The reason I’ve been rather quiet (relatively speaking) for the last few months has been due to several health issues that surfaced. I don’t like to blog about bad stuff that’s personal – especially not when I’m in the throes of a personal battle.
With that said, I’m feeling MUCH better now, I’m back to work full-force and I’m not feeling guilty for feeling like crap and being unable to do much. NOW I can finally blog about it.
My husband was awesome, as were my kids, and even my clients were understanding (I never thought anything would ever slow down my work!)
With all that said, the Doctors and the over $5K of tests and exams, blood analysis, CT scans, X-rays, EKG’s, ultrasounds, ad nauseum were unable to find anything. The solution was to put me on medications, and then more medications.
Now, I don’t believe in medications, never have. I don’t even take ASPRIN! I’m not accustomed to being “sick” and I firmly believe that most people get SICKER, not better, when they use medications.
During this bout where I was desperate to feel better, to quit having the dizzy spells, to get rid of the swelling, the joint pain, and all the other many symptoms, I agreed to go on meds. Mistake. HUGE mistake.
When I looked up the counter-indications for the meds I was on, it amazed me to find that most of the things I was taking had side effects, which were identical to the symptoms I was taking them FOR. And, if not that, then the one I was taking for symptom X caused the problems I was taking another med to address. And the problem was, I already HAD all these symptoms — so my drugs were possibly exacerbating the issues I was taking them to subdue.
When I asked my doctor about this, she said it was strange, but often medications are given for a solution to the symptoms they cause. Very odd, in my book and frustrating. So, I figured, if I DO get better – how would I know? Especially if medication X causes the symptoms that medication Y erases?
All I know is that I was exhausted all the time, was grumpy, had heart palpitations, my hands and feet were swollen to nearly double their normal size on the worst days, I couldn’t sleep, even had difficulty walking during the worst of it. I had all these physical maladies and then was being given (expensive) medications that didn’t really help, but stated on the information sheet that they could do harm.
After taking myself OFF all the medications (nearly three weeks ago), giving up on the medical community, and putting myself back on an elimination (yeast elimination) diet, I’m feeling 110% better. Some symptoms remain, but they are starting to fade. I’ve gone all-organic and have started paying much closer attention to what I ingest and what products I use.
Why this approach? Experience. It worked once before.
Before Alexzandria was born, I was diagnosed with Arthritis (Rheumatoid variety) and the joint pain and swelling (especially in my knees) was so bad at that point, I was told (and became convinced) I’d not be able to climb stairs in a short while. I had no desire to take steroids for the rest of my life.
On an unrelated note, I also had a recurring infection, which baffled the doctors. I tripped across a book called The Yeast Connection, by William Crook, MD and in desperation; I bought it and tried the diet. In a matter of weeks my infection was gone and so was my arthritis. Gone. Completely. I eliminated sugar from my diet for several years, convinced that was the culprit.
On our wedding day, I ate wedding cake. And after that, I started eating sugar again. I was also drinking between two and three 2-litre bottles of Diet Cola per day. I was an addict, and I admitted it freely. I ADORED diet cola – and Diet Dr. Pepper. I’d drink it hot or cold, fizzy or flat. I even joked that an IV of caffeine would be a quicker, more efficient method of delivery of my “drug of choice” and it would improve my productivity by reducing my trips to the bathroom. I’d be more efficient and could work longer. I said that caffeine didn’t keep me awake. And, I could, in all honesty, go to sleep immediately after ingesting large quantities of diet cola. Of course, since I kept a 2-litre with me at all times, if I ever was going to sleep it would HAVE to be after ingesting a large quantity of my favorite beverage. Do a web search on aspartame poisoning, if you really want to become alarmed. It’s a neurotoxin.
Now, with all that said, I dunno if it was the sugar, if it was the enormous amount of aspartame I ingested, or some other chemical mixture of toxins from the food I ate or some combination thereof – but my body did certainly go awry.
The symptoms were nearly gone by the time I went back for my second appointment with the ear specialist, who was running more tests on my vertigo (so bad at times it made me nauseous). When I told him I’d not had an episode since the last time we talked, a week before, he asked what I’d done differently. I told him about the “no yeast” diet, and my prior experience with the arthritis and infections that disappeared when I went on the diet. He told me that he was quite interested in learning more, and took down the title and the author.
I don’t expect to feel like new again immediately, but I already feel better. My husband said he loves having his wife back and he’s happy to not be worrying about me on a daily basis. He said he never would have believed ANYTHING would slow me down, ever, and to see me like that worried him terribly.
I’m not good at being sick. I don’t like it. It cramps my style and ruins my quality of life. So, I’m doing what I can to fix it.
I still get dizzy occasionally, I’m still dealing with a substantial weight gain during this whole ordeal, and I have a long way yet to go — but at least I feel human again.
I’ve done an enormous amount of research on chemical-related symptoms (particularly from aspartame and other artificial sweeteners) and urge anyone who eats standard USA American Fare to do a bit of research.
Some of the things I’ve read are downright scary! And, eliminating all those products from my diet has delivered a solution to a multitude of problems which left my doctors saying they didn’t know what was wrong.
If you want to learn a bit more, check out the “Healthy Links” I will attempt to collect. This will include resources I want to share and books I recommend you read. I may throw in a few organic food and product resources too. My most recent read was Kevin Trudeau’s Book which I found to be quite interesting. I must admit it was overly verbose (and for ME, that’s really saying something). Phrases like “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore” were repeated to the point it was irritating. He spends too much time “witch hunting” and pushing his own website, but the information is thought provoking. If it were “boiled down” into five concentrated chapters, it would be a better read for the information addicts among us. :O) With that said, I still think it’s well worth your time, and wading through the less than informative, and repetitive portions to pan for the gold.
It’s not been easy to go “all organic,” it’s like taking the Yeast Diet and going a step further, but if that’s what I need to do to feel better, it’s a done deal!
Blessings and good health to you all (without that, not much else matters)!
