Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Mystery Solved...Maybe?

Thanks for all the congratulations, I really am super psyched! Now if she would just come out! Ok maybe it's a bit early for that, but I no like being pregnant!

Anyways, on to the mystery. For months now, I have been to the doctor, trying to figure out what is wrong with me. My symptoms of joint pain, fatigue, and headaches pointed to it possibly being lyme disease. But my doctor decided before we would do the expensive test for lyme that straight out tells you if you have it, we would test for food allergies first. Apparently, these aren't normal allergies, but the sneaky kind that take hours or days to show up.  The body creates antibodies when these foods are eaten and it can cause you to be tired, have headaches, and joint pain. So they drew my blood and he indicated if it was just a few low intolerances that this probably wasn't the answer, but if I had too many, it might be the cause. When the test came back, I was very unhappy with the results! It turns out I am allergic to almost everything they tested me for (88 different things.) To allow me to be able to still eat, he wants me to eliminate all foods that came back 1+, 2+, and 3+. This is still a ton of stuff. See for yourself...

lactalbumin?
asparagus
beets
celery
cucumber
garlic
mushroom
onion
sweet potato
white potato
spinach
lots of fish
chicken
buckwheat
corn
corn gluten
gluten
lentil
lima bean
oat
peanut
pecan
pinto bean
rice
rye
sesame 2+
soy
sunflower seed
walnut
wheat
yeast
chocolate 3+
coffee

If I didn't mark it, then it's a 1+. By your awesome deduction skills, you may notice that this eliminates all grains, well every grain they tested for and he said to avoid them all. This means no bread, chips, tortillas, pasta, rice anything that you use to make most meals. I am also suddenly very on board with products not using corn syrup! In the honor of science, I am giving it a chance, at least two weeks completely, until I see the doc. Being pregnant and having to eat mostly fruit and dairy is not easy. I have been unusually hard to deal with and I have to say after a week, I finally cracked yesterday for a bit to have an Arby's Beef n Cheddar and some curly fries. Somehow I have managed to avoid chocolate, but I am bummed it is my only 3+, so I may have to always steer away from it. That means no more chocolate milk or protein shakes after runs...tear, tear. 

Enough of my whining, if it helps that would be great. I hate always feeling sick! Although I might kill for a doughnut right now!

9 comments:

Mel -Tall Mom on the Run said...

UGH feel better. No Chocolate?? Not fun.. Oh and I can see your post that I missed off to check it out..

Julie D. said...

oh my word. that is awful but so glad you got answers!! hang in there!!

Unknown said...

food intolerances suck!! I am gluten, casein, soy, egg, most nuts and a few odds and ends other things and it is hard but I do eat pretty healthy for the most part. I totally would not want to do it pregnant though.
My symptoms are all emotional and behavioral and I believe that foods can affect one profoundly so don't give up quite yet.
If I were to have wheat for example I would be uber depressed and angry and feel really down on everything as well as anxious and crazy. It lasts a few days and then I am ok but oh I wish I would have known as a child and young adult about the food/emotion connection.
Congrats on baby being a girl :)

Anonymous said...

That is a huge list... I wouldn't even know where to begin. I have a friend whose son has a list about that long and she pretty much never leaves his side and makes everything that goes in his mouth from scratch... it's crazy. I hope you can narrow down this list to the real trouble-makers, and come up with something you can live with AND still feel good. Changing the diet and being preggo at the same time sounds really hard. Praying for you.

Laurie said...

Wow, that's a pretty extensive list. Hopefully you get everything figured out soon. Hang in there.

I missed your last post, so late congrats on a girl... that is so exciting!!

Unknown said...

Big bummer! I am so sorry! How are you feeling after eliminating those foods? I hope you start to feel better soon!

imemary said...

At least you still have cheese.

TutuRunner said...

oh no! what CAN you eat? is there any chance that after the pregnancy it'll change? sorry to hear about it. =(

Zaneta @ Runner's Luck said...

wow!! That is a lot of stuff to be allergic to... I will be praying for you! Hopefully you figure it all out and start feeling better! :)