Dear Diary, We Need to Talk – 20.1

Dear Diary, I need to vent. Well, actually, I think I really need a nap, then a long getaway. And while I’m away, can the “helper fairy” please make a visit and get me all caught up? Yes? Thanks! You’re the best!

Now if only it truly worked that way. Lol! But, hey. A girl can dream! (You know you’d ask the same thing if you knew it would really happen. Wouldn’t we all?!) But, alas, those are the things dreams are made of after all.

Why?

The past few months have been rough, to say the least. It seems my body took one physical hit after another. And it all started with a single gummy bear. (Darn the gummy bears! Lol!) Which, by the way, they’re now forever banned from my diet. Fruit snacks. Now those are awesome, and safe, little treats!

So, my dear diary, it all started on Halloween 2019 with my consumption of one innocent, tiny, little gummy bear.

You see, instead of buying bags of random mixes of candy, we bought each of the gkids a bag of their favorite candy. Yep! They each received a bag for themselves of their favorite sweet treat candy. There were a bag of Ring Pops & suckers handed out, as well as a bag of Sour Patch Kids candy, a bag of Haribo Gummy Bears, and big box of Skittles & Tootstie Rolls candies. The kids were thrilled!

I, of course, had to sample each of their treats. Lol! Well, I skipped the ring pops and suckers, but all the others were fair game. So, I made my rounds. Mwahahahaha!!!

First, I snagged a Sour Patch Kid candy. (Yum!) Then came a gummy bear. As soon as I started chewing, my hubby spoke up. His words, and I quote, “I can’t believe you just put that in your mouth.” The rest went something like this…. Me: “What???” Hubby: “Do you know what you just ate?” Me: “Duh. A gummy bear.” Him: ***Just stares at me*** Me: “What?” Him: “Uh. Allergies?” Me: “Oh.” *Stares at the bag of gummy bears…. (Lightbulb!) “Ohhhhh…..”

Too late, I realized that gummy bear was already mostly chewed and swallowed. Sigh. So…. I read the ingredients, about 5 minutes later than I should have. Darn it. Let me tell you, the very first ingredient listed in Haribo Gummy Bears is “Glucuse syrup (from wheat or corn)”. Yep. Those gummy bears had a 50% chance of being made of gluten. And, as a person with Celiac, gluten is one of my kryptonites. Gahhhh….. (Please, God, no!)

“A journey, I reflected, is of no merit unless it has tested you.” ― Tahir Shah, In Search of King Solomon’s Mines

There was nothing to do but wait and see. Sadly, within days my stomach became extremely bloated, I lost my appetite, and nausea ensued. Not only that, but my Celiac rash flared worse than it’s ever been, and roaring pain hit all my joints. What ensued was the absolute worst gluten exposure I have ever experienced since going gluten free in 2011.

My classic gluten exposure symptoms usually include the skin rash flaring to varying degrees, and occasionally the joint pain will join in. Very rarely, maybe like three or four times total, I’ve also had the classic GI symptoms associated with Celiac disease. But, thankfully, the GI symptoms rarely occur. And when they do, they’re very mild. Even then they’re completely gone within three to four days. (Thank you, Jesus!)

So, as November commenced, I found myself living on ginger ale and chicken broth. After a couple of weeks of trial and error, I graduated to soups. Another couple of weeks later and I was finally eating real meals, although in smaller portions. Thanksgiving was dicey, but luckily I was eating normally by Christmas. Although I remained stuck drinking the ginger ale since plain water was still too harsh on my stomach.

Then, dear diary, I thought I could do gymnastics.

Ok. Maybe not actually gymnastics. Lol! I simply laid across my bed to relax for a bit. I was having a really good day, and decided to rest a bit before tackling my next project. While laying there, I thought of something and suddenly decided to jump up and get it done before my project. Although, “jumping” isn’t actually what happened at all.

I went from laying on my back, to rolling over to my hands and knees; then I was going to back off the bed from that position. Only somewhere mid-roll, I felt something and knew instantly I moved wrong somehow. After stretching, resting, praying, and a chiropractor trip, I found out I pulled a minor glute muscle and an outer quad muscle.

So, now I had issues walking and shifting my left leg when sitting. And pain, lots of pain and stiffness. Therefore, I slowly added ibuprofen until I was taking the over-the-counter daily limit every day. Plus, I was having to use a heating pad every morning and evening to relieve the stiffness in the pulled muscles. On the bright side, every week that passed brought marked improvement. (Yay! Thank you, Jesus!)

Wait, diary. Don’t get excited yet!

All this time I was still dependent on ginger ale since my GI tract was apparently still healing. Then the unexpected happened. I developed a bad urinary tract infection (UTI). This rarely happens for me. But, when it does, I am usually successful with home remedies. Therefore, I began consuming cranberry juice, extra Vitamin C, and D-mannose. They helped but, unfortunately, I wasn’t able to knock it out naturally. I think this time around it was too far advanced at discovery to kick it with the usual methods. So, I got with my doctor for some antibiotics.

There was an issue with the first prescription called in, so I had to wait for a second script to be called in and prepped. Needing some relief while waiting to get meds, I came across this product on Amazon. It is AZO Urinary Tract Defense Antibacterial Protection (it claims to help control a UTI until you can see a doctor). Per the rave reviews, I decided to give it a try. And it actually got delivered before my new meds were ready. So, I went ahead and gave it a go. It did seem to be helping. But, I did switch over to the prescription antibiotics as soon as I got them. I really needed these to kick in.

And then, Diary, there was the sucker punch….

Just a day after starting my antibiotics, I developed a yeast infection. Seriously. Gahhhh….. Fine. I used the special over-the-counter cream for girly yeast infections. Then I also convinced my doctor to let me halve the antibiotic dose. (Hopefully, this would give my body a happy medium to treat one issue while avoiding the other.)

Luckily, that worked. Although, for some unknown reason the antibiotics caused sudden, severe, and unrelenting fatigue, plus a whole slew of roving symptoms. Along with the physical and mental fatigue, random things would pop up for a couple of hours then stop. Then recur similarly days later. During that ten days of half dosed antibiotics I pretty much became a sedentary slug. Truthfully, I barely accomplished the minimum daily requirements. (To which my hubby was a supportive saint. Thank you so much, honey!)

I simply felt horrible that week. And to top it off, my healing muscles started to get irritated again. Ultimately, I reached the point that I was simply focusing on the arrival of the last day of the antibiotics dosing schedule. That day was the “light” at the end of my tunnel. And, despite the issues, I needed to keep taking the meds so I could get well and heal fully. So, I stuck it out.

Then I made it. (Dear diary… Aren’t you proud?)

I finished the meds earlier this week. It took a couple of days, but then I started coming out of the fog that had become my life. Then my activity level began rebounding. I do believe I’m finally on the rebound. (I’m hopeful, anyway.) My stamina and endurance are still a bit sketchy. But, I’m getting there.

Now that my mind is a bit clearer, I need to review everything again with my doctor. Hopefully, we can figure out why I had such a hard time with the antibiotics. And maybe next time it won’t affect me so bad.

Well, I think I’m vented out. Sigh. Thank you, diary, for listening to my issues. There are surely better days coming my way.

In the end it reminds me of the last part of Judges 8:4 “…Exhausted but still in pursuit.” Yep. That’s me!

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