I went to see an endocrinologist in August and she asked me to go gluten free. (Ok. Dairy free, too, but one step at a time!!)
We’ve been eating gluten free since September 1. I’ve been doing (almost) daily updates on Facebook in case you want to follow along.
I waited many months for my appointment with the endocrinologist because she came very highly recommended. But even before I made the appointment, several months worth of problems stacked up. My hair has been falling out, my skin is awful, my eczema has come back, *always tired* like always tired, exhausted, afternoon crashes…
and then the pain started. First my muscles (alllll of them) felt heavy, like after a long time swimming, when you first get out of the water–like that. It was happening more often than not. A few weeks later, my muscles felt like I had just had a great workout at the gym, except for that exhaustion and pain thing that kept me on my chair all day long. Then a few weeks after that, my feet started seizing up. I would have this pain that felt like an exposed hot nerve and the pain seared through my whole foot, my foot would actually contract during the pain. Several times this happened while I was walking down the stairs and I nearly fell down them. Then (yes, more) my calves started cramping up close to the time or during the time the hot-nerve pain was pulsating in my feet. Then, in order to fall asleep one night, I took a muscle relaxer. I haven’t had one of those in over 20 years. I was already crying from the pain before I took it–and I continued to cry myself to sleep.
And listen. I have a very high pain tolerance.
I was afraid to walk, afraid to drive and just afraid. No. I didn’t share any of this with anyone but my husband and a couple of close friends.
I started Googling the foot pain and found someone who described my pain to perfection–on an MS support group. So I looked at the symptoms of MS and yeah.
So. Gluten free. Day one was AMAZING.
Day two. Even more AMAZING.
Day three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and now ten??? Listen.
NO PAIN.
NO EXHAUSTION.
I feel amazing. Not everything is up to par, but the no pain and no exhaustion thing? BIG. Like HUGE.
I simply wouldn’t have ever believed it if we hadn’t changed our eating. Understand that we were already MSG, chemical, additive, and preservative free when we made this latest gluten free change. So we’re not buying a bunch of prepackaged gluten free stuff (actually, there’s very little that we buy prepackaged.) Everything we cook is from scratch. And I know that makes a huge difference in our lives.
What kind of flour do you use in your bread now?
We’re not making bread. I’ve been reading about all of the alternate stuff and I’m not convinced it’s worth eating.
Michelle, I am so so SO glad that this change is helping. And a little mad at you for inspiring me toward going gluten-free. I <3 gluten LOL. (((love you girl)))
Haha! Be mad!! I’m totally ok with it! LOL