Sorry that it has been a while since I have updated, but I have been extremely busy these past couple of weeks. But I wanted to provide a few updates below:
Update on Diet Progress:
As most of you know, I have been gluten and milk free for quite a while now. There have been some good results, but unfortunately not with the Cholinergic Urticaria. I still have Cholinergic Urticaria symptoms, and I do not see any noticeable difference with the new diet.
However, being milk free has definitely helped my stomach and skin rashes (eczema) clear right up. I feel better as well. However, the cholinergic urticaria is still here full force. So I plan to continue to cut out milk for sure (probably for the rest of my life just because I have a severe intolerance now). However, I may slowly introduce gluten into my diet soon (Thanksgiving is coming up…yum yum). So basically, milk is still being avoided, gluten is once again an option, but in moderation (I will still avoid it if possible).
Update on Cholinergic Urticaria (hives)
As I mentioned before, I was going to attempt an experiment of more Vitamin D and sun exposure to see if that will help the hives. However, this experiment is definitely being placed on hold until it gets warmer. It is actually been snowing here recently, and it is freezing (my thermostat says about 60 right now).
Of course, with the cold weather, the hives are super intense if I get hot. As long as I am in my apartment (my ice box) I am fine. But if I go out or into a hot building, then I instantly break out in a very painful and itchy reaction. A couple of people have also noticed a big change in their cholinergic urticaria symptoms on the Cholinergic Urticaria forum. So I hope everyone who’s hives are worse will make it okay through the winter and cold months.
Also, I had to go out today and run some errands, and I tried to take a Claritin (antihistamine) to see if that would help at all. I am in such fear of breaking out now that it is so cold. Luckily, I didn’t have a reaction, but it wasn’t due to the antihistamine. It just wasn’t very hot where I went today while I was out. When I got home, however, my wife had made a salad with vinegar dressing, and the vinegar made me get hot and prickly, especially on my face. So the Claritin didn’t help at all.
The bad new is, I can now confirm that I feel hung over after taking those things, and they give me a splitting headache! I really don’t know why I took it, I have already realized it doesn’t really help at all, but oh well.
I just hope I can tough it out through the winter and cold months, and when it gets warm I am hoping to get out a lot more and sweat!
Website/Blog and Forum Changes & Update
The website/blog portion:
As many of you have probably noticed, I have the comments turned ‘Off’ on the blog portion of this site. I never really explained why, but I felt like I should say something. First, I had so many great comments posted, and I really appreciate that!
However, for every 1 great comment, I would get 20 nasty spam comments (trying to sell me Viagra or something), and it was starting to take a lot of time sifting through all the junk to see the actual good comments. I do have a spam service on this blog, but there were still spam comments getting through. So I removed them completely. It is just way too time consuming dealing with all of that spam, and plus there is a forum if anyone wants to post anything. So I just feel like the comments aren’t really necessary since there is a forum, and I cancelled it out. I probably won’t ever bring the “comments” ability back, simply because it takes a lot of time, way to easy for spammers, and we have a forum to post info, thoughts, ideas, etc.
Also, I will probably be updating the design theme for this blog/website portion within the next few weeks. I also have some plans to take more pictures (since I can breakout so easily during the winter), and also post lots more articles, and maybe even a video of a live outbreak??
The forum portion:
First, just let me say that since starting this forum, there has been so many awesome people that joined and posts made! Thanks so much! I have learned a lot, and it helps being able to relate with others. Also, I feel that we will really be able to help out each other and others with Cu in the years to come, and give any updates if our conditions change, a new treatment is tested, or if it goes away (or we find anything out).
Unfortunately, someone has decided that they want to spam the forum with lots of Viagra offers, and porn. That is NOT COOL, and I delete this as soon as I find it on there.
Because of the recent spamming post and fake registrations, I have temporarily removed the ability to post pictures within a post, and have disabled links. I have also removed the personal messaging option to prevent the “real” forum members from getting spammed.
I am working on a few other things to make it more secure, and I am trying to eliminate this kind of thing from happening. So please bear with me. If you see any fake posts trying to sell Viagra or some crazy thing, or porn related content, please feel free to hit the “report to moderator” link if you want. However, I am on the forum several times per day now, and remove it as soon as I see it. But I want to apologize for anyone that might come across this junk until I can get it resolved.
I may be adding a few updates to the forum as well in the weeks/months to come. I may play with a design. Also, I may be adding new topics, and moving threads/posts under them to re-organize the forum a little better to make it easier to read and find information. So rest assured that I won’t delete any one’s post, however, I may re-categorize them under a different topic once I set everything up.
Also, remember that you are always welcome to post new ideas, suggestions/topics for the site/forum, and more. Even if you just want to get on there and vent about CU, your welcome to –just try not to use profanity please =). If you have any other suggestions on anything from content, to surverys/polls, or anything else, just let me know!
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Posted under Diet, general information, hives talk
