Quick Update

Enter His gates with thanksgiving

And His courts with praise.

Give thanks to Him, bless His name. 

Psalm 100:4  

Being that it's November and Thanksgiving is around the corner, this verse is often in my mind.  It was my mom's favorite verse to read before our feast on Thanksgiving Day and it always reminds me of her.  And I am thankful these days for what look to be some answers for my health issues.

I've been on treatment now for 11 days.  While it's too early to judge whether I'm on the mend or not, I believe that the meds are doing what they're supposed to.  I'm experiencing die-off symptoms, which is a good sign, and if I take the meds too often, I really feel it.  So, I'm engaged in the dance of determining what is too much and what is not enough.  Thankfully I have the freedom to mess with the dose and get it to a manageable level on my own.

I think that eliminating the foods from my diet which I thought were "safe" has had a positive impact on my system as well.  I still have a long way to go, but there is hope that we're on the right track now.

Thanks for much for praying.  I'll keep you all updated as we go along.

Treatment Underway

Beloved, I pray that in all respects

you may prosper and be in good health,

just as your soul prospers. 

3 John 1:2  

I love how all-encompassing God's Word is.  The first time I recognized what this verse was saying, it blew me away.  Soul prosperity comes first, and the others are compared to it.  That's cool to me.

I started treatment this past Monday.  It was recommended that I start very slowly and then increase the dose if I feel I can handle the current level.  I decided to take the meds before bed so the lousy feeling would be happening more when I was already lying down.  So, three nights of that and I wasn't feeling any problems during the day other than tiredness.  Today I have upped the dose and took one in the morning, also.  I'm dealing with a headache in addition to the tiredness, and some heart palps and nausea stuff that may or may not be associated with the meds.  Hard to tell sometimes.  So, not too bad so far.  Yay!

The food angle of things is better, as well.  As I mentioned last time, Dr. Allison was able to help me with understanding more about the foods I can eat.  The diet is referred to as the FODMAP diet and has its origins in the SCD diet.  It has to do with how our guts absorb - or not absorb - sugars.  When a gut is damaged because of gut flora imbalance, all kinds of nasty things happen.  One of them is the inability for the intestinal lining to do its job properly.  Absorbing sugars is one of the things that is particularly critical, because if the sugars aren't absorbed, they stay behind and feed the bacteria and yeasts.  This causes them to proliferate and worsens the gut flora imbalance, and around it goes in a vicious cycle of illness.  Eliminating the foods that leave those naturally-occurring sugars behind is a critical piece of the puzzle.  Dr. Allison not only helped me understand some of these things at my appointment, but also sent me an in-process FODMAP diet pamphlet she is creating based on her research.  It's not complete or finalized, but it has been really, really helpful to me.  I've been able to eliminate some unsuspected things that were problematic, and also add in some things that aren't problematic but which I thought were.  So, no weight gain yet, but that may be awhile.

I will continue to keep you posted as we go along here.

Thanks for praying for me and my family.  We so appreciate it!