Catching Up

Here's an update from Nikki, who FINALLY received a diagnosis for her health problems:

So my health was doing pretty good in January, but then it started to go downhill again. May was a pretty rough month, but I moved out of my house and have been on the upswing since then. I still have some problems, but I'm feeling better right now than I have in the last year!

Earlier this week, I went to the Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine in Charleston, SC. We've FINALLY reached a conclusion about my health! My problems come from prolonged mold exposure in my home. We thought we had remediated the problem months ago, but it seems the mold came back full force. I've been out of my home for 2 months and have been steadily improving every since. Who knew mold could cause so much more than just respiratory problems? The doctor said it will still be a long road to complete improvement, but she believes I'll get there.

In the meantime, the doctor has put me on Vitamin D, allergy shots (I've developed some recent food allergies thanks to the mold), sodium bicarbonate (in place of the Prevacid), and antifungal nasal spray. Hopefully all of that will work. Now what do we do about our home...?

From the recommendation of the staff at COEM, I've also begun a Rotation Diet. That means I can only eat the same food once every 4 days. If I eat chicken on Monday, I can't eat it again until Friday. Through the allergy testing, I discovered why the Maker's Diet wasn't working for me. I had developed minor allergies/sensivities to many of the foods in Phase 1! According to the doctor, it takes 4 days for your immune system to recover from any kind of reaction it had to the food. By following a Rotation Diet, my system is able to get used to the food without lasting damage from prolonged eating of it. Supposedly, 4 cycles should eradicate the majority of my allergies. By keeping track of what I'm eating on the Rotation Diet, it will also help me narrow down any other foods I'm having a reaction to that we didn't test for. COEM helped take the guesswork out of the rotation diet by providing a list of foods that are available each day (on a 4 day cycle). Foods that I'm more allergic to will be added in every other cycle, so my body has at least a week to recover. I had to give up walnuts 3 months ago because they caused such sudden heartburn and intestinal discomfort. With the Rotation Diet, I'm adding them back in small amounts every 4 days. The diet provides lots of variety because I won't get stuck in the rut of eating the same thing every single day (but there might be a rut every 4 days...). It also is likely to be more nutritious because of the variety of foods.

The problem is I'm going to have to relook at how I plan menus and grocery shop. I can no longer plan to use leftovers for tomorrow since I can't eat the same thing 2 days in a row. And I can't buy produce in bulk with the intention of creatively using it in every meal that week. The freezer will likely be my  new best friend.

Along with the Rotation Diet, each day I'm also taking Garden of Life Raw green powder in juice, a probiotic, and fish oil. I can't swallow pills and can't force down nasty tasting stuff, so I usually include the probiotic and fish oil in the smoothie.

For today so far...
Breakfast
Smoothie of 1 gala apple, handful of strawberries, and a few chunks of frozen pineapple.

Mid-Morning Snack
Sliced peaches with maple syrup and chopped walnuts

Lunch
Turkey, green peas, baked potato
The only problem here is butter, yogurt, etc. are also rotated, so there's nothing on the list of foods allowed today that I can put on the potato to make it creamier. I'm going to cut it into cubes and sprinkle with salt and pepper. We'll see how that goes.

Dinner
I don't know about dinner yet. The allowed foods that sound good for today are quinoa, turkey, spinach, bell pepper, and okra. What do you do with that combination?