Living in a Foreign Country Was The Healthiest Choice I Ever Made....
For those of you who haven't been following my journey via Instagram since the beginning, let me give you a quick summary of the condition I was in B.P. (Before Panama)
Symptoms
- Suffering intermittent, severe abdominal pain and bloating that landed me in the emergency room twice (once causing me to collapse at work)
- Inability to have bowel movements of any kind for days at a time
- Experiencing sulfuric, embarrassing gas that made attending social events (or even maintaining my restaurant job) impossible
- In and out of different medical offices for months and diagnosed tentatively with possible IBS, lactose intolerance, and Gastroparesis
- Underwent three sets of abdominal, kidney, & pelvic ultrasounds, more unbelievably uncomfortable enemas than I care to report, and a CAT scan
- Diagnosed definitively with Celiac's Disease after fasting for a day in order to have a colonoscopy and endoscopy at the age of 19
Remember those just-barely-under-fifty-pounds pieces of luggage I mentioned schlepping to P-ma? Part of the reason they were so heavy was due to the three month supply of "supplements" I needed to bring just so I'd be able to go to the bathroom once a day and keep the abdominal pain and gas at bay.
My Daily Regimen
Morning:
- approx. 24 ounces of water when I first woke up
- a big mug of coffee (which had to be drunk directly after the water and before eating anything)
- a medium sized breakfast (by this point, if I was lucky, I'd be able to have a bowel movement. If i was not so lucky I wouldn't go for the rest of the day and have to double up my Miralax at night).
Evening:
- 2 probiotic gummies
- a generous scoop of Miralax at 9 P.M. regardless of where I was. (One time I had to bring the white powder in a ziplock baggie to a nightclub where I was meeting my boyfriend's friends for the first time. During drinks I excused myself to the bathroom, pulled a plastic cup out of my purse, mixed my laxative, and gulped it down in private because I was so embarrassed).
- charcoal pills whenever the painful bloat returned and made it impossible for me to enjoy my time with friends and family
During my first month in Panama, I was careful to follow my schedule to a T and buy only gluten free & dairy free items from the grocery store that carried items imported from the U.S. When my family enjoyed cheese stuffed arepas, fried fluffy corn tortillas - I smiled weakly and pretended I didn't want to have some too. When my boyfriend ate packs of oreos or blueberry shortbread cookies in our apartment, I tried not to look. I was careful and I felt pretty good.
I'm not sure exactly when I made the decision to "cheat a little" and allow myself a bite of pizza here and there or some ice cream once in awhile. Little by little I felt more comfortable in my body. I'd only suffered one severe abdominal pain attack and I was having more regular bowel movements even when I didn't drink my full 24 ounces of water or skipped coffee some days. My mind was freer. My soul felt at peace. I was filling up on coconut water and excreting stress as waste. The next two months of my stay were transformative. The next two months led me to repair the aspects of my anorexia/orthorexia recovery that I didn't even realize were still affecting me. The next two months were the beginning of my round-trip recovery.