All is not lost.....

I spoke to the Nutritionist allocated to me by York Test today. He asked me about what had led me to taking the York Test. I described the symptoms I had had for years and how, although I was eating what most people considered to be a healthy, well-balanced diet and was also exercising regularly etc, I was actually feeling worse and succumbing to viruses which would have never affected me before.

I also said I was really more concerned about what had led to the long list of 'avoid' foods, rather than the list itself.

His suspicion is that there is possibly two things going on here. One, that I am one of the very few (1/2 a percent) who have so many antibodies - or was it antigens? - in my blood that the test picks up almost everything. This is not common - but does occasionally happen. The second thing he suspects is that I am suffering from 'Leaky Gut Syndrome', especially as one of my symptoms is very uncomfortable bloating.

Like my doctor, he has suggested I only cut out the foods that have been graded as 3 or 4, but also all wheat and dairy, as these can exacerbate the condition. I am also to avoid sugar, limit fruit to 2 portions a day and avoid alcohol. As well as this, I am to take 2 probiotic capsules a day - first thing in the morning and last thing at night - and 2 capsules of glutamine per day, a half hour before meals. These are to help with the repair of my gut. I am to do this for six weeks, then get back to him to report how I have got on.

I called my doctor and passed on this information to her, so she is aware of how I'll be handling it. She has asked me to call her in a few weeks.

I must admit, I am feeling much cheered by this, as I can now do something practical which makes sense. I felt rather overwhelmed before by the long list of 'avoid' foods and quite worried about what it might mean. I am still not sure why I have got to this stage and what makes me in particular susceptible to such things, but here goes.........

Recently, I have been given a new programme to work at by my trainer, Eric, and managed to get down to the gym today. I was really pleased that I did all that he had put down for me to do. I think it really helped that for the first time I took my new MP3 player with me (a birthday present from my lovely husband!) and used it while I did all my moves. I had weights work to do on the gym ball, as well as some treadmill stuff and usually I don't like doing all the repetitions, but this time having the music to listen to distracted me enough for me to keep going. The earpiece wires didn't get in the way either, so all in all a very satisfying session.

Now I need to address my tiredness by getting some quality sleep - so sitting up writing this doesn't really help!

Bitten by the bug again and opening a can of worms!

Not only did I catch another virus at the beginning of the summer, but I had a blood test done to check for food intolerances. This is because for years I have had the classic symptoms of IBS and wanted to try and find out what exactly was triggering it off. I knew a couple of things that were guaranteed to lead to one or other of the symptoms (I am not going to go into detail here!), like cream or really processed, refined carbohydrates - macaroni cheese is a disaster for me - however, although I follow a diet that is considered extremely healthy by some, I was still getting the symptoms and couldn't pin it down to anything in particular.

So I decided to bite the bullet and get a blood test done to see if I could get a bit of assistance in narrowing down what sets me off.

I chose www.yorktest.com, as for quite a few years I had read good things about their test. It is a home-testing kit, where you prick your finger or thumb and fill an absorbent 'wand', which gets sent for analysis at the York Test Laboratories. It is very simple, although I must admit I was very nervous about pressing the button on the little lancet to draw blood from my finger! I needn't have worried, as the lancet was so sharp, I didn't even feel it! I posted off the wand in its little canister, along with the lancet for safe disposal and waited. Then a couple of days later decided to phone the company, as I hadn't asked when I'd ordered the test what their turnaround time was. The lady I spoke to said that my test had actually been processed the day before, so I should receive my results in about a week.

Well, I didn't. What I did get was a call to tell me that their quality control department hadn't been happy about the test (nothing I'd done wrong - I did ask!) and they'd be sending me another kit to do it again.

I was braver about the lancet this time and duly sent off the blood sample. And guess what? Another phone call! This time to tell me that I would be allocated extra time with their nutritionist as my test had brought up so many things that I should avoid! Like what? I asked. Like vegetables, was the answer. All vegetables. Plus all grains except occasionally Barley, but not gluten. And turkey. And lots of fruit. And lots of spices and some herbs. And especially garlic.

The list came. Most people have most of their foods appearing in the green 'allowed' column, with some in the yellow 'rotate' (have 4+ days break between these foods) and a very few in the red. Not me. No wonder they wanted to do the test twice. Almost all of my foods appear in the red 'avoid' column, with various gradings from 1-4. If I took this as gospel, almost all I could eat is meat (thank goodness I am not a vegetarian, although I have toyed with the idea of that in the past!), mushrooms, apples, apricots, cranberries and walnuts!

I have consulted with my doctor, and she and I have agreed that for two weeks, I just cut out the 'avoid' foods which are graded 3 and 4. This is not that many, as most of mine are graded 2 and 1. She will do more research and speak to the dietitian at the surgery and possibly the immunologist at the hospital. I will try and note which of the remaining foods I have trouble with. I am to keep a food diary. I am also having a consultation with a York Test Nutritionist on Thursday. It will be interesting to see what he has to say. I'll be phoning my doctor later next week to see if she has any further suggestions for me.

My question is, what has brought me to this? Why is my blood showing such a major reaction to food? For years now I have eaten very little in the way of junk or processed food and it seems that even the 'good' stuff is possibly doing me harm!

In the meantime, there are certain things I can do, and I shall be doing them. I shall continue to go to the gym and attempt to function as normally as I can.

If anybody can shed light on this for me, please get in touch, and I will keep you posted as to my progress.