I realized it’s been a while since my last update. I haven’t blogged about my last couple appointments. My endocrinologist sent me to have an allergy test done over the summer to see if there’s something that we’re missing. My symptoms are not improving, and new ones keep showing up. He said there might be an allergy that is working against the medication. I went to an allergist and had a scratch test done. The test showed that I have zero food allergies. I was relieved until the allergist suggested I have intolerance/sensitivity test done. After speaking to my endocrinologist’s office, this became my new plan (in addition to restarting AIP). The intolerance test was easy. I sent a hair sample into a place called Check My Body Health and got the results in about a month. While waiting for my results, I restarted the autoimmune protocol (AIP). The best and worst part about AIP is that everything must be made pretty much from scratch. No more quick and easy meals. No more eating out. One of the main factors in AIP is coconut everything (oil, flour, butter, milk, aminos…). Other parts of the protocol include fruits, veggies and organic meats. That’s basically it. Everything was going fine. I went back to work and followed the protocol as closely as possible. Then, my test results came back.
I learned a lot from those 52 pages! I had the platinum testing done which tested for sensitivities and other stuff like vitamin deficiencies, digestive and gut health, the works. The results are divided into sections by the type of item tested. Each section had an overview page which made the results easy to follow. I quickly scrolled to the food portion and started reading. The foods are listed according to the type of reactivity level. A highly reactive food is listed in red; a moderately reactive food is listed in yellow and foods with no reaction are listed in green. The highly reactive foods are identified as those which may be causing or contributing to physical symptoms. There were a lot of foods on this list that I didn’t even recognize. But the ones that I did recognize were doozies! Gluten-containing grains and cereals, ALL dairy products (cheese, milk, butter), prawns, shrimp, cashews, mushrooms, lentils and COCONUT EVERYTHING! AIP is hard enough to follow with coconut, doing it without is going to be tricky. The moderately reactivity foods are identified as those which may have the potential to cause or contribute to physical symptoms. This list wasn’t as traumatizing as the highly reactive list. The only foods that stood out to me on this list were apples (all types), beef and vodka (not that I’m a big drinker, but this is one of the items I recognized lol). All other foods showed no reaction. What does this mean moving forward? Luckily, not too much. I will continue with AIP and just replace coconut with other AIP items. I will eat chicken instead of beef. If I didn’t have Hashimoto’s, I would have never even bothered with this test. These are intolerances, not allergies. I’m not going to die if I eat foods off the red list, but I may have inflammation, joint pain, brain fog and a list of other unfavorable outcomes. Does this mean I will never eat cereal again? Ummm, no. If I am addicted to one thing, it’s cereal! I won’t be eating it anytime soon, but eventually I will have a bowl or two 😊
I went back to my endocrinologist last week. He said my blood work looked good and was happy with my levels. He did not need to adjust my medication. I think this was the first time that had happened! He said the AIP appeared to be working and looked over my intolerance test results. He recommended having another intolerance test in about six months and then once a year after that. He said that intolerances will change over time. He asked how I was managing stress. How does anyone manage stress? Is it even possible? I skimmed over that question and told him about an irregular period. He looked stunned, shook his head and said I was a wild card. I have never had irregular periods before. I don’t remember missing any and sure as hell don’t remember having any bonus ones. Ever. I asked if this could be the beginning of premenopausal symptoms and he said he didn’t think so. Whew! We both agreed that I am too young for that to be happening yet. He did remind me that I will go through menopause earlier than normal (another perk of Hashimotos). He wants to see me in three months and ordered some hormone testing with my next round of blood work. I will see him for the results just before Thanksgiving.