Yet another life changing moment

Life changing moments, we've all had them. Just about anything can be called life changing if it impacts your day to day way of living or the way you view the world around you. Many are the subtle kind, small things or changes that over time add up and when you look back you realize a definite time, date, or place that set everything in motion. Other life changes are big and dramatic and totally obvious like marriage, birth, death, or relocation. You know exactly when and where you were, and what it was you were doing at that exact moment the event happened.
Last week was one of those moments.

A few years ago I looked into doing hormone testing to see if wacky hormones were causing me the ongoing problems I was experiencing after having Andrew. I actually made the appointment, spoke with a very nice nurse practitioner, and got the take-home test. Unfortunately, the day I did all of that I got terribly sick, underwent exploratory surgery, had my appendix removed, spent 3 days in the hospital on antibiotics, and was told that I probably had Crone's Disease. Although later testing reveled no evidence of Crone's, I never did get around to actually doing the hormone testing.

This past February in an attempt to use up all of our extra Flex spending money, I decided to follow up and do the hormone testing. Our MOPS group had a speaker this past year talk about natural hormone therapy and how it can help re-set things and improve quality of life. I remembered I still had the take home hormone test. I figured the worst that would happen is that I would be told that I'm officially old enough to worry about menopause. In addition to the usual suspect tests, one of the things they did was a gliadin test. When I asked what that was, I was told that it was a gluten test. I did the testing, sent the stuff in, and made an appointment for the end of March to get the results.

I went in a few weeks ago to get my results. I really didn't know what to expect. Part of me hoped they would find something off and be able to fix it. If I really was starting menopause then that would explain why it has been so hard to bounce back to my "before Andrew" body. The other part of me hoped nothing was wrong and all I really needed to do was buckle down and eat healthy and exercise more frequently. I was given the test results and then the very nice nurse practitioner explained them to me.

The good news was that for the most part, my hormones were normal. I did have a problem with having too much of the stress hormone in my body early in the morning. That meant that I was producing too much at night and that was throwing everything else off metabolism wise. The other thing was that gliadin test. It came back positive. Gliadins are polypeptides found in grain gluten. My body views them as toxic and produces antibodies which is what showed up on the test. There are levels from sensitive to intolerant and I fell in the intolerant range. According to the test results, I was gluten intolerant. To say I was stunned would be an understatement. The intolerance was probably an underlying cause to the stress hormone imbalance and it most definitely was the cause of many of my ongoing GI problems.

I seriously didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Of all the things wrong with me, this was probably the LAST thing I would have picked. I left the office in a state of shock and went home to try and figure out what I could eat. I called the loving husband who was just as surprised as me. I then spent time researching what I could do to help myself.

The shock has worn off and reality has set in. I have decided to take it day by day and slowly figure out where to go. Google has become my new best friend and I have bookmarked several Internet sites for reference. I'll do another post about the whole learning how to eat again. I also have started to "let go" of favorite foods that I know that I can no longer eat. It is tough, but this is not the end of the world. I'll figure out how to live this new lifestyle.