Healing Autoimmunity // My story part 2

When my mom had bought me The Autoimmune Solution by Amy Myers I was not ready to change my eating habits. I had felt too sick get off the couch, never mind change my diet. When I was finally ready to follow The Myers Way about two months ago, I started improving drastically. This is how I'm healing through whole foods and all about The Wyers Way (read part 1 here: how my health declined & the medical chaos that came with it).

I remember my boyfriend Kyle and I corralled into a corner at the busy grocery store thinking, "Isn't this crazy," with my ridiculous cart filled to the brim with fruits and vegetables, many of which I had never had before, mixed in with grass-fed meats we couldn't afford. I wanted to put it all back, grab my usual boxes of gluten-free mac & cheese and call it a day. "Financially we can't do this every week," Kyle said. I agreed with him, however I knew I needed to try. At the time I could barely handle the grocery store. The fluorescent lights made my head pound in pain. I had no energy and just using my brain scan the isles made me feel mentally fatigued.

At home laying the food out on the counter felt even more ridiculous- will I really eat all of these vegetables in one week? On TMW you eliminate all refined foods (dairy and grains) along with anything processed because they are toxic to your body. I had already been gluten-free for months but this woul be more of a challenge. Myers explains to get rid of foods that cause inflammation (your immune system’s response to invaders which causes symptoms) like eggs, corn, tomatoes, nuts, caffeine and more. I could only eat seafood, grass-fed meat, a tiny amount of fruit and most organic vegetables. It felt weird not having any colorful boxes of processed food.

The first two weeks were a challenge; I remember crying because I didn’t have enough energy to cook all the organic meals and keep up with the dishes, but the changes in my body were noticeable. My headaches went from constant to occasional. I had more energy, my brain seemed more focused and my mood increased dramatically. 

About 2-3 weeks in I could cook all my meals easily and even started going for small walks. A month in, I was going to stores with my friends. A lot of my other symptoms were wtill there (tiredness, weakness, mentally foggy, blurry vision, sensitive to light) but it felt amazing to be more active. Before TMW I spent most of my time in bed. By now I hardly forgot what what my constant symptoms felt like (aside from the occasional flair up): dizziness, feeling faint and lightheaded, scary heart palpitations, constant anxiety, strange noises in my ears and constant headaches.  

Thankfully TMW had a meal plan to follow, with step-by-step recipes. If this wasn't part of it, I would have struggled. I had no idea how to cook brussels sprouts. In fact, I didn't even know they looked like! The program trains you for eating in a healthier way.

I actually loved the food; eating organically felt great. Looking at the menu in advance I thought I wasn't going to (maybe 20% of me still craves a bowl of ice cream but most of the time I am content). The food makes me feel full for what seems like the first time in my life. I've always felt I was a bottomless pit that could just keep eating; on TMW I was no longer hungry after eating. 

The weight loss was not expected but a bonus, dropping 13 pounds in the first month and it leveled out for the second month. For the previous few years I have struggled with my weight. I would explain that none of my pants fit, despite exercising but because I am a fairly thin tall person no one saw a problem. I have never lost a significant amount of weight in my life, only gaining slowly. My rings, shoes and clothes fit again, some that haven't fit in years.

I also started talking to a doctor training in natural medicine who advised me about healing your body through supplements and diet. My aunt who has Celiac Disease like me shared advise with her experience. I have tons of support. I started to simplify my beauty routine to organic, safe products (even using coconut oil as conditioner!). We even had to detox our house with air and water purifiers, as recommended by TMW. 

There were definitely detox symptoms. I would get dizzy while eating, even if I knew it was an approved food. I would be very emotional. Sometimes my skin would get blotchy and one time my whole chin broke out in a rash. The probiotic makes me tired and moody still to this day....

Two months in, I am finally comfortable mentally (in small amounts) to use my computer again practicing what I had gone to school for, design. I thought I would never able to again; that I had worked hard for a degree I'd never use. The brain fog is much better but still there, making me feel unsafe to drive at times. My body is still too weak to participate in activities like jogging. And occasionally my symptoms knock me off my feet. I am hoping it will continue to improve with time!

Autoimmunity takeover // My story part 1

The past year of my life of my life went from completely normal to suffering from my illness. During those dark days searching the internet for answers I would stumble on stories. Maybe someone will find my story and feel there is hope. 

It was the average Friday and I was more than eager to enjoy the usual outing with my friends after a long taxing week. Like most of the working class, weekends were sacred. This week was stressful but tonight would make up for it, for sure. I breathed in the satisfying summer night’s air not realizing it was actually one of my last evenings like this.

I had felt more tired than usual that summer but I had chalked it up to starting a full time job as a graphic designer after graduating from my bachelors degree that May. Accompanying this was the strange new migraines I was getting every few weeks; they would impair my vision and even cause my hands to go numb. I couldn’t lose weight no matter how hard I tried and I was always either suffering from a cold or insanely bad seasonal allergies. I recall updating my status to read, “Who gets sick with a cold in July? This girl.”

All of the foreshadowing seems like a bright red flag now, but at the time I accepted them as normal. I still worked my nine to five job. I still went out with my friends on the weekend. I never thought to see a doctor.

My 22^nd birthday came and it was nothing like TSwift describes. My energy continued to plummet until one night while out to dinner the room felt like it was spinning. I felt like I was going to faint. At the time, I thought I was having an allergic reaction to shrimp, and went to the hospital. The emergency room dismissed me as “dehydrated.”

The following week I could barely work. I would always try to, but would end would end up lying face down, embarrassed in the conference room. Within a week, I had to stop going in all together, unable to even leave my bed.

My body began to falter fast. The dizziness and the faint feeling worsened, followed by chronic headaches. One day I would wake up and my hair started falling out, the next day my vision would be blurry and remain that way for months. I couldn’t tolerate loud sounds or bright lights; watching television or going outside was too much to handle. I was always hot, and my face would turn bright red. My heart would race with any physical activity. I was so fatigued I could barely prepare myself food or use the bathroom. I would shower sitting down. I was afraid to be alone.

Within a few weeks, I was back at the emergency room. They ran more extensive tests, and when they came back negative they called in a social worker. They told me it was anxiety- that the symptoms were in my head.

The medical chaos continued. It seemed like no doctor wanted to take me on as a patient, either brushing my symptoms off as “anxiety,” or “migraines,” or my personal “favorite” worst answer: “You are a perfectly healthy 22-year-old- go out and live your life but take prenatal vitamins to prepare for childbirth.” How could I live my life when I was having trouble just sitting up to eat dinner? How could he assume I was thinking of having a child when I could barely take care of myself?

My symptoms were ambiguous- nothing seemed to add up. I had seen more than twenty doctors, every kind of “ologist” you can think of, each making me feel more hopeless then the previous one. Each day started fading into the next, falling down what felt like a depressing rabbit hole. There wasn’t a doctor who was going to be able to help me; my health had to be taken into my own hands.

Two months later after my dad heard a story from work, I asked my doctor to have my thyroid checked. Despite resistance from her, I pushed for the test, and it came back as hypothyroidism (meaning my thyroid gland wasn’t producing enough hormones). The thyroid controls your metabolism, temperature, mood and even heart function. I was prescribed a pill that would produce the hormones my body lacked. There was hope this would make me feel better, but it only did so much. After a month on the pill it was clear there was something else going on.

After hearing about my illness, my aunt who lives across the country messaged me explaining she was very sick until she learned she had Celiac Disease, a disease that causes gluten (a protein found in wheat, barley and rye) to damage the intestines. Because of my genetic predisposition, I got tested and it was positive. I went gluten free, and while it helped some I still had raging symptoms.  By January I had been laid off, feeling more depressed than I had at any point before.

“I don’t understand why Kate can’t come out with us,” some of my friends would say. It was bad enough not being able to leave the house- hearing something like that would make it worse. Fortunately, there were a lot of people in my life who understood how I felt and I was so lucky to have family and friends who took me to doctors.

Each day was a struggle to do anything; my brain could not focus and I could barely read or write. I would lay on the couch with an icepack behind my neck, battling constant headaches and dizziness. Sleep was impossible; I would wake all throughout the night feeling uncomfortable.

In February I started going to physical therapy for my dizziness. Although all of my symptoms were still there, the dizziness improved drastically. I finally felt safe to shower home alone and cook food by myself. I was improving, but still struggled to feel normal, questioning what could I do to improve now?

I had heard of The Autoimmune Solution by Amy Myers, since my mother bought be a book about it in December. I knew it was a huge life change and I struggled to read anyways, so I did nothing about it even though I had two autoimmune diseases (Celiac and Hypothyroid) and I knew my aunt with celiac disease benefited from a diet similar to it. The book seemed so daunting and foreign to me. It was not recommend by an actual doctor, so I wondered if dieting so drastically would help me. One doctor told me, “why limit your diet like that; life is too short to not be enjoyed!”

Then I had a bizarre reaction to a gluten-free cookie. I was directed to avoid all grains (rice, gluten free flours, ect.) until I was tested for food allergies. Strangely, going grain free seemed to help my headaches and brain function- I even found it easier to read.  So I read the book and I started to learn the effects our diets can have on our bodies. Avoiding grains is a huge part of TMW so I began to believe it would help me.

I started to eat like a cave man- minus the hunting and gathering part. I eliminated all refined foods (dairy and grains) along with anything processed. Next I eliminated foods that cause inflammation (your immune system’s response to invaders) like eggs, corn, tomatoes, nuts, caffeine and more. I could only eat seafood, grass-fed meat, a tiny amount of fruit and organic vegetables. The diet helped but there are a lot of struggles that came along with it (read about it in part two: healing from autoimmune).

It is now the end of May and I completed over two months of TMW. On a getaway with my family and boyfriend, I went hiking and swimming, something I could have never done a few months or even weeks ago. My parents were impressed with the progress. I lost 13 pounds so far without really trying- the first time I’ve ever lost significant weight in my life. After conventional medicine failed me, it feels good to take my health into my own hands.  There is still much healing to do- I just have to be grateful and patient with the progress so far. I don’t know when or if I will ever feel like my old self again, but at least there is hope after what seemed like a long despairing winter.

Social Struggles from a Chronically Ill Perspective

Cleaning out my closet today felt amazing. I had no idea how many sundresses I had in there. I’m beginning to think I have a problem…

So lets take a break from food- I want to talk about something that’s been bothering me.

After eight months spending much of my time either bedridden or staring at the walls, getting used to the real world is challenging. I have always felt a little socially awkward but this feeling is different- like every time I’m in public I try to figure my way through a social labyrinth. I forgot what it was like to talk to people who weren’t close friends and family. Dealing with passive aggression or just a person with a different personality than I’m used to can be hard, especially when I’m not feeling 100% healthy yet. Sometimes I want to play the sick person card and tell them what I’ve been going through and maybe then they would ease up.

But truth is people are going to say upsetting things to you no matter what. They’re going to be judgmental, competitive, passive or even jealous by human nature (even if you know they don’t have anything to be jealous of- I’ve literally been suffering!). Just because I have a ridiculously large collection of brightly colored dresses, doesn’t mean I’m unintelligent. Just because I like crafting doesn't mean I'm not tough. Just because I graduated from a state college doesn't mean you can talk down to me. And just because I like generic television and music doesn’t give you the right to assume I was a sorority girl in college (that actually happened). Sometimes, as I stew over it hours later (I’m Irish it’s what we do) they probably didn’t even mean to be offensive or maybe they completely forgot it happened.

Maybe you can relate? There is nothing worse than mustering up the courage to leave the house even if you don’t feel well, then someone tries to make you feel bad about yourself or put you down, whether its on purpose or not.

That’s when I take a deep breath and remind myself how lucky I am just being out of the house in this moment talking to this stranger, even if I’m not enjoying it.

Although I've become more compassionate for people who are also fighting, struggling and dealing with poor health, I am more annoyed by the complainers. I’m so sick of hearing girls complain about how their appearance. I want to tell them “so what if you don’t like your hair or your teeth- your body works.” I would do anything for my body to work. (endrant) I know I can’t exactly come out and say something like this. Before my sickness the biggest complaint about my body was my thigh fat and scar from an operation. Maybe they don’t know how it feels to suffer (or maybe they do). Maybe they don’t know they’re taking their body for granted.

Again, more deep breaths.

The moral of this story is to treat everyone with decency; you honestly don’t know what they’re going though. They could look completely fine, better than ever, but more may be going on under the surface. Its graduation season so we have a lot of parties and social events to attend- I'm dreading the small talk. But it's a good time for me to practice my people skills... and testing my willpower to resist cookout treats!

Lazy bagged cole-slaw (TMW + dairy-free)

I will admit, I had a tough night tonight. I went for a walk and could feel my body dragging worse than usual. When I got home, it was hard to lift my arms and legs. My mind went fuzzy and I could feel my body shutting down. Isn't autoimmunity so strange? Symptoms just come out of nowhere, unexpectedly. I hadn't had an attack like this in a while, but I have a few inklings as to why it happened. After a very heavy unexpected nap I felt better when I woke up, but not well enough to make a fancy meal!

Then I remembered, I did buy a pre-cut up bag of cole slaw. I remember being at the store thinking, "why haven't I thought of this earlier?!" The bag I bought contained broccoli, carrots and red & green cabbage (which I could have easily chopped up from fresh veggies but a lazy night called for lazy cooking). All I did was add some fresh diced onions to the mix and toss it in a sauce. 

For the sauce I used the watery part of a can of coconut milk. I used a mixer to add in some of the coconut cream to give it a little bit of thickness, but not too much. When I got the consistency just right I added onion powder, garlic, salt & pepper. Finally I squeezed in some lemon juice! It worked really well paired with a salmon I threw into a frying pan to cook and a ripe avocado. I have so much left over for the week, which is helpful on this diet. Any break from cooking, chopping, juicing, or blending is a beautiful thing!