I have spent most of the last decade of my life thinking I was too young to feel so bad. Shortly after The Tornado was born, I invested time in attempting to get medical answers when the pain was so bad that I could barely climb the stairs in our two story house. Encouragement to go to physical therapy and a diagnosis of a small amount of arthritis in my spine were all I came away with. You have a baby and two very young children, your body will heal the orthopedist reasoned. Arthritis in my spine at age 30? How does that happen? Eventually, the pain in my hips subsided a little and I learned to live with the rest. My children passed the age of being carried on my hip, yet the pain did not go away. I have attempted not to dwell on the nagging question always lurking in the back of my mind of if I feel this bad in my thirties, what will I feel like in my 50s or 80s?
The decision to embark upon our major elimination diet was solely for the sake of my two children who have struggled with food sensitivities since they were born. Eating ultra healthy would be a benefit for the rest of the family as well. If I dropped those few pounds that were causing the clothes to fit a little tight, it would be a nice reward for the effort involved on my part. Within a week, I started to see much greater benefit than dropping a few pounds. Chronic issues such as major sinus congestion were disappearing. The itchy ears were itchy no longer. But, the greatest improvement was yet to come.
Around the three week mark, I got out of bed one morning and realized that my body didn't hurt the way I was used to. The pain in my hips that had once kept me from climbing the stairs had vanished. The spot of arthritis had disappeared. Maybe I was just having a good day because this was too strange to consider to be a result of our diet. However, over the course of the next few weeks, my body felt better than I have felt in a decade. I had so much more energy and came to realize just how much chronic pain I had been in, but had learned to ignore. I had no idea how much of my energy was going towards just surviving the day. No wonder I felt tired all of the time!
This past week we began to experiment with adding gluten back in beyond a few spelt trials. This past week, the muscles in my back felt like they were on fire, yet it didn't register that it could be related to the food. By Thursday, with only a few minor exposures to wheat, my sinus congestion was getting much worse. I chalked it up to allergies. Afraid that I was getting a little too paranoid about what I was eating, I threw caution to the wind and ate a honey wheat hamburger bun at my niece's birthday party. It was the only thing that I ate that was different. I brought our own condiments and chips to the party.
Within 30 minutes of eating the hamburger bun, every bit of pain was back in full force. My entire back radiated with burning muscle pain. My hip pain was terrible and severe to the point that I was struggling to walk. It was awful and I never want to feel like that again. I am still in shock that one little hamburger bun could make me feel that bad. A few hours later, the pain had subsided somewhat and by Monday it was almost completely gone.
James 1:2 says to consider it joy when experiencing various trials. As I have journeyed through the past decade of being the obnoxious mom that won't let my kids eat the foods all their friends are, it has been difficult to keep the joy. Especially when the allergist and pediatricians left me feeling as though I am over top and because my kids don't have hives or come up positive on their tests, I must be exaggerating their symptoms. Today I have great joy in a future with specific and big diet changes. When we began our elimination diet I prayed that the problem foods would be obvious, but I didn't realize that the prayer would be answered for me. I thought this was all for my kids!
The power of prayer indeed. So odd when you finally get it answered. And are listening.
Posted by: Carolyn | 04/19/2011 at 11:51 AM
thank you for posting this....our son has food sensitivities and a kidney condition. since eliminating problem foods he has not had to have steroids for his kidneys. i hope we are on to something with food here. we are trying to keep eliminating for the rest of the family too. hard for snacks, etc as 'real' food takes much longer to prepare and eat but we are working on it! keep posting, we appreciate it.
Posted by: HOLLY HEERES | 04/28/2011 at 02:02 PM
Holly, I hope your son continues to improve! My son has made it an entire year free of any steroids for his lungs which is record setting!! You are so right that real food takes more effort but the benefits for our family make it worth the trade offs.
Posted by: SaM | 05/03/2011 at 09:39 AM
Hello! This is a fairly dated post, so I hope you see this and can answer my question. My children have shown signs of potential food sensitivities, but all the blood tests came back negative. Thankfully their doctor is very diet conscious and said that just b/c the tests are negative, doesn't mean they can't still have issues with it. They are 4 and 2 (with a 4 1/2 month baby not yet on solids). What kind of symptoms did you notice in your kids? How did they improve with the new diet? I did dairy free when I was nursing my two year old and felt soooo much better, but it's so hard with all the stuff out there that contains it. We are no where near being self sufficient, it's a lifestyle that we're just starting to work on so I hope sometime in the relatively near future our diet with be more fruits and veggies than grains and meat... it'll be an uphill battle the whole way though (both DH and the kids).
Oh, and I am 27 years old and suffer from many of the things you mentioned. During my last pregnancy I was almost laid up entirely for half of it b/c my back and hips hurt so bad! It started in college and has continued to get worse as I get older. I would love to find a "cure" so that we could potentially have more children!!
Posted by: Renee | 08/27/2011 at 08:43 PM