The Beginning

April 9th, 2016 - Mr. and Mrs. Collins

This seems like an appropriate place to start.

This is me and my husband, Eaic.  This picture represents so much to us.  It represents our union as one and our vows to each other.  It also represents both the beginning and an end to journeys - the beginning of wedded bliss (oh, but the sarcasm is here is silent as you are reading and not listening) and the end to 4 years of dating, 9 months of planning and 6 months of engagement.

So much of our life can be separated into little journeys.  I journeyed to work this morning.  I'm on a journey through graduate school right now.  We are on a journey as an interracial and biracial family which is indeed an interesting journey at times.  He is on a journey trying to become a corrections officer and a personal trainer and a physical therapist (he has many high goals and aspirations and watch out, world, for he is determined).  More recently, I began on a journey of life with autoimmune disorders.

On September 25th, 2015, Eaic didn't get down on one knee, but he did give me an engagement ring.  We announced to the world that we'd been planning our wedding.  Less than two weeks later, I almost died.  I was hospitalized in early October for multiple pulmonary embolisms.  Thankfully, the urgent care doctor knew exactly what to do and sent me to the ER and I was well cared for and introduced to a world of medical teams that would soon become my journey.

Following months of testing, I as diagnosed with antiphospholipid antibody syndrome (also known as APS).  In some other blog, I'll put into my own words what that means.  For now, just know it means that my body hates me.. or as some put it, it loves me too much and is overprotective to a fault.

There have been a lot of tears and a lot of anger.  There really hasn't been much hope.  And so... I'm trying to change that.



One month later - May 9th, 2016

This seems like an appropriate place to start a new journey.

When I was first diagnosed with APS, a dear friend added me to a Facebook support page regarding AIP.  I had no idea what this was and didn't even look at it except when the notifications alerted me that she'd posted there.  It was a strict diet and it seemed silly that people were eating paleo to combat blood diseases.  While I'm overweight (read: severely obese, but let's not admit that), this disease has nothing to do with my weight.  Several months ago, I was under the impression that eating correlates to weight and only that.  Forget the fact that I work in the world of nutrition.  Forget the fact that I know better.  But for me, my food intake should only be changed for weight purposes... and even then, if I go to the gym, I could still eat whatever I want.

Then the symptoms started to get worse.  I'll get into those at another time, but for now, it's enough to know that they got to a point that I knew I needed to do something.  With a wedding in the near future, though, I knew I couldn't take on one more stressful journey.  As that came to a close and as we adjusted to life as Mr. and Mrs., I set a goal date of May 1st for the transition to AIP.

Obviously that didn't happen and I'll discuss that at another time, but today... today it happened.
AIP is AutoImmune Protocol.  It's a very strict paleolithic diet which resets the body - detoxing it of all the crap we've stockpiled in it.  Then slowly, very slowly, foods are reintroduced to see what symptoms they trigger.  It's no dairy, no gluten, no sugar, no nightshades, no processed foods.  It's going to be really hard, but my hope is that it will be worth it.

And so, here we are.  Day 1.