I've Not Been Well

I've been trying to pretend that all is well, but the reality is that I've had a rough couple of weeks health-wise.  It started early last week with feeling like I had a bit of a virus of some sort.  I had a sore throat and an upset stomach (these things do not often go together for me) and I was really tired.  The sore throat pretty much went away after a couple days, but I never felt totally better.

Then, at the end of the week, I had four nights in a row of sleeping really poorly.  I was super tired, but couldn't fall asleep for a long time, couldn't stay asleep and, when I was sleeping, had really vivid dreams which didn't help me to feel rested at all.

I started sleeping again Sunday night, which was a big relief, but, even with sleeping plenty (some nights 10+ hours), I've just continued to be very, very tired.  I wake up feeling not well rested and it gets worse throughout the day.  I feel and look like I haven't slept much in a couple of days.  It sucks.

My stomach continues to hurt.  My throat actually hurts off and on, but I realized years ago that my throat gets sore when I'm really tired and I've realized that's what's going on now.  I have really bad headaches in the afternoon and evening, which I'm pretty sure have to do with being tired, too.  I also feel sort of like I have a sunburn - my skin is itchy and uncomfortable frequently, often shortly after eating.

I'm not really sure what's going on.  I've promised Anthony that I will go to the doctor if it goes on one more week, but I don't have a lot of confidence in the medical profession to figure stuff like this out.  The fact is that I've felt tired in spite of plenty of sleep for a long time, this is just worse than "normal" and no one has been able to tell me what's wrong,  This is unpleasant, as it leaves me thinking it's all in my mind.

However, in the spring, I had some blood work done and what I found is that I'm anemic and at the extremely low but normal  range on several key nutrients including sodium, potassium and calcium.  What's the kicker here is that I eat well.  I consume a lot of these nutrients.  I thought maybe the issue was Celiac Disease, as I talked about here.  After our three month gluten free trial, I didn't feel appreciably better.  Davan didn't feel different at all.  We both went back to eating gluten on the 16th of December.

I didn't start feeling really bad until last week - around the 3rd.  Does that mean that the gluten free eating actually did help, but it took a while of eating it for the symptoms to come back?  Does it mean something else entirely?  I don't really know.

What I do know, though, is that I really don't like how I feel.  I also feel strongly in the healing powers of high nutrient foods.  The stomach issues have me thinking that it might be diet related.  I've decided that I need to try something.  I'm putting myself on a detox diet.  For two weeks, I'm going to be eating strictly, then slowly adding in foods.  I'll be keeping a food journal so I can see if I find any patterns to my symptoms.

I have, both, high hopes and low expectations.  I know that's dichotomous, but it's still accurate.  I couldn't do it without high hopes, but I also don't feel like I can expect perfect results.  My body sort of seems to just work this way.

While a little weight loss wouldn't be repugnant to me at all, it's really much more about feeling well.  My plan isn't to starve myself at all, just to eat very well.  Today, I have to say, that I'm feeling a little better already.  Is this because whatever this is has mostly run it's course?  Is it hope?  Is it that I've only eaten very clean foods?  I don't really know.  And I'm not totally better, just a little less tired this afternoon, my stomach is churning a bit less and, so far, only a very slight headache.

Meanwhile, life goes on.  Anthony and Ranger went for a walk this morning while I stayed in bed and read a little.  After my morning post, I went for a 20 minute easy run with Ranger, followed by some strength work.  (Although, I have to say that nothing feels easy right now, so the run was difficult even though I tried to keep my pace down.)  We had a visitor who brought Davan a gift that she's so, so excited about.

Rosetta Stone for French!  A cousin of Anthony's whom we see something like twice a year, but who is a very nice person who is very interested in Davan, had the program and offered to loan it out to Davan.  Davan was over the moon.  She got it all set up and is through Lesson 1 already.

We also got in a game of Munchkin.  I tried on an outfit for Anthony's office party this evening.  I'm mostly borrowing from Davan.  LOL.  Anthony did a kick-ass bike/weight workout.  We've all done some reading.  It's raining out here and feels nice to be inside with the lights on, warm and dry.