I have mentioned that I keep a food diary, but I had been keeping it somewhet haphazardly over the last few months. Not anymore. After seeing my CBC counts go up and down, and by comparing them to what I had eaten in the last few days since the last test, I have begun to see a pattern. And, so far, my theory about the fruits n' veggie diet seems to be right on track. When I behave myself ( and more about that later) my counts go up, my leg spots disappear, and I don't get blood blisters in my mouth. When I eat animal protein,sugar, or grains, all my symptoms come back.
Yesterday during my appointment with the doctor, he cozied up to me and told me he finds me 'fascinating.' No, he wasn't flirting with me ( ha ha) he was referring to my most recent CBC count which had my platelets and everything flying higher.
I have tried to approach him with the nutrition angle, but he is a young By-The-Book Dr. and is only comfortable with the drugs and the surgeries. He doesn't want to hear how I can 'manipulate' my cbc counts by eating or not eating offending foods. I plan to wait six months before I present my findings to him. Then it will no longer be 'flukes' whem my blood levels go higher.
Yes, I 'cheat', and only last week I bought a large slice of carrot cake, along with an apple tart from Whole foods, and totally chowed down on them over 2 days' period.In addition, I went out with my son for lunch and had 1/3 of a berry Sangria at Chili's. Oh, yum, but dumb. I was also on antibiotics ( which my dr says makes no difference in a cbc) and my levels were so low, it was weird. But I knew what it was caused from. He poo poos my suggestions, thinking I'm just a poor in denial patient, and any day...any day, he'll see those symptoms come back and I'll be at his mercy. As it is now, he really looks very hard to find something in my mouth and and my legs...I'd almost say he was....disappointed...? When he doesn't find anything.I mean, he's sooo sure he's right and I'm a nut. We'll see.
A friend asked me why I eat those offending foods from time to time. Hey, you who might be reading this... I said I was a vegan, (still a novice,) and I never said it was easy. I need to plan more menus so I don't get caught running out and getting something detrimental to my health. And believe me, those foods I try to avoid are detrimental to my health. Oddly enough, Dana Farber provides snacks of meat sandwiches, and sugary muffins and other pastries with fruity yogurts and sweet juices. Canned fruit cocktail....and bottles of water ( yay for the water) I used to be addicted to their egg salad, but now that I've been trying to go "straight" they are off limits. Honestly, I'm like an alcoholic...going back to a harmful substance...in my case, certain foods. But boy, it is hard. After 60 years...what? just stop eating bread stuffs, meats and sugary desserts? But I press forward the best I can. I really want to get 'better' whatever that may be.
