Day 13 - I HAVE SOME GOOD NEWS!!!

Dear Friends,

Well, my time to reboot my life is fast running out! But, that's okay.  I've restarted the countdown once before and may do so again.  

But, here's my good news.  The neurologist did a lot of blood tests which I had faxed to my doctor.  She went over them with me today and there were many things to celebrate.  One is that my sedimentation rate has gone way down, which means my inflammation level is lower.  All of my autoimmune markers were perfect.  I DONT have celiac disease.  And my IgG and IgE levels were NORMAL!!  That may mean that I don't have food allergies anymore!  To be sure, she is going to do a scratch test, but I have to be off all anti-histamines for a week before she does it.  She is thinking of doing chelation to get rid of the heavy metals in my blood, but wants to do a test on that before she does.  So she's doing a "challenge" test.  I was given an IV and then collected all urine for the next six hours.  If it comes back and I still have high levels of heavy metals, I'll go through chelation which will remove all of them from my blood.  

She wants me to take getting off the beta blockers a little slower than the neurologist said.  So, I'm taking only one a day now and should do that for up to a month, and then go to one every other day for a month or so before completely quitting them,  She says I'll feel a lot better when I am off of these.  And if I do still have high levels of metals in my blood, I'll feel better after having them removed.  

She wants to go up to higher doses of all the vitamins and minerals in the saline IVs I get from time to time.  

My C-Reactive Protein level was still at 10 (still dangerously high) but not any higher than it had been, even though I had been eating bread and butter with gusto for about a month before the test was taken.  

The other news was that I have gained twelve pounds since I moved here.  So, not good ... but not terrible, either.  

Oh, and she is doing blood work to find out what vaccines I have had.  Turns out that, if you lose your records, they can find out from your blood.  So I probably won't have to deal with getting booster shots or anything else.  And I think this testing satisfies NY requirements.  

So ... REALLY good news.  I'm very encouraged, and that's, like ... a first!

So, am I on my way to getting my life rebooted??  I think that I am.  This Whole30 program is going really well.  I'm still bloating a lot, but I can get into pants I wasn't being able to get into previously.  

Exercising every other day seems to be going well enough, but it am still scared of hurting myself by tearing a tendon again.  So, I remembered that the cardiologist at Vanderbilt wanted me to get cardiac conditioning, but no one in the area would do it unless you had had a heart attack.  Well, I did some checking briefly on the internet and I found a really good physical therapy place 24 minutes away that does it,  so, she wrote me prescriptions for physical therapy on my hips, fascia and shoulder and for cardiac conditioning as well.  So, this may really speed up the process of getting me fit again.  That would be so incredibly awesome!!

So, I think I'm on the right road at least.  

Cheers!
Lisa 

Day 22 - I'm Not Going to Make It, Am I?

Dear Friend,

I haven't posted for a while, have I?  I just haven't felt like talking.  I'm not going to take the time to go over what all has happened this week.  I'll just start with today.  I started The Whole30 Program today.  It's a thirty day diet to reset your whole body.  It's pretty strict: no dairy at all, no soy in any form, no legumes at all (except green beans, sugar snap peas and snow peas), no white potatoes, no sugar or artificial sweetener in any form, no sodas in any form, and ... hardest of all ... NO GRAINS OF ANY KIND!!  Oh, and no alcohol at  all.  The idea is to really clean out your body and break all psychological ties yu have with food.  Their thing is, "Give us 30 days."  Not 365 days, just 30 days of adhering to this protocol.  Some pretty outstanding testimonials.  Oh, and very little fruit.  So ... I'm going for it.  Not being able to have grains of ay kind is going to be the hardest part of it, for sure!  

I swam for twenty minutes Saturday.  Rested Monday.  And then did strength training today for twenty minutes.  I won't do anything tomorrow.  Trying to keep from tearing muscle fibers again.  I'm calling my doctor tomorrow to get an appointment so I can get a Rx to see a ohysical therapist.  The fascia in my outer thighs Sunday night was so tight I was very inhabited in taking strides.  

That's it for now.  

Cheers!
Lisa