I always had digestion issues.\u00a0 There are things that I recall now that makes me wonder what was going on when I was a kid.\u00a0 I was not breast fed; it wasn\u2019t the \u2018in\u2019 thing for my mother\u2019s generation.\u00a0 I recall her saying that I was allergic to the baby formula.\u00a0 I am not sure what a mother did in 1962 when that occurred.\u00a0 How did she feed me I wonder? Healing history part 1. I always had digestion issues.\u00a0 There are things that I recall now that makes me wonder what was going on when I was a kid.\u00a0 I was not breast fed; it wasn\u2019t the \u2018in\u2019 thing for … Continue reading
\nBeing raised in the 2nd<\/sup> grouping of seven children, I was in the mix with three brothers.\u00a0 I recall our going food shopping with Mom and them begging for some a sugared cereal.\u00a0 When we got home they would open the box and it would be gone before the first morning. I didn\u2019t really care, I never ate cereal anyway.\u00a0 Now I realize it was because the milk bothered me.
\nYears later in college I would have yogurt for lunch each day.\u00a0 I would then run to the toilet at dinner time.\u00a0 It took several months for me to realize I had to cut out the yogurt.
\nI was young and stupid.\u00a0 Taking care of me wasn\u2019t important.\u00a0 I hadn\u2019t learned yet how good it feels to feel good.
\nI never played sports, didn\u2019t like to exercise, and grew up in a home where meat and potatoes filled our plates.\u00a0 Vegetables were just an over cooked tablespoon of mush on the side of the plate.\u00a0 Salad was iceberg lettuce with tomato smothered with a fatty gloppy salad dressing.
\nI did start to move toward better food diversity and cooking methods after I got married.\u00a0 When Peter and I started out he was having intestinal problems so we tried vegetarianism for a short while as well as the diet from the book \u201cFit for Life\u201d, food combining, where you don\u2019t eat carbs and protein at the same meal.\u00a0 I did pretty well with this diet and was my skinniest in my adult life until I got pregnant.\u00a0 Then I just wanted beef! (Low in iron is my guess now).
\nI was overweight after my two pregnancies.\u00a0 I carried the \u2018baby weight\u2019 for about seven years.\u00a0 I always promised myself if they ever offered Weight Watchers at my work that I would join it.\u00a0 In 2002 it was offered, surprisingly I kept my promise and joined.\u00a0 It was new in our building so there were a few success stories going around the office when I joined so that may have motivated me.
\nI did very well with weight loss on Weight Watchers.\u00a0 The counting point system really suited my anal engineer mentality.\u00a0 I started the program in spring of 2002 and by November I had lost 40 pounds.\u00a0 Unfortunately I had gained something as well, diarrhea with bleeding. I started December with a visit to my doctor and referral to a gastroenterologist.\u00a0 By Christmas I was told I had ulcerative colitis (UC) and was put on 12 pills a day of a prescription medicine (with several others prescribed as needed).\u00a0 The worst part of this diagnosis was being told it was a chronic disease, I would have it all my life, and to expect it to get worse. Was a colostomy bag in my future?
\nSomething inside me didn\u2019t like being told my future.\u00a0 This doctor didn\u2019t know me.\u00a0 Somehow I was wise enough to know I didn\u2019t have to believe everything a doctor tells me.
\nThis reminds me of an earlier run in with doctors that shows me I was already independent in my thinking when it came to healthcare and my own thoughts on my own well-being and that of my family. \u00a0I had complications during my pregnancies.\u00a0 I had gestational diabetes, as well as some signs of pre-eclampsia including high blood pressure.\u00a0 When I was in the hospital with my new born baby they wanted to put me on blood pressure medication.\u00a0 I was told this would disrupt my ability to breast feed my son.\u00a0 I refused to take the pills.\u00a0 A nurse yelled at me that I was to do as the doctor said.\u00a0 I still refused telling myself that doctors are not always right.\u00a0 My blood pressure went down on its own in a couple of days.
\nBack to life with UC \u2026 the pills eased the bleeding very quickly.\u00a0 But, I still had symptoms of bad diarrhea, swelling, weakness, and I became very anemic.\u00a0 Stresses in my life brought on severe episodes.\u00a0 Over exertion did as well. I recall days coming home from work and just having to lay on the couch for hours from exhaustion as well as the need to rest my body to try to stop running to the bathroom.
\nThe gastro doctor I had for the first few years was supposed to be a leader in his field. We never seemed to connect.\u00a0 I saw him every couple of months.\u00a0 He dictated the schedule of appointments and tests.\u00a0 I could never make sense of his decisions.\u00a0 If I was feeling good he would say \u2018see you in a month\u2019 and he would want to run more tests.\u00a0 When I went to him ill I would not see him act to change my treatment and then he\u2019d not want to see me for 3 months. Things were not working and I needed to take action for myself.
\nIn 2006 I started to make changes.\u00a0 The anemia had become severe, my red blood cell numbers were very low.\u00a0 I was bleeding mildly with UC at times but also severely with my period.\u00a0 I tried iron supplements but they made me ill.\u00a0 I was sick all of the time because my immunity was low.\u00a0 Every month when I had my period I would have cold, flu, a cold sore, or something.
\nI began seeing a homoeopathist.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t find his treatments helped me but he gave me a great solution to my UC, he recommended a book (another story of the significance of books in my life).\u00a0 It is called \u201cBreaking the Vicious Cycle\u201d by Elaine Gloria Gottschall. In the book she describes what is now called \u2018leaky gut\u2019 and recommends food as medicine in the diet called the \u2018specific carb diet\u2019.\u00a0 I started this diet in spring of 2006.\u00a0 I felt better within days.\u00a0 My symptoms eased.\u00a0 That summer I had a procedure to deal with my excessive bleeding with my period.\u00a0 I was on my way to getting stronger and healing.
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