I have had quite a week trying to figure out how this new medicine, Gastrocrom, works.  There is a bit of a learning curve on how much to take depending on what food I’m eating and how much I’m eating.  Overall it works fairly well… if I take the right amount.

It comes in these individual ampules of 5mL, and you mix them into water (plain water only) and drink it immediately.  It has no taste so it’s not at all unpleasant.  Then you have to wait half an hour before eating so that it has time to take effect.  I’ve figured out by trial and error that I need to take two doses before eating and then one dose about an hour after eating.

Gastrocrom works by preventing the release of inflammatory chemicals such as histamines from mast cells.  So while the medicine is in my system, my body doesn’t react to the foods I’m allergic to.  The problem I was having this week was that the medicine was wearing off while the food was still in my stomach.  I ate a huge meal (our anniversary dinner at Outback) and was fine perfectly fine for about two hours.  Then it hit me… hard.  I got the super bad headache (from the soy), and overwhelming nausea (from the wheat).  So that’s when I added the second half-dose after eating, while the food was still in my stomach.  I was able to eat my Outback leftovers with no problems.

I think I’ve got it mostly figured out now.  However, I am still experiencing some of the lasting effects of the foods such as needing my inhaler more often again and more ear/throat aggravations.  I think I still need to be avoiding the foods for the most part, but this week we’ve been enjoying lots of the foods we had been missing out on the last couple of weeks.