Situational Awareness

For the past month I've been dealing with crippling fatigue, killer headaches and all sorts of fun digestive problems.  Don't worry, I'm not going to go into details.  The fatigue is so bad that I spend most of my day waiting for the kids' naptime so I can sleep,  and then waiting for bedtime.  I went to a regular doctor and he told me that I was a bored housewife with not enough to do.  Considering that I have two children, two cats, my own business and make all my own food, I decided to get a second opinion.  I found a naturopathic MD and fell head over heels in love with her.  She spent an hour and a half with me, going over not only my symptoms but Orion's and Sophie's as well.  Orion has been having trouble digesting his food and Sophie has been complaining of tummy aches and headaches.  As it turns out, this doctor sees a lot of this from people who move into the valley from places that are not addicted to pesticides and herbicides.  Coming from Boulder (hippie capital of Colorado) we were very rarely exposed to poisons.  Here we live right across the street from a golf course that sprays chemicals almost daily and my neighbors seem to believe that gasoline makes a perfectly acceptable weed killer.  This is good news and bad news.  The good news is that we have an idea of what is going on, the bad news is that there is very little we can do to mitigate it.
I became very frustrated because I have done everything I can to help us be healthier, inside and out.  We use vinegar, borax and lemon juice to clean with. Obviously we don't eat preservatives or chemicals.  Our lawn is officially a gasoline free zone.  And yet my son is so constipated that we have him on a liquid diet.  The kid would happily dispose of me, his sister and his dad to get his hands on a steak right now.  He keeps eying the cats in a hungry manner. 
The other problem the doc thinks I have is related to how many carbs I eat.  I have admitted to my bagel addiction in previous posts. and I really really love my bread.  Really.  But our grain heavy diet might also be hurting our digestive health.  So now I have to become really creative.  I have to find ways to make my children eat meat, veggies, fruit and lots of yogurt.  We won't cut out grains completely, but they will be more of an occasional visitor rather than a long standing houseguest.
I will do anything I can to keep us all healthy, that is a huge part of this experiment.  Unfortunately I don't think I can control the golf course or the neighbors.
This is just another evolution in our ongoing journey this year.  And it's not all bad.  Hopefully I can get the kids hooked on leafy greens and convince my husband that Brussel Sprouts are not the veggie equivalent of Agent Orange.  Yeah, that one might be beyond me, he won't even eat them with bacon.  So that frat boy pasta war I was going to wage may have to wait awhile, but it just gives me more time to plot my strategy for domination.  If I can build our immune systems up hopefully we can battle the ongoing deluge of poisons here.