December 19, 2008

Dx

So today I found out that I have Hashimoto's Thyroiditis and Celiac Disease.

Hashimoto's is an autoimmune disorder, basically my immune system is attacking my thyroid gland and it can lead to hypothyroidism. With Celiac Disease, my body is damaging my intestinal villi (those little shaggy things in the small intestine that allow nutrients to be absorbed) whenever I eat foods containing gluten and I am becoming malnourished as a result. And according to my bloodwork, the villi must have been pretty dang damaged and inflamed. My ND is pretty sure that in my case, the Hashimoto's is a result of the Celiac Disease.

And, as weird as it sounds, I am so relieved! I have a diagnosis, finally! I've been feeling so exhausted and brain-fogged for so long with doctors doing bloodwork, and a sleep study(which didn't indicate anything), and telling me that I just need to get to bed by x time, or to exercise more for energy and it will go away. All it took was going to a naturopath that does more detailed bloodwork, and it was obviously there as I looked at the bloodwork charts with her. All the things that the doctors normally tested for my thyroid showed that I was completely normal, but she went into it just one more test, and that result was in the 450's when it should have been in the 30's, wow.

Now I can start doing something about it, I'm taking some supplements to help in the process of healing my digestive system and also some really nasty liquid medicine for my thyroid. And now I have to have a gluten-free lifestyle. And I'm finding out that gluten is in pretty much everything! So I have to be really careful about what I eat. Which is going to be hard with Christmas coming up and pie, and cookies, and mmmmmmmmmm. I'll have to find some good gluten-free recipies for baked goods.

December 8, 2008

More garden stuff

The garden is growing, which surprises me because I usually have a black thumb. In the front, on the left is broccoli, on the right are some carrots, right behind those are onions which aren't really visible in this picture. In the back on the left is the lettuce, and on the right are the tomato plants. I don't think we have too much longer until we can eat some of the veggies!

Pretty much every time we are outside doing garden stuff, or watering the grass Sariah picks a honeysuckle flower off of our honeysuckle bush and wants me to put it in her hair. She was saying "put in hair" as I snapped the pic.

Curtis made this cute gingerbread house a couple of days ago, I keep wanting to eat it. Must. Resist.

Sariah was putting on her daddy's church shoes today. So silly! :)