Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Gluten-Free

Do any of you eat gluten-free? I have never tried it, until now..... 

 I went to my doctor yesterday for what I thought would be just the reading of follow up labs after a very horrible illness that started with eating left over shellfish. It all started last November when I took my daughter to Red Lobster and I had fish and shrimp. I brought home left overs and ate them the next night. Within minutes I had broke out all over my back with horrible bumps that itched and looked like ant bites. Off to the hospital we went... they gave me steroids and bennadryl. They told me to follow up with my primary care doctor on Monday. So I did. They put me on a sulfa drug as precaution, and that is when it got ugly. To make a long story short, I was in and out of the hospital over the next month, not able to keep potassium in my body, which would result in my legs drawing up and heart going hay wire. It was frightening!  The hospital told me that 90% of people who are given sulfa drugs have some kind of bad reaction. I did some research online and found whole websites dedicated to trying to let people know about the effects of these drugs. Some of the story's were from relatives as the person who had been given the drug had died due to it. I learned a very hard lesson, don't always trust everything you are told by your doctor.  I switched to my curtain doctor he is an MD as well as an ND.  So he tries to use natural medicine to help you become healthy and well.

With the reading of my labs over the last few months it is obvious that things aren't all that they should be. He believes that I have a wheat sensitivity. So he wanted me to go on a gluten-free diet. He told me it will not be easy. He gave me the basics and said do some research online.  Wow! I started researching online and there are a ton of websites to help get a person started on the journey.... but oh the things you can no longer have...... He did say that within 3 weeks he thinks I will feel like a new person. So I am going to give it my all. Oh yeah, and he said the weight will just fall off and I could even have the opposite problem, that of trying to keep weight on. Now I don't know about you ladies, but I think that sounds to good to be true! LOL! I am attaching a link to a site I found that really does a wonderful job of explaining the gluten-free diet. It may help some of you as well.

 My problems are no energy because my thyroid is really low. He did suggest going on a low dose medication, but I want to try natural first. Also my body is super low in vitamin D. He had me laying in the sun over the last few months to try to up that but it only got lower. He said when your having problems it is like a puzzle, little by little we research, try new things and see the results... If one thing does not work we go to the next.  With my body not processing the fat soluble vitamins, the thyroid being off and a few other little problems, he came to the conclusion that all of my healthy wheat grinding and baking, may not be to healthy for me :(...so on to a new journey........





Until We Meet Again,
Amy Jo

4 comments:

  1. Oh Dear! Your hospital and doctor visits sounded frightening just listening to them! I'm glad that now, at least, you have some answers and can start working-on feeling more "normal" again.

    Of course, a gluten-free diet would be quite difficult for because I LOVE bread, and all bread has wheat. I like the part where you can loose some weight though, tee hee. :)

    Well, keep us posted with your progress. I hope that you begin to feel better soon.

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  2. I wish you to recovery soon.
    I can give you tons of nice recipes gluten-free, they are very tasties and you will not even notice about the wheat products.
    Search for cheese-bread ( this is a brazilian bread, made of tapioca flour, which is gluten-free).
    Another one its a corn cake, also gluten free.
    Use rice noodles, they are gluten-free as well.
    Several cakes you can replace the wheat flour for rice flour.
    It has even lasagnas gluten-free, you can do your own dough at home.
    even pizza you can do using the cheese bread as your base.
    It is not easy, but you can survive without sacrifice some good flavour.

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  3. Thank you for the advice, I will defintely look into the recipes!

    Blessings,
    Amy Jo

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  4. Thank you for the advice, I will defintely look into the recipes!

    Blessings,
    Amy Jo

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