The Beginning Of Nowhere
In my second year of college (at 19 That would be 1982)., I fell ill with mono-nucleosis. I slept for up to 20 hours a day and was still tired. A month or so later, my blood tested normal, so I returned to college in an attempt to catch up and finish the quarter. Sleep still did not refresh me. I dragged myself to class. Sometimes I could not cross the campus intime for the next class.
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Then, I came down with pleurosy ("The old lady's disease) and spent more time on the couch. My lungs were so painful and I so weak that I could not
open the door of the medical clinic. My sister told me that I was not good for much right then, but that God loved me anyway.
I tried a physical conditioning class hoping
that intense excercise could pull me out of my slump, but I remained tired and foggy. Excercise just further exhausted me and there was no improvement. I noticed I had sensitivities to smoke and perfume smells. My
lungs would feel painful if I took them in. I also noticed my abdomen swelling up and down. I just thought maybe I was putting on some weight. I would sometimes eat my lunch from home and eat another lunch. I would just select a new group of friends with which to share the second lunch.
The next year I began to school at a the U of M. The walks between classes were longer and I had a hard time to make it to classes on time. My inner fog continued. I studied hard and did little else and somehow kept my grades up.
A couple of years after mono, I heard comments that Diana is just not the same after her illness. I left college unfinished and pursued a job as a nursing assistant. I hoped the active labor would help clear up the fog and fatigue. I spent much of the weekends in bed with my feet up.
Meanwhile, my husband and I married and began to long for children. My pregnancies caused extreme nausea, so I felt like a martyr, but five of them
ended very well with the birth of a healthy child. After my third child was born my mother said that she could run circles around me. Everything I did,
I did with a feeling of lethargy.
After my forth child was born. I remember home schooling, while lying on the couch. I usually could stay awake, but felt too weak to sit or stand to
do school work. I continued getting meals and doing work, but it was difficult to sit and stay awake. The fogginess was continuously upon me. I worked more and more stringent with my diet and tried some supplements, butI could not get my energy up.
I prayed to meet a certain chiropractor (That is a whole story in itself)as I passed by her office. I wondered if they might have any help for me there. I would not go in. However, after she and I met at homeschool gym and became friends, I discovered that she may be able to help me.
The first time I was tested she discovered my metabolism more out of whack than those she had tested after chemotherapy. Many people would be unbalanced on 3/5 scales, but my inbalances totaled 5. On my new program I
went from a size extra large to small dress in one week. I felt like a bird free from its cage. I began
accomplishing things I had been wanting to do for years. I soon had my fifth child after 3 years longing for her to come. I did not always abound in energy, but sometimes I did and I grew steadily more clear headed. I had always even in elementary school felt shaky, but liquid magnesium took that away. Once, I even heard a woman exclaiming that Diana was such an energetic
young woman!
My friend the chiropractor had her own family and I wanted her to have her time for them especially since she had a new baby. She had her husband chiropractor take over my work, but I really wanted a woman doctor. The cost of the needed supplements was high and insurance will not cover it. There seemed no hope for me to ever get off them. I quit going hoping that what we had done in two years could carry me and I could handle the rest. We continued eating an organic, natural food diet from scratch. We even started raising our own chickens and dairy goats.
I can't say when fatigue really overtook me again. I even remember sometime in the past `10 years when I felt mysteriously energetic for a while. I got more and more into organic foods, growing my own food, and natural remedies. However, I went through life trying to conserve energy, dragging my feet, and we never had the 6th child we so desired.
Eight years ago I really began to despair. I would fall asleep between words when I was
giving a spelling test. "There is nothing left" became my constant refrain.
Inspite of this, I and my 5 children managed a large garden in the summer and homeschooled in the winter. The summer of 2007 I mostly despaired while the children worked. My dentist told me that people with as many dental problems as I , usually had a chronic disease. Perhaps and autoimmune disease. Any natural remedies which had worked in the past, would not work anymore. After this
very unhappy summer my husband finally said that I better get help from a chiropractor again.
She found that my blood pressure was as high as 180/115. it would plunge when I stood up and not come back up. My pulse was often undetectable. My body was under significant stress and struggling to maintain Homeostasis. My body had difficulties handling sugar. The cells within were not absorbing oxygen freely from the blood stream. The potassium and sodium levels were not in good proportions.
I changed my diet slightly, I ate a little more protein spread evenly over my three meals, less carbohydrates,
and a bit more fat a little per meal. I also began to take the chiropractor's supplements. I had hope, and my family had hope, and my life was returning to me.
Sometimes I had so much energy that I did not know what to do with it. I felt well ahead of "there is nothing left" this is exciting. Still, I was prone to setbacks and problems with fatigue and fogginess.
It was after 5 years that my chiropractor asked if I ate gluten. Yes, I said and wondered why she would ask. Then I looked into gluten intolerance and saw that my symptoms could possibly be explained if I had that. I got a genetic test and discovered that I had 4/4 gene alleles for gluten intolerance. Two of these were Celiac gene alleles.
I was so glad to finally crack such a major root to my problems. I should be able to make a big difference in my own health by avoiding gluten. I blasted in to the new diet plan with a desperate passion.
My family didn't see the need. Who could blame them for being tired of hearing about my problems. I needed some support, but they couldn't give it for now. They had always care for me before and I was committed to make my marriage work regardless.
I expect that I will have some ineviditable physical consequences of living with 30 years of gluten intolerance or more. Yet, I expect to be amazed at the design of the body going forward and heal as best I can.
I grieve for lost years, which aren't exactly lost. The children are growing up nice and having their own ambitions and accomplishments. I know the Lord has a plan to restore those years and use it for the good of all of us.
I hope each one going through this can call upon God in the day of their trouble and be saved.
Jeremiah 29:11 I will restore unto you the years that the locusts have eaten.
What a promise for me!
Diana
Source: My Story
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