medical update

preface: if you need a recap on my medical journey, then i recommend reading my previous post “medical history”. this update will make much more sense if you know the background information.
i recently saw my gi (gastrointestinal) doctor to come up with a game plan. i work very closely with him in managing my eosinophilic esophagitis symptoms, and have for a pretty long time. i mentioned in my previous post that i had to be put on an “elemental diet” to try and improve my condition. i was super honest with my doctor and told him that i had given up on that and started eating a variety of foods. it had gotten really hard for me, especially since eating is such a social activity. and if y’all have never gone on an elemental diet there isn’t room to judge me. my doctor was super understanding, but i told him i was older now and able to put my health as a higher priority. so, we decided to cut my diet back to only eight foods that i had been able to tolerate beforehand; strawberries, oranges, rice, black beans, garbanzo beans, corn, tomato, and lemon. that’s it, that’s all that my diet consists of. of course i’m still using my feeding tube at night to make up for the lost calories. he also started me on periactin, a medication to hopefully help with nausea. fortunately, i’ve taken it a few times now and it has helped with the nausea. unfortunately, it also makes me extremely drowsy and slightly dizzy as well. we’re hoping that it builds up in my system over time and the side effects diminish. i will also be going in for an upper endoscopy in about three months to see how my body is reacting to my current diet. i’m really glad i was able to work with him and come up with a good plan to help improve my quality of life. i may make another post about what my meals look like throughout the day on the elemental diet if that’s something you guys would want to see! and please let me know if you guys enjoy these medical updates. –signing off–
p.s. when i mention my “elemental diet” it is by no means your traditional definition of “diet”. this isn’t a means of losing weight, quite the opposite actually. this is a type of treatment to help with the symptoms caused by my chronic illness. “diet” simply refers to the foods that i eat on a daily basis.