What the Heck Is Smut? (Part 2)

As you know, I've spent the last few years on a journey to improve my health after years of just not feeling quite well. Oftentimes my problems have been of the vague sort...with me knowing that something wasn't right, but never being able to pinpoint exactly what the problem was. My symptoms have included:

• seasonal allergies
• IBS - specifically of the nausea, diarrhea, bloating, cramping variety
• constant fatigue
• insomnia - difficulty with both falling asleep and staying asleep
• depression and anxiety
• severe PMS
• brain fog
• sore joints/muscle pain w/o logical explanation
• difficulty losing weight (despite carefully following exercise and diet plans)
• bad skin
• sensitivity to scents in general
• chemical sensitivity - growing steadily worse over the last few years
• horrendous cravings for sugar and chocolate

The brief history goes something like this:

• In high school I had significant problems with anxiety in depression, and was diagnosed with IBS at 18.
• I've always had seasonal allergies, but in high school they went through the roof. Later I would figure out that they were worse in my home territory than they are here.
• Insomnia has always been a problem - getting multiple mentions back in my first journal, which I wrote at the age of 13.
• Those problems continued a bit in college, but I don't remember any of it being too horrible - although I did take antidepressants for two years.
• Post college, the headaches became a significant problem. By the time we got married, I was downing at least two advil/day...and had become so used to the problem I didn't realize what I was doing.
• In the early years of our marriage the general health ickiness started to build, but it wasn't bad enough to complain about, and at the time I blamed it on the stress of a job I detested.
• Then I had kids, and of course everyone started blaming the extreme fatigue I developed on the fact that I was a new Mom. Newer symptoms - like the horrendous PMS and the chemical sensitivities - started to develop at that time.

So about two and a half years ago I went to see my GP because I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. She blew me off, I got mad, and thus the process of finding better health began. Most significantly, since then I:

• Found my acupuncturist, who helped to cure the PMS problems and manage other issues.
• Spent some time in therapy dealing with the emotional side of all of this.
• Joined the gym, got a personal trainer and discovered a love of exercise.
• Dumped most processed food from the family diet - including refined sugar and white flour.
• With the help of my OBGYN discovered a serious vitamin D deficiency problem, which we've been working to manage for the last year.

And it's all helped.

But.

None of it has fully solved the problem.

Which leads me to my three hour appointment on Tuesday.

Up next: What we discovered, and what I'm going to do about it.