Sunday, November 23, 2008

Knees should not look like basketballs

I may have mentioned before that the Rocket Scientist has an auto-immune disorder. Yeah and it's great fun to be had by all. No....not really.


The first time we became aware of it, we thought he had injured his foot. The doctors couldn't find anything wrong with it, yet it was swollen and extremely painful. Now my guy's tough rarely breaks. If he is wincing in pain.......it's bad! So, back to the doctors he went for some blood work. They thought maybe it was gout. They sent him home, told him to call back in a few days for the blood work results. You know....it came back inconclusive. The doctor told him to avoid red meat and get in shape. We wanted to do what was best. So we cut out all red meat and most meat in general. Trying to be a good wife I put him a vegetarian diet. Well..........not the right answer. The swelling got so bad and so painful. Both his ankle and knee started swelling. Eventually it went away and he went back to eating red meat. There were a few recurrences over the next year. Then we moved to Kansas. Can you believe the entire time we lived there......not one bad "out break."

I could drag this out.......but you all really don't want me to do that. Turns out soy is the trigger for him. His body just can not process it. Do you have any idea how many things have soy in it. Try to eat out and not consume soy or one it's products.

Over the years I have gotten really good at avoiding soy. Sometimes we miss something and the man ends up in extreme pain. Of course then I feel terrible for missing it.

Last week the RS's knee started bugging him. It wasn't long until it was as big as a basketball. The poor guy spent the last week in bed. I have been through everything. I can't figure out where he got the soy. I'd say this is one of the worst cases he has ever had.

So I'm back to the drawing board. I wish there was just a test that would say this is the thing that causes your knee to look like a basketball, but once again, no. We get to do trial and error. My next best guess is "high fructose corn syrup." Fortunately this is a bit easier to avoid. Sorry, Babe.....no more Soft Drinks for you.

11 comments:

Krista said...

You're going to have to go au naturale with feeding RS. No, I don't mean feeding him in the buff, but simple, whole foods. Pretend you don't live in the USA and make everything from scratch, like your good ol' friend had to do in Oz. You're a great cook (chef extraordinare) and I'm sure anything you cook will be wonderful! Maybe some recipes for those little things that PW always cooks! HA!

Nancy said...

Aaahhh!! SO sorry! I hate hate unexplained problems and it seems amazing and impossible to me that anyone every figures out what anything is. I was shocked you guys were even able to narrow it down to soy (and no, I had no idea soy was in everything), but I am just bummed for you guys that you have to keep limiting your diet. I'm sure it's probably healthier, but it certainly seems lots less fun. SORRY!

Kara said...

I emphathize!!! As you may well know why! Have you started a "food jornal"? Or got in contact with any one, or group that as autoimmune disorders? Thats how I found out about the mystry problem caused with "processed with alkalai" with Trev... Give him a hug for us and hope he feels not nervouse to eat on thursday!

Anonymous said...

Poor RS! Hope he gets to feeling better!

Maybe you should move back to Kansas!

Dawn said...

I never thought about soy and all the products that have it. This must be extremely difficult for you & RS to deal with. I am glad he is ok though and that you have been able to narrow it down!

orangemily said...

Oh man poor guy. Good luck figuring it out!

Flea said...

I'm so sorry to hear it! Do you have a good allergist? A friend of mine had her son on a series of shots, after his diet being limited to virtually nothing, and then found hte auto-immune issue. He can now eat nearly anything.

Karen said...

Oh, no! That high fructose stuff is in EVERYTHING so that will be difficult to avoid. I hope that you find what causes it and it's an easy one. Poor guy.

Anonymous said...

CarrieLT--KS is sounding really good today. If you can find someone who can turn a city boy into rancher, keep the pressure on. For that matter, OK isn't sounding bad either, Flea.

--The RS

Squirty Wart said...

Sorry to hear that RS is still having such a hard time with all that food stuff... Food limitations are a real pain... Especially when food is essential AND yummy! You considered Dr. K?

Will said...

Squirty... Why would she want to send him to Dr. Death? (Dr. K.) Dr. Kevorkian http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Kevorkian

Sorry, couldn't resist. Karen, keep him far away from that Dr. K. And it sucks that it is now legal in this state I live in.