Tag Archives: Food

Mirena Detox: Days 4 Through… I Lost Track

“At least I don’t have typhoid — yet.” Dr. Schreiber of San Augustine giving a typhoid innoculation at a rural school, San Augustine County, Texas.Transfer from U.S. Office of War Information, 1944. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The first three days of my detox “diet” went well enough, but on Day 4 I managed to contract severe gastroenteritis, or stomach flu, which demanded all my time and attention through Day 11. I wasn’t able to eat real food, much less do a body flushing detox. Hell, I was barely able to get any liquids down for most of those days! Apparently stomach flu is going around along with bronchitis, which I also now have. Great way to start the summer! So I don’t really know what detox day this is supposed to be. I consulted with my nutritionist and he encouraged me to get back on the detox horse, but half strength, until I feel fully recovered enough to go full throttle.

I visited my regular physician (again) because I had to get a doctor’s note to go back to work. I was pretty cranky about having to drive an hour out of my way for permission to go back to work (and, more likely, proof that I was actually sick) when all I really needed was some rest and Pedialyte. Ah, the bureaucracy of being employed! I explained to my physician as much, and we had a good laugh. He was interested to find out how my detox helps in treating and preventing future migraines, so I promised to keep in touch. If I have to go back in for my bronchitis, it may be some kind of record. I have visited this guy about five times in as many weeks!

Since I don’t have day to day notes on my detox, I can share a few noticeable changes. While I am considerably weaker from being sick, I do feel better just from the initial few days of detoxing. I am not trying to lose weight, but have lost about five pounds. My hormones seem to be stabilizing and I’m not nearly as, well let’s just say it, bitchy as I was a couple of weeks ago. My head is clearer, with sharper focus. One notable disappointment is that I still feel as though I have no energy, even after a great night of sleep. However, I am hopeful that with the return of my strength, my energy will also return.

The only changes made: starting the detox (clean food based, no chemicals or drugs) and stopping most if not all consumption of OTC drugs for my migraines. I do still take daily prescriptions and vitamins, but nothing else if at all possible. While I am not yet ready to sing the praises of this detox program, it would appear that using food to heal my body is beginning to work. Hopefully I can get back on track with better notes in the weeks to come. I am supposed to be doing a 21 day detox after all!

—G

Mirena Detox: Days 1 – 4

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Whether or not this ends up helping anyone else going through the same nightmare known as the Mirena Crash, I wanted to document my detoxing experience. If nothing else, it should prove highly entertaining.

Day 0

Starting weight is 156. My nutritionist advised me to stop eating corn and any foods containing corn, because it is a sneaky migraine trigger. He suspects that I have a corn sensitivity. He also encouraged me to start eating as much cabbage as I can stand, since that is a ‘known’ treatment for migraines. Huh, I didn’t know that. Bye bye cornbread I love so much; hello cabbage in my salad.

Ross The Dog photo bombing my attempted close up of my smoothie powder.

Ross The Dog photo bombing an attempted close up of my smoothie powder.

Day 1

The Smoothies taste terrible, but between them and the dozens of highly concentrated food based pills, I feel full. I lost about 5 pounds of water weight, cried all day, and was terribly cranky. I wasn’t very nice to my children, but to be fair, they were kind of acting like assholes too. We had to get groceries at the commissary. It was a death march up and down each aisle, and I required a long nap after all the food was “put away”. Some of the non-perishables are still on the kitchen floor. I don’t care. Although the detox specifies that protein shouldn’t be consumed, I could not make it past 10:00 a.m. without withdrawal hysteria. I also realized by late afternoon that I’d neglected to consume enough calories to support a shih tzu puppy, much less a medium-sized human. Oops! It is hard to keep eating when those pills make me feel so full. I will have to try harder tomorrow.

Ending weight 151

Day 2

I still struggled to eat enough calories. Fighting a nasty head cold and especially cranky, I cried while making coffee, while fixing lunch, and while angrily cleaning my house. I say angrily because while cleaning, I was stewing over my husband’s ‘insensitivity’. The bastard didn’t even have the decency to call me last night and check up on his poor, sick wife. Who ACTS that way?! He was probably bar hopping with his brother all over the California coast, not giving me a second thought. About twenty minutes later I felt guilty for thinking such mean thoughts about him, because he probably will bring back all sorts of gifts from California and present them as a gesture of his undying love and support. Probably? He BETTER. Another twenty minutes passed and I was crying into my green tea while panicking over my phone logs, which indicated that it was I who had to call him two nights ago, PROVING that he didn’t care about my illness or my crazed hormonal state at all. Ah Ha! Is it any wonder he has been avoiding me?

And, hot flashes, cold flashes, sob, sob, sob. My husband did call (and apologized for not calling the night before) and I was mildly icy to him, then I cried after we got off the phone because I miss him. And, hot flashes, cold flashes, sob, sob, sob.

Ending weight 149

Day 3

The girls goofing around in the exam room during another visit to see my physician about my headaches and illness.

My weight is 149 again today, so I think I leveled off a bit after the initial toxin dump. I feel tremendously better today. In fact, I feel so much better that I harbor a feeling of goodwill towards the general public — a huge change! I don’t feel like crying, I don’t have hot or cold flashes, and my stomach doesn’t hurt. Hey, neither does my head (aside from a mild protein withdrawal headache)! I feel…like myself for the first time in months! And do you know what I want to do, folks? Change the batteries in my weather radio and do a supply inventory in the tornado shelter. It’s that time of year! Yep, I am starting to feel much better. The girls went with me to another follow-up for my migraines, and I got a referral to see an endocrinologist. My physician is interested in the results of the detox and asked me to keep him posted.

Day 4

Sick, sick as a dog! I have some kind of virus running rampant through my body. I had to halt the detox for a day of chills, thrills, and frequent visits to the porcelain throne. It was uneventful other than a very sweet card made by my youngest child, wishing me speedy recovery. My ending weight is 148, mostly from dehydration and lack of food. I can’t even think about food right now, much less the detox…maybe tomorrow.

—G

A Get Well card from my daughter — so sweet!

One Year Gluten Free

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While glancing at my day planner to get a handle on the week ahead, I noticed that I have gone one year without eating gluten. Months ago I jotted down a reminder note at the beginning of this week to mark the accomplishment. This is kind of a coincidence, because just yesterday I mentioned to my husband that I was thinking of going off my diet, “just because”. He gently encouraged me to stick with it. This is why.

Since giving up gluten, I no longer have crippling abdominal cramps. I feel more energetic in the afternoons (most days) and I sleep better during the nights. I don’t wake up feeling nauseated in the morning; I have an appetite and actually want to eat breakfast right away. Then I want to go to work instead of lie back down like in the bad old days. My skin doesn’t break out anymore and I don’t get bloated for no good reason. My husband loves that I am feeling better and more energetic, and regardless of his opinion about gluten, he wants me to be healthy and happy.

“I think you should wait.” his words surprised me at first but I understood his concern. Sometimes it’s easy to give up on something we’ve been doing for a long time when we forget why we’re doing it. I had to remind myself what it was that put me on the diet in the first place. I’d lost sight of my reason for even being on the diet, and after watching other people enjoy their cake, I wanted mine!

So I remembered the many night school Accounting classes when I had to excuse myself and run to the bathroom because my stomach cramps were excruciating. I remembered dropping my kids off at school morning after morning and then coming home to curl up on the couch with dry toast and tea because I felt too sick to eat anything else. I remembered a life of not feeling well enough to do anything before 1:00 P.M. and never having enough energy to really get enough accomplished. This went on for years. I asked myself if I was ready to risk going back to that.

This afternoon we had a celebration of sorts. Close friends came over for a feast and we celebrated friendship. We celebrated my husband’s prowess making homemade foods. He had made much of the meal himself: sourdough hotdog buns, sauerkraut, pickled eggs, and five different kinds of smoked and barbecued sausages! We celebrated the Army life — where we are now and where we may go. And we celebrated dedication: a concept that improves quality of life in ways that we didn’t expect but fully appreciate. I could see how this had worked with my diet over the last year.

I know my husband is right. Now is not the time to give up. Not yet. There is still much to learn, and more celebrations ahead.

— G

Time to celebrate! One year gluten free!

Food Diary: Saved by the BBQ

Just One of Those (Gluten Free) Days

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Ever have one of those days, when only food will soothe an aching soul? Well, today is definitely one of those days. Today is a comfort food day. If you hadn’t noticed — and it is perfectly fine if you hadn’t — I have been absent from WordPress for most of the week. There are two reasons for this absence. I had a massive head cold that left me totally incapable of typing anything remotely lucid (seriously, what does “nacho cheese hot tub” in my blog notes mean?). I also got “locked out” of my WordPress account when Google Chrome seized up. This turned out to be a simple fix (I think) because after a visit to the Geek Squad at Best Buy, it seems that things are back on track, and here I am.

An assortment of comfort foods: Pain des Fleurs crispbread, Lotus Foods rice, roasted pumpkin seeds, Lucy’s cookies, Annie Chun’s seaweed snacks, Columbus Chorizo Casero, and Braeburn apples.

I spent most of the week feeling miserable and cranky, sleep deprived and a bit starved for good old comfort food. It is no fun to have a cold, but not being able to write was unbearable! Today my family braved the indecisive Kansas weather to solve my computer problem and run several other errands. In the course of the day it has been sunny, rainy, frigid, windy, muddy, and icy, sometimes all at once. When the wind plasters your hair into your eyes and splatters pellets of freezing rain all over your nice shopping ensemble, at least you can console yourself with the thought of getting a hot meal somewhere safe from the nasty elements.

One of the treats my husband had planned was a stop at the Hy Vee grocery store. This gesture might not seem like much, but for someone with gluten and dairy intolerance, the store’s Health Market, a section dedicated to organic, allergen free, and diet specific foods, makes shopping less terrifying. It is a haven for those of us who might otherwise have a difficult time shopping for “safe” foods. After a rough week I needed a heaping bowl of comfort food and a simple means of delivery! For a few minutes I just wandered, absorbing new product lines, trying to memorize brand names and ingredients for recall later. I tried not to impulsively grab gluten free goodies because they tend to be expensive and they can also be quite refined. ‘Gluten free’ does not automatically mean the products are healthier than snacks containing grains with gluten, as I have learned over the year. So I browsed carefully, passing over things I’ve tried before, looking instead for items of special significance.

For those of us with gluten intolerance, there are so many delicious crackers to choose from now!

There are so many delicious gluten free crackers to choose from now!

A few items caught my attention today. First, a box of French crackers made from chestnuts brought a smile to my face. Hello old friend! The texture of the Le Pain des Fleurs crispbread is so light and delicate that they must be handled with care, but they are wonderful drizzled with a bit of oil or a dab of jam and served with tea. Next I spotted a bag of roasted pumpkin seeds, a perfect portable snack inside my hobo bag. I discovered a cheerful red gluten and MSG free chorizo, something I have been wanting but unable to find in grocery stores in my town. I plan to fry thin slices in oil (a trick I read about in Saveur), and also add bits of the chorizo to Sunday morning Migas. Apples are a staple for our family, and I never visit a store or farm without buying at least a small bag. I did just that before we visited the Health Market one last time so my husband could look at bulk spices. I grabbed a box of seaweed snacks for my daughter’s lunch box. She is addicted to these crispy little delights and will eat the entire box if I don’t hide them from her! Finally, I finished my spree with a tiny bag of volcano rice (because we have never tried it before) and a box of Lucy’s gluten free Maple Crunch Cookies (because they are 50% off and I always need cookies).

Feel like baking? There are no limits in the gluten free kitchen!

I normally feel a bit guilty about buying gluten free items because the price seems to create an illusion of extravagance that outweighs the health benefits of the products. Today, knowing the items I chose would (mostly) be shared with my family made me feel happy; I decided that making good decisions and giving us something more exciting to eat is never a bad thing!

The afternoon was rounded out with a pleasant lunch at a favorite local eatery. I felt a rush of anxiety as I scanned the menu for gluten free options and saw nothing noted. The waiter told me that while the restaurant did not technically offer gluten free options, the kitchen staff would be happy to make adjustments as needed. That sounded promising, and the staff followed through on what turned out to be a lunch of divine comfort food. I normally turn up my nose at rare steak, but I was served a Chili Steak Burrito Bowl (minus the Burrito part) with bits of steak that melted in my mouth. It was exactly the fortification I needed after a long week of bland toast, weak tea, sticky rice, and icky Kleenex. A glorious nap after coming home followed by two of the Lucy’s cookies crumbled over dairy free Almond Dream ice cream, and I am feeling like myself once again. My stomach is happy, my head feels clear, and my blog is back in business! Things are looking up.

…Except now my kids are running fevers, coughing, and blowing their noses. I guess we can’t have it all.

—G