece meals, you don't get a choice. The best you can do is to get the waiter to take it away and scrape off the gravy. Might as well do it myself.

At the wedding I toasted the bride and groom with champagne and nearly choked on it. I'm not convinced about shallots either - we keep a stock for cooking but I really don't like them, nor does my throat.

All this needs a pill beforehand and a pill afterwards

When we had a brief bout of hot sunshine in the UK I exposed myself  to it - but it was not enough. We are planning our summer holiday in a hot location so I'm hoping it will scorch the splodge away before it covers my whole chest again.

I hope so because I really cannot imagine going to my GP and explaining how I got an enormous rash over my chest.

RAS

Craving for things I can't have

I'm watching a TV programme and they've having a bit of a party with pizza and bottles of beer. I walk down the road and I smell curry in the air. I go to a meal with friends and it's at one of those places where they specialise in spicy food from around the world. We go to a medium-priced restaurant and I know the best food is served with savoury sauces or in pies. I choose battered fish. We go to a carvery and I choose beef and gammon. It may be salicylate-low but it's rich in omega-6 and triggers reactions over the next few days.

In truth if I taste something I haven't tasted for years - like orange or mango - it just tastes weird. But I am beginning to feel the chronic sensory deprivation. Smell can't make it up. Even worse I'm worried that I'm starting to substitute sweet and chocolaty food to try to appease my deprived taste-buds. I can't seem to get my weight down. It's not enormous and I'm not obviously fat - I try to keep fit - but it's creeping up.

Perhaps I should invest in more cheese and whisky - hardly the normal stuff of a weight-loss diet.

RAS

Melon and wine

I found myself at a meal with a set menu and no chance to give instructions to the caterers. Quite a posh meal actually.

Even worse I've run out of montelukast and haven't got round to ordering any more. There wasn't even any fish to counteract the salicylates.

And I was hungry.

So I ate some melon from the starter. Now, checking, I can't find melon on my list - I would guess moderate?

And I drank some wine, maybe about two glasses. I know it's "very high" - and you'll know I drink it occasionally and push the limits. After about two glasses, my tongue started to swell so I stopped.

The meal ended up being quite unbalanced. I ate the meat from the main course but no vegetables or potato (which was garnished0. And for dessert I had just custard.

Today my left eye is a little sore but I can't report any other long-term effects - although I'm not sure my eyesight is working properly. I guess if I tried drinking wine nightly, I'd soon start to creak again. But I'm wondering whether melon is really okay. However the truth is once you've got a taste for,  papaya melon - and mango - are rather tasteless.

RAS