I mentioned in my previous post I am embarking on a new treatment protocol in my journey to kick the FibroTroll’s butt. It’s called Metabolic Balance.
The blood tests required ended up being a little more involved than really necessary because the lab missed a couple of crucial tests. Partly because they aren’t covered by medicare, except in situations which don’t apply to me (even though I signed a form saying I’d pay for them anyway!) But finally we got what we needed.
I got a bit impatient and convinced Juanita (my wonderful naturopath) that I could start phase one without the plan. I have a welcome back to the country & family birthday dinner coming up this week and I either wanted phase one out of the way before then or I wouldn’t be starting until after that.
Phase one is a cleansing phase. It’s enough to give you the shits. LITERALLY. It goes for two days. There’s a few options – fruit only, potato only, vegetable only or rice only. Now I know too much sugar attracts the FibroTroll, so fruit only was out. I LOVE potato, but without being allowed any form of fat, it was less appealing, I haven’t eaten rice in about 18 months, so I didn’t think my intestinal flora would be very happy if I chose that. So vegetables it was to be. Together with the veggies, I also needed to take high doses of magnesium.
Day one: It really wasn’t too bad. Only a little daunted by the prospect of eating 1.5 kg vegetables over 3 meals, I set to making it work.
I started with a sweet potato and carrot soup – which was rather nice, and I wish I’d written down the recipe. I just sort of threw 500g of different vegetables into my Cuisine Companion with some water and herbs and pressed ‘go’ on the soup function. Here it is together with a black tea and my double dose of magnesium.
Lunch was a big bowl of steamed veggies with some herbs and salt sprinkled on for flavour. It was a little boring without any fat, but I got through about 450 g of veg easily enough. Throughout the afternoon the high dose of magnesium was beginning to make itself known. I’m glad I was alone at home, as it’s possible that I might have gassed someone to death.
Dinner was pumpkin soup – not as nice as my usual one that I make with chicken or turkey stock, but it was good enough. I didn’t bother with a picture, because frankly – it looked much the same as my breakfast soup. I couldn’t manage 500 g, I got through about 300 g before I called it quits. So I managed to get through about 1.25kg of vegetables. Plus another double dose of magnesium.
Day two: Today was a lot less fun.
Sometime around midnight, those four doses of magnesium became a whole lot more insistent. So I was up and off to the toilet. Then again at around 5am, then just before 7am. For the next hour or so, I hovered close to the toilet. I struggled to get through my breakfast of pumpkin soup – not because it was hard to eat, but I had to keep getting up to rush to the loo! One more dose of magnesium – which I drank with some trepidation.
Things settled down after around 8 am. I pottered around the house, doing a few odd jobs in little bursts (I have a post about pacing housework here.)
For lunch I had some baked sweet potato and zucchini (again, not quite as nice when made without fat) and some raw veggies and salad. Again, I managed around 450 g or so. There really is a limit to how much vegetable matter you can squash into your stomach in one sitting!
Throughout the afternoon I got progressively more miserable and cranky. I had a headache, my guts were grumbling. My wonderful Knight In Tarnished Armour came home and we played a card game (Star Realms this time – incidentally I kicked his butt for a change!) and that helped my mood a little, but not the headache.
Things weren’t helped by having to contact the Doctor’s surgery multiple times over the last two days chasing up the last missing blood test results.
Pretty soon I was hungry again. But as I needed to wait 5 hours between meals, my Knight suggested I head off to my HBO2 chamber. (I think there’s a chance he just wanted my cranky, miserable face hidden away for an hour or two!) But it did me a world of good as it usually does.
More pumpkin soup for dinner, with a chaser of cucumber as I really wanted something crunchy. Thankfully, no more magnesium with dinner. Especially as the morning dose was making itself known again with several more trips to the loo!
We finally had everything we needed for the lovely Juanita to send my details off for analysis. Which I was grateful for, as the prospect of another day of just vegetables was not making me happy. My headache was not responding to pain relief, so I headed off to bed.
Day 3: I’ve decided I might live. It was touch and go this morning.
Another midnight dash to the loo, then hanging around the loo from 5:30 am until about 7 am. I had a pounding headache every time I woke up and I felt awful!
One of the recommendations of metabolic balance is to eat within 30 mins of rising. Now I wasn’t going to hassle Juanita at 5:30am to see if my plan had come back and given that what was coming out of me looked much the same as the pumpkin soup, (sorry TMI!) I just couldn’t handle pumpkin soup for breakfast again. So I tried some steamed veggies. This did not go well. I got about 200 g in before I wanted to vomit – but I was still hungry! My head was still pounding and all I could manage was some black tea.
So at about 7 am I sent an sms to Juanita. She rang me back within 15 mins which is an impressive feat when she has a little one at home! She really is an amazing woman. My plan was back, and although it wasn’t quite the way she likes to do things, she emailed it through to me so that I could eat something!
So I had some nuts and seeds and an apple. You wouldn’t believe the difference. My headache has receded and I’m feeling a whole lot brighter. Now I’m still a bit hungry, but not so terribly nauseated. I’m looking forward to lunch (still 3 hours away as I write this) but no longer feel the need to curl up in a ball and cry.
This afternoon the Knight will take me up to see Juanita, so we can go through the plan properly. And, being the awesome husband he is, he’ll also go shopping to buy any of the things from the plan that we don’t already have.
If you are about to embark on a Metabolic Balance journey, I strongly recommend waiting until you get your plan – and ensuring you have the right foods ready and waiting for breakfast on day 3. I’m sure things would have been a lot smoother for me if I had done so!
