Candida Livin'

Candida Livin’

So I’ve been on the Candida diet for six days now (that’s right, I am so desperate to feel better I started Christmas morning with eggs, steamed spinach and a big glass of water!).

I’ve noticed a few things.

First of all, I’m hungry, but not actually body-hungry…head-hungry. I had a dream right before I woke up one morning and I was dreaming about Pip’sDonuts. I could actually taste the Nutella and Sea salt on my lips. I almost started crying last night as I watched a commercial about chocolate chip cookies because I knew I couldn’t eat one. Lol! It seems humorous now, but it was very real in the moment.

I’m not sure how much my cravings have to do with my condition or how much of it is just a “me” thing. I’ve always been a girl who LOVES food…and I’m not picky either. I can eat mac and cheese cold out of the fridge after it was cooked two nights ago, or dine on a tasty wine with fresh grilled veggies and a prime-cut steak.

I have started feeding my children differently too, or at least with more focus. I’ve always been pretty strict about sugar, juices or any “unnecessary” extras in their diet. But I do allow treats and I try to make sure they’re just that…a treat. However I realized I started doing silly things, like putting agave on their buttered toast EVERY morning, hot cocoa has been a regular for the last couple weeks and I’ve allowed cookies after lunch every day for a week or so as well. Part of this could simply be the holidays, or it could be me craving sugar more and more and feeling like it would be comforting for my kids to eat too.

I did the “spit” test in a glass of room-temp water. I had my husband do it the next day with me, just to see if there really was a difference and mine definitely looked different than his!

My body hurts, joints ache, I often have a lot of uncomfortable gas-pains and trips to the toilet are not pleasant. I have experienced cold sweats, hot-flashes, aches and overall “ick” feeling. But I’m determined and if I didn’t feel like I might feel better after this part is over, I wouldn’t have the strength to go on.

The ONLY perk about all of this is that I’m finding foods I love, and I’ve lost almost ten pounds in a week. My body is definitely freaking out as I restrict any sugar, carbs, fruits and some veggies. Detoxing (truly detoxing-and not one of those “I drank a bunch of salt water and sat on the toilet for two days and feel SO much better thanks to my new skinny-jeans!”) is hard! Especially with two little kids running around demanding a lot of your time and attention.

My home-made tomato soup ready to freeze.

I’m pressing on! Finding things to look forward to other than my next meal. And I couldn’t be more thankful for my husband who is very understanding as our refrigerator is taken over by fresh-pureed tomato soup, and very little of what he would prefer to be eating.

One day at a time…

Can you Candida?

Can you Candida?

My brain is clicking and my fingers have been itching to get this all out, so I’m choosing this avenue.

Truth is, I’ve been sick…sick for a long time. For the past ten months I’ve been struggling with nausea on and off. It’s debilitating. I never know when it will strike. I never know if I will wake up and if it will be a “good” day or a “bad” day due to how I’m feeling.

My symptoms are mostly intestinal. I’ve had an endoscopy, colonoscopy, gone on meds, gone off meds, taken Zofran, worn sea-bands, tried essential oils, and am currently working with a Gastroenterologist and a Naturopath Physician.

During the visit to the Naturopath, he discovered my heart most likely has a valve that isn’t closing all the way and causing my heart to beat “musically” (as he put it). Not that I mind feeling musical from the inside out, but this has NOTHING to do with my nausea or GI symptoms, so I get the joy of adding this to my “basket” of physical ailments.

The Naturopath also asked me to fill out a questionnaire that was titled “It May be a Yeast Problem”. The high score for women is 180 and over, my score was 352.

I now may have self-diagnosed that I’m possibly struggling with a yeast-overgrowth and might be battling Candida.

My family and I are exhausted. We need me to be running at full-capacity if possible. I’m so tired of being tired. I’m so tired of not knowing what is going on with my body. I’m putting this out there so others might join me, give advice, pray for me, and maybe I will touch someone’s life who is also struggling with unknown health issues.

So pray with me as we continue to pour our hope, finances and time into searching for some definitive results.

Thanks for your time!   

We're Here

We're Here

An Annual Update

I figured it was time for my annual post. In this moment I have a 2.5 year old pulling on my leg saying, "Mommy, can you pick-me-up-me???" 

It's life.

Some exciting things have happened, my husband started working a job that actually uses his degree...it's pretty amazing. Not because I doubted at any point whether or not this would happen, but because he's one of the few people who graduated from college and is actually using his degree (ahem, myself included).

And, we made the decision to home-school our older child, Kai, for pre-school this year. It blows my mind that we're at that point already, but so far it's been awesome.
We're using Sonlight Curriculum, for those of you who are interested. It's going to work well because I have a kid who can be a mellow-guy, and two kids who love books. And this kid, LOVES books! 

Because of my husband's (relatively new) job, everything this summer has been spontaneous. We only know his schedule six weeks in advance and even then it can change. But it's been a really wonderful summer. 
We have gone camping-once. (In the past we've tried it with our very young children and I think we got pretty scared at the idea of being trapped in the rain, inside a tent, with two crying, dirty kids...again.).  
We do our best to really enjoy Portland, we visit local parks, splash pads, museums (Child-friendly for now...I'm not sure the Art Museum would appreciate a loud "Mom! I have to go poop-poop" in the middle of a gallery). 
Even though the planner side of me wasn't very satisfied this summer, it has felt nice to relax and "see what happens" for one of the first times in my life. 

I'm slowly learning these lessons of striving for balance, even now that I'm in my thirties I'm still experiencing something new. It's nice to know that will never end. Some lessons are sad, some lessons are happy, and all of them hold some element of surprise.