GF journal, August,14 2012

SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED!!!

I’ve been MIA from the wonderful world wide web. It’s been glorious!!!

During your absence from my life, I have had so many landmarks! Life just started happening! Because I’m on vacation and didn’t feel like communicating with more people than I had to for a bit (Think of it as introvert recovery time), I didn’t. There is so much to recount that it’s going to take awhile, and a few different sittings at the computer, as I just found out.  :P

The much anticipated appointment with a neuro-opthomologist in Portland, OR.

It. Was. Awesome.

I’ve been going blind in my left eye for a little over a year now, and it’s been a bit of a problem, as I assume any situation of going blind is. Long story short, no one knows what was causing it and the doctors were just taking guesses as to what could be causing it. Taking me off one medicine then another trying to get the blind spot to stop growing let along disappear. This is what led me to the doctor in Portland that specialized in things like this, and since I was going to visit my brother in Portland I made an appointment. 

I did a different type of vision field than I have been taking every 4 weeks for months on end. This test showed that my blindness didn’t stop suddenly mid-line like all the other tests have shown, which means that it was not mini-strokes that were occurring. My sigh of relief was heard throughout the room I’m sure. 

The doc said there is a possibility of 2 different things going on. Either a blood vessel is pressing on my optic nerve, or my brain is in so much pain and I’m ignoring it, that it’s getting mad and just selectively not seeing to make sure I’m actually paying attention to it. The doc thinks it’s more likely the second one, but I had this weird eye test (an ERG) the next morning (which was a miracle to get on such short notice, thanks God!) that will let me know for sure which option it is. I haven’t heard back on the results yet. 

The treatment for both problems is the same, get the migraines under control. 

That is now my anthem, fix the migraines. I’m allowed back on my Imatrex (PTL!!!!). I’m not eating gluten (which was something he usually recommends to fix migraines). He’s suggesting that I get off of the preventative med I’m on and onto something else that will be more effective and not make me gain the tons of weight that this one did. He also gave me a whole list of things to avoid, supplements to try, stuff like that. I’m really blessed that I got to meet with this doctor and spend 4 hours talking to him (yup, super long appointment but completely worth it!). 

As this school year gears up to start, I’m getting a new lease on life. There is more I can do to help myself in all this pain. I feel empowered to go and do and learn as much as I can about alternative ways for everything and to be on this wonderful crazy diet that is gluten-free. 

GF journal 8/3/2012

My life picked up speed

My week has made a dramatic turn for the better. 

My sis and I figured out what was getting me down, even after all the gluten had left my system. Last week a doc took me off a anti-depressant that I had been on for awhile (4 years). Well, turns out it does a lot for me and I really need it. So I made a follow up appointment with this doc and went back on it for the time being until the appointment. 

Super exciting time last night. Relient K, Hellogoodbye, House of Heroes and William Becket were all here in concert! I went with 3M and my sis and we had a great time. Our whole group was very fortunate to find seating in the bar seeing as 2/3 that went have clostraphobia/Ochlophobia. It was such a blast! Unfortunately I had a migraine and my sister was suffering through a sprained back, but we made it out alive! 

Tonight I have an appointment to get my bracelet tattoo done and then out with some girl friends and my sister for a last night out on the town with everyone before the semester gets underway. 

Tomorrow I’m flying to visit my brother in Portland, OR. Sunday I get to see my dad, Monday is my appointment with a neuro-opthamologist. Wed I see my mom, and Thrus-Sun we’re going canoe camping, then coming home. It seems like it’s gong to be a packed few weeks until school starts then there are classes themselves. It will all work out well :)

I had a migraine all last weekend and woke up with another horrible one yesterday, but I’m medicating it, I don’t really have time to slow down yet.

GF journal 7/30/2012

Week 7 

I’m laying in bed typing this on my phone. Weird, but my dog (aka captain spaz) was lured back to sleep 20 min ago and my sister is under strict orders not to move until we have to. This dog keeps us up so much, but he keeps us on some sort of schedule, which is great.

Anyway, today marks 7 weeks. 7 long suffering weeks of learning about my body. This weekend was a refresher course in what my life is like with gluten. In 30 min I will be headed to start my day starting with the blood test to see if I am/have Celiac.

For any of you that have done this test before, you know what that means. I ate gluten. Lots and lots of gluten. In order for this blood test to be semi-accurate your body has to have a chance to make those gluten fighting anti-bodies.

Friday morning started with wonderful muffins. They were delicious! So moist and flavorful, I thought this that this weekend will be a fun time to eat all my old favorites.

I was completely wrong. An hour after my muffins, I knew this weekend was going to be tough. I forced myself to eat gluten every time I had the chance to. Deciding that if I am eating gluten and going to feel like crap, then I was going to do this only once.

I felt horrible all weekend, I had a migraine, didn’t want to eat, had GI issues and slept. I have never been so excited to not eat something in my life.

In a few min, I’ll be headed out for this test. One thing I know beyond a doubt is that regardless of what the test says, I’m staying gluten free.

GF journal 7/27/2012... maybe

She’s So Mean

Listening for this post here

This week has been insanely busy. Good news, I’ve finished my internship. WOOO!! I’m glad that’s done. Now I’m just trying to catch up on my emails and get my errands done before I leave for my parents next week.

I’ve had a bazillion dr appointments this week. Started with the neurologist, then the regular Dr, ophthalmologist, MRI, and now a contact guy. Busy week all around, sharing a car on a week like this is tough, really really tough. Ash also is passing a kidney stone, or something like that. It’s hard to know what’s going on, I just come when she calls.

Regular Dr said that the gluten free thing is great and that Neuro guy ordered the wrong test for celiac, so she put in the right one and said that I need to be eating gluten for at least 48 hours before the test so that the results are more accurate.

Know what that means? I GET TO EAT BREAD!!!

I started this morning with a muffin. Yum! I had already packed a GF lunch for work today, so that wasn’t going to be unpacked then repacked. For dinner I’m hoping to have some sort of pasta. mmmmm

Oh, and regular dr said that the acne that hasn’t cleared up, my ovarian cysts, and my uncontrollable weight could be attributed to PCD (?) or something like that. Poly-cystic ovarys or something. She said that we’ll have to look into that next time when I don’t have a lot of things happening in one week.

Eye doc did another visual field and alas my blind spot is increasing still, she was glad that I had another MRI before I go to the neuro ophthalmologist in OR. Woo.

Today’s appointment is with the contact guy and to pick out a new pair of glasses. Not too positive about the glasses, but it’ll work out. 

GF journal 7/23/2012

Hail to the geek. Week 6

Listen here.

Wow, life has been crazy and frustrating. People are crazy and stupid lately, I think it’s going around like the flu. A horrible flu people try to cover up and contain but just spread it further.

It seems like it’s just affected the people I have to work with on something. The registration lady at the Dr office that deleted my insurance information because she didn’t know what it said and had to re-enter it. The person that took credit for my work. The boss that belittled me for having extra weight and putting down my skills on EVERYTHING (not just work things). It’s been very frustrating.

I haven’t had an intentional dose of gluten, but there have been accidents, it’s nothing horrible, it just makes me feel… less than great.

This week alone I have 4 appointments for everything going on in my life. Yup. 4. 1 next and yet another the one after. Today’s appointment was a neurologist. The conclusion from that is that I need to get another MRI with and without contrast. Only  8 months after my last one. Nothing horrible, but hopefully people will start to know why I’m going blind. On the bright side, I’ve only had 3 full blown migraines this summer (~2 months) which is down from 1-2 a week. I’m going to accredit this to being gluten free.

Oh! I also convinced my neurologist to put the celiac blood test down when I’m getting my blood drawn for the MRI. I’m excited for this, but I’m scared about how the timing will work out with this huge presentation I have at my internship I have at work this week.

Tomorrow is an appointment with my regular doctor for acne, and my depression meds. I think I’m good on the depression meds that I’m on, but my acne is still out of control. The only thing I can thing of for the depression things is to get me off the one that caused me to gain tons of weight, but I’m still on the migraine preventative med that made me gain weight too. Who knows how it will work out.

Later this week, I have a contact fitting appointment and also a repeat of the visual field test to see if my blind spot has grown. Whoop di doo

GF journal 7/16/12

Monday morning blues? Aka Week 5

I woke up this morning and just KNEW today is my day. I looked in the mirror and loved my skin this morning, the little red bumps and pimples just stood out perfectly, not a hair on my head was out of place. I woke up on the correct side of the bed, and knew exactly what to pack for lunch. It was a great feeling!

Said no one. Ever. 

My face is covered in acne, I have no gluten friendly lunch materials in the house, my hair was a giant poof from sleeping on it wet. My head is still fuzzy and pounding from  the migraine I had this weekend. Plus my dog woke me up earlier than my alarm, which is just annoying. 

Nevertheless, today turned out good so far. *there is a surprised tone in my voice, don’t worry* 

One person died over the weekend and we put out 5 for med school. It’s going to be a week full of work. 

Today I learned that Twizzlers have gluten in them, which means I’ve been sitting in an office with a bag full of Twizzlers that I have not been allowed to have. 

This weekend was full of highs and lows. 

High: I went on a picture scavenger hunt with the young adult group at my church. That was kinda tough because they ordered pizza for dinner. Thankfully the last stop on our hunt was wally-world and I picked up an Amy’s gluten free mac and cheese frozen dinner, which I was a little worried about. Turns out it tasted great, and everyone loved the salted caramel cupcakes that I made again. I have yet to try them because they are gluten-ous. 

Low: Migraine, migraine, migraine. Missed… date (I guess it was?). and lying in bed on weekend. Not fun at all. 

Food today: 

Breakfast: Chex
Lunch: Nectarine, Plum, Melon, Cucumber, corn tortilla with cold cuts
Dinner: Sauteed chicken, corn, rice, and onions. Delicious. 

Coke count: 2 (almost had one but my sister is stressed and moody, I figured it was good for everyone if I wasn’t stressed too. That’s right, I had a coke to benefit humanity)

Water: 2.5 liters so far

http://geekygodlyglutenfree.tumblr.com/post/27453034664/week-5

GF journal 7/11/12

My one month mark!

I had every intention of writing this earlier in the night, but iTunes and it’s stupid playlists drug me in. I suddenly needed the perfect playlist for my mood. I went through all my music and pulled out the applicable ones. 

All 24 GB of it. 

The result? It is almost midnight and I’m just starting to actually wind down from my day. 

My day was crazy and somehow I was in a bad mood. There is so much that I want to tell, unfortunately I am exhausted and need to sleep. 

Here is a list of keywords that I’m going to talk about in the upcoming week (this is mostly for me considering this blog is for me :P)

- Mystery man M. (MMM or 3M)
- Internship
-iPhones
- Gluten
      = ONE MONTH?!
- Dr Appointments 

It seems my entire life seems like it’s falling together and starting to work out.

This is why I am preparing to have my life turned completely around, nothing ever works out, the only constant is change. And Jesus. Jesus is always the answer :D 

GF journal 7/8/12 not sure about the exact date

Sushi with my sister!

My sister and my dog, Melano, flew in today from my parents. I’m super excited to have them back in the apartment. 

I’m worried about how eating gluten free will work out well with my sister, but she seems to be supporting me thus far, hopefully it will hold until she leaves the country. 

Yesterday was a blast, after I ‘cleaned’ I went to a fellow nerd friend’s and his wife’s house for another cook-out. These two both know I’ve been gluten free and asked me to bring what I wanted as a side, which I really appreciated. So I took some sweet potato fries that you bake in the oven, a couple pieces of lettuce and some corn tortillas to put the hot-dogs in. It was super yummy, and a wonderful picture will be following. 

Today’s food:
Breakfast: Chex
Lunch: a nectarine and an oatmeal bar  (Didn’t eat breakfast till 11)
Dinner at a local sushi place with my sister and a guy friend.

Then the fun part of my night started. There was a skittish little black dog that came up to Melano when he was on a potty walk.

Oh look! What a cute puppy! 

Where’s your parent?

Oh… there’s no one here

*walks to a nighbors following the dog*

Hmm, no people. Oh wait person*hears a story about how this dog was locked in an apartment next to another dog parent that we know and broke out somehow. These people that have the dog are on vacation either to disney world or to mexico, no one knows for sure, so the dog momma we know was waiting for animal control. BTW, the dog is vicious and biting people. The 14 lb dog. yup. Apparently he is abused, and I really hope that wound up being reported. Then I follow the dog further down the apartment complex, to nowhere. I walk home and the dog follows me, so I grab some salami and lure the scared dog to me. 30 Min later I grab her and stand holding her talking to the neighbor while she waits for animal control to come and catch the crazy dog.*

What do I do now? Call my vet tech friend!!
* I was then advised to go to the 24 hour vet and get the dog scanned for a micro-chip.* 

Did that and there was no info, then I was faced with a choice. Surrender the dog or deal with it for awhile and see if I could find the owner. I decided to bring her back to my place and put up fliers tomorrow. I walked out of the vet and my sister called. 

A: Do you have the dog still?
W: Ofc, we’re headed home now.
A: Oh good, her owner is here.

So that finished that, but it was an eventful Friday night to say the least. 

Now my sister and I are headed on a sonic run, yay for half price milk shakes! 

GF journal 7/5/2012

Cinco de julio!!

Happy freedom day for Americans! 

Yesterday was a wonderful lazy day for me. I’ve been cleaning and rearranging my house while my lovely sister is out of town, and yesterday I did nothing. 

I read a book, dozed, and watched some Master Chef then went to a friends house for a BBQ. It was a grand time. My contribution was assigned as bringing coke. (because I LOVE COCA-COLA!!). I started freaking out about what I would eat at this BBQ. I haven’t been telling many people in my life about going gluten free, I don’t wan to really brag about it and make people feel awkward and needing to make special things for me. 

All in all, I took a fruit tray, because I had fruit on hand and I knew if they had fruit it would be covered in citrus (citrus is a migraine trigger for me, and because of my blind spot growing in my eye, I’ve been super careful to avoid my triggers). It worked out well, they had some corn chips (New Mexican’s cant do anything without chips and salsa thank goodness) and I had fruit. A couple hours in, they started grilling, and I wound up having to tell my friend I haven’t been eating gluten when he gave me a funny look when I asked what was in the burgers. I wound up just having a burger with a slice of cheese and some ketchup. Yummy! Most people gave me a weird look, and I told them. 

It isn’t that I don’t want to tell people because I’m embarrassed about it. It’s because I don’t want people to feel like they have to accommodate me.  

Then it rained and I only saw a couple fireworks. But it was a wonderful day :)

Now, to clean my house again…