Saturday, May 5, 2012

Food Sensitivities are Starving Me

Just as I am indulging in expressing my love for food I am faced again with repeat issues I have had to deal with off and on for years. 
I have sensitivities and these sensitivities started when I was 15. I was having pain on my right side under my ribs after eating. Tests showed that I have a "sluggish gallbladder" and doctors wanted to do surgery to remove it. The other option was to change my diet. I went with the other option after all if your body is crying out in pain... you're obviously doing something wrong and you should listen to it.. not remove the symptom. I removed the problem not the symptom! So many people just do not understand this and that's ok. I may have just clarified it for some lucky person! :)
From there I developed sensitivities to milk. Basically lactose intolerance. However, this intolerance comes and goes! The last time it happened was spring-summer 2010 and it lasted until fall 2011 and then I noticed it had let up. I was again able to have a bowl of cereal without clinging to the toilet with my butt cheeks. So sorry for that visual! On a side note here... those lactaid tablets helped me for a little while but then they stopped working and started causing me to have excruciating pain in my abdomen to the point I almost went to the hospital.
I am pretty sure that my pancreas was pissed off that I was trying to help it to digest a stupid iced coffee! The pancreas releases enzymes into the digestive system to help break down foods for maximum absorption, if you weren't sure. Anyways the stupid thing was rock hard and causing me worse pain that child labor.... yeah, I know.... why didn't I go to the hospital? Because it is more comfortable to writhe and cry out in pain from the comfort of your own bed when you know a hospital isn't going to help you anyway!
It was at this point that I swore off those evil tablets and decided if I REALLY wanted milk products that bad, I would just deal with clinging to the toilet for dear life... And then I avoided milk for a verrrrry long time. I was so sensitive that I couldn't even have mashed potatoes if they had milk in them. Seriously! How terrible is that?!

I lived with it... and by lived with it I mean I was like a jealous little kid with the flu during July watching all the other kids play outside in sprinklers, swimming pools, and riding their bikes. I was JEALOUS and ENVIOUS and ANGRY at everyone else eating ice cream, iced coffee, I could kick their asses.

I should also add that I hate!!!! ....almond milk, soy milk, rice milk.... gag city! Sorry I just cannot do it! I may also want to add in here that all three of my children have had milk sensitivities in their lives... and they are still very young. Much younger than when I had issues starting.
Gavin cannot digest refined sugar... he reacts to it like lactose intolerance would. I should add that when he was 1 he had to have lactose free milk because he couldn't tolerate it just like me. It came and went though for him as well but hasn't been back.
When Cambria was a year old I started switching her to whole milk, she had seizure like fits every night for that entire week... I thought something was seriously wrong with my baby and we sat up every night crying together. She would wake up screaming bloody murder... but no vomiting or diarrhea. So it took me an entire week of HELL for her to figure out it was the milk. I immediately switched her to soy milk and she had no issues. But she couldn't eat anything with cream cheese or heavy cream. Cheese was fine.. when she was 2 + I tried her on 2% milk just like I did with Gavin and she was fine on it.
So as you can guess... when Arayla turned a year old I was CAUTIOUS! I gave her whole milk and she projectile vomited from it twice... so we switched to 2 % and life has been smooth. Too much fat? Too much sugar? Who really knows but my children are doomed and for this I am soooo sorry.


Here I am, I battled with milk sensitivities off and on... meaning sometimes I would be just find to drink milk and other times NOT AT ALL. And then again at other times I could tolerate just a little bit.

Now I have sensitivities to everything to the point I have no desire to eat... really... I get hungry, I get angry, I drink something, and I'm not hungry anymore!  Ok not everything, I can eat chicken, I can eat fresh salad with vegetables and fruits. Seems like milk is ok with me too, for now.

I have decided it is time to really start a food journal. An in depth OCD food journal. Write it all in and describe how I am feeling after eating various foods. After all it obviously isn't a concern for my doctor who says I am probably just sensitive because I have a small build. Really? Oh and that since I have brought it up in the past (which I forgot about) it must be normal for me?! I'm sitting here thinking, well maybe I should have asked him, "well if this is an ongoing complaint doesn't that mean it is an ongoing problem?". Maybe I am wrong I don't have a PhD I just have loss of appetite, pain, nausea, dizziness, hair loss, fatigue, bowel issues (*so embarrassed* but yes I said it, what goes in must come out?), missed periods, unexplained weight fluctuations, .... I'm going to stop there.
 Google tells me I have Celiac Disease... My doctor tells me I have a small physical build.
 
 I will update on my devastating lack of ability to eat and maintain comfort. 

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