I am now three weeks in on my own elimination diet. I appreciate that the medical community may frown on my willfulness to ignore them, but I felt it was about time I figured out what was going on without the thousands of dollars they would ask me to spend.
What is going on??? Well, about 6 years ago I was diagnosed with celiac. It most likely was triggered with my last pregnancy, but since then I have had weight gain, and bizarre eczema and hand swelling issues. You might explain away the weight gain with my eating patterns, I do love food and I love to eat, but gaining 12+ lbs and not being able to loose any of it no matter how well I ate or tracked callories seemed odd.
My hands.. well that's a sad and confusing story as well. My left hand is worse than my right, and oddly it's not all fingers that are affected.. my left hand, including my palm has had times of excruciating eczema and swelling. To the point that I can't use my hand, bend my fingers or even wear my ring (well that should be a given).. My wedding ring that used to fit comfortably and a little loose wont fit past my first nuckle. Weird right?! My middle finger and thumb though don't seem to be affected. On my right hand it's my ring finger, my pinky and at times my pointer. That's all. I've had times where I will find little white blisters that ooze puss, and itch like my hand was dipped in acid. That happens less now, instead I get red, angry looking rashes, tight skin and what looks like paper cuts all over my fingers.. again making life rather painful to experience with my hands! My skin is so damaged that the feel of soft fabric feels like sandpaper or rather my hands are like sandpaper on fabric, and even my husband can feel the scratching when I rub his back or arm. Not fun.
So enough was enough, and I decided to figure this out. This past summer a friend saw my hand and suggested that it might be 'jungle fungus'. At least that's what it's called in Hawaii... so according to what she had heard and information I found on line, I soaked my hands in apple cider vinegar for about 15-30 minutes each night, let them air dry and then used coconut oil as a lotion several times during the day. Since then, the blisters haven't come back which is a good thing.
These were taken this summer after I soaked my hands in the vinegar. Yes they are a little more red from soaking, but not too different from what they sometimes looked like when I was having a bad flare up. You can see from the red, exactly where I have my issues. Ya it hurt!!! It was like I was putting my hands in acid for a good 30 minutes. My hands burned and ached but I did it hoping it would help. (and I agree, no amount of finger nail polish was going to help my hands look any better!)
this is a shot of my hand after having soaked my hands every night for about a week. they really were doing better.
This is a shot past that - you can see the scabs around my nuckles from where the bumps were healing... This vinegar treatment really did help a lot!!! Just not all the way - hence my goal to figure it out!
9 months later-ish... my hands still swell, get angry rashes and have the paper cuts so I figured it had to be allergy related. I spent a good deal of time looking up on line and reading what I could about food allergies. I have celiac which means my digestive system is already somewhat compromised. I had an allergy test about a year ago in response to my asking about my hand issues.. They ran a scratch test and said I was allergic to a lot of trees/pollens and normal things (if you have allergies like dust, etc.. ) and then my list of foods were green beans, sweet potatoes, carrots, pineapple, cinnamon and brazil nuts. Well I know I'm allergic to nuts. I actually have problems with a lot of nuts - brazil are the worst. But the other foods??? That wasn't nice. I ignored what they said since I didn't notice anything at the time and kept eating my vegetables. But I decided it was time to figure this out - and see if maybe those foods are causing problems, or if other foods are to blame.
I decided to eliminate all potential foods from my "allergy list" and the foods they were related too. I came down to a list of okay foods to eat being chicken and broccoli. After 1 week or gorging on chicken and broccoli, seasoned with olive oil, salt and pepper, my hands were soft, less swollen, healed and happy! I could wear my ring again. Huge since it's been about 5 years since I could wear my ring every day. Another happy note - I lost 5+ lbs in that first week. I've always hated the girls that say, "oh it just came off and I didn't try".. well, sadly that's what happened. Though I was doing something - severely limiting my food choices, but not the intake!! I was eating a lot of chicken and broccoli! I credit the weight loss to water retention and inflamation weight - all tell tell signs of a food allergy problem.
this is my hand after the first week of my 'elimination diet'... my ring fits!!!
I intended to go a full 3 weeks with the food restrictions before adding foods in, but I felt better than I had in a long time, so I started adding foods... To date, this is what I've found out
1. Rice and onions are not tollerated well by me. I don't have an allergy issue - but I take about 2 days to digest them fully. So during those two days, I bloat about 2" out in my stomach and feel constipated and sluggish. - not fun.
2. Asparagus, cauliflower and cabbage are okay from what I can tell.
3. Poatoes - not so sure about. I ate them and then felt tired and run down and irriatable the next day. All signs of an allergy if you google around online. But I'm going to try them again anyway - I need my potato chips and potatoes are a vital ingredient there. I am sick this week, so my symptoms may have been me just getting sick. Though my hand did get some swelling and paper cuts so I'm back to chicken and brocolli until that clears up and I feel better.
4. Eggs - oh those wonderful and versatile things... I'm allergic. I watched my hand swell and turn red while eating the eggs. I should try them again as well, but I'm a little scared and think I will wait for a while before I try them again.
5. I think I'm okay with most meats, but cheap meat is not my friend... serious stomach aches from too much fat!
6. Carrots are a question, I haven't eaten them.. but pealed twice and each time my hand iched or was swollen that day and the next.?????
Today is a full 3 weeks and I've lost 10 lbs from when I started keeping track, but a full 13 lbs from my high point when I started thinking about all this (3 weeks ago). The weight has slowed down as it comes off, so now it could be calorie restriction, even though I don't feel like I'm restricting - I just eat until I'm full. Broccoli is good for that I guess! But I'm encouraged every day that I see that I'm loosing a little bit more weight and that my ring fits - all day long! I still have some swelling when I first wake up, but I wonder if that is something to do with my really low blood preasure, and poor circulation??/ Question for the dr. at my next visit I guess.
This is my hand the day I ate eggs!... I'm a little scared to try them again. They were worse than that the next day, so swollen my ring didn't fit for about 3 days.. and the cuts and tight skin were horrible...
This is a week and 2 days after the "egg" day. My ring fits again and the painful, red, rashy tight skin is gone!
And this is my hand today.. less swollen even since a few days ago and doing so much better. I still feel a little tight and have a few cuts (maybe from the potatoes???) but I'm happy with what I have!
Anyway - That is my update! I've been told I'm crazy. I've been told this is not a good thing to do. I've been given the look of "oh wow, that's not safe to loose that much weight". But since I feel better now than I have in years (apart from have a little cold), and the weight is coming off without me being hungry, I have energy to exercise and get things done - all of which I haven't before. So I don't think this is bad. I'm also not feeling like I'm walking around in a daze or fog.. I feel happier and less lethargic in general.
The more foods I eat and find that I can eat without gaining weird amounts of weight or having my hand swell and hurt.... the more I am encouraged and want to keep going! This week, I'm adding yams (apparently different family than sweet potatoes - but I don't like sweet potatos as well as yams so I don't care!), green beans, and garlic! I'll give my hand a week of feeling good before I add potatoes back in.. But I'm missing chips, so I hope it's soon!
With this change... wouldn't you want to figure it out!
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