Autoimmune Testing

Back in April I was referred to a reproductive endocrinologist with experience treating infertility caused by autoimmune issues. I had a lot of blood drawn over the following 6 weeks. I know it wasn't record setting by any stretch of the imagination, but it came to 35 vials.

Prior to the first draw, I had been eating a decently strict grain-free diet. This meant no corn, wheat, barley, rice, etc. I didn't eat potatoes, either. My results came back with elevated cytokines and speckled ANAs but everything else was pretty normal, including the bloodwork that led to my diagnosis with antiphospholipid antibody syndrome several years ago.

At that point, I was pretty tired of having so many of my foods restricted, so I spent 2 weeks eating whatever I wanted. The test was run again and my level of ANAs doubled which to me was a pretty clear indicator that my immune system responds negatively when I eat grains. After a couple days of some hard introspection and a few discussions with friends who've treated immune issues with dietary changes and a friend I have in the medical field with Crohn's Disease, I decided to go beyond the grains and adopt the Autoimmune Protocol, an eating lifestyle that is highly restrictive in the foods consumed with the intent of healing the immune system.

A little over two weeks after making those dietary changes, I had additional autoimmune testing run by a rheumatologist.  The results came back and I got quite a shock: everything came back completely normal. Those speckled ANAs? Gone.

So as much as I absolutely don't like these restrictions, my immune system is now behaving just as it should and that makes it worth it.

For now.

When I say restricting, let me give you a list of the things I can't eat.

No: wheat, barely, oats, corn, etc
No seeds, including quinoa
No dairy (you know I love cheese!!)
No soy
No nightshades (things like tomatoes, bell peppers, other peppers, cumin, eggplant)
No spices made from nightshades
No nuts
No eggs
No foods made with preservatives like nitrates/nitrites
No sugar
Limited fruits (because of sugar content)

So what does that mean I can eat? Well, I can eat lots of meats and green veggies that aren't peppers. I can have uncured bacon, chicken, beef, pork, and fish but seasoning these is sometimes a challenge. I can have coconut, including coconut milk.
I can have zucchini, butternut squash, spaghetti squash, leaks, celery, and carrots.
I can have sweet potatoes. Did you know they come in white and purple as well? White sweet potatoes are very similar to regular potatoes in taste and texture so they make great hash browns.
I can have cassava flour, coconut flour, and arrowroot flour, all good choices for baking or thickening sauces.
I can have coconut aminos, which taste like a slightly sweetened soy sauce.
I can have berries. Strawberry season around here lasted almost 8 weeks. It has been heavenly!!
I can have broccoli and cauliflower, both cruciferous veggies that I enjoy cooked in a variety of ways.
I can have cilantro, oregano, black pepper, salt, ginger, onion, garlic and any other herbs that suit my fancy.
I can have avocados (um, yummmmm!)
I can have a "caesar salad dressing" made from avocados, oil, fish sauce, and a couple of spices. It's actually really good and is a recipe I will keep using even after I'm off this crazy train.

Breakfast has been my hardest challenge. I really do love eggs and veggies for breakfast so what I've found myself doing more often than not is eating leftovers from dinner for breakfast. On Tuesday I browned some pork sausage from a local farm along with some sliced purple sweet potato. That purple added more color to my breakfast than I've seen for a long time. So much of what I eat is green and that gets pretty boring pretty fast.

These dietary changes are not permanent. As much as I would love to be able to eat this way for life, I won't be able to sustain it for an indefinite amount of time. The psychological impact of "I can't eat that" is going to do long-term damage to me if I have to keep it up. Cooking meals that appease my family and myself is also incredibly complicated. Tom Brady eats AIP, I think, but he has a personal chef! I do not have good ol' Mr. Brady's budget.

That last paragraph might not be so true if I felt somehow healthier with these eating changes but the truth is, I don't feel any better. I am still getting those sucky headaches when I'm not visiting the chiropractor regularly, my bowels are still sluggish, and I've put some weight on because I'm overeating the foods that I can eat. My dreams have gotten really vivid and bizarre the last two months as well, too. I wake up in a near panic because of dreams of losing my girls, car accidents, planes crashing into my house, tornadoes, floods, and the complete collapse of our government.

The dreams are decidedly not awesome.

But . . .if it allows my husband and I to conceive and carry another baby into our family, it will be worth it.

In the long run, I can see myself possibly keeping with a modified version of this diet for longer term. What I'll need to do is add back one of the food groups and see what my ANAs do. For example, add back eggs and see if my immune system reacts. If not, then add back the night shades or dairy, working one at a time to see what causes the immune flare then avoiding those foods regularly but allowing myself a little wiggle room for special occasions.

Until then, I'll be sticking to AIP for at least another three months or longer if we're unsuccessful in conceiving before that two months is over.