Singulair

I think I'm getting the hang of this drug now.

The consultant said it should be taken about three hours before going out to a meal. I reckon between 12 and 24 hours is more like it.

Yesterday I went to a function and was surprised to find canapes - that's snacks - being served in generous proportions. I hadn't eaten and was hungry so I took what I could.

This included rice balls, fish of various kinds and chocolate eclairs. Also something with a little roll of beef in it. The fish had lots of lemon in it - and I try to avoid lemon. I took the pill afterwards and then searched for something edible at a railway station.

At Marks and Spencer I found a sandwich made of Wensleydale cheese, lettuce and caramelised carrot chutney. That seems innocent enough.

There were some fairly unpleasant effects in the hours immediately following this adventure and I had to spend some time in the bathroom. But today I have been fine - no itching and my skin in pretty good condition. I can only attribute it to the Singulair - impressive even if it takes a while. And the side-effects are much fewer than with anti-histamines. No deep sleeping, weird dreams or "hangover".

Jack Daniels

According to my list, whisky, gin and vodka are the only alcoholic drinks I can take.

I liked whisky but have been bothered for some time it doesn't seem to do me any good. I'm used to drinking Scotch whisky, preferably Glenmorangie or some such, and last Christmas everybody gave me bottles of it.

Recently I've been trying out American strains, mainly Jack Daniels. I don't know much about this but undoubtedly Scotch is richer and more flavoured than Jack Daniels and this is apparently because it's matured in oak caskets and distilled using peat - or something like that.

Now because only about one scientific study has ever been done of salicylate levels, the odds are it used American whisky. Maybe Scotch picks up salicylate from its caskets, peat and other natural processes.

So on Saturday I went to a party and drank Jack Daniels all evening, quite a lot I have to confess, roughly speaking as much as I'd normally drink in a month. I did take a Singulair earlier in the day and later wondered whether I should check more carefully whether it mixes with alcohol. Sunday - no symptoms, no hangover. So it looks like those bottles of Scotch will make good Christmas presents for other people this year.

Dinner party

We threw a dinner party at the weekend and one of our guests was Canadian.

We all shared the same main course, a chicken casserole. It was delicious, soft succulent meat in a creamy sauce. Our guests ate our crispy cabbage/leek vegetables as well as carrots and brocolli- which I could not eat.

My starter was different from the others, papaya rather than melon. But we all shared a chocolate pudding with dessert. The guests had wine, I drank whisky.

So we've now established it's possible to produce a highly edible chicken casserole, certainly for Canadians. I'll share the recipe when I can get it off my wife.

Sunday afternoon

Sunday afternoon and I would kill for a cup of redbush tea.

The first anniversary of this diet approaches and very soon I'll be putting together some fantasy meals. I've enjoyed my diet of cabbage, bananas, water and cashew nuts (...and one or two other foods) but every so often something reminds me what I'm missing...such as that Sunday afternoon craving for a cup of tea.

By last week life was at full swing again after the summer holidays and I went to a couple of catered meals. The consultant had suggested that a tablet of Singulair three hours before such a meal might minimise its effects. On Monday it was a steak and kidney pie with a suspiciously sweet sauce - almost certainly made with tomato. On Tuesday I tried a chicken and mushroom pie. Let's just say it was all too much for the Singulair. So back to being careful again.

Chocolate biscuits

We got back from holiday and I was a picture of health. We went to the west country and had quite an active time. Not much eating out although I indulged in fish and chips and ice creams. I aimed to have the local variety usually because a) it's nicer and b) in Devon and Cornwall they pack it with cream rather than vegetable fats.

I resorted to Singulair a couple of times and it seemed to work. Once was when I was bitten on the forehead by a horse fly and my face started to swell. No obvious side-effects apart from maybe some difficulty in sleeping - the reverse of anti-histamines. And the pain in my gums evaporated totally after a few days.

Unfortunately when we got home there wasn't much food in the house and quite a lot of catching up to do. So it's been a case of digging deep in the freezer and the larder. I made a spaghetti sauce last night by slicing carrots finely and adding shallots, celery and bacon - and of course soy sauce. It was a bit chunky - rather like a vegetarian meal - but otherwise rather nice.

Then I started searching for chocolate and found a half-eaten tin of Belgian biscuits. First I consumed a couple of plain biscuits and then moved on to the others - basically so far as I could tell macaroon based using almonds. So in one foul swoop I may have wiped out the good effects of the holiday.

Or maybe not. I suffered some tummy problems but my skin stayed fairly good. Tonight we reintroduced corn on the cob - no obvious problems. Who knows - a diet of sun, sea and country food may have helped me turn the corner. We shall see.

Nettles

About a week ago I was thrashing some stinging nettles and got caught on the elbow. Oddly they didn't sting too much - but enough to cause some involuntary itching.

I was away at the time and driving home the next day I noticed my arm was a little stiff. Then I realised it was quite swollen.

The miles passed and I could feel the swelling getting to my neck. Thankfully I had some anti-histamines with me so stopped and took one - and that seemed to do the trick.

Then yesterday I was caught again. It looks as if all the summer rain has caused a blossoming of nettles of all things - they're everywhere. This time it was on the hand so I didn't hang around and smeared the sting bumps with Anthisan. Again that seemed to do the trick.

Now I have had some gum problems recently and about a week ago both I and my GP thought I had an abscess on a tooth. It was mighty painful. The dentist checked it and diagnosed a gum infection exposing a root nerve. He's never come across salicylate allergy (or hypersensitivity to use the correct phrase) before but seemed to agree that it might be causing gum inflammation - and hence the trapping of food.

Curious that tonight the gum pain is back - but it's also on the upper jaw. A quick check in the mirror suggests the gums are awfully inflamed. So tonight I've taken in order a paracetamol, an anti-histamine and then for the first time a table of Singulair. That's been suggested by the consultant and prescribed by the GP. It's an asthma medicine also used for "seasonal allergy" according to the description. There's a worrying list of potential side-effects. We'll see.

Salicylate free pasta sauce

If somebody else is cooking the main meal, get them to cook the pasta and mince and then leave some mince out for you.

Slice a circle of red cabbage and a couple of slices of leek. Chop all this as finely as possible, including the white core of the cabbage. You can also use celery chopped finely too.

Then in a separate frying pan, using rapeseed oil, fry all the vegetables lightly. Add the mince and some soy sauce, say a quarter bottle. Simmer for a while, especially if you are having to cook the pasta.

When ready to serve add some more soy sauce, maybe another quarter bottle, and allow half a minute to warm it. The cabbage and the soy will give the sauce moisture, compensating for not having tomato.

My favourite meal!

By gum!

Thankfully I was too busy to book an appointment with the dentist last week.

The toothache caused by the garlic meal recurred nightly and I was taking paracetamol to relieve the agony. I was almost convinced there was something wrong with the back tooth - except that every morning when I woke up the pain had gone. Also it was not confined to the one spot - but cropped up in other parts of the jaw. So by the end of the week I concluded that my gums had gone hypersensitive.

My big fear is that I'll get an unbearably painful flare-up on the gums and end up with the dentist - who will assume an infection and pull a tooth or some such. I lost one tooth last year before all this was diagnosed.

But, as I write, the teeth are right as rain. Even though I went away for the weekend I managed to be tough on food without starving. I had a lettuce sandwich for one meal while others tucked into cooked food - but I survived!

I did come back with a swollen forehead. It may have been an insect nip. There's a red patch on the scalp. I took two antihistamines and slept soundly for two nights and it's gone.

Coming up, I promise: The recipe for a perfect salicylate free bolognese sauce.

Garlic and beef

Oddly, garlic appeared on my latest diet sheet as having negligible salicylate. I'm sure it was never there before.

So we used it to season the Sunday lunch - beef. The beef came out quite tough and difficult to chew and bits started getting stuck in my teeth, in the top left jaw.

That caused unpleasant irritation but as I ate it seemed as though some got stuck in the bottom right teeth too. Within minutes I was in excruciating pain and we ran off to get paracetamol. Eventually the pain died down and I survived yesterday with the merest feeling of soreness around the jaw. And a good scrub got rid of the bits from the upper teeth.

This morning the irritation was back in the bottom right jaw - and seemed to come from the wisdom tooth at the back . Now for the last 12 months any tooth problems I've had have been caused by allergic reactions and have gone away. But by this time I was thinking maybe it was time to see the dentist. After all trapped food can also cause abcesses and infection. Then the irritation started spreading to my tongue and throat. A sign of allergic reaction?

I had things to do so left it - although for the first time in months I took my Epipen with me. In time all the pain disappeared. Maybe no need for the dentist and no stuck food. Just a reaction to the garlic, I suppose.

Tonight I agreed to finish off the beef and tried to soften it by cooking it in left over gravy. Stupid thing to do. A piece got stuck in the same place in the upper jaw and this time I can't get it out. And now the pain (or inflammation) has spread to the lower left jaw, not the right side this time. So now I've taken a couple of anti-histamines in the hope of reducing the inflammation and freeing the food.

Last time I try garlic.

Shampoo!

I've finally got round to purchasing and using a baby shampoo and conditioner. I'd been a little embarrassed about going into a shop and buying the stuff so I persuaded my wife to get it. It was my hairdresser who first suggested this and the response to an earlier post finally persuaded me I had to do something about it - so thank you, Laura! No obvious reactions or burning of the skin - as I had from Imperial Leather - but my left eye is a little sore again today. That could be from the glass of whisky I had over the weekend. I'm still not sure about whisky.

I still need to get my glasses out to read the ingredients on the shampoo. The conditioner seems okay - apart from various gums and cellulose additives, which I have wondered about before.