It has been a hot minute since I have wrote a blog post and updated you on my health journey. It has been quite interesting. Brief overview, my crazy lymph node that was giving me grief has actually fully healed! I still have the crackling in my ears when I sallow but this has been pretty normal for me for about 5 or so years.
In December we started tracking my ovulation to really start trying to conceive, it will be 3 years in June that we have not used any prevention methods. In January, when things didn’t happen, I was determined to get checked out, just in case things were against us. I had my initial meeting with an OB/Gyno and she seemed very optimistic for our situation, even given the time. I was to get a few tests: Pap, ultra sound, blood test, and HSG. The first two were done in January and the other two after my cycle had started, and it was extra long wait this month too. I can go into more detail on another blog if there are questions, but it was pretty standard and uncomfortable.
A few days after my HSG I noticed my stomach had some spots on it, and honestly the more I thought about it the more I think it had showed up before the HSG procedure. I have had this before and knew what was coming, hives. Two days after I fully noticed and started to get more aware of them, I got full blown hives. I have had them a few other times before, funny enough around the same time of year right before my husband proposed five years ago(nerves) and around the same time of year last year which was right after my grandpa past away and I had the flu(stress induced I am sure of it). The first round had gone away on it’s own pretty quickly from what I can remember, the second round I went to the doctor and was given steroids and the next day they were gone, this time I wanted to go all natural-or as natural as I could go. So I waited and waited. I kept an eye on them and really got a feel for the time of day they would flare and disappear and what caused them to really get bad. I started taking Benadryl at night and sometimes even during the day to see if that would help. Being that they came and went on their own throughout the day it was very hard to pinpoint if this helped or not. One day I tried an Aloe Vera plant on them and it relieved the itchiness and felt so great, I was hopeful that things would clear up on their own after this.
Some things I should note, I had started to get a cut/sore on the corner of my mouth, my bloating had been worse than ever, and I had some weird things going on with my toe nails that could have been happening for months without really thinking anything of it. In January I also had the flu, and February 1st I started eating plant based fully embracing all the yummy foods without the animal products in them—yes I am taking a good prenatal vitamin, fish free DHA, and B12 supplements.
After a few weeks I decided to get to my Naturopath and get a food allergy and/or gut health test done. Since it was ridiculously expensive I opted for the delayed food allergy test that I had been wanting to get for months now anyway. I was shipped a blood kit and set an appointment for a lab in town on a Wednesday to draw my blood and ship it back to the home lab. I went to my appointment and was taken aback when they said they didn’t do that brand of testing there, weird my doctor had suggested them. I was determined to get it done that day, since the freezer pack was frozen and with me in the car. Right down the road I found the second option my doctor had suggested, way better than the first in that the feel was less doctor vibes and more med spa vibe and super friendly. They did my blood draw and shipped it that day. I was relieved I would finally get some answers!
I figured it would be a few weeks to get the results back, but to my excitement Monday afternoon my doctor texted me that the results were in. I had not gotten the email yet so she forwarded the email with the results to me. Completely blown away by what they said! The results show a number of IgG antibodies for each food, the higher the number the greater the sensitivity/response/allergy would be. Zero to forty was negative or no response, forty-one – eighty was a class 1 low response, eighty-one – one hundred fifty was a class 2 mild response, one hundred fifty-one – five hundred was a class 3 moderate response, five hundred and one – nine hundred was a class 4 high response, and above nine hundred was a class 5 severe response.
I had three foods that came back above the forty number. A class 2 mild response to pinto beans, weird right? A class 3 moderate response to egg yolk and egg whites, not too weird but I had never noticed anything that I would think they were the cause of anything bad for me(also had stopped eating foods with animal products Feb 1 this year so I didn’t think it was eggs for this issue-I will do another blog post about the plant based eating). And a class 5+ severe response to sunflower seeds! Like what?! I have not ate a sunflower seed in months that I am aware!
Funny enough though there had been many things that I had increased that turned out to have sunflower seeds in it. The first thing I noticed when I was walking through Wal-Mart for groceries was the Dave’s Killer Bread we have sitting at home, sunflower seeds are in it. No big deal I can find other bread without these. I bought a few things and went home, next thing I noticed was the fish free DHA supplements I had just bought and taken since I had been out for a few days, sunflower seed oil. This totally threw me for a loop and things finally started clicking! I had started taking this algae form of DHA since mid February, if you look back I started getting the hives towards the end of February. Mind blown. There were several other things that really shocked me, like the sunflower seed oil in the tortilla chips and I am sure the sweet potato chips that I freakin love, sunflower seed oil in the Burt’s Bees chap stick I have in my car and had been applying regularly since I started getting that cracked corner lip, and even in the deodorant I apply DAILY, sunflower seed oil.
So crazy and completely unaware what I have been doing to my body with consuming and applying these items. Over the last three days, I have become more aware of this and of all the products I will need to avoid, I have noticed my hives had significantly decreased, only really a couple spots this week and still a bunch of dots on the tummy where it originated(I figure that will be the last part to clear up though).
I am loving that I have learned so much from this experience though. And completely grateful that these three foods are the only things I need to worry about, for now, to make sure I am my healthiest. I am ready to fully know myself and my body to really heal naturally and be my best self. If you are dealing with any fatigue, bloating, headaches, hives, or unknown reasons for illnesses…the best thing to do is get a test done of some sort to truly KNOW what is causing the issues. Guessing is frustrating. Knowledge is power.
PS we are still on the waiting bus for the whole TTC journey, I will be doing more blogs about this as we go and hopefully soon there will be about growing a baby in my belly. 😊 Thank you for following my journey and please consider coming over to my IG or FB pages where I share my daily life.
Much Love,
Ashley