Health issues
It sucks to be in your mid-30’s and to feel like your body is falling apart or failing you. In some ways, my body is better than every. You know, in those culturally sanctioned ways. I weight a lot less than I did when I first was pregnant with Chico Habib. I am in better shape in terms of blood pressure, heart rate, and blood sugar. However, I have some other health issues that make me feel like crap, such as:
- hypothyroid
- insulin resistance (which doesn’t seem as bad as it used to be, but is still there)
- estrogen dominance
- adrenal fatigue
- possible food allergies
- possibly Candida growth in my intestines
- stomach aches
Some of these issues I am not sure about as the saliva test hasn’t come back yet (I was supposed to do it about 2 months ago but we were on a plane to Puerto Rico to say goodbye to my father-in-law). I have an appointment on April 12 and I will find out more about my adrenal and sex hormone levels. I’m already on thyroid medicine, but the doctor tells me that if your adrenals are not working well, the thyroid medicine will not be as effective. I was tested for food allergies, but the results were apparently way off. I showed absolutely no reaction to almost every food. I did show some IgG reactions to coffee beans, cranberry, red grapes, oysters, and sesame seeds. But the fact that I showed no reaction at all apparently means my immune system is totally out of whack.
I alternate between energetic and exhausted. Sometimes it might be the food I eat, but sometimes I just think of food first. I used to do that when I was eating fewer carbohydrates due to the insulin resistance. If I ate something and felt sluggish, I figured it was too many carbohydrates. Sometimes that is the case, but sometimes there is no obvious reason for the exhaustion. Or no obvious reason other than being a stay-at-home-mom/cook/personal shopper/maid/really bad accountant/chicken keeper. I have no doubt that attachment parenting and unschooling, especially without an adequate support network, is part of the problem. And yet I felt this way in Phoenix, too, and I had a kick-ass support network out there. Part of it is just from being a mom. It’s hard, no matter if you stay-at-home, work-at-home, work outside the home. If you are doing the parenting gig right, no matter what your choices, it should be hard. Right? It should be rewarding, too, but some days it’s just freaking hard to get out of bed and take care of children all day long (and sometimes all night long).
Anyway, I have some other thoughts about how my body got to be this way. I’ve been reading a lot of stuff about adrenal glands, healing the gut, sugar, insulin, serotonin, and how they are all related. If I work up the energy, I might write another post with some links. I can’t promise anything, though. If anyone reading this is really interested, you can leave a comment and I’ll e-mail you some links.
