Finally!

After about 24 hours of traveling, a very tired Facu and I just got back to Buenos Aires.  I will upload the photos and add a post about all the stuff we did and places we saw when I can find the cord to my camera/get the internet to work, so sorry about the delay.  But I do have some updates from the doctor!

I don’t know if I ever told you, although I’m sure I did multiple times knowing myself, but I’ve been having a lot of medical problems since I was a sophomore in college.  It started when I found out I was anemic even though my iron levels are normal and then just grew gradually from there.  Nothing ever big enough to suggest something needs immediate attention, but enough to make me aware something was not right.  I started noticing when I was suddenly exhausted all the time - even just walking one flight up the stairs.  And of course people would say “oh you’re just stressed” or “maybe you have mono” which I went and got tested for because I was so tired, but it was negative and I wasn’t getting any better after taking cold medicine.  Then other things started to happen like my short-term memory would be off and I couldn’t focus on tasks as well as before and then I was having a really hard time getting out of bed after 8 hours of sleep.  And I have always been a morning person because I like the quiet and taking my time eating, getting ready, reading, etc. so this was really annoying because I didn’t want to get out of bed.  I thought maybe I wasn’t getting enough sleep so I upped my count to 10 hours.  But nothing changed.  And then I started getting acne that was worse than any I had ever had during adolescence which confused me quite a bit since I thought I had grown out of it.

And since the changes were so small and gradual nobody else really noticed a difference in me or my habits but me.  And it was weird because I never really felt bad, but I never felt good either.  So I became sleep obsessed.  I mean, I went to bed at 11PM during the week and on weekends I would plan on going out in Memphis but would frequently find myself opting to stay home and relax because I was “tired” and “needed to catch up on sleep.”  

And then I noticed a huge difference in my food digestion that prompted me to try the celiac diet.  So I kicked gluten out but I didn’t notice a difference in how I felt so I nixed that after a few months.  And then I had some blood work done; which is where I discovered that my anemia had nothing to do with iron but we weren’t sure why.  And things remained the same for about a year or so until after graduation I would get terrible headaches sporadically every few months (enough so to get my eyes checked in case they were the problem) and then my joints began aching too if I sat still for too long.  And I can’t tell you how incredibly frustrating this all was, not knowing what’s wrong or if there is even something wrong at all.  People would tell me they thought I was a hypochondriac and was fine and it was all in my head (which, of course at this point, I’m sure you know that was really encouraging to hear).  

I became insanely stressed because I didn’t know what was wrong, and maybe people were right and it was just in my head.  I was getting angry and worked up over nothing, I went from crying once a year to crying to every other day.  And over stupid things too.  Wow, I’m crying because I missed my exit on the highway?  What is wrong with me?  And I know people change, which I clearly have over the past few years just because of life, but I became really cynical about everything.  I still appreciated life with it’s challenges, but I just noticed a negativity I’ve never seen in myself before.  I could find something wrong with everything.  

And there were good days and bad days too.  Most of the time though, I couldn’t sleep through the night without waking up every hour.  And then I would wake up feeling hung-over even though I didn’t drink the day before.  And poor Facu and my mom have had to put up with me the most since I’m living down in Argentina and they're the ones I vent to when I can. So, when I was home this past month we took a day away from our vacation to go to the doctor to figure out what the heck was wrong. 

Two arms and a leg later I found out I am allergic to...pretty much everything.  The main thing is gluten, which wasn’t much of a surprise, but the setback is that I’m also allergic to cow milk – which immediately kills most cheeses, yogurt, ice cream, milk, etc.  And then there's eggs (the yolks and the whites), cherries, almonds, black pepper, garlic (really God?), avocado, apricot, pineapple, green beans, mushrooms, kidney beans (Actually, I think I’m okay with this one), chili powder, mustard, and the list goes on.  Oh and don't forget brewer’s yeast! So that means no beer, even the gluten free ones.  But I guess the dairy, eggs, and garlic probably explains why I didn’t see much improvement with the celiac diet.  I was substituting yogurt and eggs for breakfast cereal, and I wad definitely drinking gluten free beer and putting garlic in everything when I cooked – all of which are things I’m allergic to.  Awesome.  And I guess it's really hard for your body to function properly without absorbing any nutrients for years (which I know my mom will claim is the reason I'm so short).

On the bright side, coffee and chocolate are safe along with meat and seafood, and I apparently need to eat MORE salt so I won’t complain about that.  I can’t tell you what a relief it is just to know.  I mean, I definitely cried when I saw the list and found out that mushrooms and garlic were a no go too, but still it’s much better to know and be able to solve everything then be left wondering if you’re crazy or if you have something more serious.  

And there’s also a possibility that after 2 or 3 years I can start gradually introducing certain things back into my diet.  But we’ll see, I’ve only been on the new diet for 2 days so I’m still trying to figure out what I CAN eat so that I can start feeling better.  So if you know of any cheeses besides goat’s cheese that don’t have cow milk let me know!  Also I’m still a bit confused about alcohol because I thought brewer’s yeast was only in beer, but I’ve read it might be in wine too (which would be really sad), but I really don’t know so help would be great.

Bridget