Elimination diet

Since my last writing, I got results back from my blood, saliva, and urine tests. Turns out that I'm allergic to 16 (yes, sixteen) foods, and have some thyroid, hormone, and neurotransmitter problems. It's no wonder I felt awful all the time! My body was literally attacking most everything I love to eat, and causing my immune system to be in overdrive so it couldn't deal with infections anymore.

Over the last couple of weeks, I've started an elimination diet and some new supplements to support my immune system, thyroid, vitamin deficiencies, hormones, and neurotransmission. I stocked up on some great cookbooks for people with food allergies, including ones that are completely gluten, egg, and dairy free. It's a challenge to learn how to cook in a new way and eat new foods, but I can definitely tell a difference in the stomach issues I was having.

I'm taking some time off from work to get used to it all and reduce stress, which was a huge contributor to this whole thing. I'm still sleeping a lot more than normal, but my energy level is slightly better and isolating myself from the outside world as much as possible is good to keep me from catching any other colds or flu until my immune system can recover.

I'm so thankful for the ability to do this so that I can get back to living my life again. L. has been a great support, as have my family and friends. I have a couple of friends who are gluten free, so they have been sending me great info and sharing books to help me understand what I'm up against here. It's pretty fascinating.

I'm just so glad that I finally got some answers instead of just treating symptoms, especially since that wasn't really helping any longer. This approach is much more holistic and will help me to be able to exist without a bunch of medications or continuing to have lowered immunity and exhaustion. I'm very blessed to have this knowledge now.