I haven’t blogged much here since I had a few more gut attacks, when I figured out I wasn’t Celiac after all, but responded to IBS triggers (mine is insoluble fibers). Then the attacks slowed down quite a bit, but I still had a few moderate attacks while learning a new diet.

Now that I finally figured out what was causing those painful gut attacks, I wanted to blog about it. But, I was also thinking about trying out monetizing a blog. From what I read, blogs now do better if they’re tightly focuses — or a niche blog. Well, I was blogging whatever here, so it certainly wouldn’t qualify as niche, so I started a new one just for IBS, called IBS Nurse.

I wanted to put some unobtrusive ads on it, so I found a new server which allowed sub-domains, so I started another blog too: Shreela’s Online Money Experiment.

And I even started a Squidoo Lens: Diagnosing Gut Pain, which was quite a learning curve. I think I’m most proud of the movies for Celiac Disease and IBS, and the Digestive Enzymes voting section I just added. I may or may not make money from that Squidoo Lens; there’s a lot of stuff I’m not comfortable linking too (like IBS cures that are just expensive enemas — repeated enemas are unhealthy, and only a temporary cure for IBS-C, why not find what’s causing it so you can prevent attacks instead? And take supplements that’ve been tested like probiotics instead). But I’ll never know unless I try it, so I’m sticking with the Squidoo Lens on Diagnosing Gut Pain because it might help someone else find what’s causing their gut pain after their doctors rule out the more serious conditions.

I did manage to get a few things planted in my garden during this time, but even though I put in compost and manure, they still did poorly. I can’t convince my husband to till with the rototiller to loosen up the gumbo soil because he says it’s pointless. So I’m going to try container gardening for Houston’s second season (starting any time now).

So that’s what I’ve been doing lately 8^)