Doing Well, BUT....

OK, so I am well over  a week since needing a shot of steroids for my asthma - about 10 or 11 days.  A few days ago I had some dry itchy skin on my wrists and my first thought was oh no I'm going to flare!  But lo and behold it went away and was typical of my dry itchy skin I have had on and off this past year.  I have also been noticing my hives have not been bothering me - I used to get them daily since clearing up - so hives for well over a year was driving me mad.  But I was able to attribute most of them to food sensitivities.  If I ate dairy or gluten, I would get hives on my arms and chest like clockwork.

So overall my skin is doing great....so what's up with the BUT???  Well, as I wrote before, my asthma has been getting progressively worse.  I have seen a few doctors and am on non-steroidal medications but they are not the answer obviously.  My goal is to be off all meds!  But breathing is important to life!  And I have tried my hardest to find triggers.  But lately almost every time I eat, I have an asthma attack.  Basically I eat about twice a day and that's it.  It's getting ridiculous.  To top it off I have become exhausted on a daily basis again - no where near as bad as when in TSW, but it's bad enough I only have a few hours a day where I feel like I can get anything done.  I'm sure it's from coughing half the night away.  Here's where I'm at....my house has no basement, and no obvious mold problems, hardwoods throughout, 3 UV air cleaners, dust covers on mattress and pillows, dogs kept to one room or outside, and eating as clean and dairy/gluten free as possible.  Not sure what else to do except do a month long fast and go live in a bubble!  :)

In all seriousness though, I think I may have found a reason for my ongoing asthma.  It makes the most sense given how bad my symptoms are after eating.  I'm sure some of you have heard of leaky gut syndrome.  Either you think it's a definitive thing or believe it's quack science.  Either way I personally don't know enough nor have read enough of the science behind it to make a valid opinion.  But at the point I'm at, I'm willing to give the theory a go and make attempts to "heal my gut lining". This will be no easy task and requires me to be in the kitchen a bit more often - making bone broth and making fruit/veggie smoothies.  I already take probiotics, one of the main things for leaky gut.  And to be honest, I often sleep better when I take the probiotic at night (something I noticed twice last week).  There's so much more to this leaky gut thing and I need to do more research, but if our skin can turn into macerated flesh from the steroids, then it only makes sense our gut lining can do the same.

An FYI....the stuff I've been reading out there on leaky gut states it can cause allergies, asthma, skin conditions, auto-immune conditions and so forth - wondering if it's worth it for many of us in TSW to be more careful with what we eat.  Some say diet doesn't make a difference on their skin while others like me swear it makes a huge difference.  I think it's well worth looking into for overall health and well being, not just for our skin - and in my recent case of asthma.