So.. I have not updated in years and years, I think.
Currently, this is what I think it going on.
I have many, very telling, autistic symptoms.
I believe autism runs in my family, especially my dad, and his dad. Maybe my oldest aunt on that side too.
And my son.
Having autism, is often associated with autoimmune issues, burnout, chronic fatigue, etc.
So after years and years of confusion, wondering if I'm sick, because my anxiety is making me sick.
Or if I'm anxious, because I'm sick and I can't meet the expectations of neurotypicals.
I'm autistic. It's socially overwhelming and exhausting. And often comes with autoimmune issues.
Trauma contributed to the stress and autoimmune issues.
IN ADDITION to all of this,
I've had EXCRUTIATINGLY abnormal pain with my cycle, ever since it started when I was about a week short of turning 13.
According to several different OBGYN doctors I've seen over the years, they have each told me I had cysts, on something, but said 'it can be normal'.
Small cysts all up in my cervix. Cysts on my ovaries (seen in laparoscopy photos). And one suggested the possibility that I have something called 'adenomyosis', which means that because the inside of my uterus is much smaller than it should be compared to the outside of my uterus,
He thinks I have cysts all through the lining of the uterine walls.
Good news is,
When I got pregnant 18 years ago, my hormone levels changed, and TW
Blood suddenly started pouring out of me and I was terrified I had a miscarriage.
The following morning I saw my doctor, who did an ultrasound, and the baby was fine.
Again I was told "it can be normal."
After the pregnancy and even after the birth, my excruciating menstrual pain was all but gone.
And only started to resurface again after another 12 or 13 years of what I'm assuming are more cysts accumulating in the walls of my uterus.
At which point, a random nurse suggested I get an IUD.
And I did it.
And it caused me to bleed
FOR ALMOST AN ENTIRE YEAR.
Very heavy at first, but gradually tapered off,
Month after month,
sometimes it would seem like it stopped,
But then would start up again.
Until almost an ENTIRE YEAR had passed.
And by then, the walls of my uterus had changed so much, the IUD FELL OUT.
It fell out.
I gave the little cord that was already mostly out a small careful pull and the thing literally came right out.
Glad I didn't have to go in and have it removed later.
And after that happened,
my periods have been relatively fine, again.
I'm hoping I will actually go into menopause before the cysts build up in the lining of my uterus again and the debilitating pain returns.
BACK TO THE AUTOIMMUNE ISSUES:
I have noticed, after all my research, and all the things I have tried,
A few things GENUINELY helped me, a lot, and changed my life.
I am NOT cured. I am STILL disabled, and my immune system can flare up if I ... try to work. Or function like a normal human. My immune system will try to eat me from the inside out until I can no longer function, and have to either quit, or be let go, because I literally cannot do the job anymore.
But these things helped:
- superfood powder. - helps immensely with the chronic fatigue. It's still there, but I'm no longer sleeping 14 hours a day.
- apple cider vinegar added to whatever I'm drinking. Doing this for three days in a row vastly changes how the widespread pain associated with fibromyalgia and other autoimmune issues. Just a cap full of apple cider vinegar to a cup of natural lemonade (avoid sugar and use honey or another alternative whenever possible.) WILL help reduce the pain.
-When the pain was REALLY bad, and EXHAUSTING, I learned that the overgrowth of candida in the bloodstream needs both an abundance of lipids AND sugars, to thrive.
You reduce both of those for only THREE DAYS, and the candida dies off very quickly--
BUT it can cause intense depression when that happens, so be aware of it, and know it will pass,
And ridding the body of candida overgrowth was an amazing difference in my pain.
-For those three days, I ate nothing but white rice with a little salt and lemon juice. NOTHING ELSE, for three days. Water is fine.
But if you do this, the rapid decline in both the sugar levels, AND fats/lipids force the death of candida overgrowth.
Continue to avoid sugar after this. It will actually be a lot easier because your body isn't SCREAMING for sugar, to maintain that level of sugar in the bloodstream.
This will make your liver a lot happier, but it helps to take herbal supplements for both the adrenals, and the liver.
ANOTHER THING that helped A LOT, and this is gonna sound SUPER weird,
But despite doctors telling me there's no test they can do to confirm fibromyalgia; and that it's a diagnosis of omission.
So it's basically like; we do TONS of expensive tests to ROVE you don't have a BUNCH of other diagnosis you didn't even come in for, and when all of those come back negative, THEN we tell you, you have fibromyalgia.
Well in spite of that, I did some digging, and learned that there is a toxin released into the bloodstream when you are hungover, that causes the widespread pain.
I have very often tried to explain the pain associated with autoimmune issues; to being hung over. I have never been hung over. But I have to go off of what other people have told me.
And APPARENTLY, this SAME toxin HAS been found in abundance in the blood of patients with fibromyalgia.
THE SAME TOXIN people have in their bloodstream when they are hungover because their body cannot process the toxic levels of sugars coursing through the bloodstream from the alcohol.
And you know what nutrient helps disperse that toxin? A thing called 'taurine'.
And 'taurine' is something found in clam chowder, and also, in Monster energy.
I started drinking Monster energery, every day, for the caffeine to combat the still troublesome chronic fatigue, and also for the taurine to eliminate the sugar-related toxins causing widespread pain. And I swear it helps.
It helps a lot.
A NEW thing I've just picked up,
(And this is also in reference to the autoimmune issues; the only very physically provable sign of which is the scalp psoriasis I've had on the back of my head, since I was only 8 years old.)
Is BLUEBERRIES.
A random post online from a random guy said he ate 10 blueberries every day for a month
AND HIS PSORASIS DISAPPEARED.
So I thought.. Ok well why tf not just try it, what could it hurt?
And I DO THINK IT WAS WORKING.
But aftr a couple of weeks, I started eating dried blueberries instead because I thought they'd be easier to keep.
And a few days ago, when I woke up, I noticed some inflamed plaques built up on the back of my head again.
WHICH HAD NOT BEEN HAPPENING when I was eating fresh blueberries.
So I will be picking up that habit again and just eat fresh blueberries, and not dried ones. idk why it matters, but the physical manifestation is telling.
FINALLY, and this one is old,
But also very possibly related to my immune system being stupid; I had REALLY BAD acne when I was a teenager. It was painful, it was soul-crushing. People were cruel to me because of it, for years.
And I was STILL dealing with it, well into my mid-20s. IT was not going away.
So.. one of my first trips down the diagnostic rabbit hole on internet forums of ppl sharing their problems and what worked for them and what didn't;
I happened on an herbal supplement called herpanacine. Which basically just has a heck ton of vitamin A, and L-lysine.
I took two every day, I think.. Until the bottle was gone,
AND IT WORKED. It worked, but by that time, I was pregnant the second time, and my doctor said there was too much vitamin A in it, and recommended I stop taking it while pregnant.
I was upset. I thought for sure I was going to break out again,
BUT I DIDN"T.
The herpanacine had cured my acne.
I WAS ASO diagnoses with hypothyroidism about 18 years ago, and it was recommended I take synthetic thyroid hormone.
But there was SO many, many accounts of real people, online, in forums for hypothyroidism, explaining that they take it, and it works briefly, and then they thyroid stope prodcuing that hormone EVEN LESS, and they need MORE synthetic thyroid hromone, and this exhausting, infuriating cycle continues, while they continue to attempt to exercise and eat better, and try to POWER THROUGH the soul-crushing exhaustion,
While their doctors are convinced they are LYING, because they learned in medical school, that this synthetic thyroid hormone WORKS. So the patients are just being difficult on purpose, right? They continue to gain weight because they're lazy, and lying, right? That's the only explanation?
Nobody actually cares to like... compare notes of this happening to SO MANY PEOPLE taking synthetic thyroid hormone, to recognize it as a real thing or not? .. Doctors make me mad. Anyway.
All I did at that time, was to research forums, and I made myself a list NOT of foods I can't eat; but I focused on a list of foods I CAN eat, that are supposed to be good for my thyroid,
And when they tested me again.. my levels were normal.
And after that, I was taking tablets, made from bovine or porcine thyroid, dried, and ground up, in a pill form. And that was helping.
But honestly, after I started consuming the superfood powder, I've found I don't even need the tablets anymore, and it's been maybe four years.
I STILL take maca root almost every day. It helps the body repair itself, and regulate hormones, and I need all the help I can get.
I still take melatonin at night, for similar reasons. Getting good sleep is essential to feeling better.
And every Spring/Summer I have to take a very generic allergy pill because symptoms that looked and felt like severe anemia and migraines were actually just a really weird manifestation of allergies nobody talks about. So that helps.
I'M SURE THAT'S NOT EVERYTHING,
But I wanted to document it all right here, in case anyone searching online for answers like I once did, could benefit from something I'd written here.
DON'T GIVE UP. Even 'incurable' things, CAN get better.
