#dSavannahDefects – N is for…

My theme this year for the #AtoZchallenge is #dSavannahDefects, aka “What’s it’s like dealing with #InvisibleIllnesses”. Or, in short, {some of} what’s wrong with me.

… nutrition

I’m sure you’ve heard this your whole life, but nutrition and what you eat is important. Just as you put good gas in a sports car, and make sure you use the appropriate type of oil, you put the right food in your body.

I would like to point out, right here, right now, that nutrition and diet are not the same thing. “Diet” has become a dirty word. It is associated with other words like “yo-yo” and “atkins” and “weight” (specifically losing it), when a diet is really just what you eat. (And it pisses me off to no end that when I google “diet”, the first thing back is a diet company, whose name I will not repeat here.)

It’s not supposed to be about keeping you from eating things you love. It’s supposed to be about giving your body the nutrition it needs to carry you, your soul, through the world.

And every body is a little different, and every body tolerates certain foods differently, or not at all, and that means both the taste of things and how they give you the power and energy you need.

In my case, as I mentioned under “allergies” in the “A” post, unfortunately, for me, that means no gluten. And a few other foods. And my taste buds just do NOT like a few things, like grits. (Which is weird, cuz I’m 100% Southern, and I can’t stand them, while my Yankee-born husband likes them.)

Many diets make you stop eating anything with fat. Or sugar. Or spice. Or anything nice. When the truth is, unless you have an allergy or intolerance or extreme loathing for a particular food group, you probably need it in your life.

Study after study has shown that cutting out all fats is actually bad for you. That you need a balance of types of food to give your cells and mitochondria and blood vessels and organs and veins and all that what they need to thrive.

And, I can tell you from personal experience that going on a diet sucks. Terribly. I was put on an anti-mold diet by my ENT for my toxic mold syndrome. Essentially, the diet cut out all sugar and all grains, because mold thrives on sugar. (I wish I’d gone on this protocol instead of the one I did; it makes much more sense than what my doctor prescribed.)

I felt like I was starving all. the. time. But what I learned is that I am definitely allergic to gluten. My stomach gurgles and issues cleared up (and I’d had them my whole life), and a weird rash on my elbows went away. And, I’d always had these weird-little-hardly-noticeable bumps on my forearms, and they disappeared.

You’d think by middle age (and yup, I’m technically there) (which is mind-blowing!!!) I’d already have figured some of this out, but nope. Still learning.

I’ve added sugar back into my diet, but not gluten, and not a lot of other things I cut out, and while I’m not well, it has made a difference.

… Nissen Fundoplication

I can hear it now… “nisseh huh?!”

No worries if you’ve never heard of it, and I’d be really super surprised if you have. Even people in the medical field have never heard of it. I had to fight with someone at my insurance company about it being a real thing. (Spoiler: It is.)

Nissen Fundoplication is a surgical procedure that was developed oh, 60 years ago, by, guess what, a dude named Nissen (Dr. Rudolf Nissen [1896-1981], who described the first fundoplication in the 1950s.). It is used to treat gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) (also known as severe acid reflux) and hiatal hernia.

Essentially, GERD is typically (not always) caused by a bad sphincter between your stomach and your esophagus. The sphincter, or ‘flappy thing’ as I like to call it, is supposed to let stuff down into your stomach, but not let anything come up.

If you have acid reflux, it’s generally either because your stomach over-produces acid (which mine did) or it’s because your flappy thing is broken (which mine was).

Here is a picture of the Historic 1929 Lyric Theater in Harrison, AR, which I had the honor of managing for a while. I figured you’d like seeing this rather than my wounded stomach.

So, the surgery goes in and creates a new flappy thing by wrapping a bit of your stomach around your esophagus. (It’s similar to a gastric bypass surgery, but not exactly.)

Now, gather roun, chilren, Imma gonna tell ya anoder story bout my health care woes.

I had stomach issues a lot. Like, a LOT a LOT. I also had chronic bronchitis and sinus infections. This is for my whole life, mind you. I’d go to the doctor with the respiratory issues, and I’d usually be given an antibiotic, some cough syrup, and maybe a cough suppressant, maybe some other sort of medication, and sent on my merry way.

(That was how I discovered my allergy to penicillin. Summer after sophomore year in college. Got sick. Went to doctor. Was given penicillin. Quit breathing. I remember gasping for breath, but not really much else. Like, not how I started breathing again or anything else. Just remember being told to not take it ever again. No problem, said I. I shall not.)

When I was around 25 years old, I went to see a doctor about my stomach issues. Said (male) doctor gave me two weeks’ worth of Nexium, told me I was “too young to have that issue”, patted me on the head, and … sent me on my merry way.

I continued having issues. With both respiratory and gastro systems.

Finally, when I was about 35 (or so…. the years blend, and that #InvisibleIllnessFog blurs my memory), I went to see a (female) gastroenterologist (now retired, dangit) and she put me through a series of tests, including the Upper GI X-ray barium swallow I wrote about in Imaging (for “I, pt 2”; to be posted soon).

She determined that I had severe GERD, and that was not only the cause of all of my respiratory woes (the acid comes up and goes down the wrong pipe into your lungs), but that it was the reason I have a mouth full of metal (the acid comes up and eats away at your teeth, so that = fillings and other issues galore for me), and, AND, that I’d had the condition my whole entire life.

She put me on Nexium, and later, when I continued having problems, including a bout with pneumonia, she added a chalky gross substance to my regimen.

And, btw, not only was it Nexium, it was 80mg of it. 40mg two times a day. The “normal” dose is 20 mg. Yeah, it was that bad.

Then… hubs and I moved to a small town in Arkansas. I went to a gyno for everything girl-related, and a family doctor for everything else. One year my family doctor suggested that perhaps I should be seen about by a specialist, so he sent me to see a gastro in a larger town in Arkansas. Said gastro did an endoscopy on me, and based on the results (gastritis, damage to my esophagus, plus the bad flappy thing) said “Have you thought about having the surgery?”

Believe it or not, I was absolutely thrilled with the idea.

So he sent me to a stomach surgeon. Who put me through a BUNCH of test to make sure my body would be able to deal with things after wrapping a bit of my stomach around my esophagus.

The worst one, and I do mean worst, is called a manomotry. They stick a tube down your throat, as far as it can go, and then pull it out, inch by inch, while measuring the pressure your body makes on the tube. And no, you are not sedated.

And here’s a picture of the sunset off the deck of our house in Arkansas. (You’re welcome.)

I passed all my tests, and I went into the hospital for surgery (in 2010). It was done laparoscopically, which means they didn’t have to cut me all the way open. Instead, they put me under, stabbed me five times in the torso (my surgeon’s words), then dug around in my guts to do the wrap.

I had to stay in the hospital overnight. And I do not remember much about my stay, but I can tell you that you do not get any sleep in a hospital. There are machines beeping, and people coming in and out to check on you, and… this was the best one… a dude came into my room in the middle of the night to ask how much I weigh. Like, erm, who cares? (I still have no idea why he did that.)

The surgeon finally finally released me from the hospital the next day, and we had the two-hour drive over bumpy roads to get home (thank goodness hubs was driving!), and then I had to recover from my multiple stabbings.

Also, lemme tell you – you use your stomach for everything. It was soooo difficult to do soooo much until healed.

But it did, and now I’m GERD free. All is well with my guts.

… Newford

And here’s another literary defection, this time to the world of my other Very Favorite Author, Charles de Lint. In his honor, I am giving away a paperback copy of his book Widdershins*, which features my favorite character, Jilly Coppercorn. (My pet turtle is named Jilly A’Tuin after de Lint’s character and Terry Pratchett‘s world turtle.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Many of de Lint’s books are set in the fictional town of Newford, which is a lot like Ottawa or an other big American city (according to de Lint on a site that is no more). Newford is a lot like the cities we inhabit, but not as fun/funny as Pratchett’s Discworld. In fact, it can be kind of sad. Magic and the mundane intertwine in interesting and touching and lovely ways.

You’d call this genre “urban fantasy”, I think, tho it’s also been known as “fantasy”, “mythic fiction”, and “magical realism”. de Lint also writes (wrote?) horror, most of it under the pen name Samuel Key. Which he now sells under his own name, but calls them “Key Books”.

FYI – Charles and his wife MaryAnn Harris are also musicians, and you can purchase their CD (and books) on his site. I absolutely LOVE the music, which I first experienced when I went with hubs to the Tucson Festival of Books in 2011 and got to meet them both.

But don’t take my word for it. I shall let you see for yourself how wonderful this book is, in this handy preview thingy from Amazon:

*fine print: Win a paperback copy of “Widdershins” by Charles de Lint. Note: this book is used – lovingly read by me. US only, sorry. Winner will be randomly picked by rafflecopter. I will ship the book via Media Mail within three days of announcing the winners. Contest ends with the end of the #AtoZChallenge2016 on Saturday, April 30, 2016 at midnight (EST). Winner will be notified by Wednesday, May 4, 2016, no later than 5pm EST. If you have any additional questions – feel free to send me an email! And THANKS for playing! 🙂