Starting the Anti-Inflammatory Lifestyle...Again

Many of you know that from the moment I got pregnant with James, my body lost all balance.  After I delivered, all my respiratory issues quickly resolved, but my body did not bounce back overall.  Many women experience this.  In the beginning I blamed the post partum period, but the extreme fatigue, brain fog, headaches, insomnia, weight gain, forgetfulness, moodiness/irritability, and sugar addiction did not fade with time, but rather worsened.

In late 2013/early 2014 I learned about how all of these symptoms relate to inflammation from my friend Stephanie (Louden) Townsend.  On the blog "Mind. Body. Green.",  Shelley Malone explains inflammation:

"Simply put, inflammation is the immune system’s response to a stimulus that is viewed as foreign or toxic to your body (aka an antigen). 

Your immune system constantly monitors for anything that appears as a foreign intruder (like an infectious bacteria or other material) that shouldn’t be in the body and is always at the ready to signal its highly specialized troops of cells and molecules to attack and dispose of the foreign material. 

It is an essential part of healing in acute conditions (e.g., a fever fighting an infection). However, when your immune system is disrupted, it puts itself unnecessarily on constant defense, sending inflammation continually rippling throughout your body. In this state, it’s working against you, instead of for you, by switching focus from the antigen it’s supposed to attack and instead launching a targeted strike on your own cells, tissues, or other harmless material."

Here's the bottom line: 60-80% of your immune system is determined by the health of your gut. The food you eat impacts your gut, and your gut impacts your immune system.  A consistent diet of inflammatory foods triggers the immune system into chronic inflammation (which causes unpleasant symptoms and ultimately disease).  Conversely, a diet of anti-inflammatory foods protects the immune system so it can do its job only when needed.  This is not new news!  Hippocrates said that "all disease starts in the gut" back in 460-370 BC!  Stephanie encouraged me to do the Whole 30 and gave me some suggestions to ease back into an exercise routine.  She mentioned that my asthma, eczema, and allergies would all likely be helped as well.  Inflammation fuels that triad (as it is called in the healthcare world) as well.

I cannot tell you how many times I started the Whole 30...and never finished it.  Or how many times I started a 10-week exercise program only to make it two weeks.  I have honestly lost count.  I ask myself time and time again why I continued to live this way instead of doing what I knew my body needed.  But I can't live looking in the rear view mirror anymore.  So here I go again...

So what is different this time?  While I have been slender to average build for most of my life, I just hit my highest weight ever, bringing me a BMI of 31, taking me from the overweight to the obese category.  I am now 40 pounds away from a healthy BMI.  And I am SO TIRED.  I am thinking about taking a nap 100% of the time.  I used to have periods of energy...now I have none.  However, that does not stop the insomnia.  I lay there at night unable to sleep, but so so exhausted.  The headaches are getting more frequent.  And the brain fog and forgetfulness affect every facet of my life.  The mood swings...not fair to my family!  I want to be really clear: this is not an "oh poor me blog".  I want to be descriptive because I know so many of you experience the same things.  And I want to share this journey with you.  IT IS TIME TO MAKE A CHANGE.

Thankfully I have some tools in my tool belt already:
- Wildtree:  Freezer Meal Workshops have helped us to eat healthy dinners for over three years.  However, my problems have been breakfast on the run, sugary coffee drinks, and snacks, snacks, snacks.  Lucky for me, Wildtree has solutions for these too...and I am finally going to start utilizing them.
- Breakthrough Health and Wellness "Boot Camp Hub": These 20-30 minute living room workouts have worked well for me in the past...just need to get rolling again.
- Friends!!!: Many have gone on this journey before me - Wes, Stephanie, Jennifer, Hannah, Ashley, Christen, Danelle, Teegan, Julia, Whitney (click here to read about her journey), Heather, Jessica, Brenda...and so many more.  I need to lean on them.

So what exactly am I going to do this time around?
- Eliminate gluten, dairy, soy, and sugar
- Limit corn (pretty much only going to consume it if it is in a Wildtree product)
- Start exercising three days a week
- Drink lots and lots and lots of water
- Keep up with my multi-strain refridgerated pro-biotic
- Click here for other great Anti-Inflammatory Lifestyle tips from Shelley Malone

I will do my best to chronical my journey here.  PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU WANT TO JOIN ME.  January 2 will be Day 1 for me (I would be setting myself up for failure if I committed before my 30th birthday this week).

READY. SET. GO.

Mold in Wes' Blood

I have not posted here in three years.  Life with a business, a toddler, and a medically-compromised husband has been a bit crazy.  This post is about the latter.

We have not publicly shared about the hellacious roller coaster Wes has been on with his health for the last four and half years.  The information felt private and perhaps our pride kept us from being more vulnerable.  So why share now?  We have learned some new information and feel that we must share it if it could help at least one other person.

When we married in August 2010, Wes was generally healthy.  While his immune system left a bit to be desired and his joints often ached, we led a full life.

When we had been married just over a year (Fall 2011), we discovered Wes had a tumor in the left side of his nasopharynx.  After a biopsy of the tumor, the doctor took me into the small, sterile bad news room.  She told me he had lymphoma and once the results came back to confirm that, we would start chemotherapy and radiation immediately.  Five days later, we learned the tumor was benign - truly a miracle!  He underwent a grueling surgery to remove the tumor, but we rejoiced that he did not have cancer!  At this point, Wes had been exposed to mold in various capacities (three separate living spaces - one in Mississippi and two in Colorado) and the doctors suspected mold had caused the tumor.  We hoped this would be the end of Wes' relationship with mold.

In Fall 2011, Wes started on an anti-inflammatory to help the increasing pain in his joints.  The medication helped immensely.  We eliminated biking and longer hikes, but Wes was able to function day to day and we still went on low-key adventures.

Soon after James was born (March 2013), Wes had to suddenly go off the anti-inflammatory because of some intense gastrointestinal (GI) side effects.  Almost immediately, pain took over Wes' life.  He could barely walk and had to resign from his job.  In the months that followed, Wes required assistance in and out of bed and help in the shower.  He was unable to go up and down stairs.  Simple tasks like a trip to the grocery store or a short walk to the park with James became impossibilities.  Due to the never-ending pain, sleeping became a rarity.

I truly cannot tell you how many doctors we saw.  I lost count.  Or how many medications he tried. Or supplements.  All I can tell you is that all of this left us with thousands upon thousand of dollars in medical bills even after "good" insurance.  But the worst part?  The HOPELESSNESS.  He was told the pain was in his head.  He was told to suck it up and "try harder".  He was told they had no idea what was causing the pain, but that he would likely have to live with it for the rest of his life.

That winter was awful.  Not only was he in excruciating pain, but he had strep five times...without tonsils and adenoids.  Even though it did not seem possible, strep made the pain worse.  The pain and fevers banished him to bed for a week at a time.

That following summer (2014), we started with doTERRA essential oils, which helped his immune system greatly, but did not touch the pain.  To bring in some extra money, Wes started a knife sharpening business.  His business was an instant success.  He tried to push through the pain, but his body could not keep up.  The guilt of not being able to provide cast a dark shadow over his life.

Fall 2014 to Spring 2015 is a big blur.  We fought to provide a thriving childhood for James while I worked crazy hours to make ends meet and Wes suffered day and night.  We stopped seeing new doctors for a while because our efforts had all been fruitless, expensive, and frustrating.  We lived in "survival mode".

In Spring 2015, Wes started using medical cannabis.  For about six months, it provided some relief.  He took small doses during the day to take the edge off the pain and a larger dose at night to relax his body and get some much needed sleep.  We felt HOPEFUL again.  The only downside was that we could legally travel with the medical cannabis.  The pain returned with a vengeance  when we traveled to visit family in Mississippi and Texas.  Our all-expense paid trip to Punta Cana with Wildtree was an excruciating one for Wes.  We were vacationing in paradise, but the pain kept him from soaking up the experience.  In late 2015, the positive effects from the cannabis started to wane.  The pain started to creep back in and the sleeplessness returned.  We could not increase the THC without making him a zombie.  When we increased his CBD, it gave him intolerable GI discomfort.  Things started to feel HOPELESS again.

After seeing a counselor for over a year, Wes made the step to go on an anti-depressant in February 2016.  He suffered extreme adverse effects and landed in the emergency room, and eventually an inpatient psychiatric hospital for severe anxiety and suicidal thoughts.  Once he was taken off of those medications, the intense anxiety and suicidal thoughts gradually eased up.  Nevertheless, I saw clearly for the first time what years of non-stop pain had done to my best friend and beloved husband.  We looked at each other and hardly recognized the person we married five and half years ago.  Our dreams hung in the balance, and we did not know where we would go from here.

Wes and I have both spent countless hours researching since his original tumor diagnosis.  What was the missing link with the pain, immune compromise, headaches, brain fog, GI upset, cold extremities, and so much more.  In late February, Wes came across an article on the effects of black mold.  The article sounded like it was written about him.  I sobbed when I read it and vowed we would travel to the Midwest to see the doctor mentioned in the article no matter what it took.

Our primary care doctor recommended an ENT who specializes in mold.  Before we made an appointment with the ENT, my dear friend Danelle suggested we visit Linda, her naturopathic practitioner, to have Wes' blood examined under the microscope.  With Danelle's help, we secured an appointment quickly.

At the appointment, Linda examined two drops of Wes' blood under a microscope.  She reported that Wes has severe levels of mold, moderate levels of candida, and moderate levels of parasites in his blood.  Additionally, his red blood cells were clumped together in "rouleaux" formation.  Wow.  The microscope magnified Wes' blood x10,000, and a projector allowed Wes to see the results on a screen as Linda walked him through what she saw.  She spent two hours with him.  Two hours.  She empathized with him and validated his pain and suffering.  "It is no wonder why you are in so much pain!" she said.  She apologized for all the practitioners who minimized his suffering.  And she said she could help.  HOPE again.

Wes returned home that evening with tears of relief running down his face.  We finally knew the root cause for the nightmare he had been living.  And we had a plan to get his life back.  To get our life back.

Wes started immediately on a candida cleanse diet, which seeks to take away the elements of his diet that were feeding the candida and the mold.  We began to focus on getting his body to an alkaline state.  He has been drinking an anti-parasite tea and taking supplements to promote this detoxing of his body.

His appointment was almost a month ago.  He started to see positive effects right away.   HOPE.  While he is still seeing these positive effects, the "die off" of the candida and mold hit him hard some days.  But overall, improvement!  On a side note, we found out that 25% of the population has a gene that makes them more susceptible to mold toxicity.  We are guessing Wes has that gene...

I am so proud of him.  He has dedicated himself to the ins and outs of his treatment.  We both feel like he is on his way to getting his life back.  To getting our life back.

To those experiencing pain or discomfort of an unknown origin, do not give up and do not settle.  I am a nurse, so obviously I am not opposed to Western medicine.  However, I am opposed to vague diagnoses (fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome).  I am opposed to throwing pharmaceuticals at symptoms and not searching for the root cause.  I am opposed to 15 minute doctors appointments that do not even begin in scratch the surface.  You have to be your own advocate.  Don't stop until you have answers!

If we can support you on your journey, please feel free to reach out.

Your prayers for Wes' continued recovery are much appreciated.

Laura Strebeck

laura.strebeck@gmail.com

(Wes can be contacted at w.strebeck@gmail.com)