I made an appointment to see the only adult geneticist in the state of Colorado over one year ago. (Read more: here.) It was actually fourteen months ago. The appointment was because I wanted to know for sure if I had something more specific than the joint hypermobility syndrome my rheumatologist diagnosed me with (as a working diagnosis).
So I waited… and my appointment was just on Monday! I’m extremely excited about it, and it was one of the best appointments I’ve ever had.
I’ve hit the end of the road with my allergies, apparently. I went to my ENT/allergist on June 2nd, to follow-up about what the specialist immunologist/allergist had to say. Sadly, the super specialist just wanted to focus on my eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) and didn’t care about the reason I was actually there: I would massively overreact to every allergy shot I got at doses most people don’t ever react to (even anaphylactic people). Even though they want me to come back, I will not be returning to the super-specialist because my EoE is being managed by my gastroenterologist and my ENT/allergist is more concerned with my allergies than them. Continue reading
(To see the first post in this mini-series, check out When And How Dan Became My Caretaker)
Dan and I have been married for almost four years now, and together for almost eight and a half. (A sappy look at our relationship: My Personal Romantic Comedy.) When we first met, I had a few health issues, but I was relatively healthy (and quite active). Unfortunately, in the past five years, my health has started declining in leaps and bounds: it will be stable for a bit, then suddenly I’m blindsided by new symptoms and pain, then we’ll work hard to stabilize it and it will happen all over again. Through all of this, Dan has been my primary caregiver. Yes, it’s stressful, and it’s not always perfect, but it actually works relatively well for us.
Dan’s graduation, a month after getting engaged and only a few days before our 3rd dating anniversary!
Someone on my Instagram recently said “I’d love to hear about you and Dan’s relationship with him as your caretaker” (see comment on this post), which made me realize that I really don’t talk about that much. I think it’s difficult for me to talk about, simply because it feels natural to me. However, I will try to explain things the best I can. Continue reading
When we first setup phases ½ and 1 of my LEAP diet (see this post), I was told to email Kara (dietitian) near the end of my ½ phase so she would know my progress. Unfortunately, with everything that has been going on with my health, the email was really long and not very happy. Because of everything going on, and my mental health struggles during this time, Kara decided that instead of doing the even stricter phase 1, we would liberalize my diet. Now, I can have all of my green foods and chemicals. I have to stick to tested ingredients only (with one exception), and I did go through the list and make sure I removed foods that were naturally high in the yellow and red chemicals.
The one exception to “tested ingredients only” is that Kara has allowed me to have Trader Joe’s Rice Milk. The ingredients list is exceptionally short and boring; it’s mostly just rice, salt, water, and some added vitamins. I already knew I loved their rice milk, and I was struggling without having a milk. (My homemade rice milk was disgusting.)
Some general rules for my “liberalized” diet:
Since my diet has been opened up a bit more, I won’t be doing the weekly roundups anymore. Instead, I’ll just post recipes (including those you have requested) that have worked out well for me. These won’t be on a regular schedule, because it depends on when things work out and when I can get pictures of them so I can write the posts.
Feel free to take a look back through my other LEAP diet posts and request any recipes you would like to see! I have a request for the tortillas (which I will probably get posted this week) and one for the sweet potato risotto (which will probably be posted sometime near the end of this week or early next week). Here are all my past LEAP diet posts:
If you have any good recipes using these things, please let me know below!
The reason I decided to combine weeks 3 and 4 is because I didn’t log much during week 4. I go a bit more into detail as to the reason why not in “The Case of the Missing Lizz;” but to summarize: I’ve started getting tension migraines. I had one tension migraine from the afternoon of Wednesday the 19th until I went to sleep Friday the 22nd. It was still hanging around in a milder form on Saturday. Since that first one, I have had one every single afternoon/evening until I go to sleep that night. It’s been pretty miserable and I’ve been forgetting to log because of that.
I still had the flu during week 3, so most of my log pages are full of medications. Luckily, I had mostly recovered before the week was out. Though, I did come down with oral thrush thanks to the strong antibiotics I was put on for my thumb infection. (More in Missing Lizz post.)
Chicken Noodle Soup
I went to my PCP and got diagnosed with oral thrush
Beef-N-Noodles
Burritos
I stopped logging my fluids, it was tedious. I figured that I have plenty of data to get an average, and as long as my body is hydrated then I’m doing alright.
From my Instagram; In ER for tension migraine
I had a terrible tension migraine all day, so I only logged that I ate breakfast at 7:30am and it was oatmeal with brown sugar.
I ended up in the emergency room for the tension migraine at about 8:30pm, which is how I found out what was actually going on.
Still had a horrid tension migraine, and it was all I could do to keep myself alive (with food and medications and lying on the couch wanting to be able to temporarily remove my head).
My headache was about 99% gone, but I didn’t want to be too stringent with things. I took today as a self-care day to make sure my headache wouldn’t come back!
Steak and Mashed Sweet Potato
Before the end of week four, I emailed Kara (the dietitian) with a huge list of questions and concerns. Because of everything that I have had to be dealing with, Kara decided to make some changes to my diet. I will discuss these changes in a separate post, as this post has gone on quite long enough already!
As always, let me know what recipes you would like to see!
Other LEAP Diet Posts:
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
If you have been following my blog since the beginning (at least since August 2015), or if you follow me on Instagram or Twitter, then you know that I collect socks. Yes, socks! I absolutely love socks! They’re my happy place, and always put a smile on my face when I am having a bad day. Since I haven’t written about my socks since August 2015, and I had rushed through the pictures in that post (yikes), I wanted to update my sock post! (My original sock post: The Sock Problem.) (You can see all of my Instagram sock posts by searching the hashtag #LizzsSocks.)
I have a lot of socks! I actively collect them, and I haven’t gotten rid of a pair of socks in so long I can’t even remember. I’m pretty sure there are even still socks in my old dresser at my parents’ house, which I want to grab the next time I’m there. No, I don’t really have a favorite pair. There are several pairs that I consider “some of my favorites,” but they’re all favorites for different reasons! 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
Finding Life's Silver Sun 