HERBALIST VISIT - APRIL

Once the session with Natalie was over I went to reception and paid, then went with Jan into another treatment room for my regular monthly consult.

As always, we started with the review of my food diary, symptoms noted and my relating any problems. The previous couple of weeks had seen a definite deterioration in my stomach, with severe problems with digestion and wind...... with my feeling so bad on Sunday I was ready to stop taking all the meds to see if that gave any relief - it's no fun when your stomach thinks it's a balloon and it feels like it's trying to pop. It wasn't helped that I also had what was a bad case of PMT too ("wanting to rip someone a new one" was the term that covered it!) , due to starting my monthly early - this Tuesday when it shouldn't have kicked off until Friday. (Not a happy bunny about that at all - darn thing is enough of a nuisance without it happening sooner than it should!) Jan's reaction was to tell me to chuck the last lot of medicine down the sink, as it obviously wasn't right once the old med had been mixed into it. She quickly noted down a new prescription in which she added some herbs to calm my stomach down, as well as ones for my moods.

It was pretty obvious from all this that taking the Acidophilus earlier in the day, instead of last thing, hadn't improved things so I was to go back to taking it last thing again. Stopping the Chromium Complex hadn't either so it was OK to restart that too.

Looking at the result of the Candida test Jan was baffled as to why, when I'm sticking rigidly to the diet, that the count wasn't better because it should be by now. Basically she feels the Candaway isn't working properly for me and is probably fermenting in my stomach, which won't help with digestion etc - plus I loathe the taste of cardamom and that's probably not helping. The upshot is that I'm not having the Candaway any more and am taking some new capsules instead - can't remember what they are called but in the clinical trials in America it was found these were much more effective. The Candaway just killed off the overgrowth which gives the fungus a chance of growing back - the other ones kill off the actual nuclei of the fungus so it can't grow back. As the capsules don't actually arrive at the Clinic until Saturday she very kindly gave me some from her own stash, enough to see me through and as I'm back there Saturday anyway, for my regular Reiki session, I can pick them up then. :0)

The new meds regime from now on is: 2 capsules on first waking up and then no food for an hour; 6mls of medicine before having breakfast and a Chromium Complex tablet afterwards; 6mls of med before lunch; 2 capsules two hours after last eating but 1 hour before my evening meal (will help me to cut out snacking and ensures the Candida killing stuff kills that rather than being distracted into digesting food instead!); 6mls of med before evening meal; Acidophilus capsule last thing before bed (this ensures the Candida killing stuff and the med is taken early enough so they don't kill off the good bacteria). It's going to take me a while before the timings become automatic! LOL

Meantime I now have to use my food diary to note down all feedback on: my moods, especially anxiety, depression and irritability; on digestion, such as indigestion/wind, how my stomach feels, appetite and evacuation (politest way I could think of putting it! LOL) and on my monthlies, such as flow, clotting, timings, cramps etc. Plus I now have to go back weekly for everything to be reviewed and to allow Jan to slightly adjust the meds, if needs be, until the mix is right for me, as she wants me back to feeling as good as I did before these glitches........ and so do I. :0)

She then gave me the advice on the foods I showed an intolerance to and the timings for the re-introduction of some of them (see previous post).

Finally came the weigh-in. I'd set myself a goal last time of losing 5 1/2lbs, so that would take me below 13 stone. I felt it sounded much nicer saying I'm 12 stone something rather than 13 stone whatever and when Jan told me my actual weight I did a little Happy Dance. I'd dropped from 13 stone 5 at my last weigh-in......... to 12 stone 9 this weigh-in. Yes, that's an incredible 10lbs, so I did my goal and then some! Yay!!!! Jan was so impressed when she made a note of my weight in the folder she even wrote Wow! after it. LOL Jan then pointed out that, as it was the wrong end of the month and I was probably retaining fluid, my loss could actually be more than that but I'm happy enough with what showed and having achieved way more than I'd set out to do. :0)

After paying and making an appointment for next Wednesday I left.... floating on air. LOL First call was the Post Office, then Help the Aged, where I managed to find Book 3 from the Maggie Furey series I bought last time (so that was another plus). Then I ventured even further down the High Street than ever before: I made it into Wilko's to do a little shopping, then further down to Ethel Austin to look at the clothes (quick look, wasn't overly impressed by the very young outfits in there - not into that mutton dressed as lamb thing), then back up the opposite side of the street to buy a Christening card for my cousin's grandson, stopping off in the Hospice clothing shop last thing. In there I spotted a size 14 pair of jeans for £1.00 and thought I'd risk the money just to see if I could get into them.

Once home I put everything away then grabbed the jeans and....... yes, they may be a little hugging but I can get into them and zip them up. I haven't seen the inside of a size 14 of anything in a veeeery long time. How cool is that?

So now the next goal is to try and get under 12 1/2 stone before we go on holiday on the 8th May (I've got 3 weeks) and visit Matalan to get some more size 14's as they should be slightly less hugging by then. :0)