Need Input that I'm not going to get from Dr.

Erica P-G · Post by **Erica P-G** » Tue Jul 07, 2015 3:32 pm

I learned a thing or two over this 4th of July camping weekend.

As long as I packed all the Safe Foods I basically did ok.

What I should have stayed away from was Sparkling mineral water (one sip and I knew right away it wasn't for me, and sure enough it woke me up in the middle of the night with a bathroom trip).

I ate:
Steamed rice (prepared and bagged ahead of time)
Turkey sausage, deli meat, and Turkey Dogs over an open fire (yum)
Rice Chex cereal
The Cravings Place pancake mix
Log Cabin syrup made with brown rice and sugar
Honey
Cashews
Plain potato chips
Coconut Water
(my mini Mtn Dew)
Water
Sea Salt
VitD3, K2 and Mag oil (these will probably be a part of daily life from here on out)

Family we joined had some fresh wild caught Snake Rive Salmon that they grilled instead of seasoning just for me

and I ate some with my steamed rice and it was delicious!! I had no reaction a couple days after so now I want to go fishing...LOL. My husband and I did do some light duty fishing and caught some Rainbow Trout so now I look forward to trying that one of these days. This is my first introduced food in the last three months.

Overall it was a low stress trip (obviously to get all the right things together it may not be so stress free, but I started on my packing 3-4 days before hand and that really helped). We even took a 4-wheeler ride that lasted 3-4 hours....a few months ago I would never have felt comfortable doing that. I am still sitting at 5 on the BM scale had a slight back track to a 6, but understand now that I still have lots of healing left to do. At least I know I can do something without being afraid that a bathroom may not be close by. I still have uneasy days, but if I return to my Safe Foods I can feel more confident about myself.

This is a journey every day of our lives.

Post by **tex** » Tue Jul 07, 2015 8:46 pm

Erica,

It sounds as though you're doing well in your recovery. Congratulations!

And thanks for sharing an update.

Tex

Erica P-G · Post by **Erica P-G** » Tue Jul 07, 2015 9:35 pm

Thanks Tex,
I have a beginning point, who knows when the end will be, lol. Sounds like this is my life now, sure glad I've held the course, a part of me feels like crying for joy an a sigh of relief that I'm feeling somewhat normal. These last 4 months have been rough, but I'm realizing all the changes discussed on this post were important an needed to be done. Silently I have been kicking an screaming the whole way because learning a new way of life in what seems like a blink of an eye is change that is the most hardest to comprehend.

My hope is this post inspires others to hold the course, be strong no matter how much it hurts. To see a light beginning to form keeps giving me hope as I hope it will for others.

I will continue to update as I notice other things that seem to arise with this MC thing

Hugs
Erica

Gabes-Apg · Post by **Gabes-Apg** » Fri Jul 10, 2015 11:22 pm

Great news Erica!

it is not easy to wipe away 30 odd years of beliefs about nutrition / eating habits etc. It takes time.
Hence why the mental emotional work is just as important as the diet...

take it slow and steady... allow the healing to flourish..

take care

Erica P-G · Post by **Erica P-G** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 1:52 pm

Gabes, it is interesting you bring up 30 yrs of belief about nutrition. Where I live Wheat Harvest is in full swing, and everytime I drive down the highway and look at all those fields, some cut some not just yet, I think to myself "man it sure is hard to feel support for this way of life anymore" I understand it is a livelihood for many generations of families but now I wish there was some other crop that could help sustain the world other than this wheat crop I drive by all the time.

I wonder if I will see a change in my lifetime about the gluten impact and how farmers begin to relate to how it can affect so many.

On a side note, I am going to try to give my diet another month (no matter how bored I am with my current foods) before branching out with a new addition of food. I'm sure many others have stood in their kitchens and rolled their eyes and thought "what's it gonna be, Rice Chex with Turkey or Safe pancake/waffle mix and Turkey, or Steamed rice with Turkey" LOL...I don't even worry about what I'm eating at what time of the day anymore either. This used to really bother me, as I thought I should eat certain things at certain times of the day, wow was that a huge belief system or what!

Thanks for the constant encouragement!
Hugs
Erica

Gabes-Apg · Post by **Gabes-Apg** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 2:57 pm

In one aspect, it is kind of freeing to shed all those heavy beliefs and flourish on our 'weird' eating plan...

I have been having lamb and vege stew, for lunch most weekdays for 5.5 years.

With healing and wellness I now have meals of sometimes foods ingredients on the weekend...

The other stage of the MC journey is when you no longer overthink eating/meals. You have your staples, there is stuff pre-prepared, and it just flows.
Shopping is easy, you just buy the same things as last time!!

Erica P-G · Post by **Erica P-G** » Mon Jul 20, 2015 2:15 pm

I just realized it has been 2 whole months since I felt like I was falling apart and all alone in this MC world. I have really been doing some intense learning and healing. I have been WD free long enough now that I can smile about its non existence at this time

I know not every one has been able to get their WD to stop as quickly as I feel like I have been able to with mine. When something is working it truly is reason to CHEER! I also drove with my husband and 2yr old grandchild to a Dinosaur exhibit that was 45 miles away, I took a safe drink, potato chips and some cashews. Not only were we able to attend the exhibit I also shopped for some clothes at the mall with no bathroom emergencies! SCORE :-)

I noticed once I did have the right foods and supplements put together, and my mind accepted them too I have felt better, have had less anxiety, and sleep better.

Now that all the good stuff has been said, I'm noticing "niggles" as Gabes calls them. The thin skin creased areas around the back of my ears has decided to produce tiny weeping lesions, at random mind you! No blood, just little topical clear liquid lesions that come and go and crust up, just enough annoyance that I can't wear my earrings (and I only have my ears pierced on my lobes)

Are these "niggles" a way of toxins leaving the body, a high histamine affect, ???? I'm at a loss what could be going on, I have had occurrences of this for a good week now.

Random thought....I think my eyesight is a little better now too (I still need low focus readers, and my distance for driving) but my sight for the computer is so much better these days. I used to need my progressive lens glasses, but notice they hurt my eyes to work on the computer

I also felt a bit of satisfaction emailing my Dr. and thanking him for his contribution to my MC diagnosis and then enlightening him on my Enterolab results and how I was able to reach the place I am now in my healing with no WD, a solid food plan and the supplements that are working for me. I have not heard from him, I hope my nice sincere email gave him food for thought for anyone else that comes to him with basic MC needs, I was by no means sarcastic or anything in it. I kinda wonder if they don't respond to emails in general.

Until the next "Niggle"

Erica

Gabes-Apg · Post by **Gabes-Apg** » Mon Jul 20, 2015 2:41 pm

Yep, toxins leaving the body... Woo hoo. More progress...

Great news about the eyesight improvements....
Love hearing the updates of your wellness journey xo

Erica P-G · Post by **Erica P-G** » Tue Jul 28, 2015 4:26 pm

Another week another learning experience.

Had an annual girlie exam, filled in my Gyno with all the new things I learned this year. Kinda felt like I was talking to a Dr. that I was out of their league

He did his normal things, took interest in my new findings about myself and we got to talking about how my hormones seem to be doing when all of a sudden after I asked him at what point would it be a good idea to taper off the estridol and Progesterone he looked at me and asked me if I planned to live a long life?

I ofcourse said as long as I can, and he said the longer I stay on the low dose Estridol and Progesterone (into my 60's) the better it would be for my bones and overall general health. Ok....

Then I read an article from this forum about the 8 ways Magnesium helps our health, and that Magnesium plays a big role in maintaining Estrogen, Progesterone and Testosterone so now I wonder as I heal wouldn't my body eventually take over the role of keeping me healthy in the hormone dept and I will be able to discontinue pills and patches sooner than my 60's. Ugh...the world we live in is so complicated some times.

Made what I thought was a couple safe Erica foods over the weekend...well I'm starting to think they aren't so safe. One was a modified banana bread, it tastes ok except for the slight dry floury taste around the edges (so not sure if bananas my thing yet or what). The other was a Rice Crispy treat (I think the potential for this one was a pipe dream) I did use Earth balance Soy free as my 'butter', but the marshmallow as generic as the ingredients were, the gelatin or perhaps any hidden malted barley (I hope there wasn't any, but yep that's a no no) set me off today and I had eaten it for the last three days (bathroom trips galore this morning at work even) not fun. This afternoon I feel more like normal again.

The 'seeping' on the back of my ear has subsided, not stopped but better. Even got a lesion at the inside of the end of my nose (OUCH!) That is just about healed now too, these two areas have taken so long to heal it is unbelievable. I still can't wear earrings

A part of me wonders if some of these skin things are Candida Die Off symptoms, my blood results said I was in the Avoid area with that so perhaps I am healing some in this area, that would be nice, but the symptoms are nerve racking.

I find the broth soup is one of my most favorite meals, I must make more of this type of meal so I can enjoy it for dinners too.

We've had a BIG fire in our Blue Mountains just 8 miles from where I work, called the "Blue Creek Fire", it is getting under control finally after 9 days now, thankfully it didn't make it into the Watershed that supplies water to 30,000 people. For some reason I feel as an empathetic person I let this type of urgent situation make my adrenals work harder than needed. There were over 1000 firefighters in our town stationed at the WWCC college campus, incredible site to see.

So it is back to a basic diet again (grumble, grumble). Smelled a pizza made from scratch here at work and that was pure torture.

One of these days this will just be a distant memory I hope, and I can look back on it and be proud of myself for sticking to the diet regimen, healing properly, and being smarter about my body and what it takes to live with this MC thing.

Until the next update :cool:

Post by **tex** » Tue Jul 28, 2015 5:50 pm

Erica,

Regarding hormonal influences of magnesium, I tend to suspect that you are probably correct, and your gyno doc just doesn't understand how magnesium can affect hormone production. I'm getting to the point where I can sort of tell when I am becoming magnesium deficient simply by noticing the way that my libido takes a nosedive on certain days. After I increase my magnesium intake, the libido bounces back. It crashed and burned back when my deficiency was so bad that a blood test actually showed a deficiency. So I would assume that the libido fluctuations correlate with testosterone production. Of course I could be all wet, but if that's the case, then it's an amazing coincidence.

And I had the same experience with banana bread back when I was recovering. It tasted good, and it didn't seem to be a major problem, but for some reason, if I ate very much of it, I ended up having problems. Maybe the problem is due to all the fiber in banana bread.

Tex

brandy · Post by **brandy** » Wed Jul 29, 2015 7:31 am

HI Erica,

I asked him at what point would it be a good idea to taper off the estridol and Progesterone he looked at me and asked me if I planned to live a long life? Shocked I ofcourse said as long as I can, and he said the longer I stay on the low dose Estridol and Progesterone (into my 60's) the better it would be for my bones and overall general health. Ok....

Then I read an article from this forum about the 8 ways Magnesium helps our health, and that Magnesium plays a big role in maintaining Estrogen, Progesterone and Testosterone so now I wonder as I heal wouldn't my body eventually take over the role of keeping me healthy in the hormone dept and I will be able to discontinue pills and patches sooner than my 60's. Ugh...the world we live in is so complicated some times.

I struggle with the same decision. I can clearly tell that magnesium comes into play with my stress hormones. No magnesium means high cortisol and I wake up at 2:00 am and 4:00 am every night. Magnesium means I sleep like a baby.

Brandy

Erica P-G · Post by **Erica P-G** » Wed Jul 29, 2015 11:15 am

I suspect I am just needing alot more time to heal along with taking an amazing amount of Magnesium and D3 and listen to my body. I hope my body lets me know when I can stop with the Bio hormones. I'm not sure I expected a very cut an dried answer anyway. I read a bullet point in an area of Enterolab it said to stop taking any hormones, does anyone know the reason behind that?

I started taking 18mg of iron yesterday, can't imagine that will upset me, and I'm not getting much iron in my diet right now. It can't hurt, if anything the dose is low enough I can do it for a while and see if it improves the energy level some and then I can stop it. Obviously since I am not having a cycle anymore my diet should be able to handle the iron situation, but not on the foods I am eating right now. I am curious just how much iron I may be getting in the bone broth though.

Tex
I used to like Banana bread with Walnuts (loved that flavor combo) but since Almonds and Walnuts seem to be my highest reactor and I have to reorganize the ingredients of the bread it just doesn't have the same Zing like it used to. I suspect I can forgo that bread for now, maybe one day I can learn to make Zucchini bread that is Erica safe, I like that one too.

Brandy
I hope for both our sakes the hormone thing works itself out before our 60's, I have 12 years before that time comes, hoping lots of healing has taken place and we have figured it all out way before then

Post by **tex** » Wed Jul 29, 2015 12:32 pm

Erica wrote:I read a bullet point in an area of Enterolab it said to stop taking any hormones, does anyone know the reason behind that?

That's because most HRT programs tend to promote MC symptoms, and thereby prevent remission. A search of the archives should turn up many discussions by members who have had to deal with this issue in order to control their MC symptoms.

This rule is generally true even for contraceptives, and even when the HRT is administered transdermally. This applies to sex hormones only, however — thyroid supplements and vitamin D are exceptions. Yes, the active form of vitamin D is a hormone.

Watch out for stomach distress. Most people are unable to take iron supplements without digestive problems. Cooking in cast iron pots and skillets and/or using blackstrap molasses are usually the most practical ways to supplement iron.

Tex

Erica P-G · Post by **Erica P-G** » Wed Jul 29, 2015 2:02 pm

I will really have to give this a true looking at in the months to come, it seems my body has flare reactions just before a ghost cycle as it has many times in the years in the past. Hormones may be my next puzzle to figure out in the oddessy of MC.

Well since I don't feel like cooking with cast iron on my glass top oven I may need to invest in blackstrap molasses! I will keep a watchful eye on the iron, even though it didn't bother me in the past doesn't mean it wont affect me now

Thanks ever so much for your helpful replies Tex

Post by **tex** » Wed Jul 29, 2015 3:21 pm

Erica wrote:I will really have to give this a true looking at in the months to come, it seems my body has flare reactions just before a ghost cycle as it has many times in the years in the past. Hormones may be my next puzzle to figure out in the oddessy of MC.

If that's the only time you have reactions (IOW, you're not reacting every day that you use HRT), then the HRT may not be causing any problems for you. The problem may be due to cyclic endogenous hormone production.

You're most welcome, of course.

Tex