image from nataliedee.com
Tomorrow marks month two of being on synthroid, and I'm pretty happy to say that my hair has stopped falling out, except for the expected shedding that I consider to be normal, and I'm getting that groovy crew-cut length regrowth poking out all over my scalp. HAWT. Some of the other symptoms continue on without improvement (hello lack of sex drive!) and my skin is still scaly.
My doctor has ordered a retest for me to check my thyroid levels, so I'm going to head to the lab tomorrow to see what kind of improvement has been made.
I've been sort of off food for a few weeks - I'm eating small meals, but the balance has been sort of whack, and my weird poop issues were getting worse and worse. I canNOT believe I'm sharing this, but my poop was light colored and floating, and generally not, um, well-formed. This is usually a symptom of malabsorption or consumption of too much fat, and I've been careful not to eat too much fat. This has been going on off and on for months.
I thought thyroid - but the medicine didn't fix it.
I thought maybe dairy - but eliminating dairy didn't fix it.
I thought maybe gluten - but removing gluten just made me angry and on edge.
And then I realized that I've been eating more nuts as a part of my healthier diet this year. Since January, I've typically had a small handful of raw nuts of some variety almost every day. Sometimes almonds or walnuts, but sometimes macadamia nuts or my favorite, cashews.
After eating a generous number (say, 25 or 30 nuts) of macadamia nuts in early August, I had some pretty awful stomach cramping and icky poo the next day. I chocked it up to too many s'mores while camping and continued to eat nuts. The weird poo continued.
Around the middle of August, I made a really yummy coconut rice with cilantro, lime juice and toasted cashews. I didn't make the connection then, but my stomach was really unhappy the next day.
Last Tuesday, I ate about 15 cashews chopped with apple and mixed with greek yogurt. I probably ate another 15 as a snack in the late afternoon. By Wednesday morning, I was in the grips of an evil, evil stomach cramping illness that felt like food poisoning.
I spent the early morning rushing in and out of the bathroom. I had a doctor's visit for my sleep apnea (more on that later) at Kaiser, which turned out to be a 2 hour class. About 15 minutes into the class, I had to excuse myself and sprint to the restroom. I spent about 30 minutes in a cold sweat, clutching the support bar in the handicapped stall with my face resting on the cold tiles of the wall. I have rarely been so sick.
I had already waiting a month and a half for this appointment - I was missing work, and I was determined to not "waste" this time. I splashed some cold water on my face, and went back to the classroom. I made it another 30 minutes, before having to rush back to the bathroom. This time, I did the unthinkable and actually lay down on the cold tile floor, wracked with cold sweats and shaking like a leaf. After 20 minutes, I was able to get back up, splashed on some more cold water and headed back to finish out the class. I made, it, but barely, and was shaking and sweating as I drove myself home. I called in sick, and curled up in bed for the duration. I lost an entire day to these horrific stomach woes.
It was the cashews. I know it was the cashews. And I don't know what to do, besides not eat them again. Should I be tested formally for an allergy?
It has been a week since I've eaten any raw nuts - although I had a little peanut butter today, maybe a teaspoon. I don't think that it will be a problem. And as soon as my poor body got over purging the crap out of me (literally) my poop has been normal. Not floating. Not pale. My poop has been your standard, textbook version of poop.
You would think that it would take more than that to get me excited, but hoo boy. We're living large over here.
