Further Cutbacks

While I should be talking about the tragic layoffs happening around the world, this post is really about more foods that I can't eat. As if the dairy wasn't restrictive enough.

My family and I have long suffered from mouth ulcers (aka aphthous ulcer, canker sore, aphthous stomatitis, Sutton's Disease) that can take more than a month to heal. It is unbelievably painful and interferes with one of my greatest pleasures in life - eating. I think I may have 5-6 of them for the past 2 weeks - 2 in the back of my throat, one under my tongue, one on the tongue, one on my gum and one on my lip (which thank goodness is healing because I was looking like a collagen injection gone terribly wrong and drooling). I had to put my head down on my desk and almost cried just trying to eat breakfast and dinner yesterday. I've been treating myself with ibuprofen and anbesol.

I think that the break out may have happened due to lack of sleep, stress, trauma to the mouth (I have TMJ), overindulgence in wine and acidic foods (e.g., tomatoes, grapefruit), and general immunodeficiency issues. I have cut out my daily half a grapefruit, cut out tomato-based foods (pasta sauce, tomato soups), and wine. I will have to hit the Duane Reade for toothpaste that doesn't have sodium lauryl sulfate and milk of magnesia to gargle with. And after a year of M and Doris suggesting, I will make an appointment with a GI specialist.