Potatoes?

[YouKnowWho]

So DH is obviously gluten intolerant and as a family at meals, we avoid it due to my son's allergy.  He also struggles with tomatoes, peppers and beans in regards to acid and extreme agony.

NQ and I will take parts of this down -
DH has a long standing issue with gas (up, never down), bloating and constipation.  This isn't a little uncomfortable, this is agony uncomfortable.  We have received several thoughts on what it is, but no idea of the cause.  He was scheduled for a scope but has rescheduled twice because of financial reasons (one child has met the deductible for the year, the other one is $80 off meeting the deductible - if both meet, then then family has met the deductible which greatly reduces the cost...sad since our year started June 1st).  Hoping to find out two things with the scope - Celiac and/or EE (I am leaning towards the latter given he has so many issues with foods).

He has had food allergy testing before with some positives but Dr said not to worry about them  (this was about 15 years ago on a basic top-8 panel through an allergist that specializes in environmental allergies, same chain that tried to kill DS1 with their lack of food allergy knowledge).  He has had IgG testing which I just went back to look at but other than coffee and gluten, he is fine with everything else on the list (yes, I know it's a load of hooey, but DH gets frustrated when he cannot find results with conventional medicine).   Oddly enough the IgG revealed high allergies to milk which he has had issues with until we went to raw.  Depending on the scope results, I may push him to go to my son's allergist for food allergy testing.  But I am wondering if this falls into the category of intolerance and not a reaction (though the hives have me concerned).  He has extreme environmental allergies which got sligthly better with allergy shots. 

I am trying to track his intake and get him to write down what he is eating and what he is taking in regards to supplements.  Might just be easier for him to admit that I am right once in a while though.

So a few months ago, we noticed he would get incredibly flushed when drinking a potato based vodka.  We played it off to the cranberry juice or possibly even the liquor.  Then he started developing flushing and hives in the last few weeks.  This does not happen with rum and cranberry juice.  He is drinking in moderation these days and not often at that given his other issues.  Flushing and hives start within the first few sips.

Given that we avoid gluten and DH is not a fan of rice based meals, we eat a lot of potatoes.  A lot of potatoes.  This week, I made baked potato soup which he had for dinner Tuesday night and lunch on Wednesday (which he tops with cayenne pepper).  He is back to being in agony.  Initially we thought it was the unpasteurized milk (he has an eggnog for breakfast every morning with raw free range eggs and raw milk) that was making him feel better a few weeks ago.  Then we thought it was the combination of supplements (milk thistle, peppermint oil, MSM and a few others.  But looking back at the dinner schedule, I realize that was a week that I didn't make many potatoes. 

Could it be potatoes?  And would anyone like to adopt a husband who cannot eat gluten, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes or deal with brewing coffee (his sinuses immediately plug up with the latter) if that is the case?  Already dealing with a very underweight DS1 who is gluten and egg allergic.  So potatoes are my go to starch.  Dinner hour is stressful enough...

Signed a mom who cannot cook with gluten, egg, most dried beans, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, bananas, certain gas producing veggies, peanuts, tree nuts and now probably potatoes.

[AllergyMum]

Hang in there you can do it.

Can your husband try going potatoes free for a couple of weeks and see if it makes any difference.

[GoingNuts]

Aren't potatoes nightshades, as are tomatoes and peppers?  How is he with eggplant?

I'd agree with eliminating potatoes for a few weeks and see what happens, then introduce one. 

Digestive intolerances suck, no doubt about it.

[YouKnowWho]

He cannot stand eggplant and since I have developed my allergy to it (or realized that OAS is stepping up like it did with bananas to the ana rxn territory), we never have it in the house.  The kids have never been keen on it but their tastes are changing - I will leave it to my SIL who adores it to bring in the house for them.

Never realized what an role potatoes played in our life until I tried to plan meals for the week without them.  I think DH is just going to have to avoid them when on the table because DS1 really needs the carbs. 

[GingerPye]

My SIL is allergic to potatoes, although I think she said it is more of an intolerance. 

Histamine?

[twinturbo]

We have had roughly that list for a while. Our staple rice we replaces with a quinoa + brown rice combination typically light frying it with a small amount of onion to get the mustiness out.

[CMdeux]

maybe I'm stating the obvious here, but...

um...

if he has trouble with peppers, then what the heck is he doing topping ANYTHING with cayenne?   

(Or paprika, for that matter.)

[YouKnowWho]

I meant green peppers at the time - we thought he was tolerating paprika and cayenne.  Oddly enough the first meal he started refusing was green pepper goulash (with tomatoes and liberal amounts of paprika).

Stupid as stupid does though - don't ask me what he had for lunch and the rest of us have to do without.  He has me in a mood right now...

[Astyas]

I'm also allergic to bell peppers, and the rest of the nightshades, and both cayenne pepper and paprika are made from peppers, so that could be part of the problem... Even turmeric is made from peppers. A lot of companies toss those types of spices in products with no better description than "spices" on the label. 

Does your DH like yams or sweet potatoes? They're actually in a different family and can be a good starch substitute! Maybe you can try different types of rice like Jasmine or Wild? Oo! Or maybe couscous? Can your family eat corn or hominy?

[catelyn]

Classic celiac.

Its always everything that bothers you but the wheat.  My mouth would be RAW from eating tomato.  I couldn't look at lettuce it made me so sick.  Look at any celiac board and you see it over and over again.  I had a LONG list of things that bothered my insides none of which was wheat.  Eliminated gluten and NONE of those things bothers me anymore.  A damaged gut has trouble period not just with gluten.

Couscous is wheat you don't want to go there.

Quinoa?  We eat a lot of quinoa.

Six months before I was dx I had an episode very similar to his recent one you've posted.  I was literally lying on the bathroom floor and coudln't get up. I was VIOLENTLY ill.  It is the ONLY time in my life I have called Ralph and said you HAVE to come home from work.  All I had had to eat that day was a coffee and a donut (bad I know) but I couldn't rationalize how that could make me THAT sick. 

I had MAJOR episodes for YEARS that in hind sight were so classic but they were so randomly spaced that it wasn't so clear cut that it was celiac vs a stomach bug.