Back Story for my REAL Post

For years, most of my life, I have had various stomach issues. Eventually I got to the point where I just accepted the fact that I have a "sensitive stomach", and that I will usually have some sort of digestive issue after I eat. Pretty much a chronic state of my stomach rumbling or throwing some sort of fit. I learned to avoid raw olive oil. Cooked olive oil, completely fine, uncooked, my intestines felt like they were practicing all the knots in the boy scout handbook. Not fun.

 Over the past few years I have broken down my anti doctor policy (spending a lot of time in the doctor's office when I was younger helped foster a healthy anti doctor span of many years) and tried several elimination diets to try and pinpoint some sort of food intolerance/allergy. For the most part they were unsuccessful. The doctor's office never did much beyond printing out a basic elimination plan and wishing me good luck. It was as if I had been given the direction to build a boat and sail to another land, and all I had been given was a book about how to sail a boat. Not terribly helpful.

After a couple of elimination diets that didn't provide any answers as to what I might be allergic to/have an intolerance of I decided that I must not be allergic to anything and was just doomed to have a "sensitive stomach" forever. Several months ago I started going to the naturopathic doctor my mom had been referred to. During my first visit, after going over my history she said that there was most likely some food intolerance issues going on along with the chronic fatigue. I got Epstein Barr when I was 10 years old and had dealt with recurring bouts on and off since then.

 We dealt with the chronic fatigue issues first, and about two and a half months ago decided it was time to start looking toward the food issues. After doing a week long diet diary she was able to determine with a fair amount of certainty that I had a dairy issue. Dairy, okay, I am fine with no milk, don't like it anyways, but cheese and ice cream? I LOVE cheese and ice cream, frozen yogurt, is one of my favorite things. She said that depending on what it was that I had an intolerance to, I might still be able to have some of those things. There is hope! The test would tell us much more, and then I would know for sure. So, we did a blood draw. Or.... she tried to do a blood draw. Very low blood pressure combined with the beginning of a cold equaled uncooperative veins. No blood would be drawn today!!

Cheese, it is good stuff!

Fast forward to my next appointment, about a month ago. My test results for my Epstein Barr titers were in and it was almost in dormancy, happy day! Just a few short months on herbal supplements and I had made a speedy break from that. During that appointment she was able to draw my blood for the food allergy test and we made another appointment for today to go over the results.