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NicoleBlog::August2008 |
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Starting to feel healthy ….most of the time… |
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Things I've learned while investigating ways to recover my health |
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Aug 16, 2008  It’s
been 3 years since I’ve blogged. I’m going
to try to give a synopsis of the missing time. My purpose in writing this is to help other
people who have become sick in similar ways, by providing information about
my symptoms and what remedies and diet changes were effective. While this is not intended to treat or
diagnose anyone else’s conditions, I hope that hearing my story may be
helpful to others. I’ve largely been
motivated to write this and post it publically because I’ve met so many
people with similar illnesses, who have made varying degrees of improvement.
I find myself trying to tell my long, convoluted story – and the list of
things that helped improve my health – in one huge burst of
conversation. I invariably come away
feeling like I’ve left out something important, and overwhelmed my
listener. Having the story in writing
is a better milieu for this information… it allows the listener (reader) a
little time to digest it! More
to come… Posted by Nicole Aug 16, 2008 In
2006, despite the fact that I still had many health problems, my husband and
I decided to have a child. At this
time, my symptom list was still pretty
long: semi-frequent migraines (every month with my cycle, at the very least),
restless leg, acne brought on by some foods, occasional fatigue, occasional
extreme low blood sugar (hypoglycemia), chemical sensitivity strong enough to
prevent me from visiting friends or having visitors except those visitors
that had followed a careful regime to arrive scent-free, restless leg
syndrome, Reynaud’s syndrome (which simply meant that if my hands or feet got
cold, they didn’t warm up easily on their own… I usually found something like
a hot water bottle or blanket to warm them), insulin resistance, poor wound
healing, inability to exercise (exercise caused migraines, extreme fatigue
etc. The only thing I was able to do was yoga, which I did several times a
week from a home video), bruises (all my life I’ve had bruises on my body… I
chalked it up to being clumsy, but now I know better), a ton of food allergies,
and last but not least, low sex drive.
At that time, I was taking about 3.5 mg prednisone daily, and every
time I tried to taper the dose, my symptoms all got worse, particularly the
headaches and fatigue. I was also
taking fairly large amounts of cod liver oil, and occasionally taking
sublingual cyanocobalamin (B12), and glutathione by inhaler. Still, my life
was manageable compared to previous years, so we decided it was now or never
to start our family. At
the time I was seeing Dr. Buscher, who in
previous years had found that I had parasites, candida overgrowth, numerous
food allergies and chemical sensitivities (some of this is covered in the
earlier blog). I had been taking the LDA therapy to cure food allergies, but
since the therapy takes years to complete, I decided to put it on hold. I was also seeing Dr. Holman, who specialized in patients with
fibromyalgia. Although I don’t have
the pain associated with fibromyalgia, I do have a lot of symptoms in common,
and apparently you can have fibromyalgia without having the pain. His basic theory is that fibro is caused by
over-excitation of autonomic nervous system prevented patients from getting
restorative sleep, which leads to autoimmune disorders and fibromyalgia. He’d found that his patients fit into two
categories: those with sleep problems, and those with pinched nerves (usually
in the neck). (By the way, this is a
gross over-simplification). I was
having sleeping problems, and spinal scans confirmed pinching of nerves in my
neck. He started treating me with a drug for sleep, and assigned me to
physical therapy to correct the posture issues that irritated the nerves in
my neck, and to strengthen the muscles that supported the spine. (Dr. Holman recently quit his practice to
continue his research, because he has been so successful at treating patients
that he wants to complete his research, and spread the word to the medical
community, presumably). I
got pregnant, but the baby miscarried at 12 weeks, which scared me badly. I
became convinced my immune system was the cause, that I had rejected the
baby. I was, to put it mildly, an
emotional wreck for several months.
Luckily, I had a lot of support from my mother, my good friend Becky,
and of course, from my husband, who has provided incredible support
throughout our relationship & my illness.
We went to see a fertility specialist who didn’t think there was
likely to be anything wrong but humored me by ordering a bunch of tests. I
discovered I had a MTHR mutation which affects homocysteine levels. This turned out to be a red herring, as was
the fact that I had some antiphospholipid antibodies present for one test
(but not present for a subsequent test).
At the time, these initial results seemed to confirm (to me) that my
immune system was still too messed up and I might not be able to get
pregnant. Two
months later I was pregnant again, and this baby, a son, was born in June of
2007. The pregnancy was different than
my first pregnancy… I never felt nauseated, though I did develop IBS symptoms
that went away as soon as the first trimester was over. I think a large part of this was the iron
supplement my doctor put me on – my stomach would roil within an hour of
taking it, and it took me several weeks to notice the connection and stop
taking the supplement. During the first trimester, I ate a lot of gluten-free
millet toast and sheep cheese, because they calmed my stomach. I also discovered Heather’s IBS website, and bought
some of the acacia fiber that she sells (I was allergic to ingredients in all
the other fiber supplements I found in the local health food stores). Like a normal pregnancy, I was exhausted
all the time and no amount of sleep made me feel rested. My husband had to do
everything in the household most days: take care of our daughter, make
dinners, and clean the house. It was a
tough time. On
the good side, I stopped reacting to some scents, and I stopped having
migraines altogether. The
second and third semesters went very well.
I honestly don’t remember having any problems related to the pregnancy
during this time, although I still had to avoid chemicals and the foods to
which I am allergic. Early on in the
pregnancy, when the relaxin hormone was causing my joints to shift, I started
having some back and neck pain. At the physical therapy that Dr. Holman sent
me to, I learned a lot from my
therapist about how bad posture can
affect the nervous system (particularly, if, like me, you have a pinched
nerve in your neck), and the exercises helped reduce the muscle pain. About
6 weeks from the delivery, we visited a friend on Whidbey island.
Unfortunately, I have a reaction to something on the Oregon/Washington coast,
and I developed a sinus infection. I tried
all my standard remedies and rested, but I wasn’t able to overcome it on my
own. Worried about trying to deliver
while exhausted from the infection, I finally took antibiotics 2 weeks before
my due date. Because I didn’t want a
Candida overgrowth, I took a probiotic fungus, Saccharomyces Boulardii, while I was on
the antibiotics. I
was really worried about not having enough energy for the labor, and I had
joined a pregnancy yoga class in my first trimester to help tone the muscles
I was going to need. This did so much
to alleviate the various normal aches and pains of pregnancy that I signed up
for the second course as well. I
learned how to do yoga breathing in the class, and I honestly that, along
with the exercises, made a huge difference in the labor and delivery. The delivery took 4 hours, and was drug
free. I felt great after it was over,
and it was so wonderful to hold my son. My husband got to “catch” him as he
came out, which was very special for my husband. For
the next year, I was mostly delirious from lack of sleep. My son was very healthy, but insisted on
nursing many times during the night. I
had started taking more prednisone during the pregnancy because my fatigue
had increased. At the beginning of
2008, I decided it was time to deal with the hormone issue: I didn’t want to
be on an artificial steroid (prednisone has many negative side-effects, such
as osteoporosis if you take it long term) any longer. I found a doctor that specializes in
helping women balance their hormones, and prefers to use bio-identical
hormones. When I saw her in February,
and gave her my long list of symptoms, she discovered I had a vitamin D deficiency,
low DHEA, low fasting insulin (a sign that my pancreas is tired, and a good
indication that I’m still insulin resistant). She put me on high levels of
vitamin D and asked me to make an appointment with Dr. Ranheim .
I had heard of Dr. Ranheim before, from Dr.
Buscher. Both doctors are
environmental doctors (members of AAEM) that had themselves developed
chemical sensitivity and food allergies, and cured themselves (a long
process). Even though I was happy with
Dr. Buscher, I decided to make an appointment with Dr. Ranheim, to see if he
would find anything new. Posted by Nicole Aug 17, 2008 I
couldn’t resist writing about home-made meals. This morning for breakfast I had toast
spread with goose fat, pumpkin seed butter and jelly, with a glass of beet
kvass. As I was eating it I realized I
had made every part of this meal – and I felt a certain pride that I had such
a connection my delicious breakfast. I
made the bread from whole-grain sorghum flour and sprouted millet seeds. I
made the pumpkin seed butter by sprouting the seeds, drying them, and then
grinding them. I made the jelly from
fresh fruit from the farmer’s market and plum juice from plums we picked from
my dad’s plum tree. I fermented the
beets grown in our garden to make beet kvass. I collected the goose fat from
the goose we’d cooked the previous evening (home-rendered goose fat &
lard make up most of our fat consumption – we always get meat from pastured,
hormone-free animals). This was a
simple meal that I truly enjoyed eating. Why
do I go to all this effort for my breakfast?
First, I’m allergic to so many common ingredients and additives that
almost all pre-made foods make me sick. Second, by preparing the foods
following traditional principals (e.g., as laid out in Sally Fallon’s cookbook), I’m improving
the accessibility of the nutrients in my food. This is key because my digestive system has
been fairly ineffective in recent years, and I am still correcting the
nutritional deficiencies, not to mention the fact that my son is still
nursing, and I need to be able to produce healthy milk. In the case of the
beet kvass, I’m even getting a shot of probiotics with my meal. A lot of my
previous health problems stemmed from my poor diet through most of my life –
and I’m finding that the food I eat is an important part of my long-term
strategy for life-long health. Posted by Nicole Aug 17, 2008 Dr.
Ranheim ordered a lot of tests, and in April, the tests showed I was
moderately deficient in iron, testosterone, B12, and deficient in folic acid
and magnesium. He also did a test of
my 24 hour cortisol level – this came out very high, over 2 times higher the
high level for “normal” people. We
don’t know why it is so high. Previous
doctors have speculated I have developed an undiagnosed auto-immune disease. In any case, high cortisol levels could
explain why I still need adrenal supplementation. Additionally,
a test by DiagnosTech showed I was low in pancreatic enzymes (this had shown up
on a test two years earlier, but at the time I didn’t do anything about it),
and I still had strong a yeast overgrowth.
Because the yeast was in the Saccharomyces family, rather than
candida, I was pretty sure I knew how I’d gotten it. On the positive side, my
immune system strength had improved, and my gut inflammation, still high, was
lower than two years ago. I also no
longer had the bacterial pathogens that I’d had three years earlier. Ranheim
also prescribed testosterone, because both my DHEA and testosterone
measurements were abnormally low (not surprising, considering I seem to be
adrenal-insufficient, and I was only replacing cortisol). To combat the yeast, he put me on the
candida diet (to starve the yeast), an antifungal (nystatin), and some supplements
(berbercap, garlic, oregano). About
3 days into the anti-yeast regime, I had a severe die-off reaction
(basically, feels like the flu, minus the vomiting). I recovered from the die
off and stayed on the program to the best of my ability for the rest of the
year. Around this time a friend of
mine recommended “The Body Ecology Diet“, which had
tons of great advice for re-establishing gut flora and improving health. I
started taking digestive plant enzymes at the end of April as well. This made a huge difference in both my
energy, and how well my food was digested (as evidenced from my stool… enough
said). I wished I had started these
much earlier. At
this point Dr. Ranheim made an adjustment to my steroid regime: rather than
taking prednisone, he said I could try to switch to hydrocortisone, and he
prescribed 15 mg DHEA, some testosterone, and some other supporting
supplements as well (vitamin c, adrenal compound etc). The doses he prescribed replaced half the
amount the normal adrenals would produce.
The idea is to let over-worked adrenals rest and recover. I switched
to his regime without a hitch. In
fact, I felt much better with DHEA in my system (DHEA is a feel-good hormone;
I’d been living with a deficit for the last few years). I
also learned from a Weston Price Foundation friend that it had been
discovered that Vitamin K2, the animal form of Vitamin K, was probably the
“X-factor” that Weston Price referenced in his books. The X-factor was key to healthy growth and
bones, so I decided to see if I could work it into my diet. This turned out to be tricky, since one of
the best sources is raw butter from grass fed cows, and I am very allergic to
cow & goat products. Finally, I
discovered that natto, fermented soybeans, are a very potent source of
Vitamin K. I’m allergic to soy, but I
had a hunch I could ferment black beans to the same effect. I found a recipe on the internet, and used
natto from a local Asian market as the starter culture. About a month after adding natto to my
diet, I noticed that all my bruises had disappeared (and are still
gone). Now I have a good source of the
three main fat-soluble vitamins that are key to being able to properly
utilize minerals. I eat my homemade natto 2-3 times a week. I
had been on prednisone for 4 years at this point, which is not a good
thing. Because of the concerns about
osteoporosis, I asked my general physician for a bone scan. The scan, taken in late May, showed I had
moderate-to-advanced osteopenia (pre-osteoporosis). We agreed I would add
weight lifting and other weight-bearing exercise to my lifestyle rather than
taking drugs, and evaluate how I was doing a year later. I
started lifting weights, and decided to give jogging a try. And lo, for the first time in over 4 years,
I didn’t feel tired or sick after exercising!
I realized this was probably due to the fact that I was taking
digestive enzymes and additional DHEA, both of which are known to improve
energy. This was exciting! I’ve
been lifting weights about twice a week, and jogging for 20 minutes 3 times a
week since then. I’ve never felt so good after jogging – it actually feels
easy. It really feels like things are
coming together with my health -I’m so happy about this! The
major symptoms I’m still dealing with are the food allergies, and the
chemical sensitivity. The chemical sensitivity, while still pretty severe, is
noticeably reduced from a year ago. Unfortunately, the food allergies seem to
be as strong as ever. I’m hoping that
after another 6 months or so of feeling healthy and having the right flora in
my gut, I’ll start losing the food allergies as well. Here’s to hoping!!! I really think it is just a matter of time
(and eating well). Posted by Nicole |
Blogs 2008 Aug |
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www.nuclearmonkey.com |
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