Acupuncture Round Two April 13, 2009

Saturday was my second acupuncture appointment.  Good news: I did not come down with the flu shortly afterwards! Yea!  My appointment was late afternoon.  Mid afternoon I had a pretty decent headache going, so about an hour before the session I took two excedrin.  Poof, headache disappeared in about 45 minutes (I was lucky I took them early after onset).

Luckily I took a book with me, I sat for about 45 minutes in the lobby for my appt.  Got in there, had my consultation (which lead to my previous post on the elusiveness of acceptance) and then came the pins.  Seemed the same to me as last time.  Laid on my back, pins in various spots from forehead to ears, elbows, hand, legs and feet.  It was different this time, but hard to describe.  I did get emotional, sort of randomly, this time, which she mentioned the first time might happen.  I didn’t feel the sort of rotation of the spots “working” but I did get that nice sort of “glow” in the muscles throughout and afterwards.

I got done and felt pretty good for the rest of the day.  A bit tired but not bad really.  Not quite as achy, but not great either.  No headaches afterward though, so that was a VERY good thing.  I have my next appt this Thursday already, which I didn’t realize until I looked at the calendar today.  I’m mixed on it all.  I have two more appointments scheduled and I’m definitely going to both of them.  I just need to decide after that what I want to do. I’m really not sure what I’m supposed to feel like, what should be improving…is it the acupuncture? Is it the dietary changes that she and the naturopath are recommending? Something else? Pure luck?

I need to commit to these alternative paths, and it’s going to be a challenge.  I wonder if I’m almost not trying too many things at once.  The diet is hard enough, let alone the pills and supplements (which I’ve been so bad about since the flu) and then the chiro and the acupuncture…tomorrow is going to be another one of those days where I have to commit, it’s my appointment with the naturopath where we are going to start discussing the elimination diet.  Joy.  Maybe I’ll just eat meat and dairy for all three meals tomorrow and enjoy it while I can

Diet and Pain March 22, 2009

The last couple weeks I’ve been thinking much more about my diet and how it can affect/ease/increase my pain and symptoms.  I’ve seen a dietitian (not overly helpful, but some) and my naturopath and I have been talking diet too.    It’s not that I’m sceptical.  I know that some foods are moe inflammatory than others.   And I’ve made an effort these past few weeks to cut back on dairy, eat less processed foods, and cut WAY back on sodium (to try to avoid prednisone weight gain).  I thought that the overall effect of diet was pretty mild though.  When I was asked about “trigger” foods, I sort of brushed it off, knowing there were certain foods I just can’t eat because I don’t digest them (eggs, onions and most anything containing “fake” sugars-particularly diet pop), but not knowing of any that would set off pain or headaches, etc.

Until this weekend.  Yesterday was my husband’s birthday and we spent the day out with friends at the golf club (beer and cards and basketball) then a local pizza joint (pizza and beer) and back to the house.  I didn’t drink a ton of beer, but over the course of the day I certainly drank a lot more than I have recently.  And for both lunch and dinner, my meals consisted of pizza.  By the time we got home last night about 10 pm, I was not doing well.  Mega headache.  Hurting everywhere.  Absolutely wiped (in all fairness, it was 10pm, but still).  I managed to make it until 11, but I was miserable.  And so despite a houseful of people, I took myself up to bed, took an Ambien, and slept.  A total wake up for me as to diet and “trigger” foods.  This was a definite, food-related incident for me.  I don’t know that I’ve ever noticed something like this before, blowing my theory out of the water that my my diet wasn’t affecting my flares in any real way.

I thought it was the beer that did it.  So last night I took down a TON of water, same with all day today.  Today was better, but I was still achy and tired, a bit more than nomal the past few days.  Turns out I think I was wrong on that though being my “trigger”.  Tonight, out of laziness, I ate the last two squares of my BBQ chicken pizza and the crust/sauce of a deep dish slice (having removed the pepperoni and cheese).  The reaction my body had seemed almost instant.  Within 10 minutes, I had a splitting headache, the roof/back of my mouth had swollen and I felt like crud again in general.  While I’m sure the beer didn’t help last night, it appears as though pizza is not a friend of mine.

Now I’m left with questions…and a splitting headache.  Is it pizza in general?  The BBQ sauce? The cheese? The crust (gluten)?  I’d been fighting the idea of the elimination diet and removing meat, dairy and gluten from my diet for 3 or 4 weeks to see what, if any, the effect would be.  I’m now a believer and will probably start sooner rather than later.  I still think gluten is going to be next to impossible to eliminate, particularly since I’m coming up on a big period of travel for work over the next several months.  But, I now feel the need to do this, and to start planning out my meals more carefully.  Last weekend I bought a book on a whim – Anti-Inflammatory Foods for Health – when I was at BN.  I think I’ll spend some time tonight perusing its pages and recipes.

But the moral of this long, rather boring story: I’m now a believer that my diet affects my pain and my headaches, at least, or maybe especially, during a flare.  It’s going to be a while before I brave pizza again.  If anyone has tips or experience with this, I’d appreciate hearing from you, particularly if you have suggestions on eating out (considering I’ll do this for days, if not weeks, at a time…)