It’s now been almost five months since I finished my Whole60 experiment. Since then I went to London, ate everything, and then came home and found it very hard to get back on the wagon. I got so far off the wagon that it was hard to see it, way, way across the prairie. I suppose I never got so far as to eat things that some people consider reasonable, like McDonald’s, Taco Bell, and Cinnabun. I did not stray THAT far, like viewing the wagon from the International Space Station. I still ate primarily organic, fresh, home made food, with lots of greens and pastured meats. But carbs? Sugar, oh yeah. I got on the sugar-go-round again big time.
For example, last Saturday I had a tea party. This is my new thing, since London. It’s a small haven of beauty, girly-girlness, flowers, china, girl friends, and of course, gluten, sugar, and dairy galore. I made my own grass-fed clotted cream, and finally, after oh so many failures, got it to work this time.
homemade grass-fed clotted cream, pure heaven
I bought a new teapot for the occasion
My friend Kari picked blueberries and made these lovely scones!
It was so sublime! The only problem was I felt ill and hung-over the rest of the day, and all the next. I need to do this gluten-free, which I know can be done. Last time I made gluten-free scones made with almond flour that were quite nice. It’s no problem, I just need to, well, care. No they were not “tall, with golden tops and white sides” (as demonstrated Martha Stewart’s guest, the chef from London’s Savoy Hotel). They were quite low. But as clotted cream delivery systems worked out fine.
Recently I went to see Dr. Cheryl, my integrated wellness doctor. What I love about her is that she understands POTS through and through, because she herself has it!! She looks at the whole situation in context, rather than pulling out one slim aspect and only treating that in isolation, which is my chief complaint about the Cleveland Clinic. There people have expertise that is very narrow and very deep. If you have one obscure, specific thing wrong with you, that is the perfect place to be. If your problems are more sprawling and cross categories, not so much.
Anyway, Dr. Cheryl tested me for a whole bunch of things in more detail than I had been tested before. For example, when I was working through my hiatal and esophageal hernia thing at the Cleveland Clinic (remember when I got to eat radioactive eggs and listen to blaring Fox news for four hours?), the adorable Taiwanese Dr. Marcus Welby tested me for Celiac’s disease. Of course I don’t have that– wouldn’t I know?? and it was negative. Duh! He let it drop. I said I had experimented with gluten-free and he was all, “WHY???” because for him it was Celiac’s or nothing.
However, Dr. Cheryl tested me for this other more obscure gene for gluten intolerance. Cha-ching! Nailed it! Positive. She looked me right in the eye and said, “You need to go gluten free.” This was a big improvement over me just running around willy nilly and thinking being gluten free might help, but so might any number of things. Now I have some substantiation to my suspicions that grains are evil, with 666 written on each one.
Luckily, despite my tea party grain binge, I have begun another Whole30 with my friend Shoshana, AKA the Kosher Cavewoman. This is day 4 and I feel HORRIBLE. It’s like a stumbling in the fog, while too tired to even stumble. Sugar! Carbs! Being without them is painful, and I’m kicking myself for getting back into this mess again.
I had already signed up for this previous to the Dr. Cheryl directive. August 1 the Whole30 people began a sort of national Whole30, and I got on board. The only catch being that — If I am well enough to function by Thursday– I am going with Ben and kids on their annual boys’ Revolutionary War tour of Plaques in Fields all over greater New England. We’re going to see some forts and plaques in Montreal, and although I’ve been clearly warned that no shopping and no cafes will happen (only forts and plaques!!) we still will be eating out, and that is hard as hell with the Whole30. The level of detail is … um… beyond belief. Then I’m going to spend a few days with Ben’s family in sunny Connecticut. I suspect that somewhere along this path I will intentionally give up or mess up, and be forced to restart the whole thing again when I get back mid-month. Remember if you mess up whatsoever you have to start over. Still, it’s worth a try. I will try my best, and maybe I will be able to pull it off.
Okay, so also Dr. Cheryl diagnosed me with Hashimoto’s disease, which is a fairly common cause of low thyroid. (I always love it when I get a new diagnosis, so dewy and fresh, straight out of the box, before the sheen wears off.) Of course, I had my thyroid levels tested many times in recent years and they were always “normal.” Now Dr. Cheryl has looked again, and either my levels have slipped or her test is more sensitive. I don’t know. But I do know that hypothyroidism causes a lot of fatigue, and other symptoms I have, and so I hope that treating it will be a help. I started taking a very low dose of Synthroid the other day. This is a delicate thing because too much can cause tachycardia, which is the T in POTS, and so we don’t need that. It’s a tightrope, but so far, so good. She adjusted my supplements a bit and has changed the formula in my semi-weekly vitamin shots. I’m taking mega-doses of vitamin D again, etc.
I also went to see my neurologist at the Cleveland Clinic, and after much ado and some testing he decided that having two surgeries in the last nine months, and many other issues, has put me into a low-grade constant migraine. The “gurgled speech” was part of that, and my two falls (one in the shower last fall and bad one in Minneapolis a few weeks ago) might have had something to do with that. Anyway, he decided to give me a short, sharp course of steroids to see if we could shake it loose. This seemed a better option than actually going on another drug, long-term, on top of everything else. But combined with the Whole30, and the new thyroid medication, I just feel wretched today. I hope that it will pass soon.
In other news, I took the boys on their awesome annual trip to Iowa and Minnesota. There they got to ride in the sidecar of a 1968 Dnepr with Grandpa Max, played with horses and sheep, visited the all the family in Minnesota, including adorable little cousins and Grandpa Warren and Grandma Patty. They did pottery camp, which they both loved, and played in many different bodies of water. Also, as I mentioned, I had a horrendous fall, sprained my right ankle and got an epic bruise on the other leg. I was hobbling around for a few days, and gradually got back to normal over a couple weeks.
I can’t believe it’s already August. This summer has just passed in a wink. Isaac did summer school, SCUBA camp, Iowa, Minnesota, pottery camp, and then Junior Ranger camp, which entailed hiking through the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Elias did Inventor’s Camp, Fossil Camp, Iowa, Minnesota, Pottery Camp, and Junior Ranger also. Then they have a few days off. Then we all go to upstate New York, Montreal, Vermont, and Connecticut. Then a touch of free time before school starts again.
For me, of course, my free time is the opposite of theirs, so things will get easier when they are in school again. We’ll see how this Whole30 goes. Maybe third time’s the charm?
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