This is a continuation of Fibroids, Food and Frustration.
The thing about fibroids is that no definitive cause of them has been determined. The Mayo Clinic states plainly, “Doctors don’t know the cause of uterine fibroids,” but certain factors appear to contribute to them. Among those factors are genetics and hormones – particularly estrogen and progesterone.
I definitely had the genetics piece covered. As I mentioned before, my mother had fibroids. My grandmother also had them. My grandmother’s fibroids were so severe that she ended up having a hysterectomy.
In the face of having a hysterectomy myself, I wanted to learn more about these alien tumors. Clearly, something was wrong in my body, which was leading to the aggressiveness of the tumors. My uterus wasn’t normal. I figured there had to be something in my biological ecosystem that was causing the fibroids to come back over and over again.
As I did more research, I discovered the work of doctors who deemed the key cause of fibroids to be the relative levels of estrogen compared to progesterone. They determined that when the presence of estrogen was too pronounced, that led to the growth of fibroids. Estrogen dominance, therefore, was the real issue.
Or, was it? Maybe there were other possibilities contributing to some kind of breakdown in my overall health. I continued to research. Did I have gut flora issues? Did I have a candida overgrowth or something? Did I have a latent allergy that had me living with acute inflammation? Was stress wreaking havoc on my body? I had to see what I could discover.
I committed to getting myself checked from top to bottom to see if there was some underlying or pervasive issue that I just didn’t see – something that was causing the fibroids to grow back.
I found a naturopathic doctor, told him about my history, and said that I really needed him to check everything. I wanted the kinds of tests that traditional doctors won’t usually order on a patient’s behalf because (1) they don’t believe that your medical theories are supported by science and (2) the tests aren’t covered by insurance policies. I took a special stool test to check my gut flora. I took hormone tests. I took blood tests. I also took a food sensitivity test. (These non-traditional tests were very expensive, by the way; the food sensitivity test, by itself, was several hundred dollars.)
I learned that my hormone levels weren’t right; my gut wasn’t right, either. These issues could be remedied with strong probiotics and some progesterone supplements.
Why I Eat the Way I Do
The worst part was the results of my food sensitivity test. I was reactive to almost everything I liked to eat – everything! There were literally 42 items on my list of reactive foods. The results of the test showed me to be mildly reactive to, among other foods, almonds, cashews, pinto beans, cherries, white potatoes, peanuts, black pepper, chocolate, yeast, turkey, vanilla, watermelon, trout, pineapple and peppermint. It showed me being highly reactive to chicken, egg, wheat, cow’s milk, garlic and ginger.
Jesus Christ.
It was ridiculous! I had already stopped eating red meat a couple of years prior, but . . . chicken? . . . . chicken?! Nooooooooooooooooo! And cheese?! Oh, and wheat?! What-in-all-the-fuck?!
The doctor assured me that if I avoided these foods for about 3 months, my body would likely reset and I would then be able to resume eating these foods. Since I had told myself that I wouldn’t get a hysterectomy until I had done all that I could do to try to correct my body, I was willing to eliminate the unfriendly foods and see what the results would be. Though I had previously engaged in some extreme food experiments in the past, this was going to be more than I was thinking I could handle. This wouldn’t be my first time not consuming something I liked, but it would surely be next level deprivation for me.
Deprivation Start Date – October 1, 2016
Before embarking on a major food deprivation project, I always mentally prepare. I pick a date and wrap my mind around the fact that, beginning that day, I’ll be giving up some things that I really like and want. The date I chose for my 3-month no cheese, no wheat, no chicken, no nothing I like diet was October 1, 2016. That would give me about 3 weeks to mentally prepare and eat a slew of cheese, chicken, bread and butter.
When the 3 months were over, and I went for my doctor’s visit, I was looking forward to hearing the doctor tell me that I could get off of my program. Instead, he told me that it would be best that I continue for an additional 3 months, as 3 months really wasn’t an adequate amount of time. Though disappointed, I made the decision to continue on with my special diet. Six months passed, then a year . . . then another year. Overall, I lost weight and felt better, but the fibroids didn’t go away.
About 2 years into the special diet, I woke up one morning to find a huge lump in my lower abdomen – in the exact same place that the two other super large fibroids had been. Over that 2-year period, there were times that I could feel the fibroids – particularly on the lower left side of my abdomen, but I could bear them. I suffered through several rough periods, but they hadn’t bothered me to the point of me feeling that I needed to pull the trigger on an extreme solution.
As I layed in bed and looked toward my stomach, I saw what, to me, was the fibroid version of Mt. Everest. I couldn’t believe it. I had been working so hard to eat properly and was diligently going to the doctor to get my hormones checked and adjusted. But that morning confirmed for me that my solution wasn’t in the food. Frankly, I was fed up and pissed the fuck off. At that point, I concluded that I had tried. I had truly given a solid effort to see if there was more that I could do – naturally – to try to reduce the presence of and effects of the fibroids.
That next month, I had another procedure to help reduce the size of the fibroids. I didn’t want to do another major surgery, so I opted against a hysterectomy. Instead, I had a uterine fibroid embolization. It was much less invasive. After one of these procedures, though a woman can still get pregnant, it isn’t recommended.
Last month made 3 years on this special diet. I was supposed to have taken the food sensitivity test again after the 6 month mark. I couldn’t bring myself to spend the money again. Yet, I wasn’t quite ready to eat a slice of pizza. Or regular, non-gluten-free bread. I figured that I had come so far and done so well over these years. My weight was where I wanted it and, aside from the fibroids, I felt pretty good. So, why stop?
The Frustrating Part
A restricted diet and restricted budget don’t go well together.
While on this debt free journey, my relationship with food has become one with very little love and a whole lot of hate. Once I got serious about finances, my diet of salmon, scallops, crab and shrimp was much too expensive. It wouldn’t work. I wasn’t willing to continue to spend the money that I had been spending. The dining out was cut and the grocery budget (even though there really wasn’t a “budget” because I bought whatever I wanted from the grocery store) was slashed. Super slashed.
A restricted diet and restricted budget don’t go well together.
~ Single Girl
It’s been a challenge for me over the last few months. Seriously. And I’m still trying to figure out how to make my diet work while on this journey. There’s the financial side and the health side to consider. I’ve been incorporating other foods that I hadn’t been eating previously. The only non-red meat protein option that isn’t chicken (highly reactive food for me) or seafood (too expensive) that I’ve been consuming is turkey (mildly reactive for me). But, I’m not so sure that I should be eating as much of that as I do, either. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are a staple in a common debt-free diet, but gluten- free bread is much more expensive than regular bread. Ramen noodles (which I actually like) could be a cheap snack or meal, but . . . they are made with wheat. So, that’s not an option for me.
What’s even more frustrating is that the benefits that I got from having such a restricted diet aren’t as apparent as they once were. My body is not responding to the diet like it did before. My weight has gone up gradually over the last few months. I’ve got to figure out what to do to get it back down to where I like it – again, without blowing my budget. It’s one thing to be broke. I really don’t want to be broke and fat (yes, I said it).
I’m also at the point where I’m wondering if I even need to continue on the diet at all. It’s been 3 years now, which is way longer than the 6 months the doctor said I needed to give my body time to reset. I could probably easily get some answers by just taking the food sensitivity test again. But, I don’t want to spend several hundreds of dollars on it right now. Instead, I’ve started to read a book called The Plan: Eliminate the Surprising “Healthy” Foods That Are Making You Fat — and Lose Weight Fast. In the book, author Lyn-Genet Recitas outlines a way to test your reactivity to food on your own. I intend to take the time and steps to do my own testing to see if I can get a grip on what I should be eating to feel as good as possible and keep my weight in check as well. We’ll see what happens.