Reality Check // Week 20

Kimberly Schoenauer
May 20, 2016
2 min read

So on Wednesday, I was talking a little about our switch to gluten and casein free foods. This was all started by some health problems G was having, specifically with her digestive system. Lower abdominal cramping, then gall bladder spasming, and then finally a ridiculously painful bout of heartburn, all from out of no where. It's a cycle that continues to creep up, come to full blow, and then calm again.

I've said many times since the start of this that I feel so disappointed in our health care system. We have so many amazing doctors supposedly in our metropolitan area, have no complaints about insurance (federal is THE BEST), and tons of options with alternative therapies. But, no matter how many times we were in the ER, or how many specialists that have been seen, no one can say what is wrong. No one knows. The best we have so far is a holistic practitioner telling us that she is gluten and casein intolerant and that we need to eliminate those foods and heal her gut.

Sounds good to me. I get it. I've been wanting to "diagnose" leaky gut all along from the beginning, but I'm not a professional, don't know how best to heal it, and honestly some of the symptoms she's had that have been so severe it just didn't seem possible that that was IT.

The long and short of it is that we are eliminating foods that cause her distress and keeping a food (and symptom) diary. She is taking supplements that "clear out the weeds" - kill the bad gut bacteria in a progression called die off, and boost the colonization of the good bacteria already there. Basically, that's it. 6 months of that.

Easier said than done when you love pizza and costco cake. #icry

Not that we were completely binging on gluten and dairy products all the time prior to this change... we follow a semi-paleo-like diet and I limit my own dairy intake because it causes eczema for me - to report: now that I am 100% off, my flare ups are all but extinct! So the change is not that big of a deal in the 3-meals-a-day department. It's more in the snacks and sweets department. Here are a few things we've been trying that's making the transition a little easier for us. Almond milk yogurt / Vanilla chia pudding / Coconut bliss ice cream / Coconut milk yogurt / The KayShake