Monday, February 27, 2012

Qualified to diagnose

IMG_3589e If you’ve been following along on the blog over the past few months you’ve read about our struggles with Maisie’s chronic nasal congestion.  We found out back in November that Maisie’s allergic to wheat, egg whites and dairy so we removed all those items from her diet and she seemed to be doing somewhat better.  The nasal congestion that was right in her nose cleared up and it wasn’t wet and blue up there anymore.  But unfortunately the removal of those foods did not completely clear up her condition and the congestion seemed further back in her sinuses. 

IMG_3598eThere was a thought that her adenoids could be the problem but after a visit to an ENT that was ruled out.  Our next stop was the allergist who performed further allergy tests only to find out that there were no additional allergies.  He then sent her for a CT scan where they found that Maisie had a major infection in her sphenoid sinuses.  He put her on a 28 day course of Augmentin and then a probiotic was added to help with the stomach side effects.  By day six of the Augmentin Maisie was suffering so much she was unable to sleep more than four hours due to being so congested when she was laying down so the doctor started her on steroids to try to reduce the swelling and allow her sinuses to open up a bit and provide her some relief.  Sadly the steroids only seemed to affect her mood, focus and attention and didn’t do the trick in helping her sinuses so after the five day course something else needed to be done. 

IMG_3602eNow that I’m medically qualified to make such decisions, thanks to my many consultations with Dr. Google, we are starting something new with Maisie.  I’ve learned that certain foods contribute to chronic nasal congestion with the biggest culprits being wheat, dairy, refined white sugar & high fructose corn syrup.  Since we’ve already completely removed wheat and dairy from Maisie’s diet we decided to see what would happen if we also removed the white sugar and corn syrup…I mean it can’t hurt and hopefully, fingers crossed, this will help my sweet little Maisie Miao Miao

IMG_3611eMaisie loves her sugar though and she really deserves sweet treats and needs the calories so yesterday I made a new sweet treat for my best girl and instead of using white sugar or corn syrup this Peanut Brittle uses Agave

The Peanut Brittle was very easy to make and tastes delicious.  If we find that removing white sugar and high fructose corn syrup from Maisie’s diet makes a difference with her congestion, you’ll be seeing more sweet recipes over on Cook Lisa Cook using sugar alternatives like Agave and honey.  Whether you’re eating sugar or not, this recipe is worth checking checking out, just click on the picture below to be taken to the recipe.IMG_3618e

More delicious recipes posted on Cook Lisa Cook include: Mango Lassi, Stir-Fried Asparagus with Water Chestnuts, Ginger & Cashews, Curried Roast Chicken Pieces with Spicy Sweet Potato & Carrots, Grilled Corn & Bacon Pudding, Oriental Chicken Salad, Potato Salad with Bacon, Coffee Crusted Steak, Home Style Chicken Curry, Watermelon FrostyMango Gazpacho, Toll House Double Stuff Oreo Brownies, Long Beans with Walnuts, Blacksmith Pizza, Rhubarb Crisp, Laksa, Math Book No Bake Cookies, Aloo Gobi, Mint Lassi, Red Curry Chicken, Lamb Curry, Grilled Corn, Avocado & Tomato Salad with Honey Lime Dressing, Baked Egg Cups Two Ways, Thai Peanut Salad, Holy Guacamole, Cantaloupe Agua Fresca, Wallaby Darned, Piggy-Out Cookies, Wicked Good New England Lobster Roll, Long Beans with Garlic, Super Simple Summer Shrimp Salsa Salad, Grandma’s Teriyaki Steak, Watermelon Tomato Gazpacho, Red Chinese Long Beans with Peppers & Red Curry, 24-Layer Crêpe Cake, Fig & Watermelon Salad, Grilled Chèvre & Fig Panini, Spicy Asian Cucumber Salad, Grilled Prawns, Spicy Brown Sugar Bacon, Kicked Up Piggy-Out Cookies, Pesto Pita Pizza, Cilantro Lime Chicken, Nutella Crêpes, Mango, Lime & Chile Spiced Ice Box Pie, Roast Beef & Garlic Herb Cheese Sandwich, Layered Crespelle with Bolognese, Fresh Mozzarella & Basil, Jamaican Jerk Meat Pies, Nutella No Bake Cookies, Velvety Mac & Cheese, Welsh Cakes, Tom Yam Ghoong (Spicy Shrimp Soup), Lime Jewels, Southwest Pasta Salad, Walnut Roca Squares, Uncle Bubba’s Shrimp & Grits, Chocolate Chip Gingersnaps, Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies, Copycat “KFC” Coleslaw, Happy 6th Birthday Maisie Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, Caramel Stuffed Apple Cider Cookies, Thin Mint Irish Coffee, Caramel Apples, “Rotisserie” Chicken, Pulled BBQ Chicken Sandwich, Mummy Hotdogs, Mango Upside Down Cake, Pork Belly Soup with Collard Greens, Aloo Tikki, Pink Strawberry Cake Balls, Praline Pumpkin Cheesecake, Apple Dumplings, Rum Cured Salmon, Apple, Cranberry & Rhubarb Crisp, Hasselback Potatoes with Garlic Sour Cream, Crunchy Oat, Almond, Cashew & Pebbles Granola Bars, Texas Chicken with Lime Butter, Biscoff Fudge, Eggnog Popovers with Cranberry Butter, Creamed Corn with Cheese and Cilantro, Potato Crusted Pork Chops, Oatmeal, Cashew & Chocolate Granola Bars, Texas Chicken Sandwich, Seared Scallops with Creamy Pesto & Lemon Pepper Pasta, Thai Chicken Noodle Soup, Glazed Lemon Squares, Chang-Style Brussels Sprouts, Maisie “safe” No Bake Cookies, Ponderosa Lemon & Sour Cream Tart, Pork Dumplings with Rice Wrappers, Sweet & Spicy Apple Pork, Dark Chocolate Dipped Candied Lemon Peel, Crunchy Fudgy Heart Bites, Double Chocolate Meyer Lemon Mousse Cake, Malted Pretzel Crunch, Shrimp & Avocado Salad with Carrot Ginger Dressing, Apple Pancakes and Baked Egg & Avocado.

Enjoy!

6 comments:

  1. Gosh - I sure hope this is the answer to her suffering. Poor thing. I hope her little nose clears up very soon!

    The brittle looks yummy!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous12:51 PM

    I am sorry that this happening to such a sweet girl. I did however get a GREAT laugh out of your statement: "Now that I’m medically qualified to make such decisions, thanks to my many consultations with Dr. Google." Keep up that humor and you can face any challenge! Hugs, Trixie

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sure hope you've found the solution to Maisie's congestion. Cannot imagine how frustrating it must be for her to long to sleep and not be able to.

    c

    ReplyDelete
  4. Man oh man, this is a tough one! Honestly, will be amazed if removing sugar helps with her congestion. I've never heard of such a thing, but my fingers are crossed that this new approach helps. Poor Maisie! And poor you, trying to keep her fed and happy with so many new food restrictions. You are a trooper, Lisa.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous10:58 PM

    Feel better Maisie!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh, poor Maisie! I hate that she has been suffering so much with congestion and a bad sinus infection. I wonder if they need to try another antibiotic? I do hope that the food restrictions help. You are SO creative in the kitchen - she is a lucky girl. That peanut brittle looks SO good!

    ReplyDelete

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