Bad food

All still well over here. Even despite my recent bad food habits.

Part of my recovery program was a strict (and particular) food diet. In fact, it was probably the biggest part of my recovery - you are what you eat, right?

If I'm ever feeling like my level of health is getting dangerously low, I revert back to that diet. That is, gluten-free, sugar-free, dairy-free, preservative-free, additive-free. And I wasn't allowed to eat random things like tomatoes (allergenic), potatoes (too high in carbs), oranges (allergenic), either. What could I eat, then? You ask. Lots of things. Basically it was a Stone Age diet. A small amount of meat, and lots and lots of veggies.

Eating a variety of raw veggies is astoundingly good for you. Eating well and healthily gives your body its best chance at fighting off disease. Will it treat CFS on its own? Maybe, maybe not. But it sure as hell helps.

My special diet

Here's an in-depth look at the special diet my doctor has put me on. The following foods are not allowed:

· Rye
· Wheat (so, pasta isn't allowed, unless it's wheat-free or buckwheat pasta)
· Wuppertaler (whatever that is)
· Cow's milk (sugarless soy milk is allowed)
· Cheese.
· Butter
· Bacon
· Ham
· Apple
· Grape
· Grapefruit
· Orange
· Pineapple
· Cantaloupe/Rock Melon
· Dried fruit
· Peanut
· Sugar
· Honey
· Chocolate
· Carob
· Aspartane
· Beer
· Coffee
· Tea (except green tea)
· Tap water (I'm getting spring water delivered to my home)
· Mushroom
· Tomato
· Potato
· Yeast
· Bread
· Vegemite
· Peppermint (I had to find an organic herbal toothpaste)
· MSG
· Benz. acid
· Margarine
· Salicylate
· All other additives and preservatives
· Canned food (unless it's fruit with no added juice or sugar).

Sugar is in more or less everything. Juice, cereal, sauces... everything. Food that doesn't contain sugar usually contains wheat, which I'm not allowed to eat either (even soy sauce contains wheat). Basically, I can't eat any processed food. What's left is vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds, meat and white rice. It's what my doctor calls a "Stone Age" diet.

Also, there are limits on how I can prepare my food. I have to eat about 50% of my food raw (vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, etc). The only cooking methods allowed are steaming, roasting or grilling. I can lightly fry veggies if I'm desperate. But I can't use oil unless it's coconut oil or olive oil. And I can't eat salt, unless it's seasalt. I have to eat as much organic food as possible, and only lean meat.

Basically, it's a detox diet. But even with all the dietary restrictions advised by my doctor, there's still quite a lot to eat. I can eat all meat (beef, chicken, fish, lamb, kangaroo), nuts (except peanuts), and there's a big range of vegetables available. There's no shortage of food here!

My fifth appointment with Dr S

This must be a pretty boring blog. Really, all I do is update you about what goes on in my doctor's appointments. But that's really all there is to tell. After a few months, even whinging about CFS symptoms and the issues that come with them gets tiresome!

Anyway, here's my update: I got good news from Dr S this week. He said I've improved the most out of any patient he's seen in a while! (Yes, I win! Better start writing my acceptance speech for patient of the year...)

Dr S said the blood test results that were elevated when he first tested me are within the normal range now. My vitamin D levels are well within the normal range now too - big achievement considering I had the lowest level of vitamin D he'd ever seen. And the level of toxins in my body has decreased. So, good news all around.

However, I'm still tiring easily and quite dependent on my supplements. I've noticed that if I miss a dose of anything, I'll feel the effects of it the next day. Dr S and I agree I still some way to go.

So, I have to keep taking anti-candida medication (along with my other supplements), and I'll be having a new kind of MORA treatment aimed at treating CFS symptoms (in the past my MORA treatments have been aimed at treating my liver, I think - kind of ironic, since I'm not a heavy drinker).

After five of the new MORA treatments, Dr S will review me again. He said that the next time he sees me, he might have to use the MORA machine to desensitise me to certain types of foods, since I appear to be allergic to some foods still.

My first weekend away in a while...

I'm really doing a lot better these days.

I went away this weekend to A's farm for the first time in a long while. I was more active than I expected to be.

I went for a short horse ride, a few short walks, and drove the four-wheel motorbike around to feed the sheep and explore my favourite part of the farm. I expected to spend the whole time indoors; I surprised myself.

Now I feel like how most people who don't know anything about CFS expect me to feel - most of my symptoms have toned down; fatigue and tiring easily are my main symptoms now. I still ache more than a normal person should after even light exhertion, but I find it wears off quicker now (in a day, as opposed to in a week).

It's amazing how much my quality of life has improved, simply from being able to stand for longer periods of time, and walk greater distances.

My seventh MORA treatment

I've had a good week.

My aches and pains are still on and off; but the good news is that they're more off than on these days.

I'm sleeping better.

My mind is clearer (I read the book Voyage of the Dawn Treader in one day! Granted, it's not a very challenging book, but still, you'd be hard-pressed finding another person with CFS who can finish a book in a day).

Also, I'm walking well around the house. I noticed that it's easier for me to get up from a chair these days. Because it used to take so much effort for me to get up from my seat, I used to plan what I was going to do every time I got up: I'd plan to go to the toilet, get a drink, pick up a remote, get a pen from the table... and invariably I'd forget to do one of those things, and it was a giant pain in the ass to have to get up again. Now I find it's not as big a deal if I forget something, because I can just get up again, with less difficulty than before.

Of course, I still have limits. If I had to get up from my seat five times in fives minutes, I'd probably tire myself out. My stamina is still poor, and I still suffer from sensory overload (ie. not being able to think with too many people talking at once).

But the nurse I've been seeing said I have to patient: I've been sick for a long time, so it's going to take a long time for me to get better. She said it's exciting that I'm improving already, and that I should remember not to push myself too much.

My sixth MORA treatment

This week's MORA treatment was much the same as last week's. I had the treatment, and the nurse asked me her usual questions.

I asked the nurse about the issue with my feet today. Since the onset of my CFS, I've had tender soles. I described it to the nurse as feeling like I've been walking on rocks with bare feet for hours. She asked me if the pain is in a specific place, or across the whole foot; I said the pain was across the whole foot. She said it sounds like hypersensitivity. When she asked the doctor about it, he increased my dose of vitamin B complex.

After the MORA treatment was over, the doctor and the nurse stuck two little stickers with tiny balls underneath them to two points on my arms. Apparently they're meant to prolong the effects of my treatment.

I guess what most of you would like to know is whether or not I'm feeling any better. On the whole, the answer is a definate yes. My muscle strength has improved, my energy has improved, and my sleeping has improved. Having said that, I'm still not very independent, small tasks are still taxing for me, and I'm not really functioning as a normal person should. But the important thing is that I have improved. (In a way, I hope that makes people realise just how debilitated I was a few months ago.) I'm still feeling a bit lousy from the colon cleanse, but like I said last week, after the colon cleanse is done, I hope I'll start picking up even more.

Update, and my fifth MORA treatment

I vomitted a few more times after publishing my last post, however, in the past four days, I haven't vomitted again.

My vomitting episode was a bit of a setback in my quest to rid myself of CFS, but I think I'm on the mend again. My aches and pains have toned down a lot, I have some energy (though not as much as when I first started this treatment yet), and most importantly, I'm starting to sleep well.

Dr S gave me a bunch of remedies to help me sleep better. Today, I woke up at 9.30 am for the first time in weeks. (I've been getting up between 11.30 am and 12.30 pm -- shocking, I know!)

Still, I feel the need to rest; I've been spending most of my mornings sitting in bed reading -- rest assured I'm fully awake and I stay in bed just for comfort and warmth mostly! (It's been really cold here lately.) I'm feeling the need to rest probably because my body's weak from the vomitting, I suspect. Dr S said the vomitting could have been due to a virus.

Anyway, I don't feel drained after MORA treatments anymore, yay! My fifth treatment was uneventful. The nurse asked me her usual questions, told me to continue with the treatment as planned, and I'll see her next week.

At this stage, I'm hopeful that once my body recovers from the vomitting and the colon cleanse, there's a chance I might be feeling a lot better. One can only hope!

Second MORA treatment

My second MORA treatment was pretty much the same as the first. Except, I think we used the normal MORA machine this week, not the MORA Super (the gentler machine).

When the MORA machine finished doing its thing, I felt a bit drained. I still feel a bit drained and achy now, a few hours later. And I suspect it'll be an early night for me tonight. But I think that's a normal initial reaction to the treatment. I'll probably feel better tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.

Last week, I didn't feel too good the morning after my MORA treatment. The next day, I was fine though. The nurse said it was a slight reaction to the treatment, which is quite normal. I felt pretty good for the rest of the week, so I think it's working.

I think I mentioned this before, but the MORA treatments are one part of a bigger treatment plan. I'm also on a strict diet, I'm doing light exercise, and I'm taking a lot of supplements.

It's making a difference, even though it's only been a few short weeks since I started seeing this new doctor!

No sugar, no dairy, no apples, no oranges, no wheat...

Guess what? I made it to my friend's 21st! I was an hour and a half late, and I only stayed for about two hours, but I think she really appreciated that I made the effort to go.

My friends were so supportive too. They let me sit down, and it was really nice to catch up with them. They made it really worthwhile for me to go.

The only thing was, I couldn't eat much of the food. It was all right, because I'd had dinner first, but that brings me to what I wanted to talk about in this post.

As some of you know, I saw a new doctor last week, and one of the things he told me to do is avoid certain foods. I can't eat anything that contains sugar, milk, yeast, wheat, tomatoes, potatoes, apples, oranges, and the list goes on. He said I should avoid additives and preservatives as well.

That makes it difficult to find a variety of food to eat. My dinners are awesome: tonight, I had chicken, sweet potato and greens. But other than replacing the chicken with other meats, and the sweet potato with rice or buckwheat pasta, I can't think of anything else to eat. Sauces and curry pastes make a lot of difference, but most of those contain additives and preservatives, which I'm not allowed to eat.

The hardest thing is finding snack foods. I've been eating rice cakes, but they taste like cardboard. I'm going to have to keep searching for some good sugar-free, gluten-free and dairy-free cookie recipes that don't contain apples!