AnvilheadII

i'll try to keep this short (ha!). blood test results brought some interesting and concerning things to light. note, we are still waiting for the hormone/adrenal test results. if you just took the results in WHOLE, things don't look so bad....however....my blood glucose is high, 98. even the looser "clinical" range high end is 99, so i'm bumping up at pre-diabetic. that's alarming to say the least.

conversely, my vitamin D, calcium AND protein levels are all LOW. considering our "diet" consists of things like WHOLE milk, lots of red meat, chicken, fish, and I actually DO get outside regularly, this indicates that my digestive tract and organs are underfunctioning and not absorbing things well. it's not what is going IN, it's what happens once it gets there.

while my cholesterol levels still look stellar, in the two years since it was last tested my GOOD cholesterol (HDL) has dropped. the bad (LDL) has stayed the same. there are also signs of a sluggish liver, which again points to the whole intestinal system being sluggish.

so, we have started with twice daily medical grade food shakes designed to improve liver/gut function and reduce inflammation. also alpha lypoic acid for the blood glucose, a probiotic and megadoses (short term) of vitamin D. in a few weeks I will be going into the Intense Phase and doing a restrictive elimination diet.

the first few days/week with the shakes etc seemed to go pretty well...however now that we are in week two my system is starting to get into DETOX and at times i feel really lousy. fatigue, tummy unrest, and believe it or not, kinda irritable!? actually this is a normal part of the detox process....as the body begins to heal and expel all the toxins, the toxins have to go somewhere, aka back into the bloodstream, etc and thus symptoms can seem exacerbated. so feeling lousy is sort of a good sign. yay. ugh.

yesterday i was just flat done. crawled into work, got as much done as i could in an hour or so, came home and crashed, dozing, napping off and on for about 7 hours!!! altho i hate leaving my boss in the lurch, i'm thinking i should LISTEN to my body and stay home today.

going thru this DETOX made me think of what it can be like for addicts/alcoholics coming off drugs/booze. and while necessary to get BETTER, what a singularly awful experience it can be. on my drive home yesterday i was really hungry but incapable of making a sound decision - i had for a moment considered stopping in to Trader Joes and perusing their gluten-free section and seeing if there was anything to pick up for dinner but ended up in the Jack in the Box drive thru and abandoned all notions of AVOID foods and got 2 tacos and some chicken strips. and cheerfully devoured every bite. that is NOT normal food fare for me!!

i'm really having to take days ONE at a time - good days, not so bad days, not so good days, and bad days. if yesterday was a BAD day, today so far is a not so bad day. recovery, not matter what form or what FROM, is hardly ever a straight line!

AnvilheadII

i wanted to add....the reason for the delay in the hormone/adrenal test, which was my reason for going to the naturopath, is that my cycle started up after a three month hiatus, and then returned a week later, for 8 days. so we had to wait for a break in the action so to speak. once those results are back, they will then add in any hormone relief/supplementation as indicated. however part of the reason why no "fixes" or cures to date have been very effective goes back to my digestive tract being a mess and seemingly confused on what to DO with it!!