No Comment

I've changed the settings of this blog so that only members of the blog can comment. I don't even know exactly what that means, but it sounds like the most restrictive option. I've done this because the only comments I've gotten lately are inappropriate spam. I considered taking down the blog entirely, but since it seems to have helped some people, I've decided to leave it up for the time being.

Regards,
Angela

Comments

I have changed the settings on this blog so that comments must be reviewed by me before they are posted to the blog. Therefore, they won't appear immediately.

I'm sorry to have to do this, but I've been getting too many inappropriate comments that I've been having to delete. Even links to naughty websites in German! Tsk tsk.

Angela

Hello to new readers

Wow, it's good to see so many new people commenting on the blog. I was thinking about taking it down because I haven't been posting lately. My situation is much improved and pretty stable, and I don't have much to say. But I'm glad to see that it's useful to other people, and will therefore leave it up. And of course, I'm interested in what everybody else has to say.

Best to all of you,
Angela

Milestone

I haven't posted lately because not much has changed, but lately I've noticed that my mouth is getting gradually better. The other night I was able to eat enough hot sauce to make my nose run! I consider this a breakthrough.

Slight Improvement

I have noticed a slight improvement in my mouth lately. Friday night we went to a barbecue restaurant and I ate all the beans without even thinking about it. Later I remembered that they put a little jalapeno in the beans. It didn't hurt at all!

Last month we went to New Mexico and ate some New Mexico red chile enchiladas in Taos. I thought they seemed a little hot, but not painful. We bought some dried, powdered red chile powder (mild/medium) and I tried making enchiladas using that. (We got the recipe at the restaurant.) It really seemed mild. I think we still have some of the hotter chile powder from the last time we went to NM; I'm going to try using a little of that next time.

Maybe eventually this will fade away and I will be able to eat hot peppers again!

Turning Up the Heat

I haven't posted for a while because there hasn't been much change, but I've decided maybe I need to toughen up my mouth a bit. I've been able to eat a little bit of peppers for a while, but I'm going to try to increase the heat some. I've read several times that one of the treatments for BMS is peppers, but in the past that has seemed very undesirable. Now I'm at the point where it might make sense.

My husband likes to make Mexican scrambled eggs (his own recipe) for breakfast on Saturday mornings. He's been making it very mild, for my benefit, but this morning I asked him to put more peppers in it than he has been. Just in case, I asked him to make the chunks of jalapenos bigger so I could pick them out if necessary. But it wasn't! It seemed kind of hot, but I could handle it. And man, was it good!

My goal is to be able to eat peppers hot enough to drain my sinuses when they're stopped up.

Also, I've been drinking coffee, with a lot of milk, almost every day. (Although I'm drinking much less than I used to, usually only one cup or less per day.) But I think I'll try decreasing the milk gradually. Before I developed BMS I used to drink it black, and very hot. (I would always stick it in the microwave for a few seconds after pouring a cup.) I've been able to drink it a little hotter already than I was when I started drinking it again a few months ago, so that's an improvement.

We'll see what happens.

Ireland

I just got back from a two-week vacation in Ireland, which was wonderful. My mouth has gotten a good bit better--I drank coffee (with milk) every day, and enjoyed it. Also orange juice. Of course Irish cuisine is not known for its spiciness, but we did eat Indian food one evening. The dish I ordered was termed "medium" in heat, but I think that meant medium to Irish taste buds. It certainly didn't seem hot to this Texan.

I'm wondering if it's the lack of stress that helped my mouth. Or, as my friend says, the fabulous cream they have in Ireland. (All the dairy products are good.) Maybe I should quit my job and move there. When I win the lottery....

I'm optimistic that my mouth will continue to improve. I'm determined to keep a positive outlook and not let myself get too stressed about things.