Food Changes

I have radically changed the foods that I eat.

Eight weeks ago, on January 10, I decided to take my health matters into my own hands.  In a desperate effort to relieve chronic pain in my mid-section, I radically changed the food that I was eating.

Three months prior to that, I began to be troubled with pain in my upper back that kept me from being comfortable enough to sleep at night.  A visit to the ER gave me a diagnosis of a muscular-skeletal problem and a prescription for Celebrex.  Three days later I was in my doctor's office with a badly upset stomach(from the Celebrex) in addition to the pain.  In the succeeding weeks, I had numerous trips to the doctor's, another trip to the ER, and test upon test- blood work, MRI, CT, x-rays, ultrasound, and gall bladder.  Everything was normal except my Vitamin D was low, and I have the beginning of osteopenia. Somewhere along the line, I got a prescription for the pain killer, tramadol.  I don't think it helped the pain, and it certainly led to constipation, and then my bladder began to be very sluggish.  I quit that stuff, then seemed to have some withdrawal symptoms at night from it. In the middle of the various tests, the doctor sent me for physical therapy, which only helped a little bit.  Some therapy sessions caused me increased misery for a day or so.The pain moved to my shoulder blade area.  Then the dr. discontinued therapy and prescribed prednisone.  Wow, what results I got from that!!  I was pretty comfortable for a week or 10 days.

Ten days after the prednisone, the pain returned to my front right mid-section.  All these many weeks, about three months in all, I slept very, very poorly.  I could not get comfortable because of the pain.  I went from bed to recliner to couch to a chair to walking the floors to try to get some relief.  A heated- up corn bag gave me some relief or comfort.  A hot bath helped some, too.  There were several nights in that time that I took an evening bath and another in just a few hours.  I figured I probably did not get more that three or four hours of sleep a night during that time.  I hated to go to bed, but was too weary in the evening to stay up til my normal bedtime of 11 PM.  It was awful, just plain awful.  Ken was very supportive of me.  One night I was up and seemed so short of breath that I was afraid I was going to die.  I woke Ken up, and he realized I was hyper-ventilating.  He helped me overcome it.

A very painful night just before Christmas sent me back to the ER.  I was afraid my bowel had kinked or something.  The doctor was rude and very un-helpful to say the least.  He said my constipation (thanks to tramadol, which I had discontinued a couple of weeks prior) produced a back-up of stool which could cause my symptoms.  They gave me a bottle of laxative and sent me home.  I took two more bottles of that stuff in the next couple of days, and I got a good clean-out, but my pain remained unchanged.

All along here, with these numerous doctor visits, I did not get any diagnosis of my problem.  Dr. and his PA could not figure anything out.  The last time I went to them, December 31, I begged them to send me somewhere else if they couldn't help me.  But, oh, wait a minute, we want you to have a test on your gall bladder. We will give you another week of prednisone tablets to help you in the meantime. An earlier ultrasound had showed it to be normal, but this test was more specific.  Of course, it came back normal, too.  Finally they referred me to a rheumatology clinic in Altoona, PA.

At about the time I got my referral to Altoona, I had decided to try to change my nutrition.  I did some research on the internet and talked to our daughter, Jill, who is an RN and is also doing the paleo diet.  Since I had had such a good response to prednisone, an anti-inflammatory, I figured I must have inflammation in my system.  It wasn't too hard to find out that there are foods that decrease inflammation and foods and medicines that increase inflammation.  My thought was to eat plenty of the good foods and leave off the things that contributed to inflammation.

That meant going off of sugar, cold-turkey.  I am talking about foods made with sugar, which I had eaten in abundance.  Cookies, candy, homemade bread & rolls, cakes, ice cream--all those things I enjoyed and craved.  I also gave up any artificial sweeteners, which took care of my Diet Decaf Coke and my Equal on cereal.  What I did eat was, and still is: berries, particularly blueberries, broccoli, sweet potatoes, spinach.  I eat just a little pasta, rice, and noodles, but not often.  I haven't concluded yet that wheat bothers me, or dairy and eggs either.  The sugar I know was a huge offender.  I stay away from processed foods, too, since most of them have sugar in them.

The first few days were rough.  I wanted sugar so bad!  At about day 5, I noticed a difference in my level of pain.  It was still there, but not as troublesome!  At that time I was taking Alleve and Advil, which I now know were not good choices.  I diminished them and stopped altogether when I learned that Advil makes leaky gut worse.  My night's sleep began to improve.  Now, after eight weeks, my sleep is wonderful and back to normal.

I have read several books about the anti-inflammation diet, and keep doing research on my health.  I still get sore in my middle when I stand up for a long time.  That is improving little by little.  Going shopping is improving, too.  When I was in misery, walking through a store was painful, now it is not too bad!

More and more I am eating out of the produce department!  Just the last couple of days I have started juicing with a borrowed juicer.  It consumes lots of veggies!  Today's carrot juice, a little over a cup, was five carrots and one apple!  No way could I every eat five carrots!  But I can drink down the juice.  I have also made green juices with spinach and kale, etc., and it isn't bad either.  It is certainly something I can do if it improves my health.  It's an easier way to get vegetables in. 

My appointment with the rheumatologist was scheduled for March 5, but I rescheduled it for late April.  If I were symptom-free at this point, I would have cancelled it, but I didn't really want to "burn the bridge".  Little by little, I am improving.

As a fringe benefit, I am slowly dropping pounds!  I had lost about 10 pounds in those three months of miseries before I changed my diet.  Now I have lost an additional 12 pounds on my anti-inflammation diet.  I think my soreness in my middle will decrease as my belly fat decreases.  We shall see.

And, to top it all off, I have not been to see a doctor since December 31!!