Week 5: G-Free Recap: Overcoming the Hurdle

For 12 weeks in a row, I was sick – nearly every single day. I might have a good day or two, and then more illness would plague my body. For the first 8 weeks, I had no clue why I was feeling so sick, and hence no change in my diet. Once I tried going gluten-free for nearly a week, I felt so much better I was sure I had just diagnosed myself! But over the next 4 weeks, through trial and error, through the holidays, through sorting out misleading blood tests, and through two kidney infections, life was rough for me. I envied people who walked around "like normal" while I felt sick to my stomach all the time. 

When January 2010 hit, I determined to make sure I ingested no gluten, whatsoever, and to the best of my knowledge, that’s the way it has been. The worst things I had to deal with were a kidney infection and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome— maybe CFS was another self-diagnosis, but I had all the symptoms, and so it fit.

During the last week of January (this past week) I felt like I finally had cleared the hurdle. It was the best week in 13 weeks. Almost every day was a 100% day.

I began working out with Pilates again, gradually rebuilding my strength and my “core” for about 20 minutes a day, five days a week. I also continued to walk/jog on the treadmill at least twice a day for 15 minutes at a time, averaging a distance of just over a mile-and-a-half a day.

Though I still feel I am not completely healed and there may be some overlying complications, I do feel as though I can “rejoin the living” again. I can go to the store without worrying if I will get sick, and no longer fear being left alone ("in case something happens").

Slowly, and by degrees, I feel like I am living again, and it is a nice feeling.