P90 Bootcamp = Regaining Life

Year 2, Month 4:

So for the past 49 days or so, I have been working out, six days a week, alternating strengthening workouts with cardiac workouts.

I have Tony Horton and the Power90 video series to thank for it.  But first, before you get any ideas that I am one of those "success stories" floating around on the internet with a rock solid body, let me tell you that I AM NOT!

I am not an athletic person by nature.  I am a couch potato, perfectly content to sit on the bed or the couch with my laptop where it belongs -- on my lap.  That is most of my life.

But, being that my life has taken some very bizarre twists and turns over the past three years, I decided that I needed to make getting healthy my priority again.

So here I am, halfway through the P90 Bootcamp workout series:

Yep, that's me!  Proof that someone my age can still get a good workout!  Of course, it doesn't take much to be a workout for me.  All I have to do at my age, is go outside and deadhead the roses for an hour or so and I'm pooped.  After all, I'm the one who gets ready for bed at 8:30, and am happy as a clam to just lay in bed and read a book until I am so sleepy I can't focus anymore.

Lately, however, my night-time book reading has centered around text books:  Nursing books, Anatomy & Physiology, etc.  Not the best entertainment, but a necessity.  I am, after all, a college student once again.

Once you see this video, you will notice that there is still quite a bit of -- shall-we-say, "jiggling" going on.  I wasn't doing the P90 workouts to lose weight.  I was doing them to get in shape.

Suffice it to say, I have decided it is time to start watching what I eat again, also.  Time to cut out the junk and focus on something better -- more whole foods, fruits and vegetables.

Step by step, I am regaining my life. 

Now if I could only find answers to the constant heart palpitations.  Stay tuned for more research!!

Week 8 Recap: Nice Feelings

Though the week started off with some residual back pain, it wasn’t too bad a week. In fact, I found a name for one of the mysterious “symptoms” I’d been having off and on through most of my life: silent reflux (as explained in a previous post).

For four days I couldn’t figure out why I felt like reflux was going up into my neck and attaching itself to my voice box. I was also salivating more, and developed a post-nasal drip without any apparent reason. Someone in one of my celiac support groups mentioned that she had “silent reflux” and when I looked it up, there were all my symptoms!

Well, now that I understood what was bothering me, I tried to look back at what I had eaten during the past four days—because my diet was mostly a GERD diet anyway: no fatty/fried foods; no sugary foods; no chocolate; no caffeine; no acidic foods; no tight clothing; no laying down after eating, etc. The only thing I could find in my food journal (that’s right, I have learned to keep one) were about 3 or 4 Kettle chips (g-free, of course, and low-fat) every day during that time.

Obviously, my body wasn’t healed enough to handle those chips, yet! So I did the reasonable thing, and stopped eating the chips… I also learned that I should be taking the omegprazole (Prilosec), and so started that regimen up again during the middle of the week. Once I started the Prilosec, I have to say, my days began to improve: maybe it was coincidence, maybe not; maybe it was because I simply wasn't eating those chips-- even though they were in very small amounts.

Also during the week, I continued my exercise regimen of two 30-minute treadmill walks (six days a week); a 20-minute Pilates workout (five days a week); and 10 minutes of weight bearing exercises (using a Pilates machine, five days a week).

Each 30 minute treadmill walk started out with a 5-minute warm-up walk and ended with a 5-minute cool-down walk, and for those 20 minutes in between I tried to keep my heart rate as near my target heart rate (as suggested by my doctor) as possible. I started out the week walking 2.744 miles in a day, and ended the week walking 3.003 miles in a day. That is 17.35 miles total (of course, this does not count the daily run-around and errands throughout the day); 100 minutes of Pilates; and 50 minutes of weight-bearing exercises.  So I feel this week was very successful in strengthening my heart and my core muscles. The best part: almost no heart palpitations this week, and that is a great feeling!!

Also, this week marked the beginning of a new class which I must take or my financial aid will be revoked. I was supposed to take two classes this time, but because of my health, I postponed that double-up (my final two classes) until the next term. I have been lucky enough to keep my GPA high (3.98)—which may be as high as I can get it, thanks to one A- a few years ago. Amazing how one little A- can affect your GPA. Regardless, I will be graduating summa cum laude, and that is a nice feeling.

The only drawback to this week was that I had to resort to clonazepam almost every night to help me sleep through the bouts of silent reflux, or symptoms that feel like hypoglycemia. Yet, all in all, by the end of the week, my days were very good—and back in the 90% range, which is a very good feeling.

Week 7: G-Free Recap

The week didn’t start out terribly bad— I knew I was still recovering from a cold and each day I seemed a little better. I was still feeling some faint heart palpitations, particularly in the afternoons (must be when I’m getting tired or something), but at least the sneezing and coughing was going away. I took my newly prescribed Vitamin D (50,000 IUs) on Sunday, 3 days after the first dose.

I continued to increase my time on the treadmill-- two walks a day, plus a 20 minute Pilates workout to rebuild my strength, and 10 minutes of weight bearing exercises using a Pilates machine. I was still getting heart palpitations several minutes into my treadmill walks, and began wondering which would be better: shorter time on the treadmill but a faster pace? Or a longer time with a slower pace? Which method would be more beneficial to strengthening my heart (more about this later)?

Additionally, I was still feeling some congestion or fullness in my upper left chest that sometimes spread into the left side of my neck and my left armpit. I wondered again—why is it always my left side? Still no answers.

I took my third prescribed Vitamin D dose on Wednesday, two days after my last dose because I am supposed to take it twice a week. I figured Wednesdays and Sundays were just as good days as any, right? Within a couple hours of taking the Vitamin D, however, I began to feel nauseous. What had started out as a pretty good day went downhill quite rapidly. Within a couple more hours, a few random hives started popping up here and there. I made no connection to the vitamin, yet, because I had no reaction to it last week.

My back started aching on the same day, and I was beginning to feel flu-like. The last two times I experienced nausea and a back ache, I had a kidney infection. AGAIN??? I didn’t sleep a wink the entire night, and by the next day, I was even more nauseous, couldn’t eat, and for the first time since going gluten-free, felt distended and constipated. I tried my treadmill routine in the morning, but by the time I finished I felt like I was about to go into shock—cold and clammy, lightheaded and queasy. My heart was feeling very weak, and whenever I laid down to rest, I felt like I could very easily stop breathing-- my heart would jump back into action again.... very weird, and I lack the literary skills to put it into proper words.

I managed to get in to see my doctor that afternoon —the only medical professional I’ve seen all this time that I actually trust. My back pain was not in the right place to be a kidney concern, so that was good news to me. He offered a beta blocker for the palpitations, which I turned down because I don’t want anything messing with my heart as it is —and he offered a regular prescription of clonazepam for anxiety and to help me rest (which I also declined—for now). He decided that I may be reacting to the Vitamin D, in which side effects listed everything I was going through. Stop the vitamin for a week, try it again, and see what happens. Sounded like a plan to me!

I continued to develop a couple of random hives that night, and my stomach began to hurt just as if I had been gluten-ized!! And yet, I hadn’t eaten anything that I was aware of that could have caused a gluten reaction!  I wondered if the vitamin had gluten, but I had been assured by the pharmacist that it did not.

The next day, my stomach was very sore. I felt like I had been run over by a truck —the last time I felt that bad was when I first decided to go gluten-free back in December and see if it helped. I still felt queasy, but not enough to give up my treadmill walks —getting my heart stronger is my first priority.

My doctor had suggested a target heart rate of around 160, and so I walked 30 minutes, twice a day, for the rest of the week, keeping my heart rate at or below (and sometimes a little above) that target heart rate. Following that pattern for the rest of the week all but eliminated the heart palpitations. They gradually stopped happening during my walks, and have hardly happened since then at all!

The only drawback to the two 30-minute walks is something new for me: sore hips —whether it is related to my osteopenia, I don’t know —because my back has been very sore, and my injured left ring finger decided to flare up again also —but, I don’t think it is related —at least I hope not. I think my hip flexors just need to get used to walking for an hour a day.

My new question: Did I react to the Vitamin D because there was only two days between the last dose (and three days between the first two)? In other words, should I wait three days between each Vitamin D dose?  Or still go three days and two days?

Diagnosis Confirmed!

My first visit with the internal medicine specialist was a little stressful for me, but one of relief, as well.  It was stressful because I didn't really know where to begin.  I was having so many symptoms and they seemed to cross multiple systems in the body.  But it was also one with relief because for the first time in thirteen weeks, the doctor looked at me like he was genuinely interested in what was going on, and just as curious as myself as to the cause!

We discussed several things that were happening-- from the rapid pulse at random (it was 114 in his office at the time), the drug reactions (which I had never had prior to all of this), to the fatigue, the heart palpitations, and even the rashes on both my arms.

The best part about the visit was that there was an answer that would explain several (if not most) of the symptoms: Celiac Disease.  But how could I have CD with the blood tests coming back normal?  His answer was that I had Dermatitis Herpetiformis (DH) and that in order for the blood tests to be positive for CD, I would have had to be on a high (very high) gluten diet for 2 to 6 weeks!  And each time I was tested, I had either been off gluten for a while, or on a very low gluten diet.  The DH was definitive enough, and he told me that experts do not recommend a small intestine biopsy as long as that rash is present.

My DH had been present for 5 years, and nothing (and I do mean nothing!) could make it go away-- whether it was OTC medications, or prescribed.  It will take some time to heal, but it is gradually softening and diminishing.

The internist did order other tests, including more thyroid tests, a 24-hour UA, a DEXA scan (for bone density), a Holter Monitor, and a stress-echocardiogram to find out more about why my heart might feel so weak, or have palpitations.  He also suggested I continue my vitamin supplements, particularly D3, K, Iron, and Calcium/Magnesium.

In the meantime, I joined a couple of online support groups for CD and found an immense number of similarities in symptom stories, particularly with heart palpitations, weakness, and fatigue.  It seems as though the medical community does not have any direct answers regarding the connection between the heart and CD, but keep in mind that CD is a cross-system disorder and can affect any system in the body in a number of ways.  Perhaps the medical community just doesn't want to say one way or the other... playing it safe in their eyes, but not so for the CD community.

My thyroid tests ended up being normal, and at this point I don't know the results of the 24-Hour UA, the DEXA scan, nor the Holter Monitor results (which I wore for 48 hours).  During my time wearing the monitor, the palpitations were mostly quiet or so faint I couldn't be sure it was what I was feeling, so I guess it will be up to the experts to decide.

Happily, my stress-echocardiogram showed "one beautiful-looking pump" (cardiologist's words) with nothing wrong, whatsoever, that he could see.  My blood pressure was great (108/78), my cholesterol was great (162), and there was no visible reason to suspect anything wrong with my heart.  Though it did make me feel better, it does not take away the nervousness when something feels weird with my heart.  Perhaps it is my body's way of dealing with such a vital organ.  I can handle anything with any other part of my body, but my brain does not like it when my heart doesn't feel normal.

At the least, I can say that my heart seems to have settled down a bit and is in a mostly quiet mode these past few days.  Let's hope it continues.