Michelle’s Loosing Fibromyalgia and Weight Journal

[lmggallagher]

Yesterday
Food:
B: corn flakes/flax meal/oat milk
L: none
D: my fodmaps soup with grbanzos
S:potato/blood orange/ tangerine

Weight: ?
Sleep: up too early again
Symptoms: sinus headache bad one and worse than day before
Exercise: Egoscue ecises for sinus but no others
Morning Sun: none foggy here
MWL: yes
Meditation: 20 mins
Friends, family and fun: just right

Today
Fibro: pain - 5 fatigue - 9
Sleep: good until 3:30 am up
Gratitude to start the day: Someone posted abt listening to Bel Ruth Napersteck - so I listened to her guided meditations for sleep, weight loss, immune system and IBS this morning. Love Bell but she didn't have a chance to put me to sleep - oh well.

Yesterday's sinus headache was the worst I ever had. I know now that they are food related for me, its just figuring out which foods. I did Egoscue for sinus, I reviewed my foods I read more on what to do the relieve one and what causes them. Probably something in that wrap I had in the City but I am not sure what. Usually dairy gets me. I may have unwittingly ate a mozzarella ball in the wrap. Though I told the guy no cheese, onions or garlic. He put in the cheese and garlic and then had to pick those out - maybe he didn't get all the cheese???

Weirdly, one site said avoid citrus as it can make it worse. Not cause but accentuates the problem. Sure enough after the Egoscue I was doing somewhat better but after eating the blood orange and tangerine - back it came. Unfortunately ,I didn't read that until after.

What finally did help was hot facial compresses for about an hour then a cold one. This did the trick so I could get some sleep. Soon as that was done I feel fast asleep and I think I will do that again now. Oddly, it's 8 am here and I am about to go back to sleep for an hour

[lmggallagher]

Yesterday
Food:
B: corn flakes/flax meal/oat milk/blueberries
L: kitchen sink salad/millet
D: roast potatoes/carrots/peppers/zuchinni
S:blood orange/ melon bites

Weight: ?
Sleep: up too early again
Symptoms: sinus headache all gone/sharp pain in back continues/exhausted
Exercise: No Egoscue
Morning Sun: none foggy here
MWL: yes
Meditation: 20 mins
Friends, family and fun: just right

Today
Fibro: pain - 5 fatigue - 9
Sleep: good until 4:30 am up w/Weasel
Gratitude to start the day: feeling so much better today - love it.

Yesterday was a real stretch for me because I was so tired, but the sinus headache was all resolved, so that was a huge step forward. I had to skip meditation at my church to get a few extra winks of sleep in before making lunch and going to the Food Closet. Once I was there I had to inform my dear manager that I can't come again until I resolve my sleep issues. This is really dismaying for me, as I love doing this work with the wonderful people who volunteer there. The problem is that some days I am just too tired to really consider driving. It's not that I would fall asleep at the wheel or anything - but that I worry about my reaction times and alertness overall.

I am taking a new approach on the insomnia though and am seriously looking at replacing my bed. Last night I did a ton of research into this. Previously, I bought a natural laytex bed. I did tons of research for it too and found that it was the best bed for folks with fibromyalgia. I went to a local mattress outlet that carried a few types of laytex and other non- inner spring options. I got on just about every bed for a 15 minute trial. The bed I selected was ultimately the laytex one that was highest rated. Yet, I bought it because before I got to my 15 minutes I was sound asleep. The bed was a miracle to me after the pain I got from spring mattresses.

It's been about 8 years now and I won't buy another one of these. The reason is that you can't move the thing at all. It took three men to get it into my house the thing has no handles, weighs a ton and is really impossible to keep stable while moving it. I'd like to rotate it - it can't be flipped - but even with three of us we couldn't get it rotated because no one could get a good purchase on it. With my fibro it's also really hard to change too. Meanwhile, it has such a bad sag that I am sleeping on an incline - and frankly I think now there is no way for me to be comfortable enough to sleep for more than a few hours on it. Having tired all other sleep hygiene steps to a tee without good results and even sleep deprivation as Dr. McD recommends (both he and a grandchild have this problem - so he knows of what he speaks first hand) - I am going for the new bed option.

I have zeroed it down to a Sleep Number Bed their cheapest at about 1,000 (ouch) with a natural laytex 2 inch topper that can be easily flipped and rotated. New down pillows and bed skirt and I will be broke for the rest of the year OMG the year just started!!!:lol:

I got here by reviewing everything I could find - and this mattress is a Consumer Reports Best Buy and rates favorably on this wonderful website - "Sleep Like the Dead". Not a great name in a way - but boy is this place comprehensive. They have everything rated that one can imagine for sleep - including the author's sleep remedies and sleeping pill ratings!

http://www.sleeplikethedead.com/

Between CR and SLTD - it seems all I have to do is put a good topper on the bed. This renders it better than the more expensive ones because their attached toppers sag over time too and are not terribly breatheable. This allows me to just replace my own removable topper natural laytex top when needed. That seems ideal to me.

Essentially, I can adjust the firmness of the bed and also it comes with a sleep technology system that logs your sleep each night at that level and against other factors like whether you exercised that day and how long. I think this will help me test my maximal routine to get the best sleep. I wonder if it factors in food options So soon I will go off and spend the big bucks - cross my fingers and hope that this helps.

Otherwise - all things MWL/FODMAPS are going well and I think I am loosing again. I didn't loose much last week - hope this week is better.

[lmggallagher]

Yesterday
Food:
B: corn flakes/flax meal/oat milk/blueberries
L: kitchen sink salad/millet
D: went completely off deep end -- beef burrito, potato chips, topped off with FroYo Cherry Garcia
S:blood orange

Weight: ?
Sleep: crashed late afternoon for hours slept then only about 2 hours last night
Symptoms: sharp pain in back continues/exhausted
Exercise: Egoscue 1 hour
Morning Sun: 15 mins morning sun
MWL: no even close
Meditation: 20 mins
Friends, family and fun: just right

Today
Fibro: pain - 9 fatigue - 9
Sleep: poor until 4:30 am up w/Weasel
Gratitude to start the day: Poonam friended me on FB - yay an old friend is found!!!

First the confession - I hit the deli again. On high fatigue days this is just a terrible siren call for me. I'd have to be chained up not to do it. I was so tired I didn't bother to ask for my vegan regulars: I went right to the sandwich case, so I could dart out fast, and grabbed whatever my hand hit first. Then for salt and fat I did chips and FroYo. Do I feel completely awful today - yes and the IBS is back in a major way - not sure what exactly got me there but - I deserve it for poor choices.

However, I think there are angels working for me - as I hit rock bottom of exhaustion & food addictions - today I got a FB friend invite from my dear, dear Poonam. Poonam is a delightful person who was my Jenny Craig counselor for a year - until she graduated and got a real job at Stanford med as an RD there. She is Indian and Hindu so has a very good background in vegetarian eating. When I did Jenny Craig - I was their only vegetarian and at the time it was the only diet center to have a vegetarian meal plan - that I could stand. I knew the food was processed and bad in every other way, but at the time loosing the weight and getting my health stats in order was more important to me. It didn't work I was pre-diabetic until McDougal even though I lost a good amount of weight.

Poonam was hardly the typical JC counselor and left Jenny Craig as fast as she could after getting her MS to a real job - but having JC on her resume was good to round out experience she said. Apparently so - as she has gone from Stanford to the Director of Nutrition at a hospital in the Bay Area - no small feat for someone who is still in her 20's.

I hope she these days she is not too busy to write me back and plan a time to catch up. Back when I saw her every Friday we often talked that when she was done with her Masters and two jobs ( she was also with Kaiser) that we would get together for some vegetable cookery at her house. I would so love to do that now and I so need to figure out how to spice up my FODMAPS meals. Monash has one recipe I use and it's pretty good but not much else.

Anyway, I threatened to message her on FB every Friday with my weigh in result - just like the old days. I think I will anyway, as clearly I need further accountability! But mostly I am just so happy that this wonderful and delightful woman figured out how to connect again.

[lmggallagher]

Yesterday
Food:
B: corn flakes/flax meal/oat milk/blueberries
L: kitchen sink salad/millet
D: potatoes/carrots/zucchini/peppers
S:potato

Weight: ?
Sleep: very bad only 3 hours - cat at 3:30 am
Symptoms: sharp pain in back continues/completely exhausted
Exercise: none
Morning Sun: none
MWL: no even close
Meditation: 20 mins
Friends, family and fun: just right

Today
Fibro: pain - 9 fatigue - 9
Sleep: better but up w/ cat 3:30 but back to sleep for another 3 hours
Gratitude to start the day: Happy for Poonam - she wrote back and she is incubating her first baby

Yesterday was a very good day for me - not at all health wise but I spent the afternoon at coffee (herbal tea for me) with my friend John - we are planning a group trip into the City to go to book stores. I always love that!! But also another great friend thing happened - my long ago Jenny Craig counselor is in touch through FB. I just adore this girl - she is Indian/Hindu and a MS RD - now Director of a Hospital Nutrition Department - but best yet she messaged me last night that she and her gorgeous husband are going to have their first baby. I am so excited for her - they have worked so hard to get good educations and establish excellent careers and now they have the house and the puppy too - it is time for the baby to complete the picture for them. I am so very happy for them both.

Another great thing happened - in the evening I went to a Sleep Number store in Mt. view and purchase a Sleep Number bed. I am really thrilled by this and did a ton of research to figure out what came on top in all the reviews and what would work best with my fibromyalgia. I had a latex bed that was great for about 4 years but has compacted under my huge weight. Now there is now a valley next to a mountain range which is the other side of the queen-sized bed. It can't be flipped or even turned. Well it can be turned but it takes three people. It's so well -- rubbery that two people really can't control it. My gardener and his brother helped me once but it was too late to help actually.

Latex is the very best for fibro suffers so I have bought a 2 inch latex topper to go over the bed for $200. I could have got the same package of things I bought but the 2 inch foam layer for like $3000. This is the bed they use to establish your sleep number and it is really nice. It is also the same bed the Stanford Hospital sleep clinic uses for it's testings. But that layer is not as good as my latex topper, which I can flip and rotate by myself and remove it's full circumference zippered cover for washing - plus their foam layer is not as good as my latex layer. I am thrilled.

But wait this is not all - the one I bought was on sale yesterday, so I got the Sleep Number Sleep IQ program for free. This will help me oodles - I can track all the factors that I can employ to improve my sleep. So it works like - this the salesperson puts you on the model that Stanford uses and gets you good and cozy and then you work to find your Sleep Number. That is done by a hand held remote. While this is being done you can see a screen which shows an infrared multicolored silhouette of you on the bed and your pressure point areas. You are working toward getting the air bladders to just the right level to have those red hot areas blend back to an over all blue color to show that you are fully supported and your spinal alignment is optimized. Aside: is am Egoscueing for an hour or more I don't want to reverse those alignment improvements during my 8 hours in bed, which I am presently doing on my hilly mattress.

Once this is done the IQ Sleep program will track you as you sleep (no attachments necessary) and tell you on its phone/notebook app how you slept ( sound, restless/or up for a bit) and you can also add in factors that may have effected that night's sleep: food, exercise, caffeine, alcohol,TV/media, and medications. There are three other free buttons you can program - so I will add in meditation too and others I think of. So if you had a coffee that day you can find out how that effected your sleep in actual numbers and this will chart to your day week monthly calendar!

For a person with fibro (a sleep disorder) this is a dream bed - I AM HOPING - as more of this insomnia I can not handle! Ultimately, I got the Stanford sleep clinic bed and program for about a $1000 less including the sleep program It was pricey but their beds can cost up to $10,000 that is just for the highest end mattress no add ons! Yikes!

Next I have to figure out how to get Weasel to sleep through the night too!

[lmggallagher]

Chef AJ's Overnight oatmeal - thanks eri for giving me the link:) I need to FODMAPS this but I like it
https://eatingrules.com/overnight-muesli/
Plus Chef AJ posted in eri's journal this variation

Re: eri's journal, vol. 2

Postby CHEF AJ » Tue Jan 13, 2015 3:40 pm
I'm so glad you like it. I agree, I like this much better than cooked oats and you get to eat a greater volume of food too. I have a new variation of this recipe which I call Anytime Oats, because you can eat them anytime, for breakfast, a snack or dessert - and I do. It''s the exact same recipe but you omit the dried fruit and chia and use all unsweetened plant milk, no juice. I also use the largest apple or pear I can find. Then that mere 1/2 cup of oats turns into 4 cups of food that really fills my tummy!

Love & Kale,
Chef AJ

[lmggallagher]

Yesterday
Food:
B: corn flakes/flax meal/oat milk/blueberries
L: kitchen sink salad/quinoa
D: potatoes/carrots/zucchini/peppers
S:potato

Weight: ?
Sleep: very bad only 3 hours - cat at 3:30 am
Symptoms: sharp pain in back continues/completely exhausted
Exercise: none
Morning Sun: none
MWL: no even close
Meditation: 40 mins
Friends, family and fun: just right

Today
Fibro: pain - 6 fatigue -7 lots of neck and should pain not fibro
Sleep: better but up w/ cat 3:30 but right back to sleep for a total of 7 hours
Gratitude to start the day: It really could be the bed

I experimented last night - the new bed won't be here for some weeks but new pillows came. I decided to sleep on the none vally side of the bed and test the new pillows. I am a dedicated left side of the bed sleeper - so it was hard to make that shift. Plus that side is still effected by the huge slop leading to my crevasse on the left side. Anyway with a new pillow I went far to the right.

And I definitely slept better. Very little tossing of turning and when awaken by Weasel at 3:30 am - I got right back to sleep once I was done feeding the cats. I slept almost to 7 am on that side! giving me an unheard of 8 hours total.

The bad news is the new pillows gave me the worst neck and shoulder pain possible. They are down and way too soft. Hence they will go back soon. I really have much lower fibro pain today but it just could be hidden under the bad neck pain.

Didn't loose and ounce this wek due to the above bad eating on Wednesday. But I do see hope for the future.

[lmggallagher]

Yesterday
Food:
B: corn flakes/flax meal/oat milk/blueberries
L: deli clam chowder/sour dough bread
D: deli clam chowder/sour dough bread
S: blood orange

Weight: ?
Sleep: ok but not great bad new pillows- cat at 3:30 am
Symptoms: sharp pain in back continues/still very tired despite sleep/neck pain huge
Exercise: none
Morning Sun: none
MWL: not even close
Meditation: 40 mins
Friends, family and fun: none

Today
Fibro: pain - 6 fatigue -7
Sleep: better but up w/ cat 3:30 through 5 am but right back to sleep for a total of 5 hours
Gratitude to start the day: Again - It really is the bed and the cat.

I am completely amazed that switching sides in this old bed has made such a difference. I am asleep pretty fast now and when Weasel wakes me I am up and back in bed fast asleep and dreaming in about 15 minutes. On the other side of the bed, the one that is so degraded I could never get back to sleep.

Still, I had one bad neck ache yesterday from testing the new pillows - which I will return pronto. That was a terrible experiment and I spent the day patching Salonpas on that neck. Thank goodness Salonpas is so effective for me - for that kind of pain! I can just barely feel that today.

I got the call from the Sleep Number people regarding the delivery - it won't happen until February 3rd. Usually beds are delivered the next day - or at least that has always been my experience. Now when I am desperate for the new bed -- I have to wait for two weeks. Oh well - I guess I have hopefully figured out a huge part of my insomnia issues and should be glad that.

Next I have to figure out how to get Mr. Weasel the cat to sleep through the night as he has done all his wee life. Due to his waking me and my not being able to get back to sleep my sleep has been cut down to as little as 3 hours a night. As for the cats - I think they have always eaten every three hours - but it's been kibble left out for them - so they didn't wake me. Now because of his kidney problems no kibbles - too dry and the kidneys have to work too hard because of that. I can't just put tons of food out and go to sleep either - anything that has set for few hours he turns his nose up. Grrr - hiss! I think too I need to get his thyroid med level checked again - I am hypothyroid and my cat is hyper thyroid. Begging for food constantly is actually one of the symptoms he exhibits when his meds are at too low a level. It's not easy us both getting old at the same time and in opposite ways,

All that said - yesterday I was still very tired - and my neck was killing me. I napped for hours on and off. That is pretty weird - usually if I nap it's once late afternoon. but this was a couple hours here and and an hour later again 2 hours. This was "I can't stay a wake another second" napping too. So though I was sleeping night before last it still is not the best sleep for certain. It's going to be very interesting to have the sleep program on the Sleep Number bed tell me how I really am doing.

I also did the deli run again for lunch and dinner. I usually can get vegan soup (with oil) and feel not too guilty. Fridays they don't have any veggie soups and they do have clam chowder. I grew up with a lapsed Catholic father - he gave up the religion but kept fish on Fridays for reason unknown. Therefore our household ate fish and fish chowders every Friday. Then I went off to a Catholic boarding school for more of the same. My Mom's English Fishermen's chowders (recipes for my Grampie's Mother) were really wonderful and our favorite started out with creamery butter/bacon/onions being sauteed before the rest of the soup was assembled. Yesterday at the deli there was a variation on that theme and I fell for it. I will say it was very tasty as was the sour dough bread I had with it. I have to stop this! I really think when I get the sleep right I will be able to - I am trying now. But I am claiming no excuses on eating binges once my expensive bed is living here! Meanwhile, I will try very hard not to give in to the exhaustion's cravings and figure out what to do about the cat!!!

[blue]

Sorry to hear the fibro pain is still giving you trouble, Michelle.
Maybe something like this auto feeder would keep the cat from waking you? It has a timer, and food is kept cool with an ice pack. I'm thinking about getting one for days when I work late.
http://www.petmountain.com/product/elec ... aQod5RcA0w

[lmggallagher]

Hey Blue:

Thank you, thank you and thank you! I have looked online and only found the dry food dispensers to date. I swear any thing that you need can be supplied by people in this forum! It's not just the WOE it's been so many other conveniences. Wee Speck - Nancy turned me on to both the Roomba - Robot Vacuum and the Instant Pot, which are dreams come true for me in terms of helping with the fibro and time. And now you with this fresh food dispenser. I ordered it just now and it will be here soon. I'll let you know how it works. Hope it's just the ticket.

[blue]

Awesome! I hope it does the trick ! And yes let me know how you like it. I'm going out of town mid February and I can have the cat sitter come by to feed In the morning and when she does she could set the auto feeder for the evening meal. My cat eats canned food only, too.

[lmggallagher]

Will do Blue:

I am glad to hear that your are a canned catfood food family - I wish I understood about healthy eating for both myself and my cats before illness set in for all of us in this household. Blue I am sure you have done all the research to figure out what's right for your cats. For anyone who hasn't I can recommend this book because it has helped me reverse alot of the kidney disease my male Siamese has and pretty impressively too. Jean Hofve, DVM's book What Cat's Should Eat: Keeping Your Cat Healthy with Good Food.

If you want to know what happened here is the whole story of Mr. Weasel's improvement

My male cat has hyperthyroid and kidney disease - and though I have always had cats live to a ripe old age with no diseases at all well into their late, late teens and even 21 twice - he is the first to have any ailments in his midteens. Just like this WOE I have doubts when I hear that Siamese are prone to certain diseases and there isn't much that can be done - the same old "heart disease runs in my family" like it's inevitable song. When he was diagnosed with kidney disease they told me it was likely to progress very quickly and I would soon be feeding him water under his skin via syringe. He tolerates taking his thyroid pill very easily, but I know how he behaves about shots, plus I felt maybe the right food could help him as it has me.

He is one picky eater and has been a stalker and eater of local the rodent population since we moved here. He was hunting almost nightly before he got sick. That should have clued me in that he wanted fresher food than the kibbles I was feeding him. My vet was excited that my cat was eating his own caught raw food - and exclaimed that is why he was so healthy - but hmm, he had thyroid disease and next he had kidney problems. My theory about the kidney problems and maybe the thyroid too is the extreme flea meds - Frontline and Advantage. Here in Northern California the fleas have wised up to those meds and are completely unphased but meanwhile those companies were making stronger and stronger potions. Finally both my cats got very ill on them.

So, I was really, really needing to find a food they'd eat and that would help reverse some of the damage the male cat had sustained. I found Jean Hofve, DVM's book What Cat's Should Eat: Keeping Your Cat healthy with Good Food, we went through lots of different varieties from her lists of foods. Boy was it disheartening to watch the cats turn up their noses to really expensive brands. They finally both settled on one brand and two flavors. The most expensive brand and flavors of that brand. But I think this food - absent making food for them - is as close as I can get to what Mr. Weasel was roaming the fields and wood piles of the neighborhood to bring home (his favorite being giant roof rats - ugh). They now eat Instinct Brand Ritzie's Rabbit and Lamb flavors.

When the labs started to reverse I was happy to tell the vets why and what. I blurted out they are eating rabbit food. Dr. St. Lawrence was aghast and said "Oh no! You mustn't feed the food of one species to another!" - of course he misunderstood me. I Then said "No, no , it's canned rabbit meat!" To which he sighed in relief and noted he had no idea that could be obtained.

Mr. Weasel's labs are not going to be perfect as the thyroid disease med is very hard on him too and the doses for that will increase over time, but we are a long way off from having to do subdural hydration via a syringe I hope:)

[nicoles]

Whoa! Seriously -I was looking for a wet food cat food dispenser, too! You CAN find anything here, so true Michelle! Thanks, Blue!!

Michelle, I was just at the (new) vet with our kitties and saw two books on feeding cats for specific illnesses and kidney disease was one of the ones covered, as was thyroid issuea.-I took pix, I'll send you the names once I upload the photos. We feed our cats wet food and I am a big believer in it being a health helper, too. As you might imagine!

[lmggallagher]

Hi Nicole:

How cool is this three of us in search of yet more ways to accommodate our kitties in every conceivable way. I might get to miss the 3:30 am feeding too, so it would accommodate me too, well mostly. I swear I feel like a new Mom up at these hours with a whining child!

Nicole - I looked at you art website - it's just amazing what you do, I imagine as word spreads you'll be having WAAAAAYYYY too many things on your commissions list. I bet you are probably already there. Love all of it. If I had a spare wall in the glass house I'd so want you paint my Evil Siamese Twins.

(((Hugs))) - Michelle

[blue]

Poor Mr W! I'm so glad you did some research into foods and he is doing better now! Thanks for sharing your success so far

I had to giggle who you said he turned up his nose at all those expensive foods you were trying out! A while back I was going thru the same with my kitty when I was transitioning her from kibble to premium canned and then eventually a commercial raw food $$$. I think the dogs were In on it lol because every time she rejected a new food they were the lucky reicipients, and you know how dogs love cat food!

So,we finally settled on Darwin's raw food and she ate that for about a year, until the fall, when she got sick and i had to take her to the after hours kitty ER $$$$. Turned out she was severely constipated due to the ground bone content of the raw food. They had to put her under anesthesia for am enema-apparently cats don't take kindly to that! I was so worried she wasnt going to make it. She's 13. She did recover but then we had to change back to the canned food, which I was dreading , given what we had gone thru before with all the rejected foods. Finally, with some research and a few more trials I found several that she will eat, but if it were up to her she,d still be eating Darwin's raw. Right now she's getting a rotation of Hounds & gatos, Soulistic, and Natures Variety Instinct Limited Ingredient Diet--all grain free. And actually I've been planing to try the Instinct line that you're using, so I'm glad to hear Mr W recommends it!

One thing I learned in my research is that the Natures Variety Instinict Limited Ingredient Diet canned dog food is the exact same formula as the equivalent canned cat food they make. (The dog food comes in the larger 13.2'oz, so it's a little bit better value). This is not true of all dog foods. I had to verify with the company, and I only asked about this one, not the other foods Instinct makes.

My dogs are spoiled, too I make raw meals for them on the weekends.

[lmggallagher]

Hi Blue:

What we go through for our pets - well, family members! Thanks for all the details of your lengthy trails and errors - really, really helpful. I will look into the Limited Ingredients Dog food that is a good tip. The cats are eating well over the typical amount and OMG the cost of it all. I actually think Mr. Weasel is looking not so Siamese Svelt these days because of it

How many in your menagerie? It sounds like quite a few. I wish I could have a dog again I grew up with lots of pets and kept at it until the fibro started up. My big dog required 5 miles a day or lots of swimming - I was in a great place for that but not here

Hope you are having a grand time with your time off work and sure hope you get to hit full relaxation doing it. Your job generally sounds pretty intense and stressful at times. Here's to R&R