This last month has been such a blur for me. My health decided to skydive, without a parachute, and it hit the ground hard. I haven’t gotten quite this sick in a long time, and it’s just as miserable as I remember.
So, what exactly happened? Well, I do kind of mention it in these posts: Being “Normal” Sick, The New Diet So Far, My Virus Has Returned, and I mention a little in my LEAP/MRT Diet: Phase 1/2, Week 2 post.
In summary: Right before starting the new diet, I got sick. Continue reading
I started my LEAP diet on March 28th. I am starting with a ½ phase due to my daily headaches; since sudden food detox can cause headaches in someone without chronic headache, my dietitian didn’t want me to feel atrocious. However, I’ve still been having some issues with phase ½, but it could also be due to my poor health. (This post has details about the diet.)
Right before starting the diet, I ended up with a pretty nasty virus and a sinus infection (see this post for details about being sick while chronically ill). I also got an infected hangnail (common for me) on my thumb that just wouldn’t heal, so I ended up on oral antibiotics. Then, since I went to urgent care for my thumb infection, I picked up another virus. When I went back to urgent care (Dan had to call them to make sure they had all the tools I needed, because he thought I looked like death), it was confirmed that I had picked up influenza B. First virus and sinus infection were confirmed March 23, thumb infection urgent care visit was April 6, started showing signs that I had a different infection April 7, and an urgent care visit confirmed the flu April 9. It’s been a really rough several weeks. Continue reading
I started my LEAP diet March 28th, with my ½ phase. Unfortunately, I’ve also been struggling with some severe acute illnesses as well, so it’s been hard to tell how much the diet is changing things. I was feeling a bit better for a few days, but then I seem to have relapsed and gotten really sick. Hopefully, I’ll get over whatever this is soon, and then we can see what the diet is doing!
Since everyone seemed to enjoy my weekly FODMAP diet lists, I thought I would do the same thing for the LEAP diet! Since I’m so extremely restricted on what I can eat, I have to get creative with food. There has been a lot of “from scratch” cooking, a lot of substitutions, and a lot of frustration. I’ve lost several pounds, because I’m still working on trying to figure out snacks and other quick food, so I’m not eating as much as I should be. Hopefully, I’ll get more energy soon and can actually spend more time cooking.
Week one of phase ½, I was cooking the entire week. Every second of my free time was spent in the kitchen, which would be fine if it didn’t require so much energy. I’m completely exhausted, but hopefully I can get a better routine down. Continue reading
Being sick while chronically ill is hard. Like, really hard! Normal colds already last longer for us than the average person, thanks to our overworked immune systems… But I got to come down with an even better virus (please tell me you could taste the sarcasm there)! (This post will probably contain a lot of sarcasm, FYI.)
It looks like this cold plans to stick around for the 4 weeks. Minimum.
Luckily, my sinus infection seems to have cleared up, almost entirely! Though pollen season is starting, meaning my sinuses are clogged again. I don’t think my sinuses are very swollen, however, due to a lack of sinus headaches!
A few days ago, through Thursday, I thought I was finally starting to feel better! Friday, however, was awful! My doctor did warn me that this virus tends to be a roller coaster: cruddy, better, cruddy, better, rinse & repeat. I was really hoping that I would just slowly get better.
Then, I woke up coughing. I had a little tickle Thursday, but I summed it up to allergies. Friday, I woke up and immediately started hacking. Hacking like I haven’t hacked in years. Wonderful, just wonderful. They weren’t dry coughs, but I wouldn’t call them very productive. I took cough syrup, and went about my day.
As the day wore on, however, things got worse. By 10pm, not even cough syrup could slow the constant coughing. I managed to cough enough from 9pm until midnight to lose my voice (almost completely). My throat feels as though it’s bleeding, and I keep gasping for air.
Poor Dan didn’t get to sleep until way last his bedtime because I kept needing things from him: medicine, the humidifier being set up, more medicine, and a cough drop. Yes, a cough drop. No, it’s very much not approved on my LEAP/MRT diet… But Dan reminded me that sleep is one of the most important things when sick, so if it will help it’s necessary. It did manage to slow the coughing somewhat, so, totally worth it! (I’m still coughing a lot, but now I can catch my breath before my next cough.)
I’m writing this post at 2am Saturday morning because I’m still massively struggling. My throat hurts horribly (I’m going to use some chloraseptic spray soon; you don’t swallow it, so it should be okay), I’m coughing a lot, my ribs and abs are sore from coughing and I’m just hoping I don’t bruise a rib (it’s happened before), my neck/shoulders/upper back are tense and sore from the coughing fits, I have horrendous hip/pelvis nerve pain, and my head throbs when I cough. I’m also getting random dizzy spells, which may be due to hyperventilating, and my low fever is back. Overall, this is awful!
(Handout from urgent care) Pic is from my Insta story
I did start antibiotics today, though not for my cold… I managed to get my thumb horribly infected. All of my hangnails get infected when they tear (same thing happens if the skin splits around my nails). Usually, I can get the infection to clear up in a few days… Not this time. I finally went to urgent care when it wasn’t even mildly improved after a week! Apparently, I was doing pretty much everything right, I just needed some oral antibiotics to finish it off! I’m hoping they’ll also help boost my immune system enough to finally get over this virus. (I do realize antibiotics won’t help a virus directly. I’m thinking there may be a small bacterial component, which is drawing from my immune system, that the antibiotics can wipe out.)
I really hope I’m not still coughing like this in the morning… And I hope I can get some good sleep tonight!
Please check out my first post about the LEAP diet that I’m doing: LEAP Results & My Program. That first post goes into detail about what the diet is and what I’m allowed to eat.
I’m still horribly sick (as I talk about in this post), so I’m having a hard time telling what is from being ill and what is from the diet.
I started the diet on Tuesday, the 28th; starting phase 1/2 as directed by my dietitian. However, since starting, I have felt horrendously ill. I’m not sure if my viruses have gotten worse, or if I’m experiencing the detox/withdrawl symptoms that this phase 1/2 is trying to reduce. I’m also not sure if some of it is from being removed from two of my (very helpful) supplements suddenly – I did my best to taper slightly. I was removed from my magnesium, which has been mostly controlling my fibromyalgia for several years now, and from my VSL #3, which has been extremely helpful in easing my IBS symptoms. This diet is supposed to reduce or eliminate both my fibro and IBS symptoms, but so far it’s not. Continue reading
After the low FODMAP diet didn’t work for me, my dietitian and I decided to move forward with the LEAP program. I explained the LEAP protocol in more detail in this post, but I’ll give another brief summary here. LEAP is technically the eating plan that is developed based on the food sensitivities that are found from the mediator release testing (MRT) conducted. Mediators are chemicals that are released by white blood cells – such as histamine, prostaglandins, and cytokines – in an immune system response. Mediators can cause a range of symptoms, including inflammation and pain. The LEAP 150 panel tests your blood against 150 different foods and chemicals, and checks for mediator release. Results are ranked numerically, and these numbers are converted into a great visual with different length, color-coded bars for each item tested. Bars are either green (non-reactive), yellow (reactive), or red (highly reactive). The yellow and red items, as stated in the booklet I was given with my results, are best to avoid completely. Yellow items can sometimes be dose dependent, so late in the program you can sometimes attempt to reintroduce them. However, that is for wayyyyy down the road, so right now we won’t talk about that.
First of all, it’s extremely difficult to determine if you’re actually sick, because colds, the flu, and infections tend to mimic the symptoms of the chronic illnesses… differentiating between a cold and a flare can be extremely difficult. (I go more in depth about this problem here.)
I realized I was sick this time because I suddenly felt like I was swimming through cement. I also was having a lot more gastrointestinal distress than comes from eating the wrong thing, and it stuck around for a few days. My digestive system decided to switch from my normal IBS-C to suddenly having IBS-D type behavior. (It’s calmed down a little now, but I’m still having some problems.) Then, I started getting off and on fevers in the evening. My fever spiked to 100° F (my normal is 97.6° instead of the average 98.6°) before I decided I should really take some Tylenol for it.
Then, after a week of most definitely being sick, and still having to carry on with life… it got worse! I woke up with a start because both nostrils had swollen shut and I could barely breathe. Then, when I sat up (far faster than I should have – thanks dysautonomia) to be able to breathe better, I realized it felt like I’d been hit in the face with a sledgehammer. Every time I would bend over during the day, I got severe pre-syncope symptoms. Same would happen while I was standing/walking. So I called my doctor and managed to get an appointment for the next day. Continue reading
Disclaimer: For my honest review, I am being compensated through the Chronic Illness Bloggers group. Even though I’m receiving compensation for my review, all opinions of the product/service are accurate and reflect my true thoughts about the product/service. I was in no way influenced by the company or CIB.
I was selected to review the “Asthma Storylines” mobile application (for Android) by Health Storylines (link). For context, I was using this application on an LG G5 running Android Nougat (7.0). I used this app daily for one week prior to writing this review, and overall I’m quite impressed! Of course, there are a few things that could use some tweaking (like in every single application I’ve ever used, of any type), but it’s an impressive health tracking app!
Actually, I wasn’t just impressed, I was extremely happy. It’s a very thorough health tracking app, and definitely not just for asthma management – despite the name. There are several different tools to utilize, and the ones I used most extensively were: Symptoms, Medication Tracker, Routine Builder, and Daily Asthma Control. Since I fiddled with the rest of the app as well, my overall impression (at the bottom) takes the entire experience into consideration, not just these four tools. Continue reading
My LEAP/MRT follow-up with the dietitian is on the 21st, so just 7 days now! While I’m really nervous about what I will be able to eat, I’m very excited because I think this will really help!
For an overview of LEAP/MRT, and why we are going that route, be sure to check out my More Dietitian Changes post!
Dan and I have definitely noticed that there are a few meals that make me feel quite ill, so we decided it would be fun to make some guesses. There are also foods that cause significant oral symptoms (itching, tongue rash, etc) and that seem to trigger my eosinophilic esophagitis (E0E). Obviously, Dan was only able to make his guesses based on the times I’ve told him something seems off. These guesses are just for if we think the foods will be “not green” (either yellow or red), not the degree to which they will be no good. Continue reading
I was pretty active on social media for World Rare Disease Day, and I wanted to make sure that you got to see my posts too! If you aren’t already following me on social media, I would strongly suggest it. You can find me on both Instagram (@findinglifessilversun) and Twitter (@lifessilversun). I also have a Facebook page, specifically for my blog: facebook.com/FindingLifesSilverSun. Continue reading
Finding Life's Silver Sun 