Thursday, June 18, 2015

SAN FRANCISCO

I am SO happy to be able to say that I HAD A BLAST IN SAN FRANCISCO!! Meaning: I FELT great!!! California cured me! I was feeling so sick the week and especially the day before we left, but every day we were there, I was feeling so normal and great! 0 anxiety, 0 headaches, 0 stomach problems. I felt so good! And then I get home and the next morning I'm feeling crappy again.. and still 3 days later feeling really really sick.. so weird right? I just don't know.. I don't get it.

But anyways, the trip was sooo much fun!! I'm so happy I went and that I was healthy while we were there!!

Here's some of my favorite photos from the trip

(Carly wrote a great post about our trip here that's really well written and more detailed)

San Francisco is a beautiful city! Very big and crowded and dirty and crazy, but still beautiful

I love this shot of the Golden Gate Bridge

Sisters at Golden Gate Bridge! (with Chase and Jackson in the background haha)

Love these guys SOO much

 


Jackson saw the carousel and just had to ride it! Which means Ashley and I got to be little kids again and ride with him!! So fun!

This was at this old military bunker thing under the bridge that was really cool but SOOO windy and cold!!

Ending our first day at the beach 

He's so stinking cute

This was at Carmel-By-The-Sea-- super pretty there





I LOVEE this photo.. I took it ;) I just think Ashley's hat and white floral top + Jackson's blue and grey outfit look so perfect!





Jackson with his grandma! 
The coolest brother in law in the world!
My favorite couple. They've grown so much together and teach me so much 

Jackson was literally in heaven at the beach playing in the sand. We were all hanging out and playing in the water while he just played in the sand for hours by himself just having the best time! He's so independent and loves to play :) 

Love my parents <3 



He's so perfect!! 

Love this picture 

Jack Jack and me on the carousel 

Muir forest!!

This was SO adorable. I was walking behind chase and jackson and jackson suddenly turns around, looks at me for a few seconds then runs to me saying "Sarah!!" and runs into my arms and snuggles me for a minute. Such a sweetheart!! I love him so much.



Such a fun trip. We had a blast. We were only there for 3 full days but we made the most of our trip by spending a day in the city doing all the touristy things, then a day in a beautiful forest in complete awe and amazement at California's redwoods and then our last day in Carmel admiring the most beautiful beach/coast we've ever seen. In between our sight seeing, we spent a lot of time hanging out at Amanda and Chase's apartment in San Jose playing games on the wii, and talking, but Mostly... playing with Jackson and watching him be THE CUTEST KID ON THE PLANET. 

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Update

After 2 weeks of feeling so great on the anti-candida diet, I'm now feeling sick every day again. :(

it. never. ends. EVER.

My main symptoms the past week or so have been hot, bloated stomach; dizzy, fatigued headache feeling; and "whole body sickness" feeling.

I haven't changed anything with my diet or supplements so I don't know for sure what's going on.. (story of my life)

I emailed my naturopath and he said he thinks it's possible that the 2 strong antifungals I'm taking for candida (caprylic acid and grapefruit seed extract) were great for killing candida which is why I felt great for a little while, but then after using them for too long, they irritated my gastritis. (I have both candida and gastritis which is the worst. like candida symptoms aren't bad enough! but I'm one of the lucky few who also gets burning stomach pain, burning headaches, nausea, and acid reflux on top of feeling fatigued, weak, and tired all the time.)

So I stopped taking those two antifungals yesterday and we'll see if I feel better after a couple days or if it's something else.

He also wants me to do a food sensitivity blood panel which checks 96 different foods to find my food sensitivities and is apparently way more accurate than the one I already got from a family doctor months ago. (not looking forward to this though because I'm basically on a diet of eggs, veggies, nuts, and meat so I just can't wait to be told that I now can't have certain veggies or whatever because I have a sensitivity to them...)

He also wants to do a blood test to check my thyroid levels to see if they've improved with a supplement I've been taking and he wants to check for autoimmune gastritis. Gastritis has a number of causes but he suspects that mine is autoimmune which means it's caused by my weakened immune system.. caused by candida and I agree, I read lots of articles and concluded that it was autoimmune before he told me that so I guess we'll just check and see for sure.

(Just not sure how to cure gastritis because to cure gastritis you have to cure the underlying cause first: candida.. and to cure candida, you need a good working immune system but I don't because of my gastritis... so...)

and then he wants to do a couple other tests later too..

So I guess that makes sense why my stomach has been hot and just getting hotter and worse and more painful every day because I kept taking these irritating anti-fungals every day.. so I REALLY hope by not taking those I'll feel a lot better..

the only other explanation is a stomach ulcer.. or cancer. (scary thing is ulcers and cancer are the next step for me if I don't improve.. my terrible eating habits, stress, and antibiotics led to candida, my candida led to food sensitivities and a weakened immune system, my weakened immune system led to gastritis... gastritis leads to ulcers.. ulcers lead to stomach cancer... but I'm really taking care of my health really good by eating so healthy and taking lots of great vitamins and supplements so it hopefully will never lead to that.)

I shouldn't be updating my blog right now haha because I'm seriously in the worst mood.. I feel so sick today. I felt pretty good all day yesterday but then after dinner, my stomach was SO bloated and hot but that was it and then in the middle of the night I wake up feeling queasy and sick and then this morning feeling REALLY sick and nauseas and weak and gross.. It's so annoying how much your gut health affects your mental health. If I feel sick, I am negative, angry, depressed, anxious, irritable, etc. etc. but I'm trying to be more patient and positive, it's just hard on days like these.. which is.. like.. every day. (just kidding, I really have been feeling better.. see what I mean?! I'm so negative today just because I don't feel good!! But I really have been feeling so much better the past month overall, just this week is so messed up for some reason!)

We're going to California tomorrow.... Oh how I miss the days when vacations used to excite me SO much.. now I just dread them. I do NOT want to feel like this on vacation.. IF this continues and I keep feeling worse every day, I'll most likely be staying in the hotel all weekend while my family does fun stuff and hangs out with my sister and her family, or I'll be forced to go everywhere even if I feel sick and then just be sitting on benches or leaning against walls while everyone is energetic and healthy and having a grand old time while I just wish I was in bed.

(something healthy people don't understand is nothing, absolutely NOTHING is fun when you feel really sick. My family is always telling me, "just come with us, if you're sick, better to be sick there than sick at home!!" No.. I'd rather be sick at home laying in bed, comfortable and taking care of my health, not out using the little energy I have and just feeling worse! or "come on, I PROMISE it will be fun if you come, I've been to this place, you're going to love it" Yeah I'm sure I WOULD love it IF I FELT GOOD. but I don't. so nothing is appealing to me when I feel like this.)

Ok I should be more positive now. I really hope I feel better tomorrow and I'm going to try anything I can think of to get some relief for my symptoms today like fresh ginger tea, activated charcoal, acid block vitamins, lots of water, rest, etc.

Crossing my fingers tomorrow and this weekend I'll be feeling good and have a blast in SAN FRANCISCOOO!!!!!!!!!! :)