** Not proofread, but you get the point**
Ok so I wasn't really dead, but some days I've felt like it. Honestly, I get so frustrated and almost depressed about how I can't stay well. I get so mad at my body for not acting better. I'm trying to do all the right things like eating well, working out, taking my supplements, going to my doctor appointments. Why can't my body just get it's act together and be "normal" again?
I can't even recall what I put in my last post, so forgive me if I repeat myself. I'll bet you don't remember what I put in my last post either ;). I've had a sinus infection for a month now. Thought it was a cold and let it go on too long until my teeth hurt, so that's when I went to the walk-in. Super sinus infection, followed up with ENT, had staph and strep up in that mess, maxillaries were full on left and nearly full on right, some ethmoid (between your eyes) infection. Blech. Started Bactrim antibiotics. As soon as I was done though, it all immediately came back. Got a second round of Bactrim. Luckily, my swab from last week now shows I'm clear of staph which is a relief! My ENT wants to partner with the plastic surgeon (Dr. Martin) who worked on my deviated septum before in 2010 so the ENT can suck out all the yuck up in my face, cut out some funky bits that's holding up drainage, and the plastic surgeon will work on a deeper section of my septum and fix some cartilage issues. Not sure yet when this is all going down, but should be a blast (super sarcastic here).
During my discussion with Dr. Martin, I was venting about how I just cannot stay well. Ever since having the baby. It's like it baby made my Sjogren's mad at me. He was curious if maybe I was iodine-deficient. Babies take a whole lot of that stuff when they're growing and I already know I had jacked up levels of electrolytes when I was pregnant which made me soooo sick 2nd trimester. I had bottomed out in Sodium, Potassium, and Iron and I barely had any Zinc, Chromium, or Selenium. But I was maxed out on Calcium and Magnesium with Manganese not far behind. That was all from when I was pregnant. A year after that text I ended up in the ER when my sodium and potassium bottomed out again (I was early pregnant, but ended up miscarrying that one). So for Dr. Martin to suggest I might be deficient in something and that's why I've had a hard time getting better would make total sense. My rheumatologist and I have only been checking antibody-related stuff. We tested TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone), but not any actual electrolytes, iodine, etc.
I'm willing to try anything! Heck, acupuncture helped me stop being so sick when I was pregnant with Liam. I especially don't mind trying stuff that's not a crazy chemical. My rheumatologist gave me the thumbs up to try for a month and see how I feel when I stop. Have to be careful not to do too much and my thyroid get lazy, begetting a whole new set of problems. So a week in to taking 12.5mg of Iodoral (iodine/iodide combo, ordered online), I feel good! Might be in my head, might be that I'm finishing up my antibiotics, but I feel like my body has more energy (my head is still a bit achy) and I don't have this brain fog I've had for over 2 years. My memory, cognition, and just straight up carrying on a normal conversation had all rapidly diminished, so much so that I was worried something was up with my brain, or I was just SO exhausted (have I told you my children get awaken around 1-3 times each every night? Sometimes bad dreams, sometimes tummy aches, sometimes they don't even know they're awake). Rheumatologist is sending me out for a cognition test just to cancel out that variable. And he ran a new electrolyte test last week to make sure there wasn't anything else I was deficient in exacerbating my problems.
I always have problems it seems nowadays. Riley's having a hard time accepting it. I get hurt when he gets mad on days I can't play with him. He loves coming home and doing some kind of sport in the backyard to blow off steam before homework. On days when I hurt, he gets down which makes me feel awful. Thems the breaks when there's a massive age gap between siblings I guess. Mom is built-in buddy because I can't say "Go play with your brother/sister". Liam's got another 2 years I think and he'll keep Riley entertained well enough. But I'm sure some of him wanting to "play" with me is just wanting to spend time with me, having me all to himself. And I'll GLADLY do it because there aren't too many years left that this will be something he's interested in. :)
So, I'm on iodine, staph is gone, getting scheduled for sinus surgery, and oh! ophthalmologist said I do still have some corneal damage from the shingles I had last year (not from a shingle, itself, but the immune system getting confused and attacking the good tissue in my cornea instead of the zoster virus that was up in there). He thinks I might even see improvement once we get my sinuses settled down since the immune system is still in full gear battling that right up my by eyes. Sighhhhh hope so.
Last week was a good week being on the iodine. Got to work out I think three times last week? Still feeling decent today so I went to Pilates. It's just so frustrating (I know, what I said at the start of this post) to be doing all the right things and then some weeks I have nothing to show for it. The other week, I literally got sick so quickly that one day I was in my size 8 jeans chillin at 147lbs and OVERNIGHT I got so inflamed that I packed on 4.5 lbs and had to squeeze into my size 10 jeans. WTH. It'd be easy to give up and just say I can't control my body so why try to do right and pig out instead. But I know I get much, much worse when I stray from Paleo too much and when I don't go get my joints moving in work outs. I guess as long as I keep trending in the right direction, as slow as it might be, that's all that matters. No Biggest Loser weekly results here, but I'm definitely more fit now than a year ago! So I've kept it off!
Ok- enough of my stream of consciousness. Next post is what my calcs are now and the menu for the week!
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