Gluten Free

A lot has happened since the last post I made... I've basically knocked gluten out of my diet and I feel a million times better because of it.   Here's just a list of the symptoms that I used to have...

* heart palpitation and pain
* heart burn
* acid reflux (at least once daily)
* hair loss
* brittle nails
* HORRIBLE periods (sorry, boys)
* gas and cramps after certain foods
* low energy
* tired all of the time
* anxiety, panic attacks, and depression
* numbness and tingling all over the body (that was the worst one).


I still have some of the tingling, but it radiates from my spine, and we already know it's from an accident that I was in last May-- I'll be seeking medical attention for that, soon.

Everything else is gone.  Amazing that I was taking prevacid for acid reflux that was so bad I had no other choice to take it--  I've not had acid reflux a single time.    I've not had any unwelcome or unexpected bathroom trips, I haven't broken a nail without a REASON (bumping into something), and I feel like I'm able to get a lot more accomplished on a daily basis.     I always attributed my anxiety and depression to bad menstrual cycles, but believe it or not, ALL of that has gone away with the gluten.   I hate to go into details here (if you're a boy who's uncomfortable by girl info, stop reading)-- but this month and last my period surprised me... that NEVER happens.  It's always excruciatingly painful for 4-5 days before, and now it just sneaks up on me.    An amazing win.

So overall, life is so much better.  I'm not sure that I'm Celiac (someone who can't have gluten AT ALL, even trace amounts)--  the fact that I can eat certain things (like Domino's gluten free pizza crust, for example) without any kinds of problems make me think for certain I'm not.  I also don't want to have the Celiac tests, partially because I still don't have health insurance, and partially because I don't want to have to go back on gluten for the two weeks required to get it into your system enough for them to do the test.

It's like back in 2006 when I had surgery to remove a cyst from my ovary (sorry again, boys).... I was on a morphine drip for pain that was controlled by a button I could press at any time.  I'd push the button and the morphine would automatically enter my bloodstream.   Every time I pushed, the too-strong dose entering my body at record pace would make me vomit.   The nurse came in and scolded me because I wasn't "using my drip the two times an hour as recommended, I had only used it once in 12 hours, and that was bad."  I told her, "if YOU pushed a button and it made you throw up every single time, you'd learn pretty quickly to stop pushing the button."

I don't know whether I had some kind of cyst, stomach ulcer, or GI disturbance that suddenly caused my body to not be able to tolerate gluten.  I don't know whether I've been growing more gluten intolerant slowly but surely over the last few years, leading to the GI disturbances and stripping of my stomach and esophageal lining.  I suspect the latter, but either way, it doesn't matter.  What matters is that when I eat gluten, I feel awful, and that's enough to make the psychologist in me recognize a Pavlovian response that's tried and true.    I have no idea why, or how, but that's how it is now and that's how it's going to be.


Now that I have a little more time, I"ll try to write more frequently about my favorite foods, products you should try, and more about my continuing lessons in gluten-free life.  And I still do try to eat organically, but at least I know now that it's okay if I don't, as long as I'm eating whole foods.  And I don't mean the grocery store necessarily, I just mean foods that are whole-- that I know what they are, that I can identify the ingredients of.    And at the very WORST case, if I have to eat something processed or take-out, I make sure for FACT that there's no gluten.  And that's the best thing I can do for myself at this current moment.

AWAKE...

Friday, November 9th

8am -  Been awake since about 6:30 when I was woken up by someone I was expecting at the door.  Couldn't sleep until around 4:30 last night even though I made myself get in bed around 2.   Had excruciating abdominal pain, but even when they subsided at around 3:30, I still couldn't sleep. Could it have been the 125mg of caffeine at 7pm?  Is that really possible?   After waking up at 6:30 the old me would have been able to immediately drift back to sleep but I find it impossible, even with the cold weather.  I'm also PAINFULLY thirsty, something I was aware of before I went to sleep only that is now 20 times worse.  I feel kind of like I would energy wise after having taken Emergen-C the night before and throat wise after having come down with something and not yet developed all the symptoms yet, if that makes sense.  Let's hope the energy is from the new diet and the dry throat is a side effect or from the prevacid.     Last night's abdominal pain could also be the prevacid as i'm the type of person who very ever takes ANY medication, even over the counter.  I'm also told it could have been the garlic.  We shall investigate the garlic theory further and maybe add it to my "Do Not Eat" list.  Going to take today's prevacid and some water and eat the egg casserole leftovers in a little while.
More later.

9am -  I have been tingly and numb since 6:30 this morning.  I get this every once in awhile and lately it's been worse and worse.  I actually went to the ER last March because the numbness on one whole side of the body combined with the heartburn led me to believe I was having a stroke.   They said it was a pinched nerve and the MRI supports that, but now, as I've had pins and needles and total numbness throughout my limbs all morning, I'm wondering, could this be diabetes?  It totally explains the blurry vision and thirst as well.  Duh-- how could I not realize that.   Luckily I did a google search for "numbness" in the body, right?

Realization:  Holy crap,  I ate a plate full of pasta, a glass of juice, and a whole bowl full of fruit last night before I went to bed.   Am I diabetic?   I've had LOW blood sugar my entire life...  this so totally never even occurred to me as a possibility.

Call Your Doctor About Diabetes If:

You feel nauseated, weak, and excessively thirsty; are urinating very frequently; have abdominal pain

You are breathing more deeply and rapidly than normal -- perhaps with sweet breath that smells like nail polish remover -- you need immediate medical attention for ketoacidosis -- a potentially deadly complication of type 1 diabetes. 

If you are having weakness or fainting spells; are experiencing a rapid heartbeat, trembling, and excessive sweating; and feel irritable, hungry, or suddenly drowsy. You could be developing hypoglycemia -- low blood sugar that can occur with diabetes treatment. Follow your treatment plan for what to do if you develop hypoglycemia.

 I've had all of that stuff I bolded in the last week alone.  Twice.   This is bad.  Need to make an appointment with urgent care, Stat.

Day 2: Now we're Cooking!

 Thursday,  November 8th

No shopping trips or anything like that to report-- but here are my meals:

Morning:   I'm still not feeling well and woke up super late despite going to bed super early the night before, so it was 11 by the time I woke up.  Had to take a prevacid and wait at least 30 minutes before eating so by the time I got around to it was more like brunch.   In Louisiana, we have this thing where we fry eggs and french fries and put lots of onions and ketchup and eat it--  so I made a little spin on that, using sweet potatoes and adding green onion, bell peppers of assorted colors, and even a little watercress at the end just so I'd have some green.   It was delicious and I have left overs for tomorrow.  I hardly ever cook, so you should all be proud of me.

Here's a pic:

It's important to note that I took just a few sips of coke, less than even yesterday, and drank another abita root beer.  HUGE DEAL for me not to drink a coke for breakfast- I have every morning as long as I can remember.  Yay me.


Afternoon:  Had to skip lunch which I almost NEVER do, but I had no choice today so grabbed a smoothie by this point.   Angel Food, 20oz, from Smoothie King.  I thought I made a pretty good choice, under the circumstances.  I also added extra banana and caffeine, which I didn't know you could do at Smoothie King, but just like yesterday and the day before, I had a raging headache by 4pm.
The caffeine, I'm pleasantly relieved to point out, helped and I had no more headache for the rest of the night.


Evening:  It was later than I wanted to eat, but also couldn't be avoided--  ate a very small plateful of the pre-made pasta with some cranberry juice.  It had lots of garlic and I ate more than I should without realizing that garlic is rough on the colon, which has also been giving me trouble.   After dinner, I followed it with a snack of blueberries, strawberries, and cantaloupe-- but had TERRIBLE GAS pains until bedtime, which it is now.   Here's a picture of the pasta:



Lesson:  Caffeine is available in Smoothie King smoothies for $1 --  way better alternative to coke, although MUCH more expensive!  A 20oz was almost $8.

Feeling:  Much better- have had tons of energy all day and zero dizziness.  A little blurry vision but super energetic for the first time in ages.  Also, headache at 4 but subsided after caffeine. Gassy awful lower lower stomach pain after dinner.

Day 1: Grocery Shopping Expedition & The First Meal

Wednesday, November 6th

 So, here's what I got at Whole Paycheck, err... Whole Foods for $102:

As a disclaimer, I did have a few items already in my freezer and fridge courtesy of my Mom bringing them to me when I had the stomach bug last week.  I thought the items I got would really supplement:

Popcorn Indiana Cocoa Kettlecorn
Plentils (Chips made out of Lentils)
Ginger Cookies (organic, I think)
365 Cheerios (Organic)
Green onions (organic)
Louisiana Sweet Potatoes (organic)
Asparagus (organic)
Watercress (I believe organic)
Eggs (Organic)
Abita Root Beer (also from Louisiana, definitely NOT organic)
Green Bean snacks (baked or something?  No idea but they are addictive)
Sharp Cheddar Cheese (organic)
Cream of Mushroom Soup (organic)
Vegetable Barley Soup (organic)
Assorted Berries / Fruit
Organic Whole Milk (with Omega 3 and.. BHT? DNA? DNC?  Whatever. You know.)
Sweet baby bell peppers - red, orange, yellow (organic)

Splurge:  A pre-made meal-- it's some kind of alfredo pasta with lots of garlic

Non-food item splurge:  Lots of Meyer's home cleaners and soaps, because it smells like my Mom's house and that is comforting to me, and darnit, I need comfort at this moment!  I also got organic dishwasher tablets, just in case my last dishwashing detergent was poisoning me.  I don't know, Whole Foods has this power to make people think crazy things while they are in there.  I also found myself wanting to spend $500 in flowers, but refrained.

Some pictures of my bounty:

Sale?  Hrmph.  I don't see how ANY of these are sales?   That's okay, hopefully it will make me well and then I won't care about all this money anymore :)

First meal:  It was late at night by the time I got home, so I just made some potato and lentil soup (I had previously)  and added some green onions and sharp cheddar, and some Abita root beer.   I followed it up with a glass of milk about a half hour later, and went to bed about an hour later.

Lesson:  I learned that all these years, the orange cheese that I've eaten was dyed.  As the guy at Whole Foods said when I made a face at that-- "milk is white, isn't it?"  -- he's got a point!

Feeling:  Generally better already, but still achy, tired, and with a headache.  Went to bed early.

How do you think I did shopping?  Feel free to let me know!

And so it begins...

Wednesday, November 6th

OVERVIEW:  How I'm going to do this

So, I'm going to try to eat nothing but organic foods for the next 14 days and see how I feel.  With the latest organic craze that's been sweeping the nation, that might not sound like much, but for me, I am pretty unhealthy.  Pretty, as well as unhealthy, perhaps-- but I mean pretty unhealthy.  I'm skinny and active but I've been having a myriad of problems with my bones, joints, numbness in my body, heart, headaches, and just all sorts of other problems.  I'm only 30.

My current diet consists of McDonald's, Subway, more McDonald's, and even though I've done my best to lay off fast food recently, I still eat a lot of foods that I know I shouldn't.  For the last several years, in my defense, every time I've tried to give up fast food (Supersize me, anyone?)  I tried to quit cold turkey and completely start eating healthy food right away and I ended up feeling 15 times worse than I did before, reverting back to my old lifestyle very quickly.  Last year, I gave up fast food all together for Lent, but did so with certain exceptions (Subway was allowed and I could still have coke if I got it from a non fast-food eatery) and was able to do it, so well-- that I continued on two or three weeks after Lent ended.  And that was hard, y'all- it was during not only Monopoly, but also the limited re-release of the McRib.  That's dedication.

Recently my health problems have gotten so bad that I think I have no other choice but to try something very quickly.  To give you a brief idea of just how bad -- I will tell you that I'm usually the person that's going out even though she's sick, and working even though she's bleeding profusely from the elbow or something.  I try to be a trooper.  I also forget about pain when I'm having fun or busy.   Yet, in the last week, I've had to completely stop everything I was doing and sit down for a period of 30 minutes or more because I thought I was going to pass out.  Once in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome during a SAINTS GAME, and once at the ROULETTE table.  If you know me at all, you know these are two of my favorite places in the whole world--   the location terrified me almost as much as the dizziness. 

People have thrown around a lot of possible diagnoses- the winner seems to be GERD, or some kind of acid reflux stemming from an ulcer somewhere, probably in my esophagus.  I've had a lot of symptoms (heart pain, chest pain, trouble swallowing-- NO DIRTY JOKES,  acid reflux, problems after certain foods, etc) - so I'm tempted to believe that's it-- but I know there may also be other stuff going on.  A doctor friend of mine said that I should start taking Prevacid, and I had heard that before- so I started on the once-a-day treatment, which in my case, is a pack of 14.  So, I decided to match those 14 days with 14 days of healthy eating, as much as I possibly can.  I've also been told I have a pinched nerve, so I'm going to continue yoga as well.

I buy storage units for a living and have a retail store coming soon (January 1st) so every little bit of spare income has gone into that-- I had a surprise $300 purchase the other day and was actually excited to get to, for once, spend some of it at Sephora or someplace cool like that, but for some reason the car steered me towards Whole Foods (another symptom of this illness, surely) and I ended up spending $102 on just a few items.  Whole Paycheck, absolutely -- I see why people call it that.  But, I figure, if you're sick it doesn't make any sense to have money anyway, right?

Here's the plan for this grand experiment:

* Eat nothing but organic as much as I can,  at least one organic thing at every meal, but hopefully more

* Put all of the fresh produce on the top shelf of my fridge instead of in the crisper so I remember it

* Try to learn something new every time I go to the supermarket

I also vow to:

* Stop drinking coke (except 1/4 glass each morning -- I'm ALREADY having caffeine withdrawals)

* Not eat at least an hour before bed

* Refrain from eating greasy or fried foods (I do this anyway), coffee, and certain acidic foods

I'll post every single day with what I'm eating and where I'm getting it.  I'll also throw in a few (hopefully unpathetic) lines about how I'm feeling.

To start:  Feeling weak, dizzy, always tired, heart palpitations, chest pain, numbness and tingles in the body, and gassy-bloating or heartburn and acid reflux after most every single meal.  Headaches once a week.  Vomit profusely every time I eat steak, especially when it's rare.  Queasiness after certain foods (and no, I'm not pregnant, thank you for asking!)

Stay tuned!   Day 1 (also coming today) will provide you with my shopping trip as well as my first meal.  Here goes nothing!