Food, Exercise and Symptom Diary 2023

This could be a turn around year for me. Each month I will add the monthly diary to the bottom of this post. In November 2022 I started the “Pagano Method” from Healing Psoriasis by John O. A. Pagano and it has been a huge success. Slippery Elm Bark Tea in the morning, American Yellow Saffron Tea at night, and L-Glutamine morning and evening. My gut has been so much happier with almost no diarrhea episodes even though I ate out and drank way too much alcohol during the holidays. I stopped all vitamins and supplements around December 15th to prepare for food sensitivity testing with a company called PreviMedica. Their testing is different than typical food allergy testing, which looks at IgE and IgG. The Alcat test looks for a response at the cellular level. This is a great article about the different types of food sensitivity testing. I went 3 full weeks without supplements AND I decided to challenge my system by eating gluten. I wanted to give my body a chance to make gluten antibodies so it would show up in the food sensitivity testing properly. My joints got so stiff by the end of December that I felt like there were massive bands around them restricting their movements. I stopped gluten and alcohol for January and restarted my vitamins after getting the blood drawn on January 4th. In less than a week I could move freely. The improvement is astonishing.

January 2023

I am doing dry January this year…or mostly dry. We are celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary so I will drink for that trip. When I’m not drinking I’m more aware of subtle symptoms from food, like a runny nose, brain fog and dizziness. I will meet with a nutritionist this month to go over my food sensitivity test results and will implement diet changes based on what I learn. Stay tuned.

February 2023

Started a completely new supplement regime after meeting with a PreviMedica nutritionist. I’m considering sharing my detailed results here but I’m still absorbing what they all mean. I had a severe reaction to gliadin and sodium lauryl sulfate. I had a moderate reaction to about 25 foods, some of which are going to be hard to keep out of my diet (black pepper). But I’m going to give it a try. There are 3 columns to the right of my food log where I track the foods with a mild, moderate or severe reaction. The reports indicated a moderate reaction to about 8 additives that I want to eliminate from my skin care products. This is an area of improvement that I have completely neglected. The other big difference with their eating regime is that they want me to alternate my allowable foods on a 4-day cycle. The idea is that it gives the body a break when processing anything that is slightly problematic and hopefully prevents developing further food sensitivities. I am so excited to have this knowledge and to layer it on top of the Pagano Protocol. I hope to heal my gut this year!

March 2023

Most of March has been an exception to my normal eating routine. We spent a little over 2 weeks in Israel and Jordan. I actually did okay while we were traveling. The food is generally healthy and fresh although most of the lunch options were full of gluten. So I often only had pomegranate juice for lunch. We drank daily but usually not that much. After we got back I kept drinking almost daily but I was drinking a lot more. My log makes it clear that my muscles starting reacting to the alcohol. I tried to track the foods into the mild, moderate and severe categories again after our trip but I didn’t adjust my behavior. I gained weight after our January trip and this trip and in general, do not feel healthy.

April 2023

Tracking the mild, moderate and severe food is proving to add too many layers to my food tracking and I’m not doing a very good job. I tried to restrict my eating but struggled with being hungry. I immediately felt better the day I ate a very small amount but I only did it for 1 day! Eye twitching this month but no idea why. I started having nights where I would either wake up shortly after going to bed and be awake for 2-3 hours or I struggled to fall asleep for 2-3 hours. Started hot yoga and remembered that I LOVE it and it helps my joints to loosen up.

May 2023

I am continuing to drink too much. Sleep isn’t great and my muscle pain is getting worse. Started swimming exercise this month. My hip starting hurting and it hurts when I walk or swim. I did start 5 days of “No alcohol, sugar, dairy, or meat” and that helped me to kick start a little bit of weight loss but it did nothing for the hip pain. I had jury duty this week for a criminal rape trial and although there isn’t much going on, it was very stressful. The last 2 days of deliberating I realized we had 2 middle-aged men on the jury sympathetic to the father that raped his daughter! Hard to believe but they wanted physical evidence that it happened, which almost never exists. That stress probably caused me some problems. I realize now that I do not handle stress well at all!

June 2023

I drastically improved my exercise routine this month. But I’m still drinking way too much. My body desperately needs a break from the alcohol. The biggest change this month is that I started estradiol cream and progesterone pills. The goal is to see if they help me enough to avoid getting on anything else for pain. At this point, I’m mostly noticing a general malaise and sense of sadness. I’m going to wait a few weeks to see if things level off but at this point they are mostly making me sad.

July 2023

Hot yoga relaxed me but perhaps the extra flexibility I experience in the heat causes me to overdo it. I would have significant hip pain after each session. Even swimming became difficult. I tried different strokes to change the type of hip motion. I had an MRI of my pelvis this month with specific instructions to compare this MRI to the previous ones. The report said there was evidence of joint erosion, which I knew was going to mean the rheumatologists were going to recommend biologics to slow down the disease progression.

August 2023

My hip pain was not getting better but I had a trip planned to Morocco and I knew I would make myself power through the pain. I was a little worried about finding gluten free food but it turned out to be very easy. Almost every option was protein and vegetables except for breakfast. I didn’t overeat as much as I did in Israel in March but I also didn’t deprive myself. A side bonus is that there wasn’t much alcohol so we didn’t drink until the last few nights when we were back in Marrakech. The earthquake that hit Marrakech was only about 2 weeks after we were there!

September 2023

I didn’t want to start biologics while on my trip to Morocco so as soon as I got back I started the initial dosing of Cimzia, which was a dose every 2 weeks for 6 weeks and then once/month. There was immediate relief in the joint stiffness in my hands and knees after the first dose, but I didn’t notice improvement with each subsequent dose. As I look back at my food and symptom log, I’m afraid the pain relief led to me making some bad choices. I drank more, which means I stayed up later, which means I ate more late at night. All of which made me feel worse in the long run.

October 2023

I got Covid the 2nd week of October. It wasn’t too bad but in hindsight, the fatigue lasted for a month. My sleep was disrupted and I started experimenting with taking Zyrtec for allergies, thinking that my sinus symptoms were allergy related. I got a massage from a massage therapist that somehow knows exactly where my body needs work. She seems to have reset or moved something in my pelvis that provided tremendous relief from the hip and back pain I’ve been experiencing.

November 2023

I got another virus this month that caused me to lose my voice completely. I didn’t feel bad, but just no voice! Lots of sinus drainage and I am pretty sure it is allergy related because Zyrtec and Nasacort seem to help me get through the days. Benadryl helped me sleep at night. I took them almost daily for the last part of the month. I missed my Cimzia dose because I was supposed to go the day I had no voice…and that seemed like a bad idea.

December 2023

After the miracle massage in October I tried to get on her schedule regularly, but missed opportunities because of illness. I suspect Cimzia may be suppressing my immune system too much and asked if i could take it 5 or 6 weeks apart instead of 4 and they told me insurance will not cover it if they order it that way, but if I schedule it that way out of my own convenience that is fine. That will be my goal for 2024.