This week went well.

Just like the last several weeks.

It’s bizarre really.

To have this many good days in a row.

I honestly think the last time this happened, the last time I had this many good days in a row, I was in France.

In my study abroad program in 2008, my senior year of college.

I started college later than everyone else in my age bracket.

Which was kinda a blessing because I was 25 when I went overseas while everyone else was 18-20 in the program.

I was much more interested in what the study contained and what we were doing.

The program was “The Culture and Politics of Food in France” and it was fascinating.

We went to dozens of farms over the course of a month.

Many, many, open air markets and national parks.

It was wonderful.

I realized very quickly in that none of the farmers followed any regulations.

They just did things that were beneficial for all of the citizens, automatically.

They didn’t take water from the aquifers or rivers, they all collected rain water in man made ponds.

They didn’t use harmful pesticides or herbicides.

They didn’t have tight pens with tens of thousands of animals.

They had a lot of animals with plenty of room for them to roam and graze.

It was a completely different world from that of what we have here in the states.

They didn’t need regulations because they wanted their food to be the best and being the best means not using chemicals and having plenty of room and not being wasteful.

*mindblown*

I had to change my final paper topic once I go there.

I was going to write on French environmental policies, but there really aren’t any.

All of the farmers just do what’s best for their animals and the land and society.

It’s opposite of here, where if we didn’t have regulation, the earth would be stripped and animals would be slaughtered sick and unhealthy.

After my month in France I took a week and went to London.

I visited Westminster Abby and Buckingham Palace and Stonehenge and even got a tattoo in Salisbury, England.

The tattoo was that of the Cevennes National Park symbol.

It’s the National Park in France where we spent a week driving around from village to village visiting farms and open air markets.

Beautiful.

Breathtaking.

It’s part of the foothills to the Alps.

I will never forget that trip.

In college we could do study abroad or an internship.

I’m eternally grateful for student loans and the chance they gave me to do the study abroad.

Because I don’t know if I’ll ever get the chance to get overseas again in my lifetime.

It’s memories like this that I’ve been having lately.

I’ve been thinking clearer.

I’ve been able to retain information much better than I have been able to in the past.

There is a downside right now, however.

I’ve been having pretty intense pain levels on and off in my knees and back.

Ever since I got the Nano PRP injections in my knees, the pain levels have been pretty intense.

They faded by about 20% last Monday.

And then another 10-15% last Tuesday, so I was getting hopeful.

My pain doctor told me that I’ll be turning a corner here soon – within the next few weeks, and my pain levels will subside as the injections start to take hold.

But on Wednesday this last week the pain returned and has been fairly in and out ever since.

Today is Saturday and the levels are at an 8 today I’d say.

I’m very uncomfortable today and am having a hard time staying in one position for longer than 30 minutes.

That’s always the tell tale sign for me.

The constant adjustments in how I’m sitting or my positions indicates that I’m uncomfortable.

It’s hard to sit still while in pain.

And my back, I’m fairly sure I have another pinched nerve in my lumbar portion of my spine – my lower back.

I am getting another MRI soon.

And I have another lumbar RFA ablation scheduled for next Friday, the 27th.

So that will bring some relief.

But the new pinched nerve is just north of the portion I’m getting the RFA ablation on.

So I’m not hopeful it’ll help cut out everything.

I did get some turmeric again today though.

I’m hopeful that since I’ve cut out gluten, dairy, soy, corn and sugar, I’ll notice it’s affects a bit more than before.

I never have been able to notice if turmeric was helpful, but I’ve always had an inflammatory diet.

So, we’ll see if I notice a change now.

Today is day 1.

Speaking of gluten, I’m gonna give y’all a TMI story.

So, Thursday night this week I went out to dinner.

I love the place we went to because they have gluten free buns for their burgers and their burgers are amazing.

So I ordered one.

Our order was taking a while and I had forgotten whether I had asked our waitress for the gluten free bun, so I found her and confirmed with her, yes, I did ask for it.

Good, I thought.

We got our food and I noticed the bun didn’t look like it normally does so I asked the gal who brought our food over, “this is a gluten free bun, right?”

“Yup!” She said.

So I ate.

I noticed that night, about an hour later, I was feeling rather bloated and gassy.

I thought nothing of it.

The next day I woke up and my stomach hurt.

I didn’t drink any coffee and thought about that bun from the night before.

It didn’t have the same consistency as the gluten free ones that I’ve had in the past.

It didn’t crumble the way gluten free bread does, and like they usually do when I go there.

Hm.

About an hour later I had to rush to the bathroom and had horrible diarrhea.

Like it’s ever anything but horrible, right?!

But my stomach was killing me.

An hour after that, I had to rush to the bathroom again, and I swear there was nothing else in me to come out after that!

(I told you it was TMI)

My stomach is killing me all day and all I can muster to consume is two protein shakes.

One around noon and the other around dinner time, 5pm.

Just so I have something in me.

Then, around 9pm at night, I’m finally kinda hungry, so I fixed myself a couple of scrambled eggs.

I wake up today, Saturday, and my stomach is killing me again.

Within about 30 minutes of waking up, I had to empty myself out in the bathroom, again, and it’s absolutely horrible.

A half hour later I have to take more medications and supplements, so I drink a protein shake so I have something in my stomach with them.

Finally, I think I’m done with the bathroom, but time will tell.

And I can’t help but notice today that I’m “puffy”.

My face is puffy, my belly feels puffy, my knees are killing me.

And it’s completely obvious that something is going on with my stomach and digestive tract.

I’m 99.9% sure that bum was a gluten bun.

And I never would’ve noticed this before cutting it out because I used to have diarrhea 24/7 and think nothing of it.

Literally.

I have had horrible BM’s for decades and always just chalked it up to side effects of my medications.

I had no idea it was because of gluten.

And I am suffering this weekend over a fucking hamburger bun?!

It’s quite mindblowing really.

I can feel the swelling in my face the most.

I feel like I have a double chin now, I know I don’t, but it feels like it from the inflammation.

Luckily I haven’t noticed any other symptoms besides the ones I’ve mentioned.

I haven’t noticed an increase in psychotic symptoms or anything from it – luckily!

There are studies that show that some folks respond to gluten with hallucinations and delusions.

What happens is the molecules from the gluten break through the “leaky gut” and cross the blood brain barrier and actually adhere to opiate receptors and that can cause psychotic symptoms.

So luckily that aspect doesn’t affect me that I’ve noticed at least.

I feel awful for those that are affected like that.

Must be terrifying and confusing.

Anyway, I’ll be steering clear of gluten in the future, and trying to remember the good things, like my France trip.

I’m grateful to be able to make changes and notice differences today.

I wasn’t always capable of making changes in my life.

So I’m grateful for growth.

-Keren