I suspect that if I were to take the posts about my food issues and put them together in a book, it would be helpful to many people. I will briefly try to explain what has happened to my body as best I understand it. When I was born, I was born with the C282y gene that the Irish people needed. It not being the potato famine and all that, it continues to function in the way it would have by holding onto iron. Basically, it is thought that this protein functions to regulate iron absorption, and mine is “broken” so to speak. Luckily, the porphyria cutanea tarda kicked in and gave me blisters all over and turned my urine dark. Warning! Warning! Anyway, you can see other posts about all that. Just use the tag cloud and click on hard to read words. ha.
So we have a kid loaded up on iron, fed by well water, eating collard greens like they are going out of style and taking her Flintstone vitamins. Anyone see what’s happening? Yes, you over there. Poisoning myself. That would be correct. Because my body has no way of getting rid of the access iron.
Now let’s throw in mononucleosis at age 15 which left behind some Epstein-Barr virus and find out that EBV latently persists in the individual’s B cells for the rest of the individual’s life. Hmmm. Not sure what happened with this, but I KNOW it was reactivated about 4 years ago which started causing a number of problems.
Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis was found when my body starting attacking itself several years ago. To use a bit from the Mayo Clinic: Hashimoto’s disease is a condition in which your immune system attacks your thyroid, a small gland at the base of your neck below your Adam’s apple. The thyroid gland is part of your endocrine system, which produces hormones that coordinate many of your body’s activities.
Read that part again about coordinating MANY of your body’s activities. READ it. MANY. I exhibited every SINGLE one of the symptoms for all of these diseases, but never in my life had a light-bulb gone off as when my good friend told me to read about Hashimoto’s. I’m going to let you use the link above if you want to read more about Hashi’s but seriously it was the worst diagnosis. I just didn’t know it yet.
When I started to feel like I had the flu every single day for the last 3 years, I should have known something more was coming. The truth is, I did know. I knew I had fibromyalgia, I knew I was living with pain and the swollen tender points daily, but what I didn’t know was that it was so hard for people to understand and/or believe. From what I can tell, it is usually triggered by an underlying cause. Read more about fibromyalgia here.
All this bring me up to date, but what I left out was what I did in between to feel better. As the years went on, the extreme sensitivity to cold got to me. My bones ached to their very core. Still do, but cold is worse. My stomach bloated like a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day balloon. I would have to go to the bathroom more than normal people, but still couldn’t lose weight. It was painful. I went through all kinds of tests, again that portion is in the blog if you search. Giving up gluten as BEST I could was not good enough. I really had to be serious. Then I suspected there was another trigger, so I gave up sugar in November. That was very, very, very difficult. I felt like Paula Deen came over and took away my Southern License.
I am not teaching. I actually could not continue. The pain, fatigue, constant contact with infection had my body fighting hard just to stay alive. Not to mention the phlebotomies, and the fact that now my blood cells are considered Microcytic Anemia stage. I was dizzy, it was hard to get my breath, and my exhaustion was at the highest it had been since I could remember.
I started a process by researching all-natural supplements and what would help my body. I got off acid-blockers as my stomach was already having issues with digestion so that did not actually help. I started taking apple-cider vinegar in water. I added probiotics, see the tab here called Vitalize You for more on that, and I added vitamin D as well as a gluten-free supplement called It’s Vital. I still have bad days. Flare-ups, and days I stay in my pajamas, but the good days are now finally catching up to the bad days and for that I am thankful. I am working with my all-natural supplements business and I am spreading awareness of “invisible” diseases because they sure as hell aren’t invisible on the inside. Not at all.
Yes, this is my other Facebook page. It’s for my business:) #vitalizeyou
