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White willow (Salix alba) is a natural source of salicylic acid

I was yapping on the phone with my Mom about stomach issues having had a share of problems of my own on Friday. She was complaining about her stomach being upset for not very obvious reasons. So I was giving her my $100/hr pre- Dr.’s visit diagnosis. You see she’s already been tested for a number of issues and thus far the Doctors have found nothing. My diagnosis was some form of food allergy or the obvious one stress. Anyway, we got to discussing what she was cooking for the evening, she was getting ready to make Stew peas and rice a tasty Jamaican dish with a lot of kidney beans in it. Now I know that both of us have had some issues with the kidney beans in the past. We like kidney beans but kidney beans does not like us very much and all sort of stomach woes tend to result within minutes after consumption.  My Mom told me that she can have the tasty dish it with Beano or Maalox. I looked up the ingredients for Maalox and found a host of inactive ingredients I could not pronounce and a few for which I know I’m allergic to. One warning on the label got me thinking:

“Allergy alert:Contains salicylate. Do not take if you are

• allergic to salicylates (including aspirin)
• taking other salicylate products

I looked up some more info on the Salicylate business and found a host of info here including foods and other common goods that contain Salicylate. The list of foods that may contain this ingredient had me wondering about some of my own stomach troubles…

There is a  food guide here that rate foods and drinks according to the amount of Salicylate in them. Now I have no idea what’s up with my Mom’s stomach issues and I’m not saying it has to do with any Salicylate sensitivity of any kind but I came across this info and perhaps it might help someone out there who has been having some stomach and other issues of late.

A few months back a friend of mine gave me some popcorn. I did what I normally do when I’m given pre-packaged foods flip it over and read the ingredients. There are a number of ingredients I have to watch out for like peanut oil, HSC, MSG in its various renditions and dairy and related ingredients such as whey, lactose and the like. So I flipped the package over and there were about 15 ingredients in this thing including sucralose. I threw it in the trash instead of my stomach. I had a craving for some popcorn today and found a some at the local health food store. One brand called Bearitos and the other was from Garden of Eatin. I’ve had garden of Eatin chips and taco shells as well. I was really happy when I flipped the boxes over and noticed the ingredients Organic Popcorn, Real Salt. Now they have other ones with butter but because I’m dairy sensitive I was just looking for popcorn with some salt and no oil which I can’t seem to find in the regular grocery stores. I bought Bearitos Organic No Oil Added Microwave Popcorn because it was slightly cheaper than the other brand. I came home and popped some up and is sniffing the cornage as I type. It has a nice light corn on the cob smell. None of this disgusting weird stinky smell you get with other brands. The taste is light and fluffy and melts in your mouth without messing up your hands. You get 3 bags for a little over $3.50. Not bad for what you don’t get in your popcorn. I tried looking up the nutrition facts for Orville Redenbacher’s organic popcorn and I could not get to it from their site.

I went to the convenient care clinic in town yesterday after suffering through a nasty headache/earache/ cold chill spell the night before. Anyway, I walked in and registered and saw a nurse after waiting 10 minutes or so who did the regular… ask me what was wrong, what my pain level was on a scale of 1-10 and took my blood pressure and temperature. She was nice and we chatted a bit about allergies and allergy med and treatment. See I’ve been having problems on an off for some time and the last place I went to claimed it was allergy related. Anyway, she left and told me that it would be a bit of a wait since there were 5 other people in-front of me and they give each patient 15 minutes.  While I was waiting I made a few phone calls, checked my email, and decided to jot down my experience. I really put that iPhone keyboard to work. Below is my rambling from my experience in the "Convenient Care" place.

Been in the convenient clinic waiting, waiting… I have a temperature of 101 and I’m sitting here waiting on a doctor. I was told that there were 5 other people in-front of me… Been waiting for about an hour since I got here a little before noon. My temperature feels like its going up. There is this kid that just came in after me and he’s getting an x-ray done? I think I have an ear infection but they keep telling me its sinus or something else only I know that I have fluid in my ear and if they gave me some ear drops it would clear up the problem. I had the same issue one other time and they gave me ear drops that cleared it up in less than 3 days. The nurse told me that I should take allergy meds everyday… The Dr. at the other clinic told me to take allergy meds every other day… I’m not sure who to believe but I don’t want to be living on pills… I’m having cold chills again and I’m hungry would like to get out of here so I can get some food, get the meds and go take a nap so my body can start to repair itself. I’ve got a heck of a headache, probably due to the temperature … Its after 2PM still waiting. There is a young lady out here discussing some medical issues with a patient. I find this interesting as far as confidentiality is concerned… I could hear the conversation all this so that she can fill out a form… The lady is probably in a ton of pain and don’t have the luxury to protest.  I kinda think if someone comes in a clinic with a high fever you out to see the person right away so they can work on reducing the fever. I just thought of something else they should ban cell phones (talking on them)  in the waiting room this guy was talking pretty loudly…  and my head and ear is pounding Its annoying! I’m beginning to think that these people conveniently forgot about me at 15 minutes per patient with 5 others ahead I should only be waiting an hour and 15 minutes to be exact add on another 15 for extra measure…  Its like they put me last on the list or something… If nobody comes by 2:30 I’m out of here…

This guy next to me the same one who was loud on the cellphone said that we should have went to the ER that there are more doctors up there and the wait is a lot shorter. He also said that he thought that they made the convenient care to ease the burden on the ER. He was wondering where all the doctors went? They only have two here and they are slower than heck I don’t remember all these people being in-front of me something is freaky (that fever is getting to me). Its 2:28 PM, they finally called me back there now they put me in another waiting room where I’m waiting again for the doctor to show up. At least the end is in sight…  Hmmphf maybe they are having a debate about which doctor will see me, the nurse said someone will be right with me its been 2 minutes, Odd perhaps they forgot again its 2:43 PM still waiting in the second waiting room, feels like I’m in a cell. I’m about to poke my head out and see if anyone remembers me. I looked out there this nurse looked at me, I asked how much longer she said that I’m next to be seen. I’m thinking why did they bring me back here and left me in this room where I can’t see out the windows and have me waiting for over 15 minutes… I’m still here 2:45 no doctor yet, guess they all went on vacation or something.  Its almost 3 PM and I’m starving on top of my headache and fever… I can’t believe I wasted my day off waiting for a doctor to see me for 15 minutes or less to write me a prescription what kind of a shoddy health care system is this and I’m insured. If I wasn’t at least I wouldn’t have to waste 3 hours. Oh wait a minute wow the door is opening. It was about 2:50 PM when I saw a nurse practitioner, guess the doctor was too busy… She came in looked in my ear, said it seems that I have had ear infections before because of the color in my ear, told me there was wax in there, told me I had a sinus infection hence the fever and recommended that I saw an ENT.  She was in and out of there 10 minutes flat and I had to wait another 6 minutes or so for the prescription which another nurse came in and gave me. The nurse was nice and not condescending and gave me some good advise about finding a primary doctor… She was basically hinting to me not to come back there in fact everyone seemed to be hinting that the whole time I was there.

Well, I feel much better now so the meds are working, my fever is gone yeah… I’m back in the green zone, I made an appointment with the ENT Dr. and I’m on the hunt for a good primary care physician. Not going back to that place after that crappy experience.  I really don’t blame the staff my biggest question is that it is flu season and I’m wondering where have all the doctors gone? Why was the place so under-staffed ? It seemed that there were plenty of nurses (nothing against that) but no doctors and not many nurse practitioners on staff  for that matter so you can get the treatment that you need for your case…