Jennifer's Recovery Log

[Jennifer]

Wait, is it a good thing you don't have a period anymore or were you being sarcastic? I thought you were too you for menaupause. I was thinking you were around theBP's age.

Don't take my word for it, but from my non-scientific understanding, constipation can result from an inflamed intestine where the walls thicken/swell causing a narrowing of the canal and making it harder for food to pass through. If you have an inflamed intestine, there's a good chance you have excess serotonin because food is sitting in your intestines longer, leaving it for microbes to feed off of and produce endotoxins that can raise serotonin.

Then there's also slow parastalsis which would cause the same negative effect. Excess estrogen can also effect serotonin so if your estrogen has been unopposed due to inadequate progesterone levels, which can be from anything such as low cholesterol due to intestinal inflammation or other stressors...well, it's one big self-perpetuating cycle. Ray even mentioned in an interview how stressful thoughts can affect intestinal permeability so I imagine any of us who suffer with past and current traumas will have to consider that as a possible trigger too? I think the key is to break the cycle with any measure possible. So anything that heals the intestines and prevents/kills off microbes is worth focusing on and this includes stress whether emotional or physical. Did you follow all that? LOL My thoughts have been all over the place lately.

It's odd to me that I get these crying spells when I start back up on the progest-e. Is there validity to the "estrogen leaving tissues when high dosing progest-e" theory?

I was told I didn't have SIBO, but the test wasn't done in parts per billion so I don't know. They only found that I had a lot of trapped gas in my colon. It was the Genova stool test that found the bacterial overgrowth. So there are hydrogen producing bacteria and methane producing bacteria? Sorry if that's a dumb question. Now, how is the methane treated in comparison to hydrogen?

 

[pboy]

so Jennifer...its been 38 p ages, have you recovered yet?

 

[sunmountain]

I am HAPPY that I don't have periods anymore. HAPPY. Dancing. Not sarcastic. I THANK the universe. I think life begins for women after menopause...just mine got sidetracked with these health issues. I'm 51...is that same as BigP?

Now about sibo. Breath test indicated high methane readings. Methane sibo is caused not by bacteria at all. Caused by ancient single-celled no-nucleus organism called Archaea. Archaea live in our guts and convert the hydrogen from the bacteria by combining it with CO2 into methane. This is normal. Everyone produces some methane. It's when archaea multiply too much that too much methane is produced.

Hydrogen sibo is caused by bacteria and susceptible to antibiotics. Archaea do not respond to antibiotics. Also, methane sibo correlates to constipation, while hydrogen sibo to diarrhea.

The majority of Archaea in human gut is M. Smithii. This fellow and his companions are very good at extracting every ounce of nutrition from the food they are fed. So methane sibo is also linked with obesity...hooray!!! I'm 138 lbs today (113 when I started peating). Everyone in my family of origin is skinny, but I'm gonna balloon...yaaay!

There is one study out that says Archaea are susceptible to high dose Rifaximin plus Neomycin. My GI won't prescribe Neomycin due to side effects. I'm going along with his recommendations for now. He suggested high dose Rifaximin plus Berberine. There's another protocol for garlic (Allimed) plus Berberine that is supposed to work.

Meanwhile a poster named Gbolduev suggested that marine plankton can get rid of any kind sibo. I'm going to try that first.

So my question is that if it's the Archaea causing the constipation, where does that leave serotonin?

One very good thing that came about by chance on reading Gbolduev's posts was that I realized that my eating high protein was causing ammonia build-up instead of it being used by the body. My body can't use all that protein because of blood sugar issues and pancreas not working properly. I backed off the high protein, and within a day my joint pain resolved. I had a headache that lasted 5 days. I never get headaches. Maybe it was the ammonia leaving the body.

My muscles are still stiff. I don't know what that's about. And when I climb a few steps, my muscles hurt. All that protein became ammonia.

My main source of high protein was homemade farmer cheese. I was making a batch and going through that during the week. I wonder if it was some bad amino acid building in the cheese as it aged...tryptophan?

Meanwhile labs showed I have reactive hypoglycemia, and though the lab messed up the insulin test two times (!), the docs are saying I'm pretty much IR, and I think they're right. I'm not about to go in for a third time cuz it was very, very hard on my pancreas each time after the tests. My sugar was going up and down like crazy.

And now the GI is saying I have gastroparesis.

So we know all these things go together. I wonder what is the role of M. Smithii in all this.

 

[tara]

Don't take my word for it, but from my non-scientific understanding, constipation can result from an inflamed intestine where the walls thicken/swell causing a narrowing of the canal and making it harder for food to pass through. If you have an inflamed intestine, there's a good chance you have excess serotonin because food is sitting in your intestines longer, leaving it for microbes to feed off of and produce endotoxins that can raise serotonin.

Then there's also slow parastalsis which would cause the same negative effect. Excess estrogen can also effect serotonin so if your estrogen has been unopposed due to inadequate progesterone levels, which can be from anything such as low cholesterol due to intestinal inflammation or other stressors...well, it's one big self-perpetuating cycle. Ray even mentioned in an interview how stressful thoughts can affect intestinal permeability so I imagine any of us who suffer with past and current traumas will have to consider that as a possible trigger too? I think the key is to break the cycle with any measure possible. So anything that heals the intestines and prevents/kills off microbes is worth focusing on and this includes stress whether emotional or physical. Did you follow all that? LOL My thoughts have been all over the place lately.

Nice explanation. :)

It's odd to me that I get these crying spells when I start back up on the progest-e. Is there validity to the "estrogen leaving tissues when high dosing progest-e" theory?

Here's a wild speculation, no based on any science I have seen.
It seems to me that:
Sometimes crying is needed to recover/get past something distressing, either current or historical.
Crying requires energy. If my energy is too low, I can't cry even if I need to. Hunger numbs me down too much.
Maybe progesterone could sometimes raise energy levels and make necessary crying possible?
Might not have anything to do with how you are going, just a thought that occurred.
Take care.

 

[Jennifer]

so Jennifer...its been 38 p ages, have you recovered yet?

I don't plan on recovering till I secure my title as the member with the longest thread. After that, I'm coming for your godly title and when I secure it, I'll make music rain down from the heavens, filling every corner of the world. :P

Seriously though, I'm not physically recovered yet, but I've done a lot of digging deep these past couple weeks thanks to my heightened emotions and I'm finally getting back to me. I realized I lost sight of me for a while there. I have a feeling my body was just waiting for me to come around.

 

[Jennifer]

I am HAPPY that I don't have periods anymore. HAPPY. Dancing. Not sarcastic. I THANK the universe. I think life begins for women after menopause...just mine got sidetracked with these health issues. I'm 51...is that same as BigP?

Well, okay then! Congratulations!

I was guessing you were either 47 theBP's age or 51, but then I thought tara was 51 and I was confusing her age for yours. Never mind me!

Now about sibo. Breath test indicated high methane readings. Methane sibo is caused not by bacteria at all. Caused by ancient single-celled no-nucleus organism called Archaea. Archaea live in our guts and convert the hydrogen from the bacteria by combining it with CO2 into methane. This is normal. Everyone produces some methane. It's when archaea multiply too much that too much methane is produced.

Hydrogen sibo is caused by bacteria and susceptible to antibiotics. Archaea do not respond to antibiotics. Also, methane sibo correlates to constipation, while hydrogen sibo to diarrhea.

The majority of Archaea in human gut is M. Smithii. This fellow and his companions are very good at extracting every ounce of nutrition from the food they are fed. So methane sibo is also linked with obesity...hooray!!! I'm 138 lbs today (113 when I started peating). Everyone in my family of origin is skinny, but I'm gonna balloon...yaaay!

There is one study out that says Archaea are susceptible to high dose Rifaximin plus Neomycin. My GI won't prescribe Neomycin due to side effects. I'm going along with his recommendations for now. He suggested high dose Rifaximin plus Berberine. There's another protocol for garlic (Allimed) plus Berberine that is supposed to work.

Meanwhile a poster named Gbolduev suggested that marine plankton can get rid of any kind sibo. I'm going to try that first.

So my question is that if it's the Archaea causing the constipation, where does that leave serotonin?

One very good thing that came about by chance on reading Gbolduev's posts was that I realized that my eating high protein was causing ammonia build-up instead of it being used by the body. My body can't use all that protein because of blood sugar issues and pancreas not working properly. I backed off the high protein, and within a day my joint pain resolved. I had a headache that lasted 5 days. I never get headaches. Maybe it was the ammonia leaving the body.

My muscles are still stiff. I don't know what that's about. And when I climb a few steps, my muscles hurt. All that protein became ammonia.

My main source of high protein was homemade farmer cheese. I was making a batch and going through that during the week. I wonder if it was some bad amino acid building in the cheese as it aged...tryptophan?

Meanwhile labs showed I have reactive hypoglycemia, and though the lab messed up the insulin test two times (!), the docs are saying I'm pretty much IR, and I think they're right. I'm not about to go in for a third time cuz it was very, very hard on my pancreas each time after the tests. My sugar was going up and down like crazy.

And now the GI is saying I have gastroparesis.

So we know all these things go together. I wonder what is the role of M. Smithii in all this.

WOW! You've really done your homework! :)

So if you have ammonia buildup, have you thought about consuming potato protein soup? It's suppose to combine/bind to ammonia and help remove it, if I'm not mistaken. There's a thread about it on here somewhere.

I used Goldenseal, which contains berberine, and it helped clear my rash and burning gut back when I landed in the ER. It acts like an antibiotic so that could also be a reason why it worked so well.

I found the Neomycin to cause nausea and drowsiness. For me, its side effects were actually milder than the minocycline's. Where there others with the Neomycin that your doctor mentioned? I still have a months worth in my pantry that I need to toss out.

I hope the plankton works for you. You've been suffering with this far too long!

 

[Jennifer]

Don't take my word for it, but from my non-scientific understanding, constipation can result from an inflamed intestine where the walls thicken/swell causing a narrowing of the canal and making it harder for food to pass through. If you have an inflamed intestine, there's a good chance you have excess serotonin because food is sitting in your intestines longer, leaving it for microbes to feed off of and produce endotoxins that can raise serotonin.

Then there's also slow parastalsis which would cause the same negative effect. Excess estrogen can also effect serotonin so if your estrogen has been unopposed due to inadequate progesterone levels, which can be from anything such as low cholesterol due to intestinal inflammation or other stressors...well, it's one big self-perpetuating cycle. Ray even mentioned in an interview how stressful thoughts can affect intestinal permeability so I imagine any of us who suffer with past and current traumas will have to consider that as a possible trigger too? I think the key is to break the cycle with any measure possible. So anything that heals the intestines and prevents/kills off microbes is worth focusing on and this includes stress whether emotional or physical. Did you follow all that? LOL My thoughts have been all over the place lately.

Nice explanation. :)

It's odd to me that I get these crying spells when I start back up on the progest-e. Is there validity to the "estrogen leaving tissues when high dosing progest-e" theory?

Here's a wild speculation, no based on any science I have seen.
It seems to me that:
Sometimes crying is needed to recover/get past something distressing, either current or historical.
Crying requires energy. If my energy is too low, I can't cry even if I need to. Hunger numbs me down too much.
Maybe progesterone could sometimes raise energy levels and make necessary crying possible?
Might not have anything to do with how you are going, just a thought that occurred.
Take care.

Thanks, tara! :)

That makes a lot of sense about needing the energy to cry. Hunger numbs me down too and I usually get very sleepy. When first starting back on progest-e, I get hit with nasty headaches for a couple weeks and I find I'm needing to sleep a lot. After that, my energy goes up.

I think I'm just at a point where I've had enough. I realized there are things in my life that are no longer healthy. I can put up with a lot for quite a long time and then crash. The crying is a good sign to me because it's only then that I finally decided enough is enough and I move on.

 

[tara]

I think I'm just at a point where I've had enough. I realized there are things in my life that are no longer healthy. I can put up with a lot for quite a long time and then crash. The crying is a good sign to me because it's only then that I finally decided enough is enough and I move on.

If that means you've figured out how to change your life in some ways that will make it better/you happier, then that sounds great. I sometimes find crying can make more space for such ideas too.

 

[pboy]

so Jennifer...its been 38 p ages, have you recovered yet?

I don't plan on recovering till I secure my title as the member with the longest thread. After that, I'm coming for your godly title and when I secure it, I'll make music rain down from the heavens, filling every corner of the world. :P

Seriously though, I'm not physically recovered yet, but I've done a lot of digging deep these past couple weeks thanks to my heightened emotions and I'm finally getting back to me. I realized I lost sight of me for a while there. I have a feeling my body was just waiting for me to come around.

well Jennifer, I think I might not be coming around here as much, so ill say I wish you well, I think you are developing spiritually in a big way which is ...the most important thing in life. Soon your body will be to the point of at least not being your main focus, which I hope for you soon. Pain and tensions, heavy or astringent energies are actually what force spiritual development in people, by overcoming them you enlighten and free your soul to a large extent. Anyways, its been nice chatting with you, ill check PMs maybe occasionally but im gonna start living my life more with my eyes away from the PC...I like to listen to music but...not much more for me to 'learn' ...I just gotta experience now. I can really tell youre a special girl that's done a lot of soul searching and growth and have a very positive sweet energy. I think you'll meet many people in life that appreciate you. I know taking care of the body can be a nag...when you just want to experience and know higher things... you just want it to be consistent and functional...but in fact, the body itself..is the teacher in a big way. Any kinds of stored kinks in your belief systems, perspectives on life, your dreams, your memories...of those that might be energy drains or aren't for your true best interest...theres a lot of things, that manifest in the body. Pay close attention to your thoughts...always watch what is on your mind...because anytime something isn't flowing in the body right, its sticky, heavy, kinking, tugging..whatever negative energy is in there...it will tell you what it is by influencing your thoughts...and watch how certain thoughts...that maybe you're tired of having or in your heart of heart, dreams, would not be there if you really could have it that way. Sometimes it can be hard to break ties with thoughts, people, beleifs, but ultimately when you do, the free breathing energy..the lightness, in a short amount of time...makes you glad you did. It takes energy, sometimes a very high amount, to overcome anything internal...mentally, in your wiring and make up, or otherwise, so always nourish your self well as the foundation of your life, and sleep a good amount...and try to have dreams and let them teach you about the scenarios you want to see...the feelings felt in them. You always have the potential to literally experience those in your waking life, a vibe of the sort, not just sleeping dreams, but your aspirations.
In reality...I don't think anyone 'recovers' totally...in terms of...yes maybe from acute physical things, but the journey of life...up to the point you are ready to ascend out of here, always has some level of nagging or freeing of their soul to do..its lifes journey. However you can get to a point of not having...the pain, it always gets lighter as you get lighter, and experience more, and develop your spiritual knowings more

Wishing you lots of fun and great memories and experiences along your journey! (and hope any acute physical things end soon)

 

[Jennifer]

well Jennifer, I think I might not be coming around here as much, so ill say I wish you well, I think you are developing spiritually in a big way which is ...the most important thing in life. Soon your body will be to the point of at least not being your main focus, which I hope for you soon. Pain and tensions, heavy or astringent energies are actually what force spiritual development in people, by overcoming them you enlighten and free your soul to a large extent. Anyways, its been nice chatting with you, ill check PMs maybe occasionally but im gonna start living my life more with my eyes away from the PC...I like to listen to music but...not much more for me to 'learn' ...I just gotta experience now. I can really tell youre a special girl that's done a lot of soul searching and growth and have a very positive sweet energy. I think you'll meet many people in life that appreciate you. I know taking care of the body can be a nag...when you just want to experience and know higher things... you just want it to be consistent and functional...but in fact, the body itself..is the teacher in a big way. Any kinds of stored kinks in your belief systems, perspectives on life, your dreams, your memories...of those that might be energy drains or aren't for your true best interest...theres a lot of things, that manifest in the body. Pay close attention to your thoughts...always watch what is on your mind...because anytime something isn't flowing in the body right, its sticky, heavy, kinking, tugging..whatever negative energy is in there...it will tell you what it is by influencing your thoughts...and watch how certain thoughts...that maybe you're tired of having or in your heart of heart, dreams, would not be there if you really could have it that way. Sometimes it can be hard to break ties with thoughts, people, beleifs, but ultimately when you do, the free breathing energy..the lightness, in a short amount of time...makes you glad you did. It takes energy, sometimes a very high amount, to overcome anything internal...mentally, in your wiring and make up, or otherwise, so always nourish your self well as the foundation of your life, and sleep a good amount...and try to have dreams and let them teach you about the scenarios you want to see...the feelings felt in them. You always have the potential to literally experience those in your waking life, a vibe of the sort, not just sleeping dreams, but your aspirations.
In reality...I don't think anyone 'recovers' totally...in terms of...yes maybe from acute physical things, but the journey of life...up to the point you are ready to ascend out of here, always has some level of nagging or freeing of their soul to do..its lifes journey. However you can get to a point of not having...the pain, it always gets lighter as you get lighter, and experience more, and develop your spiritual knowings more

Wishing you lots of fun and great memories and experiences along your journey! (and hope any acute physical things end soon)

Thank you for taking the time to write that, pboy! I really appreciate all the nice things you wrote and the wise advice. I hate to see you go, but I understand! It's actually a good thing when one of us leaves here because they "learned" what they feel they needed to and can now get on with doing what we all came to this world to do...experience life!

It was great being able to chat with you. I always remember our first conversation on Peatarian and how comforting it was to know that I wasn't the only one who took the view that health involves more than just the body, but the spirit too! People often look at me like I'm, shall we say "different" when I mention such things. Haha!

I wish you all the best and hope you get out there to experience some killer mountains and views from the top! I'll wave to you when I'm back out there myself. I'll just look for the mountain shaking with good vibrations and know I got the right one!

 

[Jennifer]

So I've been trying to make nice with the most evil deer on the face of the planet, but it appears I'm no deer whisperer. I have a garden that he seems to think is the salad bar at an all you can eat buffet. Every day I find more leaves missing from one of my gigantic hostas. This plant comes from the large perennial gardens that I spent years cultivating at my old house. It's the only one I have from there and it's my baby. This evil deer "Ed" is eating my baby! He is so evil that he'll do it right in front of me and when I catch him, he looks at me and kicks his feet in the dirt and runs off like the coward he is. I tell him to "get back here" so I can have a word with him and he gives me lip. He actually grunts at me.

I tried winning him over with a story. Apparently, Bambi is not a favorite of his. I woke in the morning to find he devoured one of my other hostas and one of my cone flower plants. He ate the flowers and left the stems. Point taken! Next time go with Dumbo. And Bee has been completely useless in my attempts to scare Ed off with my vicious and carnivorous wolf. He takes one look at Ed and runs back in the house. Who was I kidding?! Bee looks like a squeaky toy. I'm on my own! Anyhow, enough about that!

Now that I've been on progest-e for a bit, my mood and energy have improved tremendously. It always takes me about a week to get adjusted to it. I do fall asleep really early now and am currently nodding off as I type this, but that's okay! I need the rest because I incurred a substantial sleep debt over the past few months. One interesting thing I noticed is my teeth have gone back to staying very clean throughout the day. My white tongue is slowly vanishing, but the diarrhea is back full force, along with the brain fog.

I think I'm back to needing the minocycline. I shouldn't of stopped it when I did because my temps were far too low to prevent the critters from taking up residency again. Given Dr. O feels I'll be stuck flip-flopping between the mino and Nystatin the rest of my life, I think I'll go by my gut this time and not hers. I just know my issue is bacterial. Far too many symptoms resolve when I take the mino for it to be anything else. I just have to stop being so eager to drop supplements and Meds. I get worried of their possible side effects even if they're doing me good. I know it sounds silly, but I wanted my body to be able to work its magic and heal itself. I wanted it to know I trust it.

This is my current diet: Scallops 2x a week and daily, 1 quart of fresh squeezed OJ, 2 quarts of sugared skim milk with cold-brewed coffee concentrate, 1 egg, MCT oil, beef knuckle broth and at least 1 quart of ice cream. I'm going to put effort again into making my own now that I'm getting into a good rhythm and have gained energy back. I'll be using part goat's milk powder since it's suppose to be higher in most nutrients than cow's milk. Plus, I got use to the Mt. Capramilk's mild cheesy flavor and quite enjoy it now. It tastes like the powdered white cheddar cheese on Smartfood popcorn. Yum!

Tonight's song is inspired by pboy. I've been wanting to use it for a while now, along with songs from Flashdance and Dirty Dancing. Nothing says Jennifer's Recovery Log like music from 80s dance films...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VZLBZ3eD7wI

 

[Jennifer]

So I've been doing really well. My moods have been very stable and as time goes on, I'm slowly gaining energy. When I first start supplementing with progest-e, it usually takes at least a couple weeks before the sedative effect wears off. I think I'm so use to running on adrenaline that when I start taking progest-e, it steals my rocket fuel and I'm left dragging "ahem!"

I'm still craving ice cream. Lots of it! It's kind of crazy, really. I can go through close to 2 quarts without batting any eye. For some reason, when I think of eating other foods, they all seem unappealing. I have an egg and OJ daily and scallops a couple times a week just to get in other nutrients, but they're forced. Even sugared milk doesn't have the same appeal.

I'm not sure why it is, but I'm not alone in my love of the sweet icy treat. My grandmother, much to my family's disapproval, will replace meals with her beloved drumstick ice cream cones. She even has friends in her building who buy her boxes of the creamy contraband.

My other grandmother who passed from Alzheimer's, focused on one word in the last years of her life...ice cream! She would forget words when speaking and replace them with ice cream and even after she forgot who we were, she never forgot ice cream.

I've also been having very vivid dreams, but not crazy ones of celebrities feeding me food. They've been of past moments and very much based on truth. One was with my grandmother where I'm consoling her because she had cancer, which she survived twice in real life. She was upset because we were both sick and I told her that I would show her that any disease can be overcome and to not lose faith.

Then there was one with my other grandmother where I was reliving the time my mum and I told her she would have to go to a nursing home. She was seated sobbing, while I sat next to her holding her. I had learned very early on that one of the biggest fears for those of an advanced age is to end up in a nursing home. No one wants to be shelved like a doll and ignored or worse yet, forgotten. I had forgotten how much it killed me to be the one to tell her. I was the grandchild who helped take care of her and I was the grandchild who had the honor of witnessing her take her last breath. Though, I can't remember what it sounded like when it rolled off her tongue, I remember she always called us love.

Tonight's song...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xr3qfy78iG4

 

[SQu]

Great! I also get that with progesterone and sometimes the sedation is scary, seems like it'll never end. And is so deep.
Logically you'd expect to be very tired of ice cream by now so if you still love it , sounds like it's still just what you need! I worked out that my taste for condensed milk was for a very good reason too.

 

[narouz]

Go Jennifer! :)

 

[Jennifer]

Go Jennifer! :)

LOL I'm going alright, but not in a good way!

 

[narouz]

Go Jennifer! :)

LOL I'm going alright, but not in a good way!

Alright then:
Don't go, Jennifer!

 

[Jennifer]

I went to the doctor's today. The nurse checked my blood pressure and it was 100/62. I looked at her concerned and she said not to worry, it's because I'm tiny. Umm...it's not like I'm the size of an infant so I'm not so sure that's such a stellar blood pressure reading from a Peaty perspective? She proceeds to tell me how she has low blood pressure too and at times it causes her to get very lightheaded. I wonder if this is a reason for me passing out this past year and now almost passing out every time I get blood work done. Anyhow, Dr. O came in, we started reviewing my blood work and the results of the 5-HIAA urine serotonin test which showed 3.5 with the cap off being 10.

We also talked about my non-existent progesterone levels and I told her I started taking progest-e again, but that I have non-stop bleeding just like before and I suspect it's due to my gallbladder and low thyroid and that I need to be back on NDT but wasn't sure my cholesterol was high enough to support it. And for the first time, I broke down in her office and started crying and was completely mortified by this. It would seem understandable given I'm deficient in hormones, but I know it's not that. It's just so overwhelming to know all these things that are dysfunctional but because everything is interconnected, in order for one thing to improve, it does it on the backbone of another. I've read Ray's work and have corresponded with him. I know what is technically wrong and have been diligent in applying the "tools" without seeing real improvements. It often feels like I'm trying to prevent Niagara Falls with a bucket.

I talked with Dr. O about the fact that when I eat any full-fat dairy, it goes right through me in about 5 minutes and it's very light yellow which I suspect is due to my gallbladder. I'm now only tolerating skim milk now, but it leaves me hungry so I crave the ice cream and I end up in the bathroom 5 minutes later and I'm hungry again. The cycle continues and I'm in the bathroom 10+ times a day. I was going to ask Dr. O if I should use oxbile and she beat me to it. She knows about all the other supplements I'm taking and I told her that I was taking Belladonna 200CK pellets for the atropine to relax my gallbladder. She's schooled in homeopathic medicine and approved me taking it.

She was going to have my gallbladder tested for bile squeeze/output. She asked me if I wanted it done at a certain hospital and an alarm went off in my head. I immediately asked if I would be hit with radiation with this test and she said "nuclear." Umm...yeah, no! It's not happening! My body has been put through enough in its relatively short existence. I told her, let's assume my gallbladder's bile output isn't functioning optimally. What would we do to take care of it? She said the things I'm doing to clear the gallbladder. If that doesn't work, she talked about having my gallbladder removed. I asked her what causes it, mainly because I've been doing everything that should keep it healthy and she said one of the words I dislike most...genetics!

Back when I first fractured, I spent countless hours talking with my former doctor (Dr. Cate Shanahan) who studied epigenetics at Cornell. That was the time I was put on estrogen and became suicidal, but she didn't believe in antidepressants so she let me come in her office and talk science with her to help calm me. I know that sounds odd, but I also didn't want to be put on antidepressants and when I told Dr. Cate I thought the depression stemmed from the estrogen and that I wanted to get off it, she dismissed it saying it wasn't from that. So I went along with the "occupying the mind" tactic and learned a lot about nutrition and its impact on gene expression. That's why I dislike it when a dysfunction is written off as bad genes.

I don't know guys, do you ever look at all the hoops you're having to jump through and think how insane it all is? I just don't think being healthy should be this hard. It's ironic how I was healthy before I tried to be really healthy. I keep getting this feeling like this isn't right for me and I should let go of trying, once and for all.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=s8mBsUuZWmg

 

[Peata]

I suspect my GB issue (malfunction, not gallstones) was from estrogen, if that helps give a piece of the puzzle. Somewhere in the past I think I talked about it in my old log. I was really sick.

And I know what you mean about thinking you felt better before you started paying attention to your health. I feel like I'm finally on the other side of that, mostly, after two years of peat stuff. It can get better. I would sometimes have to take breaks from all this including the forum, but I never really stopped hoping and trying. Hugs to you.

 

[tara]

I'm with you on genetics - even if some genes may predispose to some issues, there are often other contributing factors more in our control.
I expect Dr. O understands your need to cry. And expect you've brought enough good thinking into her office that she won't write you off as silly or irrational (as some drs probably would).

 

[Jennifer]

I suspect my GB issue (malfunction, not gallstones) was from estrogen, if that helps give a piece of the puzzle. Somewhere in the past I think I talked about it in my old log. I was really sick.

And I know what you mean about thinking you felt better before you started paying attention to your health. I feel like I'm finally on the other side of that, mostly, after two years of peat stuff. It can get better. I would sometimes have to take breaks from all this including the forum, but I never really stopped hoping and trying. Hugs to you.

Yeah, I too think that the GB issue stems from estrogen. Right before I have breakthrough bleeding, I'll get a bad bout of diarrhea that continues for a few days afterwards. Since I keep bleeding, the digestive mess seems endless. I ordered some nettle root since it's an aromatase inhibitor that's Ray approved. Hopefully, along with progest-e, it will also help lower my estrogen.

I'm also supplementing with B12 and vitamin A so I'm hoping that will help my gallbladder and keep my cholesterol up while supplementing with NDT. So far, I've raised my temps a full degree just from taking half a grain yesterday and half a grain today. I never had this effect from it in the past. Looking at my triglycerides and how they dropped from 176 to 91 and my cholesterol went up from 147 to 178, I think I may have actually shifted something in my chemistry for the better.

I'm glad you're feeling like you're finally on the other side. That's such great news, Peata! I know what you worked hard to overcome. You're one strong woman! I agree it's good to take breaks. I've been limiting my forum time so I can get a routine down and work out any kinks. It's felt good to get out in the sun and finally sit for a moment.

Thank you for the hugs! I'm sending some right back and a big high five for a job well done!