I aten't dead.

[urocyon]

Oh yeah. I haven't dropped off the face of the earth, but a lot of all kinds of energy seems to have been going into recovering from the longterm D deficiency. (Now that I know what the symptoms are for me, it looks like this has been a problem to varying degrees for at least 15 years. Ever since I got put on meds that made me photosensitive and prone to overheating in the sun, surprise! :-|) On the plus side, the musculoskeletal pain is continuing to improve *crosses fingers*, to the point that plain aspirin is enough most of the time (if just barely). Most of the pain is from bones, not constantly spasmy electrolyte-deprived muscles now. I've yet to have a pain-free day, but it's looking possible again. OTOH, if anything the brain fog has been temporarily worse lately, and has really been getting in the way of replying after reading stuff. Reading/writing/working with language in general, actually; the first thing that usually goes for me.

But, given all the things vitamin D does in the body (since it's really a steroid hormone, not a vitamin) and the amount of bone remineralization that must be going on--since the osteomalacia got to the point of the pelvic fracture from a dog kick and my shinbones are not straight anymore--that side of things probably needs the lion's share of resources right now. So I'm trying not to worry about it too much.


Click through for a bigger version that's actually readable. I am not up to describing that image right now, sorry. (Was glad to find out that having trouble with that anyway is a common autistic thing.) And the hell of it is, that's far from a complete list, presumably for space considerations.

A lot of time and energy have also been going into doing things I just couldn't reasonably do before, like (patio) gardening and trying to get this house cleaned up. Which has been very nice in a way, especially since finding out there's been a "legitimate" named problem has kinda given me permission not to run myself into the ground so much. *shakes head* I still get worn out very easily, but it's so nice to be able to do this stuff in the first place! So, I haven't been online much at all lately.

Basically, I'm to the point that I'm feeling stronger and healthier enough to be able to appreciate (and keep getting shocked at) just how weak and unhealthy I'd gradually gotten. While I don't expect instant total improvement after the length of time this crap has been going on, with any luck the energy levels will even out a bit soon!

Comments

[axelrod]

This is so awesome! Esp the possibility of being pain-free or pain-free-with-meds. I mean, fuck.

since finding out there's been a "legitimate" named problem has kinda given me permission not to run myself into the ground so much

I know the feeling ...

Not sure if you're looking for dietary suggestions, though I do have one, but wanted to check first ...

[urocyon]

Sorry for the late reply.

Thanks. Yeah, I've been thinking it's pretty awesome. :) I keep getting surprised when I move "wrong" and nothing goes into spasm. Even if things stayed like they are now, it's just so much easier to live with.

Thanks for asking. Would appreciate any suggestions, actually.

[axelrod]

My main suggestion is, if you eat meat, to look into making home-made broth from bones (prefereably free-range/grass-fed). Slow cookers are ideal for this, because what you want is to cook those bones for, like, at least half a day. You get a fuckton of minerals that way, and right now your body isn't just doing stuff with vitamin D, it's also drawing on other resources *handwaves* and part of why you're tired may be because you're running low on other nutrients. Also, seaweed. Like, make rice and stick a piece of kombu in with it and eat the kombu with the rice.

(now I want some rice cooked with toasted sesame oil and kombu but I need to get to bed, like, right now.)

[urocyon]

Thank you! Those are excellent suggestions. Don't know why I hadn't thought of the bone broth in particular, for a very suitable balance of minerals, but guess I can just blame the brain fog. ;) Actually, I've gone back to doing a wild pescetarian* thing now that I'm feeling a little better, but am not planning to continue at the possible expense of my health right now. Handy that we still had a couple of things of chicken bone broth in the freezer, so I can eat some today without having to go out and buy some meat.

Good thing I like various seaweeds a lot, too. :) Sounds like time to sprinkle more flaked/powdered aonori on food, besides eating more wakame and hijiki and using kombu in cooking. Mmm, umami...

I'd actually slacked off some on eating canned fish with bones, for both the D and mineral content (and tastiness), but should probably make sure to keep up with that too. Too bad it's late in the season for nettles here, though I've been hitting the leafy greens pretty hard.

Much appreciated! I've been trying to get more calcium and magnesium, but foods with a more complete bone-building mineral balance are an excellent idea.

* Not because fish and other aquatic animals are somehow less "real", but because that's the easiest affordable wild meat available.

[axelrod]

I'm glad I was helpful :) And nettles are the thing I forgot to mention - you can get them dried and make an infusion, though I'm sure you lose some of the nutrients iin the drying process.

[jesse_the_k]

Excellent news!

It's remarkable how much better it feels when something in our misery-soup gets a name!

Huh, of course meds-which-increase-sun-sensitivity would make one more susceptible to vitamin D deficiency.

[urocyon]

A lot less concern about possibly making a big deal out of nothing, definitely. (Not that this has ever actually been true, AFAICT, but some scripts are hard to shake off!)

Yeah, I felt kind of silly when I figured out what was going on. It really hadn't occurred to me that this might have been a problem living in Virginia (as opposed to the UK), but you have to spend time in the sun for it to do any good. *shakes head* I also didn't know that, even if you're rather pale without a tan, just having a burn-resistant "Mediterranean" skin type means that you need at least twice the UV exposure to synthesize enough D--even before building up more melanin. Not so handy living at this latitude with frequent cloud cover, and apparently even most white British adults are low on D year round. :( Hopefully the average GP will start paying more attention, instead of brushing people off so much.