Day Twenty - The Verdict

Today was my dreaded meeting with Dr. P. This time I was ushered into his office with no wait time at all. By the time I left, I wonder if I was the cause of the rest of his day being behind, due to the millions of questions I had. I was completely wrong in my speculations for why I had to go back to the office. Instead of talking about adrenal problems, he pointed out the results of a thyroid test I had forgotten I had even taken. Turns out I'm allergic to myself.

Yep. You heard it here first. Apparently my body got tired of trying to fight the gluten in my body and instead decided to attack my thyroid. Now I personally don't think that's a very mature way to handle my inner body problems. But apparently I am in the minority on this one. I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's disease, which I think is a pretty cool name for the problem I have.

Hashimoto's is an auto-immune disorder that results in a certain part of the body being attacked by the immune system. At least that's what I think it is. By the time I left the office, my head was spinning a bit. I prefer to look at it this way. My body is waging a war on my thyroid. Instead of trying to treat it with medicine, which Dr P says is kind of like chasing a moving target, we're trying to win the war by building up my system with lots of supplements like pine bark and grape seed and green tea capsules.

Probably my favorite part of the visit was him telling me that by following the eating program he put me on, I am already taking a big step towards fighting this. Luckily for me, I have most of the tools in place. The worst part of the visit was him telling me that I will never be allowed to eat gluten again, for the rest of my life.

Have you ever thought about how long "the rest of your life" really can be? I envision birthday parties with my great grandchildren, and them asking why Great Grandma doesn't want any cake. Of course by then, I'll be able to plead senility, but it's the silly things like no cake that scare me a bit. I fully plan on the rest of my life being quite a few years down the line. That is a long time to get used to saying no to cookies, homemade bread, pasta, certain types of sauces, and more.

I know that there are a lot of gluten free items in the stores right now, but I can't eat any of them. I can't have rice, corn, eggs or milk, which are all common ingredients in a GF diet. I really hope that in a few months, some of those allergies have calmed down. I was ok doing this rabbit food diet for three months, but I didn't imagine he'd say forever, at least with the gluten.

Bottom line, though, I echo my sentiments from the first week. I don't have cancer, or any major catastrophe to deal with. I just have to eat really, really healthy. And though I'm sure I'll cry on occasion over my inability to have wheat bread, I'll adjust. Life is too short to spend dwelling on things that are out of my control. Wish me luck moving forward!