I'm a Christian wife & homeschooling mama, saved by faith through grace. I changed my family's diet from SAD (Standard American Diet) to healthy, delicious & nutritious traditional foods. I've recently discovered there's a name for the way that I eat. It's called Primal or Paleo (I like the diet and think of the men and women who worked hard from sunup to sundown, constantly on the go, eating meat, berries they picked, cheese they made. I do not believe in evolution). No grains, legumes, refined sugars, and no/limited dairy.

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Gastritis

I had a gastritis attack on Tuesday. I couldn't be vertical for more than about 2-3 minutes before starting to feel like I might hurl, as well as dealing with intense stomach pain that didn't let up until late afternoon/early evening. It feels like labor, only without a break between contractions. I think I'd rather deal with labor. Thankfully, my husband was able to come home early to take care of our family. I was recovered yesterday, with what felt like trapped air in my abdomen, rather painful, but a relief from the day before.
I took three activated charcoal capsules, a cup of slippery elm bark tea and half a cup of marshmallow tea (after spilling almost the whole jar of marshmallow root onto clean dishes) over the day to help absorb whatever toxins or irritants that were in my system. I have no idea what triggered it or why it happened. I'm thinking it must be from detoxing from the foods I'm sensitive to.

I've been noticing over the last 9 days that my stomach is a bit finicky. I can't drink very much while eating or I feel full and uncomfortable. I can't eat a lot at once, either, or my stomach doesn't feel good. I'm currently not feeling very good, because I think I overate, even though I didn't feel full. My theory is my stomach is trying to heal and figuring out exactly how to do that and digest properly, so there are some kinks being worked out after who knows how many years of being damaged.

E4 stopped sleeping well a week ago, but slept through the night again last night! (Praise the Lord!) She's pooping a lot and that's what she does when her tummy is recovering. So, while gross, it's good. I believe she's teething and may have a little cold and thus the not sleeping well the last week. I was afraid the new diet wasn't working afterall, but it seems to just be regular teething woes. I forgot that could happen. :)

Continuing onward!

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Week 1 after MRT results

I talked to Anne Fisher Silva last Monday, January 28. E4 & I had ham that evening for dinner and she slept amazing. In fact, she slept much later than she normally does! Tuesday, she was a happy little camper and in a great mood. She's been having detox symptoms all week, cough, diarrhea, rash on the face, general crankiness after the first couple days. She's also teething, so the crankiness could be attributed to that. Tuesday night, after the first full day without our sensitivities being consumed, she went to bed at 7, woke at 1030 coughing, so I nursed her, then went back to sleep until 7!!!am (she has been waking at five for quite awhile to nurse and then will go back to sleep for 30-60 minutes, before being up for the day, usually), I nursed her and then she went BACK TO SLEEP again until 9:45am and was in a wonderful mood! She's NEVER slept that much and that well before. Her little body really needed the rest! She slept right through her morning nap! Wednesday, she was less demanding and crotchety than usual.
I couldn't believe that the changes in our diet could work so quickly, and was very hesitant to get too excited. My friends were rejoicing, though!
Wednesday night, she went to bed and slept until 645, nursed, then went back to sleep until 9 or 10! I was excited, but didn't want to get my hopes up, because I knew, from past experience, that it could fall apart at any moment.
My body was exhausted, even though I was getting much better sleep, so I told Anne about it and she said my body was probably trying to catch up and relaxing from having to be hypervigilant all the time.
I started detoxing the first or second day, lots of bathroom trips. By Thursday, E4's nose had cleared a lot, she has a little bit of snot sometimes, from teething, but not all stuffy like she has been most of her life.
Thursday night, E4 woke at 0245 and fussed a little, but went back to sleep. She woke at 645, nursed and went back to sleep for a couple hours. On Friday, she had red patches on her cheeks, a classic reaction sign for her, and I freaked out a little. Thankfully, I have rational friends who helped calm me down and talk me away from the edge (of going back to what I thought had been working). She was very cranky and didn't know what she wanted, just that she was cranky. I was taking a charcoal capsule every couple days, to help remove the toxins from my body. I emailed Anne, because I was freaking out and asked about my mint toothpaste, mint lotion and mint handsoap. She told me to discontinue use of ALL mint products, so I tried making my own toothpaste. First attempt failed, I can't stand the baking soda taste. Second attempt - successful!
I took another look at E4's MRT test results and noticed that her reaction to fructose was nearing the avoid zone, so I'm wondering if we just need to be really careful how much fruit we consume, since it has fructose in it.
I found something on a website 
that made a lot of sense involving detox and symptoms and die off and I believe this is what was happening with E4 and me. "Many people confuse these symptoms with allergies or food sensitivities within the first two to three days and attempt to stop the healing process before it is concluded and consequently not allowing the first important phase to complete its task to recuperate. The body should allow at least 10 days for the first phase to complete and this can be longer for others who have more severe conditions. "

I felt better after reading that, and decided to stay the course. Afterall, we've tried everything else!
Friday night, I put E4 to bed at the normal time, but she kept waking up. While I was trying to get her to sleep, E3 woke a couple times, crying and saying "ow". I had a bad feeling, so I let E4 out of her woombie to crawl around and play, since she clearly wasn't going back to sleep, and brought E3 to the couch and got her some towels and a bowl. E4 was happy as a little clam, crawling around and eating pork that I'd cut up for her and put in a Snack Trap. Not too long after, E3 threw up. After a few hours, everyone was back to sleep and E3 and I slept on the couches in the living room. I was glad the next day was Saturday. DH took care of the kids in the morning, so I could sleep in a bit. E3 hasn't gotten sick again, but E1 says he doesn't feel good periodically, we'll see what happens.
E4 is doing pretty well now. I gave her a bath with baking soda and epsom salts to help with the detox. Lord willing, she'll be over it soon!

All that to say, I'm pretty impressed with our progress in the first week, and am cautiously optimistic. We're going to be doing the MRT with E3, too, since she still has some food issues and I don't know exactly what they are.