Verification

There are some parts of our bodies with a phenomenal amount of elasticity, if you think about it.  Our lungs, bladders and intestines, for example, can all stretch quite a bit in a short amount of time without repercussions.  But uteruses (uteri?) are not one of these organs.

Today was the hysterosalpingogram to make sure my Essure procedure took.  I had been warned that it would be painful before I went, so I took a Celebrex and Sam drove with me to Lebanon.  When we got there, I had to pee, but some diagnostic tests you are allowed to pee and some you are not, so I held it for half an hour until a receptionist was able to find out which it was.

My appointment was for 1:00, but the hospital staff had to get the x-ray room ready, so we didn’t get started until a little past 1:30.  I had to have a speculum so that the doctor could coat my cervix with Betadine and put a catheter in my uterus.  After everything was set up, the nurse called the radiologist to come down so we could start the actual test.

The doctor slowly injected dye into my uterus while the radiologist took photos.  The idea is that, if the Essure procedure worked, my Fallopian tubes would now be blocked with scar tissue and the dye would not be able to flow out from my uterus.  Of course, they have to push in enough dye to be sure, so the uterus swells a little during the test.

I’ve had some really awful menstrual cramps before–once I had to leave school halfway through first block.  Another time I threw up from them.  This was worse than any cramps I have had.  I can think of only two other times when I have experienced pain even close to this.  The tattoo on the top of my foot is one of those.  The other is so personal I will not write about it even in a “tell-all” type of blog like this.

I’ve been pierced 13 times; I have 3 tattoos; I have broken a finger, been bit by a cat and a 2.5′ monitor lizard, and had two surgeries.  I don’t generally think of myself as a wuss.  Today, I totally feel like a wuss.  I told Sam that if sex hurt that much, he would never get laid again.

After the test, the doctor said I looked really pale and asked if I was nauseous.  I told her no, just still very crampy.  I laid on the table for a few more minutes, then got up to use the bathroom.  Apparently, having my uterus filled with dye just sent my GI tract into a “oh, hell no” state.  I ended up having diarrhea and became extremely nauseous.  I have thrown up once in the last 16 years, only because of food poisoning, so for something to make me nauseous, it is extreme.  I managed to keep it down and felt much better once I got off the toilet.

Sam and I left the hospital and stopped at Panera for lunch.  They have a wonderful Mediterranean veggie sandwich that I get toasted and without onions or cheese.  I also had an enormous pecan roll that I felt like I deserved after that grueling experience.  Russty gets his blueberries after his meds, I get a pecan roll.  It’s only fair.

Edit (thanks Katie, I am a ditz today):  The procedure worked!  If it hadn’t, and I’d had to go back in three months for a second test, I would have been very, very sad.  Sam and I no longer have to worry about getting pregnant.  What a weight lifted from my shoulders.

What I Can Eat

With all of those dietary restrictions, it can be overwhelming to try to determine what I can actually eat.  Snacks are the hardest, but apple with organic peanut butter works pretty well.  I was having egg sandwiches for breakfast, until I learned that I’m allergic to eggs.  I had oatmeal for a while, but got sick of it.  Granola is pretty good, but most of it is made with cane sugar, so I have to read the ingredients.  Right now I like Barbara’s Cinnamon Puffins with Rice Dream rice milk.  Rice milk is very sweet, even without sugar.  Tasty stuff!

Instead of wheat, I can have buckwheat, amaranth, quinoa, chick-pea flour,and rice flour.  It’s virtually impossible to find items made with these substitutes.  Lucky for me, I know how to cook!

Red meat has been very easy for me to give up.  I’ve never really craved meat, and I do just fine on occasional chicken, duck, or seafood.  Fish is also so much easier to cook–just wrap it in foil and stick it in the oven.  The duck I get is precooked, and I make a really great soup with it.  Dairy is harder–I really miss it.  I miss ice cream and cheese, especially pizza.  I’ll live though.

Refined sugar, while hard to avoid, is not that hard to give up.  I simply modify my baking recipes.  For instance, I have a great brownie recipe that I make with quinoa flour instead of wheat, maple sugar and maple syrup instead of brown sugar, and goat butter instead of cow butter.  Goat butter does not affect the body as bad as cow butter does.  It does still caused the production of some prostaglandins, but I figure brownies are not supposed to be good for you anyway.  The hardest thing about giving up sugar is chocolate.  Supposedly carob is a good substitute, but I’ve yet to try it.

I have given up caffeine almost completely.  The only time I ever have it is when I have not slept well and then have to drive long distances.  Fortunately, that is very rare.  Whenever I do have caffeine, I get sick, though that might be more from the sugar and dairy.

About soy:  most forms of soy are bad for you, but a few forms are okay in limited amounts.  The difference is in the processing.  According to the book ‘Recipes for the Endometriosis Diet’ by Carolyn Levett, “The soybean did not serve as a food in China until the discovery of fermentation techniques, some time during the Chou Dynasty” and “the Chinese did not eat unfermented soybeans as they did other legumes such as lentils because the soy bean contains large quantities of natural toxins or ‘anti-nutrients’.”  Fermented soy products include miso, tempeh, and tamari, and are ok to use in small quantities.

The modern use of soy came about from an attempt to use the leftovers from soy bean processing, after the oil had been extracted.  “There was so much soy bean residue that extensive multi-million dollar campaigning and advertising was used to promote this new ‘wonder-protein’.

Soy bean by-products are mixed with alkaline solution to remove fiber, acid washed to precipitate and separate the mixture, and washed in an alkaline solution to neutralize the resulting product.  Acid washing is done in aluminum tanks, and aluminum is leached into the soy mixture as a result.

The curds are then spray-dried at high temperatures and extruded at high temperatures and pressures, which denatures proteins in soy (other than textured vegetable protein).  Spray drying produces highly carcinogenic nitrites, and alkaline processing produces toxic lysinoalanine.  After all this, soy is artificially flavored to resemble meat, sometimes using MSG.

Soy is used in many, many products and foods.  Next time you go grocery shopping, just read the ingredients labels quickly to see how much soy you actually consume.  I know for me, it was way more than I ever thought.  One last note:  “After multi-million dollar figures spent on advertising and intense lobbying to the Food and Drug Administration, about 74 percent of US consumers now believe soy products are healthy”.

Since I cannot use vegetable oils (such as soybean oil, corn oil, canola oil, cottonseed oil), I have to look to alternatives for my cooking.  I do a lot of cooking on the stove top, so I tend to go through a lot of oil.  Acceptable oils are safflower, walnut, flax seed, linseed, borage, star flower, olive, and coconut.  I had been using olive oil for just about everything until my naturopath told me it does not do well at high temperatures.  I have since switched to coconut oil.  The important thing is that the oils are natural, unrefined and cold pressed, and not allowed to go rancid.

Coconut oils provide a variety of health benefits, including:  faster metabolism, reduced risk of heart disease, lowered cholesterol, disease prevention, healthy thyroid function, energy boosting, and skin rejuvenation.  They also improve the condition of people with diabetes, chronic fatigue, and certain gastrointestinal disorders.  Coconut oil has gotten bad press in the past, based on flawed studies completed over 4 decades ago, some using hydrogenated coconut oil.  “Hydrogenated oils are oils with trans-fatty acids, which have been altered from their original chemical composition and have been shown to raise cholesterol levels and lead to heart disease and other health problems”.

Coconut oil does contain saturated fats, but the majority of these are medium-chain fatty acids.  These are easily digested and utilized differently by the body than other fats.  Medium-chain fatty acids have even been shown to have anti-microbial properties.

Fiber is important for everyone’s digestion, but for women with endometriosis, it has an added bonus as an estrogen-binder.  Excess estrogen is filtered out by the liver (when it is not overburdened by poisons), and excreted from the body; fiber assists in this by disallowing the re-absorption of estrogen before it can be excreted.  Good sources of fiber include whole foods, unrefined whole-grain cereals, nuts, seeds, berries, pulses, and vegetables such as celery, carrots and potatoes.

While the majority of my diet includes fruits and vegetables, even these aren’t always safe.  They must be peeled, as they potentially could have picked up dioxins from pesticides.  Even organic foods can be exposed to these.  The best option is to buy locally organic.  Some people think that foods with a peel that you don’t normally eat (such as bananas) are safe to buy non-organic.  This couldn’t be further from the truth.  If you took high school biology, you know that plants absorb water mainly through their roots, and this water then travels throughout the plant.  Any chemical that is sprayed on the ground near the plants can get into their water supply after a rain, and the chemicals are then transferred throughout the plant, instead of just being on the outside.

Certain foods can be helpful in eliminating estrogen from the body.  Foods that contain plant sterols are thought to block estrogen receptors.  These foods include peas, beans, pulses, red and purple berries, garlic, apples, parsley, fennel, cabbage, cauliflower, nuts, seeds, celery, carrots, rhubarb and sage.  Elimination of estrogen is important not just for women with endometriosis.  Those suffering from adenomyosis, polycistic ovarian syndrome, and breast cancer can all potentially benefit from less estrogen in the diet.

Noni juice seems to have been a “superfood” fad about 5-10 years ago, but there are health benefits to back up this title.  For starters, noni juice contains 9 essential amino acids (not found in the body), vitamins A, C, E, and the B vitamins, beta carotene, linoleic acid, bromelain, calcium, magnesium and zinc, as well as others.  Bromelain is particularly effective as it is an anti-inflammatory enzyme, and also assists in digestion.  The drawback to noni juice is that it is expensive, and has a very strong taste, so I am not currently taking it.

Green tea is a wonderful antioxidant, but should be consumed in the decaffeinated version.  Natural decaffeination, using spring water and effervescence, is best; otherwise the antioxidants are not preserved.  Green tea is also thought to protect the body from dioxin.  Dioxin plays a huge role for women with endometriosis, so this is particularly important.

Overall, processed salt, caffeine, alcohol, soy, red meat, fried food and artificial additives have been the easiest to avoid.  Sugar is a little harder, as is dairy because I like it so much.  Wheat is the hardest, as it is everywhere.  Usually I don’t worry too much about wheat, since I have never been prone to yeast infections.  Sugar is probably the biggest problematic food for me personally.

‘Recipes for the Endometriosis Diet’ by Carolyn Levett

I better do this now, before I get too tired again.  Last December, I was looking for a way to control my disease.  I was desperate enough to try anything except pregnancy.  I stumbled upon a website (www.endo-resolved.com) which talks about healing through diet.  It makes perfect sense, and the cookbook was only $23.  I figured if it didn’t work, it only cost about as much as a regular cookbook, so I ordered one.  It took a while to get here, because they are printed to order, but it was worth it.

At first, I only made the recipes that sounded yummy to me.  Since I don’t like beans, zucchini, eggplants, and quite a few other things that are common throughout the book, it didn’t take long for me to run out of recipes.  I switched to just going through the book cover to cover.  Using this method, probably about half of the recipes are very tasty, and the rest are either nothing special or I just don’t like them.

In addition to hundreds of recipes, the book has a section to explain what foods to avoid, and why.  The foods are wheat and other gluten grains, red meat, dairy, refined sugar, caffeine, soy, processed salt, fried foods, tinned and frozen packaged foods, and food additives such as artificial colorings, flavors and preservatives.

Wheat is a contributing factor to the overgrowth of Candida yeast (which thankfully I do not have a problem with).  Wheat also “appears to aggravate the symptoms of endometriosis.”  Wheat contains phytic acid, which impairs the absorption of minerals, calcium in particular.  Finally, many women with endometriosis also suffer from celiac disease, so wheat is just not a good option for them.

Our bodies produce chemical messengers called prostaglandins.  There are different types of prostaglandins, and they have different functions.  One in particular, F 2a or series 2 prostaglandins, is responsible for increasing inflammation.  Red meat and dairy contain cortisols, which promote the production of these bad prostaglandins.  It follows that red meat and dairy promote inflammation in the body.  Since endometrial lesions cause inflammation (and this is half of the problem with them), it is a good idea to cut red meat and dairy from the diet if you have endometriosis.

Meat and dairy are also rife with hormones, unless you buy from a hormone-free source.  Most people know about rBGH by now (bovine growth hormone), but another hormone I have recently learned of is rBST.  rBST is given to dairy cows to force them to go into heat.  It stays in their bodies in small amounts, and is excreted in their milk and their feces.  The hormones from feces are then assimilated into the grass that they eat, and each year they are injected again, causing a buildup of the amount of hormone that stays with them, and that’s in their milk.  Since endo is greatly dependent on the balance of hormones in our bodies, eating anything containing hormones is ill advised.

Refined sugar causes a few problems, and not just for women with endo.  It lowers your immune system, upsets your digestive health, feeds Candida yeast, causes hormonal imbalance, and “will increase menstrual cramping as well as aggravate PMT.”  I used to have IBS-like symptoms at least once a week, for years.  I could never pinpoint what caused it, because my diet in high school and college (and after) was just so terrible that it was probably everything.

I would be walking around Walmart, for instance, and suddenly get very very hot.  I came to realize that meant that I had half an hour to get to a bathroom.  I would have watery diarrhea for 20-30 minutes, sometimes longer, and then feel awful for hours afterwards.  Often, I would get sick multiple times that day.  Since going on the endo diet, my IBS has all but disappeared.  If I have too much sugar I will get sick, but at least now I know what causes it and can avoid it.

One important note about refined sugars:  high-fructose corn syrup has been shown to cause more weight gain than regular sugar, and the weight is harder to shed.  Producers of this chemical are trying to change the name to corn sugar, as the dangers of HFCS are becoming more well known.  If you can do one good thing for your health this year, it will be to cut out HFCS/corn sugar completely.

Caffeine increases estrogen in the body, which is the last thing anyone with endo needs.  According to Carolyn Levett, “drinking more than two cups of coffee daily may boost your estrogen levels and could worsen the symptoms of endometriosis, as well as problems with breast pain.”  Caffeine from coffee is also linked to heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, miscarriages and birth defects.  Mentally, coffee contributes to insomnia, anxiety, panic attacks and depression.  Decaf is really no better, as petrol-based solvents are used in the decaffeination process.  Do you really want to drink something related to what runs your car?

Soy is a horrible culprit of many things.  The funny thing about soy is, most people that I have talked to about it will defend it viciously, and they really have no idea what they are defending.  I am not sure if it is because soy is such a convenient alternative for protein and people are just afraid of what they can eat if they can’t eat soy, or if it is something else.  Quite honestly, soy is awful no matter who you are.  Here is the list of bad things soy does from the book.

“1. High levels of phytic acid in soy reduce assimilation of calcium, magnesium, copper, iron and zinc.  Phytic acid in soy is not neutralised by ordinary preparation methods such as soaking, sprouting and long, slow cooking.  High phytate diets have caused growth problems in children.
2. Trypsin inhibitors in soy interfere with protein digestion and may cause pancreatic disorders.  In test animals soy containing trypsin inhibitors caused stunted growth.
3. Soy phytoestrogens disrupt endocrine function and have the potential to cause infertility and to promote breast cancer in adult women.
4. Soy phytoestrogens are potent antithyroid agents that cause hypothyroidism and may cause thyroid cancer.  In infants, consumption of soy formula has been linked to autoimmune thyroid disease.
5. Vitamin B12 analogs in soy are not absorbed and actually increase the body’s requirement for B12.
6. Soy foods increase the body’s requirement for Vitamin D.
7. Fragile proteins are denatured during high temperature processing to make soy protein isolate and textured vegetable protein.
8. Processing of soy protein results in the formation of toxic lysinoalanine and highly carcinogenic nitrosamines.
9. Free glutamic acid or MSG, a potent neurotoxin, is formed during soy food processing and additional amounts are added to many soy foods.
10. Soy foods contain high levels of aluminium [British author] which is toxic to the nervous system and kidneys.
11. The various negative effects of soy weaken the immune system.”

One thing the list leaves out is that aluminum is a poison, and thought to be carcinogenic.  This is another reason that soy is such a problem; it is processed in aluminum vats.

A few more quotes:

“Two isoflavones found in soy, genistein and daidzen…were said to ‘demonstrate toxicity in estrogen sensitive tissues and in the thyroid.”

“When we first questioned the safety of soy, representatives of Protein Technologies told us that they had:

‘Teams of lawyers to crush dissenters, could buy scientists to give evidence, owned television channels and newspapers, could divert medical schools and could even influence governments.'” (from http://www.soyonlineservice.co.nz)

For further reading about soy, check out the book in this post’s title, as well as ‘What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Premenopause’ by Dr. John Lee, and ‘Endometriosis – Healing Through Diet and Nutrition’ by Dian Mills.  Not all soy is bad, and I will get to the differences and the good kinds of soy in my next post.

Processed salt is the common iodized table salt that is bought in bulk.  A much healthier form of salt is sea salt.  Sea salt has natural iodine, so it doesn’t need additives.  It does not go through the same extraction, recrystallization, and iodization that is so necessary for processed salts.  Foods in their natural states are always healthiest.

Fried foods, margarine, and hydrogenated fats are really just not good for anyone.  Processed foods fall into this same category, and additives are awful.  Many additives that are approved by our FDA are illegal for use in other developed countries because of the known perils to our health.  The food coloring red #40 is a prime example.  It has been shown to be a contributing factor to autism in children, and is thought to be carcinogenic.  Most European countries have outlawed it, but our FDA has not.  I don’t know what the big deal is with colorful food anyway–most of the stuff I make is some shade of brown or yellow.  It is tasty and good for me, so whey should I care what color it is?

Next time I will go over the foods that I actually can eat, and the foods that are particularly good for anyone suffering from endo, or with a fragile immune system.

A Day In the Life

Now that I’ve introduced myself, I’d like to go over a typical day for me.  I think it’s important for people to see just how much of my daily life this disease affects.  I’ll get to the more serious parts at a later date.

I usually wake up after at least 10 hours, still very groggy.  I’m not sure if it is the disease taking so much out of me, or adrenal hypofunction right now, but it really sucks to sleep so much of my life away.  I take a shower, and at the end of my shower I have to turn it on cold for hydrotherapy, as per my naturopath.  I can’t stand it on all the way cold, so I just turn the cold up all the way, and turn the hot down as far as I can stand.  It still makes it hard to breathe, and I have to stand in it for 30 seconds.

I feed the cats, feed the dog, and make myself breakfast.  I cannot have wheat, refined sugar, caffeine, red meat, dairy or eggs, so breakfast is a real challenge.  Lately I have found a cereal made with corn called Barbara’s Cinnamon Puffins.  I don’t really like corn, or putting it in my system, but I don’t have many alternatives.  I use Rice Dream rice milk on it, since I can’t have cow’s milk.  The cereal is actually pretty tasty.  I have a container (4 oz.) of Activia yogurt.  This is the only dairy I am allowed, ever, as it has probiotics, so it is thought that the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.  I have a glass of water with my mineral powder mixed in (containing Magnesium, Calcium, Zinc, Phosphorus and D3), and take my morning pills.  The pills include one gelcap of alpha lipoic acid/acetyl l-carnitine, and 4 gelcaps of something called “Ease Pearls”, an herbal mixture to help with the pain, from my naturopath.

I come out to the living room and feed the bunnies, eat my breakfast while browsing on the computer, and check on the snakes.  I spend a lot of time on a forum for women with endo, contributing where I can, and just looking for clues as to how to manage this stupid disease.  At some point I’ll get dressed and take Alee out to pee.

Some days I have errands to run, some days I don’t.  On the days I have errands to run, I generally get hungry and have to break my diet because, quite honestly, there is nothing at a convenience store I am allowed to eat.  I try not to drink anything out of a plastic container, as I don’t know if the container has been in the sun or otherwise exposed to heat, causing dioxins to leach into the liquid.  I drink Nantucket Nectars (apple juice if I can find it, as it’s got no extra sugar), or Snapple.  For food I really have not got much of a choice.  I generally have a Kit Kat or Twix, because at least they are not made with high fructose corn syrup.

Almost every afternoon I am tired.  Some days I take a nap, some days I try to push through it.  On the days I take a nap, it is really hard to get back up even if I have slept for 2-3 hours.  After Sam gets home I start making dinner.  This is where it gets really interesting because of my dietary restrictions.  In addition to everything I listed above, I cannot have soy, alcohol, fried foods, or synthetic preservatives/colorings/flavorings.  I also have to eat organic whenever possible.  I have a recipe book made specifically for women with endo that I purchased online last December.  I am almost done with the book now (averaging 3 recipes per week).  Half of the stuff is not good, but I make everything once because if I only picked what I liked without trying it, I’d only try about 5 recipes.  I recently found out that I’m allergic to bananas, pineapples, asparagus, eggs, and oysters, so that makes my diet even more difficult.

My wonderful husband usually does the dishes for me if I have cooked that night, and we watch a movie.  I feed the cats, dog, and bunnies, and take the dog out to pee.  Right before bed, I have another glass of water with my mineral powder and 1 tsp. of apple cider vinegar.  I was also taking about 2 tbsp. of ground flax seed with it, but I think that was giving me diarrhea, so I’ve stopped taking it.  I take the rest of my pills–vitamin C, another alpha lipoic acid/acetyl l-carnitine gelcap, 4 “Moon Pearls” (which are similar to the Ease Pearls), a Pristiq tablet and a Lybrel tablet.  Lybrel is a form of birth control, and while I have an IUD, I have to take the BC to slow the growth of the endo lesions.

I have to brush my teeth with all-natural toothpaste because regular toothpaste contains horrible chemicals, and the same with all the soaps, shampoo, and cleaning products in the house.  I save money on cleaning products by using mostly vinegar, water, and hydrogen peroxide, but the special soaps I have to buy eat up all of the savings and then some.  I have to make my own mouth wash, floor cleaner, and glass cleaner.  When I do go to bed, it always takes me at least half an hour to fall asleep, usually longer.  After I do finally fall asleep, I get to get up the next day and do it all over again.

I make the best of it, and have made some drastic changes in my life over the past year.  On the plus side, I am eating healthier and have lost 46 lbs.  On the negative, my diet and other aspects of my life have gotten much more expensive.  It is impossible to find coupons for produce, and Shaw’s doesn’t carry much in the way of organic.  I love my local health food store, but they don’t do much in the way of sales.  The supplements I have to take, as prescribed by my naturopath, are not covered by insurance.  There are so many other topics in this post that I would like to cover more in-depth, but I’m afraid I’ll have to do that at another time.  Perhaps tomorrow.