Stomach Woes

I didn't want this much time to pass between posts, but I couldn't think of anything to write about.  I have been preoccupied with several things though.  With Spring (sorta) on it's way, I'm already thinking about my vegetable garden, and have been spending much time on the computer looking for advice from other Alaskan growers, but I'll save that for a future post.  Then my hubby bought us a new computer, and you know how the ol' saying goes:  "just when I learned all the answers, they changed all the questions".  Exactly.  So I had to relearn everything that I already knew how to do.  And I'm still trying to figure things out, while my hubby grows increasingly impatient with me.  Then we bought a new TV and rearranged the furniture to accommodate this huge 70" monster.  (I almost wished my daughter was ready to move out so we could give her a couch.)  But I have mostly been preoccupied with finding a cure for yet another stomach woe.  In the past, my stomach woes have been chronic gastritis with the occasional flare-up.  For those who don't know, gastritis is NOT a gas problem!!  Okay?  It is inflamed stomach lining which makes it very uncomfortable to eat food.  But the last couple times I've had stomach woes, the pain more resembled the activities of an ulcer, which I should've expected, since gastritis is often a pre-cursor to ulcers.  So here I am with another ulcer, or at least I'm pretty sure that's what it is.  Last time I had this, I wasn't quite sure if that's what it was, so I just watched what I ate, and it went away.  Or did it?  I'm thinking that maybe it didn't quite go away, and I probably irritated it and flared it up. (I'm not looking for sympathy here, I'm just looking for a cure.)  So I spent the entire week on the internet looking for a home remedy.  I don't want to go to the doctor cuz all they do is throw antacids at you, and, having learned from past experiences, this is not the route I wanna take.

                                          So where's Granny Clampett when you need her?

This is what I am trying.  Aloe Vera juice, Black licorice root, Slippery Elm tea, Cabbage juice, and Carrot juice.  There's a lot of other things I could've tried, but the weird hocus-pocus stuff gets expensive.  The Aloe Vera juice is something I've been taking for a long time now.  Initially, I started taking it for stomach reasons, but I recently found out by accident just how bad my joint pain really is if I quit taking it, so now I take it for joint pain more than for my stomach.  I was skeptical of the Slippery elm, but I was surprised that it really does work.  It claims to help heal the gut lining, and I don't know how much of that is true, but it does help my stomach be pain-free.  And it even tastes good.  Well, actually, it really doesn't have much of a flavor, and your "tea" just looks like a cup of hot water, but it makes the water feel very "smooth" going down your throat, so it's a very soothing drink, and even helps me sleep better through the night.  I researched this weird stuff on the internet, and found out it's used for lots of other things besides ulcers, including inducing sleep, so there ya go.  This is a good thing to always have in your medicine cabinet.  The cabbage juice is something that is ranted and raved about all over the internet in regards to healing ulcers, so I thought I would give it a shot.  The problem is that most websites say to make it with a juicer.  Well, I don't have a juicer, so I had to look harder and longer for a website that explained how to make it with a blender.  It's extremely easy to make, but the first batch takes three days of sitting on your counter before it's ready, which means your husband will complain about the house smelling like sauerkraut and you might not want to have any company over.  But after the first batch is made, if you put a little bit of that already fermented stuff in your new batch, then it only takes one day.  It tastes pretty nasty by itself, which is where the carrot juice comes in.  I mix my cabbage juice with an equal amount of carrot juice, and then it's actually not too bad.  So I'm going to try this for 10-14 days and see if it actually works.  It's a little early to tell at this point, but I'd like to truthfully say that I think all of these things put together are already helping me feel better - as long as I don't do something stupid like eat a ginormous slice of pizza dripping with gooey greasy cheese topped high with sausage and pepperoni.  For now I'm sticking with baked potatoes, rice, yogurt w/banana, and salad.  If there's anything good about stomach woes, they force you to eat right!!  At least temporarily............