Gluten Free Bread Experiment

Because finding an acceptable bread replacement has been a total pain in the ass, I decided to try a bunch and share my results with the masses! I will update this post as the experiment continues.

Bread 1 - Canyon Bakehouse Rosemary Thyme Focaccia

(https://canyonglutenfree.com/buy-gluten-free-bread-products/Gluten-Free-Rosemary-Thyme-Focaccia-Bread.html)

Pros - Refrigerated, toasts well, very flavorful, available for online purchase

Cons - Serving seems pretty small (1/8 of  the loaf), locally only available at Whole Foods (an hour drive away), not precut

Score - 4 out of 5 (will buy again for flavor)

Bread 2 - Whole Foods Light White Sandwich Bread

(Need non-mobile link)

Pros - Toasts from frozen excellently with no sogginess and no hard spots, large slices make real sandwiches

Cons - Lacks my preferred bread consistency (much lighter), crust is ridiculously flaky

Score - 4 out of 5 (will buy again because normal size sandwiches and nice for toast toast)

Bread 3 - Food for Life Brown Rice Bread

(http://www.foodforlife.com/product/breads/gluten-free-brown-rice-bread)

Pros - Texture is spot on (mmm thickness!), vegan (no eggs; if you're into that sort of thing)

Cons - Crazy difficult to separate the slices, toasts from frozen poorly (soggy AND hard crust), really freaking tiny (like two sandwiches is a meal but it's pretty high on the calorie intake at 110 per slice)

Score - 2 out of 5 (might buy again only to test unfrozen)

Bread 4 - Glutino White Sandwich

(http://www.glutino.com/products/breads/glutino-white-bread/)

Pros - Most bread-like bread so far, toasts from frozen well, stumps made for an excellent base to my kale & beans recipie, low-cal per slice (80), reasonable slice size (not as big as #2 but bigger than #3)

Cons - Crust was really hard with my usual toast settings, small loaf with big stumps, 

Score - 4 out of 5 (will buy again)

Next loaf of bread is the Whole Foods Sundried Tomato & Garlic and it's not looking too promising.

Bonus! My "One of Everything" order from Canyon Bakehouse should be arriving soon and I'm looking forward to reviewing their other 6 products! (It will be it's own post.)

My poor face...

So I'm not sure what the deal is, but lately I've been picking a LOT. Anything that's pickable. Had a couple of mosquito bites that are now freaking craters and some weird bumpies on my thigh that almost look like heat rash. My head has been flaky and itchy and I'm not sure how it is dry and oily at the same time. Going to color it soon so maybe it will chill the eff out. My face has sady taken the most of my own torture lately and it usually happens without me even realizing. Mindlessly picking at work or in the car, even itching at it in my sleep and waking up to a mess. 

I'm going to try REALLY hard to get it back together. Can't have my face getting all scab-tastic like my nose did. We all know how that turned out and I'm not sure how a facial perforation would look or be fixed.

Sad panda face. It looks decent only because I've felt like crap. Washed and scrubbed with my Clarasonic mia2 and the deep pore cleanser, then did the detoxifying mask. 

I look thrilled here, right? So now that all the wounds are clean but raw, I'm slapping on some bullethole bandaids and hoping they'll chill on the scabbing thing.

 I've treated my many mosquito bites in a similar fashion with success in the past, but with it being my face, I can't just go around with bandaids all over the place. Telling people "it's to keep me from picking" is like asking for ridicule. It's effing hard but I guess I'm working on it. The desire to change is the first step, right?

The hole in my nose and my new septal button

My septal perforation started as two sores inside my nostrils that eroded into themselves over the span of 6 months. The hole was very tiny at first and was only noticable because I began hearing a whistle. I sneezed a couple days later and something more than mucous came out. I was getting ready to move so my previous ENT didn't want to start any treatment, plus he doesn't like using septal buttons anyway. Sinus rinses, saline spray/gel and humidification was my treatment plan, sort of exactly what it had been from the beginning. Over the next 7 months, it increased in size and measured in at a little over 1cm long and a little under 1 cm tall when I went to my new ENT. It was particularly crusty on the back edge, my main problematic symptom and also the point it continued to grow from. The doctor I chose, an excellent ENT with particularly impressive experience with nasal perforations, felt like pursuing a more conservative treatment and my septal button was placed 3/18/14 (posting this early am on 3/23/14). I'd honestly rather have dealt with the hole in my nose. I'm so sore from my eyes through my teeth. I was expecting a 1 piece button where it's completely smooth on both sides but I instead got a two piece which has this sort of clasp bit that pokes in my left nostril. 

This wouldn't be so bad but I also have my nose pierced on that side and there is only so much space in my tiny nostrils to begin with. Had I known it was a two piece I would've insisted on a 1 piece or if it wasn't an option at least requested the closure to be in my right nostril. There are also other varieties of buttons that I would have much rather had; one with an elliptical post for elongated perforations, a convex one that seems like it would sit more comfortably, a custom molded silicone insert, and even a new magnetic type that allows you to remove it yourself. 

The button is huge (I do not think it was trimmed) and is rubbing against the bottom inner ridge of my nostril on both sides. The post connecting the two sides feels like it's jammed as far back and up in the perforation as it could possibly be, causing pain in the center and bridge of my nose. I wasn't expecting it to be anywhere near this painful; I've missed work, I'm all loopy from the pain pills, I can't breathe out of my nose I'm so swollen. If I had known all of this before, I would have rather had it surgically repaired to begin with because at least then I know the pain is worth having because it would be fixed. The only thing that helps is totally numbing it up with this lidocaine cream I happened to have from my previous ENT, swabbing Afrin in between my swollen turbinates (swabbing because spraying doesn't work), alternating hot packs and ice packs on my face and sleeping almost sitting up (to stop drainage and one side being congested at a time) I'm going for my post-op appointment 3/24/14 and we'll see what the plan is from here.

(I might edit this later, but I'm slapping it on the blog straight from a comment I posted on medhelp.com, plus some pictures. Maybe it will help someone have answers that I didn't before making a decision on something like this.)