In January, while I was in Vegas for work I experienced a terrible head rush followed by confusion, difficulty speaking, and an overall 'off' feeling. This happened multiple times on the trip and continued when I returned home. Over the next couple of months, I went to several doctors and no one could figure out what was wrong. They checked my brain, heart, circulatory, thyroid, etc. Everything looked fine and they chocked it up to stress and offered me a prescription. I was infuriated by this typical traditional medical approach and started looking for alternatives.
I started by cleaning up my diet and went on a juice cleanse. After three weeks I was feeling better but didn't follow the rules for reintroducing the foods that I had eliminated. I started feeling bad again but didn't know what foods were making me feel bad. In April I heard about a doctor in Lubbock that was a medical doctor that practices functional medicine who was shaking up the traditional medical approach by relying on detailed case history, comprehensive blood work and lifestyle modifications to diagnose and manage chronic health issues rather just prescribing a lot of medication. I was desperate so I made an appointment. I'm so thankful that I did!!
After 2 hours of case history and a slew of blood tests it was determined that I have two (yes 2) autoimmune conditions--Celiac disease and Hashimotos Thyroiditis. What?!? I'm only 30 years old (29 at the time). And...Wait...I thought my thyroid was fine according to all the other doctors?! Turns out that I was only being screened for thyroid issues and celiac was never even considered. They think that I may have had celiac for 8+ years and that it caused my leg to lose sensation 3 years ago. Celiac (autoimmune response to gluten) has damaged my intestines severely and this has led to deficiencies in many vitamins and minerals in my body. It has also caused mini holes in my intestines and things that should be contained in my intestines are able to leak out into my body triggering an additional autoimmune crisis impacting my thyroid. Along with the thyroid issues, I also have low stomach acid production, severe adrenal fatigue and a systemic candida overgrowth which impacts my blood sugar and my hormones. When I think back over the years, I realize how much sense this all makes and I'm saddened that I allowed myself to live a lifestyle that triggered what was already in my generic makeup . So what now? Well that's a good question because there is no magic bullet. The only cure (and there is a cure) is to heal my body by removing the triggers and replacing the things that I'm missing. I have to heal my intestines from the inside out and as I'm able to do that then my other issues and symptoms should improve too. My doctor says that it can take 6 months to 4 years depending on the amount of damage and the committment. I've been at it for 5 months.
Here's what I'm doing--I've been gluten and grain free since April. This is a BIG help to me. In July after some additional testing to determine foods that caused additional autoimmune responses I became gluten/grain/dairy/tree nuts/egg/refined sugar FREE and started taking a TON of supplements. I don't cheat because this isn't something silly like weight loss. This is my health and this is my ticket back to healthy. The diet modifications have helped but I hit some what of a plateau in June. I haven't worsened though. I'm also fighting the systemic candida overgrowth with antifungals since my intestines are still allowing bad stuff (yeast and bad bacteria) into my blood stream. I've tried things that made me feel worse and I've tried things that have helped tremendously. I work really hard to deal with stress in a healthy way and to get plenty of sleep. I'm doing acupuncture and colonics. I practice Pilates three times a week and hot yoga twice. I'm better but I'm far from healed. Sometimes I get really frustrated with being sick and having to be so strict with my diet but then I remember how lucky I am to have control. I have the control to change this course and that's empowering.
Enough of that for now but I'll do a better job of documenting my steps. It's definitely a journey and I will look back and see what I've accomplished.
Stella helps me get my makeup on in the mornings. This. Never. Gets. Old.
ht
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