Sorry there weren't any blog posts, or assorted witticisms, or even a few snap shots. Basically I was resting.
I have been having problems with nasal polyps for some time now, and the last few years they got so bad I completely lost my sense of smell - I can sit next to a raw onion and smell nothing. It kind of destroys your enjoyment in food.
Then for the last half year it got even worse, in that I could barely breathe through my nose whenever I laid down to sleep at night. So basically I didn't sleep much! If I hadn't been so used to getting little sleep during the menopause I wouldn't have survived the last few months....
Anyway, I decided something had to be done about this.
I had raised the matter with my doctors on various occasions, but didn't get much sympathy. Operations are pretty useless, since the polyps almost always grow back. And after every operation there is a bit of scar tissue, and after the forth operation there is so much scarring that no more operations are possible. So operations don't seem a good solution.
Then there are steroids. A months ago I had a lung infection - probably from breathing through my mouth - and was given super-heavy doses of oral steroids for five days. And low and behold, I was able to smell a little - a sure sign of polyp shrinkage. This only lasted for a week, though. Evidence that taking steroids reduces polyps, and that the effect reverses when steroids are discontinued. Since steroids have nasty side effects, they do not strike me as a good solution, either.
However, there remains the fasting cure. There is no evidence that it works for polyps. No one knows what causes polyps, but they are related to asthma and sinusitis, which I am prone to. Both are partly the result of inflammation. Inflammation is partly caused by certain foods. Fasting reduces inflammation.
I figured there was a reasonable chance that fasting would also reduce polyps. And decided that the time had come for a little self experimentation.
The nice thing with nasal polyps is that I can gauge their size by my ability to smell - so no fancy medical measurements are needed to monitor progress. The more I can smell the smaller the polyps.
First I went on a sort of fasting-mimicking diet for ten days (I was working and didn't want to keel over). It's a special diet where you eat so little that your body thinks you are actually fasting. I had about 300 calories a day, no sugar or carbs, just fat and a bit of protein and a few vegetables. My body was not fooled! Result minimal - I could sometimes smell something for a second or two, especially after I blew my nose, but that was it.
So I decided to do the real thing, and decided to stop eating for seven days, with only a bit of MCT oil in coffee when I felt faint. After five days I hit some sort of crisis. I sneezed for hour upon hour, used up tissues by the landfill site, and felt very very miserable. Also very very weak. Reluctantly I broke my fast with some beef broth.
That was three days ago. I then asked my body what it wanted to eat, and received a clear but weird reply: raw white cabbage and head-cheese!
I bought a huge head of white cabbage and a large chunk of headcheese, and started to eat, expecting the worst. After all those days of eating first minimally and then nothing at all, I was overloading my stomach with raw cabbage, by the pound?!?! I sat on my bed, stomach distended with raw cabbage, and awaited the inevitable.
Miraculously my stomach did not protest - despite me having a history of heartburn etc. Ditto with the rest of my gastric system. It seems that my body was so happy to be given real food again that he wasn't going to make any difficulties!
I continued along this path all day yesterday as well, but also added fried green beans and some cheese to my repertoire. The delicatessen had by now run out of headcheese, so I bought some other, sort of meatloaf thing, instead, and offered it to my stomach.
It was rejected, and I was forced to throw it out. Luckily the deli restocked today. Head cheese has a lot of gelatin, and is very anti-inflammatory, so maybe that is what my body is after. Raw cabbage is also very healthy, full of minerals and vitamins, and it tastes very nice - sort of like sweet radishes!
All the while I continued to sneeze and snort and wipe my nose until it was red and sore, and my nights were spent in sleeplessness.
Until this morning. I awoke after ten hours of sleep, and did not sneeze. Watching myself suspiciously, I went to the bathroom to perform my ablutions - usually by now 20 tissues would have become utilised. Nothing, except a little half-hearted snort.
As I write this evening has fallen, and my tissue consumption remains at a count of three. I opened the fridge to cook my lunch, and was assailed by the strong fumes of an onion.
I am not allowing myself to be too hopeful yet, but I really do think I am making progress.
So now you know why I have not been posting. I was / am rather exhausted from lack of food, and needed all my will power to stay away from said food. And since you are bound to ask, no I didn't lose much weight. All that cabbage!
Now you must excuse me, I am off to the shops to buy another cabbage! Yup, I ate a raw cabbage the size of a football in three days flat.
Go figure.
