If there is one thing I've learned about myself over the past decade, it's that I'm never normal, and I confuse doctors. I've spent the last 7 years of my life thinking outside the box troubleshooting computers, so I find it completely infuriating when the people who are trained to fix people can't do the same.
After about 8 months of barely being able to get up in the morning, and barely being able to function well enough to drive to work I used Doctor Internet to see if other people had experienced the same things as me, and what their solutions were.
First, I came to this auto-immune repair diet thanks to Brittany at Real Sustenance. I stopped eating wheat/gluten years ago, but this diet was much stricter - no grains of any kind, no eggs, no dairy, no nightshade veggies, no legumes, no nuts, no seeds, and no sugar. What's left after all that "no"? Meat, vegetables, and fruit. After one week on the diet I found that the majority of my symptoms had gone away. Miracles do happen!
So I went back to my doctor with this knowledge, thinking hey - if this took away a ton of my symptoms, doesn't that tell you that it could be something less common in the auto-immune world that caused them? So he humored me and tested my thyroid since that's where the diet came from. And of course, he tells me that's normal too. (I'm trying to find a new doctor - if you know of any good ones who like puzzles in the Buffalo, NY area - please share!)
Then I got a cold. And as most people do when they have a cough that won't go away, I took Robitussin DM. It brought back the fatigue, the aches, the brain fog, everything - instantly. It also has high fructose corn syrup in it as the main "inactive" ingredient. I learned my lesson. ALWAYS read the ingredients on medicine, because you never know what the fillers are. Advil Liquigels also have a wheat product in them and are not gluten free.
After struggling with trying to add foods back in one by one, I decided that this lifestyle was here to stay. And more internet research brought me to a blog by Chris Kresser. I followed him on twitter for a while, but hadn't found the time to sit down and read/process the wealth of information on his site because it hadn't been a priority. Now it was - I wanted to know why this was happening to me. After some reading I realized that by default I was following the hot new trend called the Paleo Diet. The general principle is that grains, legumes, processed sugars, nuts and seeds are all toxic to people. We may be able to digest them, or partially digest them, but in general they are full of compounds that humans aren't supposed to have and can wreak havoc on us. I am not sure I buy into everything because I know plenty of healthy people who do not face the struggles I do every day. However, I can say without a doubt that after 2 months on this diet I am currently the healthiest I have been in the past decade. There are also about a million and one paleo blogs of recipes to help me stay creative and full of delicious food - I'll share links to some of my favorites in the future.
I felt it was important to share that journey because so often you end up feeling completely alone in your misery when something can't be explained, and lots of people tell you you're crazy or it's entirely psychological. My doctor even decided it was mental and not physical. The internet made me realize I really wasn't alone, and there are scientific facts that back up why the diet helped.
I may still be crazy, but I'm not alone.
The past two months have allowed me to get my energy levels back up so I can be productive outside of work. Which means I am back to learning things. This past week I started going through the lessons at http://learnpythonthehardway.org/. It's a good format for someone like me who hasn't gone the formal B.S. of Computer Science route and is learning everything on their own. If you're already a computer programmer you will hate it because it doesn't get into all of the proper syntax right away, and doesn't go in-depth because it's meant for newbies. I have a MBP so I don't bother with the text editors they suggest and just use vi. It's what I'm used to, and I hate jumping between windows to run code.
I think that's enough for one massive blog entry. Til next time!
So I went back to my doctor with this knowledge, thinking hey - if this took away a ton of my symptoms, doesn't that tell you that it could be something less common in the auto-immune world that caused them? So he humored me and tested my thyroid since that's where the diet came from. And of course, he tells me that's normal too. (I'm trying to find a new doctor - if you know of any good ones who like puzzles in the Buffalo, NY area - please share!)
Then I got a cold. And as most people do when they have a cough that won't go away, I took Robitussin DM. It brought back the fatigue, the aches, the brain fog, everything - instantly. It also has high fructose corn syrup in it as the main "inactive" ingredient. I learned my lesson. ALWAYS read the ingredients on medicine, because you never know what the fillers are. Advil Liquigels also have a wheat product in them and are not gluten free.
After struggling with trying to add foods back in one by one, I decided that this lifestyle was here to stay. And more internet research brought me to a blog by Chris Kresser. I followed him on twitter for a while, but hadn't found the time to sit down and read/process the wealth of information on his site because it hadn't been a priority. Now it was - I wanted to know why this was happening to me. After some reading I realized that by default I was following the hot new trend called the Paleo Diet. The general principle is that grains, legumes, processed sugars, nuts and seeds are all toxic to people. We may be able to digest them, or partially digest them, but in general they are full of compounds that humans aren't supposed to have and can wreak havoc on us. I am not sure I buy into everything because I know plenty of healthy people who do not face the struggles I do every day. However, I can say without a doubt that after 2 months on this diet I am currently the healthiest I have been in the past decade. There are also about a million and one paleo blogs of recipes to help me stay creative and full of delicious food - I'll share links to some of my favorites in the future.
I felt it was important to share that journey because so often you end up feeling completely alone in your misery when something can't be explained, and lots of people tell you you're crazy or it's entirely psychological. My doctor even decided it was mental and not physical. The internet made me realize I really wasn't alone, and there are scientific facts that back up why the diet helped.
I may still be crazy, but I'm not alone.
The past two months have allowed me to get my energy levels back up so I can be productive outside of work. Which means I am back to learning things. This past week I started going through the lessons at http://learnpythonthehardway.org/. It's a good format for someone like me who hasn't gone the formal B.S. of Computer Science route and is learning everything on their own. If you're already a computer programmer you will hate it because it doesn't get into all of the proper syntax right away, and doesn't go in-depth because it's meant for newbies. I have a MBP so I don't bother with the text editors they suggest and just use vi. It's what I'm used to, and I hate jumping between windows to run code.
I think that's enough for one massive blog entry. Til next time!
