This blog has been neglected as I have struggled with some health issues and changes in my life and work. It's time to rekindle the discipline of writing here. Balance is coming back to my life and it's time to document some of the storms and vicissitudes of the last few years as I move forward.
I wrote here about my descent into back pain and disfunction in 2013. I have not had a bad episode since then. I don't know why, but I am grateful every day that I do not have back related pain. I have almost constant numbness in parts of my left leg and foot, though, and when I have talked to my rheumatologist and back specialist, they have both said that "numb is your new normal". After I got over stubbing my toes all the time and learned where my foot was, even though I can't really feel it, it has been alright. I think my left leg is prone to being weaker than my right and I need to keep exercising and stretching it to maintain its functionality.
Other new changes have been challenging. I was waking several times a night with severe leg cramps in both legs. I started taking calcium, magnesium and zinc at night with vitamin A and D and drinking a large glass of water before bed. These things helped a lot. But I was also having rather debilitating bouts of stomach trouble, starting around Thanksgiving of 2014, and lasting until March of 2015, when I woke up with a blistering itchy burning rash on my trunk and a purple lesion on my lip. It was a weekend, so I got on google and poked around looking for what might be causing this. I had been eliminating different things from my diet in an attempt to figure out what was causing my digestive problems. I had begun to think I was somehow allergic to polysaccharides. They are in many processed foods. But what I found matching my symptoms was Celiac Disease. So just as an experiment, I removed all wheat, rye, and barley from diet and saw almost immediate improvement. Within a week all my acute digestive symptoms were gone. I have since gotten an official diagnosis of Celiac Disease from my primary care physician and discovered that I am also sensitive to coffee, quinoa, oats, and a polysaccharide called inulin. These other foods do not contain gluten, but have proteins that are similar to gluten. Conventional wisdom says that after my insides have healed I may be able to reintroduce them to my diet.
As I have been feeling gradually better and better I have supplemented my new diet with extra vitamins: notably vitamin C for the purpura on my lips and vitamin B12 for an oppressive brain fog that had me thinking I was aging prematurely. The whole "leaky gut" result of Celiac, of course, was terrible for the reactive arthritis that I have had since I was a teenager. I am hopeful that by getting the Celiac under control, control of my RA will also be more easily achieved.
And the numbness in my leg, while it is probably caused by the herniated discs in my back, might be a neurological symptom caused by the Celiac. So maybe that will improve as well. I have no more leg cramps at night.
While these health dramas were unfolding, we had three new foals on the farm. They are 3 weeks, one year and two years old, respectively. There will be more details about them to follow. We had to put in a new furnace and an new septic pipe (The Big Dig). The drought has truly ended this spring with record-breaking rains in May. We have built a round pen. I retired from my part-time job in Denver. I am volunteering at a local therapeutic riding center. My studio is functional and I have started to do some collage work. We have started two small businesses and a little charity which we run from the farm.
My food entries will heretofore be geared towards my learning to cook gluten-free.
The training of the horses will include writing about the ground work with the youngsters as well as the work under saddle for the oldsters.
All other entries should be as before, as events occur, and seem fodder for, hopefully, interesting stories. Sometimes I feel like, while the rest of the world is heading in a certain inexorable direction, I have taken a detour onto this little old turn-of-the-century farm and I am engaged in living an anachronism. Maybe that in itself has significance. I have no idea, really.
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