My [LONG] Story...

Right after I turned 16 I got really sick.  The kind of sick where you literally think you are dying.  I couldn't keep anything in my body, not even ice.  I lost tons of weight, and I was bleeding... bad, in a place you should be bleeding.  I was scared, and didn't know what was going on.  A few weeks later I was hospitalized; they ran tests upon tests, drew blood, and did a colonoscopy.  Talk about a bad way to start off your Sweet Sixteen! I will refer to it as the Sucky Sixteen.  After seeing a few different specialists in the hospital, they decided that I had an Auto-Immune Disease called Ulcerative Colitis.  WHAT? Well that explains the bleeding... I had ulcers in my colon that burst and caused major discomfort.  They also told me I would be on medication for the rest of my life.  At this point, I could have cared less, I just wanted to go back to my normal teenage life.  After a while, trips to the doctor and lots of medicine... I was in remission.  It sounds so scary, people with Cancer go into remission... not ME?  Thank God for my amazing parents who found me THE best Gastroenterologist in the area.

Are you still with me? I hope so.

Fast Forward 12 years....
I am 27, going to be 28 in a few months and I have had ongoing flares since right before I found out I was pregnant with Mason (almost 2 years).  All of a sudden the medications that always worked before stopped working, and I am desperate to find a new method.  To be honest, the older (and wiser) that I have gotten, the more scared I have become of these medications anyway.  All the scary side effects are enough to make anyone quit taking them.

My best friend, Hannah, recently started working for a Doctor in Tulsa that does Alternative & Holistic Medicine, and told me about what Dr. Chad does/believes and most importantly how he has been able to help so many people get completely off of their medicine.  SIGN ME UP!! So that, she did! I had my first appointment at Revolution Health & Wellness last Wednesday and let me tell you, everyone who works there is so incredibly nice! No wonder Hannah loves her job! So for the details of my appointment:  I got lots of blood drawn (which I HATE!) but the nurse was so gentle I hardly felt it! Major score.  They are sending all of my precious blood off to a lab to be tested for about a million different things: hormone levels, vitamin deficiencies and lots of other good stuff.  I should hear about my results at my follow up appointment May 15th, and I can't wait!  In the mean time, Dr. Chad put me on a Paleo, Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Red Meat-Free diet............ Hit the brakes, I am THE pickiest eater, EVER! What am I going to eat?! I'm going to starve.  He also sent me home with a bunch of supplements, vitamins & super powerful probiotics to take daily along with my standard medicine.  Back to the diet.... WHAT am I going to do?! No quinoa (my newest obsession), no cheese, no peanut butter, no bread... what is left? So maybe I overreacted a little.  It was emotionally difficult the first two days because everything in the pantry & fridge was haunting me... and grocery shopping? I was a mess the whole car ride home, crying like a baby because all I wanted to eat was everything that I couldn't.  It's been almost a week and even though I am still dealing with my flare up, I feel great! I have found a new love for cooking, and my amazing husband is having fun putting together new meals for us.  In our house we both cook, and we are enjoying this new challenge.  

I hope you will continue to follow me throughout my journey, and offer up any tips/pointers you may have for someone starting out paleo! 

Love to all!
Terri