Success at the moment I needed it.

[bakerina]

This is a bit of a "delayed reaction" success story, but I'm so happy about it that I want to share it here.

 

I decided to try the Whole30 after getting some troubling bloodwork results in June. My A1C was 5.9 and my doctor warned me that if I couldn't bring it down, I would be at risk for type 2 diabetes. I was also tired of gaining weight every year even though it felt like I was eating less and less. I started my first Whole30 on June 8 and completed it successfully on July 7. 

 

I was scheduled for follow-up bloodwork two weeks after I finished the Whole30, so I decided to keep to the basic meal plan (with the exception of a night out for tapas with a few friends; this dinner took us months to plan, and everyone was nice enough to postpone it after I went on Whole30). The week after my blood was drawn, my doctor left me a voicemail message, telling me that she was prescribing thyroid medication for me, and that I should start taking it before my next appointment. I was surprised, but not particularly concerned.

 

Two days ago, I went to the doctor's office to review my lab results. You could have knocked me over with a feather when she told me that I had Hashimoto's. (The previous blood test didn't screen for thyroid antibodies.) Not only that, but my blood sugar hadn't budged significantly; in fact, she told me it had gone up. It did actually go down; she misremembered my prior A1C number as 5.7 instead of 5.9. My current A1C is 5.8, and my glucose is at 112.

 

Now, as it turned out, I'd bought some fresh Thomcord grapes from the farmer's market the previous weekend, and I ate them a little too copiously the day before my blood test, so it's possible that they skewed my results. Nevertheless, I was a little depressed. Here I am, giving up chocolate and white flour and alcohol and potato chips and near-daily soda (sugar-sweetened, because I won't drink HFCS soda, and I can't have artificial sweeteners) -- and my A1C only went from 5.9 to 5.8? Never mind that I've probably lost weight, have definitely lost inches, and feel much better: all I could think was I gave up all this stuff I loved, and it didn't help.

 

By now, you are probably wondering where the "success" part of this story is.

 

Yesterday I was doing some filing and I picked up my lab report by mistake. I saw the page that said that my level of thyroid antibodies was  > 1,000, and started grumbling again. Then I noticed that there was a page we hadn't discussed: my lipid profile. My total cholesterol went from 230 to 193.

 

I was so stunned by this that I actually had to check the math. All of my other numbers (HDL, LDL, HDL:LDL ratio, and triglycerides) were good, and yep...my cholesterol went down by 37 points. I don't think there's ever been a time in my adult life, even when I was a distance runner, when my cholesterol was below 205. Until now.

 

It was at that moment that everything clicked for me. I've read over and over about how Whole30 is geared toward helping us expand our definition of wellness: how the number on the scale might not change, but the shape of our bodies, or our ability to fall asleep, or our taste for truly sustaining food, might. I told myself I wasn't going on Whole30 to lose weight (although I certainly wouldn't complain if I did lose weight) and I thought that that was enough to keep me from thinking negatively about my progress. But nope: I overlooked the weight loss, the improved energy, the joy I rediscovered in cooking new things, and went directly to My blood sugar's still high. Nothing has changed.

 

I was wrong. Everything has changed, for the better.

[Colleen Roy]

Maybe you should have another round of blood work done?  Could have been some sort of fluke thing?  I've often wondered about blood test results-seems to me that you should have at least two readings that are the same before you make decisions around medication...

 

Nice job reframing your results.  You are absolutely right! 

[sheba-kitty]

My cholesterol numbers have been high and doctors have warned me that I am nearing the need for medications. I have been steadfastly avoid that by making changes... Such as doing this plan. I really hope to see a change inmy numbers when I get tested in sept. I am surprised you doctor didn't even notice or mention that nice improvement. Too stuck on the other issue perhaps? Good for you to reframe!

[bakerina]

Thank you both! 

 

Maybe you should have another round of blood work done?  Could have been some sort of fluke thing?

 

Oh, absolutely. I'm having more bloodwork done before my next appointment with the doctor (mid-October). My guess is that the Hashi's isn't a fluke, but the A1C and glucose readings could be. But it looks like, at least for the next six months, I'll have a regular date with the phlebotomist.

 

My cholesterol numbers have been high and doctors have warned me that I am nearing the need for medications. I have been steadfastly avoid that by making changes... Such as doing this plan. I really hope to see a change inmy numbers when I get tested in sept. I am surprised you doctor didn't even notice or mention that nice improvement. Too stuck on the other issue perhaps? Good for you to reframe!

 

Oh, I hope your numbers change for the better as well! It was really eye-opening for me, because I've spent years trying to eat low-fat/high-carb, with plenty of whole grains, and I couldn't figure out why my cholesterol wasn't going down. Now I eat a dozen eggs a week, I cook everything in coconut oil or ghee, and I make salad dressing out of our homemade mayo. One of my friends asked me if I wasn't afraid of my heart exploding. I can't wait to tell her about my labs. 

 

As far as my doctor not discussing my lipid profile with me: I suspect it's mostly because she was worried about my thyroid antibody levels, and I was so shocked that I spent most of the appointment asking her questions about it. On her voicemail, she did say that "some of your numbers have improved," which leads me to think that she planned to discuss my lipid profile, and then we just got caught up in the conversation about Hashi's and blood sugar, and I completely forgot to ask about anything else.

 

Oh, and she did mention that my B12 levels were very low, and that I should start taking supplements. My maternal grandmother nearly died from undiagnosed pernicious anemia in her early 30s, so I took that news pretty seriously, too. I feel as if I'm getting a crash course in autoimmune conditions.