More proof that my supplements are helping…

January 20th, 2008

I am now an even bigger believer in the power of vitamins and supplements when it comes to dealing with chemical sensitivities.

I recently decided to cut back on the vitamins and supplements I was taking. Why, you ask? Well, frankly taking so many vitamins and supplements gets expensive really quickly and I thought if I could just take them 1 or 2 times a day instead of my doctors recommended 3 times a day or just take one instead of two when 2 was recommended then I could make them last longer thus saving money. I was feeling really good so I figured I’d give it a shot.

Well, it went alright for the first week or so but then the last few days I’ve noticed some of my symptoms returning – most notably I’ve started getting those bad dizzy black out spells again. I thought at first that it was from my low blood sugar problems and thought seriously about how I had been eating lately – but really my diet hadn’t changed at all and I almost always eat small meals/snacks every few hours to keep my blood sugar up. Then I thought they were being brought on by some environmental thing, but that didn’t make sense either since I’ve been home for the past few days and there hasn’t been any thing out of the ordinary here at home. Then I realized that the dizzy spells had stopped when I started taking the vitamins and realized that I hadn’t been taking them as often or in as large a dose as I was supposed to. So, it seemed pretty clear to me that not taking my vitamins or even just cutting back on them is not really a good option/idea for me right now…. Guess I should start looking for that second job instead J

Health to you and yours -
Beth

My own personal break through

December 21st, 2007

I had a very exciting thing happen recently…
Last Saturday my family arrived in Prague (parents, siblings, nieces and nephews) for a Christmas visit. It has been very exciting to have them all here and I’m so glad to be able to share my first Christmas in Prague with all of them. But, that wasn’t the really exciting thing…
After they got in we went out to dinner at a Czech restaurant. My husband ordered a bunch of Czech things for everyone to share and I ordered a plain salad. After eating the salad I was still feeling hungry and was smelling all the wonderful  Czech food in front of me and since I knew I didn’t have anything to do the next day and was feeling pretty good I decided to try some of it….well, I ended up trying a few bits of all of it – I had some of the Svitchkova (a meat and gravy dish), some of the peppery potato soup, some of the pigs knee, some of the steak tartare, etc. I knew for sure that it had things in it I shouldn’t have and I expected that I wouldn’t feel great afterwards but I went for it anyway. After getting home I took all my vitamins right away and my probiotics and drank lots of water….and guess what? I felt fine. I went to bed thinking that I would probably wake up feeling not so good…but, in the morning I felt fine, in fact that whole day and the day after it I felt fine! I was so excited! That was the first time in over a year that I had eaten things that I knew I shouldn’t without having any reactions at all!!! It was a monumental day for me. It was really encouraging to know that I must be doing something right and that all these vitamins and minerals I’m taking must be working. J hooray!!

Health to you and yours –
Beth

I’m back :)

December 13th, 2007

So, wow, it’s been a really long time. I have been very disconnected from the site lately and for that I apologize. But, I’m back now and all caught up – I just finished responding to all the emails from the site and reading through all the threads on the forum that I was so behind on. I missed you all and it was good to catch up on the forum a bit and hear how people are doing and what they are learning and experiencing in regard to chemical sensitivities.
So, here’s the update on me…my husband and I spent three weeks in the states around thanksgiving and it was truly a wonderful time to reconnect with friends and family and just be in a familiar place again. I also got a chance to go back to my doctor in the states again and that was also helpful. Like I shared before in my last entry I was having some problems with my libido and I was able to really have a very helpful talk with him about this. After some muscle testing he figured out that it was mostly an emotional issue – mostly due to the fact that I have been really wanting to start having children and my husband isn’t ready and we don’t have the finances to really make that step right now. He put me on a homeopathic remedy that is suppose to help with emotional issues and things like that and then spent a long time praying with me (he’s a believer and a close family friend) – it was really a wonderful experience and I have been feeling SOOO much better in that area.
As for the hives…after discussing it we both agreed that we need to give my body more time on the supplements before really ruling out that they will help with the hives – maybe my body just needs more time to repair itself before the hives really start to go away. I’m willing to wait a bit longer and keep taking everything and see how it goes. We also briefly about the possibility that my hives are non-histamine related, basically that they aren’t a histamine reaction to something but are more of a hormonal/emotional reaction…he basically just said that he has heard that this can happen but has never dealt with a patient where that was the case so he’ll have to do some more research on it. It’s something I also plan to research more. So, the hives are still bothering me and still a confusing concern, but they do seem to be a little better and I’m hopeful that with time we will figure them out as well. All my other symptoms are gone now and I’ve been able to enjoy much more freedom and variety.
I am a little worried about how things will go over Christmas though as all of my family (six adults not counting my husband and I and three children) is coming to Prague to visit us for Christmas – they aren’t all staying with us but we will have my brother and his wife and baby staying with us for part of the three weeks they are all here and I’m sure with everyone here we will be out seeing the sites and eating out more…so, we’ll see how that goes.
Well, I think that’s about it for now.

Health to you and yours –
Beth

An Update on Health and Travel Plans

November 12th, 2007

Alright, so nothing’s really changed since I last wrote. I’m still taking all my vitamins and minerals and neurotransmitters and I’m still feeling really remarkably well over all…but, my hives have been as bad as ever. Oh, actually there has been one other post-“health” problem…I’ve had NO sex drive at all…maybe that’s too personal to be writing on here but it has been a frustrating change in my health and obviously having an effect on my husband and my relationship. It’s been a problem ever since I went off birth control and only seemed to get worse when I started taking the neurotransmitters. So, I’m guessing that my hormones are just out of whack and trying to balance themselves out and that’s why…hopefully once they balance out some things will improve…right? At least that’s my hope. But, sometimes I wonder if something else could be causing it and if I should be doing something to fix it.
In slightly other news (but still related to my health, I guess) my husband and I leave tomorrow morning for the states! We are going to be in AZ for a little while and I will be able to see my doctor there so I’m hopeful that he will maybe be able to help more with the hives and such. I felt so much better after seeing him last time I’m really hoping that the same happens again this time, but we’ll see. After that we are going to spend a few days up in Seattle with my husband’s family for Thanksgiving. It will be good to celebrate the holidays with family and be around friends and familiar things. I am really looking forward to the brake. But, because we will be busy seeing people and visiting I probably won’t be on the forum much and probably won’t write on the blog for a while either (unless my Dr. really makes a big break through and I want to tell you all about it…wishful thinking or hope…not sure which).
Anyway, I hope everyone has a Thanksgiving filled with health, thankfulness, and joy(and for those of you outside of the US, a wonderful last few weeks of November filled with relaxation and health before the holiday rush).

Health to you and yours –
Beth

Latest Update - restored emotional and physical stability, but these darn hives are still running wild

October 27th, 2007

Alright, so last I wrote I was in the midst of the worst PMS I’d ever had and felt terrible. Thankfully that calmed down fairly quickly. The day I wrote the entry I called my doctor in the states and he said to up the dose of one of the vitamins I am taking that is suppose to help calm you down. It’s a supplement to support neurotransmitters and contains Vitamin C, vitamin B6, Folate, vitamin B12, Magnesium, zinc, selenium, and a select amino combination of Taurine, 5-hydroxtyptophan and suntheanine. So, I upped my dose of that and pretty much each day after doing that got a little bit better and calmer. After three days I was feeling normal again and then about four more days after that I started my period and things really started to calm down. I also started taking one more neurotransmitter supplement this week thus starting the phase two of the program that the NeuroScience, Inc. tests had recommended. So, far I’m feeling really good so we’ll see how this phase goes.
As for other reactions like stuffy nose, hives, headaches, dizziness, gas, etc….well, things there have been really good too. I’ve continued to eat the more varied diet that my doctor had recommended – though I did cut back on fruits and really high salicylate things the week before my period and the last few days I’ve been on my period since I was having such bad PMS and since I know that I can be more sensitive during that time. Really, I’ve been surprised with how much better I have felt since starting to take this vitamin regime and since adding in more varied nutritious foods. I didn’t expect to feel better really, or at least not so quickly. But, I really have felt more than 90% better than I did before making these changes. I particularly think that the probiotics have been very helpful as well as the things I’m taking to balance my pH level and the things I’m taking to help support my liver and its ability to process toxins/phenols. But, even with all the massive improvement there has been one symptom that hasn’t gone away…ironically it’s also the symptom that first led me to investigate salicylates and chemical intolerances…HIVES. They aren’t really worse than they were before but they aren’t any better either. At the moment I feel like the improvement I’ve seen in my overall health is worth even not seeing an improvement in the hives and the restored functionality I have had in regards to other symptoms is worth a little itching. I mean before starting this new program and working with this doctor I felt miserable all over AND I had hives…now I feel really good all over and have hives. I definitely prefer the second option to the first so at least for now I don’t think I’m going to change anything I’m doing. But, it is a little frustrating to still have the hives. I’m beginning to think that they are just entirely environmental and I maybe I’ll never be able to control them. I’m still hopeful that the things I am doing to balance my body internally (like taking probiotics, going off birth control, taking these neurotransmitter supplements, etc) will eventually help to get rid of the hives. Maybe my body just needs time before it can start working properly enough to get rid of the hives. I don’t know. I guess we’ll see, right. So, that’s the update on this end. I hope you all are doing well.

Health to you and yours -
Beth

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