My poor 16 year old has been struggling for a long time now. It truly began her sophomore year though I think it was coming on slowly her freshman year as well. But in February she went on a field trip up to New York with the theatre department of a local high school. She has a good friend she knows from the community theater there who attends and she went up with her. There she had a bad anxiety or panic attack? I'm not sure of the difference. Now she'd complained about milder issues before, so this wasn't totally new to us. But I had written it off as her just being melodramatic. She is fairly melodramatic so I always to fight a boy-who-cried-wolf reaction whenever something happens like this. She never just has a headache - she's always practically dying, etc. You know, girl drama. Except that after coming back she definitely seemed out of sorts. She had less energy, she cried more, her pms got horrible. Then she came down with a flu for the whole month of April practically. And she who was so proud of her good grades suddenly couldn't function very well. She'd been complaining and freaking out over Biology class all year but getting A's. But the last few months she really struggled. Her ability to concentrate was really shot. She limped through the summer and in August she was diagnosed with Hashimoto's. We are not new to this. My husband and two of her siblings already have it, having been diagnosed in the last couple of years. Rick and my oldest daughter are asymptomatic and S has had such a checkered history that it seemed like the least of things. And for them they simply got on the synthroid and everything was fine, apparently. Well, this isn't happening with B. It is taking a lot longer to find the sweet spot for her meds. Her numbers are unusual. She's been up and down all year. We've had to ease her course load. We've had to live with a depressed teen, if any of you know what paradise that is! Anyway, at the recommendation of her doctor we had gone gluten free. But then the doctor referred us to a nutritionist, who we just saw yesterday morning. A lovely young woman, very personable (she's got her own blog) who wants B to go on an anti-inflammatory diet.
B cried a bit. She doesn't want to be sick and she doesn't want to have to have a nutritionist and she doesn't want to give up eating cheese. She hates always having to be accommodated whenever there's a pizza party or some kind of celebration where they have cake and cookies. She is brimming with resentment.
On top of this, my family has the worst attitude. They resent me being gluten free at home. My thing is: I'm dealing with a grown man, a 22 year old and a 19 year old. They are free to go get their gluten elsewhere. I do feel a bit sorry for the mom and child staying with us. They pretty much have to eat what I cook, though not always.
But honestly, for all our health we should just all jump on this band wagon. I mean two of the people also have Hashimoto's. Rick keeps having mysterious strokes and had a heart attack at 39 that they never figured out the cause for. They don't know why he had the strokes. He's had juvenile rheumatoid arthritis since he was a boy that he still suffers from. Why wouldn't he want to change the way he eats if it might help. At least try it out? This is the same diet they recommend for people with arthritis. He is so stuck in his ways and so rigid. It's amazing. It's like someone who is still smoking cigarettes as they die of cancer. It's crazy to me.
Anyway, we go back to the nutritionist in a couple weeks and she's going to help with meal planning. In the meantime, I'm just going to shut up but when I cook I'm going to try to ease into buying the food and making dishes that lean towards anti-inflammatory.
Last night we had slow cooker chicken and a big green salad, with raspberry applesauce for dessert.
This morning I am going to use up the gluten free batter (with milk) I made for Sunday's breakfast. B and I can have Cava for lunch. Tonight for dinner I'm making beef stew with lots of veggies. Wednesday I'm planning on having vegan pesto with chicken and broccoli and gf pasta. That's as far as I've gotten.
If you think about it, pray for us. Pray for healing, patience and perseverance. Thanks.
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