Food Allergies

Where to start this explanation? hmmm, who knows. I guess I could start years ago when I went to the dr for post nasal drip that would NOT go away, and asked him if it could be allergies and he said "does it come and go?" and I said, no, I have it all the time. Well, then it can't be allergies. Or maybe to all the doctors I whined to about being EXHAUSTED. And I'm not talking the tired you feel from not getting enough sleep. I'm talking the get 9 hours of sleep and still feel like you need to take a nap in the afternoon exhausted. Those of you that have been pregnant might have some idea what I'm talking about :) But that wasn't my problem. I even went and had a sleep study done, cause I thought it might be sleep apnea. nope. Not to mention the constant heartburn. So bad at times that it would wake me up choking. Yeah, like no air getting to the lungs, choking. Or maybe the last trip to the dr. when i thought my blood sugar was ALL outta whack, my hands were swollen so I couldn't wear my rings and my hands hurt so much I couldn't squeeze out a dishrag. Or maybe this is where I will start.... Last summer Sean took an anatomy & physiology class and had to do a presentation on a genetic disorder. Can't remember what he did his on, but someone in his class did one on Celiac disease, and handed out pamphlets about it. He brought the pamphlet home and it immediately found a place on the dresser in our room. And got buried. About 2 weeks ago, maybe more like a month now, I saw it sitting up there. Thought, hmmm, wonder what that is, still not interested enough to pick it up and read it. Then on TV the girl from The View was talking about when she was on Survivor and almost died to figure out she had a disease, and it was Celiac disease. This got me thinking. hmmm, wonder what that is. That's twice it's popped up in the last little while. So THEN I open up my internet, and there on AOL is a link that says something like "the most common disease to check for in infertility that isn't," if that makes sense. So then I click on the link, thinking it's probably a site that they want you to pay money for some crap, but it wasn't. But the link went to an article on Celiac disease. hmmmm. So I went to find the pamphlet and read what the heck it was about. Then I went on line and did a little research there too. Celiac disease is when a person is allergic to the gluten in wheat, rye & barley. The gluten is what makes bread dough sticky, and reacts with other stuff to keep what you bake together. In the simplest of terms! Anyway. When I read the list of symptoms for Celiac my mouth dropped open. And I actually got excited. Of the 15 or so symptoms for the disease, I have 12 of them. YAY!! I have found the reason I feel like crap, I'm going to get tested and get this crap fixed. hahaha. one of the big things that got me excited was that this disease can actually cause infertility, miscarriages, and a host of other crappy things. But I'm thinking, ooo, this might be the reason we haven't been able to get pregnant for FOUR freaking years. And it would explain the bipolar mood swings, and the achy hands, and the swollen body parts, and the exhaustion, the bloating, and like I said, a host of other things. So I go to the dr. and get a blood test, POSITIVE I've got this disease...... negative Ghostrider. DAMN, DAMN, DAMN!!!! so now what do I do. Well, as an experiment for 2 days before the blood test results came back I cut all wheat outta my diet. jeez, that is NOT easy. holy cow, I couldn't eat anything. And you'd be surprised at where they put it! I felt awesome on Saturday and most of Sunday. I ate something Sunday afternoon that sent my head spinning, something that I didn't know had wheat in it and bingo, my head starts spinning, my stomach hurts, and I generally feel crappy. The funny thing was, I spent the entire rest of the day trying to "dilute" the yucky feeling by eating all kinds of other stuff. oy. No wonder I've gained 20 pounds. Which I can't understand since I was training for a half marathon all last year, running over 15 miles a week, along with 20 miles on the bike. Most people wouldn't gain that much while doing all that exercise. but I digress. So when the dr. called and told me I was negative, I felt defeated and like the wind had totally dropped outta my sails. Disappointing. BUT, I told the dr. that I had tried the no wheat thing and he said, well, lets go with it, and see what happens. So I'm trying to stick with it. It's not easy. Wheat is in everything!! A couple of things I've noticed. Not only have I cut out wheat, I've cut out most sugar too! It's amazing how the two are connected. Although I've got some non-wheat flour, I think I'm going to be making some cookies :) I've stopped getting heartburn! I was taking a Zantac before bed every night cause it had gotten so bad, not even the papaya enzyme was keeping it down. I'm not exhausted anymore. Even in the last week I've noticed I can actually stay up all day without even wanting to take a nap. I can get my rings on!! For the first time in 3 months my rings are on my fingers and they don't feel like they are cutting off the circulation. And the hands don't ache anymore. The rest of my joints do, but I'm more inclined to think that is from 13 years of playing basketball, than from a food allergy, but it may contribute to the problem. So all of these things lead me to believe that I have an intolerance for something, that could lead to an allergy. Probably wheat. Weird how that happens. I probably should go get tested for allergies, but I think there isn't much left on my insurance, and we'd have to pay for that ourselves, which we can't really afford. sooo, we will wait on that. But, in the meantime, I'm going to try and keep a food diary and see where that leads me. Like my life wasn't complicated enough. jeez