Skin Update – The Blood Test Results…

Do you know what’s scarier than going for a blood test?

I’ll tell you – it’s getting the results of the blood test.

I didn’t realise that I was nervous until I parked in my bay at Skin Renewal and went inside for my meeting with Dr Fred.  My hands were sweating.  Which is gross, but also as sign that I was really nervous to hear what he had to say.

But before we get there, let’s back track to how we got here…

That face up there has been through a lot in the last 4 years.  Pregnancy with Knox absolutely destroyed it and when it didn’t get better, I had a course of antibiotics and two course of Roaccutane to name but a few of the things that I tried over the subsequent years.  And yet, here I sit, still looking like a red faced loser.

Of course you know how soul destroying it can be to look like this every day right?  The fear of being caught without make up so big that you actually want to vomit thinking about it.  Or accidentally leaving your make up on and sleeping with it because you don’t want your husband to look at you and think that you’re hideous.  Or even the fact that you feel so grossly unattractive that well, certain things aren’t as fun anymore – unless the light’s off.

*You should know that these are my hang ups.  Seth has told me about a bajillion times that he doesn’t care.  But I can’t shake it.  It sucks.

Anyway.

It was clear that my “quick fix” methods were not going to get me cured.  My dermatologists reasoning of Roaccutane being the “only” cure just cannot be right, because, two course later, I’m not even close to cured…  There’s something wrong inside my body and I needed to figure out what it was.

CUE: Skin Renewal.

I’m sure you’ve heard of it, but if you haven’t, they do all sorts of things to help you skin get better.  From lasers, to peels to various treatments.  Or if you’re interested, they do anti ageing too.  AND they have an awesome Doctor named Dr Fred who goes around to their various branches every week.  He figures out why the inner workings of the body are producing the outer effects.

So, I met with him a couple of weeks ago.  I filled in about 10 forms about my stress, my sleep, my various other bodily functions and we had a long chat about everything.  As a result of the chat, he sent me to get done blood tests done to test a few things:  hormones, stress, liver, vitamin D, thyroid things, EBV (or something), some pre cancer things and a few other things I can’t remember.

I have to tell you, that when I walked into that meeting room yesterday, I was basically convinced he was going to give me some really bad news.  It’s not even like I’m just being ridiculous.  Guys, weird stuff happens to me.  Besides my face, I get viral meningitis and 9 months worth of morning sickness every pregnancy (to name a few).  So it felt like a legit fear.

The results though?  They were surprising.  Apparently my body takes all the stress I feel every day and turns it into little butterflies because it’s wonderfully low.  On the hormone side I’m not turning into a man, so it’s all good there too.  My liver has healed itself after all the Roaccutane.  Plus – no real pre-cancerous signs.

The flip side is that my Vit D is really low for my age (almost half of what it’s supposed to be) and there is something else that tested positive that should have been negative.

What does this mean?  Well after another long chat about my childhood and the results etc, he told me that my small intestine has been damaged due to lots of antibiotics (I had a million tonsillitis episodes when I was a kid).  It’s letting through things that it’s not supposed to and they are making their way out through my skin.  Which means, for treatment, I’ll be going on about 4 months worth of probiotics as well as a few other supplements to get my gut back to its healthy, happy self.  I’ll also be going for PDT, laser and peel treatments at Skin Renewal with my awesome therapist.  The team at the Claremont branch are so lovely I actually look forward to going!

It also means that I have to cut out ALL dairy, grains and sugar.

Uhm.  You know me right?  Nik Naks are my thang.  So is milky coffee and cheese.  I’m upset and worried, but at the same time, I’m almost glad.  It’s going to force me to finally get my butt in gear and cut all the crap.  Even though I really enjoy eating all the crap.  (We’ll not focus on that part OK.)

SO, that’s what’s up.

It’s going to be really rough to change everything in our house again, but I’m so sure that it will all be worth it this time because I’m not just doing some misguided diet on my own, it’s something that a very clever Doctor has specially designed for me.

On that not, if you do dairy, grain and sugar free, what do you even eat?  I need all the help if you have any good recipes!