My Annual Allergic Reaction to Spring

Every spring since we've moved here (this is our fourth spring), I've broken out with icky, itchy rashes. I call them poison ivy, and I know at least some of them have been caused by poison ivy, but I'm fairly certain some are caused by a local tree pollen. (I came up negative on all my allergy tests, so they weren't any help in figuring out what the culprit is.)

This spring, I'm now at 4 for 4. Or is that 0 for 4? I guess it depends on your perspective.

In any case, it's happened already: I've had my first itchy rash of the year. I've been dreading it since I knew I wouldn't be able to take prednisone like I have in the past. Thankfully, it's been milder than in the past.

Instead of masses of itching, oozing bumps that spread like wild fire, my legs have just been covered in itchy hives. No oozing and spreading, which is the worst part of it, so I'm not complaining. Too much :)

I have two theories as to why it's been milder this time:

1. I got hit by a different allergen than usual, one that's not as problematic for me.
2. Doing GAPS has improved the state of my autoimmune system enough that I'm not reacting as violently (GAPS is the reason I'm pregnant, after all).

Either one is possible, so I'm curious to see how my next round goes. It never stops at just one round...

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In other news, I'm feeling "squadgy" these days. Isn't that a great word? I feel like it's very descriptive.

I haven't gained any weight yet, but I'm starting to look like I have. Since I have a short torso the baby is already pushing things up and out of the way, and there's really only one place for things to go: my upper abdomen. Hence the reason I've been feeling squadgy.

CSA

pretty spring flowers we bought yesterday

I've wanted to join a CSA for 3 or 4 years now, but could never quite justify the cost in my mind.

Then I realized I was going to the grocery store and only buying produce and spending X amount of dollars to do it. I vaguely recalled that the CSA's I'd investigated were not that expensive.

I did some research, and found a local CSA that has a winter option- reduced offerings, but it does include random items like local cider, local raw honey, local pastured beef, etc to make sure you're getting your money's worth. And it's a lot less than what I was spending at the grocery store.

I still need to buy some produce items at the grocery store (our current diet is restricted enough that we have to eat some veggies out of season, though I'd like to be able to eat with the seasons), but it's a lot less than before. I'm still buying our weekly pastured chicken at Whole Foods, but I may switch to getting it from the CSA- it's a little more expensive (not much), but it would mostly eliminate the need to go to Whole Foods every week. It's not nicknamed Whole Paycheck without reason.... I'm also trying to reduce the number of stores I'll have to go to each week once the baby comes- less running around with a newborn is always a good thing.

I really like how flexible our CSA is:

• monthly, bi-weekly, or weekly options
• small, medium, and large boxes of produce
• milk, eggs, fish, beef, pork, chicken, bread options (varying delivery options available)
• al a carte- you can order more of something if you want, and just pay for that
• very allergy friendly- easy substitutions
• you can quit any time it stops working for you- you pay weekly, as opposed to for the season
• Pickup and delivery options- less options in the winter, but more the rest of the year

I should mention that our CSA is not an actual farm that sells just what it produces: it finds local sources  for everything and builds the boxes from there. They tell us where everything comes from and whether it's organic, low-spray, etc.

So we get a large box of produce once a week, with a portion of pork (local, pastured pork- can't find that at Whole Foods) once a month. They send out an email each week stating what's in the boxes that week and I just respond and ask them to substitute the items we can't eat. They have the info in their computer, but responding each week allows me to state a preference for what we'd like instead- usually apples one week, squash another week, etc. Right now I drive downtown to pick up our box each week, but next month I'll be able to pick it up at a location that's a lot closer and more convenient- they'll be starting their regular spring/summer routine.

I hear everyone talking about Bountiful Baskets, but they're not available in our area :(
Do you get food from a CSA?

Another reason GAPS is what I need right now

Remember how I said we'd made progress just in the 7 or so weeks we did GAPS before Christmas? We were able to eat things over Christmas and at Disney that usually give us problems, but with fewer problems.

Something else happened too. My cycle regulated enough for this to happen:

Super crazy, right? After all this time (almost 6 years since my last pregnancy, which ended in miscarriage), I'd pretty much given up hope of getting pregnant again. Though I knew in the back of my mind it was possible my body could heal enough for this to happen, I certainly wasn't expecting it or counting on it. And definitely not this soon.

I had my first appointment this morning (after waiting impatiently for 3 weeks) and so far everything looks good. They did an ultrasound to see how far along I am (which I already knew, based on when Mr M was home) and I got to see the heartbeat. I hadn't realized just how important that was to me till I was looking up at the screen and saw that tiny movement. Because of the timing of doctor visits over the years, I've been able to see the heartbeat of each of our babies, even the two that didn't make it. That is something I treasure.

I am still concerned about miscarrying, but praying about it has calmed my fears significantly. And I didn't have the symptoms I'm experiencing now with either previous miscarriage, so I'm cautiously optimistic. I'm 8 1/2 weeks along, so I have a few more weeks before I'll feel like I'm out of the woods. My due date is Sept 29, which means I get to experience the hot and humid summers here while in my 3rd trimester (not looking forward to that one- good thing we have AC!).

Staying on GAPS should ensure my intestines continue to heal and that I get the nutrients I need. Unfortunately, the constant nausea and severe aversion to smells that I'm currently experiencing is making it impossible to stay on GAPS.  I experienced this when I was pregnant with LMS, but it's worse this time around. Mr M took over all cooking duties when I was pregnant with LMS, but unfortunately he's out of the country again (only for a few more months, thankfully).

So I'm reduced to eating as little as I can get away with (things that I can't smell) and letting LMS nuke various gluten free convenience foods for herself. I'm very grateful she's able to do this, and she's loving the independence. It's not great for "family meal time" since I have to leave the room while she's warming up her food and eating it, but it should only be for a few more weeks. The resulting intestinal issues and meltdowns (from eating things she shouldn't) were expected, but not welcome.

The nausea cleared up around the end of the first trimester with LMS, and I'm praying that's the case this time. As soon as the nausea clears up I plan on getting both of us back on the GAPS wagon.

GAPS Full Diet

View from the upstairs loft in a log cabin we looked at while visiting my sister. It's a model home for a company we've had our eye on for years. Since it wasn't far from my sister, we went for a little drive to check it out.

Read why we're doing GAPS here.
Read about our GAPS Intro Week 1 here.
Read about our GAPS Intro Week 2 here.
Read about our GAPS Intro Week 3 here.
Read about our GAPS Intro Week 4 here.

Read about our GAPS Intro Week 5 here.
Read about our GAPS Intro Week 6 here.

I should have posted this before Christmas, but that obviously didn't happen, so I'll ramble on about our food for the last month.

Since completing 6 weeks of GAPS Intro, I have to say that I'm not really sure that the Intro phase was necessary for us. Our diet was already pretty close to it, and just adding broth and probiotics probably would have been enough for us.

On the other hand, we are eating a lot more veggies, which is good, and I've gotten over my aversion to veggies for breakfast (my old excuse for still eating GF rice crispies for breakfast).

We didn't do a whole lot with food our first week off the Intro phase. We finished up that first week of full GAPS just before we headed to my sister's house for Christmas, and I didn't want to worry too much about adding anything new in right then. We did cheat a bit while on that trip- partly to see how we'd react (mostly better than we have in the past) and partly because I just wasn't ready to figure out how to eat GAPS legal food while driving in the middle of winter (suggestions anyone?).

After returning from my sister's we went back to our full GAPS diet for a week or so before heading to Disney. While we were at Disney we did some more cheating, but I really don't see how it's possible to eat GAPS-legal food without a kitchen. Or at least a hotplate/camp stove. If we hadn't been on a tight schedule, we would have driven the trailer to Florida and stayed at the Disney Fort Wilderness Campground. That is why we bought the trailer, after all: so we'd be able to prepare our food when we traveled.

It was encouraging to note that while we reacted to some of the foods we ate (dairy, potatoes, and corn were the biggest offenders), the reactions were not as severe as they have been in the past. In addition, I didn't get glutened, despite multiple opportunities. Part of me hopes that my system is already less sensitive to gluten, and maybe I was exposed to it but I didn't react because of the healing that has taken place. At this point, it's hard to know for sure without going and eating something with gluten in it, but I'm not willing to do that.

We're now back on our version of full GAPS, with no trips planned for the next few months, and we're committed for the long haul. We haven't been able to add back in any of our problem foods, but we'll try them again in awhile, and one of these days our bodies will have healed enough to add things like nuts and dairy back into our diet. Looking forward to that day....

Thankful

Mr M and I were talking today about what LMS and I are (and aren't) eating these days. He's currently out of the country for work, so he's missing out on the fun.  His Thanksgiving dinner wasn't that great, but he mentioned that he was sure it was better than what LMS and I ate.

Because of where we are in the GAPS Intro, the only "traditional" Thanksgiving dinner item we could eat was the turkey. I haven't really been in Thanksgiving meal mode this week, so I neglected to take our turkey out of the freezer in time for it to defrost. Oops.

Instead, I roasted an organic pastured chicken last night so it would be all ready for today. We added some mashed squash (LMS's current favorite) and cauliflower "fauxtatoes" with homemade gravy. We also had some chicken veggie noodle soup (zucchini and summer squash noodles with chunks of carrot, onion, and broccoli). While not the traditional meal, it was quite yummy.

I was realistic though: we turned down several invitations to friends' houses. We could have brought our food with us, but it would have been torture to see and smell all the food we can't eat. LMS would have had multiple meltdowns for sure. Why even go there?

Back to our unconventional meal.

While we ate, I realized that even though it might not be what we really wanted to eat, we are still very blessed.

We have plenty of food to eat. There may not be a lot of variety right now, but we have enough. So many people don't have that luxury. When I think of that, it's hard to complain about our food situation.

Why did we decide to do the GAPS diet?

In a word, desperation.

A few months ago we had to cut out a few more foods, which was a bit depressing. The realization that there's not that many foods left that we can eat was even more depressing. And frustrating.

LMS and I had a conversation about baking and I realized that in our current state of affairs, she'd never be able to learn how to bake, let alone eat, cookies, cakes, candies, pies, bread, etc. What a sad state of affairs.

Out of desperation, I took to the internets to see if I could find something useful and helpful. The first thing I read up on was leaky gut syndrome, which sounded like it could be what was going on with our intestines. As usual, no real treatment, other than dietary changes and supplementation. As I did more reading, I kept running across the GAPS diet, which I'd seen mentioned before in my googling over the last couple years. Previously it never caught my interest, so I never investigated it.

This time, I was willing to look into anything and everything. I borrowed a book about the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) from the library, then bought the book Gut and Psychology Syndrome by Dr Natasha Campbell-McBride (our library doesn't have it).

GAPS is related to SCD, but with more of an emphasis on nutrient-dense foods. Here's a good comparison of the two, stated much better than I ever could.

The intro phase starts out with lots of bone broth (drunk at each meal), boiled meats and veggies (for easy digestibility), probiotic supplements, and detox baths (alternating baking soda, epsom salts, and apple cider vinegar). You gradually add foods in: first fermented sauerkraut juice, then fermented sauerkraut- small amounts that are then gradually increased if they are well tolerated. Fermented sauerkraut contains probiotics, so you don't want to take too much right at the start, to reduce die-off reactions. The next food you add is the yolks of pastured eggs- they're rich in nutrients and are less problematic than the whites. You continue to add new foods in one at a time, making sure they don't cause problems, and giving time to step back and recover if there is a problem.

What caught my eye was the assertion that bone broth and highly digestible foods could heal the intestines. Since our intestines obviously need help, I decided it was worth a try.

I bought an e-book describing how to do the intro phase of GAPS (it's only briefly mentioned in the GAPS book I mentioned above), and then.... we waited.

We saved up and bought a quarter of a cow, since we'd need the meat and the bones and we're almost out of elk.
I started making and freezing bone broth.
I ordered some strong probiotics.
I started talking up GAPS to LMS.

The last item was the hard part. While our diet wasn't that far from the intro phase of GAPS, we would need to cut out fruit for awhile, completely eliminate rice (no more GF rice crispies for breakfast), and we wouldn't be able to "cheat" and buy M&Ms when we did the grocery shopping (we shouldn't eat M&Ms for various reasons, but sometimes you just need a chocolate fix). LMS wasn't thrilled with the idea of giving up applesauce, rice crispies, and M&Ms.

I tried to get her on board by explaining that if we could stick with it, we should be able to start eating things we haven't been able to eat for quite awhile, like eggs, dairy products, and nuts. This excited her, and she agreed to give it a try.

In an effort to keep the detoxing symptoms to a minimum, we eased into everything by first starting the probiotics, then two days later we started drinking broth once a day.

I originally decided to start November 1- new month, new start, and all that. But it was the middle of the week, Halloween was the night before, and I wasn't ready.  I took the next couple days to get rid of the Halloween candy, do a bit more shopping, get more bone broth cooking, and get lots of broccoli, cauliflower, and squash chopped and frozen, ready to cook. Last Monday we jumped into the first phase of GAPS intro.

to be continued...