Prioritizing dietary restrictions

One of the frustrating things about having so many health problems is that it's hard to find things that are good for me to eat. I don't have as many restrictions due to diabetes as most people think I do, since I've got an insulin pump; I can indulge in sweets occasionally. I do try to pay attention to sugar content and glycemic index, and eat whole grains and lots veggies whevenever possible (i.e., when I have the energy to shop for and prepare them). Diabetics are also supposed to eat a low-fat diet, since having diabetes makes them more likely to get heart disease, whose risk can be reduced by eating less fat. I also try to avoid artificial sweeteners, particularly aspartame and sucralose, since they can cause cancer (this is somewhat controversial, but I don't want to take a chance, especially since I already have a family history of cancer). These guidelines by themselves are not too bad; this is healthy eating for anyone, with or without disease. However...


I also have hypothyroidism, so I'm supposed to limit soy and cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage; for adrenal fatigue, I'm supposed to avoid anything that I crave (I still don't completely understand this even after reading about it); and I just found out that I'm supposed to avoid the following high-adinine foods since the viruses I have feed off of adinine, which is an amino acid: nuts, wheat, oats, rice, oranges, peas, mushrooms, grape juice, chocolate, and anything with vinegar in it, among other things. Not sure how I'm going to do this...I eat most of these ALL the time.


In addition, I've also just been tested, at my request, for yeast overgrowth in my blood, which I'm pretty sure I have (official results not back yet), and will have to severely limit all fruits, grains, milk and milk products for several weeks until the yeast level goes down. Normally, you are not supposed to have these at all when you are trying to get rid of yeast, but since I am insulin-dependent, I get low blood sugar sometimes, and well, you have to consume sugar to fix that.


I have also been tested for food allergies (results still out for another two weeks), and then I just found out from a friend that I should also be tested for food intolerances, which are different from allergies. My cousin, who also has chronic fatigue, was diagnosed with a gluten allergy last year, so it's entirely possible that I have that, too. She's having a hard enough time trying to figure out what she can eat with just that one limitation.

I'm really looking forward to getting the results back on my vitamin and mineral blood levels, although I have no idea how I'm going to coordinate supplementing the foods I need more of with avoiding the foods that will make me worse, because it seems like each food has multiple nutrients in it, and some are good for me, and some are bad for me. It's no wonder that I'm tired all the time...taking care of myself and figuring out how to better take care of myself is a full-time job.

Rebecca's therapy update

Rebecca has continued to add new words to her vocabulary at a rapid pace. In one month's time, she has gone from maybe 15 words to about 75, and continues to add at least one a day. Many of her words are letters, numbers, animals and the sounds they make, and names of people. Her speech therapist has instructed us to focus more on verbs and adjectives and to encourage her to put two words together as much as we can. Assuming she starts doing this in the next couple of months, she will be not need speech therapy anymore! Her pronunciation is still far from accurate, but Steve and I can usually tell what she's saying, and the therapist says she is not making any sort of abnormal mistakes, and that the mistakes should correct themselves with more practice. I'm very thankful that my worries turned out not to be a big deal, but I'm still glad that we sought professional help when we did.

Things are going well on the sensory processing front as well. I think I've decided not to get the inflatable bouncer I thought would help her (see birthday present post), after reading more about dangers of PVC. We have put an old mattress on the living room floor for her to use to get vestibular stimulation, and it has worked out fairly well, even though it doesn't have as much bounce as a bouncer or trampoline would. I think we may still consider a mini-trampoline, if I can find a used one for a reasonable price, and I think we'll probably end up getting a bigger one when she is older.

She is still having trouble taking naps, I think due to overstimulation (bedtime is much easier because she can see much less when it's dark), so we're currently researching window treatment options for her room.