Hey everyone!
I've been super busy this summer with my internship and my job. Nothing exciting happening except that I know I'm not cut out to do research. The internship has made my summer drag, but this is the last week, so it will all be over soon!
I have 4 doctor appointments this week and then I'm off to visit my parents, brother, and a neuro-ophthalmologist. Yup, that's actually a field. I'm headed to visit the one in Portland. I'm going to be having another long MRI of my brain for this going blind thing, but with all that I have coming up, something should hopefully be figured out.
6 weeks ago today, I became gluten free. I cut gluten out of my diet. This is a super hard thing to do, but thankfully I live in the land of corn tortillas and some fresh veggies, so I've had to be creative with the lunches I pack, but the struggle is well worth the reward.
My sister says that I'm a changed person. At least my attitude is. And I think this is accurate. When I was eating gluten, I felt tired all the time, and other things that I just thought that everyone dealt with every day. About 2 weeks into going gluten free, that all changed. I no longer became tired after being awake for 4 hours and the daily naps weren't needed. This is only the beginning of the ways that this has helped me. My digestive system thanks me, and so does my migraines.
This summer I've only had 3 fully developed migraines. Yup, you read that right. 3. This is the least amount of migraines I have had in any given 2 weeks since high school, but this summer I've only had 3. It's amazing. It feels weird that I have energy to do things, but in a good way.
Before you ask, I have slipped up a bit, mostly through cross contamination of something that has gluten touching my food. I feel exhausted the next day and get a head ache. So, it is the gluten that I changed that causes some of this.
There are two levels of gluten sensitivity, Celiac and gluten intolerance. I know that I am at least intolerant, and later this week, I will have a wonderful meal filled with real pasta and then have a blood test to see if I have full blow Celiac disease. This blood test is only something like 2/3 accurate, and the best way to figure it all out is to add and take away gluten from your diet to see how you react.
Looking at Celiac's most common side effect is like I'm reading a list of everything I've ever suffered from (not the broken bones, that was just due to me being adventurous and rough). For the first time in a LONG time, I feel like I have control of my health and that there is a hope that I will feel better.
No matter what this blood test turns out, I am going to stick with a gluten free diet. It's tough, but worth it.
I'll post again sometime after my nuro-ophthalmology appointment and let everyone know what's up.
Love, Whit
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