Friday, June 17, 2011

Will I ever learn?

"If you don't want to know the answer, don't ask the question!"...  Right?  Why can't I learn this??

I had a "good" appointment with my primary doctor today.  I'm still a little in shock but I guess it's time to put on my big girl pants.  I'm mainly typing this up what we talked about as a reference to me so hopefully it's not too boring.

1.  I'm strongly reacting to almonds...  I burst into tears.  All the really good dairy-free stuff is nut based and therefore why I've ended up reacting to almonds...  CRUD!

2. My anion gap was 15 which my doctor says means that I'm not getting enough B1.  Okay that's easy enough.  She said I just need to add a B complex.

3.  My homocysteine has gone back up to 7.87.  So I HAVE to remember to take my L-methylfolate EVERYDAY! 

4.  My CRP is high.  It was 3.6.  Even the lab says that's high so crud...  interestingly enough the lab paperwork says that I should be examined for non-cardiovascular sources of inflammation like infection.  Hmmm.

5.  So besides almonds, I'm strongly reacting to red grapes.  Unfortunately my doctor checked the wrong box so we only got the basic food panel.  But the basic panel showed a moderate reaction to egg white, gliaden, gluten, malt, wheat, kidney bean, soybean, and brewer's yeast.  The egg white and the soybean were on the last allergy panel back in 2008 but the rest was totally new.  I'm sure that this is leaky gut.  I told my doctor that and at first she said that she didn't think so.  However, when I explained why I thought it was she agreed.  Thankfully she doesn't feel that I have to go totally gluten free but feels that I should go wheat free which we've already been working on anyway.  She told me to just rotate gluten grains so that I don't have gluten everyday.  The funny thing is that as much as I LOVE wheat bread, hearing that I need to avoid wheat wasn't as hard as hearing that I need to give up almonds.  Bye, bye MimicCreme (if you haven't tried it, it makes the best Alfredo sauce)!

6.  She gave me a Candida Protocol to help address the leaky gut in a more gentle fashion than some other protocols.  She doesn't want me to go to fast since S is still getting some breast milk.  I love that her protocol tells you how to lessen the impact of cheating.  I also love the fact that she just bluntly said "You don't have to do this perfectly, it will still work as long as you follow the protocol most of the time."

7.  She finally agreed to look past the numbers on my thyroid!  Well, I should say she finally agreed to look past the lab numbers.  She wants me to temp 3 times a day for 3 days and call in my average daily temps to her.

I think that's all.  I really appreciated my doctor more today than ever.  I am truly blessed to have her in my life.

There is so much more to say but S will be getting up from her nap soon so I'd better sign off.  I hope there aren't too many mistakes.