The past couple months, I've completely veered away from my very strict diet. And frankly I feel like my body is a mess. (again)
To begin with, let me explain why I am on a strict diet and WHAT it is.
For years, I'd been dealing with constant abdominal pain that I couldn't explain. It felt like cramps all month long. Especially my senior year of high school, we went to see a lot of doctors about it because I missed SO many classes due to it. How I graduated on time and with a 3 something GPA is beyond me, but I did.
Because I just described it as cramps all month, a lot of doctors thought it was Endometriosis. Others were on the right track and thought it was gastrointestinal. So in the end, I was put on birth control and acid reflux meds. It sort of helped, but not entirely. At least it was somewhat tolerable.
Well, I decided to go gluten free before I got the blood test results back. While it takes a while to get gluten out of your system, the results of not adding more to my system were immediate. I didn't have to take birth control just to make sure I had a cycle come regularly any more (as long as I didn't eat gluten especially close to when my period was due to arrive). It was nice. I had more energy than I had in the past year and a half prior. The blood test results came back however, and as per custom it would seem, everything looked amazing. No Celiac Disease. When I told the Nurse Practitioner my results however, she adamantly admitted it was gluten intolerance then and recommended I keep gluten out of my diet.
Well, I decided to go gluten free before I got the blood test results back. While it takes a while to get gluten out of your system, the results of not adding more to my system were immediate. I didn't have to take birth control just to make sure I had a cycle come regularly any more (as long as I didn't eat gluten especially close to when my period was due to arrive). It was nice. I had more energy than I had in the past year and a half prior. The blood test results came back however, and as per custom it would seem, everything looked amazing. No Celiac Disease. When I told the Nurse Practitioner my results however, she adamantly admitted it was gluten intolerance then and recommended I keep gluten out of my diet.
It was not until I miscarried a couple years later that my problems resurfaced. Though now, they came back with a vengeance. Again, it was time to go through the series of doctors. It seemed to never end. Blood test after blood test came back, and nothing seemed to be wrong on the surface. But it was quite obvious something was wrong, for one thing, I suffered many problems with my cycle as was mentioned in my previous post. For another thing, I was always down with some sort of sickness, my anxiety had gotten worse. I had also gained 40 lbs of weight unexplainably, which was absolute madness for someone who has always had to worry more about being underweight than being overweight.
Finally in October of 2010, a nurse practictioner I was seeing started doing some more of the 'obscure' tests, one of which was a blood test for Celiac Disease. Well, I had honestly never heard of it before, and so I did some research on it... I found out that it had to do with gluten... Well Naive me also had never heard of gluten before either. So I did research on that too. And then, I put two and two together...
It was ALWAYS after lunch I had to go home my senior year of high school. I never ate breakfast, so I didn't really have the problem of breakfast foods containing gluten. I did also discover my most recent additions to my problems, an irregular cycle and unexplained weight gain, could also be a factor of gluten.
Well, it would seem however that it was not the end of my gastrointestinal struggles. When I got pregnant with my son, I was suffering from severe hyperemesis and it wasn't just first trimester either. It was the whole pregnancy. While my doctor was appalled by how sick I was, he didn't attribute it to anything but just being pregnant. At least not at first. Not during my pregnancy. It wasn't until the very end of my pregnancy that things got a little worrisome. Despite the fact I had gestational diabetes, and didn't eat anything, everything looked good... until two days before my due date.
My blood pressure had for the past few weeks been elevated, but not so much that my doctor had thought it a cause of concern, especially given I already was having non-stress tests twice a week, and baby was doing very well. However, it spiked drastically two days before my due date, and THAT did cause my doctor concern. He had me do some extra blood work for pre-eclampsia and put me on partial bedrest... which very quickly became full bedrest because my blood pressure kept getting elevated...
Well the blood tests didn't show any immediate signs of PE but the next night, I went into the hospital because I simply could not get out of bed I was so lightheaded, my contractions had gotten worse again, and I was super nauseated. I had been CERTAIN they were going to send me home again, (they had already done so twice the past three weeks even though it was clear I was in early labor, just was taking my time progressing) but when they did blood work and monitored my blood pressure, they decided to keep me, since by that time it was already my due date.
I found out then that at my doctors office my liver enzymes had been slightly elevated, and then when they repeated that test at the hospital, they had become more so. Combine that with the 160/93 blood pressure I had come in with, and well, I was a mess. I had progressed on my own that night, however, I wasn't progressing fast enough for their liking, so at 3:30 am they started me on pitocin, (emergency induction they termed it.) 6.5 hours later, Jaden was born.
But that was only the beginning of my problems. I still had terrible nausea and couldn't eat very well. When I went in to my OB for my six week check up and asked if that was normal, he said nope, but I should see a primary care doctor, and gave me references. I didn't go right away to be honest. It took numb legs that I could barely stand on to get me in to see a PCP. When I went in for that, I mentioned my other problems... My anxiety coming back, nausea, so on so forth. Well he prescribed me anxiety meds and had me do yet more blood tests. Again, my liver enzymes were high. Significantly higher than they were in the hospital even. So he had me come back again in two weeks for another test. He also did a gallbladder scan after I lept off the bed in pain when he pressed on it. Nothing appeared on it of course. So then he referred me to a GI doc.
Well it was a couple weeks before I saw the doctor, but by that time I was getting so miserable. GI doc ended up chatting with me about my symptoms, did more tests, including liver (still high of course) and scheduling a colonoscopy and endoscopy. Other than liver being high, everything was normal. Well the day before I had to get my colonoscopy and endoscopy I got a call that they needed to schedule a catscan of my liver... So I had to do that the same day as my other tests.
I later found out the results of all my tests. Turns out I have reflux induced esophagitis which could also be brought on by allergies. And since nothing seemed out of the ordinary other than a slightly fatty liver, I got diagnosed with fatty liver disease. HOWEVER there was one more thing I found out... I've got at the very least, lactose intolerance. The doctor even made sure to tell me to watch my medicines because they could contain lactose. Once resolving that issue, I felt a lot better.
Wasn't perfect though, so one day out of the blue I decided to research more about esophagitis. Turns out that a lot of the symptoms I had during pregnancy and following it were consistent with what happens in esophagitis sufferers. I had a hard time swallowing anything, especially pills. Which was interesting at first since I had to go on a higher dose of prilosec for my esophagitis. My throat would constantly be sore and swollen. I would have coughing fits randomly, a mild cough that wouldn't go away... I then found out there were certain foods that triggered these symptoms in a lot of sufferers. Anything acidic, fatty, spicy, carbonated was really a no go. And red meat also was a no go, but I could eat poultry.
So I tried this diet. As long as I followed it, my symptoms were eased. AND I lost the last few pounds of weight I needed to once I yet again changed my diet! Felt better than i had in a long time.
So now, its been a couple months that I stopped being as careful with my food. I've eaten a lot of red meat since we eat at my in-laws a lot, and Losees love them some red meat. I'm also not a big fan of poultry. And well, carbonation? Err that tends to be a problem since we have a soda fountain at work, and I sneak a Dr. Pepper once in a while when I'm at my inlaws. I've also increased my gluten intake. Strangely, I've been pretty good with the dairy intake however.
And honestly, I'm seeing myself deteriorate again as I eat more and more against my diet. I wonder if my missed period has to do with the sneaking gluten. And this christmas, the acid was hard to avoid, especially at my parents house. How do you not have canneloni with tomato sauce! Its a crime! I also ate dairy this Christmas Eve at Olive Garden. But I decided it was the least of the evils if I had to pick between dairy and acid. However it would seem Olive Garden puts a lot of pepper in their alfredo sauce, so I suffered from that. And honestly, I think that's part of why I've gotten so sick the past few days. The lack of sleep from being up with a teething son all night the past few nights hasn't helped either.
I can tell for certain eating the canneloni at my parents house affected me though, it made it impossible to swallow and my throat felt swollen. (And by the way, cold liquid formulas do NOT help that either since they all contain some sort of acid or menthol/mint or both. So I still can't swallow!)
I've decided however, I must have a casein intolerance to some degree too, because I've tried some things that don't have lactose but do have casein, and well, sadly, the reaction is the same. And frankly so much time chatting with John simply is not normal!
With that said, my new years resolution is to get back on track with my diet!
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