Day 1 with no pop

Today was my first day starting my new pop challenge. I attempting to change my pop habit and only consume it on the weekend. This morning I woke up super early to get my workout in. Charlie woke up twice so my workout wasn't as strong as I would have liked, but I still got one in. Waking up early makes me quite tired but at the same time I feel very accomplished. I can workout, and clean the house before the kids wake up.

Lunchtime kind of sucked. I really wanted a pop, but had water instead. I haven't had dinner yet, but that will be tough as well. I'll probably make up my daily glass of lemon water (used to cleanse my body and hopefully increase my fertility/chance of conceiving a girl). I had a minor caffeine headache earlier but I had 4 chocolate covered coffee beans and felt better. I also noticed that I was a lot hungrier mid afternoon and had to have a snack. I'm normally nursing my lunch pop all afternoon which curbs hunger.

I must also shamelessly plug my husbands blog. He is still doing the Primal Diet (I had to quit as it caused me massive depression) and blogs about his diet and workout routine. You can find his blog here http://occasionaljark.blogspot.com/. He blogs with his best buddy, David, who is also a good friend of mine and the namesake of our son David.

Quick Update

Juggling 4 kids and a household is proving to take up a lot of my time, who would have thunk it?  So while Charlie sleeps on me, I'll post a quick update - and then it's off to bed for me!

Charlie is doing really well.  He is such an easy going baby - knock on wood.  He has his cranky moments, but for the most part he sleeps or eats most of the day.  He prefers sleeping on me to sleeping anywhere else, and I'm perfectly okay with that.  I hate putting my babies down in the early months.  It's especially bad with Charlie because I know we are nearing an end on having kids, so it makes every moment even more precious.  We are definitely having at least 1 more, maybe 2 children but I am starting to feel closer to being content.  At Charlie's 2 week check up he weighed in at 7 lbs 11 oz! Thats 1 lb 5.5 oz gain from birth!  I think for the first time I'm making cream instead of skim milk - and I credit my placenta capsules to that.

I have had a few moody, hormonal days but for the most part I feel pretty normal.  It may or may not be the placenta capsules, but whatever it is I'm happy - for now.  I was really worried about PPD with this pregnancy because I've battled depression for nearly a decade, and this pregnancy was pretty bad.  So far I'm doing well and I hope that keeps up.  I haven't been getting nearly enough sleep, which concerns me, but so far it's not completely messing my head up.

Chris and I have cheated a bit with the Primal diet, but I think we've figured out a decent balance, for now.  Grains are the worst food for me, especially, so we are trying to hardcore refrain from those.  I can tell when I eat grains how badly it is affecting me, within a few hours my entire body aches.  It makes me a bit angry that grains have been hailed as being so healthy, and the more I look into it the more I realize that this wasn't always believed to be true - it's just politics that make it appear to be true.  Maybe had I known I could have saved my wrists.  I can now feed myself with my right arm, wash my own hair, touch my face, touch the back of my head, ect... with my right arm.  All from eliminating grains.

We saw the surgeon again last week.  He is so impressed by the changes in my elbow that he no longer wants to do surgery on it - for now.  This is great news!  He still wants to go ahead with the fusion, however he wants me to meet with the rheumatologist to ensure that there is absolutely nothing else that can be done first.  I see him Thursday, and I see my surgeon again next Friday.  In the meantime he had custom made braces fitted for my hands to help the pain, and to simulate what a fusion will be like.

Anthony's last day of school is Thursday, and I couldn't be happier.  Every day I hear him tell me about the candy he was given and the movies he watched - it totally pisses me off.  We are both eager to begin homeschooling.  We are starting on the 31st - Chris and I are planning to switch to year round school and give days/weeks off where WE see fit. 


Our puppy, Jovi, is just over 4 weeks old now.  I can't wait to bring him home.  He is looking more like a Golden than a Huskie, and Chris is thrilled.  He wanted more Golden features.  He's so tiny still but he's looking more and more like a puppy.  It's absolutely amazing how quickly he's changed.

The next post, I promise, will contain some updated pictures of everyone.  Hopefully it won't be weeks before that happens.

Already seeing a change

Mark Sisson, author of "The Primal Blueprint", claims that it won't take weeks or months to notice a change when you go primal, it will take only a matter of days.  I was quite skeptical.  My issues are not quite the issues of others.  I'm not the average American who just feels sluggish after a meal, or is carrying loads of extra weight.  I don't have diabetes, or celiac disease, or other dietary issues.  But I am a believer now.  Chris and I have been incorporating more primal meals into our diet, and phasing out other foods.  We are still cheating occasionally because we aren't going hardcore until after the birth.  I am feeling the carb shock I was expecting, but my wrists and elbow are doing loads better.  It's been 3 months or so since I've been able to reach my right hand to my face.  The past two days I've been able to not only touch my mouth with my thumb, but today I was able to touch the top of my head - something I can't remember doing.  I was actually able to eat breakfast with my dominant hand!  I didn't need my painkillers this afternoon for the first time in who knows when, either.  And then Chris and I cheated hardcore for dinner.  Within three hours I had excruciating pain in my wrists again, and my arm couldn't reach my face.  I didn't realize how great I felt until all of a sudden the pain had returned.  It may be a fluke, a weird coincidence, but I'm extremely eager to see if it does help with pain!  Tomorrow we plan to primal it up again! 

And for those who are interested in a delicious recipe, this salad I had for lunch and it was scrumptious!

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/bacon-chicken-and-avocado-salad/

Baby update, first primal lunch

I had another OB/NST appt on Friday.  Luckily these were right after each other, unlike last week where I had them split by a few hours.  The NST didn't go so well this time.  Charlie wasn't in much of a cooperating mood.  He hardly moved and his heart rate was staying quite consistent instead of fluctuating.  They had me drink a tall glass of ice water, and when that didn't work I had to eat some more chocolate.  This time the chocolate wasn't very satisfying, it was way to sickly sweet.  After a while, though, it began to work and Charlie began doing what he was supposed to do.

At my OB appt the doctor wanted to check me again to see if there had been any change from last week - especially given my history of going quickly.  Last week my cervix was hard and closed, this week he said it was "extremely soft" and I'm dilated 1-2 cms.  He also commented that he's not sure how I walk since Charlies head was so low down, and that it's basically a waiting game at this point.  I've been having more contractions, that aren't Braxton Hicks any long, but nothing consistent or labor inducing.  On the NST monitor they were ranging in the 40 to 50 range.

I think I realized WHY this pregnancy is so much harder for me to walk.  My legs have severely atrophied from the EDS, and now I've lost my center of gravity and core.  So low muscle tone/weakness, and nothing else to keep me upright makes walking extremely difficult.  It's not painful, it just requires nearly all my strength to lift my leg and take a step. I've begun getting those, "You must be ready to pop!" comments when we are out in public.

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Today we had our first Primal Lunch.  The boys scouts are doing a food drive so we boxed up all the non-perishables that we can no longer eat and donated them.  Later this week we'll be sending off the things we've opened as well as the frozen and refrigerated items to various friends.  The kids ate surprisingly well, and Chris and I are compiling meal lists of things we can eat to keep them interested.  Lunch is the most difficult as nearly all lunch items are non-primal.  Anyway...

The kids had a few blackberries, a strawberry, a hard boiled egg, some avocado, and some roast beef.

Chris and I had some blackberries, a strawberry, egg salad wrapped in lettuce (Chris also had Roast beef but I couldn't stomach it), and some avocado.  We could hardly eat it all and it kept us full for the rest of the evening.  Dinner was quite light.

 And because I can't resist, David napping.  He is so cute when he sleeps.  And for those other cloth lovers, that is a TK Cuddlers diaper cover with a prefold inside.

Where I am starting at - Paleo Dieting/ Primal Blueprint

Chris and I are becoming more and more hopeful that this new lifestyle change will really help me with not losing the rest of my body to Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome.  I was planning to slowly phase out the negative foods over the course of a month, but I'm thinking now it may happen over the next two weeks so that when I return home from birthing Charlie I will start Primal Living.  This is where I'm at, EDS wise:

- Wrists - both are damaged beyond repair.  Massive bone loss, tendon loss, ligament loss, cartilage loss, dislocated (sublexed) and separated from forearms. Will have both fused over the next few months.

- Right Elbow - Tendons and ligaments are torn and displaced, membrane is swollen, total cartilage loss.  Will have surgery in the next month to 6 weeks to repair as much as can be repaired, remove some of the bones, and the membrane.  Will need total elbow replacement surgery in 4-5 years.

- Fingers. On my left hand my index, middle, and ring finger "crunch" when moved, and cause tendon pain through the palm of my hand when used. Pain is becoming difficult to manage.  On my right hand there is burning in my pinkie and ring finger that is caused by elbow swelling pressing on the "funny bone nerve".  Pain and stiffness developing.

-Shoulder. Massive "crunching" when used. Right shoulder has been dislocating since I was a child. No cartilage left. Pain now developing in both shoulders, but lower down in the muscles.

-Ankle.  Heard a pop in my left ankle about 18 months ago, since then off and on pain in my Achilles tendon. Gotten worse as I've gained weight this pregnancy.  So bad the other day I couldn't walk without standing on my tippy toes.

-Knees.  Occasionally pain and popping.  Rehabilitated with PT last year and haven't had many issues since.  Took many months to rebuild strength.

-Toes. Frequently dislocate and audible crunching when bent, especially on my right foot.

- Back. Sciatica that occurs frequently and causes mobility issues and has greatly weakened my left side.

The wrists and the elbow are beyond help without surgical intervention, but I'm hoping that the rest can avoid surgery simply by changing my lifestyle.  I'm currently taking between 2 and 4 percocet a day just to manage the pain.  The next step would be morphine patches and it's not a step I'm eager to take.

Paleo dieting, Phase 1

Chris has been reading up about the Paleo diet (Also known as the Cave Man or Stone Age Diet) and he REALLY wants to do it.  He's been talking to me about it for a few weeks, and I told him I'd support him but I wasn't going to participate.  Well, he might have convinced me to give it a shot.  I'm still skeptical, but the author he has me reading makes a lot of great points (you can check out his site, http://www.marksdailyapple.com/ ) and Chris thinks it will greatly help out the pain and progression of EDS.  Most of my pain comes from secondary Osteoarthritis which Mark claims can be helped by changing the way we live.  It's so much more than a diet, it's a complete lifestyle change. 

A few of the things he advocates are 1) a change in food (obviously).  If our caveman ancestors didn't eat it, neither do we.  If you strive for perfection he believes you'll succeed 80% of the time, so he doesn't expect you to be perfect.  This means eliminating a lot of my favorite foods though, amongst them are potatoes and bread.  The Paleo way does not allow for grains - so no rice, bread, corn, ect....  I could live off bread and potatoes so that is going to be very difficult for me.  I figure my cheat meals will probably include bread and potatoes, lol.  He differs from the Atkins diet in the Atkins is a low-carb diet.  His is not a low-carb diet, it's more a natural carb diet.  You get your carbs from fruits and veggies instead of breads and pastas.  I haven't read the whole book yet, so I hesitate to put too much information out in case I'm wrong.  Chris says that dark chocolate is allowed though, so that makes me happy.  He also advocates for

2) a change in exercise.  He believes we should exercise the way our ancestors did.  Meaning, we should move frequently, but slowly with occasionally sprinting (something I won't be able to do because of the EDS).  Occasionally you should lift heavy things as well, but hard core cardio is out.  This is going to be difficult to find an exercise regime I CAN do with EDS that still fits into this lifestyle.

3) No wearing shoes.  He claims that shoes make our ankles weaker which weakens our lower body and causes pain.  Sarah, my PT, had a similar philosophy about strengthening your lower body strengthens your whole body.  So I can see this.  Obviously in our society no shoes isn't really plausible (no shirt, no shoes, no service) so Chris and I are looking at buying moccasins for the whole family.

As I read more of his book I'm sure I'll have more to write, and as I go through this massive lifestyle change I KNOW I'll more to write/vent about.  It's not going to be easy, but if it helps my EDS how could I not do it?  How could I possible complain about how much pain I'm in, and how much this sucks if I am unwilling to try to change it?  It's similar to people who don't vote. If you don't vote don't complain. 

Phase 1 will take place next weekend.  The Boy Scouts are doing a food drive so we are cleaning out our pantry of unopened items that we won't be able to eat once we begin this and donating them.