Good-bye Gluten

It's been 10 days since i started my gluten-free diet. I can't speak for every person with Lupus, but I can speak for myself. There is no doubt in my mind that since starting the dreaded GF diet my joint pain has significantly decreased. I've strayed from the diet a couple times. I did pay the consequences both later that day, and the following day.

I've been doing some research, and there's a lot of studies that link auto-immune diseases with gluten sensitivity. I found one article that said 100% of Lupus patients suffer from food allergies. I'm not sure how true that is, but it is true for me. I have some pretty serious cheese allergies.

I've started running again. Well, more like jogging/walking...but I gotta start somewhere. :P

It seems like my life is finally starting to fall back into place. My circumstances haven't really changed, like I am still having health issues, school is still hanging over my head, etc. but my view of the whole thing has changed.

Everything in life is a process. It takes time to process what's going on with us, especially after we are diagnosed with a disease as scary as Lupus. There's still times that I wish I could press the pause button, and just stop life so that I can deal with stuff one thing at a time. But I'm slowly making my way back to my normal, optimistic self.

A lot has happened since my last post. I've been having some teeth issues to put it mildly. I've had two fillings, and one root canal. Well, technically speaking the first stage of a root canal. My dentist put me on antibiotics and scheduled an appointment with me later this month to finish taking out the rest of my lovely, yet very infected nerve.

Needless to say, I have a very jam-packed month full of doctor's visits of varying kinds. I have a second opinion appointment scheduled the 16th, and a dentist appointment scheduled the 17th for my root canal. With any luck, I won't have to re-visit the dentist for another root canal this month. Or any month for that matter. Though I must say, the pain BEFORE the root canal is by far more painful than the pain during and/or after the root canal.

I went for a strenuous hike with a good friend of mine. We hiked 2 1/2 beautiful miles straight up the side of a mountain. It felt....amazing.