Doctor visit update

Hey everyone! Ok, so you can understand everything I've been going through and still in the process of (and if you want to do it too!), I'm including a summary of it here. If you don't care to know the process, skip below it where I will explain an update of what's going on with me. *Note/Disclaimer- I am not a medical professional and this is not intended to diagnose, treat or cure anything. Please consult your doctor before considering this diet.*

Phase 1: Elimination Phase

Part 1: eliminate all of the following foods for at least 3 weeks: alcohol, caffeine, fast food, processed food, food coloring and preservatives, GMO foods, sugar, high fructose corn syrup, sweeteners, trans fats and hydrogenated oil, processed  meats such as cold cuts and hot dogs, processed refined oils including margarine, mayonnaise, salad dressing, shortening spreads.

Part 2: after the initial 3 weeks, continue eliminating those foods plus all of the following foods for another 3 weeks: citrus (except lemon which is allowed), all grains, dairy and eggs, pork, sausage, shellfish, legumes, soy, all nuts, corn, creamed vegetables, butter, margarine, coffee, soda, chocolate, ketchup, relish, chutney, soy sauce, bbq sauce, teriyaki sauce, cayenne pepper, paprika, red pepper flakes, eggplant, peppers, potato, tomato

During phase 1, part 2, the foods that are allowed should be organic, grass-fed, antibiotic/hormone free, non-gmo whenever possible. Aim for 6-9 cups of veggies per day. The allowed foods include: fruit in moderation (except citrus), sweet potato, butternut squash, whole fat coconut milk from a can, beef, lamb, chicken, duck, turkey, sardines, cod, halibut, pacific salmon, pollack, sole, trout, wild game, all vegetables other than mentioned previously, extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, avocado oil, filtered/distilled water, decaf herbal tea, organic green tea, seltzer/mineral water, homemade veggie/fruit juice, stevia sparingly, apple cider vinegar, all spices except previously mentioned

Phase 2: Reintroduction Phase

After completing the initial 6 weeks, maintain that diet while reintroducing additional foods one at a time as follows. Eat each reintroduction food frequently throughout the day for 3 days straight (along with the diet above), then eliminate the food you just reintroduced for the following 3 days. If you didn't have an increase in any sort of symptoms during those 6 days (stomach, pains, tiredness, headache, etc.) you can permanently add that food back into your diet and continue this process with the next food. (Example 3 days of eating a lot of rice, 3 days of no rice, 3 days of a lot of corn, 3 days of no corn, etc.)

The order to reintroduce the foods is as follows. You can get very specific and do one type of grain, etc. at a time or each category as a whole if you tend not to have a lot of symptoms/health issues.

1. non-gluten grains and pseudo grains: oat, amaranth, millet, quinoa, rice

2. nuts- almonds, walnuts, cashews, filberts, macadamia pecans

3. peanuts

4. citrus

5. soy- only non-gmo or organic

6. corn- only non-gmo or organic

7. gluten containing grains- whole wheat pasta, shredded wheat cereal, whole wheat tortillas (avoid GF breads that have eggs in them)

8. eggs- can consider testing yolks and whites separately

9. nightshade veggies- eggplant, peppers, potatoes, tomatoes

10. dairy- milk, butter, yogurt

It is advised to always avoid everything on the phase 1 part 1 list, legumes, and to consider also avoiding gluten grains and dairy.

Alright, so basically because I already didn't eat processed/junk food, sugar, gluten or dairy for the most part, my doctor started me right at phase 1 part 2. For the past 16 days I've been attempting to get creative with chicken, beef, turkey, avocado, cabbage, broccoli, carrots, celery, cauliflower, onion, sweet potato, squash, spinach, kale, apples, bananas, plum, blueberries, oils, spices and coconut milk. It's been a blast... ha ha.

I met with my doctor today and she wants me to keep this up for another 5 days to reach 3 solid weeks. At that point I can start phase 2 with reintroducing different foods. Along with the foods listed I'll be allowed to reintroduce one by one pork, legumes and organic decaf coffee to test those out as well. And instead of 3 days on, 3 days off, she's letting me do 2 days on, 2 days off... so I should have a good amount of food reintroduced by the time Thanksgiving gets here! Wooo! Of course we're hoping I don't negatively react to anything reintroduced because if I do they are to be omitted from my diet forever.

So the positive to all this (or what my mom may think is a negative for me personally)- weight loss! If you want to lose weight, you may want to attempt this diet. I'm definitely not trying to lose weight but I've gone from 120lbs to 115lbs in 13 days. Don't worry mom, I'll probably gain it all right back during the reintroduction phase. Really, if you want to lose weight just cut out sugar, gluten and dairy. Boom, watch those pounds fall right off. And I feel very detoxed.

The negative is how restrictive this is. I don't mean the food itself, but because of the food. It's hard to be away from home because of how strict I need to eat. You can't really find antibiotic/hormone free, organic at restaurants and everything I can eat right now is perishable so it's hard to bring anything with me. Along with that, I've just been a lot more tired, fatigued, weaker and especially dizzier, so it's hard to go out anyways. My doctor said because I've been sick for so long (over 5 years), it might take a really really long time on this diet to see any improvement. So the symptoms are all still there, whereas a healthier person may experience a more positive drastic improvement very quickly. There is no guarantee but there is hope and prayer.

And with the mention of prayer, I'll end on these two things. One, as of tomorrow I will be starting an herbal lyme treatment program for the first time. Positive- no more antibiotics if I can tolerate this! That means more gut healing (antibiotics kill the gut!). Potential negative- I react strongly to low dose everything and since I'll be starting a lot of new things on this protocol that's the potential of a lot of negative reactions. So please pray.

Two, I have an update on my brain mri as well. For those unaware, I had a brain mri about a month ago and it showed a small hemorrhage meaning a bleed- in my brain. Extremely scary to me. My doctor today (neurologist) looked at everything from this and past mris and doesn't believe it is chronic as it was reported because it never showed on previous mris. Sounds like a good thing but it's not. It's bad because it means this is fairly new and thus could potentially get worse fairly quickly. So instead of her initial thought of repeating the mri in 4-6 months, she wants me to go for another one in December, then we'll go from there but definitely continue to follow it. Bleeding in the brain is probably one of the most serious things that can physically happen. And mri's are not at all cheap. So please, pray with me that by a miracle of God, the hemorrhage is gone, just completely gone and that everything in and on my brain looks 100% normal and healthy, that there is no cause for concern, no need for further testing or intervention and that I am healed through the power and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen! 

I've written enough so I'll talk more about other stuff later. Thanks everyone.