Last October my GI stopped working for over 24 hours. I couldn’t so much as pass gas. It didn’t do anything, I had no muscle response whatsoever from it and the pain was incredible. I was in too much pain to even stand upright. (Really did in my back being bent over and in a fetal position so much!)

It took about 72 hours to ‘resolve’ although the abdominal pain continues and it’s swollen. Sometimes I get fevers after I eat. Sometimes I feel an overwhelming need to sleep after I eat.

I should have gone to the hospital. It was definitely time for the ER. But with Covid and my husband being sick at the time (not with Covid, he was urinating blood which is a different story…) well – I didn’t go.

I’ve had trouble digesting food since I was born but these new symptoms are much worse. I have trouble swallowing. Sometimes I have trouble breathing. I don’t know why.

I’m “Addicted” to Skittles and Can’t Find a Doctor.

I can’t eat large amounts of food, so I get by on Skittles (a type of colorful fruit flavored candy) and the occasional cola. I’ve been trying to find a primary physician who can give me a referral to a specialist. Thus far I’ve had no luck.

I’ve had bad experiences with doctors. I could try harder or go farther away. I’m tired and I’m sick, so uh’ not too much motivation there. It would require a two hour drive at least to go to a doctor. That’s a very long trip when you’re ill.

Across the board if you come to America and go to the doctor there is a good chance they’ll just figure you’re lying, especially if you’re a middle aged female. There was a popular Substack writer who recently posted a chapter in his new book that started with how most middle-aged women are making their health issues up. Even people like Jordan Peterson who mention that around middle age women get a real sense of mortality and freak out about their health (paraphrasing).

So what if you’re actually sick and you need to actually need help? I don’t know, I haven’t figured it out.

I have figured out there is a pandemic of auto-immune diseases and it’s not being covered, so it’s probably a common environmental chemical or a new pathogen on the loose. Since everything revolves around, “your dietary choices”, emerging problems like various infections and a billions of pounds of chemicals are being shuffled under the rug for another day — it really is the dog that isn’t barking.

To Be Able to Run Again

If I can’t repair my GI efficiently I can’t repair muscle. I have a ton of inflammation. Sugar isn’t exactly “anti-inflammatory” (see I chew on Skittles all day everyday…)

So step one to my goal of being a runner is to repair my health.

The sticky wicket is — do I keep eating Skittles and have my GI float along for ten years before the diabetes sets in firmly and I’m totally screwed, or do I go low-carb high-protein and have the kibosh put on me in a year or two from not being able to digest the protein?

Am I really just choosing which food group ‘gets me first’ (fiber is a non-starter btw, I can’t digest it, it ferments and poisons me in short order.)

I’ve tried all the “healing diets” put forth by gurus. I’ve studied nutrition for over a decade. I’ve tried a whole lot of stuff but noticed a few things…

Nutrition is a (Religious) Scam

Maybe not all of it, but like I read this the other day in a low-carb book (paraphrasing), “cheap maize (corn) consumption in South Africa is fueling an epidemic of obesity (because it’s high in carbohydrates)” <– Okay, I’ll bite, but I know other parts of Africa also have a lot of subsistence on corn … and they don’t have weight issues. So….? One population gets fat off corn but the other does not. (Also, if whole grain is so bloody good for people – why do ‘primitive’ societies go out of their way to break it down and process it??? In fact almost every culture I’ve ever studied does some sort of processing, even to roots like drying and pounding them for hours, soaking, fermenting etc.)

I digress, my point — What is this populations exposure to Arsenic, Lead, Cadmium, Cobalt….pesticides, plastics…poisons…

Why does obesity always hit the poorest people hardest?

In the US we feed chickens arsenic to boost growth, “less food and you get a larger chicken!” Yup, they feed them less and they get fatter. Then we eat them. (The US used to use antibiotics because they are steroidal and cause growth, think about that — we give our kids antibiotics and they promote rapid growth…)

I don’t have the answer but environmental exposure to chemicals plays an integral role in obesity and other diseases but it remains in the realm of “self responsibility!” And typically whenever an industry / government starts crowing about personal responsibility it’s because they’re culpable.

What was I talking about again?

Running. I love to run, go outside, goof off, take photos, write long stories in my head, get mad about headlines and plod one foot in front of the other, “oh look I’m at the LOTR bridge! Soon is red canyon!” (I name landmarks and come up with stories, “the stream which answers any question you ask of it – try it – the answer will pop into your head!”)

But I need to be healthy enough to run.

How do I solve this when nutrition is meted out with religious fervor, ‘thou must not question the fiber recommendations!”

I love running. It takes me to a place mentally where things suck less and are far more exciting. I want to be able to go outside and have fun again. Sometimes I’m too tired and in pain for fun. Too often I spend a day in an easy chair (which is a step above bed – at least this way I can type and look out the window.)

I’m not sure I’ll figure this out. I like the, “we can fix anything” attitude, but it just feels like being an unfit couch potato who is setting out to climb Everest.