My Journey Back To Health - Part II

I was beginning to get excited for the Cubs game my son's class won at an auction. It was to take place in May. About a week before the game, I started to feel really tired and sore. My body ached like I was getting the flu, but without all of the other symptoms. The next day, I started to feel this subtle nerve tingling throughout the right side of my body. It felt as if an electrical current was shooting through my body at a very low voltage. It seemed like the 'current' wanted to exit my body but it didn't know how to leave. It would go up and down and try to exit at my joint areas. My ankle, knee, elbow, wrist, shoulder, neck, everything ached and began to burn. The 'voltage' grew worse as the day went on and continued in severity until I had to lay down and sleep. I remember waking up on a Friday and having the 'burning' localized to my back.
Sure enough, when I looked, there was a rash that looked like a chicken pox/ blister conglomerate on my lower back. The electrical current in the rest of my body didn't subside either. It made everything I did, from sit, to walk, to breath, painful. I thought of it as my skin being peeled back and someone blowing air onto my exposed skin.
Unbelievable!!! I knew I had shingles!
Huh?! you say, shingles? Isn't that an older person's problem? That doesn't happen to young 30 year old healthy women.
Well, it did and I was the lucky recipient.
The doctor (yes, I succumbed to the doc for this one) said it was brought on by stress and a weakened immune system. It's just plain bad luck.
I received my anti viral and painkillers and retreated back to the couch for the next 5 days.
You know, being on the couch for that long gives someone a lot of time to think, and think I did.
(For the record, I did miss the Cubs game but was happy that daddy got to go enjoy it with his son)
I really evaluated my life and where I was at, during my stretch of couch time, and was enjoying working through my spiritual, mental, physical health.
One of the things that struck me was the way that I was taking care of my body.
I wasn't in a regular exercise routine, I was eating all the foods I knew were bad for my body and I really wasn't managing my stress very well with home and work and all the pressures working mom's have to manage. I think it is known by now that everyone who lets stress get a foothold in their life is setting their physical well being up for disaster.
Well, I was my own disaster and needed to do something to fix it.
yikes!!! It looks like I will need one more day to bring the story current...
Stay tuned tomorrow...

My Journey Back to Health

I am embarking on a whole new adventure in my eating and lifestyle. No gluten, dairy, eggs, HFCS, sugar, processed foods or fried foods... well, at least for the next 7 days.

Here is my story:

Back in November 2008 I took a blood test to find potential allergens. I was having several allergic type reactions to foods I was eating and unless I went on an elimination diet, I didn't feel better. I wanted to pinpoint what foods were causing me problems and when the results returned, it was confirmed.
Wheat
Dairy
Eggs
Yeast
Kidney beans
Pinto beans
The doctor said it is a small list, and the sensitivity number didn't come back as high as he had seen on other patients, but for me, it was the beginning of a whole new journey.
Now finding out these results in November posed a problem for me knowing that Thanksgiving and Christmas were right around the corner and it would be really difficult to refrain from eating the foe foods. So I watched it, and suffered a bit, but managed to get through the holidays armed with the knowledge that at least I knew the reason why I was feeling so bad all the time.
After the holidays, I did an 8 week elimination diet, excluding all of MY problem foods. I felt great, my problems, which we mainly digestive in nature, seemingly went away without a hitch. I was feeling so good about my problems, that I began to let the foe foods creep their way back into my life. Slowly at first, but with more frequency and quantity.
Before I know it, I had a rash around my neck, a ring, that would not go away. It started under my favorite chain, sterling silver, which is not supposed to cause reactions in people, but this rash got bigger and it burned and itched. Nothing I did would take it away so i resorted to one of my nemisis in life, the conventional doctor. Friendly enough, yes, but before I could finish my "I'm fine, thank you," retort to his, "Hello, how are we today?" He had two prescriptions written for steroid creams and was out the door.
Reluctently, I filled my steroids and dutifully applied my cream, know how bad it was for my body but not being able to face the rash one more day. Within a week, it was cleared up and I went on my life again without a hitch.
That lasted until May, when my body brought me back down in flames.

Stay tuned for the conclusion tomorrow...