80 pounds lost! After a setback, it's good to remind myself of the progress I've made!

FitRoberta wrote: »

Congratulations! You look great!

Thanks so much!

trsttg wrote: »

You look so happy!

What were your symptoms that led you to discover the dairy allergy? Just curious.

I had been diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, but none of the meds even touched the pain. I also had unexplained inflammation (the rheumatologist told me "sometimes people just have inflammation and we don't know why") that was helped with anti-inflammatories. Steroids made the pain go away completely (in a larger dose to accommodate my weight as the standard dose is based on an adult that weighs 150), but no doctor wanted to prescribe them on a semi-permanent or permanent basis due to the brain damage that can result. My rheumatologist had pretty much given up and so had I. I was walking with a cane at that point and was at a 7 on the pain scale (1-10 with 10 being the worst) on most days, with spikes up to a 9. I could barely function, and even my desk job was too much for me and I was looking into the process to claim disability.

I randomly came across an article of someone who had a dairy allergy that manifested in Fibromyalgia-type symptoms, so I decided "why not?" and made a plan to cut out all dairy for 2 weeks and see how I felt. I had nothing to lose. TWO DAYS later, my pain was completely gone. It was absolutely magical. I was so emotional and, honestly, angry at that point, since I had lived 30 years of my life in incredible amounts of pain because of something so simple.

To this day, I still have leftover cognitive issues, due to the fact that I literally poisoned myself for 30 years of my life. I'll regularly forget things, especially words, and occasionally how to do something that I've been doing my entire life. One time my brain shut down and I forgot how to sit down. I stood in my office, just looking at my chair, trying to figure out how to get from a standing position into a sitting one. I think I stood there for a solid 2 minutes until it cleared. I don't notice it most days, since I'm so used to it, but it's further proof of how serious the issue actually was.

That said, I consider myself incredibly lucky that I figured it out on my own. If I hadn't come across that random article on the internet, I would still be in the same boat I was before and my life would be completely different.

KatVonTrees wrote: »

Holy toledo!!! Congratulations!

Thanks so much!

frannieshack wrote: »

What an amazing and heart breaking story! Our health system fails so many people, and so many people give up like you almost did. Thank God you were led to that article and decided to do something! You saved yourself!

It feels so surreal to me still, but I do my best to bring awareness to others who may be going through similar issues. Thanks!

PriceK01 wrote: »

You have done an AMAZING job!

Thank you!