Of Carbs and Health - My Last 10 Days #lowcarb

The last 10 days have been a blur of doctor's appointments, most in another city nearly an hour away, and other things that have taken me away from home way too much - and therefore eaten at restaurants, mostly fast food, way too much - and lots of stress-inducing realities of life that have taken priority over what I eat, way too much. When you're talking about life-and-death issues concerning your beloved spouse, somehow whether I eat a bun on my hamburger doesn't seem like such a big deal.

Of course, I still ate low carb foods at home, but too much carby food during that chaotic and emotionally draining time for my health. I have arthritis in my knees (and elsewhere) already, and right now I also have bursitis in my right leg, so I live with pain from thigh to toe most of the time. I'm used to the grinding and spasms caused by the arthritis in my spine and pain that comes with a couple of other serious medical conditions. But usually, typically, not all at once - and certainly not in addition to bursitis.

So as I've made my way through the last 10 days I've felt worse and worse and worse, not making connections between what I was eating and how my body was feeling, until a couple of days ago I felt as though my system was simply giving up, and my body dying off. I was bloated and painful (I have permanent nerve damage to my digestive tract, end-to-end, from some severe food poisoning a couple of years ago, so a little bloating and pain is nothing new.), and food wasn't moving through my system. I had a nearly constant mild but irritating headache. My vision wasn't blurry but it wasn't quite right either. I developed a UTI. I wasn't feeling rested when I awoke, and was logy and tired all day long. By the end of this time, both of my legs felt like lead weights, and when I looked down I fully expected them to be three times their normal size.

After my husband's surgery on Monday (2 days ago), when I had had a "healthy" chicken-and-veggie pizza at the hospital cafeteria (they didn't have low carb offerings, only low fat), I was sick. I came home and slept nearly the rest of the day, then all night. I couldn't think straight, and felt that I was dying - literally - that my body had given up. And, now that the surgery was over and my mind could start to move back to other things, I realized it had to be the carbs and there was only one way to find out.

Yesterday I ate a salad with bacon, chicken, and ranch dressing for lunch, and didn't get hungry - so didn't eat - the rest of the day. Today I had a steak for lunch, and raw cauli with lowcarb caesar dressing for an afternoon snack. While I'm still working on the logy feeling, my legs are back to normal. Ingesting all the fat without the carbs for 2 days, and my system is starting to clean out again, the pain is lessening, and the bloat will soon be gone. (It needs a lot of fat - rather than the drugs the doctor prescribed - to keep things moving through, since peristalsis is weak to nonexistent in various areas throughout.) The headache is gone and my eye (blind in one eye anyway) feels right again. My legs are back to their normal, except for the bursitis which has me near-tears but at least they aren't like dead weight to drag around...and my UTI (with the help of cranberry supplement and liquids) will probably begin to resolve as well, if past history is any indication.

In short, the first 2 days back on low carb is resolving most of the physical issues that had been accumulating.

"Let this be a lesson to you" they say...I can't put it better myself.