As I marched through the process of feeling better, feeling worse, feeling better, worse (you get the idea) from 2006 through 2009, I figured it was my busy lifestyle that created the health roller coaster. Mid-year 2006, I was working as a commissioned sales rep in Florida and having a long-distance relationship, travelling every couple of weeks to Tennessee. After about six months, my boyfriend (eventually my husband, Ken) who lived in Knoxville decided to move to Florida to be with me, so we bought a house together and got ready to settle in when an amazing job opportunity for Ken presented itself -- in Las Vegas.
Now we had to rent or buy a house in Vegas and fly hours to be together. I did most of the travelling and ended up working there and Florida, opening Vegas accounts for my company a week or two a month. Back and forth I went for a year until Ken's dream opportunity fell through and everything seemed to fall apart. The list of disasters that followed are too lengthy to detail here, but suffice it to say the immense financial strain, the emotional stress and the physical toll came together like the perfect storm and at the end of 2008, I crashed. I was sick with respiratory infections and strep for months and couldn't seem to get back on track.
I was still getting Vitamin C IVs, and doing all the right things for my body and my spirit, but it wasn't enough. I slogged through 2009, planned our small wedding on the beach, and ended up having to quit my job (doctor's orders) due to stress and exhaustion. I ended up with strep throat again on our honeymoon in November, and never felt completely well even after it was gone.
The cascade continued into December when I had an old dental filling replaced. It should have been an easy procedure, but it didn't go as planned (very inexperienced dentist) and I ended up with my first root canal in March 2010. Infection took hold and I had an apicoectomy in July. I was also on Amoxicillin the entire time (seven months), which was counter-intuitive to everything I knew but felt I had no choice. We went on a vacation in late August and while we were in northern Michigan, the throbbing in my face was so awful I ended up having the tooth yanked. A $4100 molar in the garbage...ouch!
That same summer, I had also begun suffering with a bum hip. The vice-like tightness and stabbing, shooting pain in my groin and thigh worsened until I could barely walk -- I was running on pure frustration. I had recently turned forty and thought, "Well, isn't this wonderful. I can hardly wait to see what fifty is like." I was not in a good place emotionally, however I did start feeling better after the infected molar was pulled, and within a couple of months my hip pain receded enough that I could get back to yoga and light exercise. Finally some relief.
In January 2011 as I began the somewhat violent process of a dental implant to replace the missing molar, my groin pain waxed-and-waned and I started having allergic reactions to God-knows-what. I was covered in hives and my lips, tongue, throat and cheeks were raw, swollen and blistered all the time. It was especially bad in the morning; my lips would crack and bleed from the swelling. I looked like Goldie Hawn in First Wives Club. If it didn't hurt so much it might have been funny, but I was miserable and scared. What if whatever I was allergic to caused me to stop breathing while I slept? I eliminated everything I was eating in stages trying to figure it out. This went on throughout the summer as I went to numerous allergists and specialists trying to figure out the mystery. Nobody had any answers.
I was limping (again, no exercise) with a swollen face and hives. I was thin, tired, gaunt and afraid of everything. I didn't want to go anywhere for fear I'd pass out (as I had started to do). I was racking up thousands of dollars of debt on holistic and regular treatments and tests. Depression and fear were my constant companions, though I had to pretend otherwise.
Just as I gave in to feeling totally lost and out of ideas, along came one of my angels, my dermatologist's PA, Sandra, who had been doing my mole checks for years and knew me very well. I told her what was going on and she asked, "Didn't you have your wedding ring reset because of the nickel in the white gold?" I looked at her strangely, and replied, "Yes, why?"
"There's nickel in silverware and cooking utensils and pans and a lot of food," she explained. She suggested I eat with plastic and use ceramic pans and knives and research foods containing nickel. For the next couple of days, I ate with plastic and the reactions subsided. The only spot that was red and raw was a stripe on my tongue below the temporary abutment (screw) that was for my soon-to-be permanent crown. It was the abutment! I called the periodontist and found out I could get the permanent titanium abutment and crown right away.
At last I had a gorgeous new molar and massive relief knowing I could control my allergy to nickel. I bought nickel-free silverware, ceramic pans, knives, made sure my mixer, toaster and other items were nickel-free, though I had to continue to eat with plastic for many, many months when we went out to restaurants -- so embarrassing! I always felt compelled to explain myself to the server, "I'm allergic to nickel," I would sheepishly say. I ordered things that were grilled (to avoid pans) and food that I could eat with chop sticks. It took several months for my raw mouth to calm down, but eventually it did.
There are six hundred million people allergic to nickel and many more who don't know they are. It's in everything, all around us -- cell phones, purses, jewelry, zippers, coins, most metal kitchen items, belt buckles, some dental metals, tattoo ink and surprisingly it's in medical needles. It's in most food but higher concentrations are in canned and fermented foods, like sauerkraut, beer and wine. It's also higher in food that grows in the ground like peanuts and potatoes. And sadly, it's high in coffee, tea and chocolate.
Yes, I am still allergic to nickel, though symptom free. Back then it became so severe because it was in my mouth and my immune system was at rock-bottom. My body wasn't able to handle the long-term load of physical pain, months of antibiotics and the emotional distress, which led to my adrenal glands working in "fight or flight" mode constantly, weakening them so they could no longer do their job.
So how do you know if you're having an allergy or intolerance to something? There are two reactions and we're all familiar with the obvious one where you itch and swell and sneeze and sometimes have an anaphylactic response. That's an immediate histamine reaction (IgE antibodies) that can be controlled with antihistamines or a steroid injection.
The other, more subtle allergy is an IgG immune response (food, nickel) where your body will release antibodies to an invader over the course of several days. These can show up as headaches, rashes, nausea, hyperactivity or anxiousness, swollen joints and fluid retention, intestinal disorders, and sometimes even seizures. They are hard to detect because they're not obvious and require a lot of trial and error. I have found in doing research that these kind of sensitivities seem to be a clue to the early stages of an autoimmune deficiency.
I have done several food sensitivity tests, but in my experience, I can be intolerant to a food for a day or a month, stay away from it and then be able to eat it again in moderation. And most results have shown that I am allergic to everything I am currently eating, like lettuce, because it's in my blood serum. One test result said I'm not allergic to nuts. If I had believed the test and ate nuts, I could have died. So, I personally don't trust the tests anymore. I listen to my body and use muscle testing as a guide (I'll explain that later).
One of my experiences with food sensitivities that came out of nowhere and went away was with corn and turkey. The day of my husband Ken's funeral, I had a light luncheon for all who attended that included a sandwich platter and seven-layer dip with corn chips. I was able to choke down some turkey and a few corn chips. My immune system associated those two items with the severe anguish that my adrenal system was trying to handle and said to my body, "This is bad -- we don't want you here." I could finally eat those two things again about six months later.
When my immune system is strong, I have a little more freedom with what I eat, but when I'm stressed or feeling low, I have to be careful.
As for jewelry, white gold can be made with palladium instead of nickel. It's about the same price and keeps its shine better. Platinum and nickel-free sterling silver are also good choices.
To start a nickel-free kitchen, you will find a wide variety of nickel-free flatware online. Stainless will have a number stamped on it like 18/8. That means its 18% chromium, 8% nickel. Nickel-free is 18/0. It's not as durable, but it's a safer choice and it's inexpensive so you can change it up every couple of years.
I find my ceramic pans at the TJ MAXX group of stores. I haven't found ceramic baking sheets yet so I always use parchment to line them. I won't use Teflon or any pans (ceramic or otherwise) made in China due to possible lead and other additives. My ceramic pans are all made in Italy, Germany or the Netherlands. You can also use aluminum or cast iron, but I try to eliminate any metal leaching into my food.
There are nickel testing kits on nickelfreelife.com or amazon.com that are easy to use. If an item contains nickel, the cotton swab turns pink. It's as simple as that.
Once the dental implant process was over I was sure I could rebuild my system and get back to a normal life. Little did I know, the nickel allergy was just a pebble in a heap of gravel and things would get much worse before they would get better.
Stay tuned...the Mysterious Link will shake your beliefs and maybe save a life.
"When you are young and healthy, it never occurs to you that in a single second your whole life could change." Annette Funicello
This blog is in no way a diagnosis tool or medical recommendation. Do
not use it to make your own diagnosis without consulting an
alternative/holistic or eastern medicine practitioner.
