Thanks for posting this! The mexican food will be hard for me to not eat, I live in TX and love it! But, of course, I will avoid it. I wish there were more specifics, such as dishes.
Skippy
Generally speaking you want to avoid all processed foods such as salsa's, sauces, fermented soy products like miso and soy sauce. Bar-B-Q sauce. Avoid restaurants that uses a lot of sauces or gravies. A list of restaurants that people have associated with positive tests are.
Italian
Mexican
Japanese
Sushi
Pollo Loco
Specific products to avoid using at all are:
PAM cooking spray 86% grain alcohol
Listerine
Fabreeze
Hair spray
I will post a link in few minutes to a site that lists products with alcohol.
As for food you best bet is to get used to eating at home - cook fresh food, meats and veggies from the produce department - make you own sauces.
I am actually tinkiering with a cook book for people in recovery.
I need a data entry person to enter in the who can enter in this whole long list of medis that are ok to take.
Gotta go help DS with homework
Peace and Namaste
Hppygr8ful
Thanks for posting this! The mexican food will be hard for me to not eat, I live in TX and love it! But, of course, I will avoid it. I wish there were more specifics, such as dishes.
Skippy
It's not Mexican food per se - just watch out for the sauces and salsa's. Some of the TEX-MEX stuff that use beer or tequila in the marinade will cause a positive - contrary to popular belief the alcohol does not all "cook off" and even small trace amounts can cause a positive Etg. I know of a least one person who tested positive after eating a tequila lime barbequed chicken from a place called Pollo Loco - don't know if they have those in Texas but it's a big chain here in CA.
What I ended up doing was establishing some places where my family could eat where the chef/cook understood I had a serious "Allergy" to alcohol. Due to liability issues most restaurants understand this better than hearing your an alcoholic and being tested bla, bla , bla...... PLus while my disease is no secret I see no need to parade it around while out for a family dinner at the burger joint.
Some of those restaurant even developed alcohol free recipes that sold well to other customers.
Just start reading labels and when you go out it's a good idea to keep some kind of record of what you ate so if you get a positive test you have an idea of what caused it.
Peace and Namaste
Hppy
Does anyone have an experience with household cleaners? I don't think that my life will become "better and healthier" if I would stop cleaning my house.
Has anyone tried N-95 mask? Would that help with incidental exposure?
From so many horror stories I've read so far it sounds that the ultimate goal of Diversion program is to humiliate people, rather than to help them get better.
I am sure many people might have had self-esteem issues prior to these, and those could've been the reasons to be here. Does Diversion REALLY believes that people who can not color their hair, can not have a hair style that requires more than just use of the comb, can not use a perfume, or deodorant, can not have manicure or pedicure done, can not clean their house, can not go out without being paranoid about what they've been served, can not use certain shampoes or body washes (and I am not talking about serving those for dinner! Just using them an old-fashion way) IS THE WAY TO RECOVERY?:bonk:
What Rules and Regulations manuals are used in those operations? Dated 1522? It sure sounds like it.
Again, would hair testing be more reliable and why it is not an alternative to the urine testing? Is there a way to request hair testing instead of urine?
Hppygr8full, I would be more than happy to help with data entry for everyone to use. Let me know if you need my help.
God Bless all of you!
Lysol, Fabreeze are big culprits in the false positive arena. Also waterless hand sanitizers - just use plain old soap and water. But you can clean your house - The company I work for now - in home health cleans everything with white vinegar and the houses are VERY CLEAN. I had my hair colored in Diversion, even had my nails done. I did get a little paranoid about food for a while but once I switched to preparing most of my family's food with fresh whole ingrediants and working out what restaurants I could eat at it was ok.
I went out of my way to find grooming products that were alcohol free - And I did hold my breath when using my favorite hair spray. Mostly today I am able to laugh about the whole thing - But I remember the how unreasonable it all seemed in the beginning. Remember that no matter what the Board says they don't really care about your recovery. You will or will not recover based on how you work your program. What the Boards care about is public safety.
When I got my false positives I trusted that I knew I was sober, and My higher power knew I was sober and if HE wanted me to be a nurse it would all work out. And it did. I am still a nurse today and although I am no longer at the bedside, I believe that I am where I was always meant to be.
As the song says :" God bless the broken road....."
Peace and Namaste
Hppy
Happy,
I read the label on Tylenol PM and Benadryl both after taking them and found forms of alcohol listed in the ingredients. If these will show up, please warn people. You know a lot about this subject and will know. No, I did not test positive for alcohol but do not want people to take a chance.
thank you
Just cruising through old posts and saw this one most BON contracts will not let you take Benadryl as it has tranquilizing effects and many nurses abuse it. Actually Benadryl is what brought me down.
Hppy
Another one...this one got me three times before we figured it out: Low carb "sweet" foods that contain "sugar alcohols" Look out!
Steph R. RN, MS
all my test have come back negative, thanks to your post. Can alcohol free beverages be consumed just asking
What do you mean by alcohol free! Of course water, soda pop, juice which are all alcohol free you can have without limitation. If you are talking about dealcoholized products like O'douls, and Fre' I would advise against it for two reason's. 1. they still contain a small percentage of alcohol which could cause a positive test and 2. A true alcoholic needs to change their mindset to truely recover - for me the taste and smell of alcohol would lead me back to the hard stuff.
If you are looking for something fun for New Years try fizzy french lemonade with a little pomagranit juice for color - I even put it in a Champagne flute...... PLus my son can have one too.....
Have a happy safe and sober New Year.
Peace and namaste
hppy