Gluten Free?

My son told me last year that his naturapath suggested he go gluten free to see if that helped his ulcerative colitis.  Since it was going to require some work on my part for him I decided to go ahead and join him and see if it also helped my fibromyalgia.  We were gluten free for about 6 months when he decided he wanted to test and see how he felt after eating gluten.  He didn't notice a difference so he went back to eating gluten.  When I decided to test eating gluten I was out for dinner with a friend at a Mexican food restaurant.  I decided to get the flour tortillas with my sizzling fajitas!  Funny thing...they tasted really bland.  I washed the bland taste out of my mouth with my Midori margarita.  YUM!

Before I left the restaurant I started to feel really bloated.  Before long I felt like I was going to throw up.  I decided that gluten was not going to work for me.  The next time I went to that restaurant I got corn tortillas with my sizzling fajitas and washed them down with my mango margarita (okay, yes I am a creature of habit!)

Most recently I went back again and got corn tortillas again and once again washed them down with my Midori margarita.  This time I started feeling sick again.  But I hadn't had any gluten?  A couple of days later I realized the common denominator between the two meals where I got sick was the Midori margarita.  I think that Midori must bother me now for some reason.  It is a little sad to give up one of my favorite liquors...but it is a lot easier to give up Midori than to give up gluten!  When you are allergic to cow's milk dairy it is particularly difficult to give up gluten as well.  I've since gone back to eating gluten and my stomach seems fine.

I've had more pain lately, but I think it is due to other factors.  If fixing those doesn't make me feel better I'll try giving up gluten again.

Acupuncture

My first step in my road to healing was trying acupuncture.  I was a little afraid to give it a try, but at the same time I was willing to try almost anything to rid myself of my unrelenting pain.  I felt I had no life any longer and I was so tired of the constant pain.  I found this practitioner entirely by accident...or some might say that I was guided to her.  She had been diagnosed with fibromyalgia herself years before and was also helped by acupuncture.  Our personalities clicked well and I found myself willing to try anything she suggested.  

After my fibromyalgia was diagnosed my IBS kept getting worse.  On her suggestion I stopped all dairy products and realized that I was actually allergic to cows milk.  Staying away from cows milk nearly completely eliminated the constant diarrhea that I'd been dealing with for years.   Acupuncture itself helped relax and soften my constantly stiff muscles.  My thigh muscles were so hard it felt like they were made of plastic.  After about six months of treatment they feel like normal muscles now.

Acupuncture is not a quick fix.  I've been going now for over two years, but now I'm at the point where I only feel the need for a treatment every couple of months.  At first I was going every week.  Because of the pain I was in my acupuncturist wasn't using as many needles as she might use on a person who was going in for back pain or another issue.  Now I can take as many as she feels would help me.  

Another part of acupuncture treatment is herbal.  If you aren't willing to take the herbs as prescribed you won't do as well.  At one point my practitioner was prescribing a special blend from the Oriental College of Medicine.  I was supposed to either drink these in a tea three times a day or mix them into apple sauce.  They tasted horrible...I couldn't gag them down.  I bought some gelatin capsules and filled them and took the herbs that way.  

I started acupuncture in March of 2012 and by July I was feeling almost normal.  I've had a few set backs since then, but the improvement in my life and abilities is easy for anyone who knows me to notice.  I credit the majority of my recovery to acupuncture.