Gluten is my enemy

At least I think it is.  It's a long story but here's the most shortened version I can offer.  I was officially diagnosed with hypothyroidism at 18, took medication faithfully for 2 years, stopped for 8, managed to get pregnant, medicated again to avoid birth defects, stopped for 2 more years, then had a ridiculously abnormally high TSH reading (we're talking hundreds of times higher than the range of normal...the doctor was impressed I was even still able to function) and resumption of faithful pill-popping ever since.  However, in spite of my diligence and full compliance to medicating myself, my TSH is still significantly elevated after a year.

My initial response was indignation.  After all, I had given up alcohol, lost nearly 30 pounds, started eating more whole foods, moving my body more, just generally truly trying harder and still, STILL I had a problem.  WTH?!  How could this be?!  

Then my ex mentioned something he discussed with his current health practitioner, and it involved gluten intolerance.  I vaguely recalled reading an article a while back about gluten intolerance being connected with autoimmune disorders like Hashimoto's thyroiditis (official diagnosis), and so I decided to research again.  There's definitely compelling evidence regarding the link to gluten and malfunctioning thyroid glands, and I'm finally willing to give the whole gluten-free thing a try.

Right now I'm feeling excited and sad at the same time.  Just last night a friend of mine was trying to educate Doran on the food groups (albeit with outdated information), and we ranked our favorites.  Breads and grains were my #1.  I'm a bread and pasta junkie for sure.  How am I going to just give that up so easily?  And that's just scratching the surface.  Can I truly be as diligent as I'd need to be?

Then I think about getting lab results that show my medication needs to be reduced until maybe, just maybe, I can do without it completely and suddenly those sacrifices seem so trivial.  So I'm going to give gluten-free a shot, but not until I've said a proper good-bye.  So I'll spend the next week enjoying the wheat products I've loved and accepting that my quality of life is more important than any food I could ever eat.  And anyone who knows me knows that's a powerful statement to make.

Here's hoping for miracles!