GMO OMG & AIP ROT

Hello, Kooky Friends! It's been awhile!

I honestly haven't 'felt' like writing about my journey until now. Blame it on the nature of the Hashimoto beast.  But for the last few days, I have been on an upswing and I am LOVING it.

Meeting my endocrinologist last week was such a pleasure - Dr. Mark Reese in Mobile, Alabama. He was patient as he listened to my ramblings, kind as he nodded in agreement with my thoughts, and informative as he took the time to talk to me as if I were a knowledgeable adult ('as if'! Ha!). Seriously, I give him two thumbs up. He even applauded my AIP journey! New to AIP? ~ See this blog for specifics. I also use these print-outs almost daily. I skim all sorts of sites daily and becoming quite a pro. ;)

AutoImmune Paleo = Right on Target

I began the Autoimmune Paleo diet after my diagnosis and I feel incredibly healthy already! Yes, I was still feeling tired and wanted to stay home even with the better foods during the first week or two, but when Doc Reese upped my levothyroxine to 75, I immediately had more energy, the desire to go to the gym, and even got excited about cleaning my house! Talk about a turnaround! I hope it lasts - it's been one week since I began the new dosage and I still feel great.  I went to the gym three days ago for the first time after my surgery and discovered I had lost 3 pounds in the one month of no exercise - just by choosing healthy foods and eliminating the ones that may have been killing my gut. I didn't believe the scale at the doctor's office. I said, "This can't be correct. How could I have lost weight??" So I waited until I went to the gym and *BAZINGA* it was 100% accurate!  :)

I must add that I know my food choices have at least 65% to do with the upswing.  I'm adding virgin, organic coconut oil to my coffee in the morning (after waiting 45 minutes from the time I took my levo with a full glass of water - it's very important to not let the coffee block the absorption of the synthroid).  I believe it's been giving me an energy boost.  I then wait a couple of hours before I eat anything, even before taking vitamins or supplements.  Those who feel like their meds aren't working should definitely give this a try.  For Pete's sake - when you eat right after your pill, your body won't absorb what it needs and of course you won't feel well. Okay, enough of that...

Daily, I drink at least one cup of warm water with Bragg's ACV, honey and a huge lemon wedge. That lemon wedge at the bottom is the best part of the cup. Yummmm and oh so good for us!  Sometimes my lunches or dinners are a simple baked sweet potato.  Or mixed spring greens with EVOO and Bragg's ACV sprinkled atop. I add flaxseed as well, but I think perhaps flaxseed is not on the AIP protocol? Not sure.  Anyway...  lots of meat (deer, chicken, fish, sardines), no eggs, no grains/bread, and no dairy. I admit it's been tough staying away from my grass-fed butter - Kerrygold - I do slip and put a tiny bit on my sweet potato.  I eat lots of celery, lots of blueberries and strawberries, a mandarin a day, and lots of sauteed-in-garlic-and-evoo baby spinach. I have fallen in love with Predominantly Paleo, a blogger who has her share of autoimmunities and posts such wonderful recipes.  She's not strict-strict, and I like that. I want to be her when I grow up.

I add pics of my awesome food choices to my Instagram account if you're interested in taking a looksee. It's not much (yet) but I'm getting there!

More awesome people to follow on FB or blogs or Pinterest is The Paleo Mom  & Autoimmune Paleo. I'm learning so much from their postings and readers' comments. Awesome stuff. Oh! And Hypothyroid Mom is great, too. There are tons out there. My advice is to steer clear of the 'Debby Downer' sites - the ones that seem to depress you even deeper. If it doesn't lift you up, skip it!

As well as eating clean, my husband and I have actually plotted out a garden area for four raised vegetable beds. We plan on buying and growing organic veggies as the thought of GMOs makes me want to vomit. A chicken coop is also in our future! Although I am not eating eggs at the moment (for AIP, it's a no-no at first since they can carry unwanted products through the walls of a leaky gut), I will be adding them later if I can tolerate them - Even if I can't, the bird droppings will be an excellent addition to the garden beds.  Plus, my husband is still eating eggs and fresh yard eggs are divine.  If you're interested, I may post about starting our little homestead.

Oh! Another habit I'm forming is washing my face with natural products (using an organic honey mask or baking soda).  I've been oil pulling for over a year, but now I sometimes brush my teeth with just the coconut oil and a little baking soda. I've also been putting that mixture on as a deodorant instead of the chemical filled store-bought kind. (Not the icky mixture from my mouth, you silly.)  Oh, and be sure to spit that coconut oil into a garbage can; otherwise, it's apt to clog up your drains.  My best find, and one that I've been doing for two years now, is removing my mascara with a finger's dab of evoo and an warm moist cotton ball - this alone has saved me tons of moolah on those special eye makep removers. Give it a try! It's good for wrinkles around the eyes as well. Uh oh. I wonder what types of chems are in my mascara... hmmm... I sense another googling frenzy in my near future!  

Why in the world am I suddenly getting all crunchy?? Well, you get a diagnosis of an illness - one that you believe is rooted in what you choose to eat & the endocrine disturbing chemicals you slather all over your body & the suspicious GMO foods our nation allows us to blindly consume - and maybe you'd get crunchy, too!

Here's a great award winning film by Jeremy Seifert if you haven't already seen it ~ GMO OMG

Genetically Modified Foods = Oh My Gosh

Back to beauty - My hair is SUDDENLY and DRAMATICALLY grey beyond belief because of the thyroid trauma. Instead of getting all down about this, I've decided to embrace it. Who knows? ...My rapidly silvering mane may eventually become my best feature! Until then, cool hats may become my best friends!

                           Later, friends. I'm heading to the gym ~ Yeeehaaaw!

              ~~~~ On Day 10, I began dabbing a little of my coconut oil onto my scar. ~~~~
                                         I'm calling it "My Second Smile" :)

Out of Control

When Jack Nicholson's character tries to persuade the strong silent Indian to "put it in the basket", we are all hoping that Chief will eventually understand the command and do as he is instructed, but, as you know, the Indian only watches the circus-like antics that unfold on the basketball court.  This best describes how I feel at this moment.  I am Jack, and this #cancer diagnosis has me jumping on anyone's shoulders and yelling for things to happen as I see fit. Yet all the while, the motions of the players are totally out of my control.

Up until this point, I have pretended/imagined to be in firm control of the play-by-plays in my personal life. When young, I wanted to be the best student in any classroom - I graduated valedictorian of my high school class labeled Most Likely to Succeed based on my peers' opinions.  As a young adult, I shifted my major around in college so often that I have quite the well-rounded education! Why? Because I wanted to, and I was in control of even that flighty unorganization. After marrying and having children, I eventually choose to homeschool while my husband worked 70+ hours/week to financially meet our family's needs/wants. Amongst all of these doings, there were certainly aspects that I felt were God's will in my life, so I cannot really take all the credit; but even with God's leading, I was the one who had the final say, by gosh and by golly.  ...Not so with this operation I will be having next week.

The doctors say that the solid slow growing mass in half of my thyroid needs to be surgically removed.  Their opinion is based on the results of a Fine Needle Aspiration of the 2.1 cm nodule in question.  The diagnosis was "suspicious of papillary carcinoma" and while the word 'suspicious' makes me sort of, um, suspicious, I have done my research and have to agree with the docs.

You see, my maternal grandmother had a large goiter removed from her thyroid when she was a young vibrant lady.  Fast forward to her 80s and she had developed a massive tumor in her thyroid which made her unable to even swallow. It was inoperable due to her poor health caused by many insufferable years of Alzheimer's.  That alone is cause for the doctors to be very concerned about any growing masses in my thyroid. Along with that, around 90% of the women on both sides of my family tree live with #hypothyroidism.  I was only recently diagnosed with hypo - only one month ago - just before the fine needle aspiration biopsy (or "bibopsy" as we like to call it around our house - Big Fat Greek Wedding reference ...yeah, we love movies).

I think I should pause for a moment here to kind of explain the thyroid and the process of a diagnosis just a tiny bit to any of you who don't already know.  Your thyroid is just below your adam's apple in your neck. It is shaped sort of like a butterfly and is flitting atop your windpipe.  If you gently press on that area with your fingers while tilting your head up a bit and swallowing, you can actually feel your thyroid. It's just one little bitty organ but it sure packs a wallop if it's disturbed in any way!  It's a hormonal organ that controls mood swings, sensitivity to cold weather, energy level (metabolism), how well you sleep, depression, anxiety, and on and on and on with all the things most people would liken to PMS! Except it's not only at PM time - it's ALL the time. Often enough to make Roseanne Barr's depiction of PMS a cakewalk. Most everyone has nodules (or little bumps) in their thyroid and 98% of people with nodules never have to worry about these cysts.  They are extremely common.  The other 2% should have them removed due to genetics/family history of thyroid cancer, an unsightly bulge, or a diagnosis of cancer.  Just because we could feel the mass on my thyroid did not put me in the 2%, and neither did the history of my Grandma's tumor. That categorization only came after they did the bibopsy ;)  ~ After numbing the area on my neck, a doctor stuck a long thin needle into the mass to scrape and suck up (aspirate) some of the contents for pathological viewing.  When the pathologist studies the cells on a slide, he then determines if it's benign (good!), malignant (cancerous, ugh!), suspicious for malignancy (cells do not look normal so we conclude they're abnormal), or undeterminable (meaning they should do it again for a clearer view of the cells).  It's as simple as that.

I have suspicious cells and we have decided to remove my entire thyroid and not just the massy left half. A total thyroidectomy. Why? Because if only the left side is removed, and the pathology results come back as a definite form of cancer, they would have to operate again - in the same cut and site - to remove the other half. I don't know about you, but I just don't want to take the chance of them having to go into my neck twice within a couple of weeks' time.  Makes me shiver just thinking about it.  And by taking out only half (hemithyroidectomy), I would still be obliged to take hormone medication for the rest of my life, so let's just yank it all out and not worry about it anymore, alright?  Alright.

It's only after my thyroid is removed that the doctors will know for certain IF it is cancer. And I have absolutely no control over that outcome.  Still, my faith is strong, and I know that God's got this.

This waiting is the hardest part.